Rising from the humid depths of the jungle, sides decorated with the hides of slain beasts, minor elementals looking out in every direction, the lumberjack's tower stood as testimony of man's strength over nature. In the highest room, Hut finished his report, then sent the messenger demon on it's way with a small gust. It squaked irritably and flew out the window, then sped off with unatural speed. Hut climbed down the central stairway, to the dining hall, where he was swiftly joined by the rest of the towers occupants. Soon several soldiers came up, bearing cauldrons of soup.
"Euch, what is this?" a lumberjack complained, as the soup was slopped into his bowl
"You really want to know?" the soldier replied, shoving him along and serving the next man.
Hut sat next to the lumberjack, and remarked:
"We won't have to suffer this much longer. I just received word that we are to return to the village."
"It's about time. When we got here, you couldn't see for a meter in any direction, but now every lumber-worthy tree within a mile has been felled"
"Yes, yes, but we can't afford to make the trek back and forth to often, we must take back as much as we can"
"I know, I know. Hah, with this lot we won't have to return for years!"
"I wouldn't be so sure, friend. The towers in the village were cramped; the plan is to construct three new towers of atleast five stories; and reinforce the old ones. Then we will need lumber for the quarries; wooden towers won't last long. And they say we should be thinking of building a boat"
"A boat? But we- noone with us has any knowledge of boats; besides, what's wrong with rafts?"
"Rafts are all fine and well for hauling lumber up and down the river, or for fishing from, but Gnuk has been having worrying dreams. Dreams of hideous creatures, whom we must find and destroy"
"Is it true that Neuc G'Ie has spoken to him?"
"I believe it is. It was not uncommon for Neuc G'Ie to speak to the leaders of our nation on the homeworld; and Gnuk'Tu is our leader now"
They finished their meal in silence.
The next day, they heaved the rafts back into the river, and loaded them with lumber. Simple sails were erected on the rafts, prepared to catch the magical winds they had been promised.
Hut surveyed the flotilla. The rafts were so full that the original structures was submerged, which meant they would have to unload the rafts and transport the lumber on land by the shallow areas, unless the spring flood waters raised the water level. No, the river had flooded in the summer, to the farmers’ annoyance... Well, those questions could wait till they hit a shallow area.
That evening, the messenger returned, and informed him that a magical wind would be raised from dawn to dusk of the next day, and to be ready. Hut dismissed the demon and informed the rest.
A few days of mage-wind driven travel later, they arrived back home. Everyone came to greet them, and most made a remark regarding the large amounts of lumber, then they all set to work unloading the rafts, and hauling the wood back to the village. Carpenters immediately set to work making wheeled carts out of the first to arrive; and with these to aid them, the rest quickly filled up the encampment. On the same night that their task was completed, Gnuk’Tu held a meeting.
Fang the ‘Community Planner’ was first to speak.
“Remind me why we wasted precious resources on getting lumber of all things” he said disdainfully.
Gnuk sighed and said:“Fang. We cannot get lumber from others; there are no others. Remember?”
Fang twitched. “Yes. Yes, of course... no one else... we’re doomed...”
“Fang! Pull yourself together. A week ago you were talking excitedly about housing towers and a distillery!”
Fang shuddered “I’m sorry. It’s just so crazy. A year ago we were normal- chased by a giant army, but normal. Now you expect me to just plan a city, with no friends, no import, no export? Its- its crazy!”
Hut cut in.
“We may have imports. Crazy monster imports. And to them we should export death”
Fang looked up.
“Oh, a class 3 self sustaining-military outpost? I can do those. We should build a housing tower, and a distillery. Morale is important, you know. There are trees which offer bow making opportunities, not the sort we have back home- ho-home... home...”
Gnuk sighed.
“Fang knows these things, even if his current mental condition is questionable.
Hut, tell us of these monsters. I heard your reports, but they were short and lacked imagery”
“Fearsome things, they were. Giant cats, great apes, horrid birds. But also weirder things. Once a giant frog attacked our tower, and the next day, it rained frogs”
“Neuc G’Ie has told me of the rain of frogs. Nothing to worry about”
“The most interesting was the attack by the watchers. We call them watchers, because we never saw them, but we heard them. They call strange cries to each other. Once we found a clearing with the remains of a fire, and many tracks. That evening the tower was attacked by unseen foes. They threw spears at us, and hurled rocks. There was even some magic, I think.”
“Are you saying we are not alone on this world?” Yiop asked
Gnuk spoke “You are not alone on this world, oh no. There are many, many others. Not just barbarians, like Hut saw. Also strange civilisations. Their gods hide their faces from me, but I see them. There is great evil... but I say too much, I break the rules. Just know this; you are not alone!”
