NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: This thread is open to all newcomers, but please post your characters profile in the OOC thread (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=476853).

IC:

In the years and decades of the past, I sometimes wonder if selling my soul for power to become a creature of Undeath was the right decision. I achieved abilities most men could only dream of power over the forces of life and death, Immortality, and the ability to inspire fear and despair in my enemies. At first I thought the emptiness in my being was a sign of weakness and loss. I am now certain that giving up my soul was the correct choice. ~ Quoted from the Arch Lich Mavis Constanlio, Two years after his Quest for a soul.


Prologue…. (Four weeks after the Lich's Quest)


The Dark Goddess Minax stood in her realm of power. The Plane of Death her home and the very center of her sphere of influence. This was her private Empire that spanned across the various planes of existence.


The Supreme Goddess Minax had successfully managed to get one her many servants to track down the little renegade Lich Mavis. The little fool had thought that he could escape her notice and that he had now attained a new soul to keep his humanity. That was something Minax would never stand for that was against the very principle of the exchange. Thinking about that reminded Minax about that very exchange.

She thought back to that fateful day he had performed the dark ritual that had summoned her to the mortal plane of existence. She was surprised to witness how bold he was considering at the time he was surrounded by several dragons of good alignment with her help they had managed to remove the giant gnats.

Minax however brought her attention to her mirror of all seeing. She focused this divine tool upon the person she was searching for Mavis. The Mirror revealed the Shadow Plane. Little did Mavis know that Minax already knew where he was to be located thanks to his foolish belief in using magic to hide his present location something that definitely attracted Minax's attention. She watched as the scene unfolded before her eyes..

********************************************************************

Mavis


Mavis was in the Plane of shadows sticking to the darker areas. The lich was attempting to evade a High Priestess of Minax that was chasing him. He turned his head and noticed it was a dark elf female with a staff and a whip that was chasing him. She was gaining on him and it would just be a matter of time before she caught up with him.

The Staff of Shadow and Death was starting to feel heavy in Mavis's hands. The running was fatiguing him. This High Priestess was obviously very fast considering her race and their infamous dexterity. Mavis finally had enough, He turned around and prepared to fight this dark elf priestess and send her directly to Minax.

The Priestess cried out in triumph and prepared to use her staff to launch a ball of fire at Mavis. The fiery ball of death went flying from the head of her staff right at Mavis. The pathetic attack almost made him laugh. The lich started to mutter the ancient words to the Dispel Magic spell. The ball of fire disappeared into oblivion before anywhere near Mavis. The dark elf looked surprised that her staff's power had been so easily countered.

That was the mistake Mavis had been looking for. He took a little bit of dust from his belt that held his spell components. He then began to chant the spell Disintegrate. The dust turned into a green energy that engulfed Mavis's right hand. Mavis then channeled the energy into a ray. The ray of green energy departed Mavis's outstretched hand and headed to his pursuer. The dark elf barely escaped the effects from the deadly green ray. The energy ray had struck her Plate Mail Armor dead on. The dark elf's armor must have been magically protected because the armor was engulfed and should have turned the target to dust instead. The green energy quickly evaporated from existence.

The dark elf High Priestess smiled and said, "Minax, said you would be a difficult one to defeat it seems she was right. That kind of attack is only used by fairly powerful magic users."

Mavis sneered and said, "Well your initial attack was pathetic but your defense is impressive for one who is trying to make herself look weak to convince her enemies to lower their guard."

The dark elf replied quickly hoping the sound of her voice would confuse her target, "I am sorry my old friend but the Goddess wants you and she will have you one way or another!"

Mavis looked at this dark elf woman and finally realized who she was, "Rastilia. Is that you? I thought the Imperial Grand Legion had killed you with all the other Loth Priestesses?" Mavis for a split second lowered his staff and waited for her reply. His human emotions still present thanks to his new soul.

Rastilia smiled and said, "May the Goddess have mercy on you!" Rastilia then chanted to her goddess in ancient her native language, "Lady Minax, I offer you Mavis the prize you have been seeking!"


Mavis quickly noticed a barrier of powerful negative energy had suddenly surrounded him in a cage like manner. Mavis began to start an incantation to a spell that would have broken the barrier when the cage quickly closed in on him at all sides. The walls of the barrier smashed him into place keeping his arms and legs pined. He could not even speak because his ability to speak was hampered due to the sheer force holding him. This was powerful divine magic…

Rastilia sighed and said, "Please forgive me Mavis, I hope the Goddess shows you mercy and does not send you to true death."

Mavis would have responded if he could speak however the negative energy cage was starting to rip a hole into this plane and making a connection into the Plane of Death. Mavis was going to the very place he was hoping to avoid. Fate was sure funny sometimes Mavis thought as he was being forced in his mobile prison to the next plane..

***********************************************************************

The Plane of Death……

The Barrier/Cage dropped from the sky down to the main part of the ground. Mavis felt the full effect of the fall. Mavis was knocked unconscious by the fall and after two hours he awoke from his temporary coma. The sight he saw was something that scared the death out of him. He awoke to see Minax the Supreme Goddess herself seated on her throne of skulls.

Minax smiled and said, "Mavis welcome to my abode. I hope you enjoy your stay because you are going to be here for awhile."

The Goddess then raised her hands and sent a blast of pure dark energy at Mavis who did not even have time to react. The blast sent Mavis flying across the throne room towards the far end wall. Mavis quickly recovered from the blast and in a rage he began to cast a spell to retaliate.


Mavis started to begin an incantation to cast a Horrid Wilting spell. The spell would drain all moisture and water out of an area draining a person until that person became a dry husk of a shell. The spell was quickly cast but the energy that Mavis had used to form the spell fizzled into nothing. The Mavis looked at his hand and tried again this time drying to cast a fireball at Minax. The energy for that spell also fizzled into oblivion.

Minax laughed and said, "Your dependence on magic is quite pathetic against me Mavis. I think for your punishment, You shall be imprisoned in the very heart of the Dark web. The agony of living with such intense energy burning through your decaying skin will be more than enough suffering for your crimes."


Mavis cried; "No!" as an invisible force dragged him away from her throne room…

************************************************************

The invisible force dragged Mavis to the very bottom chamber of Minax's citadel. Mavis watched in horror as the chamber revealed what appeared to be the center of a giant web of dark energy. The center of it was like a giant orb that seemed to possess unlimited energy. The invisible force threw Mavis right at the very center of the Web.


The pain Mavis felt was agonizing as the very source of dark magic surge through him. His once fairly human features like his hair, skin, and some of his organs were ripped away almost instantly from the intense dark power coursing through him.

The magical items in Mavis's possession were super charged beyond epic proportions. The magical protection spells placed upon Mavis tried to stem the tide of such tremendous energy. The protective spells placed upon his Necro-Archmagi robe tried to hold back much of the dark energy that swarmed him.

The protective spells as powered up as they were could not defeat the massive tide of energy but they could allow Mavis enough time to concentrate and gather his strength to gather energy and form objects and spells.

Mavis screamed as the dark energy tried to pull out his very soul that he fought so hard to attain. The Lich however instead of letting his hard won prize get swallowed by the dark magic grasped some of the energy that was around him and focused it to his will. The energy took the form of a soul gem. The soul gem took the form of a ring with a magical jewel that could hold up to one soul.

Mavis then used some of his energy to transfer his soul to the soul gem. The intense power needed for all this was very easily attainable thanks to being so close to the dark energy source that made up the dark web.

The Lich then placed the ring on his finger. He had created a phylactery to house his soul and protect it from the deadly energy. This however did not protect Mavis from the intense pain and agony. His body was aging rapidly from a less than a year old lich to one that was aging to a century a month of this imprisonment…..

******************************************************************

The Present (2 Years after the Lich Quest took place)


The Goddess Minax sat upon her throne and thought about her plan. She knew by now the sheer amount of dark energy in Mavis would overpower him and turn him into her puppet. He would still have his mind but being so close to such vile energy would change him into an evil monster. One that she could easily control with the right amount of force and incentive.

The Goddess willed an image of herself to form in the web with a message for Mavis….

The image formed in front of the tortured figure that looked like a weak defenseless fly in the center of her web. The she smiled like a spider would and said, "Mavis, You have been here long enough. The time has come to release you from your prison and let you loose upon the world. You are now one of my champions. This will bestow upon you Immunity from Necromantic magic. It will also greatly enhance your already formidable power in the arts of necromantic magic. You will also be able to call upon my demonic servants to help you should you need it."

Mavis now totally corrupted by his experience in the web said, "I am ready to do your bidding Lady Minax. What is command for your new champion?"

Minax smiled and said, "You are to be awaken in the city of Val'Thalmas. It is an old elven city were the high elves live to the north of the Grand Shadow Empire. I want you to send them and the world a message. That message will involve this." Minax's right hand suddenly dissolved from her arm and so did Mavis's. Their hands suddenly switched as if by magic.

Mavis looked at his hand and realized he now possessed Minax's hand the one the ancient codex of her holy writings said was her hand of destruction. The very one that could destroy the entire world if a proper ritual was performed in Xhanthou. A holy spot in the Grand Shadow Empire were most of the Exalted Savkoria were slaughtered by Alfred Von Antheron in the final battle.

This spot was a massive grave for the gods and goddesses of good because of this being the final resting-place of the mystical web. The magic of good was now based there with the corpse of the old goddess of good magic. This prevented evil creatures from entering thanks to the massive and powerful holy barrier that would obliterate even the most powerful Lich.

Minax gave her new servant the following orders, "My command is simple, I want you to destroy the city of Val'Thalmas and then return to the Grand Shadow Empire to find a way to bypass the barrier and get into Xhanthou."

Mavis said, "I will do as you command Goddess. The Elves are as good as dead and destroyed!"

Minax smiled and waved her new skeletal hand at Mavis, suddenly Mavis was pulled out of the web and for the first time in a long time he felt no pain or suffering. In fact he felt stronger and he felt that his power was even more intone to the dark web. This was quite surprising to Mavis he had never knew that his power could possible increase that much. It made Mavis wonder if getting a soul was even worth the hassle.


Mavis focused his mind and thought about awakening upon the Prime Material Plane. He could see the very continent and then his vision was starting to zoom down until he had a birds eye view of the elven city. It was a large city with about 3,000 elven inhabitants. It was under the rule of the Elven Queen Mora Delona a fairly powerful priestess of the Elven god Corellon Larethian. Mavis could see the city in all it's splendor and glory. The city was full of large buildings of stone that were shaped like large tower like structures. The streets looked were full of people with the sight of several trees and statues dedicated to various elven heroes and gods.

Mavis had finally found to place to truly awaken. Mavis decided to awaken in the middle of the city at night when everyone was asleep. It would be a night that the elves would never forget provided they survived…

************************************************************************
Val'Thalmas (That Night)

The elven city of Val'Thalmas was quiet and the only sound was the chirping of crickets and the sound of boots from the night watch that patrolled the city and protected it from outsiders. The quiet darkness was disturbed when a flash of light suddenly appeared in the center of the city right on top of the great temple dedicated to Corellon Larethian. The elves on a normal day would have spotted Mavis instantly but nobody would have figured that a Lich could suddenly appear in their city without their sages and wizards knowing about it. That was a big mistake for them.


Mavis smiled at his prey, this city is where he had awakened and now it was time to feed. The Arch Lich began to call down upon the power of his new hand. The sheer power seemed way to powerful for any mortal to carry. The very city itself quaked before the sheer amount of power being channeled from the hand. Mavis then called down to the heavens to destroy this city.

The sky turned from jet black to dark red as the powers of nature were bound to the will of Mavis and his infinite power. The elven rangers and night watched noticed the change first and looked to the sky. They soon watched in horror as flaming rocks from the sky began to fall down upon their city. The hand had called down the meteors from the sky to strike the city from above.


The meteors fell and hit the buildings crushing them and turning them into burning rubble. The devastation was fast and almost instant as people began to panic. Some of them had been killed almost instantly in the initial strikes from the attack. Mavis noticed one of the Meteors was heading for his location. He decided to teleport out of the way.


Mavis appeared next to a large group of night watch elves. They turned around upon noticing the teleportation spell's flash. They saw immediately it was a human lich that had just suddenly appeared behind them. The first thing they saw was Mavis's skull like face his eye sockets contained a magical red energy that acted like his eyes. Mavis looked at these vermin and they could tell there was no sympathy in those eyes. The elves knew right then and there that this travesty had to be the work of this lich after all they were all scheming undead monsters.

The elves were suddenly feeling a sense of dread and terror. The Lich's fear aura had kicked in and some of the elves were shaking with fear. The bravest of them was even starting to back away. Mavis took note and said, "Is this the way of elven warriors to cower away from a fight?"

The elves foolishly tried to attack to make the lich pay for that slight on their honor. Mavis was ready for this and prepared to cast a spell to deal with these little insects. The Lich suddenly cast a mass hold person spell upon this group. The elves were frozen in their tracks as the dark energy of Mavis's spell held them in place. This was exactly what Mavis wanted to feed on their souls. He focused his innate power and began to drain their souls pulling them from their bodies into himself.

The elves screamed in agony as their souls were ripped out from their bodies and forced to enter the undead husk of Mavis were his body would incorporate their power into himself. Mavis then held out his hand and quickly performed a disintegrate spell. Mavis grasped his components for the spell and used them to focus his spell while speaking the incantation.

Mavis upon completing the incantation held out his outstretched palm that was Minax's hand of destruction. The green energy turned into a darker hue of green as the ray was released upon the immobilized elven warriors. Mavis watched with glee, as the ray was much larger than normal. The massive green ray split into several smaller rays that went towards all the poor elves that were frozen in place. The smaller green rays turned the elven warriors into dust on the street.

A smaller elven child watched in horror as the Lich laughed at the destruction he created. The child continued to watch in terror as the Lich started to channel his dark energies in his hand to open portals into the very Abyss itself. The corrupt and vile portals of darkness opened and a horde of demons were released upon the panicked residents of the city. The demons were hungry; they began to eat people right off the street. They also threw large energy balls of fire at the crowds of people. The Lich Mavis cast a spell to put a barrier around himself and the child protecting both of them from the horrible onslaught…

The Lich then looked at the girl and said, "I leave you as the only survivor little one. I want you to go far a wide and tell everyone that Mavis is awakened!"

