 |
|
A Day of Peace
Prelude
Character creation!
The meeting chamber echoes continually with the sounds of voices as the delegation members stand about chatting back and forth while they wait for others to arrive. While the atmosphere for the week of the Festival of Peace has been a joyous one, the tension between some of the delegations can be felt and sometimes seen in the shortness of words exchanged between them. As the final members of the Council and their delegations make it to the chambers and take their seats Emperoress Valnaha takes the podium with Xiania, her military advisor. The one thing that everyone had noticed about Ithaky's delegation was that all the prominent members where female, including military figures such as Xiania. The room quiets as Valnaha beings to speak.
"I would like to thank everyone for making this last week a momentous and historic event of peace for all our peoples." applause of approval from the council echo in the room. She puts her hand up slightly to calm the applause and continues, "I would like to thank all the nations that while even though they have differences that keep them apart, that you all share the one common desire to live in peace. And today we get to announce to the world that peace is possible in Aredel. That kingdoms don't have to wage war on each other to settle differences, that the Council has pro...." Valnaha's words are cut short as blood falls from her lips. Everyone's attention is suddenly on the fact that blade coming out of Valnaha's throat is the hands of Xiania. She pulls the knife slowly from Valnaha's throat as Valnaha's body falls, slumped on the podium, blood runs from her neck hard and quick, flowing over the front of the podium like a thick red water fall, leaving an expanding puddle on the floor.
Warriors seem to step out of the shadows and stone work in the chamber, all hold strange looking crossbows leveled at the leaders of the delegations. Each warrior appears to be wearing white face paint with black stripes through it, odd looking armor, every third warrior has a strange looking staff attached to the back of their armor, and every warrior is female. The staff's stand about two feet over the heads of the warriors and each have a cluster of fist size black, dull looking gems set into them.
Makalir, the captain of Bistal's armies, and also the closet to Xianian, moves with exceptional speed towards her with his sword in hand. But before he can even get the back swing on his sword, Xianian left hand moves almost blindingly past the front of Makalir's waist. When her arm swings back around in front of her, she is hold a thin black blade in her hand, blood dripping down it. As Makalir makes another step forward, it is realized it was his last as the top of his body slides from his lower half at the waist, cut clean through. One of the mages from the Corison delegation yells some incantations at Xianian and points at her. White arrows shoot from his hand towards her but are ripping out of the air and sucked into four of those odd looking staves.
"ENOUGH!" echoes through the hall, causing all to look forward to the podium again, as a another female warrior steps out from the shadows. She is tall, almost six feet in height. Her body, while thin in build and frame looks to be as muscular as any of the male warriors present. She wears a ornate breast plate, some of those gems from the staves are embedded into the armor. She wears a set of bracers, they also have gems set into them, but they are a dull green and red. It is obvious by her presence and decorations she is the leader of the warriors.
"Enough is enough gentlemen. Anymore foolish behavior and you will have direct air passages into your lungs. I am Baroness Katriana of the Great Mother Empire, Commander of the Matriarch Armies of her grace the Queen Matriarch Jasminia, the Great Mother of All.
We are here to offer a proposal. Since you worthless men have done nothing but run the kingdoms of the world into the ground with your petty fighting and pathetic egos, we offer a simple change of leadership. Submit to the supremacy of Queen Matriarch Jasminia and all womankind or meet the horrible and painful deaths you pathetic men deserve. Surrender and recognize the true position of man, at the foot of a Woman and we may even let you hang on to a few things you hold dear." A wicked and evil smile crosses over her lips.
Gregor of Kryll leans forward from his seat at the table towards Katriana and addresses her with a firm and angery tone. "Well my dear Baroness, I don't care if you are the great mother of all the Gods, Kryll and the kingdoms of this Council will not bend to any conditions offered under the veil of threats." the rest of the council agrees loudly with Gregor. Katriana just frowns and shakes her head.
"Very well then, Sir Gregor if that is what you wish." She waves her hand slightly "Kill them." The sounds of crossbows sending their bolts into the air, followed by the screams of death fill the chambers. Warriors and mages start to take the offensive as the royalty tries to find cover. However, the offensive doesn't last long. Every spell cast is just sucked into the strange staves all around. The female warriors move with speed and precision that would make any solider envious, and soon the battle is brought to a stop by Katriana. It is obvisious that her forces were victorious as delegates and their warriors lay dead on the floor. Gregor sits back into his chair, holding his bleeding arm. The Baroness walks over to him and grabs him by the wound on his arm and pulls him to his feet. Her fingers dig into the wound causing him to scream in pain.
"Now Sir Gregor, I am going to show you why Women are greater then men. We believe in giving second chances even when you stupid, stupid men make complete fools of yourselves. So again I will offer you the chance to submit to the Great Mother Empire and Her Grace or die."
Gregor's face is wrenched in pain as he replies through clenched teeth "No matter what you do we will not bend to the whims of a tyrant, woman nor man so do what you have to bitch." He spits in her face just before her right hand reaches up and breaks his neck in a clean motion. Katriana let's his body fall to the ground, and then stands up looking around. She shakes her head as she reaches down and presses one of the green gems on her left bracer. Looking around one last time, she gives a nod of her head and her forces start to form at the front of the chambers, and she presses a red gem on her right bracer, a magical door opens up in front of her forces as they start to file through it. Just before Katriana steps through it, she makes one final address.
"Very well then, have it your way. I will enjoy watching you all suffer. Enjoy the rest of your festival." with that her and Xiania step through the gateway and it shuts quickly behind them.
Adventure Summary
It was a lovely day in the island kingdom of Paruv. It was the last day of the Festival of Peace and at noon, the Council was going to conduct the ceremony of signing the Declaration of Peace. It was a day of happiness, joy, hope and one of fate. The fate of six young men who were all attending the festival for various reasons.
Ulrich, a brash and bragging young warrior who relies on the flashiness of his blade, the speed of his tongue and the weight of his coin purse to get him through life. Morduke, a proud and prominent priest of Kor, the God of Strength and Luck, on a delegation mission to represent his temple. Shane Lee, a monk and priest of Travel, here due to his duties as a Priest of Travel. Escosting a small band of people from Corison here to enjoy the festival. Cutter, a champion of the people of Bistal for defending them from the overbearing Baron Vagnar, who is trying to over throw the throne of Bistal. Balicus, a Conjurer who also fancies himself a ladies man. And finally, Olowniuk. A water elf from the water kingdom of Votu, crew member of the Weeping Winds. A ship used for passage for festival goers from Votu.
The excitement just seems to build the closer it gets to noon. Bored with such things, Olowniuk heads back to the ship to finish off some duties. While on the upper mast fixing some rigging, Olown's keen ears pick up the sounds of what seems to be giant humming birds. Looking to see, he notices three odd looking winged skifs made of a dull grey metal and brass trimming flying towards him. The air ships buzz Olown as he tries to alert his shipmates and those on the docks. The air ships continue to head towards the town square a quater mile in from the docks. As he heads down the mast, Olown also sees four longboats made of the same material heading towards the docks at great speed without oars or sails each carrying eight soliders. Noticing that most the crew including the officers are at the festival, Olown takes charges and orders the aft cannon to be aimed and fired.
Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the town square Balicus is trying to make his way through the crowd when the hairs stand up on the back of his neck, turning and looking up he sees the air ships dropping in to about 40 feet above the ground, looking to strike. Yelling a warning to the crowd around him he conjurers a web covering one of the air ships and causing it to fall to the ground, sliding into the livery. As people start to run, Morduke turns his attention to the two other air ships and quickly casts a hold person, on what appears to be a human figure in the ship. With some amazing luck, Morduke's spell not only works, but gets the pilot of the ship sending it crashing down into the tavern across the way from the other ship. However, the third ship is able to drop three of these strange looking items that cause a great explosion on impact destorying buildings, wounding and even killing some people. As the last air ship makes it turn for another pass, Ulrich, Shane and Morduke are already make their way to the air ship at the tavern, where two soliders are crawling out of and Cutter begins to leap from roof top to roof top to postion himself to intercept the returning air ship. The town square empties even more when the faint sound of a cannon ball is heard in the docks off in the distance.
