You save the world, I'll take the Cheerleader...

[Call me J]

The air in the Boiling Cauldron was stifling, but not in the normal way. It was warm, the kind of warm that could make an uneasy person just a little bit uncomfortable, the kind of warm that would make their pants seem a bit too tight and create a thin layer of sweat along the hips. Jame squirmed. He didn’t care much for the bar. He needed something, anything.

There was nothing interesting in the bar, just the usual fair. There were drwarves swapping war stories, loggers complaining about how the civil war was affecting business in Radasanth, gentlemen too good for the place drawing all the attentions of large chested waitresses who so desperately wanted to leave. Worst of all were the vampires. Jame hated them. The vampires sat brooding in dark tables, looking for hapless mortals that would be stupid enough to go off to them somewhere more secluded. Either that or they were looking to mate. Jame didn’t understand it, either way, the vampires would end up happy, either feasting or fornicating. For immortal creatures, they lived lives that were tremendously trite.
Thus, when a stranger walked into the tavern that didn’t meet any of the above categories, Jame took notice. This person was a genuine warrior. He was a drow, but a drow young enough to have a hearty appreciation for war and mayhem. Thus, when he boasted of a weapons trove, Jame couldn’t help but want to listen.

“I’ve seen some of the greatest things you’d ever imagine!” the dark elf declared. He had rapped his knuckles upon the bar counter for attention, and surprisingly, most of the conversation had stopped as people began to listen. “But they’ve been taken! I’m an honest trader, a citizen of Alerar on a mission of commerce and peace, but I’ve had it all taken away by this civil war! There is a small safe house my business used to use, now it’s on the periphery of this ongoing conflict. I have to say, this whole way that Corone conducts itself disgusts me. None the less, I need a few volunteers. Brave souls like myself who want the profit of treasures that rightfully belong to the crown of Alerar. They’ve all but been abandoned now, where they’ll just fuel a civil war that doesn’t deserve them… I hate to say them, but I’d rather you louts in the tavern get them than those people who caused me to lose them in the first place…”

It was certainly a mouthful. Normally, Jame would have been somewhat suspicious of such a great offer, especially since things were not easy in Corone ever since the civil war started. Outside of Radasanthia and Akashima, there weren’t many safe places. “Once you enter into the civil war, you’re in a different country…” he thought. He had come to Radasanth to escape. It had been almost idyllic until now, a bubble of peace surrounded by a civil war. It had been so liberating not to have given a damn.

However, it had also been stifling. The good times had been killing him on the inside. To an extent, Jame thought it might be better to die in the Civil War at this point instead of dying in a bottle of something at the bar.

With that, Jame noticed himself getting up. “I’ll help you,” he said.

The drow nodded accordingly. “Thank you,” he said. “Will there be anyone else?”

Jame finished his drink, wiped his mouth on his sleeve and took one last look around the Boiling Cauldron. There would be nothing there that he’d miss.

[Edward Judorne]

Edward overheard this whole conversation going down as he passed by the bar. He was here on a good will mission. This little trifling matter really didn't concern him, did it? Yes, it most certainly did. It was just that for him the concern was slightly different.

You see, Edward was a collector of sorts. He was a self-proclaimed guardian of the sort of magical stones that were too powerful for the hands of man. He kept these artifacts on a secluded island city named Sirvano. The island was well hidden from most everyone, but there were a few who would end up stumbling upon the island and steal the Jewels only to be overcome with power. At the moment, all the gems were safe, but Edward knew that he only had a fraction of the magical artifacts this world had to offer.

Hence why Edward's ears perked up when he heard the dark elf speak about some great things being stolen. Edward didn't want to assume the worst, but it had become a habit. Besides, if these great things really were artifacts, he would need to get them away from the hands of evil immediately.

"You can count me in." Edward said as he set foot into the bar. "Just, don't underestimate my abilities. I really hate it when people treat me as helpless."

[Call me J]

The dark elf nodded towards the new stranger. “You are also welcome,” he said. He looked around the bar one last time, as if sizing up the remaining people to see if any of them would have been good fits for the mission.

“I suppose you two are the only ones in Althanas with any sense of courage…” he concluded. “If that is the case, I will act accordingly, and lead you both to glory and riches. The wealth we gain will distinguish us from these drunkards and louts.”

Jame could tell the effort was transparent, but he really didn’t care. He just wanted to get a move on with this mission so that he could be occupied with something other than derision and self pity. With a sigh, he looked over at the other volunteer, a man who had yet to introduce himself.

“My name is Jame,” he said. “I don’t really have a last name.” The last part was a lie, but it was a lie that made him comfortable. “I guess we’re going to be working together… don’t worry, I won’t underestimate you.”

Though he had acknowledged it, Jame found the man’s insistence not to be underestimated quite strange. He would have expected that a mercenary would often have the opposite problem. In fact, Jame had been about to apologize about his novice swordsmanship before this newer person interrupted.

The dark elf looked at his two volunteers, studied them a bit as to check if they were a suitable pair for the assignment, and then chuckled lightly. “I guess the three of us will be it,” he said. “I am Count Grishnak, from the House of the Poison Spider. You both will be adequate accomplices for a noble…”

With that, the dark elven count turned around, swiveling on his foot like he had recently left the military, stood completely erect and then began to walk out of the tavern with a surprisingly unregal gait. Jame suppressed a bit of a chuckle at the show.

“There are a lot of those houses in Alerar whose titles don’t really matter anymore,” he reminded himself. “This is probably one of those guys.” Jame decided there that he liked Grishnak well enough. The dark elf seemed like a bit of a fop, the kind of person who was better at talking than fighting, but Jame felt he could never hold that kind of a distribution of abilities against anyone else.

“Lets just hope this other guy is as good as he says he is,” Jame thought grimly. “Otherwise, I don’t think this is going to end well for any of us.”

With that he took one last look around the bar, as if to see if there was anyone still there who wanted to reconsider, and then went off on his way.

[Corvus MacCallum]

Outside of the bar a great clamour was rising, squealing children and a few squeaking women watching as the few daylight leavers of the tavern had met something entering town. As the three mission bound meanders passed from the Boiling Cauldron they were in time to see the crowd fanning out into a meat based tunnel allowing this new arrival passage. Upon the left shoulder was a vast crimson stained iron blade, its flat black and scarred but the edge looked as keen as its first forging, on the opposite shoulder of the figure, held a bit less practised was the head of an adult Drake. Things like Drakes weren't exactly uncommon or feared by warriors with some knowledge of escape but they also weren't creatures the plebs or local militia would tackle, still the oddness didn't ly exclusively with the head, the hand pressing against it held a rough hemp rope that was taut and leading behind the warrior.

Extending a good few yards was the end of the rope, threaded through the heads of three more Drakes, each of the soil class, hides of tough brown scales that had the same toughness of a more than unimpressive boulder, put simply not Drakes that were necessarily simple pickings but with a sword that huge on the Slayers dominant shoulder it was obvious he had the tool for shunting them from the mortal coil. A few of the locals were able to heard above the general noise and relative awe, such remarks of 'Not right at all', 'Too many, thats too many', they weren't referring through any conservational interests, it was clear in the tone they had disbelief gripping their vocal chords.

Don't mind a bit of gawking but this is a tad much, maybe if I chuck one down the street I can peel the more greed driven folks away...

From the group, without prompting, or head hurling was one of those very greed driven folk, this man was not a local of any lasting time, just a traveller who had lost a rather sizable caravan to the very monsters that were currently neckless.

"You really did get them all... ah, ah I recognize that one!... yes I see the crack where my dagger broke, fantastic"

Men could be moulded by emotions, despite their best fakery which emotion held grip on them could be seen clear as day, but sometimes greed wasn't a bad thing and it showed in this man, he was a merchant and a very good one too, but he was an honest merchant... rare yes but little in his bearing and mannerisms gave the air of a filcher. The interest had slowly died down in the crowd and most were parting ways, going forth to fish, farm, fornicate or flap their gobs with another.

Good

A shift of the shoulders and the risen head, along with the rope threaded through the others came crashing down to the ground... the rope less so, but still it did connect with soil. No longer encumbered by eye-drawing draconic souveniers the inhumanity of the slayer came to the fore, that swinging tail being the obvious attention grabber, then the furred and clawed feet patting at the ground now and then as he attempted to settle.

"Yea weren't that much bother actually, anyway you can have these for a little trophy, get them stuffed and you could flog them off to most local taverns"

"Oh yes very much so, yes now, you want it I suppose?"

The wolf-man gave a curt nod and then while the merchant began searching the possessions he had been laden with upon his back took the time to lower the slammer resting upon his shoulder, its tip jabbed into the ground and then was momentarily obscured. In the Highlanders hand was a rag that after a few quick sweeps of his arm looked like something torn out from the inside of the drakes, so thick was the gore he attempted to scour from his vast slab of iron. Straightening up and chucking aside the rag Corvus was pleased to see a sword handle meeting his gaze, certain weapons drew his interest, they needn't be incredibly fancy they just needed to have something worthy of eye-brow, this one indeed had that.

"Seems a meagre price for such an incredible job"

"I honestly don't find much need for coin... phew"

Gripping the handle and a quick pull revealed... well he had been rewarded with damaged goods, the handle was quite a peice, seemed like damascus but could easily have just been steel treated to resemble the superior material... that didn't matter one jot to the Wolf-man and it showed for his forest green eyes remained on the blade... or the lack of it at least. Four or five inches of shining steel remained, no embroidery, nor runes engraved to the hilt, it was pure, unblemished steel, a fantastic bit of artisean skill had it not been that past the four and a half inch mark the blade revealed its history of being shattered at some point.

"Its a right beauty"

"Uh o-of course, yes"

All that said and done the merchant saw fit to leave with the Drake Heads dragging behind him, while Corvus resheathed the shattered sword into its truncated sheath, slipping it into the ragged pack on his back. What to do now escaped him though, this place had not been great for exercising his talents, with war in the air people wanted to pay for professional mercenaries that dealt with humans, not foreign wolf-men that could take down a dragon single-handed. Guess rank and file was more important than a squad smasher.

So with his tail swinging Corvus just really stood there and glanced about him, weighing up all those vast ponderances like should he follow where the wind blows or close his eyes, spin on one foot and walk in that direction even if it required scaling some of the buildings.

Bit of a bugger

[Caine Raienbark]

Having been in a heated conversation over the price of his ale at the time of the drow's inquiry, Caine had paid very little attention at first. Magical items and vast riches of the future seemed very minute compared to the potentially two coins lost at the present. Raienbark could not much stand a cheating bartender, for just because one controlled the flow of alcohol did not mean he controlled the flow of a purse.

“I apologize, sir, but you must believe me, you originally told me it would only cost two gold pieces, not four. Now I would certainly appreciate it if you would leave me be.” The tender would, of course, have none of it. The smelly pot-bellied oaf seemed akin to a pig, his nose partially squashed against his tight, sweaty, pink face. He had originally entered the tavern simply to get out from the putrid heat of the crowded streets, but found the atmosphere within not much better. Folks crammed together, the scent of various peoples' sweat mixing to form an indistinguishable odor, and everything seeming dirty.

“Nay son, you best be giving me those extra coins or I'll throw ya out of this 'ere establishment faster than ye can say 'Corone.'” Sighing impatiently and digging into his pouch of gold coins, he placed two more upon the counter and was prepared to sip his four-gold-piece ale when he caught the tail end of the drow's offer.

“… I hate to say them, but I’d rather you louts in the tavern get them than those people who caused me to lose them in the first place…”

Glancing to the scruffy looking bard on his left, Caine gave the man a small tap on the arm and questioned him as to the quest at hand. From what Caine had understood, this drow 'noble' had been robbed of some prized treasures, and now was requesting the help of able-bodied adventurers. Excellent! thought Caine. Finally a chance to get my name out and about...I just hope this is not too much above my abilities... Noticing that two men had already taken the initiative and decided to accompany this man, Raienbark watched as the drow began to exit the tavern. Palms mildly sweaty, he continued to flirt with idea even as the wooden floorboards creaked under the drow's feet.

