The Adventures Of Tulustan, The Begining Options

[The Metal Mallet]

Hmmm, the "King of Kings" is getting more interesting with each update. For being "royalty" he's quite able with those throwing daggers. I can't wait to figure this character out. Keep up the good work.

[Tulustan]

CHAPTER FIVE: ON THE ROAD AGAIN

“Ey tere mista compatriot! Ow ye doin, we ave a busy day head of us”

“What! Who! Where!” I stuttered to get out as the old man had taken my sheets and his smelly breath washed over my face like a perfume gone bad. I thought to myself that if I was going to survive I needed to sleep lighter. “What do you mean we have a busy day?” I was able to say groggily at best.

“We ere goin te hed to Robs Glen, cuz we cen get into de skooma trade fast. Ther is a small cav te de sout of us. They smuggle de stuff from Marrowind an dey sell it fer more den anythin. All we ave te do is send shipmens frem de cav te the difernt cities. An on de side we get te keep som o de skooma!” He finished excitedly as he began to put on his shirt. The place sounded familiar but I coudnt put my finger on it, at to where I had heard the location.

“What about the Imperials, what if they find out about the operation?” I asked him, half hoping he would not have thought about that and would reconsider. I still had no other plan though so even if he wanted to do this I may as well play along for the duration.

“Dats de beuty o' it, dey pay dem Imps som money te stay off der backs. Som o' de men even buy frem us, most of de time though dey jus take it an say dey wont report it.” he said excitedly. At this time we were outside and on the road again. The Inn keeper had only given us a small wave as we had departed.

During the journey to the cave Fellessen kept going on about get rich quick schemes, I had dreaded that he had run out of skooma. All in all I didn't mind his company, I had never really had a friend except for my beautiful wife. The main thing that bothered me about him was his stench as long as I was either in front of him or beside him the smell was not bad, but every once in a while he would get in front of me and try to tell me something important, but I would be too occupied with the smell to pay attention.

For a while we kept to ourselves and I began to wonder about why he left his home so quickly to join me, and how he was able to peg the Legionary in the head with a dagger being on skooma. Now that the memory was getting replayed in my head it was as if he wanted me to see him throw the dagger perfectly. I wonder if I was being played by the old man that had chosen me as his companion and I him.

Fellessen lowered his head and began to say in a sad voice “Poor basards, in de Inn up a head. Durin de time o de Daedra tack de Inn was defenseless gainst those hellions an many a poor soul who was stayin dere was cut down n' burned alive.”

As we went around the corner there was an eary red glow off to the left. I assumed it had been a broken gate that was used to bring the Daedric army into our reality. A little farther down the path was a burned out husk of a structure that I guessed was once the inn that Fellessen was just talking about.

We began to near it and I saw some of the horrors that the Daedra had inflicted upon this little part of Cyrodyl. There were decaying bodies with arrows still in them or gaping wounds where swords must have been, the stench of rotting flesh was beginning to overwhelm my olfactory organ. Then there were the skeletons, they had probably been roasted alive, on closer inspection I noticed that all of the bodies had bite marks on them. I concluded that they must have fed some of their minions that way.

Once we had left that horrid sight I began to think about the supposed life ahead of me. A skooma dealer, that is probably not what my late father would have wanted me to be, but he also wouldn't have approved of me being an outlaw. I decided that I mine as well do it for a little while considering I had no money, and really only one place to go.

The day wore on without much event, we had passed a shrine, and there was an unusual amount of deer on the highway a little bit farther down the road, there was a few bandits on the side of the road dead and appearing to be completely looted of all their worldly possessions. Farther down was another crumbled gate to Oblivion.

“Ere we ar, I ope de boys need som werk.”

As we neared the caves door there seemed to be a half asleep guard sitting on the ground. He looked to be a Breton but I could not be sure. As we approached Fellessen said “Ello mate! It be me Fellessen, I bring you a new recruit! Plus me o' course, Sam hey wake up ye no ur not sposed to be nappin on de job.”

The man that I took for Sam opened his eyes starred at us for a moment and said “Well I'll be damned, yer back, ye need some more skooma I'm guessin. Anyway there is a new shipment sposed to be arriving shortly, There is an extra room with some food fer you an the new guy inside, then tomorrow head down to the docks an speak with the boss.

