Seristis Tower – Grandmasters' CouncilAutumn – Seventh week“She is late. I hope she takes this war seriously.” said Xanthis angrily.
“I can't wait until I get to put the Akkadian capital to the torch” said Dazhmar.
“Considering the degree of preparation of Iraxi troops, it isn't going to happen anytime soon” replied Sekhfar.
In another corner of the room a small group had another point of view.
“I really hope she is going to forbid everyone's participation into this... mess.” said Kirlin
“I really hope I won't have to move from Angartheris” said a dreamy Elestris, “It's full of books, probably enough to keep me busy for the rest of my life.” Of course he did not mention he hoped to receive the visit of the refugee's group, and to see a certain person again.
“And I want to explore that submerged city we found on Iraxi maps.” finished Sendar.
And a final group was having a heated debate.
“Now, if a buttered Irax--”
The entrance door opened and the Elchmistress entered the room, followed by Sirilanai. Everyone went to their place and sat down, waiting for her to speak.
“I have reviewed everyone's reports and opinions on our current greatest problem. I have reached a conclusion concerning the upcoming war between the Iraxi and the Akkadians. The Tower will not go to war.”
“Your Highness,” said Xanthis “are you saying we should abandon our allies in a war where the opposite side uses demons ? We are already into it and I urge you to mobilize all means available against an enemy who will do anything in its power to destroy us.”
“I remind you, Xanthis, that the Iraxi are as much demons as the Myrkridia are, while the Akkadians are humans. Also, the Akkadians never openly acted against us and our involvement here might cause undue tensions between our peoples. I am also aware of the pending agreements we have with the Iraxi Empire and we will honor them. But the Tower is not going to war and that is final.”
For a moment Xanthis considered bringing up a possible removal of the Elchmistress from her position, but he knew he would not get enough support from the other Grandmasters. Instead he considered his position. She had only said that the Tower would not get involved, but she never forbade mages to go of their own volition to help the Iraxi fight the Akkadians. He guessed she had done it on purpose, hoping to get rid of anyone trying to oppose her rule.
Whatever the truth was, he would be able to continue his plans.
Jaleen sighed and sank in her armchair. The past year had taken a heavy toll on her, both physically and mentally. She knew she wasn't made for such an adventurous life. At first she had joined the Tower because it was more or less a family tradition. She didn't like politics, she didn't like research and she didn't like visiting old places; she didn't care for power either. She had hoped for a quiet life assigned as the leader of a local branch of the Tower in some large city.
And here she was in an unfamiliar world, with old ruins around, everyone urging her to do some research and to get involved into wars she didn't even care about. She knew she should have chosen another school. Diviners and binders get quieter positions. Instead she had chosen aeromancy, and only because one of the fraternities of the school seemed more fun. She had had her share of fun in her student days. The wild parties they would throw in one of the less used labs of the Aurea Tower late in the night. She also remembered the angry face of Duval, one of the Master Aeromancers when he found out after they had used lightning to make some pretty lights... and had made a huge hole in the outer wall of the School tower.
“YOU ARE DAMN LUCKY THAT THIS TOWER CAN REPAIR ITSELF !” he had shouted at the time “I SHOULD HAVE ALL OF YOU MIND-CLEANED AND SENT TO YOUR HOUSES.”
Remembering that time, Jaleen laughed. It wasn't a merry laugh though, it had a tone of nostalgia and bitterness. A tear rolled down her cheek, followed by another, and another. These were good days indeed, and memories were flooding back. Autumn was not a good season. Eventually, she drifted into a deep sleep where she saw her family and her friends.
The Iraxi soldier lunged forward, tightly gripping his weapon. Inifius' mechanical mind did not even need to analyse this move. He just side-stepped, leaving his katana sheathed while his mind analysed what he had seen so far. He wasn't impressed, these recruits were nowhere near soldiers, and their weapons definitely weren't made to use their natural abilities to their maximum.
The recruit lunged again, putting all his weight into the attack. Absently Inifius stepped away again. He could see ways to make full use of Iraxi mobility, but that required different weapons, weapons that would not need to be gripped by a tentacle that wasn't made for gripping anyway.