“Wait!” he exclaimed at last. Stepping up from his stool and, along with his ale, moved to the others whom had already volunteered. “Erm, excuse me, sir! Sir!” he called eagerly, holding his hand in the air in an attempt to draw the drow's attention. “Iwouldalsoliketoaccompanyyouonthistrip,” he gasped finally, allowing the words to fall out in a rather jumbled manner. Taking a deep, he closed his eyes and calmly said, “I mean, I would also be apt to accompany a noble such as yourself on this venture.”

Lifting the ale and gently pulling the scarf that covered his mouth down, he sipped at the stale liquid before covering the lower-portion of his face back up hurriedly. He swashed the beer in his mouth briefly before squinting his eyes, tears tugging at the corners. Blech, he thought, four gold pieces for such a stale beverage.

[Call me J]

Jame could tell that fortune had been kind to both him and Count Grishnak. They had needed a larger party, and now it seemed like they might be able to get another fighter in the group.

“You’re definitely not too late,” Jame said to the newcomer who had emerged from the tavern. “We’re going to need more people for this. Right, Grishnak?”

However, Grishnak’s attention seemed to be focused upon the nearby spectacle that the Highlander had created with his drake heads. As Jame was welcoming the newest member of the party, Count Grishnak was busy attempting to woo the man who had impressively felled the group of drakes.

Realizing that it would be up to him to make sure this new volunteer would continue in their party, Jame took it upon himself to introduce the group. “My name is Jame,” he volunteered. “I’m glad that you could join us, this is going to be quite an ordeal for us all, and with more people involved, we’re going to have a better chance of survival. You know, what with all the chaos going on, being on the outskirts of a Civil War and everything…”

He hoped he hadn’t said anything to scare away the newcomer. Outside of this man, Jame had figured they had one warrior on their side at best. The half dragon had a few advantages bestowed on him because of his height and racial abilities, but he was completely untrained as a warrior. He could move quickly enough not to get caught up in Corone’s civil war, but without this man’s help, Jame didn’t fancy their chances if they ran up against greater challenges.

As Jame recruited the latecomer from the bar, it seemed that Count Grishnak had the same idea in mind. He had approached the Highlander with an extended hand.

“You seem like the kind of warrior who knows what he’s doing,” Grishnak said. “I would like to recruit you for my party. We are going to be leaving the safety of Radasanth to enter into the outskirts of the Civil War to unearth a weapons cache. There will be more than enough wealth to distribute around. By god, me and my two allies will probably not even be able to carry everything out as it currently stands. You seem like you know what you’re doing with your weapons, you should join us. You’ve got nothing to lose and profit to gain.”

Jame glanced over towards Grishnak. He hoped the pitch for the Highlander would work as well. He smiled to himself. For a job that he’d volunteered for out of boredom, this was getting easier and easier by the minute.

If someone wants to move the group towards the weapons cache, be my guest. I just wanted to get the full party assembled here. Also Corvus, be my guest to bunny Grishnak.

[Caine Raienbark]

Placing his tankard upon a keg of what was no doubt more stale liquor, Caine nodded in approval as the man known as Jame introduced himself. “Good day to you, friend. My name is Caine Raienbark- I'm a bit new to the area, so you will have to bare with me slightly. What civil war do you speak of?” he questioned innocently. The only mention of war he had really heard of was the groaning of some poor bastard who seemed to have lost his eye in a daring conflict.

“Aye, them drow sons-a-bitches don't mince words with no one, they don't. All I'd done was speak out at one of the officers who was s'posed to be 'in charge' of our mercenary squad. Well I'd be damned if I was about to listen to some pansy elf who looked as though he'd been raised on milk and honey instead of blood and sweat!” he had said. The long gash that tore down his right cheek seemed to crack and blister each time he spoke. Dried spots of blood seemed to be etched across his oily skin.

“So what I says to him is that I ain't gunna let my men take orders from his babe arse. And that's all it took really- bastards are vicious, I tell ya. He slashed me good across the eye, took it out completely in no time. Mark my words, though, had my axe been out at the time I woulda felled him 'fore he even had a chance to draw his blade, I reckon! I mean, hell, there's I am looking to fill my purse, bastard should have been grateful that I wanted to help in their damned war. Fightin' amongst each other, should just let 'em kill each other off I say. Ain't nothing worse than a civil war.”

At the time, Caine had thought little of it- well, aside from thinking the man was a drunken braggart who had probably lost his eye either in a bar fight or simply through some sort of accident. Now, however, the man proved to be a bit smarter, and although the thought of vicious dark elves did not exactly please Caine, the commitment he had made to this party bound him.

“Mind you, regardless of any sort of petty conflict, I will gladly aid you,” he said with a courteous nod and bow, feeling the shaft of his bow keep his back stiff. It was an awkward bow, but a bow nonetheless.

As he awaited the explanation of civil war, Caine's eyes drifted to the wolf-man who had apparently decapitated multiple drakes. Eyebrows arching in amazement, Caine gently tugged at the scarf around his face and tugged it up a bit so as to avoid having himself unveiled. The sight of such an undoubtedly skilled hunter had caused his jaw to drop as his eyebrows had risen.

My...if that drow is able to recruit that man to our rag-tag group, perhaps this venture will be much easier than I had anticipated. As much as Caine sought adventure, he was not foolhardy enough to prod into the affairs of creatures such as the drow without expecting both something in return and the help of those much more skilled than himself.

[Corvus MacCallum]

"Aye alright"

It wasn't the most enthusiastic response but Corvus wasn't a particular fan of drows, there were reasons none of them serious, just that as businessmen in the past he'd found them to be the most ruthless and could find a loop-hole through anything... what was the term...

They'd fracture their soul for a fragment of superiority was how the old captain used to put it

... The lack of details was also something that didn't stoke the fires of adventure but he knew they'd be forth coming, if not from the currently unidentified Count then most definately from the genial adventurers who were gathered near the entrance of the tavern they had recently extricated from. With his answer dwindling in the air he watched the Drow extend his hand and with an inwardly shrug of mental effort shifted his clawed and gloved paw to meet it, a shake like that just promised of something foul. Hand-shakes could be a curious thing, limp and wet were something he often came across merely due to the unusual sensation of gripping a lethal hand, this however was a powerful grip and one trying to display that for all the world this was a bond he never renegade upon... a clear sign he would but that probably just meant the Highlanders reward would be cut short or ran off with.

"Gonna let slip with your name?"

"Oh my apologies I was just so eager to get a skilled man like yourself into our venture, yes I am I am Count Grishnak, from the House of the Poison Spider"

Typical fop loves the big introduction

"Lovely sounding house..."

"Well we all have our cultural imagry do we not?"

True that but for the moment Corvus was hard pressed in trying to remember one in the Highlander village that sounded as bad as that to outsiders, maybe his race just lucked out and had rather pleasant choices of animals and customs to base things off.

"Sure, its Corvus... you know the rest of these guys?"

Parting from the Drows shake the Highlander inwardly smirked since his paw hadn't been at its most gore-free moment and watched from the corner of his turning eye that the fop was taking great pains to clean his soiled grip and then followed the wolf-mans gaze to the trio chattering.

"Well two of these men volunteered only recently but I did get the name of James from the winged gentleman, truth be told he was the first to rise and offer his services... the other one spoke up shortly after, then this third one, well you presumebly heard him yourself speaking up"

"I did yea, alright then I'll get the rest of them soon enough... planning on leaving immediately?"

"I had hoped to venture while enthusiasm burnt at its brightest"

"Fair enough"

That was that really, if Grishnak had been wanting further words...

...sounds more like an Orks name really, like Skarsnik or Gruntgrippa

... Corvus wasn't aiming to receive them, he wasn't being necessarily unpleasant or cold but he the current time wandering solo had brought a methodical nature to the fore-front, suprised him at times how serious he'd been living... hoping beyond hope it was temporary. This methodical mentality was merely wanting him to chain up the vast Slammer into the harness around his shoulder, check that the broadsword strapped between buckler and arm was secure, then find out who these guys were and jaunt into the vast wilderness for violence.

Lovely

[Edward Judorne]

Sorry I took so long to post again. I wanted to give the others a chance to post first and then I got writers block.

The recruits seemed to keep on coming, but that was good news for Edward, It gave him time to figure out just how much information he was willing to give about himself.

"To answer your question earlier, my name is Edward Judorne. I am a prince of a city that needs to remain hidden from the rest of the world. While there are a some people I trust enough to know the location of my city, they are few and far between."

Edward hesitated, perhaps he had let slip with too much information, but he knew he'd let slip all the information he just stated later, most likely by accident.

"So, if everyone else is ready, why don't you show us this weapons cache you speak of and tell us a bit more about these objects that were stolen from you while you are at it. I'd like to at least know what we are looking to take back."

[Call me J]

Grishnak took a few seconds to size up Caine Raienbark before answering Edward’s questions. “Well,” he began. “Now that there are five of us, I hoe none of you will fight amongst each other for the spoils. There will be enough weapons there that we can all walk away happy, as long as none of us are greedy.”

As he spoke, Grishnak began to move quickly, bringing his recruits closer and closer to the wooded areas where the civil war had been considerably more brutal. “And Edward Jurdone, the man who doesn’t want to be underestimated, let me tell you, there is a greater variety in this weapons cache than you will find elsewhere in Althanas. We were funding a Civil War in Corone. The fighters here are very diverse. We have enchanted broadswords, giant prevalida great axes, I believe even a dagger of adamantine, though I intend to keep that for myself. For those of you more interested in Alerar’s more modern technology, there are both revolvers and at least one blunderbuss.”

Jame’s eyes grew wide. He had imagined that they would have stumbled upon the kind of weapons normally given to recruits into an army: cheap ones that would not be missed when they died. The half dragon wasn’t particularly familiar with the system of ranking materials on Althanas, but the way that Grishnak emphasized certain materials made the half dragon think they were particularly impressive. He wondered why they had planned to give those kinds of weapons to ordinary soldiers. Jame thought to ask, but decided against it. He genuinely wasn’t all that interested, and he didn’t know if the question would be received well.

Soon they had passed by the houses that marked Radasanthia from the chaos in the rest of Corone. There were fewer buildings now. What foliage and man-made structures had once existed had been damaged beyond the point of repair. The inhabitants of the area had either fled deeper into Radasanthia for safety, or leapt full heartedly into the Civil War. In the distance, Jame could see members of Corone’s forces, presumably guarding the border for the people of Radasanthia. He was surprised that these guards made no motions towards him, but an explanation was quickly coming.

“I’ve bribed the guards…” Grishnak said. “They’ll let us through.” He waved at the guard, though the guard did not move.
Jame couldn’t help but to remark on how arbitrary the line between chaos and civilization was. There were soldiers stationed at the borders of Radasanthia, but they were mostly corrupt, incompetent guards that didn’t serve the government well in the more crucial aspects of the war. Still, it seemed that the residents of Radasanth could go to bed at night safely, despite the fact that people died gruesome deaths so close to them.

“It’s not too hard to get into the war…” Jame observed, making an observation that couldn’t have escaped any of his fellow adventurers. “How deep is it we’re going?”

Grishnak’s face turned stern. “Fast enough you’re going to want to run as fast as you possibly can. Right there, an arrow flew through the sky, wedging in a tree less than five inches from Jame’s head. The marksman who had fired it was lost somewhere in the foliage.

“Let’s move then…” Jame said. He didn’t hesitate breaking into a run for a moment. The less time he spent with people shooting at him, the better. Grishnak had already begun running, and Jame merely followed him.

They had barely moved fifteen feet into the forest before the arrows began to fly in earnest. At first, only a few missed shots went in the direction of Jame and his group, but now was they moved through the forest loudly, untrained and nervous combatants were prepared to shoot at anything that moved. It didn’t matter to them that Jame wasn’t attacking back. The fact that he was there was reason enough to shoot him.

I don’t care about post order, but I’d like it if whoever the fourth person to post in the group bunnied us to the building with the weapons cache. Describe it however you see fit. The rest of you, just move through the trees and arrows. Feel free to bring in any challenges you see fit. Also, if you object to being bunnied in that we’re just moving forward as a group, say so.

[Edward Judorne]

I have no problems with the bunnying, just be sure to avoid having my character do anything other than follow. Also, Edward may stay back if there is a small amount of enemies to hold off our backs.

Edward listened as the man named Grishnak spoke about being ready to run away and chuckled to himself.