The little elven girl ran from the city as the corpses of her parents had just been risen as zombies. Mavis laughed as she ran away from him. The fear in her eyes made letting her live well worth the cost of not eating her soul. Mavis then began to order the dead to walk. The demons and undead hunted down the live elves and the meteors continued to fall down until by the time dawn arose Val'Thalmas was a pile of corpses and burning rubble.

The demons were eventually forced back to their plane of origin. The undead continued to infest the ruins. The dead corpses of the elves would rise every night and hunt down any hapless victims that foolishly entered their cursed ruined city. Mavis had put a powerful curse upon the ruins never allowing the elves bodies or souls to rest in peace. They were fated to forever be bound here for all eternity.

The elven child ran away from her home until she found other elves and told them about this Mavis who had destroyed the city of Val'Thalmas without any warning. The rumor started to spread across the land and to other various realms from merchants traders and other such folks about the dreaded new Arch Lich Mavis the destroyer of Val'Thalmas…

OOC: Note the hand is drained after pulling off the huge attack. Mavis's abilities are still enhanced but they are not strong enough to destroy a city. The hand will recharge in a NS month..

ooc: So that spell will only occur once a month?

Kalzog had just enjoyed a feast of merchants. He licked the blood off his lips, while smiling at the destroyed wagons.

"Not too bad...I never truly realized how tasty elves can be...Must be the wines they constantly indulge themselves with," laughed Kalzog as he used a bone to pick the meat from his dagger-like teeth.

He sat down and thought about something the merchants were talking about before Kalzog had eaten them alive. Something about a lich destroying a whole city...

"I don't see that happening often..." he said as he looked at several burns on his arms. Last time he was close enough to a similar catastropie, he had been engaged with a certain Demi-god. Kalzog won eventually...but it didn't come without a price...

"What a story!"

"Indeed! A great tale, sir bard! You'll get a fair share of gold from me tonight."

"Such detail for an event that never happened! How were you able to contrive such a story?"

"I didn't. Val'Thalmas is obliterated. Wiped from the map. Gone. Probably not coming back, either. The Lich I spoke of is very real, and very powerful."

"What are you talking about?" A large elf stood up near the door of the inn. "I just left Val'Thalmas less then a fortnight ago, visiting family!"

"You're lucky, then. I wouldn't suggest going back anytime soon."

As the patrons of the inn laughed and shouted objections, the bandaged bard stood up and left. Those drunken fools would know his story was true soon enough. He only knew about it due to some useful elvish connections, and had only found out about the destruction of Val'Thalmas two days ago. Apparently some Lich had made the city a walking graveyard of undead.

Zyergi Zyerga always tried to stay on the fringes of the Shadow Empire as much as he could and was friendly with the High Elves. He had no love for the Empire, but didn't go out of his way to annoy it either. Perhaps now was the proper time to collect some information of this all-powerful Lich who had destroyed one of the oldest elf cities in existence. Zyergi decide to travle and see Val'Thamas for himself, then venture into the Shadow Empire, perhaps m making a stop in Xhanthou along the way. It would be easy to make his way as a poor bard. For some reason, he was filled with a desire to find this Lich. The curved sword concealed in Zyergi's overcoat gave a crackle of energy as he walked in the direction of Val'Thamas.

OOC: That was not one spell it was a string of really high level spell craft. The hand gives Mavis a "godlike" boost to his spell casting ability especially with destruction magic but he can only use it once a month.

IC:


Mavis was still in the ruins of Val'Thalmas. He had found shelter in the only structure that was somewhat intact the old temple of Elven god Corellon Larethian. The temple was damaged but still functional for housing Mavis and his servants. The undead in the area were currently under his command giving Mavis a formidable army in this region.

Mavis knew his great power was drained and would eventually recharge but a month of waiting would only make him vulnerable. Mavis knew that his attack would attract adventures to the now rumored cursed city. Mavis contemplated on what to do. He thought about sending his army to attack villages across the countryside that would probably draw this nation's army and the attention of the Shadow Empire. The Empire may support such an attack but Mavis knew he could not wait for the Legions to come with reinforcements.


Mavis after several hours of deliberation finally decided to send groups of his new minions to raid the local roads and villages but not expanding any further to avoid the attention of the elven rulers..

The undead started to organize into small groups of skeletons and zombies. The undead creatures began to start hunting and patrolling the ruins at night. They also started to raid the nearby roads and villages leaving damaged property but no bodies. The undead were recruiting from the local population near the city. It was now very dangerous for travelers...

The story was... broken. Not because the teller wasn't telling it correctly, but rather because Steve Smith, paladin extraordinaire, kept interrupting with his own similar, or different, stories.

"Well sure, a lich destroying a town is pretty serious, but that can be fixed. I'm serious! There was once this lich that destroyed a whole castle city of humans. See this sceptre? This belonged to the king of that place. Anyway, me and my companions really handed that lich his own... umm... whatever liches have. Managed to restore the castle, too. Not that that mattered, since years later it was invaded by THREE liches, a couple gigantic zombies, and an army of small ones. I got turned into a squirrel, but man, I was probably the toughest squirrel the world had ever..."

"Um, Mr. Paladin, sir... about THIS lich?"

"Err, right. Sorry. Speaking of sceptres, did you see this other one? From a dwarven king in a city had was devoured by a plague. Barely escaped from that place with my life. See, I wasn't a paladin back then..."

"That's very nice... but can you help with our problems in Val'Thalmas?"

Steve brushed a hand over the stubble that had grown over his handsome face during his latest travels. "Well, I suppose I could. Sounds a little too much like previous exploits of mine... but maybe I could start a trend of smashing liches in various planes."

"Riiiight."

"So, which way to Val'Thalmas?"

"You're not going to face the lich ALONE, are you!?"

Steve pulled a brilliantly glowing longsword from its sheath, and examined the blade. "Know where I got this sword from?"

"I bet I'm about to find out..."

"This giant black skull fortress appeared outside some city we were at on the Astral Plane... me and Alfred, that is. It was apparently locked, and extra-planar beings, compared to ourselves, couldn't enter. So me and Alfred went in. I lost my damn arm to some swinging blade trap..."

The other man looked at Steve with some doubt, as he clearly still had two arms.

"Oh, I'm better now. Alfred put it back on. He's a great priest. Anyway, he had to wait until later, because he couldn't do it right then... so I couldn't use my greatsword," he continued, as he pointed to a massive sword strapped to his back. Just another weapon on his overly-armed self. "So, I found this altar, and on it was this longsword. Apparently it's a pretty powerful holy relic. I beat the snot out of the demi-god blackguard guy who put that fortress there. Fight couldn't have lasted more than 10 seconds. It was a record against him, really. Yeah, I've fought him a few times. He's a pain in my..."

"So what's the sword do?"

"Ah! It's holy."

A few moments passed, as the man waited for Steve to continue on. But he didn't. With an uncomfortable cough, the man asked again, "You're not going after the lich alone, are you?"

Steve looked from the brilliantly glowing sword to the puny man before him, and back to the sword again. "Don't think this is enough?"

"I doubt it."

"Huh. Guess I better look for some help then. You wouldn't happen to have a priest handy, eh? I tend to get pummeled pretty bad in fights sometimes..."

It had taken eight days for Zyergi to reach the outskirts of Val'Thalmas, and by that time it was apparent that his own story was true. Although he trusted his sources, he had never seen an entire city of High Elves destroyed so quickly before. This new Lich must be enourmusly powerful to tackle an entire city by himself. Along the way Zyergi had debated wether or not to face the Lich by himself-he was, after all, on the strong side-but he reasoned that he probably wouldn't be strong enough to take down such a powerful Lich. The only Lich Zyergi ever fought had been young and inexperianced, but still rather strong.

The city was not in sight yet, and Zyergi was worried if he would ever get much closer. A small army of undead creatures was currently roaming around the countryside, plundering and attacking at will. With his extraordinairy stealth skills, Zyergi had been able to pirce through and avoid the occasional patrol thus far, but patrols were now getting much larger and more frequent. It would be relatively safe during the day, but nights were becoming perilous.

At the moment, Zyergi had just passed through one of the small villages surrounding Val'Thalmas. It was completely abandon; looks like the undead were recruiting. It was only half a day's walk to Val'Thalmas now, but night was quickly falling. Zyergi hoped he could get a look at this Lich without getting himself killed beforehand or afterwards.

A day had passed since he first heard the stories of the fallen elven kingdom. Generally disliking elves, Kalzog cared little. They most likely brought it on themselves... he thought to himself.

The ogre was traveling on foot, despite his ability to create a large platform like structure out of the dirt and rock underneath him.

He was humming cheerily to himself, until he heard something strange. A sort of sickening crunch sound. He stopped where he was and noticed a merchants wagon nearby. "What have we got here?" he asked himself, slowly walking towards the wagon, noticing several tears along the canvas.

Three zombies were crunching on a dead merchant until they realized they were being watched by a giant ogre. They mumbled something and shuffled off to Kalzog.

"Dispicable creatures... you are dead! Why must you feast on the good stuff?" growled Kalzog as he began to think of a good spell to dispose the brainless creatures. Finally satisfied with a chaotic fire spell, Kalzog watched as his hands glowed until a jet of fire shot out at the zombies, but instead of burning off what skin remained, as the jet of fire hit the zombies, the jet exploded, sending pieces of zombie flying.

Kalzog explored around the canvas, meeting a group of skeletons, who immediately turned towards him with their weapons. Kalzog laughed. "Too bad you guys aren't alive. I would like to see the looks on your faces as your weapons do no harm to me..."

With his massive fist, he slapped several skeletons away, sending their pieces scattered across the trail. With his other hand, he picked up a medium sized rock, and threw it at the last skeleton, crushing it's spine.

Kalzog grunted and continued to circle the remaining wrekage. Something scuffled against the back of the wagon. He walked back there, noticing a skeleton trying to thrust it's sword in a small elven girl. Kalzog grabbed the skeleton with one hand and squeezed, crushing the bones into a fine powder.

"Hello little girl," replied Kalzog, a smile on his face. The girl looked worriedly at the ogre and squeeked a little "Hello."

"These undead sure are worthless hinderences to us living folk...Just look. People's corpses, all diseased by the pathetic zombies. That leaves nothing for me..." He looked back at the elven girl and smiled cheerfully. "Are you hurt?"

"N-no..." she stuttured.

"Good, then," Kalzog continued with his cheerful attitude. "My name is Kalzog," he opened his palm to the little girl. "What is your name?"

"Lúthien... Lúthien Felagund," she whispered with a small smile, putting her tiny hand on Kalzog's massive meaty one. She would make a beautiful elven woman one day.

Kalzog lifted the girl high into the air, dangling her by her one arm. The girl screamed.

"Felagund, you should be honored. You're about to quench my hunger," Kalzog smiled wickedly. He opened his mouth wide and began to lower the elven girl into it...

She would make a beautiful elven woman one day...if she lived...

Lorathin had kept track of the elves, as well as the trouble-making, chaos causing ogre since he'd met Kalzog. The ogre was a generally headache, and once he'd informed his superior of Kalzog, been told in no uncertain terms to keep the ogre out of extreme mischief as well as to minimize the casulties in his wake.

As the ogre lowered the girl into his stinking maw as Lorathin cast a teleportation spell to bring him to the ogre's vicinity. "Kalzog," He called out, "Put the girl down."

He hoped the ogre would be willing to not be as evil as he sometimes was, or at least accept a substitute dinner.

The Ogre paused as the screaming child was halfway in his mouth. He let out a chuckled as he pulled the girl out. "I thought I smelled something just as foul as the undead."

"I'm afraid I cannot comply. An ogre must eat, and nothing tastes quite as delicious as a living, breathing elf child..."

He raised the girl back to his mouth.

Zyergi suddenly heard a muffled scream somewhere off in the distance as he continued to make his way to Val'Thalmas. He hesitated, still wary of the patrols of zombies and skeletons, then dashed off in the direction off the scream. A few minutes later he came to the edge of a wide clearing; a destroyed wagon was in it's center, surrounded by the destoyed bodies of a few skeletons and zombies and a very, very, very large Ogre lowering an elf child into his maw.

Zyergi was about to issue a challange when a purple haired figure suddenly appeared from thin air-Probably a teleporter, thought Zyergi-and told the huge creature to lay the elf child down. He watched intently to see if the Ogre would comply. Perhaps he could take a little break from going to Val'Thalmas and follow these two instead. And if that girl was a Val'Thalmas survivor...then she was invaluable.

"An elvish child may taste better to your tastebuds, but there is no way they are as filling as cows, which I shall provide you." He commented, "Now unless you want to try chewing through my great aunt Edith's sticky treacle, put the girl down."

Kalzog brought the girl out of his mouth again. "Come now, must you always bug me during dinner? I saved the girl from an undead minion, and now I believe I have the right to do to her as I would want. And I would want her to be my meal," He said, swinging his hands around, making the girl very sick...


Finally, Kalzog dropped the girl in his mouth and smiled. He wasn't chewing though. He was merely...bargaining...

"Get her out of your mouth ya big galoot. Just because you saved her doesn't give you ownership of her." Lorathin said, "I'll give you six cows for the girl, and a cake."

Zyergi had trouble restraining himself as the Ogre dropped the elf child into his mouth. His right hand gripped his sword while his left began preparing a spell-any spell-that might pursuade the beast to spit the girl back out. In terms of offensive magic, Zyergi was not the best of the bunch; although he knew how do defend himself very well against magic, he wasn't too great at fighting with it. Still, he knew some spells that might distract this huge monster and get the girl back alive.

His hand pulsated with energy, waiting for the right moment to strike. Hopefully this other, purple-haired man could convince the Ogre to regurgatate the girl.

Nearly Two Years Ago

After the Great War, an epic battle of the era, the elven clans of the west (I just don't have a name for them) were battered and had lost a severe number of soldiers in the name of the light. As the battle raged, numerous elven warriors fell; too many for them to all be healed by the priestesses of Elune... even the High Priestess - and Princess - Ar'mai.

So it was. After the shroud of battle had lifted, Ar'mai witnesses the countless deaths and unbearable destruction. It was then she had decided that she needed to return home and help reorganize the lives of her clan. War was a devastating thing in more ways then one; it did not just affect the warriors, but also the people on the home front.


One Week Ago

Ar'mai's clan had been restored nearly to its prewar state and the horrors of the war had been put behind them. The leadership was stable again and Ar'mai had more and more free time to do with as she pleased.

Then she heard about the destruction of Val'Thalmas and the massacre of the elves that took place there. "That sounds awful!" she said sympathetically as a messenger recounted the story to her. "I must see it for myself..."

So she decided to set off from her clan in the west and travel to the northeast to witness the carnage first hand. And of course her faithful manservant and friend Bael'ther, the giant warrior elf who had been honored greatly for his deeds in the war of two years ago, accompanied her on the journey.

It would be a long trip to their destination even on the back of Gael'kadar, her winged horse, and so they set off with all due haste...


Present Day

Now off Gael'kadar and traveling on foot for the time being Ar'mai had been tracking someone for the past couple of days. Her keen elven senses and light of foot-ness allowed her to stalk the figure unseen and unknown as it traveled on.

Now she witnessed a horrible sight. The same beast, the giant ogre she had met two years before, was about to devour a small elven girl he had just saved from the ranks of the undead.

"Nish'nu alan."

She unloosed a hail of arrows, six to be precise, in near record time - her arm becoming a blur as she notched and loosed each arrow before the previous one had barely traveled a foot. They were guided with a Blessed Aim spell at the giant ogre, Kalzog. "Put the girl down..."

Kalzog smiled sinisterly as he noticed the elf. His hands glowed white as he unleashed several small twisters, carrying off the arrows before dieing out, sending the arrows clattering to the floor.

He spat the girl out on the floor. "A whole reunion! Elves and human! How woundrous! And it's just like how we first met...I'm peacefully eating my dinner...and you guys have to come to disturb it..." he laughed again, before plucking the wet elf from the ground. "Why, you even shot arrows at me then! It must be the common elven greeting..."

He turn to Lorathin. "Six cows? A cake? Tempting...but not good enough..." he growled.

"Eight cows, a four layer cake, and a dozen eclairs." Lorathin commented as he noticed Ar'mai and scowled. She was annoying but attractive, in a stuck-up way.

There were no priests.
None willing to follow Steve Smith into battle, anyway.
No matter, Steve had found someone else who was willing to follow him around and listen to his stories with rapt attention, as they made their way down the road to the destroyed elven city.

"Elves. Huh. Never trust 'em. Gabriel Landon, an elfy warrior and roguish sort... think he called himself a swashbuckler. Anyway, he told us his homeland was under the rule of some evil wizards... again, more elves. So, we took an aparatus of Qualish over to the island..."

"Sorry, a what?"

"Y'know. A big crab thing... anyway, let's just call it a metal ship. We got to the island, and sure, there were elves there. All elves. What a nightmare. Gabriel snuck into the city. Told us to give him half an hour, or so. After that, I used my magic ring," Steve said, as he pointed to a ring which was no longer magical. "See, we got that after saving mine and Alfred's god from imprisonment..."

"And which god would that be, sir?"

"Thraxis! Probably haven't heard of him. God of war, but a good one. Anyway, the Rings of Friendship let us teleport to each other, over any distance, so we could always be together and share a laugh over stories! So, I pop in, and there's these three elves - other than Gabe - and they're lookin' all threatening. Let me tell you, I look more threatening than a whole army of pansy elves!" He pounded his fist to his chest, which made the sound of gemstone on steel, as his gauntlet covered fist hit the massive ruby in his full plate. "So, these two elite elfy warriors come at us. Supposed to be the toughest of the tough. Gabe starts doin' his fancy sword dance with this one elf. Well, the other one comes at me and tries the same sort of fancy dance. Whacked my greatsword a couple times to try to disarm me... being generally unimpressed, I hacked into him pretty hard. I guess his armour was tougher than I thought, cuz he didn't just die. Hurt bad, though, and the wizard elf that was there put up this glowing wall that changed colours. Figurin' I knew whereabouts the wizard was behind it, I picked up the hurtin' elf and tossed him through. Alfred told me afterwards it was a prismatic wall, and likely the warrior didn't get through it in one piece... I was tempted to go through, but they said it might send me to another plane, and I hadn't realized how much fun that could be yet, at that time!"

"Quite the tale, Steve!"

There was a sudden clang of steel on steel, as a dagger smacked into Steve's back. Before his latest follower could even think to yell, Steve had turned and beaten the skeletal rogue into five kinds of death. "Must be getting close."

"Are you hurt, Steve?"

"Hah! See this monster ruby in the chest of my armour? I heard it was called the Eye of Gruumsh, or some such. Had to beat some avatar to death to get it, too. Made a nice centerpiece for some spiked armour, I figured. Anyway, have you ever heard of a fortifying enchantment?"

The spindly man shook his head.

"I guess it's one of the best enchantments you can get, if you're me. It basically stops anyone from mashing me too hard, or getting a sneaky sort of attack into anywhere that would hurt. It REALLY makes rogues mad when they aim for the back of my neck, and hit the middle of my plate every time."

"Your stories are almost too amazing to be true, Sir Steve!"

"Yep, so I've heard. Well, you should get going back now. I have a feeling I'm about to hit some zombies and stuff head first."

The little man nodded, and turned away, yelling over his shoulder, "Thank you, brave hero! And good luck!" In truth, the little man thought the paladin was quite mad. Likely he would die, and have an unmarked grave, or worse, be turned into another undead abomination. Still, the stories were interesting, if nothing else.

Turning away from the retreating man, Steve gazed into the distance with a frown. Yep, there were undead around. He could almost taste them.

Pulling his holy symbol out from under his armour, he smiled with confidence. "Time to put some corpses who forget they were dead back into the ground."

The Ogre laughed heartily. "I'm getting the feeling you think I like sweet things? I do, but I cannot handle that much. Plus, an elf gives me a balance of bitter, with their attitude. Right, Ar'mai?"

"Sweet, with their wine they constantly ingest themselves with, meat, believe it or not, they do have succulent flesh...ah yes...much different from Skizzarish, who's flesh are mostly tough..."

Zyergi paused a second time. Now he was greatly confused; a very attractive elf women had just appeared from nowhere, and it seemed that these three people knew each other. Zyergi realized that he had just stepped into something much bigger than himself, and was about to involve himself with people who were much bigger and probably more important. He started to prepare a defensive spell, then stepped from the trees and shadows.

"Spit the girl back out, Ogre. At once, if you can."

It was probably not a good idea to reveal himself in this manner, but Zyergi was throwing all caution to the winds now.

"Oh ho ho? Who's this? Why...I don't think we've met," Kalzog said with mock surprise, his wicked grin widening further. "This girl?" he pointed to the girl, who began to scream again. "My friend, Azra-something, was offering me something in return. Perhaps you can place a bid?"

Steve moved quietly - for Steve - down the road. He heard voices ahead, and some crying. The crying was pretty common around undead. People generally didn't like being eaten, and/or killed. But talking was unusual. He hadn't met ... any undead who spoke. He didn't count spellcasting as talking.

Crunching as quietly as a big man in fullplate could go, he continued up the road, towards the group that was making demands of the ogre.

"Then beside the girl, or me or someone else here, what would you prefere?" Lorathin asked as he looked at the new arrival.

Zyergi raised his eyebrows as he examined the small congragation of charachters. What did he have that could compete with the other man's offer of cows and cakes?

"I have no food or animals on me, but I do have plenty of money and jewels. Would you place any value on a small fortune of coins and jems?"

ooc: LoL Gargantua City State, you character cracks me up


Kalzog looked at the goggled man. "What are you? Some bug man? I have no interest in jewels...I certainly can't eat them!" he chuckled. "What's so special about a little elven girl? Surely theres enough elves in the world to go around? They breed like rabbits..."

"What would I prefer? I would like-Hey, who in blazes is that guy?" he asked, as he noticed the strange man in plate mail armor.

"Be that as they may, I've taken an interest in that one." Lorathin replied as he turned to look at the armoured man, "As to who he is, no clue."

Slightly injured, Zyergi tapped his goggles. Some people couldn't appreciate an interesting fashion sense. Not that that was why he wore what he did, anyways. Now he was back to square one. He jumped as he noticed the armored man.

"Erm...We can see you, you know!" This bizzare situation was becoming even more strange by the second.

ooc: was darn fun to play in pnp, too! ;)

ic: "Well, if this isn't the oddest thing I've ever seen...." Steve said, straightening from his 'sneaky' position, and walking cautiously forward. "Actually, that's not true. Any of you ever been swallowed by multiple gargantuan creatures?" Steve patted a small, moderately magical handaxe at his belt. He'd been swallowed so many times, he'd gone questing just for a small axe to help hack his way out of mystical creature's innards. "I guess the frame of reference is a little off with the elf girl and the ogre... that purple worm would have been much larger in comparison to me."

A moment of awkward silence, as those around attempted to digest the odd story... or tried to ignore him... Steve was never sure which.

"I say, ogre. Unhand that wee one. I have no quarrel with you... yet. Luckily for you, I'm here for the undead."

The ogre cocked an eyebrow at the newcomer. "Surely your joking?" he said after a moment of silence.

"I've never been swallowed...but that may be because nothing has ever survived that could swallow me... Oh well, was nice meeting you all. Toodle-oo, ta ta, c'ya another day!" said the Ogre cheerfully, hiding the elf behind his back, while walking backwards slowly.

"Trust me, those things that swallowed me whole regretted it very soon after," Steve threatened. "You're pretty outnumbered.... even if you were as strong as a demigod, something I find unlikely, it'd be a close fight between you and I. Throw in these extras, and I'd say your chances are slim. This meal isn't worth the cost."

Lorathin followed Kalzog, "Please just give me the girl Kalzog." Lorathin asked, "What do you want in exchange for her?"

"Oh? Is that a threat, puny human?" Kalzog laughed. He pointed to the burnt skin on his arm. "This is my own souvinir. I recieved it as I did battle with a particularly powerful demi-god. Single handedly. You had better bet your armor I can take you all out. Single-handedly!" growled the Ogre, dropping the elf child, and ignoring Lorathin.

Lorathin walked over and picked out the somewhat damp elven girl and took a few steps away from Kalzog, and then turned to face the tin-plated warrior, "He's telling the truth, he's fairly powerful."

Kalzog looked around, surprised that Lorathin took the girl. "Hey! That was my dinner!" he shouted.

"Fairly powerful doesn't really worry me much. As for demigods, they're highly overrated. This one has a whole lot of hatred for me, and keeps coming back, and I just keep killing him. See, a dragon is fairly powerful. Only ran into one of those that gave me any grief, and that was because it petrified Alfred. An ogre such as this is fairly powerful. Any of you ever faced the fiercesome Tarrasque?"

He looked around at the group. "Remember those big beasties I was saying I've been swallowed by? Let's just say it's handy to have a pegasus as your friend when a critter of legend like that swallows you, along with two artifacts, which summarily blow up, and launch you into the sky. Only reason I don't have scars from my fights with monsters and villains bigger and burlier than yourself, ogre, is because I always got Alfred to clean me up afterwards. A paladin has to look good, you know."

"Well I'll supply you with my last offer, but she's not your dinner anymore." He replied with a grin. Looking down at the shaking girl, he asked, "What's your name, and don't worry, I don't have any nefarious intentions."

Zyergi sighed and relaxed a bit. The immideate problem of saving the elf child was over. Now he just had to get the girl for himself. That could come later, however. Now, five people high strung people armed with a variety of weapons were standing very close to each other. Well, mabey that idiot in the armor wasn't too high strung, but Zyergi was relatively sure everyone else was.

Zyergi inspected the Ogre closely. He was definetly strong-what ogre wasn't?-but strong enough to defeat a Demi-God? Zyergi doubted this claim.

Kalzog looked towards the girl. "He want's to gut you and eat your insides..while you're still alive! Should've stuck with me, girl..."

He turned back to the paladin. "Oh? I have battled two dragons by myself. And a second...with others, but I had done most of the work..."

"I can give you a list of my glories, twice as long as yours, just from my battles done before you were even born..." he growled as he walked up to the paladin.

Steve, not to be outdone, stepped up to the ogre. Surely shorter than the great warrior, Steve radiated confidence. "THAT sounds like the kind of challenge I'm up for! Because I'm willing to bet you haven't been alive for over 200 years! Hah! Being imprisoned by a demilich increases lifespan far beyond anything an ogre could ever know! Now, if you'd like to continue on with this debate over who has faced more impossible odds, I'd welcome you to try. But it grows late, and perhaps we could do it around a campfire for the night."

ooc: I've got to get to bed soon. Early to rise, tomorrow.

"Kal, stop lying. Also, stop bragging. You, whatever your name is, stop posturing. I'm sure you're excellent, and there'd be no profit, and a waste of talent for you two to attempt to turn each other into luncheon meat." Lorathin said in an attempt avoid them pounding on each other.

"Try, over 1000 years, human!" Kalzog huffed, puffing out his great chest.

"However, I would like to take up that offer around a campfire...Along with my dinner," he said, glancing at Lorathin and the elf girl.

Zyergi suddenly became aware of the fact that this meeting of the living had attracted quite a few undeads as well. A number of zombies and skeletons were waiting just within the tree line, and more were probably coming. He turned and saw the Ogre and the armored idiot close in on each other. Was that dolt actually going to fight the Ogre? Perhaps a shield spell would be in order to make sure the paladin didn't kill himself.

"While you two do whatever it is you are doing, I just want you to know that there's a couple of undead creeping around. Not that you're worried or anything at the moment, of course."

"Ah, I'm sorry friend. My name is Smith... Steve Smith. A paladin from... well, nowhere near here, I assure you. If you wish, you can share the fire as well, and add any interesting stories you may have... although compared to my stories, and those of this ogre, I find it hard to imagine anyone else being able to compete..."

"Do you want them whole, or as meat?" Lorathin asked, as he looked around and saw the undead. He still held the girl, as he didn't trust her to be able to stand.

"Ah excellent! Bug-man has found us a target...Smith, prepare to see how a professional deals with the undead..." chuckled the Ogre as he cracked his knuckles.

"A thousand years? You're bluffing."

Smith turned around in a full circle, looking at the rag-tag army of undead that had crept up on them. With a sardonic grin, Steve looked at the ogre. "Professional what? Stand aside, and watch what a paladin does to a few mindless zombies!"

Steve gripped his holy symbol, and waited for them to get closer.

Still resenting being called "Bug-Man," Zyergi loosed a pair of daggers from his coat. All of his daggers were inset with enchanted gems to give them enhanced powers; most were electrical, showing off his obvious taste, but he kept a pair or two of blessed knives for situations like this.

"Don't think that I'm going to stand around and watch you people have the most fun." Zyergi brandished his blades and waited for the Undead to move forward.

