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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arknath" data-source="post: 482370" data-attributes="member: 2850">Paladium: A City Under Siege“Wait!” I yelled as loud as I could after Oden and his men charged towards the town.  The captain apparently could not hear me over the din of 50 horses charging headlong into battle.The fact that he was also high in the air on his winged mount, a griffon, was also a hindrance in his hearing my words.I turned to Laurel, Rhen, Jonas and Archivell and said frantically, “This is not the way to do this, we must stop them!”Rhen turned a silent eye towards the charging knights and nodded, “I’ll stop them.”  Bones cracked and skin changed and soon a golden-skinned, winged creature stood tall before me.‘A planatar?’ I mused to myself, ‘I hope he has a good idea.’The shapeshifter flew off after the charging miasma of horse and man.  Of course, that left the four of us standing there with little to do but watch.“We need to get to that town,” I said, “Does anyone have any ideas?”Laurel thought for a moment and twiddled her fingers and spoke some words of power.  Soon, the four of us were lifting off the ground and flying towards the town, easily outdistancing the shifter and the charging paladins.As we approached the town through the air, I nearly choked at the vision I saw.  The temple was in ruins, the buildings were either badly damaged or completely destroyed.  Worst of all, what appeared to be a five-story statue of a man was missing half of the statue from the waist up.  This could only be the fabled statue of Optimen* that arose from the temple’s judicatory.  Throughout the town we saw hordes of skeletons, zombies and worse things crawling all over the city wreaking havoc on just about everything they encountered.  There were also small pebbles that were being hurled at us from unseen assailants as we neared the town’s innermost buildings.  It seemed as though the very air around us did not want us around.  That was when we saw a man waving at us from the tower of the temple in a frantic manner.I pointed this man out to my companions and we aimed our flight towards him.  As soon as we were close enough, I invoked my Fury-given power to discern this man’s heart, which proved to be good natured.  He was not undead, that much was for certain, and he appeared haggard and dirty as though he had seen many months with not so much as a tub of water nor something sharp to shave his face with.  However, I will never forget the look in the man’s eyes as I touched down with my companions in front of him.  It is a look that, if one lives long enough to see it, it brings purpose to one’s life and renewed faith in good-hearted folk.It was the look of hope regained when all else was lost.“Greetings,” I spoke to the man in a formal manner, “I am Bocata Si Nik Nik.  We are come to aid you in the reclaiming and rebuilding of Paladium.  What is your name, man?”The weak man seemed as though he would pass out from sheer joy and thankfulness, “I am Anselm, good Bocata,” he wheezed, “Welcome to Paladium.”It was then that the man passed out.  Whether from sheer exhaustion or from the hope of independence regained, I have yet to figure out which.“Let’s get him down from here,” Jonas said quickly, scooping up the young priest in his arms and heading for the stairs, “Tis not a fit night out for man nor beast.”I furrowed my brow at that last comment, unsure of it’s intended target.  This bard’s humor was going to be something to get used to.It was some time before the young priest came to and was able to form intelligible words on his own.  Jonas worked with him to discover that he and his master were the lone survivors of the fiendish attack on Paladium.  When asked where his master was, Sir Anselm (as I discovered later was his official title) told us that his master was resting.“Why do the undead not attack you?” Laurel asked when Anselm had had a bit of trail rations and some cool water at Jonas’ behest.  “They seem not to be able to reach certain parts of the city.”Anselm chewed his food thoughtfully before answering, “It was one of the final defenses that my master had put in place when the city was besieged.  He had laid down forbiddances around the temple and the fane before the fiends were able to get to the middle of the city.”  “Then your master must be a very powerful priest indeed,” Jonas chimed in, nodding the entire time.  “May we speak with your master?”Anselm swallowed hard.  “He is…how do I put this…quite mad.”The matter-of-fact tone to Anselm’s voice was a slap in the face to the four of us.  A powerful priest protected a city of great importance, yet he was stark-raving mad?“Surely this is no time for jest,” I barked, quite irritated with whatever joke this young ingrate was trying to pull off.  “This is serious business and we are in need of a powerful priest, not some mad blathering imbecile.”Anselm looked at me with no expression in his eyes, “I do not jest, larcetan.  