The city under the Tree is a remnant from ages past, built using the roots of a magically created, monstrous tree as support, the city was vacated by its inhabitants before the dawn of time. Now, the tree, having outlived its gardeners, dominates the landscape of Rysallis, but deep within the core of the ruins, ancient relics and creatures so powerful lay trapped, that the line of emperors have decreed the city to be off-limits. The Deck, having succesfully distracted the city guard, now aim towards whatever item this primeval race left under the tree. Evading the city guard, the 11 warriors arrive only to find the sentinels and few guards that were left to guard the entrance, dead. The courtyard in front of the large stone gate that leads down to the undeground city shows signs of battle, and the gate itself is has been pulled slightly open, just enough for a human sized being to slip in.
At the foot of the tree,
Shugu has pulled himself upright, clutching his chest. Blood is seeping through his claws, over his stomach, which is badly wounded as well. Moaning from the pain, but unable to move or see anything due to the bloodloss, he didn't see the group of people coming towards the big tree. He knew he had to stay concious, report the attack, but he just couldn't move his limbs. In a strange, and short, moment of clarity, he noticed he didn't even feel his legs anymore, let alone move them.
"I guess we were right..."
Saris said, looking at the dead guards. They were too late, the Deck's plan had worked perfectly. She wondered what they would find inside the tree... all she knew were just legends. Saris advanced through the corpses towards the entrance, when she thought she heard one of them was still breathing. Her body stopped in alert, and she turned, her ears listening as she signaled to the rest of the group with one hand so they would stay quiet for a moment. "I think he's still alive!" she said pointing to a panther lying on the floor.
Ke'an ran towards them. "He IS alive! Quick, get some healing potion!" Ke reached intohis backpack and pulled out a small bottle of healing potion. "Can you hear me? Drink this" he said to the panther.
Shugu faintly heard a voice, and felt somebody putting something to his lips. His natural reflex to push it away tried to get him to lift his arm, but he only moaned. He was too tired to resist, and opened his mouth slightly.
Shugu now has 11/25 HP!
Shugu felt his wounds closing and his blood pumping in his veins again. His sight seemed to restore itself, and looking around, he noticed several new people on the field. Quickly, out of old habit, he grabbed his equipment from the floor. He would have liked to stand up, but still felt a bit dizzy. Still sitting against the tree, he looked up at Ke'an. "Who are you? The guards, they need to be... they went inside! Inside the tree!"
Having first been lost in trying to find the place,
Rei somehow managed to catch up to the two panthers ahead of him. Ignoring the bodies all around him, the Ignean instead focused his attention on the
other wounded panther nearby, "How many of yuh' bastards are there...?" He muttered aloud in astonishment before growling, "Who went inside, scum?"
Shortly after Rei followed
Virul, who momentarily halted after seeing the corpses strewn about. Getting over the slight surprise, the Ravillan's thieving nature instinctively kicked in as he quietly scanned about the area for valuables out of habit.
"Oh for god's sake control yourself." muttered
Elise, who walked towards the courtyard shortly after Virul. "Have you no shame? these aren't thugs or thieves, these men died in the line of duty." added the Lynx trying to give Virul a swift knock on the head.
"Oh Nesha...." said
Gaius to himself, quickly walking to Shugu, Gaius turned around and performer a quick blessing so the guard's souls would reach Nesha safely. "I take it you're a guard?, calm down and tell us what happened here." asked Gaius after turning towards Shugu.
Darius follwed the rest of the group to the panther laying there on the ground, standing behind the group, but having the same ideas Virul was, he scanned the ground for anything, though not in particular for any goods to take, but for any signs as to what exactly went on.
"Alas, milady",
Virul responded as he allowed himself to get bopped on the head, "I admire the courage of these departed warriors so very much. So much so that I had the thought in mind of taking and protecting their treasures from the grubby hands of thieves, as well as vagabonds with ill intentions." As he said this, the Ravillan sneakily eyed the material possessions of the wounded panther to whom Gaius was speaking.
Amadea entered the area, stunned. It all seemed to be happening again. