((Massive post ahead))
Shel sat back and uncovered his head to take full advantage of the chill night air. What he had just seen through his telescope was rather impressive. A huge pillar of flame rising from the ground up to the sky. He felt in the back of his mind that Thlash was just as puzzled. And a puzzled Thlash was a dangerous person to deal with. Helesh did not react to the news as he was too focused to have any interest in the event. He was actually very displeased; because of that pillar he had been unable to sneak in the city and would have to wait until next night.
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Rain poured hard on poor Helesh as he sped stealthily from the north gate to the airship docks the following night. Now was a good time to enchant the ship. He gripped the four glowing rubies in his hand. Those rubies contained the souls of hundreds of flying mountain and forest dwellers and now they were going to make the airship float gracefully in the sky.
Finally he reached the docks and climbed aboard the airship. He pulled a knife out of his coat and started engravin mystical symbols on the bridge of the ship. Thunder rolled in the sky as if sensing what was about to happen.
"Rune of Merging...Rune of Soul...Rune of Transfer, Rune of Air..."
Many more names of runes could be heard from Helesh's mouth. Eventually he was done carving them. He set the four rubies inside the rune circle and started arcane chanting. The wind rose. The earth shook slightly. The air became harder to breathe, saturated as it was with magical energy. The glow of one of the rubies disappeared.
Helesh felt his strength slowly fading but he continued chanting nonetheless. The wind rose even more. Thunder in the sky intesified and the shaking of the ground became harder as well. The glow in the second ruby disappeared.
Helesh was nearly out of strength. Only his will kept him chanting until the third ruby stopped glowing. There Helesh collapsed. Failure was the word on his mouth.
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Helesh woke up the following morning to a very unpleasant surprise : Shraal's unhooded face was hovering above him, and he looked not pleased at all.
"I hope you are satisfied with what you did tonight, young man."
"Not really. It failed after all and now you are going to punish me for failing as a mayor as well."
Shraal smiled
"You are right about one thing at least. Get up and follow me."
Helesh slowly got to his feet, his head ringing and his muscles aching. He and Shraal then got off the ship and moved in the direction of the Master Council building. What surprised Helesh the most was that they did not stop there but continued westward. The Shadow Council it was then.
They walked for a while and Helesh thought that they had been walking for too long. The Shadow Council wasn't that far from the Master Council. Then he noticed the thick white fog surrounding them. Maybe Shraal just got lost, thought Helesh.
Finally they stopped in front of the wall of the city. By that time Helesh was full of fear. Shraal was going to execute him by throwing him off the wall. They both moved upward to the top of the walls and continued towards the tower.
Finally they reached the top and Shraal turned toward Helesh and said.
"Take a good look around you. I hope you will understand what you have done."
Helesh looked out and nearly fainted : the ground was nowhere to be seen. THE CITY WAS FLOATING IN THE AIR! Then Helesh realized his folly. He had enchanted the ship but there were so many souls being merged that they overflowed in the next thing in contact with the ship : the ground. And the ground had lifted off the ground. With the whole city and a fair bit of the forest.
"I'm sorry..." said Helesh weakly.
"Instead of being sorry, tell me in how many days the enchantment will wear off."
Helesh ran the number through his mind. The size of the lifted part. The number of souls used. The magically saturated environment he chose for the ceremony. He quickly came to the correct answer.
"No more than three..."
"That's fine then. In three days everything will be back to normal and we will be able to resume the life we had before. Of course you will be properly punished for your lack of foresight. Next time use Control Runes to avoid soul overflows."
"...thousand years." finished Helesh.
This time it was Shraal's turn to feel weak. And angry. A simple dabbler in enchanments who could not even use the proper runes to avoid overflows had managed to lift an entire city into the clouds. Though he quickly regained his composure.
"All right let's go and decide your punishment."
As Helesh stood up he felt his brother Shel talking into his mind. One sentence was enough.
At least now we don't have to worry about where the sewers dump their content.
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Shraal arrived before the Shadow Council. He had left Helesh outside the massive chamber. The 11 shadows of the ancestors were here, waiting.
"Do not be too harsh with him. He has made a mistake, but the results are not uninteresting." said one of the shadows.
"Don't worry, ancient one. I recognize the value of his works." answered Shraal
"Now there is something we want young Thlash to do." said another shadow. "You still have the last ruby, don't you ?"
"Use it to enchant his ship and send him towards the place where the pillar of flame appeared. We want to know what caused it." finished a third.
"It will be as you command, ancient ones." said Shraal and left the room.
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Three days later Thlash's airsip lifted into the sky. The dragon-shaped iron ship was called the flying palace by the other Thelash and it was not for naught. It had large corridors lined with fine shadow silk weavings. The rooms were made for the comfort of their occupants. There were even two meeting rooms, to impress any guests.
Thlash was in command of the expedition. There were 12 people with him. Two from the Bloodpillar would provide food whenever the huge holds ran out. Five were of the Mindpillar and would be studying whatever they would come in contact with. The last five were engineers and operators from the Clockpillar. They would operate the ship itself as well as the 12 ballistas mounted above and below the ship and other defensive contraptions. Harmless was not a word the Thelash used often.
The ship came also equipped with various observation instruments to survey the ground below. They had also taken 4 Thelash soul gems with them, to give to races they would come in contact with. All in all the Shuhalal, as the airship was called, was a real exploration and diplomatic vessel : dreadful and impressive.
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((You have been warned, this post was rather massive. I'll make a double-post to avoid lenghtening this one))
[ June 08, 2008: Message edited by: Istrian ]
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Topic: Battle of the Gods II: an RP Thread (Read 106427 times)