I speak of truth which I dearly wish was not such.”“Then how can he cast these powerful magics?”  Laurel inquired, feeling a little more than interested at the apparent phenomenon right before her eyes.  “Surely the preciseness of spellcasting is something that escapes mad wizards and mad priests.  By the Nine Hells I’ve known wizards who could not even cast a fishing rod, much less the simplest of cantrips.”  She chuckled at her own joke, “And by all accounts they were quite sane.”Anselm turned and smiled at the young wizardess, “I know not how he works his magic.  That is between himself and the Goddess of Spells**.”“Venia.” All four of us chimed in at once.  It explained everything.Venia is a powerful goddess of magic and, by all accounts, a good-hearted deity.  However, her lack of care for how magic is used is a much debated issue in the world of humans.  Magic for good, magic for evil, magic for the weak or powerful.  It matters not to the larcetan nor to the caanids, who do not rely on magic granted by the goddess.  However, in a room full of finger-twirlers, I was hardly going to be the dissenting voice in any argument that came with the naming of the deity.“This is not getting us anywhere right now,” I said, keeping my watch on the outside perimeter of the building.  “We have brought with us a great force of 50 men-at-arms and all followers of Equitas.  However, they remain outside the walls of the city.”Anselm crinkled his face in confusion, “There are more of you?”We all nodded and Jonas added in calmed tones, “But there is a great horde at your door that they cannot pass through.  Our wizard friend did not prepare her spells to bring all of them over this day.”Laurel shrugged, “I didn’t think I was to play transport to 50 mounted knights this day.”Anselm nodded, “Do not worry, we will get your friends into the city.  Let us go wake my master up and we will see what he can do.”Laurel, Archivell, and Jonas rose to leave with Anselm.  I spoke as they were leaving the room, “Laurel, how long do we have left on our fly enspellment?”Laurel poked her head outside and glanced at the sun, “About a score or minutes or less, why?”I nodded, “While you plan to bring the knights over, I shall wait for you all on the outside with them.  Should things turn against them, I wish for Oti Ni Nuad to release the spirits from their tortured existence here on Xad’Nasser.”As I saw them all leave and walk toward the fane, I willed myself up into the air and over the horde of death that was attempting to desecrate the most holiest of cities on the face of the island.  A lump filled my throat at the thought of losing this island to yet another wave of fiends and creatures of death. Someone was going to pay.Oti Ni Nuad was going to deliver a message of vengeance to whomever was responsible for this foulness.  I was a willing messenger.When I reached the outskirts of town where the host of paladins awaited outside the city, I saw a surprising sight.  All 50 were in perfect formation and had stopped their charge approximately 500 feet from the undead host.I flew up to Oden, mounted on his griffon and addressed him. “Sir Oden,” I bowed and preceded to take in the spectacle of his men, “You have come to your senses I see.”Oden looked at me with a confused look upon his face. “Senses?  We are just acting on what was nothing less than a divine order not to storm this town.”I opened my mouth to argue his statement, but remembered the shifter and decided to keep my mouth shut instead.“You were visited by divine presence and no one else saw?”  I was trying to sound surprised and a little disbelieving at the same time.  Needless to say, acting is not one of my strong points.“Aye,” Oden said, his grim expression telling me that the man was not jesting in the least, “Flew from the sky and intercepted my mount and I and commanded us to desist.”I had more things to ask this man about his divine encounter, but none which would have proven productive.  I just changed the subject.“The others are inside trying to discover the easiest way to bring you and your men inside.”  I said pointing to the town, “We found survivors.”Oden’s face lit up at the proclamation, “Survivors?!  That’s incredible!  How many?”“Two.”His face lost some of it’s luminescence, “Just two?  Who are they?”“A mad priest and his serving boy,” I proclaimed, “’Twas waiting at the tower for us when we flew over the horde.”All happiness at finding survivors left his face at that moment.  He groaned audibly.“I suppose that is blessing enough,” he sighed, “but Optimen must be quite enamored for them to have survived this long out in this wasteland.”I nodded my agreement, “I suggest you and your men relax for a while, there is no telling how long it will take.  I have elected to stay out here with you and your men, to learn what I can of your training and to help you plot our plans to rebuild this great city.”Oden commanded his men to dismount and then dismounted himself.  