"I doubt it's anything worse than the stuff I have to deal with back home. I swear, I've seen such terrible things that nothing can surprise me anymore." Edward stated as arrows started coming from all over the place. Edward stared at an arrow that lodged itself in a tree and looked in the direction the feathered end of the arrow came from.

What he saw was about what he expected. There was an archer hiding off in the distance. almost entirely hidden from view. Edward almost missed spotting him, but caught a glimpse of the sun hitting the Archer's armor. Quickly jumping into action, Edward fired off an electrical missle at the armor on the archer. It was a direct hit and due te the metal holding in the electrical current, the soldier fell from his perch to the ground, unconscious.

There were too many archers to fend off with his magic, but at least he could handle the wave of three soldiers that came at him next. Each of them had a long sword in one hand and a shield in the other. Two were wearing chain mail, while the last one was wearing full plate. Edward knew that Grishnak had likely paid these guys off too, but there were bound to be a few that took the money then decided to attack anyway.

"I'll take these three." Edward said as he rushed in to attack. He could tell that the soldiers had already underestimated him. That was a mistake Edward would not let them forget. Just before he came withing range of the enemy's weapon, Edward stopped dead. The man in full plate overswung his sword, expecting Edward to keep coming at him, only to hit air. This was exactly what Edward planned on. He hit the man hard in the back and let gravity and the weight of his armor bring him to the ground.

Edward was usually merciful, and this was no exception. Instead of killing this man, Edward turned his attention to the other two. One of which was attempting to attack him from behind while the other one was having second thoughts about taking Edward and the four behind him on. Edward didn't waste any time blocking the attack from behind with his rapier.

"Too predictable." Edward said as he turned around to face his foe. His opponent quickly went for another attack which Edward nimbly ducked under and countered by sweeping his foe to the ground. The other foe in chain mail realized at this point that he stood no chance against the whole army if one person could take down two of the others and began to run away. The soldier in plate mail had gotten back to his feet and edward heard the twang of a bow firing an arrow his direction.

Edward backed away from the man in plate mail as he continued to charge until the arrow that was aimed for edward's head hit the soldier's forearm, making him drop his weapon. At this point, the other soldier in chain mail began to run away, but it soon became obvious the archers would have no more of that when he found an arrow lodged in his head. Edward the sword mister plate mail had dropped aside as he beckoned to him.

"Bring it!"

[Caine Raienbark]

Caine quickly dodged out of the way of a flurry of arrows. It seemed strange to him that only a short while ago he'd been arguing over something as trivial as two gold pieces for a cup of stale liquor. Now he was watching his head so that he did not become skewered. He felt the occasional wisp of air brush his cheeks, denoting the fact that an arrow had just flew past his face. It was often him firing the arrows at his unsuspecting enemies, and now that he was on the receiving end, it was a very startling experience. Running doggedly beside his new comrades, he realized how little he actually knew of their mission. He rubbed a bit of sweat from his brow and tried to piece together what he knew.

First of all, they were now in the middle of the civil war taking place in Corone. Secondly, there was a large weapon cache that this drow intended to find. Finally, all hell was breaking loose around him. Tilting his head so that he could view the attackers from the corner of his eye, he noticed that one of the party had stopped. This appeared to be a man of power, someone whom no doubt had seen combat many times before. From the conversation he'd overheard between the drow and this man, the fighter was called Edward, or something to that effect. Raising an eyebrow at the courage- or stubbornness- of this man, Caine did not slow his pace.

Far ahead through a thick canopy of bushes he could see a decently sized wooden shack. No windows dotted it's sides, and the only thing that really gave it away was the lack of trees surrounding it. For about ten feet in any direction was open ground, no doubt to either allow for soldiers to patrol or to allow ample room for traps to be set. Unsure as to whether or not this actually was the weapon's cache that had been alluded to, Caine looked towards the only one in the party who had formally introduced himself. “Jame, was it? Is that what we are looking for?” he questioned, pointing one of his long, cloth-wrapped fingers at the dirty looking building that stood around two hundred yards before them. It was a distance that, if they kept their pace, would not take long to cover. However, if the rest stopped to fight as this Edward fellow, Caine was unsure of their ability to survive.

[Corvus MacCallum]

Dodging the arrows of a soldier was not something Corvus had a great deal of practice with nor something he'd like to endure for a long time, but currently these were just the arrows of paniced troops suddenly finding non-friendly figures running past them. Every deep intake of air brought heavy pangs of sweat and breath that could gag a satyr... it was rare troops were fed well on the front and hygene was left far behind in exchange for blood-shed... still while it was rife in the air steadily it was decreasing, what little resolve they had was strengthening and soon trained arrows would be falling upon their number. Most of the arrows were only falling in from a single direction and Corvus quickly brought forth that giant iron blade, sheilding a sizable amount of his Highlander frame from the incoming attacks, it also had the benefit of letting those archers see what he was weilding as a weapon, was reassuring when a handful of arrows had been reduced as they paniced further.

The way things are going it seems like we've been guided through a squad or two rather than intelligently skimming past...

When one of the group stopped to fight Corvus had felt tempted to grab and yank the idiot away from a pointless battle, not that he wouldn't mind fighting it out but right now he had far more pressing concerns that an extra weapon would solve and becoming wanted by an army wouldn't. Instead this could be resolved a tad more peacefully, to his side fwoofed the heavy weight of his iron blade cleaving through a tree trunk that resided between thin and medium. The cut was relatively clean but it had only started to topple over, needing the bit of momentum to aid in this endeavour. Tensing his elbows and digging feet in he halted the vast behemoth of his Slammer and then hurled it flat first against the up-turned base of the severed trunk, while it didn't exactly go flying off into the distance, it had managed about six foot more than if falling naturally and that mingled it nicely with the melee Edward was trying to start. Hollaring and practically growling at the same time Corvus affixed his blade back to the harness and continued running.

"Just leg it you twat"

[Call me J]

Jame couldn’t understand all the commotion. He felt they were lucky to have survived so far, what with the way that everyone seemed to be approaching the situation. The half dragon could tell that the rest of the group seemed to have a hunger for violence that he lacked. As they even took to the offensive, Jame darted along with the count, making his way towards a small brown building located near a clump of thick trees.

It was a fortunate position, the building, though two stories tall, was relatively small and cylindrical, and it was colored the same as the trees around it. Given how thick the forestry was, it would have been difficult to locate by any means other than by accident, and even then, it was much more likely to be disregarded than treated as a storage place for weapons. Jame marveled at that strategy for a moment, until he wondered why it was again that Grishnak had brought the group. It had been easy enough to get there, though luck certainly had been involved.

“I’d have thought he could have just gone himself,” Jame figured. “Unless he thinks somehow that getting out of here’s gonna be harder.” Perhaps then it was good that Edward Jurdone was starting on the offensive, only to have been aided by the particularly capable Highlander. Had it not been for the fact that the strong man had settled Edward’s decision for him, Jame would have been forced to have intervened.

“We’ve got some strong ones here this time,” Count Grishnak observed. Jame didn’t notice the way that he had brought up this time. “That Corvus, the Highlander, he was quite a find, wasn’t he?”

Jame didn’t really get the impression Grishnak was speaking to him as much as thinking out loud, so the half dragon didn’t bother to respond. In truth, he was somewhat impressed by Edward Jurdone. He had remembered the way the brave young man had insisted that he not be underestimated, and there he had gone and attempted to prove his valor in a somewhat foolhardy, but particularly courageous way. Jame doubted he’d ever have the courage to fight when he could run.

However, now that the situation provided him with a bit of safety, the half dragon darted into the building. It was small and dark inside, though the door had opened surprisingly easily for all the rust and cobwebs that had begun to collect inside the place. There were no proper windows, and save for the open door, no light entered into the room. There were a few torches, but none of them were lit.

“Alright,” Jame said. He grabbed a torch and lit it with his breath. He placed it back on the wall and then turned to Grishnak. “Think we’ll be fine even after all those distractions?” he asked.

Grishnak’s face was beaming. Jame could understand why. They were almost about to recover all the treasures that had been lost.

“Let’s wait for the rest of the group to get here…” Grishnak said. Seconds later, he added an addendum, as if he had just thought of it. “Or if you’d like, head up those stairs for me and pick out your spoil. I suppose you’re due a reward for following me so quickly…”

Jame nodded. For a moment, he considered waiting. The stairs were metal, rusty and they creaked as he stepped on them. They made a steep spiral up to a small second floor, though there seemed to be enough space for a medium sized room. The only question was whether or not the ceiling would hold.

“Maybe I should wait…” Jame figured. He was a taller than the rest of the group, so if one person was to fall and injure themselves because of the poor quality of the stairs, it would have been Jame.

Grishnak frowned. “Oh… just go up,” he said, seemingly a bit irritated at Jame’s reticence.

Jame, slightly taken aback, looked at Grishnak confusedly.

“Alright then…” he said. “If you insist now.” With that, Jame made his way up the stairway gingerly and was very glad when he managed to reach the second floor. However, the things that he saw there weren’t what he was expecting. There were weapons, relatively elaborate ones at that. The only problem was that in addition to a large collection of treasures, there was a group of bandits.

“What the hell!” Jame exclaimed. Before he could get any farther one of the bandits had pulled him up by his shoulders and jammed his back hard against the wall. A second later, a knife was pressed against his throat.

“Tell any of the others and you’re dead…” a second hissed.

Jame looked around. There were eight bandits and all.

“Shout down and say you found something…” the bandit then added. Jame hesitated. The knife moved a bit closer, to the point where the sharp edge of the blade just touched the half dragon’s throat. “Say something…”

He knew he would damn the rest of the group to his fate, but Jame didn’t hesitate. “I- I found a gun here…” Jame managed. “A flintlock!”

“Fine,” the second bandit said. A second later, Jame was hit with a hard punch and thrown down to the floor.

“Tie’em up ‘fore the others get ‘ere,” another added. “Ole Grishy’s gonna give us a bonus today.”

Jame’s head was swimming too much to offer any resistance as he was beginning to be bound.

[Edward Judorne]

Edward was quick to 'Leg it' as Corvus so brilliantly put it, but not before making sure that nobody else would follow. Something was wrong, though. The arrows had suddenly stopped flying and the sweapon's shed was almost entirely unprotected. He arrived just in time to hear Jame yell down he found a gun. something was really fishy about this statement. It reeked of something foul. Edward could hear fear in the voice of Jame, but that wasn't the only giveaway that something was up, if they really did have guns up there, they would used them instead of firing off arrows.

Edward hadn't seen a trap this obvious for quite a while. He had to do something about it, and it didn't take him long to figure out what to do. Edward headed up the stairs with a smile on his face and was greeted exactly the same way that Jame had been before him. After getting slammed against a wall, The soldier looked straight in his eyes and began speaking with him.

"I would like you to tell the others what you found up here. Tell them that there are a ton of weapons you've never seen before or you will die." Edward nodded. The man did have a knife to his throat, and all. As long as that was the case, he couldn't refuse.

Edward was quick to remedy the situation by putting his hand on the man's chest and firing an electrical missle point blank knocking the man unconcious as he yelled out for all to hear "It's a trap!"

This defiance sent the other all the bandits after him at once. Edward had planned on this, but he hadn't thought far enough ahead to figure out how to survive this ambush without at least a little help. Edward dodged out of the way of the attacks on him and kicked one of the bandits down the stairs as he began to fend the bandits off until the other two could make it up the stairs.

Edward made his way around to where they had tied up Jame and cut the ropes binding his hands as he recieved a sword through the shoulder. The bandits up here were extremely tough, but Edward wasn't down yet. He fired an electrical missle at his rapier sending a jolt of electricity running through it and blocked another sword headed his way with his the now electrified rapier, sending quite the shock to the bandit carrying it. Edward knew he couldn't hold off the bandits for much longer, so he had to hope that the others were on the way.

[Corvus MacCallum]

Skreeeee....

I hate enclosed spaces.

As if a beacon to anyone wanting to follow him up the staircase sparks flew from the Highlanders giant sword, its edge was far too keen to be dulled by simply whacking against stone, in all honesty the ancient masonary gave up very quick to the random assaults. The entire affair stank from the off, never trust a generous Drow merchant and he hadn't, he had come along knowing something like this would happen, not specifically but in general a back-stab was stamped all over in clear, bold letters... yellow letters, the kind that really grab your attention. He had entered into all of this, simply so he could stop it and make life a bit simpler for naive adventurers... just a few more steps to go and things would be settled rather quick. When they arrived and before the winged lad passed from sight other senses had been working on the Highlander, he could tell there was more than five leather clad and blade weilding fighters up there, smell and most definately sound got that across, bandits should learn not to kick stone walls no matter how far away they are.