Gnuk slumped forwards onto the table, his skin pale.
There was a temporary panic after Gnuk fainted, but he soon recovered, and work started on two new towers. A large housing tower, of a simple yet sturdy design, was started close to the first five. A smaller ‘fire hazard’ tower was built well away from the others, and a farmer with knowledge of brewing did his best to make a simple still by modifying kettles and cauldrons.
The meagre palisade was taken down, and replaced with a thicker wooden wall. A deep ditch was dug, and Hut gave archery lessons to everyone not engaged in other activities.
Farmers and fishermen kept the food supplies rising, the effort required to start these industries having been spent the previous year.
Several farmers looked into local plants in their spare time, and found them surprisingly useful, as if the world wanted them to expand. Orchards and herb gardens were planted, and variation was brought to the colonists diet.
When the floods came that summer, they were prepared. Ditches and dams to avert the waters lined the river banks, and the floods came and passed without harm.
However, the floods were not the only thing that came that summer.
Gnuk stood on the roof of the residential tower, now claimed as the magicians’ workshop. He had just finished replacing the Djinni that guarded the village. Exhausted, he stared across the plains. His gaze was unfocused, watching the clouds. Suddenly, he felt a voice. Neuc G’Ie.
“Look”, it said, and was gone. He felt his gaze drawn to an area of plain. Nothing there, he was hearing things. Then he saw it; a small plume of smoke, twisting guiltily out of a copse of trees. He watched it briefly, then, as if a hand had grasped it, it fell back into the copse. A slight magical sparkle sparkled over the trees.
Gnuk watched the copse for a while longer, trying to make sense of what he had seen. Eventually he called a troupe of djinni, and sent them to investigate the area. He watched them fly off, until they were out of sight. Then he went to his personal quarters to write in his logs, until they returned. When the sun set, his patience snapped, and he went to the roof to investigate. A messenger was sent to call them back. It sped off quickly, and soon returned, a glum look on it’s face.
“Are they coming?” Gnuk asked.
“They ain’t never coming, bud.”
“Oh god. What are they?”
“Humans, from what I saw. And, you’re gonna love this, they’ve got air elementals guarding the place.”
Gnuk paused. A worrying development indeed. Were these the ‘evil other races’ that he had talked of before he passed out? If they attacked the djinni, they probably weren’t friendly... but perhaps the djinni attacked them? No, they had been sent to scout the area, not attack.
They should probably increase security...
Three days later, the strangers struck. Several djinn squads failed to return, so Gnuk doubled their numbers. This led to a crippled party returning, speaking of a three great elementals, far greater than them. Gnuk, in turn, summoned greater powers, and the village prepared for war. Soldiers kept their armour on, gates were closed when not in use. Everyone got down to business, fletching arrows, training in archery. And it was good fortune that they did; for one evening, without warning, a powerful gale whipped up from nothing, and flying in on it came screaming elementals, blasting magic and everything that moved.
Soldiers organised everyone, handing out bows, and helping people into armour, whilst Turak reduced the gale, and Gnuk commanded the Djinni, utilising his ancient staff to blast elementals out of the air. Hut fired enchanted arrows which flew straight despite the storm, peppering the spirits with holes.
Then came the people, humans wearing feathered cloaks, some waving flint spears, others firing magic from wooden staffs. The attacking elementals retreated, and hovered around the people. Everyone rushed to the walls, bows at the ready. Hut joined the people on the wall, Gnuk and Turak stood atop the housing tower.
The people stopped a short distance in front of the walls, their elementals hovering watchfully.
One of them, dressed in the most extravagant costume, stepped forwards. He spoke in a strange tongue for several minutes, gesturing around the area. When he had finished he stood, waiting for a reply.
“Spirit, what did that man say?” Gnuk asked an elemental next to him.
“Evil tower men, you have summoned us here from our homeworld, the world of Aria, great god of all air, and you must pay for this evil. Your fake-air elementals are a sin against Aria. Your beasts you sent to attack us have died, your evil camp will soon be ours. Surrender now, or we shall call Aria to eat you. What do you say?”
Gnuk sighed. He sat on his knees, and prayed.
“Neuc G’Ie, seriously, this is annoying. Who are these people? What is Aria?”
And Neuc G’Ie answered; “Been there, done that. Fight this battle, when it is over, they shall never trouble you again”
Gnuk nodded, gave thanks, and told the elemental: “Tell him we fight for Neuc G’Ie, the one true air-god.
Turak! Double effort! Hut! Prepare archers! Djinni! CHARGE!”
