The Silhouette, Talos Plaza


The Silhouette was happy to see that his warrior allowed him to speak first, not that he would punish him for it, but it was a sign that they still respected each other.

"I, the Silhouette, lord of the race of which I am alone, was wrong about one of my servants. He has gone wrong and I need someone to correct him, not that I would not be able to, however, I believe you have the right to since you wanted to in the first place," he hissed evily. "The necromancer slime whom I told you not to harm has turned out to be a dud, necromancy has no honor in it, I should have seen that" he lied, it wasn't the honor that bothered him, it was just annoying to have people live when they deserved death. "I would like you to kill him, I will give you all the werewolves in my charge, they should be able to keep up with you easier than any, save the Tsaeci." he called for the werewolves without a word.

OCC: I'll wait until POS posts the KOW in a location before the hunt begins.

Plys'Iea

He nodded, "It shall be done." He glanced at the werewolves before they all left their leader's presense. The rabble that made the majority of the army earnestly made way as the group of large, intimidating creatures marched through.

Ian

Ian arrived soon enough to see Mannimarco sink into the pavement. Oddly enough, his first reaction was not to explode in incoherant fury, well more so than he had been after Kirana's gem had been taken. Instead the anger vanished, and the vampie felt a cool calm soak into his mind.

He would have his chance, it was inevitable, there was all the time in existance at his disposal. Ian became relieved when the ancient, agressive persona within him was overuled by reason and clarity. We need to make some plans....
As he thought those words, Karn entered the alley, accompanied by two others, another assassin and a healer.

Aerona

"And I don't think I could've made it without your grip," she answered, as she tried to rub the feeling back into her hand.

"So what now?" she asked, "Is the army going to try to hold here?"



Rann

Rann leaned against the nearest wall, fearing that sitting down would be more painful. Wanting to brighten the mood, Rann decided to be positive, "We can always retreat to the White Gold Tower."

Since it was a possible, no, probable reality, Rann hadn't achieved the desired morale boost.

Issac

Moving toward the gates that separated Talos Plaza from Green Emporer Way, Issac kept a sharp eye out for anything. The sudden loss of Talos Plaza had woken him up rather surely, he was determined to make up for the mistakes, his own and otherwise.

From the elevated foundation of White Gold Tower, Issac spotted Dalrus, Rann, and Amrita near the securely closed gates. Satyana also noticed her brother and the others, together they noticed that Rann was afflicted by something painful.
"We should to help him," the Altmer pointed out, whether his companion needed the coaxing or not he didn't know, but by now it was second nature for him to try and relieve any tension that had formed since the journey had begun, even if it sometimes backfired.

The two descended the stairs toward the three, "Sorry, we weren't present for the fighting. It won't happen again." Issac called to them as he and Satyana approached.
Satyana immediately went to Rann, gazing at him as if she could see through him. "Do you want help..... brother?" It was clear there was still some distance that she needed to cross before they were the same as before, but Issac believed the rift could be healed..... with time and a wagon-load effort on everyone's part.

Flogir

"Perhaps, Aerona. I'd need to talk to Astratus to find out if that's truly what he plans to do, but at this point I think trying to lengthen the siege for as long as possible is our best chance. Reinforcements are going to be needed to deal with the sheer volume of the enemy army. But if worse comes to worse, we're going to need to find a way to assassinate the Silhouette and elminate the sway he has over this army..." Flogir said; his face clouded with doubt. The current situation was far from being good. Many a weary day was the only future he saw at the moment.

"How about we try to find the others, eh?" he said, putting on a brave face for his younger accomplice.

Mannimarco

Materializing inside of a ruined building, Mannimarco felt for his servants. The vastness of the dead around the city gave Mannimarco such joy. He pulsated his resurrection in time with major discharges of magicka, so as to not be located by spellcraft. The dead in the city already outnumbered the living, and Mannimarco watched a troup of bandits die by a squadron of dead goblins, only to be resurrected and fight the former allies. Mannimarco cackled and began to feel around for something to use of his advantage...

Mannimaro felt something strange occur, and he did not know how to deal with it. There was a dead horse near a statue that had foreign enzimes in it, and Mannimarco knew exactly what they were from. He animated the horse and felt through its body, singling out the enzimes and learning all he could from them. Mannimarco suddenly experienced a rush of emotion and a faint connection to the giant lizard man. Blurred images appeared in Mannimarco's psychic eye, and Mannimarco realized that the lizard man was in fact an alien.