He interrupted the training session early and went to see an Iraxi weaponsmith. He described new weapons to him, making drawings when necessary. New weaponry would be tied to Iraxi tentacles, so as not to be taken away easily by an enemy with a better grip, and to leave tentacles free for movement through trees, and long leaps.
Xith was probably the only one among the students who knew about the attack on Odua and other outside events. Still, he had a duty, and he knew that the work he was doing here was probably going to save thousands of Iraxi from the ravages of the incoming war. At the moment he was in the Scribe Hall of the tower, where all knowledge people had to share was recorded, and he was the one doing the writing. And this time it was Xanthis' knowledge of the races he had met that was being recorded.
“Now tell me,” asked Xanthis “where would you classify the Tengu ?”
“Let's see... they have wings and look like human, so I would say humanix avian”
“Are you really sure they look like humans ? The picture I implanted into your mind does not look this way, does it ?”
Xith thought about it some more. It was true that the Tengu did not look much like humans, but to an Iraxi all humanoids looked mostly alike. He thought some more about the books Xanthis had asked him to read and he remembered some images he had seen in them.
“Now that I think about it, they look a bit like harpies, and a bit like goblins. And if I remember well, both are categorized as demons, so Tengu would be demonix subgaia avian.”
“Indeed, that would be the best category for them. Write that down.”
“Your Excellency, I noticed there are creatures called Illithid that go under the demon category. They have some common traits with the Iraxi, so, would the Iraxi be demons.”
“Of course, you do know that anything that does not live under the Elchandaar Empire's domain is listed as demon. Iraxi are in the demonix octopus category.”
“What about the creatures that attacked Odua ?”
Xanthis opened a book near him, the same book he had recovered from the Akkadian embassy. “The Myrkridia, they seem to be called. Too bad this book does not tell more about them, but hopefully the bodies in the cellar will provide more clues as to their weaknesses. Put them in as demonix canis.”
They continued for a while, Xanthis frequently asking questions to Xith, to check on his ability to remember important things. Xith faithfully wrote whatever the psychomancer told him to. Eventually they were done, and Xanthis sent Xith on his way to his next lecture while he descended into the caves of the tower.
Xanthis used the portals to get into an isolated room with restricted access where the bodies of the slain Myrkridia were kept. The isolation was only a measure of safety among many. The powers of the creatures were unknown, so it wasn't a good idea to keep them too close to sensitive places.
Carvanil spent his time there, studying the bodies, trying to find a weakness in these creatures that could be used to their advantage. The two liches met eye to eye.
“What can you tell me about this ?” asked Xanthis.
“They are similar to dogs in their structure. Take a look at the musculature and the bone structure.” answered the other lich while pointing to specific places of the carcass “I can easily say they are made to reach high speeds quickly.”
Xanthis sneered, and Carvanil noticed he had just said something obvious the two of them had already seen in the previous battle. They were quick indeed.
“Also, look at the jaws and the size of the brain compared to the rest of the body. It is unlikely that these creatures think about many things during their life. I think they were made to kill.”
“Made ?”
“Yes, so far I noticed no apparent reproduction organs anywhere, so it is unlikely that they can breed. Therefore, they have been created by something or someone.”
“A saturation perhaps ?”
“Could be, could be. A close look at their muscles also revealed they are not as tough as we first thought. They might tire very quickly, so in a long battle, we would easily win.”
“Might, but not will.”
“Indeed. Now, the skin does not reveal any particular weakness, it's very similar to humans and fire and lightning should have the same effect as on humans. I think there is more than meets the eye however.”
“What makes you say so ?”
“Just a hunch, a lich's hunch.”
In another nearby lab were the remains of the gargoyles. Athan was trying to find a good spell that could be used to quickly dissipate the enchantment that gave them life, or at least something that could break the control of their masters.
Xanthis thought about the Akkadian war. How much support did he have exactly ? There was Carvanil who wanted to know more about these desert-dwelling necromancers. Sirilanai seemed to be involved as well, but the reason was not apparent. Dazhmar could always be counted on when it came to hurling fireballs and generally wreaking havoc. Akrashah could be counted on to do the aftermath work as she disliked to see suffering people and thus was easy to control. Sekhfar and Athan were unreliable, it was hard to predict if they would rather support the war from the backstage by studying the enemy, or from the front lines, although what could these two do there was unclear as long as the spell wasn't ready.