The Aviator’s elementals swarmed over the walls, and were met by the attacker’s elementals coming the other way. Archers fired, their arrows mostly passing through the raging spirits, with exception of Hut’s arrows, which drew gaping holes in their sides. But the arrows were aimed at the humans, who cried in pain as they were hit, causing them to charge forwards.
Random magic from the elementals hit several defenders; blasting them off the walls. The battle swayed; the attackers were in greater numbers, but the defenders had walls, which the attacking humans could not scale. The attacking elementals were stronger, but there were more defending Djinni. Turak fought to get the wind on their side, but the enemy mages were stronger. But Gnuk had an advantage with his staff; it felled their enemies without pause.
Eventually the attackers tired, the humans could no longer charge the walls with such vigour, their elementals needed rest. But the defenders had trained; they had only to sit by the walls, and Gnuk had newly summoned most of the elementals before the battle, and they were still lively. Eventually a group of attacking elementals fell all at once; and Djinni swarmed through, surrounding the others. The humans surrendered, and their hands were tied, and mouths gagged.
Their leader was brought before Gnuk and the others. A messenger demon was used as a translator. They removed the leader’s gag.
“Bah! Evil people, you have not defeated us, Aria will save us yet!”
“No she won’t. You see, we worship Aria too.”
“What? Then why do you attack us?”
“It is not us who summoned you here, or sent beasts to attack you. Evil gods did these things. We are here to help you.”
“You lie, you lie! Our peoples have held the stones of air alone since the beginning of time!”
“Then what is this?” Gnuk indicated the gem on top of his staff.
The tribesman regarded it. He muttered a few incantations, waving his hands over the stone. His eyes widened.
“It is truly an air stone! We are brothers!”
“Indeed we are. Aria, Neuc G’Ie, they are the same. Your people may live here with us, protected against the evil beasts which roam the world”
In the realm of gods, Neuc G’Ie licked his metaphorical lips. Aria had some decent followers, which gave her a spicy flavour.
Sending the tribal leader off to explain the ‘misunderstanding’ to his fellows, Gnuk surveyed the damage of the battle. Random magic had damaged most towers, many things had been blown away, and were damaged or lost. Many people were injured; some had died. Casualties were worse on the tribal side; tens of bodies were strewn in front of the walls. Many prisoners had grievous injuries, and would not survive. But still; they had gained a powerful ally this day. Doom seemed a lot less imminent. They could be taught to farm, to build towers, to use bows. And they could teach them off their mighty magics; what he had seen suggested vast potential. Yes, the world had better watch out, the Aviators had power once more.
Autumn came, and the tribal people began to settle in. The housing tower was full to the brim; a new tower was started, but the wood supplies ran low. So the lumberjacks, Hut, and the soldiers set off for the lumber camp once more, now taking several tribesmen with them as well.
When they arrived at the place were they had landed last year, they found it overgrown again. They hacked away the jungle growth, and hauled the rafts onto land. The tower’s door had been broken down, so they advanced with caution. As the soldiers climbed the inside of the tower, those outside saw several dim shapes jump down off the roof, landing somewhere in the canopy. But the sun was setting, so they had no urge to chase after them, and instead, once the soldiers had rid the tower of several beasties, made their home there once more.
Hut addressed a certain lumberjack: “Well, looks like it’s snake soup for us again, eh?”
The lumberjack scowled.
Gnuk tried to sleep, but he was haunted by horrible dreams. Rats, snakes, angels, twisted beasts, undead, dwarves, orcs, all ripped at his flesh. In the midst of this chaos, there was one safe figure. A large hairy humanoid, surrounded by metal people with red eyes. It was welcoming, offered trade and safety.
“Do you have metal?” he asked in his sleep
“I have metal” spoke the figure. “Come find me”
Then his view drew back; the figure stood in the snow by a giant spike. The view drew back more; mountains fell bellow him, and he crossed a river, always looking at the figure. Then he was on top of the tower; and the friend stood far on the other side of the mountains. He tried to go back to it, but he couldn’t, his feet were tied to the ground. Then a glider swooped down over the tower, picked him up, and brought him to the figure. Then he woke up.
He sat up in shock; he was sweating, and his bedding was twisted. He got out of bed and quickly ran to the roof. Was it his imagination, or could he see a glint of light there, across the mountains?
He quickly grabbed his staff, and summoned an elemental.
“You, go over the mountains! Scout them out, is there snow on the other side?”
The elemental sped off, and he went down to his room. There he lit a candle, and took out his books. Most were about magic and summoning, but one slender volume caught his eye. The joye of flyt. On the cover was an illustration of a glider, ridden by a laughing aviator.