Howls pierced the night, and Mannimarco's favorite tools were finally brought into play by the Silhouette, the werewolves. Killers on pure instinct, they fed the dead's ranks until they swelled uncontrollably. Mannimarco smiled as one lone wolf cornered a fleeing soldier and tore out his throat. Mannimarco laughed at the crestfallen werewolf as it turned away to suddenly experience a sword in its gullet. The soldier the werewolf had killed rose back and impaled the werewolf on a dead man's sword. Mannimarco laughed at the irony of the situation, one kills the other, the other kills the other, and now they fight together.

Necromancy is unstoppable...

Astratus

Fiends from nightmares appeared everywhere, and the death toll was mounting at an uncontrollable rate. Astratus ran to his tent and donned his armor, about the time when the Silhouette broke into the city. Placing his helmet on his head last, he summoned all the remaining lieutenants to his side. With grim visages, they marched, soldiers snapping to attention and falling into rank. Astratus was the only one who made any sound, and as the army marched, more and more collected into the rank behind.

The people of the city ran towards the Morrowind Army, and the army allowed them passage through, but continued their onward march towards the main body of the invaders. Astratus struck up a low hymn, at first he was alone, but soon others joined in:

"In the palace of stone and fire,
lived the hope of men and mer,
Gyrating to a certain beat,
The heart of Akorlakhan kept us pure.

Against the dwarves and invaders grim,
we march along with the Nerevarine!
Who wants to live forever, men?
When there is glory in death!"

Astratus called a halt, but the main body of the invaders broke ranks and rushed the invaders. They were only seconds away, but Astratus yelled to his men,

"For the Empire, for the Nine! HELL FROM RED MOUNTAIN!"

And the Morrowind Army charged the invading force, at full speed.

The Silhouette, The Battle



The Silhouette suddenly felt one of his servents, a mage get sliced by something, he dissappeared and reappeared in the Talos Plaza, there they were, Dark elf soldiers fighting for the empire. The Silhouette smiled, the idiots, he had plenty of goblins and bandits, but he had two full Tsaeci armies which were not even tired from fighting. He called for one of the armies and jumped into the battle, literally. The Silhouette dove off the building he was on, and into the ranks of the dark elves. He landed on three who were crushed in the impact.

"Dunmer! HEAR ME! YOU WILL DIE HERE!" he said gleefully, before whipping out his sword and slicing through the enemy with ease. He grabbed on the shaft of one of their spears and suddenly channeled his magic straight into the person it was holding. He seemed to dance in a flury of sword swinging and magic. He taunted mages before ending their lives and chopping off their hands and feet, so Mannimarco could not use them so easily.

"Glau twe!" he said, and suddenly a huge green orb shot into someone and seemed to dissappear. Seconds later he exploded, killing ten others around him. Unfortunatly the goblins were giving ground, the dunmer were much more organized. A huge swathe of dead people surrounded the Silhouette, all missing thier limbs or completely destroyed. Blood flowed on the cobble stones as he sliced through more. It was not enough, there were too many Dunmer and his goblins were panicking. The bandits, more trained and less crazy now charged, in a huge disorganized mass and clashed with the dunmer, a little better trained.

Aerona

"Alright," she said with a nod as she walked beside Flogir, both of them keeping an eye out for their companions.

"There's Issac," she said, pointing to the tall altmer's head that stuck out above most others in the crowd.



Rann

"No," he answered flatly, making it clear that he didn't want help from her.

This post has been edited by Dantrag: Aug 19 2007, 12:45 AM

Flogir

"Excellent," Flogir said before they began to make their way through the crowd.

When they got there, Flogir noticed that Rann was favouring his side, as if he was injured. Satyana was nearby, and she didn't look that happy. Rann was avoiding eye contact with here.

Flogir leaned over to whisper into Aerona's ear. "I think you should check to make sure Rann is ok."


Voltar

It didn't take Voltar long to find the rest of the group. When he got there he noticed that they appeared to be a ragged, torn, and tired bunch of people. He wiped at some sweat he felt on his brow and when he hand came back he saw it was red with blood. He had forgotten about the shrapnel from the exploding gate that had cut him.

"Bah..." he muttered as he healed the wound with a restorative spell.

"Anyone got some water and a cloth? I don't like blood on my clothing," Voltar asked the group.

Plys'Iea

As dead fought both living armies, the aline and his werewolf companions took advantage of the chaos to infiltrate the Temple District. But the hole they punched in the Morrowind army's defense was quickly ripped further open by the legions of dead.

