NationStates Jolt Archive

Skandraen leaned against the cool stone of the window, feeling the refreshing cold of winter on his feathers. He relaxed a little, and sighed, looking over the community’s stone buildings. To a human, this view would seem very strange. Built into a narrow crag in the foothills of a mountain, the community was small, only about seven thousand, including the outlying parts. The strangeness of the buildings however, was the lack of any visible route to them.

The confusion of any humans watching the scene would have been answered as one of the buildings received a visitor, a large creature with a head like that of an eagle, talons and wings to match. Its back half was like that of a lion’s, complete with powerful hind legs and tail. Obviously this creature could never fly, and yet it managed to with no difficulty, landing smoothly on a stone platform outside the building, with a grace that belied its lack of any right to take to the air.

That ability, like much else of the creature, was granted purely by magic, specifically, magic tied to its primary feathers, quite valuable to anyone skilled in magic of their own, they worked purely by enhancing abilities. One myth that the griffins were quite keen to dispel was the rumour that their males were wingless, even thinking of that particular slander caused Skandraen to flutter his wings slightly in agitation. That said, the spikes that such rumours said existed, did, after a fashion.

The reason he was thinking of such things was that he, among others, was to leave soon, the council could no longer ensure anonymity for the community, the sweet magically induced protection that had kept the world from noticing them for so long, and thus it was decided to be best for them to find out as much about the world beyond their lands as possible.

He looked around at his mate, sprawled out over their nest, made of gold threads, sewn with precious stones. Her wings were indeed a little more grandiose than his, iridescent in the low light. He smiled, an action involving parting the beak a little and touching the tongue to the top of the mouth, and padded silently over to the nest for sleep, he was probably going to need it.

The next morning, with a large portion of the community gathered around the platform outside the council building, a surprisingly grand structure, to see them off. As one, a small number of the creatures took to the air, ten in all, and sped off in different directions, soon speeding up beyond any rate that could be considered natural, flying higher and faster, again with judicious use of the magical arts.

It was a fairly normal patrol, with the Undead in ermor such patrols where a regular event, it was however a surprise to see a Griffon in the airs. Cautiously the squad turned towards the sight, the Lead Eagle flying closer, on it's back the Ranger sat Bow at the ready.

A Screech of greeting came from the Eagle, a Challange also, this was it's terrtory, and the Griffon was an interloper. On it's back through the Ranger was cautiously interested, the Griffon seemed different, almost interested, and strangely no threat, eventually the elf tried something trange, he hailed in greeting.

'Halt friend I would fly no further in that direction for beyond these seas lies only the Undead and decay, no living creature should approach those isles!'

Skandraen stopped in midair, with a single backward flap of his wings, here he was clearly showing off now, the creature he saw nearby was a little strange, a great eagle if he recalled correctly, in a way a distant relation of his own species. It had a rider, which was in itself rather odd, it was rare for griffins, even back when they had prolonged contact with other species to permit them to ride on their backs.

The elf on its back was holding a bow at him – that was hardly friendly, but then, it was also wise. The eagle came closer and the rider hailed him. Skandraen listened for a moment, and then tilted his head a little, and replied. He didn’t actually say it, as griffins weren’t quite equipped for speech, and he couldn’t be bothered with the niceties of the spells that enabled such speech, instead he did so telepathically to the rider, who seemed to be the most interested of the two, ‘Undead? Fascinating, but not what I wish to see, where then would you suggest that a living creature go?’

Nodding in response the rider made a hand signal, s nother Eagle broke from the flok and flew towards the Griffon.

'The people of Giltheran would be happy to recieve you, and answer any questions that we can. These two shll take you to the Palace of Souls, in it's top branches you should be able to land, I advise you to stay with the Eagle, our guards are very, trigger happy, and until we can tell them of your presence any unknown flyer is likely to be shot at, for fear of an attacker from Ermor.'

The Newer eagle and it's rider seemed a younger pair, if the Griffon had to guess they where new to each other, indeed they where new to the link between rider and eagle, and rejoicing in it still. Also she seemed different, Less armour graced her person, and more pouches covered her. Unlike the Captain of the Patrol she was a Druid, and had came into the bond sooner.

'Greetings I am Amerial of the Winds, if you'd care to follow me to the Palace, I shall send a message on ahead to prepare for our arrival.' As she spoke a small bird was taken for a Cage, and amerial whispered into it's ear, as the creature shot off to the Palace.

mean while a terrible war was going on. the nation of One who needs help was under atack. as allies of glitheran at that very moment Commander Snake was sending a telepathic message to glitheran.
"urgent message from Snake to Patrol rangers
please send any patrolers you can spare. we are under attack. an ambush of 250+ elfs and undead. casualties 45% and rising need help
magic attack disabled arms need help"
Snake, while sending the message, takes a sword through the shoulder and is badly injured. everything is depending on that message

He nodded at the patrol’s leader, finding this quite agreeable, he replied, “of course, the undead are often problematic.” The griffin turned with the newer eagle, this bonding was still a mystery to him, and he had no idea what a druid was, clerical magic being effectively unknown among griffins.