With Edward proving a bleeding distraction from Corvus being grabbed the wolf-man took this ample opportunity to thin the numbers, his sword held more like a lance he charged forth, one of the bandits somewhat plucked away from Edward... somewhat in the fact that legs remained, the quickly dead torso was resting and then flicked aside from the flat of the Slammer, a second bandit lost most of his right arm when trying to jump back. The giant iron blade drove through the stone with ease thanks to the massive weight of the pure iron and incredible strength from its owner. The bandit was crying out loudly and tugged himself free, scrags of flesh and ligaments visible from the ripped fabric of his shirt, he was quickly silenced though as Corvus' hands left his Slammer and lashed out with his buckler-clad right arm, the broadsword handle jutting out from between buckler and arm struck his opponent hard in the adams apple and then quickly swept back to block a failed shiv from behind.

As his torso quickly turned to meet his fourth opponent the Highlanders left hand sliced through the air, then the flesh of the one-armed bandits face, not getting much purchase but more than enough pain and shredded flesh to force a black out. The bandit striking against Corvus' buckler found himself unable to withdraw his blade, a quick shift of his wrist brough the sections of his buckler clamping together, trapping the blade... the very mechanism was why he plucked it from the mires of Findren. The position was technically horrible for a blow but the Highlander solved this by firing his foot back, impacting against the bandits thigh bone and sending him reeling, both backwards and done.

A bit of space made gave Corvus the time to grip the handle poking from his buckler and gave it a sharp tug, ripping free the scarred and lethal broadsword, wasn't fond of smaller weapons but his Slammer just would not work here. Now hopefully the other guy followed up, this was easy pickings.

[Call me J]

Gratefully, Jame looked at Edward. Everything was starting to become much clearer now. It had all been a trap. The half dragon worried about Caine, but he knew that there was no time for worries. His head was still swimming from the blows he suffered, and it was all that he could manage to grab a dagger and parry an attack coming from one of the bandits.

Quickly, Jame watched as the bandit prepared for a second strike. Fortunately, the bandit was such a poor swordsman that even the six and a half foot Jame could slip underneath his blade. With that fortunate bit of momentum in his favor, all that the half dragon needed to finish up the job was a hard punch to the head. He settled for that, knowing that there were going to be answers needed. With Edward and Corvus seemingly occupied with the rest of the group, Jame knew now he had a prime chance to interrogate.

With all deliberate roughness, the half dragon grabbed the bandit by the collar of his shirt and slammed him up against the wall. He snarled ever so slightly, and it was clear that the bandit, though dizzy from the blow, was scared enough of Jame.

“Y- you can’t hurt me!” he said. “We have people all around us.”

Jame smirked. “Exactly what I needed to know,” he said. He followed it with a punch that knocked the bandit unconscious. After making sure that neither Edward nor Corvus needed his assistance, Jame turned and looked out the window. Already, Grishnak was collecting reinforcements. There was a large number, too many for just four people to fight. That was, of course, if they could find Caine again.

“Almost like he had enough people to plot a Civil War…” Jame thought cynically. He didn’t know why he had been lured here, but after having fallen for the trap, he felt like had to come up with some kind of a plan that would get him and his allies away. He had always prided himself on being intelligent, and nothing he’d done in Corone had shown any level of intelligence at all. The events in Raiaera with Damon Kaosi had rattled him so much that he no longer thought with any kind of discipline. That would have to change if he wanted to survive.

For a moment, Jame considered if there would be a way to block the stairs. Almost immediately, he decided against it. There were a few trees nearby that they could escape out the window, but the bigger issue was he couldn’t see the advantage cutting off one of two escape routes would provide.

“Work fast!” Jame said. As Covrus and Edward continued battling, Jame took some chain that had been lying around the room and lassoed a nearby tree. Pulling with all his might, he brought a few of the branches near the window, so that they could leap out that way and escape. “Grishnak’s coming with more men!”

[Edward Judorne]

Edward thought for a bit and smiled. He was good at noticing slight flaws in his foe's plans. He was also good at noticing any weaknesses the enemy may have and extremely good at exploiting them. This was one of those times.

"So? He can bring as many men as he wants, but the fact remains that we would still be dealing with them one at a time due to the narrow staircase. Speaking of which, we could likely take a lot of them out as they climbed up the if we pushed something big down the stairs to meet them." Edward said matter-of-factly.

It was a good plan, but something was still bugging Edward. Caine had yet to make it up to them, he was likely being held hostage or something, in which case pushing something down the stairs might not be the best of ideas. After all, there was a chance they could hit their comrade with whatever heavy object they pushed down the stairs by mistake.

"On second thought, we'd better retreat for now. We have no clue where our friend is, and we don't want to risk hurting him."

Edward stared at the bandits laying dead on the ground. there was still one alive, maybe two. but with three people up against them, he was sure those two bandits were having second thoughts. Edward started to climb out the window then turned back.

"You two coming?"

[Corvus MacCallum]

"Good"

That was the wolf-mans response to James warning of Grishnak bringing more of his goons, perfect, theres no point denting an operation like this the heart had to be ripped out completely. While his left clutched at the scarred broad-sword his other reached for the handle of his embedded Slammer, ripping it free the sheer weight of it forced the weapon into a slash that absolutely shattered and dismembered the remaining bandits, stiffening his elbow and shoulder up to stop the blade before it brought the walls down. His movements weren't slow but you certainly couldn't say he was rushing things, not without being terribly inaccurate that is, no it was a stately pace as he meandered to the lassoed tree just outside one of the few windows. A quick glance back had him mentally rifle through the equipment left on the floor, a bunch of shivs, daggers, swords of various length but none that really screamed to have their pride restored.

"Can take them apart in the woods if we go deep enough, wouldn't be a quick job... could also lead them back to the warriors on the border which would complicate things horribly but at least push the odds higher in our favour, you guys have got till you hit the ground to reach a decision"

The Highlander flashed a quick smirk before hopping out of the window, his claws carved several trails through the bark of the tree, using his speed to get around the tree and sliding himself down with familiar dexterity, the landing was quite simple too and he'd even had enough time to sheath the Broadsword beneath his buckler and now gripped the Slammer in the correct, south-paw manner.

[Call me J]

Once both Edward and Corvus had left, Jame took a deep exhale of firebreath to cover his tracks and then leapt out of the window, swinging by the chain that he had used to pull the branches towards him. The half dragon landed with a thud. “Alright,” he said. “Hold on for a moment.”

Jame heaved a quick sigh of relief before his body began to transform. His muscles began to ripple and soon he fell down onto all fours. His body was quickly covered with scales and he contorted into the shape of a dragon. The quick transformation left him a bit nauseous and disoriented, but in dragon form, it would be easier for Jame to escape.

At this point it would have been a simple issue to just wave his wings and fly away, but Jame looked at both Corvus and Edward and knew he couldn’t just leave them. Though he didn’t realize it consciously, Jame felt a bit responsible for them being there, because he had been the first to agree to work with Grishnak. Now, even if he could flap his wings and get away, Jame knew that he would have to at least get Corvus and Edward out with him. He didn’t know what he could do for Caine. Jame wasn’t even sure if the archer hadn’t managed to escape without them.

There, Jame resolved that if he was going to escape, he was going to have to think quickly. He tried to speak, but the transformations he underwent had stretched his vocal cords. “Corvus, Edward,” he managed. Jame was surprised by how deep his voice sounds. “Let’s move into the forest. I’ll fly up ahead to see where the Civil War is… and guide you out to safety.”

With that, Jame took a few flaps of his wings and rose up into the air. He was surprised at how easily he ascended, for he had limited experience with flight. As he rose up level to the window from which he had escaped, Jame looked on towards Grishnak. The alleged count was practically frothing at the mouth, barking out orders, but there was no sign of Caine. Jame smiled. That was a good sign.

As he rose higher, Jame could see that there was no conflict deeper in the forest. There were a group of men running towards the building, but whatever Civil War had been going on earlier had just been part of Grishnak’s charade. Jame shook his head.

“That was probably a test to see what we could do…” Jame figured. “Either that or they wanted to weaken us before they took us in…”

Regardless, Jame knew that going through the forest would practically be suicide. They had to head back towards the “border” even if that meant facing a few guards.

“TURN BACK FOR THE BORDER!” Jame shouted. He worried his voice wouldn’t carry down below. “BORDER!” he repeated. Jame began to hover down lower, shouting border over and over again. He only hoped that Corvus and Edward would hear him before it was too late.

[Edward Judorne]

Edward didn't need to be told twice, three times, four times, or seventeen times, (Which was the number of times it was repeated before he couldn't hear it anymore,) to head for the border. Heck, he probably didn't even need to be told once. He was on his way that way anyway. It had the best tactical advantage of all the options.

There were still around ten foes he could see in that direction, but there were at least thirty in all other directions. Edward laughed when he realized how thin the line of enemies was in that direction. Even with his injury, he could still outsmart his foe.

Edward charged in at the two enemies holding the gate, the ones grishnak had supposedly paid off. He didn't even bother to draw his weapon. One attacked him as he exited, but heslid underneath the attack and sweep kicked him off his feet, quickly grabbing the man's weapon as he dropped it. Blocking an incoming overhead blowwith the sword he took from the first soldier, Edward proceeded to sweep him off his feet and grab his sword as well. the first soldier grabbed his leg and got kicked hard in the head.
The other one didn't get the chance as Edward ran offtowards the border, tossing thier weapons into the distance.

[Call me J]

Though Jame could fly above the guards, he still exhaled a lung full of flames to keep them away from the rest of the people Grishnak had intended to make into conscripts. The flame had caught on some dead brush, and it created a screen of smoke between Jame and the ground. The half dragon couldn’t see who got through and who survived with certainty, and when he could finally see the ground, he could only find Edward.

“Guess I no now not to underestimate him,” Jame thought grimly. He didn’t know what had happened to the rest of his group. He was very disappointed. They had most likely escaped somewhere, and even if they were still back on the other side of the flames, it was likely that they’d be able to hide. Jame had no reason to think anything bad had happened to either Corvus or Caine, but yet he still felt disappointed.

As he landed near Edward, he tried to ignore the lump of guilt that was turning over itself in its stomach. He transformed back into his human form and looked at Edward. “I don’t know what we can do to rescue anyone...” he said with his mouth formed into a firm tight line. “But I think we have to create as much distance as possible between these people and us. We’ll let the police and government know about this, and they’ll get Grishnak.”

He exhaled. Part of him wanted to get some measure of revenge on Grishnak, but to a greater extent, he just felt lucky to be alive. Jame had borne the brunt of the thugs’ attack, and now he didn’t want the situation to end any worse for any of them.

The whole adventure had been a disgrace. There had been no meaningful spoils. Jame thought it was nothing more than a waste. “Then again all I expected this night was a drink,” he figured. Jame resolved that he wouldn’t go looking for adventure anymore. Most Althanians may have not felt that way, but Jame was different. He had spent too much of his life in comfort without any real ambition.

It was only now that Jame had realized that he had never had a real goal at any point in his life. He had just been impulsive, going after pleasure- mostly women and drink. He felt now as if he’d had to make a goal. However, with a fire separating him from Grishnak and his men, he didn’t know what kind of a goal he could seek.

With hopeful eyes, Jame looked at Edward. “Edward, you told me when we first met, that I shouldn’t underestimate you. Now, it looks like everything has been a disaster. I have no ideas on how to fix this, and I don’t know who would. But I’m not going to underestimate you. We need to stop this from happening ever again. I don’t know what to do...”

He was practically pleading with Edward for a solution, but he didn’t know if one would develop. He knew one day that he would be able to find the drive and ambition he needed, but for the moment, he was just anchorless.

[Edward Judorne]

Edward thought for a bit. It was true, two of the four of them were Missing In Action. Edward was pretty sure they both could survive, but there were other problems at hand.