Ar'mai had remained fairly silent during the contest of who had the bigger... well you know what...

She had, however, remained transfixed on the little elven girl, and decided that she didn't trust her with Lorathin. It was highly doubtful that he had any skills with children and the fact that she found him highly annoying only aided her decision to help the girl.

Ar'mai calmly walked over to where Lorathin stood with the girl and bent down so that she was at eye level. "Shala," she said comfortingly to the little elven girl. "My name is Ar'mai, what is yours?" she asked. Certainly being the only other elven female in the ever-growing group would allow the little girl to identify her and be more comfortable around her than anyone else. At the same time she raised a hand slowly to just below the girl's eye level and suddenly a swirl of sparkles and colored patterns appeared - it was a little trick that was used in most elven clans to amuse the children.

ooc: I am going to assume we allow Deatharon to RP the little girl.

"Forget waiting..." The Ogre growled as he jumped into the crowd of undead, landing on some, crushing them under his immense bulk. Flailing his arms around, he crushed several others. "Ha ha! Paladin, smaladin! What one needs, is a true fighter! Getting down and dirty with these beasts!"

Steve had expected the ogre to jump in. While the ogre smashed the puny undead, Steve walked up behind to maximize the effect. Closing his eyes, he felt a shiver run down his spine, and with a great battlecry, he yelled, "THRAXIS!" A wave of holy energy blasted through the area, and the ogre suddenly found himself without any nearby targets, as a great number of the undead simply crumbled to dust.

"What was that we needed?" Steve smirked.

"A tombstone!" growled Kalzog as he turned around, ready to smash the paladin. Suddenly, the elves caught his attention.

"Get away from her! She should be close to me...being that I'm the one that found her..." he said, licking his lips.

"Hello Ar'mai." He said as he sat down with the elven child on his knee. As Ar'mai did her little light display, he gestured for her to take a seat. He might dislike her somewhat, but he did respect her. "Where's Bael'ther, if you don't mind me asking of course?" He inquired as he pulled out a vial he'd gotten from a wizard he'd helped, a wizard who had a fascination with bottling things and had run into problems with trying to bottle a demon, pulling the cork out and up-ending the bottle, a few sandwiches and cookies fell out.

"Would you like some?" He asked both elves.

Zyergi raised his eyebrows as the Ogre charged. Typical for this sort of creature, anyways. Zyergi jumped, vualted off a tree, and smashed into a small crowd of zombies like a missile. The enchanted blades cut through the zombies like butter as Zyergi started to pull off some fancy bladework as more and more undead were attracted to him. Soon there were far too many to deal with using only daggers.

Zyergi placed a protection spell over himself as he unsheathed his elegant saber. A large green gem was attached to it's hilt, sending sparks of energy up and down the blade. He concentrated for a moment before bolts of lighting started to issue from the saber's tip, slicing through rows of skeletons and zombies. Zyergi pushed the blade into the eye of one zombie; it's head exploded as the wave of energy cut through three others. A skeleton somehow got close enough to swing it's simitar.

Shield!

An invisable wall appeared around Zyergi, shattering the weak blade as his saber cut off the skeleton's head. After expertly slicing open half a dozen more zombies, no more targets presented themselves. Zyergi looked at the Ogre and Paladin.

"Neither of you have very refined styles, do you."

Steve smiled. For an ogre who had been alive for 1000 years, this one was certainly short-sighted. Freeing his holy sword from its sheath, he took a page from the ogre's book and reverted to his most favourite tactic: wade in and crush. The glowing sword shone like a beacon in the dimming light, allowing anyone who took a moment to look to see a clear vision of a holy knight methodically moving through the enemy undead ranks.

"Where's Bael'ther, if you don't mind me asking of course?"

"Would you like some?" He asked both elves.

Ar'mai shook her head in response to the second question about the flask before turning her head slightly to the left where the thick woods stood. Sure enough the giant warrior elf, standing in at over eight foot four inches [8'4"] emerged with his two massive blades by his side.

"Don't need a refined style against undead... or most things, for that matter." Steve sheathed his sword when he was sure the undead had had enough for one night. "Any time I've seen fancy fighting in the past, it hasn't been as quick as just hammering through. You remind me of Gabriel, a bit."

Turning from the group, Steve spotted an excellent spot for a campfire, and to pitch a bedroll. With a sharp whistle, a pegasus appeared, swooping down from the sky with Steve's supplies. "That a girl," Steve said soothingly, as he gave the pegasus a hard pat on the rump. "Go find a nice safe area to sleep. I wouldn't trust this ogre at night with you nearby. I'll be fine without you."

The pegasus nuzzled him once, before taking off once more.

Looking back at the group squabbling over a child, Steve figured the conversation for best warrior was probably over for the night. But if he had his guess right, he'd be seeing more of these people, and there would be plenty more interesting stories to tell...

ooc: g'night! I'll catch up later, if you guys keep on going. :)

"Thank you." Lúthien said as she took a sandwich. She was torn between kinship with Ar'mai, and the strange human. "My name's Lúthien Felagund. What's your name, and how did you do that?" She asked, directing the first to Lorathin, the second to the priestess.

"My name's Lorathin, and I hope you enjoy the sandwich." He replied, "Oh hello Bael'ther, I didn't see you there, would you like a sandwich or cookie?"

Bael'ther merely shook his head as he appeared out of the woods and crossed the plane to where Ar'mai was squatting next to the child.

"What are you doing out here?" Ar'mai asked in a soothing voice to the girl.

"I was with my mommy, daddy, and brother Althaer going home from vacation when we were attacked by the skeletons and fleshy smelly skeletons." Her she broke off and began crying while she pressed her self into Lorathin's arms. She liked him as he'd fed her and saved her from the ogre, even if he wasn't an elf and looked funny for a human.

As Lúthien told her tale, or at least until she came to the traumatic part, he just sat there with her on his knee, but when she began crying, he held her close to confort her.

That is awful... Ar'mai thought as she listened to the young girl's horrible story.

"Better let me handle her," Ar'mai said to Lorathin before adding, "You know how it is... I just know her a little better."

ooc: Sleep

"If she wishes to." Lorathin said over Felagund's head as her crying started to subside, "And it may surprise you to know I know quite a bit about elven girls, my sister was one afterall." He added with a touch of sadness in his voice.

The Zombies and Skeletons in the area charged at the fools that had dared come so close to the domain of the master. The Zombies wielding old farming equipment and other assorted weapons attempted to come at the enemy head on. The Skeletons a bit faster and smarter than their Zombie counter parts attempted to circle around the adventures trying to surround them.

The Skeletons with short swords and shields along with a small group of Skeleton archers attempted to move along the back of the advancing Zombie horde. They would provide extra support to the assault.

The Skeletons that were trying to surround the adventures once in position would then attack from all sides while the extra skeletons with short bows attempted to rain a hail a volley of arrows upon them. The Skeleton's archery left a lot to be desired in the area of accuracy however…
*************************************************************

Mavis sat on his new throne in the center of the old Elven court of Val'thalmas. Shackled and chained to the floor in front of him was his new plaything Mora Delona the elven queen of Val'thalmas.

She looked up at her oppressor and asked, "Why did you destroy my people and our city? I do not see any other Imperial soldiers or necromancers with you." She paused for a moment when Mavis started to glare at her his red eyes piercing into her very soul. She finally said, "I know you are using my people to forge your army but why have you attacked. We paid our tribute to the Shadow Emperor and he has not bothered us in centuries."

Mavis finally spoke after she had mentioned the Shadow Emperor, "I am afraid this mission is a little bit above the good Emperor's head. I have destroyed your city under the command of the Queen of Death herself. I suggest you learn to live with that fate."

Queen Mora Delona finally asked, "I demand that you tell me why you have decided to let me live!"

Mavis smiled and said, "You are an elven queen and a High priestess of a good deity. I need you to help me open the barrier around Xhanthou."

Mora laughed at Mavis and replied, "Lich, even if I could open such a powerful barrier constructed by your people's fallen gods. What makes you think I will open it up to allow you in?"

Mavis sneered at her and replied, "My mistress will be most displeased and will allow me to kill more of your people. She may even call her son and tell him to bring his vast legions to these lands with orders to slaughter and raze all in their path!"

Mora had a horrified look on her face. The thought of the Grand Shadow Emperor's Legions crossing the border and advancing into the forests and cities of this area could not be tolerated. She knew how the Shadow Empire dealt with its enemies brutally and ruthlessly and without mercy. The corpses would mount and then rise against the living and the horrors of the last war raced back in her mind..

Mora replied in a startled tone, "Even, if I open Xhanthou to you what good would it do you? The place is just a holy resting place for the last traces of good in Deatharon?"

Mavis finally raised his right hand up and showed Mora how foolish her initial assumption had been. The right hand that Mavis held up was not the mummified hand everyone expected from an old undead lich. It was instead a female hand of a living lady with black nails and a skull tattoo in the palm. It took Mora a second to realize this was the hand of Minax.


The notorious hand of destruction, The very one said to be able to destroy this world should the dark ritual be performed at Xhanthou. Mora looked horrified and screamed, "No!" as the Skeletons and Zombie guards dragged her away at the wave of his right hand….

Mavis laughed a sickening, dark laugh as his power started to mingle with the very forces of nature. A series of dark clouds were forming around Val'Thalmas….

It was Steve's watch, as he heard the unmistakable shuffling of undead bodies all around. "Rise and shine, everyone," Steve said with a cheery voice. "We don't want to keep these undead legions waiting!"

With a soft ringing sound, his longsword was unleashed. Out came his shield, just as one of the first skeletal archers let fly. Surrounded as they were, Steve simply picked a direction, and started walking, chanting a song to Thraxis as the melee warriors amongst the skeletons and zombies came on. From their numbers, Steve knew this would be a long fight. It would probably be a long DAY, being near the stronghold of a lich.

Steve decided to let loose one blast of holy energy from Thraxis to weaken the lines, turning many undead to dust, before launching himself into melee. He could call upon Thraxis many times a day, but he'd save it for if things got really bad...

Zyergi had been resting in a high tree, yawning as he was rudely awoken by a skeleton arrow lodging into the wood a few inches from his face. He started leaping from tree, throwing daggers at the skeleton archers at the back of the zombie forces. Not wanting to have to pick up all of his daggers afterwards, he dropped from the trees and started causing havoc among the archers with his sword and electrical powers. He flew forwards and smashed into the back of the zombie force, causing some confusion in the undead ranks.

"If she wishes to." Lorathin said over Felagund's head as her crying started to subside, "And it may surprise you to know I know quite a bit about elven girls, my sister was one afterall." He added with a touch of sadness in his voice.

"And it may surprise you to know that I know quite a bit more about elven girls, I was one after all," Ar'mai mocked, though it was the truth and she made a good point.

"Yes you were, and are." He replied in a neutral voice, quite unlike his normal barb he'd have shot back at Ar'mai.

Meanwhile Lúthien had settled down and drifted off to sleep.

"Ar'mai, would you mind setting up a ward to keep the undead away?" He asked, thought it was appearent that his mind was somewhere far away.

"Undead...what good are they?" growled Kalzog. He had just begun to rest, when the paladin woke them all up.

Kalzog slowly got up and found a large rock. He pulled it from the dirt with his meaty hands and swung it around until it reached a somewhat high speed. Letting go of the rock, it swung into the ranks of undead, crushing a good number of them. He rubbed his hands together and smiled.

Again, he jumped high into the sky, landing right in the undead horde. Yet this time, he placed his glowing hands on the ground, and within seconds, the ground around him cracked and buckled. Suddenly, a spike of rock and dirt sprung up, smashing through a skeleton. Several more spikes rose up, destroying the undead.

Kalzog spread his arms out, gusts of wind erupting from them, breaking the spikes into deadly shrapnel, smashing through many other skeletons. Kalzog laughed maniacally as his eyes glowed a deep red. "I love that spell..." he growled.

The undead Legion attempted to swarm their opposition. They were suffering the usual amount of causalities, as they would expect against a small peasant militia force. The Zombies headed toward the biggest target they saw and that happened to be Kalzog. The ogre seemed like the biggest target thus the most meat and the Zombies were craving flesh. The Zombies raised their pitchforks and sickles as they charged at him.

Zyergi's attack had landed him in the back of the massive assault where the best of the skeleton warriors were waiting. The rogue had time to kill several of them before they turned and attempted to cut him down with their elven-crafted weaponry. Some of them wore elven armor and carried shields to block the rogue's blows. They were still vulnerable however to his speed and agility which they could not match..

Steve was in the midst of the horde and the nearest Zombies and skeletons hacked at him with their weaponry trying to overwhelm him with their numbers. The Zombies would even try to bite him when he revealed exposed flesh.


One of the Skeletons, The obvious captain of the group watched the confrontation from a hill above the battlefield. The Skeleton rode upon a nightmare and wore black armor and looked like a fallen elven knight. The unholy skeleton knight raised his sword and left the field heading back to Val'thalmas to warn his master…

Zyergi was facing off against the best skeletons the attacking force had to offer; these armored foes proved to be more difficult then other skeletons or zombies, but not by much. Relying on fancy acrobatics to keep out of spear and sword range, Zyergi started jumping from tree to tree, hurling bolts of lightning and daggers down at his foes. The skeletons were beginning to get confused. An isolated group of archers started trying to bring Zyergi down from the trees; the rouge stopped thier arrows with a simple barrier spell, lit the tips, and sent them flying back at their original owners. killing them.

Zyergi had just enough time to catch sight of a black-armored Skeleton knight riding massive steed going in the direction of Val'thalmas; the knight was gone before he could hurl a knife or send off a bolt of lightning in it's direction. As Zyergi contined to spar with the skeleton soldiers, he had a bad feeling that something much worse was about to head his way.

EDIT:3000 Posts! Woot!

Zombies and skeletons began to surround Kalzog as he smashed his fist into skeleton after skeleton after zombie. Kalzog roared with delight at the chaos around him, a large tattoo on his back glowing white, along with the tattoos around his arm and hands.

Kalzog noticed the undead tactic and brought one of his hands high above him, sending it crashing into the ground underneath him, creating a powerful white shockwave, shattering and destroying more of the undead nearby.

As more undead swarmed over their shattererd comrades, Kalzog spread his arms again, but this time spun a full circle, splitting his enemies apart with his flailing arms.

