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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Emperor Valerian" data-source="post: 1498172" data-attributes="member: 15043">The Great Battle of Irulas, Part Two“By Corellon,” Tess breathed raspily, her throat strained from her constant shrieks and song, “I need some water!”  Siabrey glanced at her friend, as she leaned wearily on Kelir, away from the parapet edges.  Reinforcements had arrived to fill in the decimated common ranks, and now archers wearing the colors of the regular army peppered the demonic army below with arrows.  The fighter reached to her pouch, and pulled out her canteen, handing it to the bard.“Here... drink it,” Siabrey said.  “We’ll need your voice more this night I think.”To the south, flames licked into towering columns of light in the night sky, orange bursts growing, billowing, roiling into the ever-low hanging clouds that continued to spit here and there the infernal red snow.  The outer wall was clearly outlined by the flames, and even at this distance, it was possible to see shimmering, shifting, movement as men and beasts fought desperately there.Above, the spellcasters and rangers continued to rain death from the cliff and directly above the demonic forces... whose ranks were quickly starting to crack.  The dry, barren ground now was slick with blood, and just as Tess predicted solemnly hours before, the remains of the demons now were piled two and three deep in some places, even as more streamed into the killing fields, not knowing what they faced.“Bloody murder,” Tess hissed after taking a swig from the canteen, the warm water helping heal her parched vocal cords.  “That’s damn bloody murder out there almost,” she looked out towards the carnage below.“Better them than us,” Shaun said quietly, as he sat with his back against a battlement, resting.  He looked up towards the sky, and frowned.  “Hey... we have any big bird-like things that fly on our side?”“What are you talking about?” Orion looked at Shaun, confused.  “Are you babbling nonsense again?  I’m not falling for one of those, ‘made you look,’ tricks again.”“No, I’m dead serious... oh god,” Shaun was suddenly at his feet.  The rest of the party gazed up, in time to see the mutiliated body of one of the spellcasters flash by before slamming into the ground no more than thirty yards from where they party was. Above, the large, looming forms of vicious creatures, massive talons coming from their arms and legs, and a massive, vicious beak coming from their vulture heads.  They were slate gray, if slightly purplish, with massive, feathery gray wings.  And ten of them were slicing through the spellcasters, biting and snarling left and right.“Dammit!” Siabrey snarled.  Our spellcasters are going to get massacred up there, she watched, helpless as the rangers above began desperately shooting towards the flying demons, hoping to knock the vrocks aside.  A distant, loud roar seemed to echo from above... a noise Siabrey assumed was the death cry of one of the demons... until shapes flashed over the lip of the cliff, slashing through the massive vrocks with devastating ease.The roars of over two hundred dragons thundered through the air, as the massive silver form of Alisandra, in the lead, smashed one of the demons out of the way with a single paw.“Go Ally!” Siabrey jumped up, and pumped her fist in the air.  “Get those guys!”  Cheers erupted from along the battleline, as the aerial battle, with its twisting, turning, slashing and clawing, drew more and more attention.  It seemed more and more vrocks flew into the massive melee overhead, but as more flew in, the dragons swatted even more out of the sky. “I think Alisandra has that handled,” Shaun observed dryly, causing Siabrey to give him a grin.  “Now... back to this resting thing.  I don’t doubt we’ll have more fighting tonight... rest up instead of gawking,” he chided.  Elenya looked at him, and raised an eyebrow.“Shauny... I’m proud of you.  You’re sounding like your,” she gasped, “responsible?”  Despite the soot on his face, the tiredness in his bones, and the noise and din around them, Shaun stuck his tongue out at her.The party indeed spent the next fifteen minutes or so regaining their strength, as Grumki went about, healing the injured, while Siabrey, Shaun, Tess and Orion set about reorganizing the wall defenses, incase the demons made another push towards the weakened wall.  It seemed things in this quarter seemed well under control, until Tess spotted off in the distance a small red shape, zipping towards the party rapidly through the air.What’s red and fast and flies? Tess’ mind sank in fear, Oh I know... dammit!“Um...” Tess started to point, guiding the attention of the others towards the object.  “I... um... think that Stalatan might be headed this way...”“Oh sweet Pelor’s moon!” Elenya swore, and quickly words of power formed in her lips, her voice a wavering panic.  Aeron’s joined her as well, as the rest of the party notched arrows, in the back of each of their minds, the fear that they would need to run.  Alisandra... dragons.... please stop him! they all hoped, not daring to look above to check on the dragon’s progress, instead focusing on what they were sure was the oncoming juggernaught.As the creature’s movements grew closer, and faster, Shaun slowly relaxed his pull on his bow... as he slowly began to realize the creature was smaller and closer than previously thought...That’s not Stalatan at all... thats barely the same size as me! he suddenly realized, seeing the feral red eyes of a red dragon wyrmling speeding closer and closer to the party.  In nearly a single volley, the entire side of the wall, along with the party, opened up on the creature... and the wyrmling seemed to explode in mid-air, its pieces spraying in an arc, impacting on the lower parts of the tower with an imperceptible thud.Tess gave a slight, relieved laugh. “I... um... guess I was wrong,” she reached behind her head and scratched nervously.“Thank Pelor you were!” Elenya sighed in relief.  “For a second, I...”“DUCK!” Orion leapt forward, knocking Elenya to the side, as what had been a distant whistling noise suddenly increased to a crescendo before a massive crash blocked out all noise.As the dust cleared, the party saw the broken form of one of the massive vulture demons, fully 10 feet long, laying in a crushed heap in the center of the tower, directly where Elenya was standing.  