LegoBuilder : Since you haven't replied, I am going to move on without you.
After a short conversation, Casúr and the woman, whose name is General Adryn, begin to fight. The minotaur tells Charis to stay of it, and she obliges, keeping the rest of the Xains at bay. Eventually, Adryn is defeated, and Casúr smashes her. The Xains fly into a panic, allowing Natasa to dispatch those who choose not to surrender.
On another part of the battlefield, Karthon, Dubhan, Aleix, Beatriu, and Eloi are fighting a losing battle. Just as Karthon is about to be smashed, Aleix gets in the way, and is smashed in the process, though Karthon is unharmed. The loss of the General finally allows the remaining four of them to push back and free themselves from the battle.
As the battle wraps up and the Xain are sent to be imprisoned, a dark figure begins making her way up the beach. Slowly, she becomes clear as Alpida. "What? I grew up on an island, sailing ships. Of course I am able to swim. I just wish I hadn't had to lose my morning star. I will have to replace it from the Kriatoma's stores."
Alpida, Karthon, Casúr, Dubhan, and Natasa go to the command tents to report their success to General Iraklis. Beatriu and Eloi make their way back to Ferran's ship with the promise from Alpida of a group of Kriatoma to replace the crew members they lost so they can get back to the mainland, and payment as soon as the war is over.
In the tents, General Iraklis congratulates them. They leave, Natasa staying behind, and fetch Valithor from the medical tent on their way to the ships. Alpida explains that they are going to take a number of Xain ships and sail them, with the Kriatoma army, to the South to help the others. They begin to sail.
RomeNZ : Sorry I had to skip over so much. LegoBuilder was needed to finish the battle properly.
OOC: That's alright.
IC: After the most intense battle Karthon had endured for some years, he smiled at his fortune of survival and slowly came up to the familiar face he was glad to see now, stretching his sore form as he went.
"Good to see you again Alpida," he began with a smile, "where are we bound..?"
"The Dragon Kingdom. That's where the rest of the Xain are, last I heard."
IC: After the most intense battle Karthon had endured for some years, he smiled at his fortune of survival and slowly came up to the familiar face he was glad to see now, stretching his sore form as he went.
"Good to see you again Alpida," he began with a smile, "where are we bound..?"
"The Dragon Kingdom. That's where the rest of the Xain are, last I heard."
OOC: We'll arrive in a few days.
"Very good." Said Karthon, and went to rest and tend to his wounds.
A small Xainish ship docks in a cove on one of the southern islands. The general Dror, along with Broen, Ormrir, and a handful of soldiers disembark. Inside the ship, ten captured farmers, dressed as Lion Knights, discover that one of their chains is broken. They quickly begin their escape, grabbing weapons to defend themselves from the few guards that remain. In their escape, they smash a couple, but are able to sneak past the rest and run onto the island. As they explore the island, careful not to be seen by the Sparrows, they see a small fisherman's hut. Hoping for help, they run towards it. The door is locked, but behind them they hear the pursuit of Sparrows, so they break it down and enter. That is when they discover their mistake. Inside is not a fisherman but a cruel-faced man dressed in fine robes of Xainish colors. Before they can respond, Dror bursts into the room with his soldiers. As they incapacitate the farmers, he explains that Corellus gave up General Nagera's location and these Lion Knights came to smash him. Fortunately, Dror and his men found out and caught up just in time. They man they have saved, General Nagera, cousin to the emperor and brother to Dror's wife, congratulates them and tells Dror that he owes him a favor. Dror thanks him for his generosity and takes the farmers outside, where they are executed.
-last edited on Aug 4, 2018 16:59:41 GMT by RuleJJ
Post by RuleJJ on Aug 4, 2018 16:59:26 GMT
Albeis's Story (1 of 7)
As Albeis stared at the tavern door in disbelief, he realized that he’d been standing there for several minutes. Slightly embarrassed, he glanced around to make sure no one had noticed his odd behavior. Still, he thought to himself, I have the right to take a moment to process this. After all, of everything Time showed him during those trips, only the vision of Teobold had proven to be good or helpful before now. Smiling slightly, he whispered a silent thank you to Time and stepped inside.