"I've seen Corvus fight, as have you. He can take care of himself. I don't know about the other kid, and I, like you, would love to assault that place again, but we need a plan this time. Let's look at the facts, first. Usually that helps me come up with the best plan possible. First, the place is well-guarded. Sorry to state the obvious, but you do need to nitpick every detail when coming up with these plans. Second, the gig seemed so routine, it was as if they had done it many times before. Third, if the have done this gig as many times as I think, then it is likely the government already knows about it. Fourth, if the government knows about it, they were either bribed to keep quiet, unable to help out, or, the most likely scenario they didn't see it as something worth dirtying thier hands over. Fifth, I got a bit careless rescueing you and accidentally got myself injured. Since We are down to two people, I think the best thing we can do is.... Wait.... I forgot one fact. Six, You can transform into a dragon at will, right? I think I may have a plan."

Edward paused for a bit to think his plan through.

"I need to point out, this plan isn't without risk, so if you aren't up to the task, I wouldn't blame you for not going through with it. What I want you to do is set the whole tower on weapon's shed or tower, if you prefer, on fire. We saw corvus escape, and as for our other comrade, well, Either he escaped or he didn't, and if he didn't, either Grishnak has killed him already, or he is more valuable to Grishnak alive and when Grishnak and his gang of criminals come out of that burning building, they will bring our comrade with them. In any case, we can't do anything against Grishnak's army at the moment, but we can destroy the building that makes his plan work. That will give us at least a little while to regroup, perhaps build an army of our own, andfor me to heal. Plus, if you burn the forest too, he's not likely to come after us. So, you up to the task?"

[Call me J]

Jame wasn’t sure what to think of Grishnak’s proposal. It seemed though the Corone Rangers could take care of the little tower a lot easier than he could. They would be able to come with an army and arrest Grishnak, and make sure that the dark elf paid for his crimes. The more Jame thought about it, the more that seemed like the proper course of action.

Yet, the half dragon kept trying to persuade himself that going to the Rangers was not the right option. “They’re too busy with the Civil War,” he told himself, though he didn’t actually believe it. “You know they’re inefficient, if they were any good, they would have closed the place down...”

Jame wondered if Edward had considered calling the Rangers, or whether the man who now stood before him had only considered options that would have involved the two of them. “Edward probably has a different kind of courage,” Jame thought. It was a polite way of recognizing how little courage that he had. The half dragon’s only brush with dangers before this had been much more controlled, and both times, Jame had an ally he could rely on.

For a moment, Jame truly envied Edward. Though he had no idea what had gone on in Edward’s mind, Jame felt a conviction that he had never felt.

“Then again, all he’s doing is asking me to do stuff,” Jame thought cynically. He realized almost immediately that wasn’t Edward’s intention. The man who had not wanted himself to be underestimated was now planning on raising an army. The entire prospect of that task was enormous enough to get Jame’s head spinning.

Finally, Jame came up with one reason why he could not take down the tower. It had been made of stone. No matter how deeply he inhaled or exhaled, the most he could do was set fire to some of the inside. He might find Grishnak, or he might end up a complete and utter failure.

With a sigh, Jame eyed Edward. “I really want to,” he said. “But I can’t set stone on fire.” He could only soak in his failure for a few seconds before he transformed into a dragon anyways. “I’m going to do something though... I swear,” he said. “I don’t know what, but I’m going back there, and I don’t know what I’ll manage, but I’m going to make sure that building’s destroyed. Then, I’m going to go look around some more, and I’ll see what else needs doing. I’ll find where these people are coming from, and then we can alert the Corone Rangers. That might not seem like much, but its about all that I can do. I know a lot of times, it seems like these are great adventures, opportunities for us to seize, but I’m just not sure about this one. It’s going to be too tough for two people, and neither Corvus nor Caine is probably worrying about this any longer. It’s probably not because they’re selfish, but because they’re smart. I really want to do something though, and if the only way I’ll do anything is set the damn stone on fire, I guess I’ll have to find a way to make that work...”

With that, Jame flapped his wings. He was about to take off, before he realized that while he had the courage he needed now, he didn’t know how long he could sustain it if he were separated from Edward. “Come with me,” Jame asked of his ally of circumstance. “Jump on my back and we’ll go...”

[Edward Judorne]

Edward hadn't thought about the fact that the building was made of stone. This small fact was enough to alter his plan. Not too much, but still, enough to make a difference.

"You have a good point about not being able to burn that place, but I'll bet that if they think the place isn't safe, they will still come running out. I think we should still attack it with your fire. We just shouldn't expect it to burn. I still say we burn the forest around the area to avoid them chasing us, though." Edward said as he climbed onto Jame's back.

He just hoped there was nothing else he forgot about.

[Corvus MacCallum]

What had happened to one of the missing party became all too obvious, hurtling through the trees, rustling many branches was a heavily slashed and torn chunk of torso. It wasn't Caine and certainly not Corvus, but it was his handiwork, while the other two had taken some degree of escape and regrouping he had immediately charged into the woods.

"Come on!"

The words lost their clean edge and were replaced by a base growl rising up from deep in his throat, in one hand was scarred broadsword, its surface glistening and utterly drenched in the life-blood of his opponents. Tightly gripped in his left hand, pushing his strength higher than he normally did was the Slammer, against these grunts he didn't need skill with such a vastly powerful weapon and it was showing. For those who valued gold and sucess over life they charged in, brandishing their blades before being cleaved by the monster felling weapon, a single stroke carving down many and then the Highlander protecting himself from the opportunistic strikings of their allies using his Broad-sword. If they had been a bit heavily armoured this would be tricky and it certainly didn't help matters that he needed to duck and weave the odd arrow that slung itself his way.

One of these wooden projectiles had impacted itself into his upper left arm, merely acting as a very annoying itch, a Highlanders resistence to pain as well as general endurance were legendary to those aware of the race and Corvus was beyond rank and file in his species. There were only a handful of opponents left in his immediate area and he wasted no time, striding towards them, his bare feet smashing down upon fragmented bone and loose innards from those he had torn asunder. Each fall of his feet drained more and more colour from those had chosen themselves to be his enemies, a vast swing of his Slammer brought two down, a flick of his other wrist had him grip the soaked blade of his broad and hurled, the distance was only four feet or so and as such the Highlander had no suprise when the last bandit fell clutching a sword jutting from his throat.

It took mere moments to regain his weapon and scrape both blades clean, making use of the bandits clothes and dashed further into the trees, his howl signalling out loud and clear among the general clamour. He had ripped a dragon off its mortal coil, skewered a kraken and shredded the soul of many shambling beasts, no number of men would best him, not when he had the wilds around him.

[Call me J]

The fiery border Jame had created had spun out of control. The fire that had been directed at a few guards had caught with dead tree and brush. The flames now cackled and gave off a white-grey smoke that made it difficult for Jame to see as he flew through it.

“Hold on,” Jame told Edward between coughing fits. “Grab my neck… but not too tight.” He was afraid between his coughs and the smoke that Edward would slide off his back and he wouldn’t know any better.

After what seemed like far too long, Jame made it through the smoke, his large wings flapping surprisingly gracefully, all things considered. His eyes stung with the smoke, but now that he was past the barrier that he had created, he could see Grishnak’s entire operation.

Immediately, he began to scan for Corvus or Caine. He didn’t find the latter, but he could see the powerful Highlander caught in an impressive battle against a legion of Grishnak’s men. Impressed, Jame wondered how long the powerful Highlander would be able to survive, but he thought it best not to actively try and discover that. Instead, he swooped down towards Corvus, being careful in his descent not to move too fast so as to knock Edward off of him.

“You help him…” Jame said, hoping that Edward wouldn’t disagree with this plan. “I’ll take care of the building. When you and Corvus are finished, come find me…”

The building was not too far away. Jame could see it to his left, and with the way that soldiers continued to stream out of it, it had seemed that Grishnak had turned it into a makeshift headquarters of sorts. “Either Corvus is putting them through a bigger fight than I realized, or they’re planning on finding a way through the fire,” Jame realized. He now knew that even if he had tried to escape, it would have been unlikely. Grishnak would have come after him, until he was either a slave or dead. Edward had been right.

Jame bit his lip for a moment. It was the middle of battle, and he didn’t have all that much time to hesitate, but yet he felt as though he needed to. Part of him wanted to run inside the building in human form, just to check and see if Caine was held hostage there. Jame didn’t know for certain, but he had thought that he had lost Corvus, only to find that the man was holding his own without any allies to aid him.

“We already deserted Corvus once, can’t afford to let him go again,” Jame realized. “Real leaders don’t leave people behind…” The last thought had startled him. He hadn’t considered himself a leader, and doubted if anyone else in the group would have listened to him if he had styled himself as one. If anyone was a leader, it was Edward. Still, Jame thought back to his adventure with his father and considered what an elven general would have done in the situation. The half dragon was a bit nervous about that association, but now, in the midst of battle, he embraced it as the only thing that could give him guidance.

With that, Jame stared at the stone building in the center of all his troubles and decided, even if it meant his blood, that it would not remain standing. For a brief moment, his fear had all but evaporated.

[Edward Judorne]

Edward didn't see any reason to argue when Jame found Corvus alive and asked Edward to fight along side him. No matter how tough a fighter was, if enough people gang up on you, you don't stand much of a chance.

Edward jumped from around twelve feet in the air down to the groundand rolled to his feet. He needed to come up with a plan quickly, because he had just entered the fray of a downhill battle on instinct. Edward surveyed his surroundings, there were trees. lots of them. The archers were nearby for the mostpart. Some firing from the trees of the forest.

The soldiers were pouring in from the tower by the hundreds and using the complicated maze of the forest to surround Corvus and himself. Edward hesitated before even mentioning the only plan he had. He was going to use the last of his magic to light the forest ablaze himself.

"Hey Corvus, I'm going to need your help here. I can drastically change our odds here, but I've never been able to use the spell I need to use without becoming completely drained . Every time I use this skill, I'm out like a light, so as soon as the forest gets set ablaze, I need you to carry me out of this place. The fire will finish off a lot of our enemies, weaken others, and ward off any reinforcements, plus anyone left in the woods will be forced to deal with falling burning branches as well as us. Best part is, the archers will have a hard time spotting you through the flames. Now, I'm going to light this place up even if you say no to bringing me out of the forest, but I'm hoping I can trust you to help me out here."

Edward started charging electricity into his body as he backed far enough away from Corvus to make sure that his Tempest Tantrum spell wouldn't affect him before letting all the electrical energy out of his body, frying any bandits in metal armor where they stood, injuring any bandits carrying metal metal weapons, and most importantly, creating a forest fire from the strong electrical energy hitting all the nearby trees. Edward really didn't see any other way they could make it out alive, that was the whole reason he was going through with a plan that put his life at risk in the first place. He smiled as he fell unconcious against a burning tree, knowing that he had done his part to give them a fighting chance.

[Corvus MacCallum]

That was just so very much unneeded

The Highlander was definately suprised to find that the trees had caught on fire instead of just exploding, was a common fact on any with a knowledge of lightning that when it strikes the tree it boils the sap instantly which causes quite a chunk-filled explosion. With bandits still about he was quick to give up caring and with a few thudding steps of clawed bare-feet Corvus got to the side of 'Leccy Eddy, a nickname for the redundant odds shuffler, a single arm reached out, staining what it touched of the other warrior in a nice thick goop of gore and then slung him right over the wolf-mans shoulders. A further amount of shuffling occured while Corvus re-entered himself into the fray, getting Edward quite securely balanced on him, only took a few moments in fact for the Highlander to restart his slaughter of the now singed and paniced bandits.

Faster... Faster!

They fell with each swing yes but Corvus just wanted this over, a moments freedom let him pull the slack material of his poncho up over his mouth, keeping out the wind-swept ash from his quickening breaths. With the weight, power behind his arms and the fact its blade was kept sharp not properly survive a single blow from the giant weapon which was why in the Highlanders mind such an exposure to magic failed to gain his respect... they would fall and it would be today. While his grip on the massive weapon obscured it the jewel upon the palm of his glove was starting to grow past its faint glow into an obvious light. More of them fell, blades being bashed and shattered as they tried to strike out at the Highlander, meeting his buckler and the flat of the dragon-felling sword.

