Calandryll
The Hunting Party
Calandryll awoke to the bright sunlight coming
through his room at the inn. He slowly opened his eyes, allowing
them time to adjust to the light. As he sat up, he felt a small
pain in his back. He sighed as he remembered his comfortable
quarters at Paladins Hall. It was times like this he missed being
a guard, before the deamon-guards arrived. Shaking his head to
remove the lamenting thoughts, he quickly got dressed in his gold
armor, being careful to adjust each piece correctly and placed
his red sash across his chest. Descending the stairs, Calandryll
noticed his good friend, U’kel standing by the doorway.
"Good morning sleepyhead, you’re
late.", he stated with a smile.
Calandryll grumbled something incoherent, but
managed a small smile in return. Twas hard for him to feel good
with a deamon-guard so close by. Calandryll ignored the
guard’s idle threats and walked out into the fresh air with
his good friend at his side. Just as they started towards
Calandryll’s father’s weapons shop, a passerby hailed
them.
"Careful guys, there are PKs
outside."
Calandryll noticed the youth had come from the
south exit, he had wounds and his armour was badly damaged. He
knew this word, "pk" to mean rogues, but he still could
not get used to the term.
"How many?", Calandryll asked.
"Dunno, maybe ten or so.", the youth
said excitedly.
U’kel’s eyes narrowed. "Too
many, good thing we were going north towards the Chaos shrine
anyway."
Calandryll had intended to go to the Chaos
shrine to root out the cowards who murdered there. But his old
guard instincts kicked in and the threat to his city could not be
ignored. "Nay, my friend, we needest to rally some brave
souls to vanquish these rogues. The safety of Trinsic always
comes first. Those at the shrine will have to fend for themselves
today I am afraid. We shall make that journey another day."
Calandryll knew his best hopes of finding those
powerful enough and willing to help would lie at the bank, the
weapons/armour shops and at the mage shop. He hurriedly visited
all four finding a few people at each. When all was said and done
he had eight others. With U’kel, himself and the youth, that
made eleven. He had to hope that would be enough. Now he had to
figure out a plan.
"Who here is skilled in the arcane
arts?" , he yelled over the clamor of weapons being readied.
Four men and one woman stepped forward.
"Ah, good.", said Calandryll, "We shall need you
to drain the mana of the evil mages. Once that is done, we will
be able to strike and overwhelm them." Twas not much of a
plan, but twould have to do.
The party made their way towards the exit,
picking up another volunteer. In all they were twelve strong now.
Following the youth, twas not long until they came upon the
rogues. Immediately and without warning, the mages went to work,
as soon as the evil mages were drained, Calandryll and the
fighters rushed in. The battle was joined!
Calandryll immediately slammed into the closest
rogue, the two battled for a time, but this one was not very
skilled and fell quickly. The screams of death and the stench of
burnt flesh filled Calandryll’s senses and he searched for
his next opponent. Suddenly he felt magical energies envelope his
body. Tensing and awaiting the pain, he felt the soothing
sensation of a heal spell. He turned around to see two of the
mages healing their friends. Good thinking, Calandryll thought
and he knew he was in good company.
Calandryll charged into another rogue, this one
a bit more skilled. They fought for quite a while as the battle
continued to rage around them. Twas an even match and Calandryll
even though he might lose, when he again felt the healing spell.
Calandryll would rather the mage had not cast the spell, but
better to win this fight than to die. With two more blows, the
rogue fell and Calandryll wheeled around wounded and tired,
angrily looking for another foe. All he saw around him where dead
bodies as the fighting had stopped. Two of the rogues had
escaped, but the other seven lay dead.
Calandryll was about to speak, to congratulate
his fellow warriors when one of hem suddenly rushed in and
attacked him! Before he knew what happened, Calandryll felt his
soul leave his body. As he stood over his body, he heard two of
the mages screaming at the fighter that he had killed a noble
person. U’kel was in an aggressive stance and looked ready
to kill the fighter. Suddenly, Calandryll’s spirit was
forced back into his body as one of the mages resurrected him.
Calandryll gathered his belongings as the
fighter apologized.
"Battle tis always confusing, my friend,
thou art not at fault. Blame the tyrant Lord British for my
reputation." Calandryll saluted the fighter as he had seen
him drop two rogues and help with a third. "Perhaps this
will serve as a lesson to thee."
Calandryll and U’kel said their farewells
and decided to head back to Trinsic, twas a long day and they
both needed rest.
|
Stratics Central