He opened the wooden door to the cave and led us to our quarters. Inside there was a small bed and table. He motioned to an otherwise concealed closet and pulled out what I took as the bed I was going to sleep on. A wool blanked sewed together and stuffed with what had to have been straw. On the table there was some crusty old bread and a glass of wine with 2 clay pots next to it. The only light came from a torch next to the door which spread eary shadows across the room.

I had taken a loaf of bread after Sam had left the room and began to try and eat it. It was almost a rock, I had to get my dagger out to cut it into manageable peaces to then stick into my mouth and soften it up with my saliva.

After I had managed to take and chew my first bite Fellessen told me he was going to find some old friends to get hooked up with some more skooma. After he had left I finished the bread and decided that I was going to go to sleep and wake up before my companion. I laid down on the prickly mattress and began to fall into a deep sleep.

[minque]

I agree with Mallie! Good work my friend....good work...

[Shinnok]

Very nice update, keep up the good work.

[Tulustan]

Sorry bout the wait...

CHAPTER FIVE CONTINUED

I sat bolt upright on the mattress, sweat was beading down my forehead as I realized where I had heard “Robs Glen” from. The note Anewak had left me had said this is where I would find the resistance, but from what I had seen and smelled this was just your regular skooma operation.

I heard the light breathing to my right, I turned my head fast towards it. Through the faint light in the room I noticed a man, not old but young, in his prime. Slowly I reached for my dagger, I felt a sigh of relief that it was till there. With the dagger in my hand I got up and cautiously moved towards the sleeping man, then I noticed the same daggers I had seen just yesterday. At this point I was getting angry, I had just been played and brought to this skooma den by a fake calling for a rebellion. As I leaned over the man with black hair falling off of the back of the bed, I roughly rested its thirsty blade on his open and naked neck.

“Hey what the!” He yelled as he awoke suddenly. Then he muttered to himself “Damn it, I should have been prepared.”

“Who are you?” I asked this man whose life was in my hand.

“I have told you before it is Fellessen.” he told me in a bored voice.

“No the Fellessen I knew was old and smelled of garbage.” I replied shocked by the statement.

“Oh course that is what you saw and smelled, I put a globe of illusion around you so everything that you smelled and saw of me was a distortion of who I really am.”

“But why, why would you do this to me, and bring me here? And is this place really a skooma den? And”

But before I could ask another question he began to speak. “ This is a skooma delivery facility of sorts, but that is mostly a front. This is like the note probably told you one of the resistances main strongholds. I was sent to Pells Gate to bring people who wanted to join here. My little facade is to test peoples intentions and to show them that this is not just a group of farmers. Most people dont have a clue until they meet the “boss” who is the redguard known a Joshewa. Also if you examine your daggers sheath you will find that the note Anewak had put there now belongs to me. I had taken it the first night at Pells Gate.”

“What if I had not gone to Pells Gate though?”

“Then it would have been my duty to find the magical tracer Anewak had placed on you. I will diminish its power to nothing now that you are here. You will have a busy day ahead of you tomorrow, make sure you can remember what the mages guild had been like. Also I believe I have answered all or most of your questions can you please remove this deadly item from my neck.”

“One more question. What if I decide not to go cut your throat and leave you all behind?”

“I knew your wife and I know that, that is obviously not what she would have wanted, but go ahead I have done things in my life that easily deserve death.” He told me in a all to clam manner.

The memory of my wife made me snap. “It's your fault she is dead! If she hadn't been in the damned rebellion she would not have been assassinated by the guards!”

“She had come to us after watching what had been going on in the Elder Council. This may hurt you but she was assigned to gather information and that is the only reason she had stayed long enough to marry you. We had warned her about it, told her that it would only lead to pain, but her love for you was so strong it could not be conquered by our intentions. Now about that knife...”

At this I began to feel the tears welling up in my eyes, I let the knife fall from my hand, it being so light fell from Fellessens neck and lay to rest at the bedside. I began to cry in earnest, and cried until I went to sleep, I wished so badly that my wife was still here. Here to talk to here to tell me about the rebellion, here to comfort me, and here to help me decide what we were going to do. After a while I fell into a light and unrestfull sleep.

In the morning I felt the worst I had felt for a long time. My throat was dry and I felt sick in my stomach. I still got up because I knew what I was going to do. Fellessen had already left and I looked at the bed next to him and picked up my dagger, sheathed it and put my robes on. When I opened the door Sam was waiting, he looked the same except for his attire, instead now he wore armor and a longsword at his side.

