C-C-Combat time:
LARGE AMOUNT OF PICTURES FOLLOWING
Leaders Journal, 4th of Granite:We have sucessfuly dug out meager quarters in this elven hellhole of a land, the peasents being assigned to mine out the sand layer that lies beneath the overly lush surface. They actually managed to get strong enough to dig through stone without constantly whining about pain or injury, and uncovered a limonite vein running through our deisgnated workspace, meaning that we'll have iron on hand for any metal working we want to do. There is a massive caldera that we passed getting here, up in the mountains, so there should be magma around here somewhere underground, though there are plenty of trees for us to harvest if we so choose. The Elves have been quiet, I think they might not have even noticed us coming in, since we moved everything downstares as quickly as possible, keeping with Ascubis' plan of staying hidden.
Sarpedon has been spending much time on recon duty on the surface, and I suspect him of stealing from our larders? I mean, why the hell do we need a "recon" duty anyways? It's not like we are in any particular danger...
Surface:Ascubis shut their rough limestone doors behind him, sealing out the rowdy shouting of the peasents that scurried around doing their various menial labors. Heavily slogging up the stairwell in his old set of rusty armors, he emerged on the surface, instinctively shutting his eyes at the harsh brightness of the sun, before putting a meaty hand to his eyebrows and finding his quarry; Sarpedon, who was standing idly at his post, his crossbow loosely held in his hands. Ascubis barked a greeting, trudging his way through the thick grasses to where Sarpedon stood, plating himself firmly on the ground and staring at the great tree with Sarpedon. They stood in silence for a few seconds, before Sarpedon finally broke the silence.
"The village is oddly quiet. I think that the townspeople have been called to a point of their settlement father within for some sort of festival, judging by the loudness of their shouts." Indeed, a vauge sort of hum could be heard in the distance, and the high pitched shrieks of happy children and droll crys of merchants could be picked out if one listened closely enough. Ascubis nodded, and took the time to make his response.
"It is as if they are preparing for something, and moving the village away from what could possibly happen. More than a tad ominous, if you ask me. " Sarpedon nodded his agreement, and the two soliders stood there, silently contemplating the great tree with only the distant chorus of the elves echoing through the silence. The tree leaves rustled, a vauge breeze idly whistling through them. It was a tired day, the sort where the weather was hot enough to induce drowsiness, but not a wink of sleepiness came to the two vigilant dwarves. They merely stood there, listening to the quiet whisper of the leaves. A rustle or two. And then more.
"Wait, " began Ascubis,
"I belive something is-"The rest of his words died with the wind as three elves materialized before them. There were three, two shaved elven men armed with wooden bows and large, sharpened swords made of some rock, and a female with wispy blonde, waist legnth hair leaning on a beautifuly carved quarterstaff. Their expressions were unreadable, but all three seemed to radiate cold auras that expressed their murderous intent; the tempurature of the air seemed to have dropped by ten degrees. Ascubis snarled, Sarpedon was already loading a bolt onto his crossbow. Ascubis groped around his back until he found the handle of his hammer, and expertly pulled it from it's sling on his back with a fluid motion. Next to him, crossbow done winding, Sarpedon stood at the ready. The both stood, tensely awaiting their next action.
"No words for us? Crude puns perhaps?" The female in the center smiled at the dwarves, who simply held their ground.
"Come now, I assume you know why we are here right? A little chat with our new neighbors, who so kindly invited themselves onto our land..." Her eloquent speech did not fool the dwarves for a second, ad they could sense the icyness of each syllable directed at them. One of the males, who seemed to have a twitch of some sort, turned impatiently to the female.
"They know why we are here madame Elyise. Let us get the slaughter over with already!" He kicked at a stone. The dwarves grips on their weapons instinctivly tightened. The female elf regarded her underling with a bored glance. She turned to regard her enemy, her dark gaze settling over both of them in turn. Sarpedon made a meanacing flourish with his crossbow. The two men began to reach for their quivers, deftly drawing and nocking arrows. The female glanced about her, apparently bored, the suddenly lifted and subsequently slammed her quarterstaff into the ground. Power radiated in a cloud from about her, and the trees in a ring around her suddenly began to uproot. Ascubis and Sarpedon both grimaced and took a half-step backwards. Druids were notriously powerful and hard to kill, and that this display of power didn't even seem to make this "Elyise" sweat made the pair nervous. Treants began to pull themselves to their feet-like roots, turning to "face" the dwarves; an unsettling sight, as they lacked heads.
The female gave a slight nod as her cloud began to disperse.