Inside, the tavern was all but empty. A few patrons sat quietly in the corner, but the man he had come to see was instantly recognizable. The gruff-looking sailor wore a blue-feathered tricorn hat and a ragged coat. A saber was slung at his side, almost carelessly. On his left sat a dark-haired man with an intense glare and a crossbow placed none-too-subtly in front of him. On the right, a blonde woman with a nonchalant smirk and a casual pose that distracted from the pointer finger anxiously tapping the hilt of her blade. Albeis cleared his throat. “Ah, hello. You are Captain Ferran, I presume? I saw the advertisement. I’d like to take the surgeon’s job.”
The man in the middle- Captain Ferran- laughed, a coarse, unpleasant sound. “What makes you think you’re qualified for the position? I can’t have my surgeon dropping of exhaustion a week into the voyage. Do you even know where we’re going?”
“Do you? As far as I’m aware, no one knows what’s on the other side of that ocean. It could be nothing. You need people who aren’t planning on coming back here. Ever. I am one of those. And I am far tougher than you think. The things I have seen would break your mind a thousand times over. Besides, I am a storyteller, and you’ll be wanting one of those on your voyage.”
A mask of rage slid over Ferran’s face. “You presume to know my mind. Tell me, old man, what possible use could I have for a storyteller?”
-last edited on Aug 4, 2018 21:50:45 GMT by RuleJJ
Post by RuleJJ on Aug 4, 2018 21:50:02 GMT
Albeis's Story (Part 2 of 7)
Albeis smiled. “A storyteller may be the only thing standing between you and insanity after a few months at sea. You’re clearly an experienced sailor. You know the toll it can take on the mind. A storyteller can tie you down, keep you firmly apprised of reality, even when his stories are thoroughly removed from it. A man like you understands the importance of a story. If I were to guess the reason you’re taking this voyage, I would say you have one too many to tell.”
The dark-haired man stood up at this, slamming a fist on the table. Ferran reached up to his shoulder and pulled him back down. “Tell me your name, old man.”
“Albeis.”
“Well, Albeis, why don’t you take out a room and we’ll see if we can’t find you that surgeon position you’re looking for.”
Albeis only nodded.
The days passed quickly as the rest of the crew was slowly assembled. They were all there for different reasons, but each of them was running away from something- or, perhaps, towards it. Over the course of the days, Albeis began, partially by accident, to learn what those things were.
As he had guessed, Captain Ferran; the gunner with the glare and the crossbow, Goncal; and the seemingly simple-minded goblin first mate, Pavils, had once been pirates. After a disastrous run-in with an Oruthalian warship that left most of their crew smashed, their ship crippled, and their cargo gutted, they had turned to more legal operations, hiring out their ship to anyone with a crew and enough gold and making a name for themselves by taking on the jobs that no one else would. That changed when a strange, gray-skinned woman called Alpida Makrinorasi- Albeis did not think it pertinent to mention that he knew her- had hired them for a seemingly simple run.
As it turned out, however, they had become embroiled in some conflict between the Oruthalians, some foreign empire called the Xains, and the ancient army of stone-skinned warriors that Alpida had awakened. Ferran had watched that battle play out while a number of his crew members fought and were smashed, and the guilt still weighed heavily on him. He didn’t know what he wanted next, but he knew it could not be found on Co’Ren, and the ever-loyal Goncal and Pavils had agreed to follow him.
Three other members of that crew hired by Alpida had also elected to embark on this journey. First there was the coolly belligerent Beatriu, the woman who had sat with Ferran on the first day. She had served in the company of a man called Aleix for many years, acting as a member of his gang of sailors-for-hire, one of the few groups that was bold enough to sail with Alpida into the war on Oruthal. She and the rest of Aleix’s company had eventually chosen to join that battle, resulting the smashing of all but two of them. The other survivor was the nimble, clever rigger Eloi, who always seemed to be forcing himself to project a cheerfulness that he no longer possessed. Eloi and Beatriu had joined Ferran’s journey out of a sense of purposelessness and a desire to escape brought on by the loss of their friends.