The Skeleton warriors that fought against Zyergi came up with a simple plan. They started to lap their shields together forming a wall of shields. The Skeleton warriors then tried to advance as a unit while moving at Zyergi. They tried to pin him in an area while the archers attempted to hit him while he went into the trees. The cost to perform this was large as several Skeletons were brought down by a lucky knife strike or a powerful bolt of lighting that sent them flying.


Kalzog's tactic was working incredibly well against the forces that tried to surround him. The Zombies were hardly more than brain dead corpses that hunger for the flesh of the living and following the commands of their creator. The Zombies/Skeletons continue to try and swarm Kalzog as he sends them flying or smashing them apart with his massive fists.

Zyergi was getting a bit nervous. While that huge ogre was wreaking havoc on the zombies, he was stuck with an advancing unit of armored skeletons. The trees were becomeing dangerous and unpredictable; he dropped to the ground to face the oncoming shield wall. He couldn't break through with his sword, and knives would be useless. A final thought entered his mind as he unhooked another pair of daggers from his coat; these two were his only pair of fire-enchanted weapons. Zyergi paused to activate the enchanted rubies within their hilts, then prepared a powerful spell.

"Flame Barrier!"

Zyergi spun his daggers in a semicircle around his body before a sheath of intense flame exploded around him, enveoping him. A second barrier exploded into a sphere, turning everything within a foot of Zyergi into ash. He was now effectively a giant flaming arrow. He used this power effectively as he smashed directly into the center of the skeleton line, bone and metal alike melting beneath the flames. Zyergi flung his two daggers sideways; instead of getting lodged in the Elvish armor, the weapons simply melted through them like a hot poker and kept on colliding. It was too bad for the skeletons that they had formed a straight line instead of a column. Most of the skeleton line fell dead and burned as the survirors became hoplessly scattered. Zyergi sent the flames around his body forward into the group of archers, vaporizing even more skeletons.

"Yes you were, and are." He replied in a neutral voice, quite unlike his normal barb he'd have shot back at Ar'mai.

Meanwhile Lúthien had settled down and drifted off to sleep.

"Ar'mai, would you mind setting up a ward to keep the undead away?" He asked, thought it was appearent that his mind was somewhere far away.

"Huh? Oh... certainly," Ar'mai replied as her focus had been on the sleeping elven girl. So sweet and innocent... she thought as she watched the figure move slightly in rhythm with her breathing. I guess not really innocent anymore...

The high elven priestess stood up and closed her eyes. A holy ward would do well here against the undead she figured and so she went about the quick ritual of producing one.

In a matter of a seconds, a large circle of light and energy, about ten feet in diameter, appeared around Lorathin, Lúthien, and herself. The the circle continued to glow and sparkle for several more moments before it seemed to cool off, leaving the image of white circle imbedded into the ground (also with three parallel lines running through it - one through the center and one on either side near the center). "Done..." she said softly, careful not to wake the slumbering girl.

The Skeletons warriors had suffered badly and Zyergi had wiped out most of them with the flame barrier attack. The remaining ones just charged at him head on. They had their shields up while doing this to counter Zyergi's projectile attacks. The lead Skeleton warrior with his long sword raised screamed word for word, "For….. Master… Mavis…!"


The remaining archers continued to belt Zyergi with what was left of their ammunition. Some of the Archers took up to taking fallen weapons and raising them against the rogue to avenge the huge numbers that had lost to him..


************************************************************************

The Skeleton knight had finally reached the master of the ruins. The Lich Mavis was sitting on his throne when one of his captains reported about a group of enemies that had breached deeply through the patrols and had now destroyed or damaged one of the several Legions that guarded the ruined city.

Mavis smiled and decided the time had come to release one of his new toys against these new enemies that had decided to challenge his mastery of this area…

"Thank you." He replied in a voice that was just as soft. "I know we got off to a bad start way back, with my evasiveness. I'd like to apologies, and any questions you might have I'd be happy to answer any questions."

He gently cradled Felagund, so she might sleep peacefully, as he talked with Ar'mai.

As the few remaining skeletons charged forward, Zyergi came to realize that he only had a single knife left in his considerable arsenal. The rest were buried in the bodies of skeletons and zombies. As he was beginning to become slightly tired from all this combat, he did not want to face all these warriors with just his sword. Zyergi muttered a simple levitations spell, and daggers started to slide out of the undead creatures they had killed and floated in the air. The skeletons stopped and prepared themselves for what would come next. Zyergi snapped his fingers and shot his arm forward, sending daggers from all directions high into the air and down in to the small mass of skeletons as deadly projectiles.

As Zyergi expected, the skeletons raised thier shields to block the attack; relatively few were taken by the daggers. As the shields of his foes were occupied, Zyergi dove down and started giving great chops to the knees and legs of the skeletons, decapitating a large part of the remaining force before cutting off thier heads. The skeleton archers continued to fire at Zyergi, but thier arrows either missed or hit their own kind as he continued to hack his way through the distracted and disorganized mob of undead. Finally, Zyergi killed the last sword-armed skeleton-the leader with the longsword. Zyergi then performed the same levetation spell he had before, and sent his daggers flying straight at the skeleton archers instead of dropping them from above. Lacking the shields that the warriors had, the remainder of the archers were quickly cut down.

"Thank you." He replied in a voice that was just as soft. "I know we got off to a bad start way back, with my evasiveness. I'd like to apologies, and any questions you might have I'd be happy to answer any questions."

He gently cradled Felagund, so she might sleep peacefully, as he talked with Ar'mai.

Could this be an actual human exterior that she was seeing in what she had formally known to be cold, elusive, and annoying rock named Lorathin.

Questions... Ar'mai thought. She didn't have many any more... not after all of the time she had spent with the mage and the countless weeks since they had separated - surprisingly, she had been able to learn much in both time periods. "You spoke of your elven sister..." she commented gently.

As she waited for him to respond she quickly added a little piece of advice, "Elves tend to sleep quite lightly, even at a young age, so be careful how much you rock her."

"Yes, my sister Amaudrim. She is responsible for my existance." He said in the tone of voice of one relieving a most traumatic memory. "She saved my life at the cost of her own." Here his voice broke as he hadn't touched these memories in many years and he found them as sharp as the day they'd happened.

"Would you care to continue, or are the memories to hard to have come rushing back so suddenly," Ar'mai said sincerely. She certainly didn't like Lorathin yet, but that didn't mean she was cruel or unsympathetic. Though it was something she did want to know - it would most likely give deep insight into the mage's personality, character, being, and much more...

"Ho ho! May I hold my meal- er elven friend?" Kalzog shouted, as he walked up to the group, grinning widely, licking his chops. He noticed a zombie clinging to his back and plucked it off and snapped it in two.

He looked at her for the first time since he'd begun talking about Amaudrim and nodded slightly. Raising a hand he wiped his eyes and continued, "Many years ago, my step-mother had slighted a member of a powerful and secretive order. He happened to be one given to grudges. Once he'd risen high enough in the Talion order, he sought vengence and struck. I was seven, and Amaudrin was nine."

Here he paused again to wipe his eyes and looked down at Lúthien before carrying on. "We had gone out to pick flowers and when we returned we saw our house on fire and our parents surrounded by brigands. Our mother spotted us and yelled for us to run as the men had also seen us. Amaudrim led me into the woods and bade me hide. She then led them away. Three days later I left hiding and came upon her body."

He paused again as now tears were openly running down his face, "They'd defiled them both before killing my entire family in a horrible manner." Here he broke off and began weeping silently, his shoulders racked by sobs.

"I see," Ar'mai said comfortingly. "There seems to be a lot of elf massacring going around lately..."

There wasn't much else one could say when one was told about a horrendous act that occured in years long past. There was just an odd and yet fitting silence that overtook the night...

The unburdening of the most tragic event in his past, as well as the girl that was so like his long dead sister that he held in his arms had had a beneficial effect on Lorathin as if a chapter of his life had finally been finished. After he'd finished weeping he looked at Ar'mai and Bael'ther as well as Lúthien and felt peace.

The sound of branches snapping, and the ground being flattened could be heard after the army was decimated, and out of the bush stomped Steve with a big grin on his face. A few minor cuts and bruises were all he had to show for his melee with the forces. Once he'd realized the size of the army was shrinking, he'd begun using his ability to turn undead a couple more times to quickly dispatch large numbers of the vile adversaries.

Seeing the fighting was over, his voice rose in prayer, as he touched his face. A soft warmth filled him, and the worst of the bloody lines were sealed. Bruises he wouldn't bother healing.

"I hope they have something bigger," Steve said as he approached the group that was still facinated with the little elf girl. "This is going to be over far too quickly if that's all they can throw at us."

"I wouldn't be suprised if something else was coming at us," said Zyergi, walking beside Steve. He had a few minor cuts and bruises and his bandages were a bit singed from his flame barrier, but other than that he was fine.

"A black knight escaped before I had time to bring him down. No doubt he'll be coming with reinforcements sometime soon."

He cast his face at Lorathin, Ar'mai, and the elf girl.

"Thanks for all the help with the skeletons and zombies and all that." His tone was sarcastic as he spoke. "Does it really take both of you to care for our little elven friend?"

"You guys seemed quite pleased to boast and show off to each other," Ar'mai snapped back. "I didn't want to interrupt your pathetic little man dance with one another."

OOC: Thanks, to Mavis’s traumatic experience with the Dark Web he has forgotten much of the Lich quest and it’s characters.

The undead legion was utterly destroyed in the battle against the unknown travelers. The Arch Lich Mavis Constanlio finally decided to have a look at these pests that had now proven to be a decent threat to his power. Mavis looked into the bowl of water that was to show him the intruders. The dark magic focused in on them. He saw a strange tattooed ogre, and a bandaged man with a large long sword, a knight of some kind and what appeared to be a very oddly familiar female elf and a strangely familiar wizard. He also caught a glimpse of an eight foot tall elven fighter that also seemed to spark some memory that Mavis had long forgotten.


Mavis had a sudden and quick flash back of flying on the back of a Nightmare looking for something that he could not quite remember. Mavis was intrigued as he thought back but then a more pressing concern came to his mind. If they dispatched his minions that quickly it would be a matter of time before they tried to come after him. The euphoric thought fizzled into nothing as the heartless Lich became more paranoid and aggressive than usual for one of his kind. Mavis raised his right hand over the bowl and gave a silent command to his minion who was already in place right under the party’s feet…

“Earth Necromental rise from your hiding place and kill the intruders that have dared to defy the goddess and my power!”

*************************************************************




The Earth Necromental rose practically under their feet. It made a massive rumbling from the ground as it raised itself up from the ground. The Earth Necromental looked like a nine foot tall rock creature with skulls and signs of rot and death on it. The creature radiated dark energy as it raised it’s massive fists ready to pound it’s opposition to the ground…

The forest was terrified of the new occupants which patrolled upon the once lush soil. No animal dared return to the recently scourged land, no beings with a desire for self-preservation would enter such a desecrated place without good intentions...or good reason. The air itself was bitter to the taste, the cold and lifeless aura which emanated from the chilled ground made the mind bitter and solemn. Happiness seemed to be drained downwards into the desecrated soil of the elves.

It suited Zaii perfectly. His emotions were steady, his mind was clear of trivial thoughts. Only thoughts about the fluctuating energies which swirled throughout this place, and thoughts concerning this land's new occupant populated Zaii's the mind. The mage had sensed the vast exposure of power that had caused this devastation; it was like a stagnant vortex now. Draining and contaminating life as it lurked about the destruction it had caused. Whatever spell had caused such an unholy act to occur, Zaii knew that no mortal could have done without extreme assistance. And from the creatures which patrolled this area dutifully signified the methods of whoever caused the destruction of this area. Skeletons silently ensured no opponent crossed this land without challenge, their arms gripping blades which shone in the low moonlight. It was a typical summoning of a necromancer, and one of many skeletons which padded around this place.

Zaii had his back pressed against the cold stone of rubble, rubble which until recently had formed the walls of some functional building for the elves. At his feet, a corpse lay face down. A woman who had become ash grey and seemed to becoming engulfed by the ground itself. Zaii suspected that such a woman would be brought back into this world in the guise of a zombie, a mindless thing which would serve what weaver of the dark arts littered this place.

The black robed wearing mage closed his brown eyes and calmed his mind further. He was fortunate to be in such a deadly calm and almost serene place for him. His thoughts flowed easily within the trained mind of Zaii D'zol, and he formed the thoughts of a spell to his lips. The arcane patterns which he would have form fluttered into his mind, and the spidery language of magic crawled from his soul into his tongue.

Zaii opened his eyes and extended his right hand towards the skeleton, moving his left hand in a sharp downwards motion. The mage spoke soft words of enchantment upon the skeleton, which left it without the power to move. It was held in place for long moments, while Zaii delved into the mind of this skeleton and was granted the knowledge he sought. He understood who summoned the being now, what purpose it serve, and the complex nature of this enhanced spell to bind the dead to walk. With his knowledge completed, Zaii performed a small fluid motion of both hands which made the skeleton shudder, and crumble into nothingness. The magic had been dispelled, and Zaii now had the information which would allow him to act in this obviously hostile place. It gave him a degree of satisfaction having some insight on who was manipulating the dead here.

Before Zaii could act upon his new found knowledge, a surge of energy forced itself into the world. An act of summoning, a rather potent and advanced manipulation of energy. The boots upon Zaii's feet felt the vibrations deep in the ground which spawned some creature. This was not some simple minded skeleton that was summoned.

The mage closed his eyes once more, and cast his eyes towards the recent summoning. Through a single word, he forced his mind to see what his eyes could not. The Earth Necromental rose from the earth, raising it's great columns of soil for fists against a mismatched group. Certainly not a party to scourge the place in unison. The presence of a ogre indicated against this, along with the righteous holier than thou paladin which Zaii hated. No, these people have plans of their own, Zaii thought.

His mind returned to his body, and within a few heartbeats, brought himself cautiously towards this new creature. He crouched, composed and prepared to act or avoid the wrath of this creature while it concentrated upon it's foes. Zaii prepared his mind and body for a combat if the group failed, or if he decided to assist the group depending on how the battle fared. He could do with some more information on who these people were, before he attempted to manipulate or work with them.

Steve looked up at the large elemental decorated in skulls. The stench of death assaulted Steve's nose, and he wrinkled it in protest. "So... death knight and reinforcements... think this is one of them? I think I may wish I had a priest handy after this one..."

Undaunted, Steve loosed his magical greatsword from his back. If there was one thing he knew, there was no room for parrying and blocking with an elemental of this size. It was hit or miss, and the hits tended to be messy.
And Steve wasn't exactly quick on his feet...
So he had to be equally as messy with his hits.