"Now we may begin." Background Music-Name Unknown
Almost before the command was uttered, the treants started to swarm towards the pair. Ascubis uttered a ferocious war cry, brandished his hammer, and began to charge in earnest. Sarpedon and his elven counterparts began to let fly with their arrows, and a bolt struck a treant in what appeared to be a vital spot, making it bleed some sort of viscous blood as it fell on the spot. Hails of arrows began to fly between the sides, creating odd shadows that traversed the battlefield before striking their target, sometimes missing... and other times not.
In the midst of the arrows and bolts, the head of the treant swarm came into contact with Ascubis, mouth wide open in an unending cry of fury. The crack of his hammer resounded as he slammed it into the leader of the treants, the raw stregnth of his blow sending the tree man flying, a trail of blood splattering upon the ground as it flew. His next blow almost immidiately claimed two more, before a fourth managed to get within range and start clawing at him. Sarpedon meanwhile, skillfully strafed in place as arrows directed at him whizzed about him. He let fly with an aimed shot of his own, being grazed by a lucky shot in the time he stopped, but claiming the life of yet another treant.
Ascubis felt the pressure as another two treants began lashing at him. He blocked their strikes with his hammer and managed to bash another one to it's death, but they just continued to mindlessly strike at him, forcing him to inch back as he lost ground. Sarpedon contined to move about and dodge flying arrows, and killing another two treants in the process with his own conservative shots, but a treant managed to get into his radius before he could bash it apart with his crossbow, whereupon he was struck in the arm by a careful shot from one of the two firing at him. He bit back the pain, but the elven men, sensing the faltering power of their opponents, began to close in, still shooting at the two dwarves even as they did so.
Rage went through Ascubis, and in a furious charge, he managed to ravage the two remaining treants with a single blow, splinter flying in his wake as he blindly charged one of the approaching elves. Sensing danger, the bald man dropped his bow and drew his rock sword, parrying Ascubis' inital charge and leaving the two with locked weapons. Sarpedon was trading shots with the other elf, who had taken cover behind a thankfully inert tree. Sarpedon taunted the cowardly elf, and the elf responded in kind by firing a shot clean into Sarpedon's torso. He fell to his knee's in pain, but not before a shot of his own impaled his wounder in the eye, and the elf fell the the ground in a pool of his own blood. Ascubis however, was left alone as Sarpedon clutched impotently at his bleeding abdomen.
The standing male boldy fought, but in vain against a furious dwarf, and soon he was rotting in his own blood alongside his former freind. Only Elyise was left, and Ascubis issued a thundering curse at the druidess. She had been standing stock still, observing events as they unfolded, seemingly unnaffected by the loss of her two companions. She sighed, a pratically silent sigh that even she couldn't hear, but the wind itself seemed determined to act on her behalf. It whipped around Ascubis, who brought up a hand to shield his eyes. Vines suddenly erupted from the earth, bloody dirt flying as the vines wrapped themselves around a furiously struggling Ascubis, struggling to no avail. The wind died down, and all that could be heard was Elyises silent tone.
"You thought you could settle on our lands... defile our trees..." Elyise stared Ascubis down, her cold eyes and his own furious expression meeting. Her smile had disappeared, her tone was darker. Despite himself, Ascubis shivered. Sarpedon continued to writhe in pain.
"They say that when a dwarf dies, they become part of the earth from where they came. " She was practically whispering now, and yet, everyone still alive could perfectly hear her. And suddenly, she erupted, her eyes flaring as she began to move faster than should have been possible, quarterstaff raised as she blazed toward Ascubis, her expression demented.
"Perhaps when you die, your body will return to the earth and feed all you destroyed!" She closed in, and Ascubis could see, as if in slow motion, her arm tensing for the final blow. He tried to shut his eyes, but found that he could only stare in horror as the elf closed in.
Strike.
The vines hold on Ascubis released, and he fell as the corpse of Elyise flew past, rolling on the ground and pushing at a treant's corpse before finally coming to rest in an undignifed heap atop a treants corpse. Her chest had been impaled with a bolt, and Sarpedon, still wincing from his wounds, had his crossbow pointed unsteadily at the once breathing druidess. Ascubis took the time to gratefully nod before collapsing on the spot. Sarpedon followd short, and the wind gently blew over them as they lay, dead and barely alive alike, upon the bloodied grounds that had been witness to gruesome battle. And one perfectly living subject as well.
Elven children often played catch with stones that littered the ground. One stone had landed atop the mesa. And one female child had come to claim it. Her eyes bore witness to the sight, and the silent scream that she made was swept up by the wind as well.
TIPS-Electron Cloud Model-Visual model that shows the probable locations of an electron within it's defined orbitals, versus any fixed location.
Where is the electron? Where is the
peice? You'll never know.
CLIFFHANGER.
Ok, so I don't have many characters... are that many people even reading this? I also need Iotazeta's furniture still... Thanks to those who have been following the story.
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Topic: When the Carp Cry : Definition of the Perpetual Witch (Read 25659 times)