He went about preparing a small camp, known to those of us who adventure quite often as a “quickfire”, and discussed plans with me for many hours.Rhen appeared an hour or so later and suggested a plan that he had devised for transporting the men to the town.“You’re going to shift into a what?” Oden and I asked with questioning looks on our faces.  “What in the Black Abyss is that?”“It’s called a ‘skrimlipod’ and it is large enough to hold half of your men and their mounts.”“And what about the other half?” Oden asked skeptically, “what would you do with them?”  Rhen looked to Oden indignantly, “I would return for them as quick as may be.” He said with minor conviction.“How long will that take?”  I asked keeping an eye on the horde of undead.“Each trip will take about 6 hours.”  The tone of his voice is what set Oden off more than the words he spoke.“6 HOURS??” the lord paladin bellowed, “they could all be slaughtered in that amount of time.”Rhen shrugged helplessly, “I did not say it was without it’s risks.”  He pointed to the sun, “You have but a few hours of daylight left, Oden, and you know what undead will appear after sundown.”Oden did quite up at that.  Shadows, specters, and worse things would come out of the dark places of the night and attack the men.  Only to make them undead in return and ruin their places in Equitas’ halls of justice.“Oden, I will stay with one half while you will travel with the other.” I offered this solution as a way to compromise and save the lives of his men.  “It will give them hope and protection whilst the transfer is complete.”Oden thought on this long and hard.  “It is a good plan and one that I am willing to chance.”  He said carefully, “But on one condition.”Rhen looked at the paladin, expressionless.“I ride with them.”“We will be able to carry less,” the druid said, “wouldn’t you rather ride with the second half?”“I ride with them.  Period.”  It seemed Oden was adamant about his decision.The druid shrugged.  “So be it.”The shifter transformed and, after much toil and reverse engineering, we were able to seat 24 of Oden’s mounted knights atop the skrimlipod’s back.  It was a very slow ascension but after an hour or so, the large floating beast was in the air.Just before dusk, we noticed movement in the fields about the town’s perimeter.  It seemed as though the horde was on the move, and whatever had been irresistibly drawing them towards the town was now not strong enough.“They are leaving,” I said as I watched them going into the east.  Nightwalkers and many other nasty creatures were following.  It seemed as though they were leaving the town for no reason.“I see,” said Sir Anton, Oden’s second in command.“Let us hope that this is a sign of good things to come.”  I mused as I tried to view the large moving beast on the horizon.  It seemed as though it was just over the city’s main square.Suddenly, we started hearing other-worldly voices and taunts thrown at us from the black of night.  The alarm was sounded and we all rose to our feet, clamoring into armor and drawing weapons as we could.  The Hand and Shield were in my hands as quick as any warrior could have drawn them.The hellish screams of death and dying were all about us and the men were becoming afraid***.“What is that noise, Sir Bocata?” Anton yelled over the deadly din, “I don’t see anyone here who could be causing it.”“They are spirits, young warrior,” I replied, searching frantically for anything to materialize and try to attack one of the men.  “They are the remains of the dead who were lost and massacred here but a few months ago.  Their spirits are strong.”“What are we to do against an enemy we cannot see?”  Anton said, drawing his hammer from a loop at his belt.“The only thing we can do against such creatures,” I said, sheathing the Shield.“Pray and run!”  Oh, how it pained me to say it.I gave the order and, against his better judgment, and his orders, Anton repeated my order and I led the charge on foot, while the other men surrounded me.  We were going to get into the city of Paladium this night, without the shifter’s aid.*Our world has a council of "over-gods" that preside over the "regular 'rank and file'" deities of our world.  Optimen has one portfolio, Good, and is Co-superior to all deities of the Good alignment.  As you travel through our world, you'll learn the names of the other four over-gods.**Venia is our goddess of magic.  She is a neutral good deity that is a bit fickle, but very powerful in the ways in which she speaks with her followers.  Almost all of them have some unique gift with magic.***Oden's men, save for Sir Anton, are first level human paladins.  Needless to say they don't get "Divine Courage".As soon as I figure out how to post a picture on the boards, I'll post one of the big lizard himself.</blockquote>

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