It bore numerous burn marks, a few arrows... but notably its throat had been ripped out... and the party found part of a dragon tooth in the wound.“Damn,” Shaun said quietly, walking over and holding Elenya.  We need to still watch out.... an accident could still just as easily kill us as a demon...It wasn’t a few minutes after he made this observation aloud that the party heard a larger, far more massive whistling.  In alarm, they stared skyward, and saw the form of a creature many times the size of the vrock, a silver dragon, easily a young adult, cartwheeling out of the sky, his wings fluttering uselessly as he plummeted......straight towards the party’s location.“Get out of the way!” Siabrey started shouting, as Tess calmly rooted her feet, and started to let music come to her lips.  A song rose to the heavens, above the din of battle... a song that thickened the air underneath the plummeting beast.  As the screaming whistle of its falling frame came within fifty feet of Tess, the beast suddenly slowed to merely the fall of a feather, seeming to float down the last fifty feet to the battlement.  (Tess cast feather fall on the dragon)The young dragon looked to her plaintively, gasping for breath.  His body bore numerous arrows from strafing the orc lines, and numerous large gashes easily made by vrock beaks and claws.  His breathing was ragged... and it was apparent that without aid, he might very well die on the battlements of Irulas.Grumki stepped forward, and gently laid a hand on the dragon’s forehead, uttering a few power words of encouraging strength from Kord, and the party watched in awe as the dragon’s wounds closed, and the arrows seemed to fall out of his body.  Within a few minutes, the sixty foot dragon was on his feet, his wings rebuilt.  The beast said nothing, but the brief nod the creature gave was understood by the party to be a heartfelt thanks.  The creature then promptly leapt off the battlements, and within a half second, his massive downbeating wings lifted him aloft, and back into the fray.“Tess... that was quite impressive!” Harrapias slapped the bard on the back.  “How did you do that?  Made a dragon stop falling!”“Music,” the bard smiled.  She idly strummed a few notes on her harp... and then looked towards the south, where another, seemingly shimmering wall of beasts seemed to be coming towards the party.“Prepare yourselves!” she shouted, pointing.  Orders quickly were barked up and down the lines, bows were loaded and drawn, and tensely the party waited, fearing another wave of assaults.But as the shimmering line indeed made itself out to be demons, orcs, gnolls, and the other parts of the Countess’ army, it became apparent they did not come as an organized army.  All were coming towards the party at a dead run... and only a few had weapons, and even fewer had their armor.  What the... Siabrey started to wonder, until her ears caught the sound of more fighting, more screaming, more shouting towards the south.  Then... then her mind realized what was happening.“ALEXANDER IS HERE!” she shouted with a joyous cry.  The demons were clearing running from something, as they charged pell-mell past the party’s position, despite the volleys of arrows being launched into their ranks.  None had ladders, none had any equipment to be consider an armed force.  At Siabrey’s shouting, ragged cheers began to echo up and down the battlements, cheers for Alexander, cheers for the Princess, cheers for the Baroness, cheers for the monk and Lord Dice.   Jeers soon joined the cheers, as the commoners especially began screaming and shouting their views of the demons and orcs loudly.  As the demons streamed past, the orcs and gnolls screaming and screeching in fear and pain, the valley below filled to the brim with creatures, tight enough that it seemed they would not be able to move.Above all of this noise, shouting and din, it was Siabrey alone who saw a flying creature dodging arrows from the commoners, headed towards the tower.  Her eyes picked up its color... blue... with red points on its tips... and with a sinking heart... she realized it was Lucius’ eagle...He’s nearby! her heart jumped, and with eagerness, she started to scream his name, looking desperately in the mass of orcs and demons being driven into the ravine, hoping to catch a glimpse of a human form.  She saw nothing, and soon, the eagle had landed on the tower, chirping loudly.“Siabrey, can you talk to Luke’s pet?” Shaun asked.  The thing is very insistent... like it wants something.  I don’t know what though.  Siabrey shook her head, as Tess stepped forward, humming more music.  To the party’s surprise, Tess starting to chirp quietly, just like the eagle, and the beast seemed to chirp and cry out in delight.  As awed and stunned spectators looked on, Tess continued to talk to the creature for several minutes, before standing up.  (She used True Tongue chord I believe)“Luke’s here,” she said simply, “he’s here and he’s gone bad... that’s what his eagle says,” she said quietly, joining Siabrey in scanning the armies in vain. The smoke from the fires to the south was now drifting north, and once mixed with the clouds overhead, provided a choking cover that intermittently covered the battlefield in front of them.  The noises of fighting further south grew louder and louder, steadily drowning out the party’s calls for Luke’s name.It was unfortunate that they scanned out there... they only needed to have waited a few minutes before there was a blinding flash behind them.When the party stood, they found a strange man staring back at them.  His skin was a deep scarlet, a blazing red, the shimmering of abyssal flames seemed to oscillate over his body.  His eyes blazed a blinding white, and his lips were curled into a vicious, hateful snarl.  It is only the long locks of red hair, and the voice of the man that let them know who he was.“Surrender to the power of Graz’zt, or you all shall perish!” Luke snarled, as his hand extended towards Siabrey, its fingertips glowing with the power of a deadly spell.</blockquote>

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