With a song to Thraxis on his lips, and sword raised high, the paladin charged forward once more...

"And you had it well in hand." Lorathin added as the elemental sprouted from the earth. "Looks like someone is annoyed at the destruction of the undead." He commented as Lúthien shifted in her sleep.

The Ogre towered over the nine foot monster, but Kalzog didn't let that start any foolish moves.

"This looks like a job...for my weapon," Kalzog grinned. "Ahh...Smashing rocks...Something one would save for a slave..."

He kept his distance between the elemental as he began to study it's fighting style.

Laidukh had come to find out that his wretched existence was not quite as abhorred in this place as in most, giving him an opportunity to actually find out of the happenings in the region. But still, even that was hard for him - his hatred demands blood. Somehow he still managed to retain a notion of civility, and did not slay all those who stood before him.

He had heard stories of undead controlling this, in his eyes, pitiful speck of land. But that alone was not enough to prove the existence of an undead empire. It could be that someone was faking such, to keep the people in line. And the Censor knew that the Ashen Empire had greater concerns in this age than backwater locales like this. Obviously, it had magic, but that was not of great concern. The fact that these alleged local undead apparently used vampires and the living... Was unfathomable. For the dead and the living cannot co-exist.

But things had changed drastically.

To make a long story short, something had come onto the land, not too far from his current location. Something that felt oddly familiar and at the very same time, oddly unfamiliar. Something that was close to the citizenry of the Ashen Empire, but still not quite. Something... Strangely confused with its conviction. As though it wished to kill, but was still hesitant. In mere minutes the feeling had dissipated, but he knew where he had to go.

Indeed he did. He had already been on the march for several days, but the dead know not fatigue. All this caused was that he changed his direction, to go forth towards the general area where this feeling had come forth from.

And at this time, for the first time, he knew that the rumors had been true.

He had met and had been forced to eradicate skeletal warriors as well as zombies. But that was to be expected - these were not controlled by the Ashen Empire after all, and other undead factions had a tendency to be... Attempting to compete the Ashen Empire itself.

He had entered a forest on his way towards this... Whatever source of what he had felt earlier, when the shadows suddenly began to move. Soon something almost tangible stood beside him.

"... You," the Censor spoke out with his cold, twisted voice.

"Yes," the shadow creature spoke out, "I felt it as well. Have you found out anything?"

"... Yes, this place... Is filled with longdead and soulless. Ones not of the Ashen Empire. This place... Is a rogue. Tell that to the Queen. I shall venture further."

The shadowy creature disappeared from beside the Censor, leaving him alone once more.

He walked further. That is, until he saw something quite odd.

An earth elemental which stunk of death, and a group composed of an odd mix of different species apparently fighting it. With a great number of broken bones and pieces of flesh lying on the ground around them.

Curious.

Zyergi grumbled as the massive Elemental rose from the ground. He was tired and out of his element now. Lightning had little effect against earth, and plunging a sword into something that big would probably prove to be even more ineffective. His single pair of holy daggers might help, but those weren't designed to take on something this big.

The Paladin and the Ogre had the most phyiscal power to combat the elemental, but Zyergi was by far the fastest. If he couldn't kill the elemental himself, he might as well help distract it. Zyergi plunged in ahead Steve and the Ogre, avoiding a blow from the Necromental's massive hands and slashing at it's legs. The blow was trivial, hardly enough to make the thing growl in pain, but the Necromental's inabilaty to catch something as fast as Zyergi was annoying-and distracting-the creature. Hopefully the Paladin or Ogre might soon notice a good opening to attack.

The Earth Necromental tried to smash Zyergi with its large and necro-enhanced fists for his daring attempts to slashes at its legs. The large creature soon realized that Zyergi was to difficult a target to hit. The Earth Necromental after realizing this decided to change tactics. The Necromental then decided to try and hit Steve dead center with his fists. The fist's impact would have been like being hit with a high-flying boulder that would drain your very life force upon impact. The superficial cuts that nicked the Necromental were starting to slowly heal thanks to it's unique healing ability. It looked to someone that was observant like the very earth was being drained to heal the few damages that were effecting it.


The undead elemental creature then charged at Kalzog with its massive and rocky bulk ready to use its entire body to smash him in the center of his body…

Kalzog laughed as he brought his club up, ready to smash it through the elemental. "Come, ele...I've got something for you," he growled, smiling slightly.

As the Necromental charged, Kalzog strafed to the right, and swung his club as hard as he could at the charging elemental.

The blow was impressive as the club smashed into the rampaging undead monster. The Earth Necromental took a hard hit and lost a decent chunk out of its rocky mass. The Earth Necromental was also sent back several feet from the massive blow. The nearby earth around it was continuing to heal its wounds however, now it had taken a large hit. The progress was much slower to heal.. The Earth Necromental decided to throw a large boulder from itself at Kalzog. The creature aimed for Kalzog's head as the necro-enhanced rock headed towards it's intended target..

Kalzog was smiling, until the large boulder came at him. He raised his club again and swung a heavily, smashing into the boulder, sending it flying into the nearby forest.

"Haha! Homerun!" laughed the Ogre.

"Go..." Ar'mai whispered to Lorathin, "You must help them."

"Take care of her for me?" He asked Ar'mai. He had decided he'd let the world go all to smash before allowing anything to harm Lúthien.

"Take care of her for me?" He asked Ar'mai. He had decided he'd let the world go all to smash before allowing anything to harm Lúthien.

"Of course..." Ar'mai said as she bent and presented her arms.

He gently passed the sleeping elf over to Ar'mai and stood up. He then turned and looked at the elemental. It was stonelike and thus, in all likelyhood quite resistant to blades, thought not to being crushed and that was how he intended to deal with it. Gesturing as well as muttering, he pointed at the base of the Earth Necromental. A number of blackish tentacles formed from the ground and began weaving around the elemental.

"Oh? Does this mean I can go eat- see out little elven friend?" the Ogre grinned as he noticed Lorathin beginning to take action.

Ar'mai took the delicate elf in her hands and sat down on the ground in the relative safety of the holy ward. She stared the girl for several moments, thoughts of pity and sympathy shooting through her head as the battle raged nearby.

"Nich'nu Elune, illana shinu ishne bah." The words Ar'mai muttered was a strong holy shield that was only castable from one elf to another. And now it shined upon the sleeping Lúthien...

Steve stood up and shook his head. The hit was hard. Steve had attempted to take a swing at the incoming fist, but was just seconds too slow, the blade causing only a minor slash.
Catching his breath, and noting the distance he had sailed from the hit, he growled. Pounding his chest with his own fist, in defiance of the necromental that had its back to him, he charged in again, albeit slightly slower as he hadn't yet managed to fully catch his breath. Even so, the mighty overhead chop, strong enough to cleave many an orc's thick skulls in two past their necks chipped hard into the massive elemental.

Kalzog charged at the Necromental swinging again at the beast, trying his best to avoid smashing into the tentacles...whatever Lorathin was doing, Kalzog hoped it would not take away from too much of his fun...

The Earth Necromental at first tried to smash the tentacles that had appeared around him. The undead monster after a few seconds noticed a sudden intense amount of pain striking him from behind. The Earth Necromental whirled around and swung it's massive and negative energy filled fists at Steve while he was hacking at him with his holy sword. The Necromental then tried to brace itself from the sudden onslaught of the charging ogre that had come suddenly right out of nowhere. The creature's unnatural healing ability was evidently strained as it constantly kept trying to repair the various damaged areas across the Earth Necromental's body…

The tentacles were immune to the Necromental's attacks, but after some, quite short, while the began to simply fade away for whilst the tentacles were powerful, they were also short lived.

Kalzog noticed the beast repairing itself. "I suggest another tactic..." he shouted at the others, as he continued to swing his club.

The Earth Necromental retaliated with its fists against Kalzog trying to match blow for blow. The undead beast was hurting that much was evident but it still did it's best to follow it's masters orders to kill the intruders that had dared to defy the Goddess and the master...

As soon as Lorathin's tentacles dissapeared, Zyergi quickly spun and vaulted onto the Necromental's back as it continued to fight the Ogre, running to what seemed to be it's head. He started plunging his blessed daggers rapidly into the thing's head, hoping to confuse it even more.

The daggers themselves did not harm the Earth Necromental but the divine magic in them burned the dark magic that had brought this dead elemental back to life. The angry undead creature took the time to stop pounding the ogre and to try and grasp for Zyergi with it's massive boulder like hands. The healing ability of the Necromental had just been overloaded, The damages on this creature were to sever to heal instantly or anytime soon..

Once more, Steve found himself laying on the ground, shaking his head to clear his vision. With a soft prayer, he laid his hand upon himself, and felt healing energy flowing through himself. With a grunt, he strained to lift his full plate clad body from the ground, and steadied himself. Reaching down and picking up his greatsword once more, he called upon his magical powers to imbue the magical sword with temporary holy powers.
Hurt, but not out of the fight yet, Steve bellowed one more time, launching himself sword first into the unnatural behemoth.

"Enough of these fools..." Ar'mai said quietly to herself so as not to disturb the sleeping elf.

While resting the girl across her lap, she reached her hands high into the air and whispered a prayer to Elune. In moments the skies around them (just a small area) opened up and rain began to come down - drop by drop at first, but soon it grew heavier until there was a constant light rain.

It wasn't normal rain, however; It was the holy rain of Elune. Those that served the light would be restored and those that served the darkness would be hurt.

ooc: Note that it probably wouldn't help Kalzog (and may even hurt him) as he serves Chaos.

Zyergi barely had time to dodge the monster's massive hand as it came flying towards him; he rolled out of the way, impaled his daggers into the beast's back, and held on, using them to stay on as the Necromental buckled this way and that, trying to smash him. The creature hit itself a few times while trying to get Zyergi off of it's body.

Lorathin stepped back into the circle, as he noticed the rain wasn't falling into the warded area that Ar'mai had set up. The rain had done nothing to him save getting him wet. "Is that your doing?" He asked softly, looking at Ar'mai as he took a seat beside her.

A slight stinging sensation came to Kalzog. He dared not look up for fear of being blinded. "Who's the bugger who did this?" he growled as he stumbled up a hill to a nearby tree, sheltering him from the rain.

"Surely you don't think I have control over the heavens?" Ar'mai said with a slight smile as she took notice of the non-effect that it was having on Lorathin. Then she looked back down at the sleeping elf. How innocent to be able to sleep through a battle like this...

As Ar'mai thought that, almost as if on cue, Lúthien awoke. She looked up into Ar'mai's face and squeeked. "Where's he?" She asked as she looked around, before visibly relaxing at the sight of Lorathin sitting beside them.

"Thank you for taking care of me Ar'mai." She said as she slid so she was sitting between them.

"Perhaps, I'm sure you have the ability to do so." He replied as Felagund awoke and panic'd slightly before calming and sliding between him and Ar'mai.

As the necromental spun around, trying to dislodge Zyergi, Steve came in hard, smashing the freshly enchanted greatsword across the chest of the beast, causing bits of stone and bone to fly out, coming to a sizzling stop in the holy rain. Feeling empowered by the drops falling from the sky, Steve dodged the chaotic swings of the beast, and launched into a flurry of devastating strikes, carving line after line across any part of the beast that came close to him.

"Perhaps, I'm sure you have the ability to do so." He replied as Felagund awoke and panic'd slightly before calming and sliding between him and Ar'mai.

"Perhaps..." she said calmly to Lorathin before turning back to the girl who was now awake. "Nahi..."

Lúthien looked at Ar'mai and blinked a couple times.

ooc: English/translation site please(as can't reply if not sure what was said)?

Kalzog stared up at the rain, from under his shelter. The holy rain had drained some of the chaos that were necessary for many of his skills...but that never stopped the Ogre.

Kalzog used what power he had left and set a nearby tree on fire. Little animals scurried out from their burning home. Kalzog smiled as he grabbed a rock and threw it a family of squerrils, killing them instantly. He smiled as he felt the chaos ensue.

Lúthien looked at Ar'mai and blinked a couple times.

ooc: English/translation site please(as can't reply if not sure what was said)?

ooc: Heh, it isn't actual elven. I am just making up words. In this case, Nahi means any of the following: 'No Problem,' 'It was nothing,' 'My pleasure,' 'Of Course,' etc...

Once she'd shaken the sleepy out, she asked, "Why's it not raining here, but is over there?" She pointed to the edge of the circle as she wasn't use to rain being discriminatory about where it choose to fall.

"Right you are," Ar'mai replied to the little elven girl.

"I guess the rain has to end somewhere, doesn't it?"

"I guess." She replied as she watched the rain, sitting between the two.

Lorathin stretched out on the grass before sitting back up and taking one of the cookies which he began eating.

OOC: Damn, It forced me into one of my puppets...


IC:

The Earth Necromental had taken way to much damage from the combined attacks from the opposing group. The Earth Necromental started to breakdown after a few seconds then the holy magic destroyed the undead behemoth and forced it to fall to the ground and shatter into large rock fragments. The connection that bound the Necromental to Mavis was shattered instantly upon the creatures death and the Lich knew his servant was destroyed.

After the Censor had watched the group rid themselves of the elemental, he began walking towards them from the woods. After all, they were in his path, and he wouldn't start changing routes in a land he did not know just because of seemingly random fighting.

Not to mention that, whilst he had a distinct hatred for the living, this group seemed to be fighting against the local undead - they apparently shared his goals. And the undead of this realm were a larger issue for him, and for the Ashen Empire, than some people capable of ridding themselves of elementals.

Thus, he walked closer to them, with his pitch black armor as though devouring light itself, his torn red cape silently fluttering in the weak wind.

And he wondered, how would these people react to his presence.

Smiling with satisfaction, Steve ran a hand through his wet hair, while muttering words of thanks to Thraxis, invoking another curative spell. It was hardly past morning, and already his curing abilities for the day were spent. By Thraxis, how he missed having Alfred around.

He was just about to sheath his greatsword when he saw the blackened armour. It reminded him of how his own gold etched armour had once looked. Taken from the demigod he had killed a couple times, it had been black with poisonous spikes. There were still some spikes on the armour, but he'd had it reworked to look the part of a set of holier armour.

Gripping his sword tighter, he sighed. "How many more reinforcements is this lich going to bring upon us?" He was eager to do battle with the lich and be done with it.