Inside were diagrams of gliders, balloons and rockets built throughout the years. Most were purely mechanical; but they were weak. However, a design for a ‘crafte that may bring goods across terrain notte meant for men to cross’- A huge glider, with a large cabin, and a magic based propulsion system. He examined the notes;
“Whilst an interesting designe, thys crafte does notte have much practical use; there are very few locations were it is needed. Was built to supply the garrison on Lui’kor. Rebuilt twice; notte a popular model due to the magikal nature. Oddly; no metal needed; during the war, there was notte enough to allow usage in strange flying machines.”
Perfect.
Hut listened wearily to the messenger.
“All right, stay here, I’ll see what the lumberjacks think.”
He went down to the dining hall. Two lumberjacks were sitting there, playing cards.
“Hey, guys. Message from up high; we ‘need’ light woods.”
“Light woods? We’re already doing that”
“I know, but they want really light woods. As in, glider wood”
“Gliders? Crazy! Sure, we can get some... why mess around with gliders now?
“I don’t know. Gnuk didn’t say. What about glue?”
“Glue? Tons of it. Every god-damn plant in this jungle oozes at you if you come to close. One of thems bound to make good glue.”
“Well, tell the others. Speed order for a load of glider-quality woods, and a few barrels of glue. To go up as soon as we’ve got it.”
“Crazy. But he knows best, I guess. Come on, let’s go”
The lumberjacks cleared up the cards, and left.
A few days later, a raft was filled up, and a few left, guiding it up the stream, a firm wind blowing upriver. When they got to the village, people rushed to unload it, Gnuk overseeing the work, urging elemental and man alike to work faster. When the wood was inside the walls, architects, carpenters, and everyone with any knowledge of what was to come were gathered. They worked long and hard. The design was modified, Gnuk making it very clear that magical propulsion was not a problem. Eventually the plan was made; and they set to work. Gnuk spared nothing; he had the frame float off the ground, and let the people working on it fly.
With the magical aid, there were very few setbacks, and the glider advanced swiftly. Other projects suffered, but Gnuk was fanatically devoted to its construction, and would not here any protests.
Finally, whilst the chill of winter was setting in, the craft was finished. Runes glowed; two great canvas wings extended from its flanks; ropes, pulleys and cogs littered the inside; the inside had a small cargo hold, and a two-man cockpit.
Swiftly, they loaded the craft up with provisions, and the ‘crew’, two men who had been training ever since Gnuk had his first dream. They were given charts of the mountains; incomplete; but as far as elementals could travel. Their task was to find the hairy people with metal slaves in a giant spike on the other side of the mountains, and converse with them, make trading arrangements. They were given caged messenger demons, with which to send regular reports. With the final preparations complete, they initiated the launch on the last day of their second year. Not out of symbolism; Gnuk would not have stood for such delays.
In the cockpit, Hoiral felt her lucky feathers, then called out: “Clear the area! Launch sequence initiated!”
Her companion pushed several runes; the craft began to shake. She pulled a lever, and it began to roll forwards. Then she pushed more runes, her companion gripped the steering column. Runes under the craft’s wings activated; a huge gust emerged from them, accelerating the glider. More runes activated underneath the hull, and the glider swooped of the ground, flying of into the sky. Below them, the aviators waved them goodbye.
For anyone just scanning through, with no time to read four pages of RP; here are my actions, summarised:
Everyone in the lumbercamp (which suffered a few attacks): return to home with vast amounts of lumber.
Using aforementioned lumber, build 2 new towers; a cooking/distilling/other plant related tower, and a housing tower.
Get attacked by a human tribe wielding air magic (for significance, see first description post). Narrowly defeat tribe, and absorb it, for a population boost.
Build yet another tower to house the extra people, run out of wood, send more people to the abandoned lumber camp, to return next year with more lumber.
Build and launch a magic-powered glider, sent off in the direction of the astrolagians.
In the event of attack; magic + guys with bows lining the walls. In the event of weather, weather control. In the event of contact, weary suspicion, eagerness to trade.
Now, interesting story. I'm a dumbass; I'm going boarding next week, saturday 14th to sunday 22nd. I probably should have thought of this before joining, but what am I going to do? Well, I hope I can catch the next turn before I go, but for two or three after that my people will have to go on autopilot. To get to the point; please do not perform complex interaction with the aviators, because that would be a waste. I will write up an 'AI' for the aviators, so they don't just sit around doing nothing, but I can't predict human interaction.
EDIT: Ok, so, I'm trading with NewMarsEmpereor now... must change post.
EDIT UPON EDIT: Post changed. We build planes now.
Me and NewMarsEmperor had a chat... this is it (Your mom comments edited out)
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Topic: Battle of the Gods V (Read 28136 times)