In Giltherani terms, they would be a mixture of the clerical and arcane. Technically, their magic came from the sun, which many of them worshipped as a god, however, no special rituals were required to replenish their magical abilities, a few hours exposure to the sun per day was helpful though, though this was generally gained in hunting anyway. In theory, a griffin deprived of contact with sunlight for long enough would die of accelerated aging. In general they could live for up to ten thousand years, and as a result, childhood lasted centuries.

Skandraen matched the speed of the Giltherani eagle, and followed patiently.

*TAG*

[This looks to be an intriguing piece of RP]

Amerial was excited, she had never came across in all her studies Griffons of this nature, they seemed different, and her excitment showed. ''If your hungry once the guards have been informed of your presence we can hunt, certain lands have been placed aside for the Eagles, any animal in those lands is fair game, you'd be welcome to join us when we hunt, Of course this should be after you have met the King.' She continued on for a while longer in a similar style very excitable, and young, eventually if she survived she would come to quieten down and live with more patence but for now she was new to her responsibiltys.

The Palace of Souls was huge, the ancient tree (although actually only planted a few decades ago, it was Ancient)) dominated the city, as curious merchents looked up from stalls in the streets, and from a few of the buildings curious mages sent eyes up into the air to look upon the visitor, happy that it was no threat being escorted by an Eagle, they where simply interested in what manner of creature visted them.

As they approached the Palace, a line of guards stood at attention ready to greet the visitor to Giltheran and Githras stood awaiting the vistor in formal robes of Red, and Gold, a smile across his face.

ooc: what happened to me isnt anyone going to save me

OOC: Apparently not...

The Dark Ranger Kris watched the Griffin follow the riden Eagle, and decided to go the opposite way, to where she guessed the Griffin's homeland would be...

(BTW...TAG)

Skandraen was inwardly quite amused by her bubbling enthusiasm, it was quite strange to see how much he seemed alien to her. “Oh yes,” he replied, “That sounds quite wonderful.”

As they coasted over the city he took in everything he saw, overall, this amount of elves was staggering. He could feel their magicians scrying him, and didn’t bother trying to stop them, a feat he had no doubt he could accomplish, at least, he could do it to some of them, the numbers here were far too great for such a thing.

He landed rather gracefully by the tree, offhandedly noting that it was quite the navigational hazard, and approached the congregation of elves. He pondered how to introduce himself without sounding too arrogant. Unfortunately, it wasn’t something he was good at, and he eventually came out with, “You are the leader here, yes?”

Meanwhile, in the ‘homeland’ no one had yet noticed the guest headed their way, but they would eventually. Their reaction to such an intrusion couldn’t be guaranteed; it was centuries since they’d had a visitor.

That said, even now, there were flutterings in the cloisters of the Council. One of the most aged and experienced magicians among their number, Serseran, sat on his haunches, watching a magical artefact of great value, the stone of farsight something treasured by the council even though they could, if they wanted, make more of the things. The stone was basically a square altar, which showed, with perfect clarity, the comings and goings of the community. Any skilled user could manipulate it to show things in absurd detail, down to the microscopic if they so desired.

At this particular moment Serseran flapped his wings a little, and stood, padding his feet across the cool stone floor. Something was coming, far sooner than any of the emissaries were expected back. He would have to discuss the matter with his peers on the council. He left the chamber of seeing, and strode calmly across the long thin rail-less bridge that linked it to the council chambers. There was a reception to be arranged.

ooc: somebody please save me

((OOC: HG, thankyou for RPing me into this, seriously, new RPers like yourself seldom take note of opening posts like mine but you did and wrote a sizable amount based on my one sentence. You've got the makings of a brilliant RPer, and earn my respect already :wink: ))

IC: Kris continued towards the Griffin Territory, and as see pressed on she could help but notice the beauty of the place, it was uncorrupt by the Industry and Snow of her homeland and even though her mission ment other things, she had to stop to take in the views of the place.

Magnificent...

She carried on....

OOC: Why thank you :wink:

ooc: SOMEBODY SAVE ME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ooc: SOMEBODY SAVE ME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*Shoots one who needs help*

*One who needs help no longer need saving*

TAG, good fantasy story, I like it!

((small OOC note this isn't scrying but a Variation of a Spell Invisible Eye, this is a weaker version that cuts out the Invisible part of the spell, the Griffon has got quite literally floating eyes staring at it.))

IC Githras chuckled a little at the words 'The Leader well I am the king, so yes, as far as it goes I am the Leader, and I welcome you to my Land, when the message first arrived I'll admit to having been dubious but I am glad to see that it spoke the truth. welcome then to Giltheran, may I introduce myself formally as King Githras, the Council is looking forward to meeting you.'

'Still you must have had a long journey and have a reason for having made it, so as you have been with me, let me return the favor and be forward, what took you on such a journey?'

ooc: i hate all of you

ooc: i hate all of you

Compliment returned. Stop spamming.