Mavis Constanlio was now a little worried the intruders had quickly killed his summoned Earth Necromental. That was an impressive feat for average people yet somehow, Mavis had the feeling he was not dealing with typical average adventurers.

The Arch Lich figured it would be a matter of time before they came to the city to cleanse it as some adventures called it when they exterminate the undead from an area. Mavis decided to order the rest of his forces to garrison the ruins. The Skeleton archers took positions on ruined walls and on top of buildings that were somewhat intact. The Zombies and Skeletons would be permanently ordered to patrol inside the city making the area a potential bloody street fight for the incoming intruders. The Skeletons and Zombies were then ordered to take up arms from the elven armory. The various golems were also assigned to defend the temple with their lives. The chamber they were mostly concentrated in was the throne room were Mavis had accidentally left a few pages from his personal journal....

The Arch Lich Mavis then ordered his personal Skeleton Knights to take Mora Delona with them as all fifty of them prepared to mount their Nightmares outside of the temple. Mavis would be joining them as soon as they were ready. The Lich planed to ride south down to the very borders of the Grand Shadow Empire were he could hide until the month had passed to prepare for the journey to Xhanthou…

"Hey, do you mind ending this rain?" Kalzog called out angrily. First they take my dinner, then they summon a worthless rain...annoying he thought angrily. He noticed another figure walking closer.

"Hey, you! What are you doing now?" he shouted at the newcomer.

The green flames coming forth from the seams of the Censor's armor intensified for a moment. He stopped walking and effortlessly threw the machinegun-like weapon of his onto his shoulder, whilst, of course, still keeping a tight grip on the handle of the weapon with his right hand.

"What am I doing?", he asked quite plainly with his cold, twisted voice. A moment later he pointed his left - heavily armored - index finger at the man who was obviously having trouble with his presence. "That would depend on him," he said and lowered his left hand. "I have no quarrel with you. It is the undead of this region I am after."

Soon the rain began thinning until there were only a few odd drops falling and eventually none at all. The sun then decided to peek out even in such a dark land and it momentarily spread its rays upon the party.

"Well, who are you then?" Kalzog growled, getting away from the tree that sheltered him from the rain.

Someone to help against the undead? Why? he thought to himself, keeping his eye out in case the little elven girl got herself out of reach of Ar'mai and Lorathin. Kalzog licked his lips again, his hunger growing...

Feeling completely rejuvinated by the Holy Rain, Zyergi turned to face this new possible threat. This new charachter seemed just about as undead and many times as threatening than the skeletons he had just fought, although he had no way of knowing that for sure. His hand drifted towards his sword as the armored man threw his weapon over his shoulder. He was ready for just about anything...

"Kal, are you hungry?" Lorathin asked as he thought he heard the ogre's stomach rumble.

She smiled as some sun rays fell upon her.

"Considering I have fought several squads of undead, tasted elven flesh, only to have it stolen from me, then killed more undead, and finally some elemental creature...yes. I am hungry," he growled angrily, as his manic eyes settled on the elven girl.

He turned his head towards the large ogre. The rain hadn't had any effect on him, so he hadn't reacted to it or the lack of it.

"Me? I am called Laidukh," he said, and lowered his weapon, "And who might you be?"

He was seemingly less tense than before, but he knew he might have to act in an instant.

"I am Kalzog, the godslayer," he replied smugly, a devilish grin flashing across his face. "And I am quite hungry as well," he glared at Lorathin.

"The arrogant and insensitive ogre is more like it," Ar'mai grumbled as she kept her eye on the small elven girl.

What to do with her...?

"Well no eating elves, but you can have a cow." Lorathin began working a summoning to bring forth a massive cow, which happened to appear over Kalzog's head.

"Oh? Me arrogant? Surely you must be joking, little stuck-up elf!" Kalzog replied with mock surprise.

Kalzog looked up just as the cow began to fall. He jumped out of the way before it fell to the ground.

"You're lucky, human...If my hunger weren't so great, I'd probably eat you myself!"

"Ah. Well. As I said. I am not here to fight against you, on this day. I am not of this place. In fact, my... Kind, loathe this place. We wish to see its undead exterminated," he said as he walked closer to the group, "Eliminated from the face of this Universe."

Then he stopped.

"Is that not what you seek? Or do you simply fight these creatures for the sake of fighting? As I see it, we share the same goal."

"Oh? Me arrogant? Surely you must be joking, little stuck-up elf!" Kalzog replied with mock surprise.

Kalzog looked up just as the cow began to fall. He jumped out of the way before it fell to the ground.

"You're lucky, human...If my hunger weren't so great, I'd probably eat you myself!"

"Perhaps you would like a glass of water with that," Ar'mai commented.

In a moment's time the skies again opened up and the same rain of Elune began coming down.

"Is that not what you seek? Or do you simply fight these creatures for the sake of fighting?"

"Most likely that is why he is here..." Ar'mai commented as she pointed at Kalzog.

Kalzog was devouring the cow rapidly. After chewing a huge chunk of meat from the cow leg he held in his hand he looked up at the newcomer, realizing he too was undead.

"More undead? Why would an undead want to defeat another undead?" he asked taking another huge bite off the leg.

"I did not come here to fight the undead. I came here as I pleased, wandering around. Somehow I get the feeling that they," he pointed at Ar'mai and Lorathin, "followed me..."

He looked slightly confused as Ar'mai asked him if he wanted water. "No than-" Rain fell on his head...the same holy rain...

"Stuck up elf...just 'cause your a princess, isn't it?" he growled as he hoisted the massive cow onto his shoulders and carried it off into the same tree he took shelter under before.

"Well, I have something for you then..." he growled as he picked up a large pile of mud, making sure a large group of worms were visible in the pile. "How about a nice mud pie? Catch!" he threw the ball of mud straight at Ar'mai.

"You'd try." He replied with a grin.

Meanwhile Lúthien began giggling at the ogre getting rained upon and almost having a cow fall on his head.

"Well, I have something for you then..." he growled as he picked up a large pile of mud, making sure a large group of worms were visible in the pile. "How about a nice mud pie? Catch!" he threw the ball of mud straight at Ar'mai.

"OOH!" Ar'mai cried as the mud slapped her in the face, spraying across her arms and chest. "Rotten ogre..." she muttered.

However, she was not overly mad as the mud would soon disappear. She stood up and walked into the rain for a moment. When she again sat down by Lorathin and Luthien, the mud had been washed away and her body had been cleansed.

"Ho ho!" The ogre roared with laughter, doubling over and slapping his knee. "Ha ha! Kalzog always gets the last laugh!"

He fell down as he continued to laugh heartily. "Now that is something I won't forget!" he said in between bursts of laughter.

"Crazy ogre." Lorathin commented as he wondered if Ar'mai intended to retaliate.

Zyergi lossened his grip on his sword as the newcomer lowered his strange weapon; he obviously wasn't a threat. As he watched Lorathin drop a cow over Kalzog's head, he realized that he was actually quite hungry himself.

"Erm...You wouldn't mind summoning a patch of berries or something, would you? I'm quite hungry, and I don't want to go forage for food at the moment. Nothing with meat, please. I'm vegetarian."

"I thought bugs ate anything? Being a bug-man, I would expect the same," chuckled the Ogre, who was still enjoying his earlier mud slinging action...

"Ar'mai would be likely better at that. It's hard to find free batches of berries just lying around." He replied

"I happen to have a very refined pallate," Zyergi grumbled. "I'll gladly eat fish, but for some reason I've always despised red meat." He ignored the Bug-Man comment.

Zyergi turned at looked hopefully at Ar'mai.

"Ar'mai would be likely better at that. It's hard to find free batches of berries just lying around." He replied

"I will send a scout into the woods and see what I can find," Ar'mai said.

She made a swift hand movement and in a moment an oddly transparent and yet faint green owl appeared by the edge of the woods. It looked for a moment at Ar'mai to get its orders and then dove into the thick woods on its search.

"Hopefully it won't take long... but if there aren't many berries around here... we will have to look elsewhere. Then again, if the elves lived in this land, there is bound to be something good to eat," she commented as she sat waiting next to Loarthin and Luthien.

"Mmmm..meat is good to eat. Wouldn't you like some, Ar'mai? Squirrels, birds, bears...any animal is delicious. And fun to just crush in between your hands," Kalzog chuckled, as he tore another leg off the cow.

"You disgust me ogre..." she replied, but went no further. Instead she turned slightly so that she was not facing him as he obviously was attempting to get her angry.

"Knock it off Kal, unless you'd like to try out veganism for a while." Lorathin commented

"Pah! Veganism...is for weaklings..." he growled as he continued to feast on his cow. "How would you go about making me a vegan?"

"By making you allergic to meat and other animal by-products." He replied with a grin.

"Ah...Never expected that...however, I believe this," he pointed to a long coiled tattoo on his left cheek. "Protects me from spells that affect my habits in any way, including my eating habits, and I'm sure, would include spells such as that."

He took a big bite out of the cow's leg, watching Lorathin and the elves with interest.

"But it wouldn't be effecting your habits, it would be effecting whether your could ingest meat or other animal by-products without getting ill. You could still eat meat to your hearts content, you'd just end up getting sick as a dog each time you did. Or I could go after your metabolic function, making it so you didn't digest meat."

"Whatever the case, I have full confidence in my symbols to protect me from any such spell. They have done it before," Kalzog replied with little interest. He had seemed to have taken his full interest in his food.

"And except for the fact that it'd be more trouble than it's worth to prove a point at the moment, I'd show you. Now leave Ar'mai alone and stop threating to, or even considering, eating Lúthien." He said

The girl was meanwhile watching for the funny green owl to come back.

"Oh, but I found her first. I could have just left her to the undead, but nooo, Good natured Kalzog went to rescue her. I still think I should be able to do anything I want with her..." he said, looking at the elf as he munched on what little was left of the cow.

"What if your symbols were scratched off by a pack of rabid squirrels..." Ar'mai said.

"Do you think of yourself as only on the level of a zombie." He replied, "Anywho, she's off-limit to you, and that's all there is to it."

"No, but at the time, we both were fighting for the right to eat her. I managed to win...But, I'll respect your wishes of leaving her alone..." Kalzog replied.

"For now," he whispered quietly to himself.

"And get that 'for now' out of your mind." Lorathin commented, not because he heard Kalzog's words, but because he was pretty sure the ogre would have added something along those lines to his statement.

"You truly are a strange character, Azrael," Kalzog laughed. "You seem to know me well."

"You are pretty shallow... it is hardly hard to predict your actions or words," Ar'mai commented.

What a dysfunctional group...

The Censor shrugged.

"... Ah. Well. If you'll excuse me..."

He thought he would go around the group and then, continue on his march towards the source. And yes, that was quite what he began to do.

Lorathin just grinned back and chuckled.

"Who is shallow? Certainly not me?" he growled at Ar'mai.

"Who is shallow? Certainly not me?" he growled at Ar'mai.

"Another... predictable reaction," Ar'mai commented while still turned away from the 'beast.'

"Perhaps you want a second serving of mud-pie, princess? And I'll get your little friend too," chuckled Kalzog as he laied back against the tree.

"Hey you, undead man. Where exactly are you going?"

As he ignored the Ogre's annoying bickering, Zyergi noticed the newcomer start to turn and leave.

"Hold on!" He called. "Are you planning on walking straight into Val'Thalmas alone? You'll never stand a chance with that Lich and his men guarding the city. Not without a good deal of backup, at least."

Laidukh stopped walking for a second.

"Yes, that was what I indeed intended to do. Originally and at the moment," he said, and turned his head towards Zyergi. "Why? Are you actually going there as well, after all?"

Lúthien had scrunched up her face as she was trying to figure something out, and how best to ask it.

Zyergi frowned. Was this guy crazy?

"Well, I was, before I got caught up with all these people. I wasn't planning on walking straight through the city gates, though. That would most likely be suicide."

"Yah. You need someone like me to help you. But I never planned on saving an elven city. I never even planned on killing undead..." replied Kalzog, closing his eyes.

Lúthien had scrunched up her face as she was trying to figure something out, and how best to ask it.

"Question?" Ar'mai asked to the young girl who sat next to her.

"Yah, I would love to be next to that brave, handsome, strong, non-shallow ogre over there, mommy!" Kalzog said in as close to a little girl's voice as he could get...not quite that close...

"Why is Kal," She used Lorathin's most common name for the ogre, "So funny?"

"Do you mean funny looking?" Ar'mai asked with a smile, though doubting that the girl was truly asking that rather then funny in a comical way.

"His skin is funny looking, but he's funny." She replied

"Well comic appeal is opinionated," Ar'mai commented to the girl as she rarely found anything funny about the ogre and is chaotic tendencies.

"Ah, see! The girl still likes ol' Kalzog!" he chuckled.

"Don't like you for trying to eat me." She replied with a pout.

"She did say you were funny, not likeable." Lorathin commented, "They aren't mutally inclusive you know."

"I do recognize that look right there..." she said indicating the appearance of Luthien's face. "Yes... I do... I remember it quite well from my earlier years. I would say she doesn't like you..."

"I was just giving her a...a good old fashioned Ogre welcome!" he chuckled.

"Oh, your too old to remember your childhood, Ar'mai!"

"You mean good bye..." Ar'mai retorted, sick of hearing this back and forth about Kalzog attempting to eat the little girl - something she would have never forgiven him of.

"Hey, I'm the ogre here, I know what the Ogre Hello is!" Kalzog replied sitting up. "Always trying to argue with me! Poor Kalzog has to deal with a bratty princess who's always following him around!"

Having determined the latest undead in the camp had not been a threat early on, Steve came back minutes later after crashing through the bush like a bull moose.

"Well, I guess they're done," he said, pulling twigs out of his armour. "I didn't see anything else skulking about in the woods, for now. So, if you're done fussing over that rather mundane elven girl, I'd suggest breaking camp and moving on before they get a chance to regroup and send an even larger force at us."

"I say, bring them on! Besides...I would like to take a little nap!" yawned Kalzog as he stretched lazily. "I think we all should...except for Ar'mai. Being an one of those cocky elves, she can keep watch for us with her excellent hearing and sight..."

Ar'mai ignored him as the transparent owl appeared out of the woods.

"There seems to be a few berry bushes not too far in..." she commented.

"Actually, a nap sounds like a good idea... all that mashing and healing is a little tiring."
Pulling out his bedroll again, Steve worked for a few minutes to get out of his armour before curling up for a sleep.

"Owl's back." Lúthien commented as she noticed the ghostly bird.