“Hello there, Fellessen said you were a sleeper but man! C'mon we need to head out to the docks. Hurry follow me.”

I began to walk out the door and follow him. He navigated the tunnels in the cave differently than the way we had come in. Soon we had reached what must have been the back of the cave and a small door was opened by a lever off to the side somewhere.

Bright light assaulted my eyes. I could barely even open them, the warmth from the light assailed me as well. Squinting as much as I dared to, I took a step outside. Ever too slowly my eyes adjusted to the light and what I saw was beautiful. There was green grass hills with a river down a small slope in front of us. There was a forest on the other side of the river while there were only scattered trees on this side. Then I saw another evil blemish on the country side. There was a Oblivion gate near the docks, people had obviously tried to stay away from the evil thing as they walked around.

As we neared the docks I noticed a small dot to the south of us on the river. It must have been the ship that Fellessen was talking about earlier.

“Hey there Tulustan!” A low rumble from my left had told me. I whipped my head in the direction and was taken aback by what I saw. There was a large red guard standing there, he must have been at least a foot taller than me. His hair was a dark black and was pulled back into dreadlocks. He had Ebony armor all over his body except for his head. He had a sheathed longsword and on his back was a gigantic war hammer.

“Uh hello Joshewa is it?” I managed to say.

“Yes it is, I have heard you are not too fond of joining us, if that is true you are free to go.” After he said this I had thought to myself that he must be joking, but I had decided to join. Once again I had thoughts about leaving, but I realized where would I go. Sure there are plenty of underworld types I could join up with, but It was hard enough to decide to become a skooma dealer. Also I probably had a nice fat bounty on my head.

“I had thoughts yes, but if you accept me I will join.” I told him.

“There is one last thing you must do before you join us, you need to tell me about the mages guild...”

So I told him all that he had asked, I was given my own room and some edible food, or at least more so than I had last night. I began to think about my future and wonder if I was going to die fighting against what I had been born and raised to defend.

[jack cloudy]

Hmm, Felessen is definitely one interesting fella. Constant effect Illusion, sweet!

[The Metal Mallet]

Ahhh, so the oddness of Felessen is revealed. That's a new way of concealing yourself.

It's going to be interesting to see how Tulustan acts as a rebel. Keep it up!

[Tulustan]

CHAPTER SIX: NEW BEGININGS

“Everybody rise n' shine! Were off to new beginnings and a chance to show the Imperial bastards who is boss.” I heard a deep voice resonate throughout the underground complex. “Get your gear together we are going to kill some pigs boys!” At this I jumped out of bed and began to get dressed. First I put on my undergarments and then my robe. After that I put on my belt which had my dagger and sword on it.

“Hey there” the young man who was once Kings came up to me. “Hurry get your junk together! We are relocating to Fort Chalman, its just north of the Imperial city across the water. Its perfect for our new base, there are defensible areas with choke holds all around it. Plus it is close to the objective we have been working on for a long time. Bruma! We are going to capture Bruma by the end of next month, if all goes as planned. Once we have taken Bruma we will begin planting information that we are about take more cities, then the Imperials will have to listen to us and be forced to become more agreeable with us.”

“What? We are going to take a city? Do we have the resources to do that?” I asked in shock.

As we began to navigate the tunnels as Fellessen said “The resistance is a lot larger than anyone would suspect. Most of the bulk is in small villages throughout Cyrodil, we are the main body of fighters but a lot of our supporters are farmers who give us the food and information we need to stay alive.”

“Why were we never able to catch you at any of your strongholds?” I asked him after thinking about the early years of the resitance.

“As you were probably told a mole alerted us of when you were going to strike, but that was only the beginning. The thieves guild, or what was left of the the thieves guild is now spys. The most helpful are the beggars, they give us most of the info from around Cyrodil which is then sent through couriers to our camps all around. With this information we have found out the the people of Bruma are in a rebellious state, hence the gathering of our forces to take the city.” We had exited the cave at this point and were heading down to the docks.

I looked over at him and inquired “How exactly are we going to take the city? Am I going to be part of it in any way?”

“Oh so you've volunteered! Great ok one group will infiltrate the city and wait until the rest of us begin the siege. Then your first priority will be to kill any messengers trying to flee the city to warn the capital. Next you will gather the people who are against the Imperial Tyrants and at the time you give them, they will get towards the guards and do exactly what they did to us!” At this point he was working himself into a frenzy. “Those bastards will pay for what they did at Kvatch! They will pay with blood.”