As for the other mages, it was clear they would either be against the war, or completely useless. The latter category was mostly comprised of Jaleen. Xanthis didn't need to check her mind to see that she was emotionally challenged, it probably wasn't enough to prevent a trained mage from casting, but it wasn't a good idea to let her cast anything anyway. Elestris also had something on his mind, though it was much harder to read anything from him, as he was used to diplomacy. Other mages just weren't the kind to get involved in wars, and should probably be left alone.
The morning was rather quiet, the city was quickly recovering from the attack. Xanthis was once again busy, getting rid of the mind parasites. Dazhmar was also here, having left the melting of Angartheris to his two new Initiates. A few weeks ago the first shipment of steel arrived, and the masons of the Emperor as well. It was not hard to see the surprise of Iraxi haulers when they were shown the huge amount of metal bars in the backyard of the Zoar that somehow got there during the night, without anyone noticing anything.
The look in the masons' eyes was funny too when they were told they had to go to the basement to reach the place where they were supposed to work. They were also issued special rings which would help identify them, as well as keep their mind parasite in check during their work.
Inifius entered the main hall of the Zoar, his emotionless face betraying no feelings, a thing he was incapable of since Xanthis had messed up his brain, during his childhood. He went straight to the lich and said in an emotionless voice.
“Master. Akkadians have attacked a border fort. Reinforcements have been sent. I have no one else to train here. Do you have orders for me ?”
“Yeehaw.” shouted Dazhmar, springing from his chair “At last some action. Shall we get going Xanthis ?”
“Not so fast. We are talking about Akkadians here. They have nasty tricks up their sleeves, so it is better to go prepared. Inifius, gather other mages and runeblades. We are leaving with the first Iraxi soldiers.”
“Yes, Master. They leave at dawn.”
“Also, make sure everyone gets some of the special war supplies from the basement. Better safe than sorry.”
Long-distance portals :
Tower <-> Ehn'gha / Odua
Tower <-> Sphere cave
Tower <-> Angartheris
Active trade :
To Iraxi (began turn 14) : 2 tonnes of steel per turn for 2 years in exchange of 50 masons and 20 glassworkers for 4 years.
Groups :
None
Angartheris status :
- 19t/15000t average quality steel (2t to Iraxi)
- 1800 texts restored
- 50 / 600 floors restored (masonry)
- 20 / 300 floors restored (glassworking)
Projects :
Sphere research (channeling) : 5 turns (Shugak)
Sphere research (history) : 3.5 turns (Sirilanai)
Myrkridia morphology : 1 turns (Carvanil)
Spell – Disenchant Akkadian gargoyle : 1/5 turns (Athan)
Spell – Break Control : 0.5 turns (Xanthis)
Personnel :
15 Grandmasters / 1 Elchmistress
2 Initiates of Creation :
- (Iraxi) : Xith(M), Qlosh(F)
2 Initiates of Change :
- (Iraxi) : Qirosh(M), Ixlis(M)
1 Initiates of Balance :
- (Iraxi) : Zira(F)
2 Initiates of Destruction :
- (Iraxi) : Yline(F), Xlistu(F)
4 Novices
- (Iraxi) : Zaxik(M), Rileq(M), Iuxai(F), Zulai(F)
6 Runeblades
Main Tower :
- On an island with tall cliffs surrounding it, some beaches.
- A teleportation pad on one of the beaches, heavily defended by runes and enchantments (see image page 1)
- Extensive underground galleries, some completely isolated caves
- Heavy use of portals to move around, especially to the isolate caves. Some portals are locked by specific “keys”.
Note : Most if not all portals require some sort of key to activate. It can be a person, a passphrase, a spell, an item, or anything else.
Angartheris :
- Illusion runes on the entrances to the city
- Barrier runes surrounding the core of the outpost
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Author
Topic: Battle of the Gods III+ (Read 64858 times)