Screen shots
And here are the screen shots of the bizzare evening. I took many, but wont put them all up of course. :wink:
This first shot is when my "print screen" finger remembered to start shooting. The situation was already well under way but we had no idea it was just the beginning...
And so it begins... again.
Orc Brutes to the left of us, Dragons to the right, the slightly metalic smell of blood invaded our noses while sweat from our brows stung our eyes. We could catch no breath as crimson coated blades gouged scales, slipping between the natural armor to strike the tender flesh beneath all the while the crackel and boom of magical lightning cooked the beasts innards. For a split second everything stopped and I believed my eyes to be lying to me, for what they saw could not possibly be real.
Twice as tall and wide as an ancient dragon this creature... this horrific beast... stalked through the portal looking both rested and... hungry.
A blur of red and grey streaked passed me, nearly toppling me over, as it headed directly for the new threat. Dirt, grass, and guts flew about in the air thick as a fog until finally it all cleared and Swiftwind, Lord Eddy's faithful Hiryu steed, stood victorious atop the carcass with the glow of the Illustrious Jaelyn's healing spell just beginning to fade from him.
Just as joy began to slowly spread smiles across our haggard faces, our vision filled with mottled and moving brown/grey, and our bodies were slammed against the fleshy mobile walls that were the hated Trolls.
Day after day we had fought the invasion of trolls with valor and faith, but the battle won was quickly forgotten as the next battle began. My heart sank deeply to see the sea of the vile beasts washing over Eddy's house and the surrounding area.
It is said that a wise man knows when to fight and when to run so that he may live to fight another day. My wisdom kicked in and although I fled to the sanctuary of my home, a small group of trolls had remained in pursuit and blugeoned the life out of me in my own livingroom. "Ohh the irony!" was my last coherant thought as my eyes closed to the blackness of oblivian for what I believed to be the last time.
The pain had ended, I was at peace, I could let myself go "to the next life, what ever that might entail.
"AN CORP!" a powerful booming, yet definitely feminine, voice commanded of the gods and nature. Thanatos would have to wait to take me, my time in this realm was not yet over. "IN VAS MANI" she intoned more softly, yet no less powerful in the softness. I inhaled sharply as I bolted upright then gagged on the overpowerful smell of garlic and ginseng permiated the air as the cobwebs of death cleared from my mind.
My eyes went wide and I scanned the room for the enemy, but saw only the body of my own faithful beloved steed, Woot. Just as I began to mourn the loss, I saw Lord Eddy kneeling beside my fallen animal companion, bringing the life back into him, though far differently then it was brought back into me.
However, there was no time for rejoycing as with an all too familiar woosh portals began opening so fast, Eddy and Jaelyn barely had time to turn in their places before the attacks began anew.
Starting recently, these attacks had become more and more frequent and centered around either Lord Eddy or Jaelyn. Where ever they went, alone or together, portals would open and spew forth their vile creatures to wreak havoc upon our realm. It was apparent a curse had befallen them and we needed to remove it before it was too late and the land succumbed to the evil encroaching upon it.
Now, hideous gelatenous poison emitting blobs slithered from the gates, shortly followed by a Bog Thing and its Bogling offspring, as well as other less worrysome creatures.
Covered in slime and bark chips we looked warily around to see if we had any stragglers lurking about. "They have thrown all they can at us, I think." I heard Lord Eddy's reasuring voice as we watched a normal looking bay mare trot out of a portal and into the nearby treeline followed by an old beggar man with a penchant for nudity and a silverback gorilla.
Those easily spoken words were nearly Lord Eddy's last, as it was that exact moment the curse upon him brought forth a gate as black as pitch, and from that gate a White Wyrm. Again it was Swiftwind to the rescue as the loyal Hiryu lept at the beast with Jaelyn's powerful faith and magics centered on Swiftwind to make sure he survived the battle.
It is a fool who says that a mage who casts no offensive spells is useless in battle. The truth of the matter is this: it takes a wise mage to know when to use which spells. Any fool can waste time, reagents and mana by casting a spell at a dragon just to see its inate magic resistance shrug it off, but it is a brilliant strategist who instead uses his magic on a warrior ally who will not resist the spells and can deal great damage to the creature in melee combat.
The shrieks of the Wyrm stabbed into my head as surely as an assasins knife into his prey's heart and I was paralyzed with the pain of it. I was still so weak from my recent return from death that I was completely useless to aid my comrades. It was with skill and speed the duo took down the invader, while Lord Eddy faced off with a collector of souls which was just as eager for our deaths as all who came before it.
Finally, at long last, the din of battle ended, though the ringing in my hears had not. The battles were over, we were triumphant and instead of living creatures, the next portal vomited out severed human limbs.
Taking this as a sign of victory I gathered the body parts and found that it was, in fact, one person. No doubt it was the henchman of the being behind these attacks, who was rended limb from limb for failing to dispatch us according to his wishes. With a smirk and a spell I took the body to the Henge at Luna and placed it on the altar as a warning to those who would think to invade us, that the humans of Britania would not go gently into the night.
Once I returned from my gruesome task the three of us made the short trek back to Eddy's home. To our extreme surprise there was another immediate and complete invasion when we were mere yards away from the home. Again, like with the trolls, we could take no step left or right, forward or back without bumping into one of the new arrivals. This time however, there was no direct immediate threat to us, instead the danger was to our cholesterol as millions of egg laying chickens appeared from no where. An insideous plan indeed to take us out in such a subtle way, but we did not fall for it. Through willpower alone we managed not go on the expected egg eating binge no matter how tempting it was to our growling stomachs at the time.
Still caked in blood and gore, We shooed away the chickens, gathered the eggs and took them to Haze's home so he could bake with them... his cookies are a must have. As we sat about, thinking of cookies and talking over the action of the day, the glorious battles, and how the songs would be sung of us and our victory, we had finally begun to relax.
We shouldn't have...
The Dread Lord Blackthorne showed up in the flesh! My skin crawled immediately from the aura of death that hung about him. Or was it the promise of death to us? Apparently all these invading creatures (chickens too?) were his minions sent to attack us, to wipe us from the face of the planet! He seemed rather miffed that we bested his minions (I want my own minions!) and he wasn't pleased that we all still lived, he had not even culled our numbers. He demanded that in order to keep him from sending more evil beings to attack us we would have to bring to him the Axe of the Damned. Of course, in order to get said axe we would have to kill its current owner. He granted us a reprieve, however, and said he would send a messanger, Dupre, to us on the next full moon with the details of our quest. He told us we should sleep the rest of this night and it gave me the notion that we wouldn't be getting any sleep again for a long, long time to come once we set out upon the quest.
I fear should we fail him, all those lovely homes we have been so busy building in luna will be coming up for resale. Keep watch of the obituary news for our names.
