You are
A) Crown Prince Imam of Ixor, a young, charismatic heir to the throne.
B) General Romab Komatar, an elderly, martial champion and tactical genius.
C) General Khoma Areyman, a young, wise rising military star.
D) General Kouma Ostakar, a middle-aged family man with healthy dose of luck on his side.
The Blight has struck suddenly.
What was first thought to be yet another ambitious necromancer at work has quickly - and horrifyingly - turned into a 'zombie plague', for lack of other words. Those bitten either died in pains or became flesh-craving undead themselves. First to fall were outlying petty kingdoms. Then, the border villages. And now, the hordes of walking corpses are roaming the countryside just outside the capital, sowing death and destruction upon the once great and most prosperous kingdoms. It is not that Blight is incurable - but it spreads too fast for the Medicine to be distributed, and too fast for the healers to administer rites of purification and protection.
Seeing the hopeless situation that not even the necromancers, sorcery or prayers to the Allmighty could solve, the good father of the nation, King Ixar VII, has thusly declared:
"Thou shalt taketh as many as it is possible, prepare as many wagonloads of supplies as there is to be found, and venture Beyond the Portal, to the lands unknown and uncharted."
The Portal is a pair of obelisks. Those stepping between them at high noon are 'taken' to the worlds unknown and uncharted. The Portal was kept a secret by the Council of Sorcerors, until the plague forced the secret to be revealed.
Now, families, vagabonds, citizens of high and low birth, camp before the capital to access to Portal.
Attuned by the Sorcerors, the Portal is directed to one of four worlds. Uncharted and unknown, they say - but in past months, scouts and rangers have been sent in secret to chart and learn about them.
The World you have chosen by the lot is:
A) Northern World, a vast field of grass and swamps, with some mountains standing tall on western horizon.
B) Eastern World, a world of forests and rivers, and bitterly cold winds.
C) Southern World, a world filled with flowers, a red sky, and three green moons.
D) Western World, with seemingly endless waters in the north, and the low-lying, grassy coast in the south.
None of these worlds were explored more than that - are there humans in there? Races of Ixor's past? Alien species of vast powers and horrific faces? Any civilized species at all? Who knows.
As the people gather inside the capital's walls, the scribes prepare you your own Scrolls of Kingdom Status. Because that is what you have to accomplish - set up a New Ixor. Supplies and refugees will flow into your new domain as long as it is possible for the old civilization to hold the gates.
The quartermasters are setting aside the extra supplies you've requested, which are
A) Wagons of dried foodstuffs and alcohol, to keep bellies full and refugees happy.
B) Boxes upon boxes of various tools, cloth, supplies and metals.
C) Metal weapons and arrows, shields and armors - so that you might train militia ready to combat whatever hides on the other side.
D) Jugs of the Medicine - in case the dreaded Blight ventures after you like a hungry wolf stalks the prey.
And, unbeknownst to your monarch, you've made personal arrangements as well. To take with you something that is not included on the charters of the quartermasters. That being
A) Your family and servants, so that at least your own life will have some normalcy in it.
B) A clique of Necromancers, to continue the rites of old.
C) One of the Portal Stones, a magnetic rock that is capable of opening the Portal - or sealing it shut.
D) Xamantha the Sorceress, a seemingly ageless brown-skinned woman of terrible power that has been advisor to Ixor since you were a toddler.
E) Thunderblade of Ixor, a magical artifact infused with powers of thunder and wind, granting its wielder an ability to slay giants and dragons, and to command even most stubborn of ears.
You look back at the proud capital, its marble sanctuary to the Allmighty, at the Palace were you attended the court proceedings, the gilded rooftops of villages and the red-tiled rooftops of commoners' houses... it is time to say goodbye.
Author
Topic: Sons of Ixor, a post-apo Spamkingdom (Read 2208 times)