"Do you want to get some sleep Ar'mai?" Lorathin asked as he stretched and yawned.

"Yeah, might as well..." Ar'mai replied. "But I will keep watch on the place too. You know... in case anyone tries to sneak up on us... or Luthien," she said, indicating the ogre.

"Three hour shifts?" He suggested, "You, me and Bael'ther?"

"Three hour shifts?" He suggested, "You, me and Bael'ther?"

"No, no. I can handle it," Ar'mai said. "We can all rest peacefully."

"If you're sure..." He replied as he leaned back, Lúthien laying down beside him.

Kalzog snickered as he listened to Lorathin and Ar'mai talking about who will take the watch. What really put a smile on his face was the fact that they believed he may try to sneak up on them for the elf girl.

How true it was! If he notices something he can take advantage of in their shifts...he may just have to take it.

"If you're sure..." He replied as he leaned back, Lúthien laying down beside him.

"Yeah... I am," Ar'mai replied as she too laid down for a nap.

Meanwhile a few (six or so) owls, similar to the one she had summoned before, appeared and flew over to different perches. They scanned in all directions from the visual part of the spectrum to the infrared and also for any motion. Anything they noticed would be reported to Ar'mai's subconscious and she would be awoken.

Before he fell into his habitual demi-sleep, Lorathin put a hand on Lúthien's forehead and muttered a few words. She glowed with a pale blue light for a few seconds before it faded.

Lifting his head, he looked at Kalzog and smiled. The ogre would be in for a rude awakening if he tried to touch her now.

Laidukh shook his head.

"And now they go to sleep?", he muttered in disbelief.

"... I do not sleep. Nor am I here to save anyone. All I desire is to destroy the undead of this realm. That is the priority I was given."

Kalzog watched with interest as the elven girl glowed for several seconds. He smiled as he looked at the undead warrior.

"Hold up. Come here for a second, good sir! I may have something that could greatly aid your advance into their keep..." he grinned mischieviously as he sat up.

Mavis and his Cohorts along with a very subdued Mora began to ride on the back of their Nightmare steeds out of the city of Val'Thalmas. The Lich only looked back once to see how his minions were doing. The undead without stopping had managed to make a small five-foot wall around the city with rubble from the broken stone buildings. The Lich laughed as his unholy steed began to float into the air. The Skeleton Knights were following suite as this undead calvary unit floated further south to the very border of the Grand Shadow Empire of Deatharon itself. The Lich planed to hid their until the month had passed and his powers were at full strength thus giving him an advantage when starting the ceremony that would destroy the world…

Crawling out into the crisp morning air, Steve stretched and grunted. A couple spots still ached a bit, but nothing he couldn't handle. Even before eating breakfast, he moved towards his armour and started strapping it on himself again. The process always took several minutes, and not for the first time he found himself wishing he'd taken on a squire, if for no other reason than to help him don his full plate.
Finally snapping the last piece into spot, he stretched, with a clatter of metal, and set off to work to get some more wood for a campfire.

Ar'mai woke up to see the sun attempting to poke through and warm the land below. She glanced sideways quickly to make sure that Luthien was still there, and was relaxed to see that the girl was still sleeping soundly.

Standing up, she stretched out and readied herself for the day. Soon, however, she disappeared into the thick woods...

Kalzog had slept well, dreaming of his favorite activities...eating and killing. Oh, what a glorious battle it was..reliving his last, true invigorating battle...one that he nearly lost...

Kalzog awoke, slowly, lazily stretching his arms, and slowly standing up. He noticed Steve the paladin, already walking off in the distance. Kalzog wasn't quite sure where he was going, but decided not to worry about it. It seemed that Steve would be back...Kalzog did enjoy his company, even though he would hate to admit it.

He looked over to the elves...and Azrael. They seemed to be sleeping peacefully...except for...Ar'mai. She had begun to walk off into the forrest.

Kalzog was curious for an ogre, probably because his full confidence in winning any fight. With this curiousity, he decided to quietly (as best a massive 1-ton ogre could be) follow the elf, to figure out what she was up to.

He got up, and followed as close as he could into the forest...until his bulk stopped him. It was uncomfortable..actually, it was VERY uncomfortable. With a growl, Kalzog slowly brought himself out from the forest and grumbled several ogre curses before walking off to follow Steve.

With the noise coming up from behind, Steve almost hoped it was a collossal zombie strolling in for a fight, so he was a little disappointed when he saw it was only the odd ogre coming.

"Kalzog, right? Nothing much of interest here. Just gathering some wood for a fire so we can cook up something to eat. I figure someone in this group has to be a hunter, and maybe we could have some fresh meat. I'm sick of trail rations."

Kalzog laughed as he looked at the wood Steve had collected. "Haha! You cannot hope to make a good fire with that!"

The ogre trudged up to a nearby medium sized tree. He snapped his fingers, a faint glow forming around his hands. He dug around the tree trunk, and plundged his hands deep underneath the soft soil. With a muffled pop, the tree waved in the wind as Kalzog's arm muscles began to buldge. His face beginning to redden, Kalzog pulled upwards, the trunk sliding outwards.

"Timber!" he shouted as the tree smashed into several similar ones, knocking one over and breaking many branches of another. "Hah! Now that's some good firewood!" he laughed as he grabbed hold of the trunk and began to drag it back to camp.

Steve picked out a few more dry pieces from the ground, and followed the ogre back. Really, the tree was both inconvenient to burn, and not likely to catch.

"I don't know how many camp fires you've built," Steve said, watching as the ogre tugged mightily every time the roots of the tree got hooked on another nearby tree. "But green wood doesn't tend to burn so well."

"Pah! By every weak flame...but watch, and you'll see a real fire in action!" laughed Kalzog maniacly.

"You've not seen a fire until you've seen mine...unless you've witnessed the apoclypse...in which case, we'll be even..." he smiled, wistling a strange tune.

"I'm afraid the hottest I've seen is the combined fires of two extra-planar great wyrm red dragons. There was hardly a speck of Gabriel left after that one, but Alfred is a miracle worker. That was a tough day, seeing how it was followed by a fight with that demigod I was mentioning earlier. I think that was the second time I beat him, and got this armour... although I had to do some work on it to make it holy, and increase its enchantment... see, my armour wasn't much good, because the demigod used some sort of powerful magic to destroy the magical enchantments on all of our gear before we fought him. I guess he wanted it to be a bit more of a challenge than our first meeting when he had an army of demons and undead giants with him. I smashed a pit fiend through the wall of a tower in under 10 seconds, and slaughtered the rest of the demonic army before having to rescue Alfred and Gabe from a half dozen giants. By all that's holy, that demigod irritates me." Steve looked up to see they were already back at the camp. "Where does the time go? Umm... back to the fire... are you certain lighting this tree on fire is a good idea?"

Lorathin and Lúthien both woke up within moments of each other. In actuality, Lúthien woke up first and quickly shook Lorathin awake when she noticed Ar'mai missing.

In what was quite likely a sub-consious reflex, she looked at Lorathin with wide little girl eyes and asked, "Daddy, where's Mommy?"

After he recovered from the shock her words had caused, he put it together and replied, "Ar'mai's probably gone for a walk in the woods, she'll be back soon."

"What? Do you think lightning this tree is any harder than fighting dragons? You insult me, paladin..." Kalzog grumbled as he put down the tree.

"This tree won't do it...The other trees are needed," he said before walking back and taking the other trees, one under each arm as he pulled them to the first trunk. He repeated the procedure until he had about five trees, all in a pile.

He immediately set to work, picking up each tree and balancing it amongst another. He did this until all five trees were placed in a cone shape. He turned back and smiled at Steve. "Ready for the fireworks?" he chuckled.

Ar'mai appeared at the edge of the forest with a cloth that was filled to the brim with berries of all sorts and flavors. There weren't many bushes in the forest, but she had managed to gather a good amount for the group (or those who ate berries) to share.

Then she noticed Kalzog...

"Ah, it seems our little Princess has come to join us for our fireworks?" laughed Kalzog. "The best use of trees...are to burn them...to cook any sort of wild animal, right elf?" he burst out laughing again.

"Perhaps we will need some more rain to put out this fire... right chaotic ogre?" Ar'mai said as she strode forward.

"Oh, you elves always ruin the fun. I've never met a more snotty nose, stuck up race as you elves!" he shouted.

"But...rain always creates mud, right, princess?" he chuckled wickedly as images of the mud splattering on Ar'mai's face came up in his mind.

"Maybe we should find out..." she offered as she took a seat on the ground where she had slept the previous night.

"How about not. These trees are asking for a good fire," he chuckled as he rubbed his hands together, a glow slowly forming around them. "Get ready, princess, we're about to get a big bang any minute," he laughed as his eyes began glowing red.

Zyergi suddenly appeared out of the trees to see what all the fuss was about. It looked like that dumb ogre was going to try and light a fire. Zyergi inwardly snorted at how long the brute was taking; his lightning could light a whole forest up in a few seconds if he had the energy.

"Don't hurt yourself there, Ogre," Zyergi commented somewhat snidely. "We wouldn't want you to get burnt, now, would we?"

"Oh, bug man is getting impatient? I'm liking the suspense...Perhaps you would like to bang your head on a stump for a drumroll?" he shouted at Zyergi. "As for being burnt...I've had my share," his eyes indictated his burned flesh on his arm.

Zyergi laughed at the Ogre's comeback and jumped into a nearby tree.

"Enough talk. Let's see what you can do."

"You know, for a bug man, you remind me of a monkey with your acrobatics," Kalzog replied. "Now, Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages," he looked at the little elven girl and winked. "Behold as the amazing Kalzog lights the largest bon-fire...well...since we met!"

Kalzog stepped back, and flipped his thumb upwards, creating a spark that flew above him, and onto one of the trees. Suddenly, all five lit at once. "Ha ha! What a glorious sight! Thank you, ladies and germs. Donations of meat would greatly be accepted," he replied, bowing in all directions.

Steve looked at the fire, and wished he had some sort of meat to roast over it. However, with all of the undead in the region lately, he had a feeling there wouldn't be anything nearby to hunt, even if he was a good hunter.

Resigned to his usual food, he sat down and chewed on some of his rations, while watching the flames dance over the trees.

"So...anyone find any meat? Any animals?" Kalzog asked, glancing around. "Hey, Ar'mai, why don't you find an animal for us to kill?"

"I am looking at one," she retorted as she turned her glare to Kalzog.

Kalzog pointed to himself as he mocked surprise. "Why, Ar'mai! I...I thought we were buddies? Friends?!"

He let out a belly laugh before saying, "You do know if you don't help me, I'll have to find my own meal...and it seems you guys don't like it when I do find my meals..."

Zyergi was suprised at how fast the fire spread through the trees. It looked as though the Ogre could do more than just smash things and yell loudly. As Ar'mai and Kalzog decended into their usual bickering, Zyergi wondered if the large fire conjured by the ogre would attract any more undead. He had an uneasy feeling about all of this.

Pushing these thoughts into the back of his mind, he looked at Ar'mai from his tree.

"Say, Ar'mai, you didn't happen to find any berries around, did you?"

"Certainly did," Ar'mai replied to Zyergi as she ignored the bumbling ogre. There is no chance that he would attempt to cook another sentient being right in front of all of them, so he might as well find his own food.

She lifted the cloth full of berries slightly to show the cornucopia of food which she possessed.

"Ho ho, The thing is...I won't find my food...the fire will," he muttered, more to himself than anyone else. He watched the fire intentively, his smile growing wider. Suddenly, he snapped his hands and the trees exploded, sending flaming shrapnel to the nearby forests, starting them on fire.

"It will be a feast tonight!" he shouted gleefully as he watched his flames spread.

"Put that fire out... or I will," Ar'mai commanded calmly as she noticed the forest begin to blaze.

"Yes, mother..." chuckled Kalzog as he pointed to one of the several fires he started. He snapped his fingers again, creating another explosion within the woods, creating more spread out fire. "I'm just cooking my own food, little elf...it will only take several minutes..."

Steve muttered a prayer, as flaming shrapnel passed nearby. There wasn't much he could do to put out a fire such as this, but he could certainly disrupt the source if things didn't straighten out shortly.
With a ringing sound that filled the area, Steve drew forth his holy longsword, a threat that required no words.

Ar'mai didn't say anything more to the ogre. She simply turned to offer the berries to the others as a sweet holy rain began falling over the blazing forest.

Lúthien took some of the berries with words of thanks to Ar'mai while Lorathin just leaned back and relaxed. He cast a slight spell to send his words to Ar'mai's ears only and said, "Please make sure she get's my portion."

"There is enough for her to eat her full and still be plenty left over for the others. I doubt that everyone here would like berries as the only part of their meal," she said back so that Lorathin could hear.

She grabbed a couple of small berries and popped them into her mouth as she watched Luthien continue to chew. How odd that she eats so pleasantly after having her parents killed only a short time ago... she thought as she turned her gaze away back to the forest.

Lorathin decided to create a loaf of bread and cast the spell for it.

Meanwhile Lúthien finished eating the berries she'd taken and looked at Ar'mai and said, "Thank you for the berries mommy, but why hasn't daddy had any?" She looked over at Lorathin when she said that.

Ar'mai was taken aback by Luthien's comments. She debated quickly on how to respond before speaking. Her voice left her momentarily but eventually she was able to voice her concerns. "Umm... Luthien... I am not your mommy."

"Yes you are. You're my new mommy and Lorathin is my new daddy." She replied with the type of iron-willed determination only a child had.

"Luthien..." she whispered. "I cannot be your new mommy..."

The little girl's eyes welled up with tears as she looked at Ar'mai.

Steve stared transfixed at the loaf of bread that had just magically appeared. "Nice trick. Only kind of food I've seen created through magic is gruel. Just a solid block of..." Steve shuddered. "Don't get me wrong, it's good in a pinch when there's nothing to eat. But I've never seen anyone make bread before. Does it actually taste good?"

"I am sorry Luthien... but a girl can only ever have one mommy..." Ar'mai attempted to explain. She didn't want to hurt the girl, but she didn't have the ability or knowledge of how to be a mother.

Lúthien let out a sob, spun around and ran away from Ar'mai. As the little girl ran into his arms, Lorathin shot Ar'mai a 'What the hell did you do' look.

Ar'mai shrugged. "She can't hide from reality..."

Lorathin made a 'come again' gesture as he wasn't sure what she was talking about, only that she'd hurt Lúthien.