“What was so bad at Kvatch all they did was back stab a few of the guards there.” I told him in my ignorance.

“Of course they wouldn't tell you what really happened.” He began to look down and mutter something I could not make out. “The defenders didn't fight to the death in that city, most of them actually surrendered! But the Imperials thought of them as a disease, or so that was what we were told. All of the rebels that surrendered were lined up on the streets of Kvatch. Every Legionary was ordered to spit on one of the condemned then cut his arm off. After this they began to burn the food stores in the city, all that were left alive inside including the towns people died. The mess was not even cleaned up!”

As we passed the destroyed Gate to the right I began to ponder what he had just told me, and I wondered how many other atrocities were committed but covered up by the menace that is the Elder Council.

“C'mon we don't have all day! Every body aboard!” A man on one of the skooma ships was saying. He was a large man with a round face and dark black hair. He was wearing what looked to be steel armor. His voice was like a lot of other people here, a somewhat low rumble. I had begun to wonder how so many people could have congregated together for one cause and all have a low deep voice. As I neared the ship he gave me his hand and with unimaginable strength he just about threw me onto the top of the ship. A moment later Fellessen was right next to me.

“Heh you were not expecting that hu?” Fellessen told me a proud voice. “C'mon lets get a room before we have to pick one without some more, how do I put this, “restless folks”.” We made our way to the lower part of the ship, the cargo bays. There were cots on top crates of what looked to be anything from skooma to weapons. “Its going to be a long trip, also we wont be leaving soon. There is still a lot to pack up. So you get to hurry up and wait.”

After he had left the room I got up and began to walk around. I made small talk to a few of the other solders on board who weren't at that time helping pack up. A lot of them had been orphans and were nurtured by the beggars who in turn sent them to the resistance. There were a few from some of the noble families of Cyrodiil though. There were more than a few crazy people that wanted revenge for petty things, but I thought that they exist wherever you go.

After walking around for a few hours I went below deck, I found an unused notepad. I took it and began to use my magic to force letters that became words onto it. I had started a journal of my life. My adventures and my mishaps. Most of all my love for my wife who I believe is still standing at my side.

[Dire Cheesecake]

At first I didn't notice this with all the seemingly random violence but you're quite a good writer, and it turned out that the violence was not so random after all. By the way, when I read your story, the fact that it is set after Oblivion gave me a bunch of ideas for mine, so thanks big time.

[Tulustan]

Thank you, and your welcome.

[jack cloudy]

So now they're going to take over a city. Let's hope it won't turn into a second Kvatch.

[The Metal Mallet]

Well I hope they have some backup plans for taking Bruma because no plan is ever foolproof when it comes to war. Tides shift unpredictably, and hopefully the resistance are ready to adapt to those situations.

I have one inquiry though. Did this event that happened in Kvatch come after the Oblivion Crisis or was the Oblivion Crisis a coverup for what really happened? It was a little unclear to me.

[Tulustan]

Sorry bout that, the Oblivion crisis burned the city, but then it was rebuilt afterwords. Then it was completely distroyed, and has not been rebuilt.

This post has been edited by Tulustan: May 7 2007, 11:26 PM

[The Metal Mallet]

Ahhh ok, I thought that was probably the case. Thanks for clarifying.

[Tulustan]

By the time I had finished writing in my notepad, the ship had left dock and the sickness had begun to set in. I was not the first person to run up the ladder and onto the deck to give the waters our lunch, in fact most of the men in the cargo hold had run up disposed of their lunch. That though did not stop the taunting from those who, for various reasons were not getting the sea sickness.

Vary little happened during the voyage. I made a odd new acquaintance, his name, or what he told me his name was, was Bobb Fwed. Son of the noble Luciouse Vladiouse Fwed, ruler of the little know county Betrousque. He was medium height, nothing noble about him, he had shiny black hair like that of a panther, the first thing I learned about him was that he was arrogant. He was convinced that no one could beat him at a game of darts, and he passed most of his time throwing darts at a round piece of wood. He was truly talented, many of the men that had bet him lost a lot of money. I gathered he threw some sort of dagger like Fellessen.