What arrows had been flitting past were currently silenced, heat haze and the general opaque quality of flames made for heavily reduced sight lines and a fierce swell of self-preservation. When the trees started coming down before being reduced to cinders it was a kick in the bollucks to the archers cowardly traits, even giving birth to their inner chickens. The wolf-man had fought off the bunch trying to deal with him and now was chopping through the forest itself while the flames raged around him. Standing with a bestial growl thundering from his lungs, clothed in dragon-hide, blade and arms utterly caked in blood... it was an unnerving sight, worse still was when they caught sight of his eyes.

"Retreat!...Retreat!"

It was a single squad of them but it was the start of things to come, even if he had to shoulder the burden of Edward throughout. Giving chase he was tearing chunks of the earth from the power poured into his feet, his spiked mane smashing itself into the back of one bandit, he fell to the ground a cripple surrounded in flame. A leap brought his claws sinking into the shoulders and neck of another archer, pouncing forth into their turning mass before the corpse hit the ground.

Faster dammit!

The shouldered ally was out cold and that led to quite fragile breathing patterns, the smoke was rising and Corvus wanted this vast number of Brigands finished so he could sort out the forest fire. The blaze would send the native animals running and shake up the natural fauna quite a bit for miles, would make hunting much more of a hurdle than he'd like it to be for simple food. There was a small glimpse of light sliding out from between his fingers, the hair upon his head and fur of his exposed fingers seemed to sway more. He brought his blade through a newly charged in group of swordsmen, each one that fell a strand of grey sunk into the Highlanders general apperance, those discoloured hairs lengthening as well. As the final current bandit fell so did the light, the jewel upon his hand simply fading to its faint glow, the changed hairs returning to black and their original length as well. All this had gone unnoticed by Corvus himself, but there was a growing feeling of power within him as bandit after bandit fell to his strikes.

[Call me J]

The half dragon flapped his wings again and flew straight for the building. He couldn’t burn it, so he was going to ram it. He flew up high, high enough that he could fly into the building with a meaningful momentum and then flew straight towards it, hitting the building with his feet first.

Jame hit the building hard, near the top, so much so that the cement shot off dust and the entire structure shook. He could hear panicked screams inside, but none of them were from Caine. Immediately, though, he was overwhelmed with pain. His young claws were barely able to withstand the pressure of the hit, and he roared loudly so as to show his displeasure. He flew back up towards the sky, wishing he could cradle his hurting limbs, before he prepared to go at it again.

As he hovered high above the entirety of it all, Corvus and Edward fighting below, the trees, Grishnak, wherever the devious drow was, he wondered if he should continue. Ramming didn’t seem to be all that successful on the first try, and he doubted that his claws could sustain a second attack. One was practically torn off, and remained attached only to the smallest bit of flesh. His digits were all mangled and sore, and Jame didn’t know if he could even turn back into his preferred form if he was this damaged as a dragon.

Still, Jame knew that he couldn’t afford regrets. There was too much to do, far too much at stake in beating Grishnak. Whatever it took, he was going to have to ram the building again, and keep ramming it until it cracked. The half dragon swooped into position again and then let himself fly, he turned at just the right moment, his feet ready to crash into the building, when he saw none other than Grishnak looking out at him, footman’s crossbow in hand.

“You bastard!” Grishnak shouted. “It wasn’t enough just to leave with my property! You had to come back and destroy my things.” The dark elf pressed the trigger just as Jame was about to collide with the building, and the half dragon could barely move his neck out of the way before the bolt embedded itself in his shoulder.

Again, Jame cried in pan, though this time, even more of his body was sore. He could feel the building rumble again. Even if its foundation stayed sturdy enough, Jame could hear that things inside were being rattled around.

This time though, he couldn’t nurse his injuries. Grishnak was already loading another bolt into the heavy crossbow. Jame moved quickly. He cocked his head over to the window and breathed in, unleashing a wave of flame. Grishnak seemed to dart out of the way just in time, it was hard for Jame to tell, but the crossbow had been burned to a crisp. The young half dragon moved up into the sky, a few feet away from the building before he realized his options.

He could have the building, or he could have Grishnak.

[Corvus MacCallum]

"If you pop one while your crotch digs into my shoulder you get left to burn here"

This had been something the Wolf-man hadn't really practiced with, fighting for two people, or at least being loaded down with more than just equipment, he wasn't all that worried, his Slammer weighed about three times as much as the comatose bloke on his shoulders, no worries. But, it might have been a nice thing to dump him somewhere safe and keep watch... Grishnak was still alive and so were too many of the bandits, Corvus wasn't intending to leave the job unfinished and certainly not to one of a duo that set fire to a forest out of desperation, just too dangerous. For once the giant dragon felling blade was strapped to its harness, the chains clanking heavily and at times smacking against Eds ribs, oh well part of his fare for being dead weight right now. His broad-sword was also sheathed and the katana upon his back rested in its own holder, no he was going hand to hand, with a man upon his back and suceeding.

A blade swung out to catch him in the ribs, the buckler clad arm smashing the flimsy weapon aside, quickly followed by his dominant arm lashing out, smashing the jewel on his palm against the bandits adams apple, then closing his claws and ripping all that soft skin and muscle right out. It was a horrible way to die, really it was and the gurgling and gasping was clear evidence of that... still in the Highlanders mind a thief deserved that.

It was suprising just how quickly a persons life could be ended when in completely different situations a human can be almost indestructable, very curious spiritual stamina... none of this passed through Cors mind, he wasn't a simple bloke but he really wanted to focus on the melee and get himself to the tower. In the rushing and dodging, while cleaving through flesh and bone the Highlander could feel his wish being granted... he wanted to be faster and somehow right now he was being that little bit faster. Again his outside apperance was altering itself slightly, a greying and silvering of his fur and hair, a lengthening, the previous time his rush had been temporary, this was in pursuit of a goal that was still far off and it let his body demand the rush more and more.

Shining on his palm was the jewel on his enchanted glove, it had absorbed enough power and gotten used to its owner, power was finally flowing from it, into the wearer. His hair was almost utterly light grey, with the white now practically radiant, each strand and spike had gotten a great deal longer but were unmoving. Around him surged a personal gale, his feet still smashed to the ground but each step thrust him further and further, faster and faster he craved to go and finally his mentality had allowed the shining glove to release his natural element of Wind.

Great leaps and bounds with each step were made, his blood-soaked hand blocking the light pouring from his glove and grasping onto the handle of his slammer. He was aware he had changed, subconcious notions were playing through his mind and giving him acess to thoughts and actions that seemed perfectly natural despite only existing a minute or two ago. A number of bandits were charging towards him, his grip upon the sword tightened, his bounding steps lost their distance, he could feel the full weight of running returning, but the Slammer... it certainly didn't feel like the full weight of pure iron. He was forcing his will into the weapon, or whatever made him capable of pulling off his one unstandard move, one handed his massive sword swung, the gale that had been whipping around his form now coiled around the blade and then unleashed. It rushed towards the charging bandits, splitting and twisting its shape... the connection.

Wow...

He had finally stopped but still in his Wind form, the Highlander looking upon the shredded men, they hadn't been torn asunder but deep gashes and slices rent through their flesh purely by the amplified Air Rip certainly didn't leave them looking pretty. Instead of the straight line it had been before, this attack was savage, almost random in intensity... this Corvus liked more than the sliver of power he'd been forcing out. He could feel the power slipping out of him, still strong but no longer altered, his fur and hair returning to its bi-tone of black and white, shortening to its original length.

... Learn later, kill now

Simple impulses that brought him finally to the base of the tower, his Slammer cleaving through those who ran from it, leather armour and simple natural creation providing no protection against such a monstrous weapon, nor the beast that weilded it.

[Call me J]

As Jame considered his options, practically unable to do anything because he hated the alternatives, he realized that Corvus had made his way to the tower. With an appreciative smile, the half dragon called out to the powerful berserker, knowing that if Corvus had managed to defeat so many bandits, that Grishnak would hardly be much harder.

“Get him!” Jame shouted. “Get Grishnak, he’s in the building somewhere!” The half dragon hoped that would be enough. This way, while Corvus prevented the dark elf from ever harming another person with his plans, Jame would ensure that the building so central to the plans was destroyed, should any of Grishnak’s people survive in order to take up the gruesome work.

Before Jame could resume his assault on the structure, his thoughts immediately turned to Edward. Corvus may have been able to handle himself, but Jame was suddenly overcome with worry for the man whose sense of honor had led him back into the fight. The half dragon didn’t know if Edward was as capable a warrior as Corvus, and even so, he thought it would have been practically impossible for anyone at all to survive the onslaught that Corvus had fought through.

Cursing the trees that limited his vision, the half dragon flew low, carefully maneuvering himself around the branches and trunks as he flew underneath the leaves so as to get a better vision of where he was going. He knew it left him vulnerable, but he didn’t care, he needed to get back to where he had last left Edward.

Though there was smoke coming from the direction where Jame remembered leaving Edward, he still flew on, adroitly moving through both smoke and foliage until he found his ally laying unconscious near a tree.

Immediately, Jame landed and moved into a humanoid form so that he could better tend to Edward. He barely lost a step, hitting the ground running even with his transformation. During his run, Jame cringed. His back wretched slightly as he moved from all fours to two feet. Even that wasn’t enough to stop him from moving, to the rescue as he knelt down by the tree and looked at Edward, trying to see if he required any immediate medical help.

With a voice that showed both panic and determination, Jame spoke. “Get up… get up…” He could see the flames rising faster around them, and he coughed when his fast breathing meant he was inhaling smoke by the clumps. “Get up!”

[Edward Judorne]

Edward opened his eyes to find that Corvus had put him down, and staring back at him was none other than his companion, Jame. Jame seemed to be choking on the smoke, which made Edward laugh weakly.

"You know, I'd think that in your dragon form, you'd have gotten used to a bit of smoke." Edward said, bringing himself to his feet. He was still a bit dizzy from casting Tempest Tantrum, but he'd manage. Looking behind him, Edward realized why Corvus had rushed ahead without him. Corvus was headed back into the tower to kill Griishnak and end the thing once and for all. It suddenly occured to Edward, just how suicidal that would be, even for the Highlander.

"That man, Corvus really does like to rush in, doesn't he. Thing is, if I'm correct, he may be in trouble. Think about it, Grishnak has obviously pulled this gig many times. He obviously knows what he is doing, and likely is still reading our every move. He likely will know what we are about to do, before we do it, giving us a distinct disadvantage. We need to be a bit sneaky on this one. Jame, You think you could fly me to the window we escaped from? After I get in, you should wait in the air and snipe anyone who tries to escape with your flames while Corvus and I are assaulting the tower from different angles. That should be too much for even old Grishnak to handle." Edward stated, knowing full well that all chances of outwitting Grishnak likely fell on him.

"Now let's go."

[Corvus MacCallum]

Fools rush in where Heroes dare to tread, wasn't strictly true in this situation but it made a nice little nugget to chew on after explaining local weather patterns and that the wise-woman with the shrivelled baby toe and a mole with one three inch long hair had predicted more rain. Charging up a narrow set of winding stairs while clutching a six foot long Slammer would seem foolish and it was, which is why currently it rattled and clattered on the leather harness with chains wrapped against its blood dripping surface. In the Highlanders left hand was his scarred Broad-sword, bit more weildly in these circumstances and it also allowed for his right hand to be free, very important that, only took a few moments and the first three deaths for that to become obvious, one of the bandits lost his footing as he stampeded down the stairs and with a back-hand smash from the buckler his skull splintered against the stone walls of the tower and he dropped into a silent heap with the others. More of the bandits had a better grasp of the situation than the skull pulped fool and prepared what equipment there was to provide shield walls and a frontal area full of pointy pain.

There was an obvious solution to this and Corvus couldn't help but snicker on over-hearing the bandits reaction to him trekking back down the stairs, this was turned to gasps when he returned, a corpse in each hand and one slumped upon his shoulder. The angle wasn't good but he hadn't been looking for a blunt force shakedown, this was to bog down their weapons and cause confusion, hurling each cadaver onto the blades and even a few spear tips, even hearing a few of the shafts snapping. The next sailed over with less competition and instead hit against the scant few shields present in that situation, the third was just rubbing salt into the wounds as its exposed interior leaked and splashed over the heads of the bandits whose defence had been entirely lost by panic and fear. The blade of his broadsword was far too dull to gleam with each kill but it definately had a decent presence and blood could be shiny enough when freshly spilt.