So many of the abominations were arrayed against them that the Plys'Iea agreed with the man-wolves, they needed to be eliminated. Leading the charge down on zombie-clogged street, the alien warrior swung his staff in a continuous fashion that kept the distance between himself and any zombie intact enough to pose a threat a reasonable.
"Tear them to ribbons, don't turn your back on them unless their too damaged to be harmful!" He instructed his companions and the ripped and clawed at the undead. The decaying corpses fell apart as they were thrown into the air by the the alien's staff.

Suddenly an unnatural tugging sensation became apparent to the warrior, he realized that the pulling was coming from the direction of a nearby building. In that same instant he knew it was his target, spurred on by this knowledge, the Plys'Iea suddenly lunged over the zombie horde.
Now that he knew where the necromancer was, he didn't care if the werewolves were able to follow. He slammed into three zombies who had clearly not anticipated (if they could even accomplish that) the sudden change in enemy stratagy.

Rolling past them, he rushed toward the building Mannimarco was hiding out in. The alien vaulted bodily up to the second floor window, which had been boarded for reasons unknown to him. Gripping the architecture, he kicked the boards inward and swung into the building.

Karn

As the healer dissappeared with Patholos, the sensei and his fellow assassin took in Ian. "Mannimarco," the vampire said simply. That was all Karn needed, the necromancer had done naught for the Narza'Tai, but now he had a death warrant.

The assassin retreated to spread instructions to the Narza'Tai's spellweavers and archers. All available arcane and ranged support would be brought out of the sewers to combat the dead. If burning down the contested districts was what was needed to combat the threat, then so be it.
Wordlessly, the two left the alley in favor of the rooftops. Their roles would be the same as the Narza'Tai, exterminate the undead at all costs.

This post has been edited by Lord Revan: Aug 19 2007, 02:56 AM

Satyana

She stopped with a deep sigh.....

Why is he so stubborn? Darn it I can help him just that easy, but noooo....now he´s sour and angry with me and I still really can´t understand the real deepest reason for it....damn it!

"Suit yourself then, but I´m here if you by any chance should change your mind" she said silently, turning to Issac again, tears in her eyes

"How long will this continue?" she sighed

Issac

He looked at Satyana sympathetically, "I don't know."

"Well Rann, you'd best limp up the stairs and find a healer. The last way you want to die is from internal bleeding." Issac said to Rann, almost wanting to punch the Dunmer's ribs for being such a stupid mule all the time.

Mannimarco

Mannimarco felt the foreign creature enter the building, and prepared a spell he didn't know the name of. He saw Ian cast it and make copies of himself, so Mannimarco prepared. As the creature bounded into the first floor where he was, Mannimarco suddenly became forty. All laughing simulaneously, the copies rushed the alien, trying to pin him to a wall. The real Mannimarco cast Everliving Ice onto the feet and hands of the alien, but not anywhere else.

Speaking telepathically, so words would not be misunderstood, Mannimarco said, "Why do you carry the burden of nobility with you? The force you fight for does not allow for compassion, why hold that ancient relic of an emotion? Listen to me, where are your kind? What happened to your people? I know the werewolves are on their way, but I must know some things first." Mannimarco waited for the creature's response, and slowly walked about the room. He could hear the howls of the werewolves, but still waited for the response of the giant lizard.

Astratus

Astratus cut down foe like he had never done is his life. A Nord next to him had stripped his shirt off and fought in a loincloth, screaming like an animal. Another Nord brought his axe head down so hard on a bandit that the skull cracked open like a ripe piece of fruit. Astratus fought his way over to these men and the three fought together.

When the Silhouette entered the battle and shouted his challenge, there was a resounding moan from the troops. He was killing everything too fast. Astratus yelled to the Nords to go bolster the left side where the werewolves punched through. Turning back to the battle, Astratus buried a guantleted fist into the visage of the quartermaster. Astratus looked around and saw that the bandits were backing off, letting the last of the goblins die before the bandits would charge. Astratus yelled his rallying cry, and brought ten men with him to smash into the side of the bandit unit.

The overall feeling safety left Astratus as the dead closed the eastern escape for the Army. There was just one route now, and that was further into the City, giving too much ground to the Silhouette and the Dead. Astratus pondered this, but soon decided that his men would pull back into the City and hold there. Astratus was crestfallen when he saw the shirtless nord go down to a werewolf and a bandit. Screaming his rage, Astratus impaled the bandit on his sword and kicked the werewolf with a booted foot. The werewolf growled and Astratus pirouetted and released his sword from the bandit, bringing the blade across the neck of the wolf. The wolf bled out, and Astratus turned to the Nord at his feet. Tears formed on Astratus's face as he saw the Nord get back up, face mangeled and right arm limp, still swinging a broken shaft of his axe. Four bandits brought him down and Astratus had to retreat.