Later that night I had met up with Fellessen, he was drinking with a few light hearted orcs. As I approached he asked me to join them. To me they all looked like green killing machines, but the most notable difference was their armor. Even though they all had ebony armor each had its own distinct color and pattern on it. One had gold monkeys jumping about, the middle one that was slightly taller than the rest, he had a blood red hammer and sickle crossing each other. The last had a gray wolf howling.”

“These good folks are the Grondrounden brothers” Fellessen was telling me after he finished taking a massive swig from his frothy beer. “They were some of the greatest adventurers before they joined our cause. The one on the left there is Rat jaw.”

“Hello there, I hope we can crack some heads together someday.” He told me in a predictably low voice. He was the one wearing the armor with the steel wolf emblem on it.

Before I could utter a thank you of any sort Fellessen was introducing me to the next one. “This is Gruondenken. He is a person that believes in equality above all else.”

“Yup back in the days when us three would find loot I would split it up into equal shares.”

“The last one on the right is Grunk.” Fellessen leaned closer to me and said just loud enough for the whole table to hear it “between you and me he is the grumpiest of the bunch.”

“Hey watch who your call'in grumpy chicken bones. Don't make me tear you apart!” Then he looked at me collected himself and said, “Oh um hello there and uh welcome.”

I spent a lot of the voyage at this table, and maybe a few too many bears. At one point the one named Rat jaw passed out from being so drunk, then the other two had a competition of who could drink the most beer without passing out. Unfortunately for them the ships had begun to dock and it was their duty to help unpack the weapons.

I felt out of place when we had docked because I was given no responsibilities, I just tried to stay out of peoples way. Before the unloading was complete, a women that wasn't particularly attractive took me and a few other people that were just milling around up the steep hill to the Fort. The Fort looked warn in some places, but in others brand new. Once we were inside the dimly lit tunnels of the Fort a stuffy breeze lowered itself onto my chilled flesh. The deeper we went into the oppressive Fort the warmer it was.

We finally came to a room that she told us was our new living area. It had six beds, two tables, a torch and a carpet that looked to be a bump on the stone floor. There was a chest in front of each bed where we could put our possessions. My new room mates were all male, two of them looked to be Imperial like myself, one was a Redguard, and the last was a Dunmer. We all introduced our selfs to each other, one of the Imperials was from Skingrad, he had somewhat long dark hair and an extremely gaunt face, he told me his name was Fornon. The next Imperial wasn't even an Imperial it turns out that the tall burley blond man was actually a Nord from Skyrim. His name was Ondar. The Redguard who had short curly jet black hair told me his name was Joseph. The last of them, the Dunmer whose dark skin and hair reminded me of an assassin. He told me in a airy voice that his name was Azinif.

After that we put our stuff into the trunk that was in front of the beds, all but one of us went to sleep the Dunmer went off by himself. I noticed that the beds were extremely comfortable and couldn't imagine who could supply such beds for a military barracks of sorts. Anyway I went to sleep pretty soon after I had gotten in the bed.

[Tulustan]

CHAPTER SEVEN: HORIZON

Dartai a seasoned veteran from the Oblivion crisis had decided to retire and live in Anvil. He was getting up in age and had battle scars from the demon like Dremora. His hair was graying but he still had a sparkle in his vibrant blue eyes. After the events and the traveling into a hellish enviroment and even standing next to the last true emperor in a time of great need he had become a little crazy. Most people in town actually stayed far away from him, which he liked just fine. Most of his days started and ended with a prayer to Martin, you see he had begun to think of Martin Septum as sort of a god, or savior if you will. He had been with Septum from Kvatch, he even had gotten a transfer to Bruma, and laughed at how naive the Blades were thinking that they were sneaky.

Today was no different than any other, he woke up, prayed to martin and went out on his small fishing boat and spent the day only catching wind and sea weed. He was fine with this though, usually he would just sit and think or reflect about past battles lovers and heroes. Today he was thinking about the Council and how he hated what had become of his beloved country and was sad about what was happening. Then he noticed something he hadn't seen the day before or the day before that. Apparently the Imperial Navy was gathering. For what he had no definite idea, though he had heard about more rebel activity in the area and rumors of a mass attack. After thinking a little bit longer on this subject he decided to take a nap.

