Ustris made it back to his group, and found them all huddled together behind one of the dunes. As he walked up, one of them straightened and sort of fidgeted. “Hey, boss. Me and the boys, and some of the gals of course, have been thinking. We need a name. Most of us have settled on naming us ‘The Archeon rebellion of Lord Gilgamesh.’”
“… The thirty of you want to be called a rebellion after that mad God? And what is ‘Archeon?’” “It’s where we live!”
“That’s Acheron. “Same difference.”
Ustris pinched his brow, sometimes the humans astounded him so.
“We’ll name the movement that in general, there’s another sixty of us now and that makes sense that we’re a rebellion. Is there anything that you, the thirty of you, would like to be called specifically?” The group looked at each other. Sixty more? Others who would like to help? Wait a minute, we were here first. “We’ll get back to you on that, let’s huddle guys.” The humans all moved a small distance away and began talking in hushed whispers. Ustris had a small smile on his face, they didn’t even question him how sixty more people came to help them, and they didn’t think for a moment that this movement would stop here. They were all fixated on taking over the world, if their grandiose name they chose had anything to indicate. Ustris settled back against the dune, prompting Jeeves to continue where he left off. He had a while to wait before they could make it into the city, might as well make the best of it.
…
Kleine opened the trapdoor, the hinges on it were rusted and it squeaked noisily, but it didn’t seem to awaken any of the sleeping crowd. She unslung her crossbow from underneath her coat and dropped down. She fell about three meters before her feet touched the ground, the entire room was completely pitch black down here, and she would have trouble seeing regularly. She uttered a word of power though and a small fireball appeared above her upturned hand. With a single motion she could throw it at a moment’s notice if necessary, right now it lit the room like a torch.
The room, she noticed quickly, was not a regular cellar. The wall closest to her was lined with racks, used for storing and aging the strong alcoholic beverages that most Skrellits enjoyed. A couple of the racks were filled, and a couple of barrels in the corner had contents that sloshed around when she moved them.
“Why would they have this room, without a way in or out normally?” “Someone probably moved the ladder from down here.” She whirled towards the voice to see that it was Viktor. He had just dropped into the cellar, she hadn’t noticed him dropping in, lost in her confusion. Viktor was eyeing the ball of flame that she had just about thrown at him. “You know magic? You must really be a Champion then.”
“You weren’t convinced?” “I’ve been lied to too much to ever take anything at face value. It’s hard to think that some God broke all tradition and reason to uplift a slave race. Physical feats don’t mean a lot either, I’ve seen a race where they looked entirely human except for some pointed ears. They showed grace and power as well, but I never saw one do magic. Only their champions do magic from the stories they tell.”
“What was this race called?” “They called themselves Elves. They were unnaturally fast, were more powerful than humans even though they were lither, and had senses like you wouldn’t believe. They made for fantastic archers, and very peculiar swordsmen. They were sympathetic towards the humans’ plight, or at least they took me in for a while, but they didn’t stop the slavers when they came to take me.”
“How could they stand idly by when someone was in need?” “Their culture is different than most. They’re pledged to a God who cares naught about anything but knowledge, I assume they didn’t think they could get anything more from me and didn’t care what happened to me at that point.”
Something about this struck home to Kleine, didn’t Gilgamesh himself say that he had once been a God of knowledge? He had said something about gaining knowledge, and then leaving the world to seek more when he had enough. What about the races that he once ruled over? She remembered him saying his Champion had been completely dedicated to gaining knowledge… And someone had to have made that city above his prison. Did the Gods influence the races that followed them? Or did they influence the Champions, who influenced the race? She knew that Jeeves was altering the thirty humans that had been following them, could that effect eventually spread to the entire race? She knew that most Skrellits were entirely fixated upon profits, it was a widely known fact. To barter with a Skrellit was harder than squeezing water from a rock, it was a common saying. Could their God have an essence of commerce? He could have affected his Champions, whom in turn would affect the entirety of the race.
She didn’t feel like seeking out knowledge though, Gilgamesh didn’t seem to have that effect on her now. What did she mainly feel? She knew Ustris felt only vengeance towards the other races, and she knew she harbored these feelings herself. That had been brought on solely by generations of slavery though… Or had it? They had fled to the mountain to escape the tyranny of the Skrellits initially, only after they gained power had they even changed their thoughts to revenge. Could Gilgamesh now be a God of Vengeance? If so, what lengths would she and Ustris go to satisfy their God’s powerful hatred?
She was snapped out of her musings by a crash from behind her, she whirled to find that Viktor was struggling with something larger than he was. “Damned thing, it’d be hard to manage with two hands, let alone one.” He had found the ladder that had been shoved roughly against a wall.