Patholos

No...not again, get out of my mind.... I own you mind, my son, and you have utter the most heinous blaspheme imaginable, you killed your brethren and made a mockery of my SERVANTS! Get out, you are false and unreal, you do not exist, I am a servant of Justice now... You are my Servant! You have my gifts, you should be dead, but yet you are not. They didn't accept you, they scorned you, they cursed you, they left you for dead. Who allowed you life when it could have be so easily snuffed out? You are not my Father, you are no force, you are a fiction my mind has come up with. There is no Dread Father, you are a lie... So be it...

Plys'Iea

He strained against the icy bonds, he couldn't feel the chill through his armor, but the indignity of being pinned to the wall like this was disgraceful. The alien ignored Mannimarco's questions for half a minute as he used all of his strength in an attampt to free his arm.

Time strecthed as the creature pulled, wondering whether the ice would break before his arm tore from its socket. Then he changed tacts, "Why should I tell you, foul sorcerer? I would much rather kill you than waste time speaking of things which you don't or ever will understand!"

Mannimarco

"Foul sorceror, hmm, I don't quite believe that to be an ecompassing description of my work." Mannimarco said back into the lizard man's mind. "You see, living beings are born without a predisposition, if you so follow, and they do not understand why in some cultures, murder is murder, and in others, murder is promoted. Look to our lower levels of existence, for instance, the wolves. The operate on three or four emotions, and yet, no one calls them lunatics for feeding those emotions. Are we not just graduated forms of emotion? When we hurt, there are signals the body feeds the brain to tell us what the body should feel, according to the upbringing of the person in question. Let's say your mother died and she was a complete, for lack of a better word, s'wit, and at the funeral, you are expected to cry because she is dead."

He continued, "No, you know that she was evil and wrong, but yet, you still cry because that is how you were raised. Raised to be weak and collective, raised to be flocked and herded. Why are there not kings born every generation to every mother? Only the oddities have the drive needed to break the collectivism that runs and regulates these lives. I am no monster in my own view, and I am not foul. I consider myself a coinesseur of different tastes. Can I blame anyone for what gives me pleasure and what causes me pain. No, I was made that way, I had no choice. Quick to judge, my giant friend, you are very quick to judge."

OOC: I promise, almost over...

Mannimarco continued, "You are a warrior, you know your way around strength, and apparently honor, from your use of the word foul and sorceror. My work mocks gods, your work destroys what the gods have built. I raise up and rebuild, you cut down and destroy. Yes, I do not have the power of Life, no one on this plane does, yet, I can keep one's Spirit here on Nirm to be with their loved ones, can you? Do you even love? Are you capable? Yes, I do rob bodies from the sanctity of their tombs, but there is no essence in them anymore. They are dust and ash, the beings you should consult about filth with are the Walking Abominations, the vampires. There skin is dead yet their essence remains, mocking Nature. I ask you this simple question, and because my list of enemies is growing considerably larger, populated by the ignorant, I would like you to answer it honestly. Are you capable of honesty?" The holws of the werewolves were getting louder.

Aerona

On Flogir's suggestion, she did approach Rann with the intention of healing his wound, unaware of the tension between him and Satyana. Without asking Rann's permission, she went to work, of the mind that nobody would refuse healing anyway.

Not hearing the snide tone in Issac's comment, she scolded him in an almost motherly tone, "What a terrible thing to say! Besides, I can heal him right now."

Rann

Rann stood silently as Aerona made short work of fixing his broken bones. When she was done, he addressed Voltar.

"I think water might be better spent on mouths. We are in the middle of a siege."

OCC: Went for a kind of show-how-limited-your-reality-really-is conversation. I would think that the Worm King would be interested in the idea of vast armies and other species beyond Nirm.

Plys'Iea

"This is your world, necromancer, I may resemble species present, but I am no Argonian, and I am no Snakeman. People here, they fear death, fools. Death is something to be prepared for, my kind have no thoughts of the afterlife, how an individual lives is all that matters."

The alien hissed, "The Plys'Iea, my people, aren't restricted to one planet as the races of this place are. You have your planet, we have systems of planets, and an entire galaxy full of them."
He stared into Mannimarco's eyes, "There are more warriors in our armies than the number of creatures that lived and died here since it was formed. Not even all the dead this world can produce in another ten centuries could keep any space-faring species if they wished to take this world."