The third and final remaining member of Alpida’s pieced-together crew was Marina, an elven woman possessed with an inviolable sense of wanderlust. When they had first been introduced, Albeis had commented, citing an old adage, “I thought elves didn’t sail west.”
She had replied, somewhat indignantly. “No one sails west.”
“I suppose you’re correct there. Not since Velasco, and not before, either.” He hadn’t explained who Velasco was, and Marina had left the conversation confused.
Over later conversations, Albeis learned that Marina had always longed for the sea, since she was a young child. This journey was everything she had ever dreamed, and more. Secretly, Albeis wondered if she would not be entirely disappointed when it actually began.
-last edited on Aug 5, 2018 13:47:12 GMT by RuleJJ
Post by RuleJJ on Aug 5, 2018 13:46:17 GMT
Albeis's Story (Part 4 of 7)
Besides those who had been hired by Alpida, there were five others: Murad, Hjurdis, Sabela, Naum, and Amee. Murad was the soft-spoken navigator with a slight cough. Though he kept mostly to his rooms and didn’t talk much to the rest of the crew, Albeis didn’t have too much difficulty deducing why he was there, and why he was so uncommunicative. He wasn’t sure if any of the other crewmembers noticed how Murad spoke with a faint accent or how his mannerisms were just slightly odd, but if they did they certainly didn’t seem to have pieced the clues together. Albeis doubted they would have reacted well if they discovered he was a Xain deserter, and so he kept that secret to himself.
Hjurdis, on the other hand, didn’t seem to have any secrets at all. She would loudly proclaim to anyone who even seemed the slightest bit interested that she had once been a member of one of Stennev’avfjellan’s richest families. The great gemstone that gave Perl’avdybederer its name had been passed down in her family for generations, along with the leadership of that city. During the invasion of the Frost Giants, however, this gemstone had, like much of Stennev’avfjellan itself, been destroyed. Without this source of wealth or power, Hjurdis had left her home and decided to resettle and make her fortune in a distant land. Why Ferran had let her onto the crew was a mystery to Albeis. Perhaps he was simply short on options.
Unlike several of the crew members, Albeis included, Sabela was a sailor. She hailed from the islands west of the Lion Kingdom and had practically grown up on her father’s trading ship. At first, it seemed a mystery why she had abandoned a lucrative career in favor of this voyage of no return. Albeis discovered the truth one night when he overheard her talking to Beatriu, Eloi, and Marina.
-last edited on Aug 5, 2018 21:13:57 GMT by RuleJJ
Post by RuleJJ on Aug 5, 2018 21:13:48 GMT
Albeis's Story (Part 5 of 7)
Apparently, it had all started when her captain had taken a job for a monk of the Srevic Order, transporting goods between that island and the more southern archipelago. Things had gone bad when the other monks discovered the arrangement- it seemed the monk was smuggling some items he should not have been. What happened next was typical of the Srevic Order when faced with a betrayal. They had enacted swift retributive justice on the traitor and everyone involved. Sabela had been lucky to escape with her life, but her reputation was ruined. Unable to find any proper job in the south or east, she had wound up as a member of Ferran’s new crew.
Naum was the big, bearded orc who, in addition to his normal duties, took over many of the maintenance tasks that otherwise would likely have fallen under Albeis’s purview. Often stoic, he could become boisterous at a moment’s notice, and Albeis soon grew to greatly enjoy the man’s company. He seemed to have as many stories to tell as Albeis, and an ear to listen to anyone else’s. One late night, when the two of them were on ship duty, Naum told Albeis how he had come to join the crew.
“I was a Kaspik Warden before this. Don’t know if you’ve ever heard of them, but they used to be a big deal long time ago, I guess. Not anymore. Then, a few months ago, along come these guys in blue shirts, call themselves the Dove’s Order, or something. They start pushing us around, fighting with us. They don’t like us, you see, because most of us are orcs, like me, or goblins. And we couldn’t do much to stop them, since they had more guys, and more stuff. Well, I guess they had finally decided they’d had enough of us, because one night they come storming into our main camp, weapons drawn, and they just start cutting. If you’re wearing the red stag, bam, that’s it, they smash you."