“Here, I’ll get it, do you have anything I could light?” “There’s a torch in a sconce on the wall over there.”
Kleine lit the torch and grabbed the ladder out of his hands, it was just tall enough to reach through the trapdoor. Viktor would be able to get out without her helping him, and this would allow them to move some of the humans down here so it would be less crowded upstairs.
“Where did all of those humans come from? I can’t imagine sixty people joining a rebellion so quickly, especially with them having to hide in the middle of the town from their old masters.” “Most of them tried to escape about a month or two back. Thing is, most of them were late to the escape, didn’t know when it was going to happen. Ended up getting stuck inside the gates. First time in Skrellit history that they lost that many slaves at once, they brought in all the slaves out in the dunes and shut the gates so no more could leave. Stayed like that for about a week. Most of these ones had been trying to get out on that first day, got panicked and ended up in the warehouse district, no one was using it because most of them were trying to keep the slaves in their quarter.”
Kleine reeled a little bit inside, Ustris and she were the reason these slaves were here? Viktor was rambling on however. “Ended up getting out of the slave quarter myself about a week ago, grabbed a couple of lads and brought them with me. We hit a small warehouse and got ourselves a couple of weapons, some food and water, and a couple of mail shirts. We’d raid warehouses at night, ended up riling up the guard however and we’ve had to lay low the past couple of days. Then you came along.”
“We mean to actually do more than just steal from the Skrellits, you know.” Kleine had reformed her fireball, and they were walking along the room, feeling out the size of it. Apparently this section of the cellar actually ran underneath the street outside. Pillars were holding up most of this ridiculously large cellar, how had this gone unnoticed?
Viktor nodded, “Aye, I supposed you were. It would make me none the happier if you could take me along when you do, I want to see those stone bastards suffer… Lass, do you feel that?”
“What?” “I feel air moving.” They had reached the far end, which ended by Kleine’s estimate underneath a warehouse across the street. They hadn’t seen any trapdoors leading upwards, however. “I think this might be a false wall near here.”
“How do you suppose that?” “If there’s air moving, it’s going somewhere. I hadn’t noticed it anywhere else in this room, but over here. Let’s see if there’s… Ah, I got it!” Viktor had pushed against a brick in the wall that moved at his touch, they both heard a click and a small crack became visible in the wall. Kleine pushed it back and it swung open readily, beyond was another pitch black tunnel. “You think we should wait for anyone else to back us up, lass?”
Kleine
STR: 3 / ??
AGI: 12 / ??
CON: 4 / ??
WIS: 4 / ??
INT: 8 / ??
CHA: 8 / ??
Ustris
STR: 10 / ??
AGI: 5 / ??
CON: 8 / ??
WIS: 7 / ??
INT: 5 / ??
CHA: 4 / ??
Crystal Staff
SPD: 1
POW: 1
PRC: 2
Effects:
None
Crossbow
SPD: 1
POW: 1
PRC: 1
Effects:
Automatic Bolt Generation
Fire Armor (Evoke) (Limited)
Fire Ball (Evoke) (Projectile)
Expl. Bolt (Evoke) (Projectile) (Temporary)
Exp. Trap (Ritual) (Trap)
Alrt Trap (Ritual) (Trap)
Erth Wall (Ritual) (Fast)
Hrdn Erth (Ritual) (Perm)
OOC: It's really hard to keep someone's accent when you want to lay down exposition, at least if they're scots/pirateman. I'll solidify his character later and I won't be having troubles writing him soon.
On the whole thirty people, I was thinking something a little less grandiose.
I'm thinking they're going to be your elite troops later, like the Frumentarii or something from Caesar's Legion (I don't actually remember if those guys are that great or not). The whole movement and your Kingdom will probably be called the Archeon Rebellion when we get to that point. I can already think of a silly scene including the name.
Night should be falling soonish, they've been down in that basement for a while, time's just hard to make it feel like it's passing, especially when underground.
So what should the both of them do next?
FAKEEDIT: Also, on the whole of the ritual magic thing. I haven't really described it in detail what he's doing with the diagrams and stuff. Basically I've stolen the circles and stuff from Full Metal Alchemist. He makes those, and then has been pouring mana into them. Most of them are really simple, most of the ones he's learned have been anyway. The buffs that he's learning are ridiculously complicated however, but once he learns the base all he needs to do is change the materials he's used
inside the circle at that point. (Note that it is
not alchemy and there is no equivalent exchange necessary, making healing magics possible.) (The wall spell is basically just a couple of lines however, not really even a circle, he basically just creates a diagram of where he wants the walls to go and poof.
Author
Topic: Acheron & the Shards of Heaven: The Assassination (Suggestions Welcome) (Read 11591 times)