The cannon ball from the Weeping Winds slams into the edge of the dock where two of the long boats have landed, destorying the boats plus 13 of the 16 soliders on them. But not before they were all able to get off a volley strange looking crossbow bolts. The other two longboat stop at seperate docks, and the soliders begin to make their way slowly down the docks, sending crossbow fire into the areas around them. To close for cannon fire, Olown jumps from the ship on to the dock with the three soliders and readies to face them. Meanwhile, back in the town square Ulrich shows that he may have earned his bragging rights as his sword cleaves through one of the solider, and then buries itself into the second just before Shane rips the soliders throat out. Thirsty for a blood and no one to kill, Morduke runs to the other ship where he sees a solider crawling out of the wreckage. Balicus continues to make use of his talents and summons a swarm of rats to the inside of the remaining air ship, sending it's occupants into fits trying to keep the rats off them. With the rats in place Balicus then calls on a celestial eagle to attack any of the invading soliders. Between the eagle and Morduke, the surviving solider from the livery crash is soon dead.
As the air ship swings around to make another attack, Cutter leaps from the roof tops to land on top of the air ship. When he lands he can see that inside the ship is filled with rats and the pilot has no control as the ship is jerked to the left, causing Cutter to lose his footing and send him over the side. With ease Cutter is able to grab on the side of the ship and hang on as he notices the ship is crashing with no hope of stopping it, Cutter leaps from the side of the ship just as Ulrich and Shane start running as they see the final air ship flying straight towards them and the other wreckage. As the ships collide there isn't a burst of fire or even an explosion. There is just a burst of energy that escapes from the ship, sending Ulrich, Shane and Cutter a few feet back.
With the threat in the town square removed, the group moves quickly down to the docks where they can see the soliders have killed almost everyone there, and an elf taking on three soliders alone on one of the docks. Ulrich moves quickly to aid him and makes short work of the two of the soliders as Olown takes out the third. Shane and Cutter move down the center dock to take on eight of the soliders while Mordakes turn to face the remaining soliders on his own. The battle came to a sudden conclusion when a giant oak tree appeared in the middle dock killing most of the soliders and then falling on the last dock, again crushing even more soliders and the docks. With the battle over, Cutter quickly dived into the water to see what happened to the remaining soliders, and it was discovered they all commited suicide while underwater.
Player's Perspective
It was a nice day for a festival. The skies were clear, the seas were calm, the beer was cold and the women were beautiful. Many people had come to see the speech and/or enjoy the festival, but only six of the would be heroes before the day was out.
As the hour of the speechmaking approached a large crowd gathered in the space before the podium. Still others gathered in nearby taverns, taking advantage of the momentary lull in business to do some serious drinking. The appointed hour drew near and the excitement of the crowd grew so thick you could almost cut it with a knife.
The time for the speech came, but no speech was delivered. This being a relaxed kingdom, no one was particularly surprised. There were, after all, no fewer than twelve kingdoms worth of courtiers to placate. The crowd sighed and resumed their nervous pre-speech chit chat. Greedy God Guy1 was the first to notice the curious vehicles as they flew through the air, but he wasn't the first to guess their intentions.
As the vehicles drew near, two of the heroes of the day were called. Greedy God Guy1 cast a hold person on one ship which careened out of control and into a nearby tavern. Bali cast a web on the second ship and it too plummeted earthward. The third ship dropped some sort of bombs and flew on, wheeling for another pass.
As they approached, the crowd panicked and began to run in all directions. Three more heroes joined them as Path of Destruction3, Dim Reaper2, and Cutter entered the fray. Cutter vaulted from the roof of a nearby building onto the third ship while Path of Destruction3 and Dim Reaper2 joined Greedy God Guy1 in killing the survivors of the tavern crash.
Bali summoned a horde of rats aboard the third ship and the pilot began struggling to control his ship amid the painful bites and cuts she received. The tavern survivors were slain and the trio headed to the ship which had crashed in the livery. The sound of a nearby cannon blast signalled the entry of a sixth hero into the fray.
The third ship crashed into the second and both exploded in a wash of mystical energy. The five heroes of the plaza, combined with several celestials summoned by Bali rushed to join the hero of the deck, Olowniuk who had abandoned the cannon in favor of the rapier.
Dim Reaper2 was the first to arrive and his huge blade easily scythed through two of the women, but there were eight more coming. O decided that rather than fight, he'd crush them and he conjured a 60' oak tree onto the dock. It promptly fell over onto the women, crushing them. Cutter dove in after them and found that those who hadn't died when the tree hit them had committed suicide with some kind of crystal dagger.
Sorry, didn't know your names:
- aka Tim
- aka Lou
- aka Mike
|
|