When he awoke the sun was setting and the brilliant pinks and yellows were dancing in the horizon. As he slowly made his way back to the shore he spotted some commotion on the docks. As he neared he noted that some of the townspeople were arguing with the commander of an Imperial regiment. He could not make out what they were saying over the gentle lapping of water hitting his small vessel. When he finally arrived at the docks the townspeople had left and were storming off to their respected houses. As he made his way out of his boat up the ramp and to the commander he wondered what was going on. So instead of going home and thinking about it he decided to ask the apparently decorated commander. Who had a large gash on the left side of his face.

“Why were those citizens so angry sir”? He asked in a professional tone.

“We have had to garrison more forces here to protect you and this town against the rebellious minds that seek to destroy the greatness that is the empire”. He replied back in a cool tone, then added “Also we do not have even room in the barracks so we are having to room solders and sailers in the common peoples houses. If you have any complaints please come and see me and we will see right to the situation. Now please we have allot of work ahead of us if we are to fortify this town against the upcoming attack against us please go back home.”

After thinking for a moment Dartai asked “may I ask of your name good commander”?

“Yes I am Commander Sambrie of the Royal Imperial Legions one hundred and fifth. If that is all may I ask you to please return to your home”.

At this Dartie started the slow hobble home. It was not far from the docks but in his old age he like all other men had become slow and frail, when he finally made it back home to his small one room hovel of sorts he opened the door and was glad that he was not greeted by a solders face. He went strait to his bed and began to think about the situation and slowly drifted off into the inner workings of his mind.

When he awoke he went threw the same daily routine, prayed to Martin made some breakfast from old bread and some cheese then went to his boat. When he was at the dock the solders were building defenses and training for what looked like a assault coming from the ocean. When neared his boat he wondered why the solders would drill for a marine attack it made no sense to him at all, the Imperial Navy was the biggest and best out there. Also by look of the concentration of the ships allot of the navy was there. There was no way that the rebellion had nearly enough ships to even make a dent in a navy one one hundredth the size that was amassed in the cove. He did not go out to sea because of all the traffic from the navy near the docks, it was too much work for an old man to avoid the potential accidents the Navy caused with all of what looked to be newly recruited hands. So he went slowly sitting on a near by bench and watched the military prepare for a battle he was pretty sure wasn't going to be against the rebels.

[The Metal Mallet]

Nice to see you continuing this. Keep it up!

[Tulustan]

CHAPTER EIGHT: A NEW DISCOVERY


After a week of training in my small squad which consisted of Anewak, Rataw, Fellesen, and Azinif. Our drills had consisted of tactics which utilized each of our skills in different situations, regular fitness, and weapon specialist work. After our training yesterday we had our first assignment, which was given to us directly from Joshewa. Our mission was to scout out a once abandoned cave nearby in which a Imperial alchemist had set up shop. We were to scout the defenses how many guards if any and what was going on inside. Our rout to the cave was a long one, we were to stay off of the main paths and take a higher rout to get behind the cave. We headed there without much conversation, no one really seemed comfortable or familiar enough with each other to talk much.

As we neared the cave most of the foliage around it had been burned, the charred remains of once proud trees and smaller shrubs were barely reminiscent of what they once were. We decided to stay in the area surrounding the cave that still had good tree cover. We began to set up a small camp in which we had only some magically imbued blankets that repelled water and blended into the surroundings. We began to eat one of our three pieces of bread. On the way up we had scavenged some berries and a few edible roots. We knew from the beginning that there would be no fire made because it would too easily compromise our situation. After this Fellessen went to go scout the immediate area and begin gathering information.

The next morning we packed up and began the survey in earnest, there were only two guards near the entrance but we had no clue how many were inside. At this point it was time to see what was inside, so Azinif the assassin left to get closer to the two guards. The cave itself was jutting out from the nearby hill which made it easy for Azinif to get on top of the entrance and behind the guards. From this point he brought out two small objects, I couldn't quite make out what they were at the time but within two seconds the guards had dropped dead and the assassin was on them pulling out his weapons of death.

We finally entered the cave quickly and quietly, the inside was just how we expected a cave to be, it was dark and vary uneven which suited us perfectly. Silently we crept towards the bottom of the cave. I was surprised at how quiet Rat Jaw was walking. It amazed me that one so large and apparently brutish could be so light on his feet and able to position himself in such a way that he could not be seen. Even though Fellessen had cast an illusion over to make us even more undetectable.