Hurried noises further up the tower caught the Highlander in his tracks, glancing about him and sheathing the broad-sword, his claws scraped and clattered against the heavy stone-work pulling his substantially equipped weight up and off the stairs, clinging against the ceiling as a heavy water barrel smashed its way down the stairs, sparks flying as its heavy wrought iron rings clashed against the masonry. A quiet sigh escaped Corvus, if he had brought another corpse with him they would have heard the solo impact, he could have even feighed a yell and tempt them down... then again it would make little difference once among their number. He was getting closer to the trapping bandits, hearing them roll and prepare another barrel while he rushed up the steps, he was only a few moments too late, the heavy keg already rolling, fresh from the bandits boots. With his free hands the Highlander grasped at the rolling container of supplies, one foot lashing out against the stone-wall to halt the reverse in direction momentum had been hoping for. His ribs were stinging a tad but he couldn't give a toss as the barrel was hefted onto his shoulder, turned side-ways for easier progress.

"Oh shit..."

That was the kickers reaction on seeing his returned barrel and the pretty blood-splattered carrier, he next saw the flash of white fangs and then a large object speeding towards him... that was probably it though. The immense weight of the barrel sailing across the landing to pulp two of the bandits, the third being too unnerved to manage anything than a silent gasp as Corvus rammed his clawed fingers up through the flap of skin and muscle stretched below the bandits jaw.

"Not long to go now"

[Call me J]

Jame immediately rose in the air. He flew high enough above the trees that it would have been hard for a weapon to pierce through, except in the area directly above the tower. The half dragon had done this intentionally. He didn’t want to have to worry about attacks coming from anywhere else. Grishnak was still inside, and Jame was going to have to find some way to bring the tower down once Edward and Corvus were done with what they were doing.

Though the half dragon hadn’t said anything about it to Edward, destroying the building would be harder than he’d imagined. Merely hitting it seemed to do just as much, if not more, damage to him than it did to the building. The seeming inevitability of the situation made Jame almost feel like he should just fly away. He didn’t need revenge, he just needed purpose. And perhaps there were ways of getting that purpose other than destroying the building.

Before he could think of anything else, another black dragon appeared in the sky. It swooped much faster, and it was bigger. For brief seconds it was able to blot out the sun. Jame could only watch it, wide eyed. “What are you?” Jame asked.

“Your worst nightmare!” the dragon replied. A spray of fire escaped from its mouth.

Immediately, Jame ducked low. The column of flame passed over him, and he cursed that in his dragon form, he had so few weapons. From his lower position, he would have liked to try and have driven a sword into this dragon’s underbelly. Instead, he had to settle for information. “If you’re hungry, there are people in the tower,” Jame offered, in a transparent attempt to get the larger dragon to achieve his goals for him.

The black dragon laughed. “Those are my people,” he said wickedly.

Jame shuddered, but he knew what he’d have to do. Somehow, some way, he was going to have to make sure that the black dragon collided with the tower, it would be the only way he could destroy it.

“GET OUT!” he shouted down below before he dodged another column of fire.

[Edward Judorne]

"Wait! Aren't you going to..." Edward decided not finish that sentence as Jame flew off. Something told him it would be less noticeable if he climbed the tree to reach the window anyway.

Edward entered the tower through the upper window by climbing the tree since Jame flew off without him.

When he made it inside, he saw an unusual sight. The bandits were almost all cleared out already. There were about five at the top of the stairs and he was guessing there were a similar number near the bottom of the stairs. Of course, they also could have all gone after Corvus. It was hard to say.

Edward drew his Rapier and looked at the five bandits intently. this could be fun. After all, the only reason he got injured last time was he was trying to free Jame.

One of the bandits decided to Charge the still injured Edward, but Edward saw the charge coming a mile away and reacted by nimbly dodging to the left and kicking his foe out of the window. Another bandit swiped at him with a heavy looking axe. Edward didn't see it in time to dodge it, butas luck would have it, something shook the tower up, big time, and it almost seemed too strong a tremor to be from the outside.

"Not again." Edward heard one of the bandits say as an rven bigger tremor shook the tower, followed by the sound of bricks breaking somewhere below. The bandits all seemed to lose interest in him as they attempted to make their way down the stairs to check on the damage. Edward stood confused for a bit, then heard Jame's warning to get out. Edward turned to do so, but a huge fireball destroyed the tree, forcing him to climb down the stairs towards the other exit, this exithe found had a huge stone blocking it, likely from one of the two quakes. Edward watced as the bandits piled out of a huge hole in the side of the building, a hole that was obviously made by something escaping the building since the bricks had fallen outwards.

Edward climbed out the gaping hole in the wall quickly, finally beginning to realize what was going on. He sure as hell knew that Grishnak was nowhere to be seen inside, and he was pretty sure that Corvus wouldn't have let Grishnak escape.

Edward started to search for Corvus at this point. Sure, Edward was good at coming up with strategies, but he was out of Ideas.

[Corvus MacCallum]

So very much taken all I can of this ham-fisted contorted plot. Not a bit of the quest was enjoyable and every event was such drivel. So I'm dropping out and just naming my spoils here.

No Gold

Broken Shining Blade: Excepting the single-handed handle the broken blade reaches to around 5 inches with a diagonal snap. Entire thing is made of steel but the blade has been polished and shined to be almost reflective.

Elemental Shift, Wind: After adapting to its owner and soaking up enough latent power through his travels the Enchanted glove on his left hand has allowed his first elemental form, this being his natural and thereby strongest form of Wind.

When in that form his hair and fur colour pales and on the limbs can even become a very dull grey with the whites becoming almost silvery. All spikes of hair also lengthen and become much more noticably swayed by wind.

Currently the form only lasts in stints of five to ten minutes. Its abilities allow him to go 50% percent faster, also increases jump height and lessens his weight when touching down. Seperate from that the wind can also envelope his Slammer and strangely only his Slammer allowing its weight to lighten and be swung much faster but with increased impact.

At the moment only these two abilities are present and can also only be used one at a time but switching between them is quite easy.


----

For the sake of reference Corvus simply left the tower, probably chasing off bandits through the forest.

[Edward Judorne]

Edward looked around outside the tower and saw Corvus chasing bandits out into the forest. Edward started chasing after him when he saw a huge fireball shooting down at him. Edward barely had time to dive behind the tower, before the fireball hit the ground with the impact of a meteorite, crating a crater wher it hit. Edward was dead as long as he remained out in the open.

Thinking quickly, Edward headed back into the tower through the same hole he had exited out of. He was safe in here, sort of. The problem was Edward didn't see any way to take the huge black dragon down from inside the tower. He would need an extremely strong long distance weapon, which he didn't have access to, or did he? If there was one true thing Grishnak had said, it was that there were weapons at the top of the tower. Edward ran up the stairs as fast he could and was about to start rummaging throu the weapons for something to take the dragon down with when he heard and saw that very beast speak to him from just outside the tower's window.

"Would you like to be eaten alive, or cooked first?"

"Just fry him!" came the familiar voice of Grishnak from the stairwell. Edward looked down at Grishnak. He was blocking the only escape route, and had obviously just reentered the tower. It all made sense now, Grishnak had summoned the dragon as a last resort plan to kill the adventuring party off. Edward was a bit embarrased. He thought Grishnak was the dragon. Little did he knoww that his assumption this time was wrong too.

[Call me J]

With two dragons in the air, it was going to be difficult to do much of anything. Jame had never fought another dragon, he had barely even used his ability. He wondered if the black dragon had his similar sense of self loathing about the ability, and preferred to stay in a human form most of the time. The young half dragon cursed his luck. Most of the dragons he’d met were feral brutes, the kind that made him ashamed of that side of his ancestry. This one was articulate, but was trying to kill him.

With a slight shudder, he rose up to face his opponent. The two dragons stared at each other briefly. “Could I surrender?” Jame asked, only half sarcastically. He knew the answer was going to be no, but he wanted to catch a bit of breath.

The other dragon snorted and blew a column of fire towards Jame. Unaware of any other way to block it, Jame just stopped his wings from moving, so that he landed on the top of the small tower. The tower shook a little with his impact. The force with which he’d landed hadn’t been enough to shatter the building, but it had been far from useless. A few puffs of dust escaped from the walls, a sign that the cement that held the building together was beginning to crumble.

Smirking, Jame realized exactly what he’d need to do. He did everything he could to play up his fatigue, but showed that if necessary, he was ready to use his own flame to block an attack from the other dragon. Jame was hoping, somehow, someway he’d be able to convince his foe to come down crashing onto the building, and that the larger dragon’s added weight would be enough to send the whole thing spiraling down.

“You shouldn’t be laughing like that,” the black dragon chided, seemingly amused by how quickly its younger counterpart was willing to give up. “You got lucky, dodged a bit, but when you play, you get burned. Careful for later…”

Jame looked up with mock hope, though from his expression it wouldn’t have been clear if it had been genuine or sarcasm. “I have a later?” he asked.

The black dragon snorted, releasing a cloud of smoke. “Not really,” it said, before heading straight towards Jame. The half dragon made sure not to move, he didn’t even flap his wings, instead he just looked on wearily, waiting for the last moment before when the black dragon’s momentum would be so great that the creature had no option but to collide with the building and then he jumped. He knew it would be a hard fall. From the vantage point of his momentum, he wouldn’t be able to flap his wings enough to do much more than slightly cushion his landing.

At the very last moment he leapt. One of his wings was practically shredded by a last gasp from the black dragon’s claw. The building began to shatter, and Jame hit the ground with a shudder. Pain overwhelmed his body, but even then, he thought of Corvus and Edward. He didn’t see either of them, but his sight was somewhat limited by the black dragon who was swooping down towards him, eager to finish off the kill now that Jame’s soft underbelly was exposed.

[Edward Judorne]

Just as Edward was about to give up, the tower shook, and the dragon looked over it's shoulder iooking concerned.

"Brother! No!~ The dragon yelled out in despair.

"What are you waiting for? Kill him!" Grishnak began to say, But all that came out was "What are yoeaaaaah!" As the tower started to collapse, and Grishnak fell down the spiralling stairs, backwards. Edward was also thrown off-balance. Edward nearly fell out the window, but he caught himself, and instead jumped out the window. A few of the weapons fell out the window after him, including what he was looking for. There it was, right in front of him, along with a spell book that Edward had no time to look at right now. Except, it wasn't exactly a weapon, and it was slightly cracked.

Edward knew he only had one shot at this, but when he saw the dragon about to kill Jame, he realized he had no time to think this one through.

"YO, DRAGON, OVER HERE!" Edward yelled as he threw a rock at the huge creature. The dragon turned it's head to look Edward's way.

"JAME, RUN!" Edward yelled out.

"You are sacrificing yourself for him? What a pity." The dragon said, shooting a fireball his way. Edward picked up the cracked magical mirror off the ground and braced himself.

Being an avid collecter of artifacts himself, he had read up on lots of them. This magical mirror should reverse any type of projectile attack. Thing was that it also was said to be made out of uncrackable glass, meaning what he had in front of him was a weaker replica. He hoped it would still be enough. He knew now that he had been wrong on his summon theory, as well. No, this dragon and his 'brother' were just two powerful bandits that Grishnak had somehow gotten to work for him. Edward was pretty sure this mirror was how.

The fireball hit the mirror and the mirror absorbed half the attack into itself before it exploded, knocking Edward unconncious and bloodying him up. The rest of the fireball went sailing back at the dragon and exploded in the dragon's face, knocking him to the ground, also unconcious and bloodied.

Note to Call me J: Please have Jame wake Edward up, because I have one more post I'd like to do before I'm done with this. Also note that the dragon is unconcious, not dead.

Note to the judge: I tried not to powergame the dragon to the best of my ability. I had many other options, but either they didn't fit the time period, or they wouldn't do enough damage to the dragon as a result of not trying to powergame. Also, about the magic book. As soon as I level, which may or may not be after this quest, Edward will learn a new spell and I wanted an in character explanation for it. ;)

[Call me J]

Jame was surprised by how much Edward had managed to do. The half dragon wanted to thank the man, but with him knocked unconscious, or possibly worse, he knew he couldn’t wait. Quickly, Jame moved over to Edward, and then picked him up as gently as possible with his mouth and set him on his back. “You’ll be alright,” he said, only hoping it was true.