-last edited on Aug 5, 2018 22:47:56 GMT by RuleJJ
Post by RuleJJ on Aug 5, 2018 22:46:25 GMT
Albeis's Story (Part 6 of 7)
"I was outside camp at the time, on a mission. About a third of us were. When I got back, I saw what had happened, and I just ran. I got as far away as I could, almost up to Stennev’avfjellan, and then I calmed down and turned back. I was hanging around the Goblin Nation for a bit, trying to put myself back together, and then I heard about this and here I am.” He broke of then, sobbing silently. Albeis said nothing, stared down at the water, and wondered whether a crew of broken people could survive the journey they were about to take.
Of all the crew members, however, the one who most perplexed Albeis was Amee. She was a young woman, no older than nineteen, who, like Murad, kept herself separate from the others. Though Albeis couldn’t quite place it, there was something incredibly familiar about her, and he racked his brain for hours trying to find what it might be. The day before they left, he learned what it was.
Albeis was sitting on the dock, watching the others load the ship with enough supplies to last a few months. Hopefully, it would be enough to get them wherever they were going. He heard the creak of the boards beside him, and looked up to see Amee. “Mind if I sit?” He shook his head
“I hear you’re a storyteller.” Amee’s face was turned toward the ocean, and it took a moment for Albeis to realize she was talking to him.
“Yes, that is my chosen trade, among a number of others.”
“I’ve always liked stories. I had a book when I was younger about the hero Egol. Have you heard of him?”
Amee still refused to look at Albeis, so he didn’t look at her as he replied. “He is one of my favorites. Tell me, why are you here, on this journey? You’re too young to be abandoning everything you’ve ever known, believe me.”
“My brother. He left home when he was fifteen. I was still a little girl, but since that day I’ve known I wanted to follow in his footsteps, to become an adventurer, an explorer.”
-last edited on Aug 6, 2018 13:56:15 GMT by RuleJJ
Post by RuleJJ on Aug 6, 2018 13:56:04 GMT
Albeis's Story (Part 7 of 7)
Albeis smiled at that, but something about the story tugged at his mind. Again, he felt the sense that there was something familiar about this girl. “Well, where is your brother now? Surely whatever adventures he’s on cannot be as spectacular as this one.
Amee shook her head. “I don’t know. No one does.” She looked at Albeis for the first time. Something in her eyes seemed to have lit up. “You’ve travelled a lot, right? I mean, that’s what everyone says. Have you ever heard of anyone named Egol, like the hero? That’s who he was named for. It was his book, before he left.”
The loose ends finally tying together, Albeis swallowed and then replied softly: “I can’t say I have, but I’m sure he’s still around somewhere. People don’t just disappear into thin air, you know.” For the first time since he had left the South, Albeis felt the gaze of Time upon him. Thank you.
“I’m sure he is.” Clearly saddened, she stood up and turned to go.
When Amee was almost off the dock, Albeis spoke again. “Wherever your brother is, I’m sure he’d be proud of you.” She nodded and went to help with the loading. When Albeis left the dock, some hours later, he realized he had been crying.
The next morning, as the crew prepared to cast off into the great unknown, Albeis found himself standing at the bow of the ship, his new friend Naum on one side and his sister Amee on the other. Behind him, Marina let out a whoop of laughter as she swung down from the rigging. Hjurdis loudly boasted of her past to the false-smiling Eloi. Ferran, Goncal, Sabela, and Beatriu stood around, trading plans and sailing stories. Pavils rushed around the ship frantically for one last inspection, and Murad stood off to the side, kneading his scarf in his hands. Watching the sunrise, Albeis felt a strange stirring inside himself, one he had not felt in some time. He was anticipating adventure, excitement, the things he had craved when he was Egolius. Everything felt right, for once. Albeis smiled. He was happy.