As we neared the bottom we began to hear deathly screams echoing from the dark abyss in front of us. At this we slowed our progress and began to move even slower, and then I spotted something a barrel, just an ordinary barrel but I pointed it out to Anewak anyway. He motioned us towards the barrel and inspected it before he decided to open it. Then in a split second a small knife was in his hand and had begun to cut the barrel open from the top, it was amazing it must have had some property like my dagger because it cut through the barrel like it was butter. After he had lifted the lid he looked to us and shrugged in confusion. When I got to the barrel and looked in all I saw was black sand. Out of curiosity I reached out to touch it but before my hand could make it Fellessen had slapped it away giving me a look that to me said it could be dangerous.

After some more thinking by Fellessen he motioned that he was done and we began to move down the cave again. Again more screams of pain and they were getting louder, as we turned a corner there was an eerie light ahead. We pushed forward and neared a doorway with light streaming out of all the cracks in the wooden door. Anewak leaned close to the door and look through the cracks and then another blood curdling scream assaulted our ears and Anewak immediately pulled back from the door with a look of disgust on his face. Then there was a muttering of sorts coming from the other side of the door way. From what I heard it sounded like the man on the other side was mad and began muttering unintelligible words.

Thinking about this I must have missed the signal to attack because Rat Jaw had just smashed the door to splinters with his massive boot. I drew my sword and entered the room behind my comrades. The only Imperial guard in the room had no chance, one of his arms was claimed by Anewaks axe and his stomach was crushed by Rat Jaws large hammer. At this he keeled over in death, during this Fellessen had an extremely skinny man by his throat asking him what was going on and what they were doing here.


This post has been edited by Tulustan: Dec 5 2010, 08:42 PM

[Tulustan]

“get your hands off me” the skinny man croaked.

Fellessen retorted with a slap to his face and yelled “Why are you doing this! What are you doing to torture these people!”

“You don’t even know the half of what’s going on. The world at large is about to crumble around us and you think that your rebellion is going to save the day!” The skinny man snapped his fingers. A spark flew from them and towards one of the barrels.

A hissing sound came from where the spark had landed.

“Clear out now!” Rat Jaw yelled.

We began to run out, desperately trying to find an exit. There was light. The end of the tunnel was in front of us.

“Why did we have to get out of there so quickly?” I panted.

Rat Jaw replied “I felt something bad was going to hap-“An explosion rocked the area knocking us all to the ground. I looked back at the entrance to the cave. Black smoke was billowing out, choking the sky with fumes.

“What the hell was that?” I shouted.

“I …nt …ow” Azinif said. I barely understood him the explosion must have deafened me. A second explosion rocked the earth around us. The caves integrity had been destroyed. Large chunks of ground began falling into the earth and blocking the cave off. I saw the rest of the squad start getting up again and moving away from the explosive area. Deciding that was a good idea I ran with them.

The explosion had alerted the nearby guard post. Men in dark armor began to swarm the area behind us. We had to keep moving or they would overtake us.
Three horsemen were fast approaching our flank, they would be upon in a few seconds. I turned back to see Fellessen looking like a king. He had an entirely too regal appearance on. His hand was outstretched.

“Halt! I am the King of Kings! Listen to me loyal guards.” The guards were more than a little bit confused but they did stop. It was a fatal mistake upon which our band immediately capitalized upon. The ‘king’ had already put a dagger in the middle horseman who was falling out of his saddle. The magic flowed through me and another horseman was on the ground. This one being cooked alive. The last was taken by Rat Jaw. Knocked clean off of his horse by the mallet.

“Quickly on the horses!” Fellessen said. We each grabbed a horse except for Azinif. Fellessen and I began to ride forward.

“Az get on my horse already!” Rat Jaw said.

“Why do I get stuck with the orc?” He replied.

“No time they are coming, just get yer but up here ya sack o bones!” He reluctantly climbed on behind Rat Jaw who then muttered “So ya gonna buy me dinner after this?”

Azinif slapped him on the back of the head and said “Just go.”

We were off. Not a moment too soon either. The swarm of Imps was closing in behind us. A few arrow shafts came much too close to hitting their marks.

After we were confident that we had lost the Imps we began to head back to base. I had no idea how we were going to explain this to Joshewa. I had never in my life seen magic strong enough or explosive enough to cause what had happened at that cave. The only thing I could think of was that it was the black stuff in the barrels.

It was dark by the time we had returned to the hideout.

[mALX]

We have a necromancer on this board!!! Great Write !!!