This is the history of Khrrck.
It lives...
In the ring-bound tomes in the iron shelves in the Armory, under the Mage's Guild.
In the data crystals arrayed in massive racks in the deepest vault below Khrrck City.
In memory in the hearts and minds of those who made it.
Read.
Watch.
Listen.
Experience the past.
Don't expect the highest quality of writing. After all, this was from my old days... when I was much less adept at roleplay.
Contents
The Dragons
Original Thread: IC RP Fantasy/Modern Tech War (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=315276)
Note: Mutant Dogs was an incredible RPer who I didn't appreciate enough at the time. Alas, he is now disappeared.
First Appearance
The Den, underneath a nameless mountain in a nameless land, woke slowly. The three dragons who were resting there, after a long and exhausting day, were reluctant to get up when it happened.
Ak'mar (his full name was Ak'marthar'ikal, but that was too hard to say.) was the first to notice the disturbance. One of the Den's exits was darker than it should have been.
Ak'mar called over his friends and made off towards the exit, his claws clicking on the wet granite.
At close range, Ak'mar could see that the exit was covered by a sheet of something dark and oily-looking. It certainly wasn't anything he'd ever seen before; it wavered and distorted, as if it was rippling in the wind. Some cave-demons seemed to have gone through it already; he could see the clutter of tracks leading up to it.
One of Ak'mar's friends, (Sk'mak, also known as Sk'makthal'ikka) braced himself, extended his six-foot neck, and fired off a blast of flame at the sheet; it disappeared without a trace.
"Strange." rumbled Ak'mar's other friend. (Tk'akr, AKA Tk'akrra'ikal)
Tk'akr craned her head around the edge of the sheet. "I can't see it from this side. It's like it wasn't there."
Sk'mak tilted his black-scaled head and examined the sheet closely with one reptilian eye. "I've never seen anything like this. Have you, Ak'mar?"
Ak'mar shook his head. "No. There's only one way to find out..."
Ak'mar took a deep breath, and slid his head through the sheet, followed by the rest of his blue-scaled bulk.
Tk'akr and Sk'mak looked at each other wordlessly, then followed Ak'mar through the sheet.
Adventures
Sk'mak groaned fitfully. "You've taken care of them?"
Arak nodded. "Yes. Now, what exactly are you doing here?'
"Got hit by a spell... never seen the like before. Tore my wing up-"
"That wasn't a spell." Arak examined Sk'mak's scorched wing. "It was a SAM missile. Gods, you've taken a beating."
Sk'mak nodded. "It hurts... It'll take weeks to heal."
Arak looked dismayed. "We've got to get out of here. It's only a matter of time before they bring in tanks, or real aircraft. Maybe my levitation spell will work..."
Arak wove the levitation spell around Sk'mak and fed power into it. Sk'mak wobbled, but stayed on the ground.
"I'm not strong enough..."
Sk'mak examined the spell with interest. "Here, let me try." He poked at it until he located the power input, then funneled a massive surge of magic into it.
Arak gaped in astonishment as Sk'mak rocketed into the sky. "How can you do that?"
Sk'mak grinned. "Power."
Arak levitated up to Sk'mak, and they both set off towards Khrrck.
Plottings And Summonings
Tk'akr woke with a start. Her gaze darted about the cavern, searching for whoever, or whatever, that had woken her. "Arak, stop sneaking around. I know you're there."
Arak faded out of one of the walls. "Come on. I've got a plan."
Tk'akr eyed the slightly curved four-foot ivory spike uneasily. "What is it?"
Arak grinned. "It's the First's Fang. Straight out of the Armory."
Sk'mak's eyes went wide. "But... it vanished more than five hundred years ago..." He stopped suddenly, and looked at the Fang. "So that's where it went."
Arak nodded, quietly. "And do you know what we're going to do with it?"
He handled the Fang gently, almost reverently, as he turned it over, exposing tarnished silver runes inlaid into the other side.
Children of Mine, heed my call.
Tk'akr and Sk'mak looked at each other, and nodded.
Tk'akr took a deep breath and yelled. "Sk'mak, come down here! Arak wants us in the Great Hall!"
Sk'mak folded his wings and dropped vertically, snapping them out in a flurry of sand to come to a stop besides Tk'akr.
Tk'akr grinned. "Enjoying having your wing back, huh?" She paused a moment, and looked over Sk'mak's black scales. "It's hard to see the scars. Come on, let's get inside."
Sk'mak nodded, and followed Tk'akr into the depths of the outcrop of reddish rock that was the Mages' Guild.
******************************************************
Arak gestured to the center of the Great Hall with a packarm. "I think I've finally figured out how to get enough power to this thing."
Sk'mak surveyed the tangle of thick copper cable and brilliant crystals wrapped around the Fang. "Where do those cables go?"