While Edward might have fared the worst of the two of them, Jame wasn’t doing all that well either. He had taken quite a few blows, and now his wing was rendered useless. He was afraid even to change back into his humanoid form, lest he find that his arm or leg had been shredded to the bone. Wounded, he made his way out of the area, glad that the fires that he had set earlier had now died down. The entire area that had been a mock battlefield had disintegrated by now. Even many of the trees had been destroyed in the battle.

“Well, I guess then there aren’t going to be any more slaves round here,” Jame thought with a hint of satisfaction. He felt accomplished, even though he hadn’t managed to do all that much. The building had been destroyed by a little bit of luck, and Edward and Corvus had killed the majority of the thugs that had tried to assault them.

With a sigh, Jame realized that there were things that he couldn’t escape any more. This adventure had nothing to do with Damon Kaosi, but it seemed that there was a bit of his father’s spirit in him as well. Jame knew that many people would have resisted Edward’s call, especially people who lacked battle skills like the half dragon. However, Jame had agreed to help. At the moment, he had just been doing what his instincts had compelled him to, but now he realized just how large of a departure it had been from anything else that he’d done.

When he reached the town, Jame transformed back into his humanoid form, afraid of the reaction he would get appearing as a wounded dragon. Because of the Civil War, there weren’t too many places where he’d be able to get medical aid, but as he transformed back, with large chunks of his arm taken out as a result of the wounds he had suffered, people came rushing to both him and Edward.

“We’ll take care of you,” one elder man said. “We have been dealing with people from the war, but right now it’s at a lull.”

Jame smiled gratefully. “Take care of Edward too…” he demanded. He looked down at his foot, to see a completely mangled mess. With a sigh, he wondered if he’d have any scars that would ruin his perfect visage. He didn’t want to look badly for the ladies, especially when soon he’d have to be heading to Raiaera.

[Edward Judorne]

Edward woke up 2 days later. He looked around but neither Corvus or Jame were anywhere near him. It wasn't that big of a shock, though. Corvus was a loner from the very beginning. He was always running off by himself. It seemed obvious since the very beginning, that he was only in it for personal gain, but Edward tolerated him because he was self sufficient. Jame was a good friend, but Edward was sure he had better ways to spend his time than to wait for an injured hero to wake up.

Edward got out of his bed and wandered out of town. There was something he wanted to check.

Heading back to the tower, he found it had fallen on top of one of the two dragons, and the other had a chain around it's neck, and was being dragged away by the corone rangers.

"Oh, sure. Now they show up." Edward said in frustration, realizing they would likely take credit for all the work he, Jame, and Corvus had done.

Looking around, Edward stared at the Spell book and frowned. The blast from the mirror had burned half of the book up and charred all except two of the pages beyond recognition. The last two pages remained readable, but he didn't have the time to sit around and read it just yet. He had come here on a mission, and he was going to see it through to the end.

Edward began to dig through the bricks of the fallen tower (albeit slowly) until he found what he was looking for. Grishnak's dead body. Edward smiled as he wandered off into the distance. It was finally over. He had confirmed the death of his toughest opponent yet. The only person to constantly outwit him at every turn, Grishnak.

Spoils: This is my first time asking for spoils of any kind, so I'll try to keep it reasonable.

All I want other than the obvious rewards for quests is the char-broiled spell book.

Char-broiled spell book: The title and most of the pages were burned away by a strong magical blast. Only two pages are visible, and they are for the following spells Which Edward will hopefully learn at level up.

Curving electric missle: Gives Edward the ability to alter the path of his electric missle by 5-10 degrees (I would obviously prefer 10 degrees, but I'll leave it up to the judge's descretion)

This is not a seperate spell, but more of an add-on to a previously known spell.

Shock beam: half the size, speed, and strength of an electric missle, the only thing this spell has going for it is it's ability to maintain a steady stream of electricity for 3-5 second, (once again, up to the judges descretion)

Can be used only once every two days. (Not real life days. I actually have to have Edward sleep two nights before I use it again.)

Once again, I'd like to point out Edward is not allowed these techniques until after he levels. Also, if two techniques is too many, just say that one of the pages was too brittle and fell apart when Edward touched it.

[Skie and Avery]

You save the world, I’ll take the Cheerleader

Quest Judging
You Save the World, I’ll Take the Cheerleader

STORY

Continuity ~ 5/10. CMJ, Corvus, I had no problems here, and I liked the reference Corvus threw in about where and why he’d picked his buckler. I did have some other questions for Edward and Caine - why are you in Radasanth? The continuity through the storyline also suffered, but most of that was from clarity, so those points are addressed there.
Setting ~ 4/10. It was never clearly stated that you were in Radasanth, and the trek out of the city, was confusing. First it was said that they were led to a wooded area, where the Civil War was taking place, and then it talked about the part of town at the border of the city that had been ravaged by the war. Again, mostly a clarity problem, but it still has relevance here. The way the “Civil War” was referred to also didn’t feel right at all. Almost like it was a Sunday Brunch with a specific place and time it was being waged that day.
Pacing ~ 5/10. The overall length of the thread wasn’t a problem. I usually expect to see one page per person participating, and it worked out about like that here. What was a problem was the way this thing read. It wasn’t until the end that I felt anyone really contributing to the flow of the story. It was more like watching a single lane of traffic, with a couple of passings here and there. A high action thread like this should be a highway, everyone adding in something new, contributing to the movement. You don’t always have to follow the person who started the thread. That’s why we have Messengers and the PM system. If you’ve got an idea to advance the story, ask them if it’s okay! Waiting on the main person will drag out the action, and force the storyline to feel, well, like theirs. Check out a book from the library written by two people and a book written by just one of those people. It may be the same genre, or even the same subject (dragons, wizards and knights, oh my!) but the feel and twists of the books will be different. Althanas is like a co-authored book. Even if you didn’t create the thread, putting your character in it gives you some freedom in making that story your own. And when you’re contributing more to the posts - ACTING instead of just reacting - it will make the thread skim along far faster, regardless of post count.

CHARACTER

Dialogue ~ 3/10. “Your worst nightmare!” CMJ…are you kidding me? And the rest wasn’t much better. Edward, it threw me through a little *face palm* loop when you basically said upon introducing yourself, ‘I’m a prince of a city that I don’t want anyone to know about!’
Action ~ 6/10. Actions seemed to be consistent, which is good! But there were things that drove this score down because they weren’t properly explained. First of all, the second post in this thread. Mssr Edward, How do you hear a conversation from OUTSIDE of a building? Open window/door? Advanced hearing? There are plenty of explanations that would have made sense, but you gave your readers nothing to help them understand how you could hear the conversation and then step into the doorway of the bar to answer the call for help. Corvus, pretty much anything you contributed to action was wasted by the fact that I can barely read your posts. Please see Mechanics. In another musing, how do you sheathe a BROADsword behind a buckler and not cut into your arm, cut the buckler’s straps or retain maneuverability with your arm? Please tell me, because I’d like to let physics know, in case they’ve been getting it wrong for a while now.
Persona ~ 5/10. The only character who had any real growth was CMJ. Caine blended into the background, which made his sudden disappearance easy to miss. Corvus was burly and scowling. Edward, you have a very interesting character, but he doesn’t seem to have much depth at all to him. Let’s take Call Me J as an example for a 3 dimensional character. He displayed fears and hopes, desires and confusion. At times he was clever and strategic, but it was never outside of the personality that he displayed. It was very believable, and at the end, the realization that he was his father’s son really helped to round everything out. I can really see Edward developing like this as a character, but there’s more than just his prince/hero/treasure hunter mode that you need to explore. While those are three very good general categories to base a character, now you need to whittle it down. Is he devoted to his people as much as he is to his love of the arcane? What is his biggest fear? What would he sell his soul for? These are all questions that may seem simple and easy, but when you really get down into the character, it will open him up even more, make him real, and provide you with threads full of great prose to write on the subject of what had once simply been Edward, the gatherer of magical artifacts. If Caine had stuck around long enough to explain to me why he kept his face and hands wrapped, it would have been awesome.

WRITING STYLE

Technique ~ 5/10. Caine Raienbark did really well here, with imagery. I especially enjoyed how he painted the bartender like a pig with his description. There wasn’t much that was seen in this thread that was like that, or maybe I just missed it. In terms of your styles, I see a lot that can be improved. Call Me J, I know you can do better than this. On the flipside, some of the writing I saw from Edward in here was vastly improved from examples I’ve seen in other threads. I can tell that you put at least a marginal amount of effort into your posts, and that’s good! Just remember some tips. Show, don’t tell. Imagery is everything when you’re writing. To help make your character and the scenes come to life, imagine it as a movie, and use lots of adjectives, adverbs , similes and metaphors. You don’t need to be Shakespeare to really bring your writing to a quality that keeps your readers coming back for more.
Mechanics ~ 4/10.
There was a lot here that I saw that I was very unimpressed with. Here are some examples.

Corvus, in your first post, you had a sentence that just floored me. You have a bad habit with run-ons anyway, but this… let’s just go over it, shall we?



Extending a good few yards was the end of the rope, threaded through the heads of three more Drakes, each of the soil class, hides of tough brown scales that had the same toughness of a more than unimpressive boulder, put simply not Drakes that were necessarily simple pickings but with a sword that huge on the Slayers dominant shoulder it was obvious he had the tool for shunting them from the mortal coil.

Holy crap. Yeah. Okay, let’s fix it.


Extending a good few yards was the end of the rope, treaded through the heads of three more soil class Drakes. Not necessarily simple pickings, their hides of tough brown scales were the same toughness of a more than unimpressive boulder. However, the huge sword on the slayer’s dominant shoulder made it obvious that he had the tool for shunting them from the mortal coil That’s an example how you can turn a run-on that could potentially lose part of your reader base into a flowing chunk of prose.

Right after that sentence there was another mistake that was seen frequently. I use this as an example. In the very next sentence, you put “A few of the locals were able to heard above the general noise and relative awe…” Reread your sentences carefully - all of you - It should have been “…were able to be heard…” The smallest things can make a big difference in the way your writing is received. There were a lot of little mistakes that spellcheck wouldn’t catch, like “bare” for “bear” and “no” for “know”. Everyone makes them, but I would like to remind you guys to keep a good eye out for them. The great thing about a thread with lots of people in it like this one had is that you’ve got all the more “beta-readers” who can help you find and fix mistakes before it’s time for the judging.


Clarity ~ 3/10. The biggest offender here was Corvus. You must work on those run-ons. Between sentences that stretched into formidable paragraphs of their own, phrases and sentences of indistinguishable meaning, and unexplained technical terms, your posts alone were a jungle to get through. You may know exactly what it is you’re trying to say, and it may flow like a river in your mind, but the river is wide and deep and drowning your readers. I don’t know what the south paw maneuver is. I hope that my guesses at the Irish slang sprinkling your writing is right. Don’t get me wrong, I love that I can read your posts and tell that it’s you with the slang and terms. I don’t want your writing to conform until it’s indistinguishable from other writers, but I do want to be able to make it through a paragraph or two without the temptation to just kind of…skim…through the rest of the thread. Break those damn sentences up. That’s the biggest piece of advice I can give you to help you with clarity. There’s a difference between “flow of consciousness” writing and a muddled mess of words.

MISCELLANEOUS

Wild Card ~ 2/10. I don’t really have anything to say about the wild card with the exception that I sincerely hope that the next thing I judge from each and every one of you has gained some improvement from this. The story had potential; the actors playing it out were clumsy at best.

TOTAL ~ 42/100.

EXP Rewards

Call Me J - 1694
Edward Judorne - 711
Corvus MacCallum - 749
Caine Raienbark - 385

GP Rewards

Call Me J - 315
Edward Judorne - 294
Corvus MacCallum - 0, as per your request
Caine Raienbark - 63

Other Rewards

Corvus MacCallum - I will award you the Broken Shining Blade as described, however, I do not feel that your performance merited the Wind Shift. You may try and claim it at level up, but you won’t get it here.

Edward Judorne - I am awarding you the spell book, and for effort shown to the end of this thread, the curving electric missile, to a 5 degree extreme. I encourage you to add Shock Beam to your level up when it comes, though keep in mind that any ability you add at level up as well as the Curving Electric missile are, in the end, the ROG mods discretion. I would advise you to link to this judgment with your update of the curving electric missile.

[Karuka]

EXP/GP added! Edward Judorne levels up!