The warrior finished, "Some people kill because they hate, some because they need to in order to survive, others can't resist doing so. I am none of these things, I loath those who cannot fight back, they are not worth bothering with, but just as any hunter can marvel at the resilience of their prey, so to can I respect the prowess of my enemies."

"You, Worm King, if you didn't have the dead at your disposal then what would you do?" Without waiting for a reply, the alien snarled. "We Plys'Iea can't cry!" As if discovering a hidden reserve of strength, he managed to crack the slightly weakened ice binding his right arm.

The fracture rapidly grew until the restraint shattered, the alien struck the left hand binding with his newly freed limb. In matter of seconds his arms were both free and his leg bindings broke much easier. "Now this talk comes to an end...."
His staff angled toward the necromancer's torso.

Issac

As much as he wanted to point out that Satyana had offered to heal Rann earlier, Issac lost all will to argue. In the back of his mind he made the connection that Aerona had been the one to tell Rann about the conspiracy against Voltar.

Still, the Altmer couldn't summon up the will to confront the vampire, or tell Rann how much of a complete honored user he was. This whole situation is hell, why does Rann have to be Satyana's brother. It would make this a lot more bearable, or if he actually acted like a brother still.

Issac sat down at the foot of the stairs, some of his resentment showing on his face.

This post has been edited by Lord Revan: Aug 20 2007, 07:34 AM

Mannimarco

Seeing the Plys'Iea break from ice that held a noble knight and a Frost Atronach startled Mannimarco. He stepped back and replied to his question, "Then this situation might be different."

Mannimarco summoned dead bodies underneath the floorboards to punch up through the ground and hold the alien steady. Mannimarco needed a few seconds to slip into his black water, and those few seconds were crucial. If interrupted, he would have no idea where he was going. Besides, Mannimarco was very intrigued by the alien, but did not want to kill him. Very few instances in history were similar to this. Mannimarco wove the complex spell as the first of the zombies exploded through the floor, and grabbed the alien's foot.

Astratus

"Everyone, Retreat Manuerves! Back into the City! Hold fast! Hold fast!" Astratus was flustered and afraid, one of the Silhouette, and the other for his troops not hearing his orders. The line slowly backed towards the inner city, with military precision. Astratus heard a low growl, and turned to see an Undead werewolve ready to pounce behind him. Astratus readied his sword, when the werewolf suddenly pounced, forcing Astratus to parry and lose his balance. Since the wolf felt no pain, the fight would be more physical that Astratus hoped for.

After a few minutes of fighting, Astratus realized his troops were ebbing away from him. Walking backwards was foolish in a fight, so Astratus had to make the killing blow quickly. The two already sustained wounds, but the werewolf was still agressive and deadly. Astratus was tiring quickly, he was mentally exhausted. A lazy block attempt scored a rotting claw across the abdomen, sending a crimson spray all over the ground. Astratus felt for his innards to see if the hit had cut him open. His hand passed over his stomach and he felt gashes, but he felt the werewolf tackle him to the ground. He felt the teeth sink into his arm, and he had no choice but to punch upward through the dead flesh, rending the wolf in two. Astratus felt the disease in his right arm heal the wounds and close the gashes, and give him more strength. He felt sick that soon he would be a monster like this. Getting to his feet, he fought his way back to his troops, with a little more agression that he was used to.

OOC: Will he become a werewolf, TUNE IN NEXT TIME!

Voltar

"Oh bother that! I think we have enough mages around here to teleport supplies like water should the situation become dire. The siege has only just started!" Voltar said indignantly. He had never experienced too much hardship in his life. Sure, his self-annexation from the Mages Guild forced him to do stuff on his own. But his family was wealthy enough that he had purchased his small home near Anvil with ease. Voltar had never felt that battle was a hardship, merely a contest.


Amrita

Amrita knew all about the rift that had been building between Rann and the duo of Satyana and Issac. Hell, they had gotten into it when it first came up so badly that they didn't even notice her sitting in the tavern.

Hmm... perhaps it's time for me to try and look good once again...

She approached Issac and Satyana. "Could I speak with you two privately?" she asked then quietly, but in a serious tone.

Plys'Iea

The zombie's head was pulped by the alien's staff, as more corpses appeared and Mannimarco quickly slipping from his clutches, he made a quick strategic decision. The wooden supports for this building were already weak, in seconds the Plys'Iea was able to smashed enough in order to push the building over the breaking point.

Before harm could come to him, the alien leapt through one of the barricaded windows. He landed in the street as the building crumbled beneath its own weight.

OCC: I'll let Minque reply to Amrita.