Arak grinned. "They go to the accumulator crystals under the Guild. There's also cable running to Khrrck City, Fort Ironscale, the Wizard's Guild, and the experimental facility in the Mage Hills. I think we've got enough magic."
Tk'akr nodded, slowly. "So when are we going to try it?"
"As soon as the other mages get here."
"We are here to use a ancient object."
Arak addressed the assembled mages from a balcony halfway up the Great Hall's walls. "The First's Fang is a promise, given by the First Dragon. In times of absolute emergency, a full Council of dragons can power it and send a distress call. A summons, of sorts, to all the children of the First Dragon. Any shape, any size, any color; they are dragons, and will hear the call. Only a few will come, but hopefully that few will be all we need."
Arak paused for breath, than continued. "Unfortunately, we only have two dragons. We are going to make up for the lack of a full Council by supplying power from the accumulators, which you will help handle. We begin in ten minutes."
Arak called out from the platform. "We're starting... NOW!"
Sk'mak braced himself. Magic crackled through him, burning white-hot trails across his mind's eye, pouring into the Fang...
Nothing.
"All that for this?" asked Tk'akr incredulously, eyeing the Fang. "Nothing's happ-"
The Fang exploded. A wave of magic caught Sk'mak full in the face as every light in the place went out. The last thing he heard before passing out was a ringing, etherial tone...
*************************************************
Kemandorel braced himself. The driller worms were almost at the enterance to his cavern. He lengthened his fangs and claws and prepared for a futile attempt at defense...
A whirlwind of sensations struck him. A call; an offer of transport by some unimaginable means to somewhere.
Anything is better than this. Keman accepted it.
*************************************************
The scene was replayed countless times on countless worlds. Most of the time, the dragons rejected the call. But sometimes...
*************************************************
Blackfang woke, abruptly. What is it?
He reached out with his mind, probing, searching. Amazing...
Well, I'm never one to pass up an adventure. Blackfang accepted it.
*************************************************
The call hit Ak'mar unexpectedly, with enough force to stun. His wings snapped out and locked, keeping him in the air for a moment while he recovered his wits. What was that?
He searched for a moment, but it was gone. Strange...
Ak'mar continued his flight towards the party of men in green armor.
*************************************************
Linden Rathan heard the call, faintly, on the edge of his mind, and dismissed it as some adventurous Dragonlord messing around with magic.
*************************************************
Morkeleb the Black woke, listened for a moment, then went back to sleep.
*************************************************
The First heard it, but She was busy elsewhere.
*************************************************
Sk'mak woke to the unpleasant sensation of someone biting him on the tail. "Wh... wha... what happened? Did it work?"
"You bet it did." replied a unfamiliar voice, with a strange accent.
Sk'mak looked around. Or tried to; it was pitch black. "I can't see."
"Just a moment." replied the voice. A spark of actinic white light lit up above Sk'mak's head, illuminating the area.
Sk'mak looked up. Four... no, he was seeing double. Two scaled, draconic heads.
In the background, he could hear scales clinking and rustling. "Who are you?"
The first dragon, his scales a metallic blue washed with green, smiled. "I'm Kemandorel. But you can call me Keman. You pulled me out of a nasty situation back there. Thank you."
"I'm Blackfang. Enough said." The black dragon was concise. "The power should be back on in a moment." As he spoke, the lights flickered and came on.
*************************************************
Sk'mak heaved himself to his feet and looked around.
He looked again, and counted. Twenty-eight... not counting me or Tk'akr.
"A beautiful sight, isn't it?" commented Arak, from beside him.
Sk'mak looked down. "It is, it is. How long have I been out?"
"About ten minutes."
Keman spoke from behind Sk'mak. "Arak's been explaining things to us. I think I know what I can do to help you. I have a certain unique talent."
Sk'mak looked over the rather unremarkable dragon. There was something subtly wrong about him, but that was no suprise. He was a different species, probably. "What is it?"
Blackfang grinned. "Show 'im, Keman."
Keman wavered and blurred, as if Sk'mak was watching him through water. It was vaguely unsettling to watch, and Sk'mak closed his eyes for a moment. When he re-opened them, Keman was nowhere to be seen.
A Wyrm with dark green scales grinned at him from the floor. "Down here, Sk'mak."
Sk'mak gaped in shock. "Wh- wha- what the? Shapeshifting? B- bu- but..." He spluttered to a halt. "How..."
The green-scaled Wyrm grinned. "I know what I am, and I know what I want to be, and then I adjust myself to fit. I don't know how it works, but I know how to do it, and that's enough for me."
Blackfang smiled as Keman wavered and blurred back into his own shape. "Useful, eh? Come on. I'll introduce you to the others."