Oshha, 99Hedgehog, Shadowhammer, Karkov, Wade Wilson, Captain Lambcake, Arcvasti, !!pyrodwarf!!, danmanthedog, Sheo, Baffler and Cptn Kaladin Anrizlokum, your character bios are all up on the first post!
13th Malachite 679 - Noon"Not far now!" Tragarus' voice rang through the air as he spun round to address the group. For weeks now they had been crossing the lands in search of the fabled 'Nomekast', the 'fort that survives' that the traders had spoken of and word of mouth had amplified the story of. Originally several groups that had joined together, they were now only nine, having been picked off one by one by Nothing and flying Nothing.
"'Bout time too," came the voice of Mephiles, the goblin moving up to stand besides the man, peering into the distance at the rising walls of Nomekast. "We should be able to get there easily enough...yeah that's what I thought," the goblin continued, trailing off as he moved into a conversation with himself as he was apt to do, moving to the side.
"I'll be glad to be gone from that crazed gobbo's side," Baffler grunted, the dwarven jeweler hefting his small bag of belonging onto his shoulder as he glanced at the distant form of the fort they'd all sought.
"Aye, that's true enough," replied Kaladin before her breath hitched. "Wait...what's that?" she pointed to several dark shaped off on the valley slopes, moving down them.
It was the elf PD that replied, his keen elven eyes making out the shapes of the creatures that had hunted them all along the way. "Nothing!"
Tragarus took a sharp intake of breath, waving an arm to the others behind. "Get moving! We need to get down there before the damned things do! Norkas and Arcvasti, you two bring up the rear, Litlbear and Karkov, get the bags!" There was a flurry of movement as the group moved, getting up from where they'd been resting and assembling their belongings.
"Armok help us, we may need to fight our way through," Sheodir Redsage remarked, hefting his mace onto his shoulder.
Mephiles snorted, resting his hand on the pommel of his sword. "All the better."
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It was Neotemplar that had noticed them. The goblin had gone up to the surface in a bid to work on her beekeeping project and help her 'fellow bees'. Once she'd noticed the group she'd sounded the alarm and before long the militia was assembled within the compound, having decided that due to the Nothings' location in relation to the refugees, there was no choice but to sally out and buy the group enough time to get inside. There was little talk as Tarran and Derm explained the situation and before long they were moving out, towards the mass of Nothing that swarmed down the valley.
The Nothing didn't take long to react to the militia's arrival as the bolts began to fly from the crossbows, swarming towards them. The militia didn't take long either, Juggernaut hefting his battle axe and warhammer and leaping in with a cry to Armok, soon followed by Kuro and Katana, their blades slicing through the Nothing and the rest of the militia.
More Nothing continued to move down the valley towards the group, cutting off the ranged squad from the rest of the militia and leaving Rovod, Doc. Steve, Rar, BranRhi and Reno to fend for themselves as best they could in melee.
Neo was the first to notice, possessed dwarf moving in to help the ranged militia but only managing to find himself likewise isolated and trying to fend off five Nothing at once. He dispatched two with his sword but was soon overwhelmed, one Nothings tendrils grabbing hold of his right hand and snapping it back with a sickening crunch before doing the same to his shoulder. Pain coursed through him and he fell to the round, vision going black, just in time to see Rovod slam his crossbow into the back of a Nothing. This attracted their attention to the marksdwarf and soon enough Rovod found himself under attack to, with only his crossbow to fend them off. Soon enough he was swarmed over, left hand and hip broken, falling down unconscious.
It was Thanatos, Meinhard, Rashem and Justice that came to save the pair, cutting through the Nothing to protect them even as more of the beasts moved in.
"Tarran, ve need to be movings, hokay?" Meinhard called up to the militia leader as he pierced a Nothing through with his spear.
"Not yet! The refugees are still getting in!" Tarran cried back, parrying a tendril as he stood guard over the fallen form of BranRhi, the mute man squirming the ground with a broken hand, having been swarmed by several Nothing.
"We've brought them enough time, that's all we needed to do!" Melagius broke in, stumbling back as a Nothing charged towards him.
"We're not gonna be able to hold much longer! There's more coming!" Xenir managed to get out before being swamped with three Nothing, ankle being crushed in the coils of a tendril as he went crashing down.
"We can't just pull back, we've got wounded!" came Doc. Steve's voice as he let off a bolt into the Nothing looming over the fallen Xenir.
"Doesn't look like we have much choice..." Rashem's low voice followed as the second horde of Nothing broke against the militia's weapons.
As the Nothing swarmed over the militia they were pushed back, with several of them ending up separated, including the already-wounded BranRhi, who now found himself fighting alone against a dozen of the creatures intent on killing him.
Tarran moved to help, but was attacked before he could, his ankle being crushed beneath him as Xenir's had been before, and BranRhi was forced to defend himself with only his crossbow as the Nothing swarmed against him, tendrils slashing at him and coiling to snap his bones before he fell down to the ground unconscious as eventually went still.
Tarran meanwhile had been attacked as he lay on the ground, arm snapped and hip broken, only being rescued from death by a war-cry screaming Juggernaut followed by a roaring Thud who pummelled a Nothing into the dirt. He was swiftly pulled back by Reno Monty who pulled him to safety.
Finally, Justice's voice rose up above the din of battle. "There's a third group coming!"
"The refugees are in, we need to pull back, get the wounded!" Melagius called out, shouting it several times to ensure everyone heard. The militia began to move back, taking the unconscious bodies of Tarran, Xenir, Neo, Kadzar and Rovod who had each received large gashes or broken bones and along with them the bodies of BranRhi and Sidel, the last of Meinhard's Jagers. As the third wave of Nothing flooded down the valley side, they retreated into the compound to safety.
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Topic: [Community] Nomekast - At War with Nothing (Read 180179 times)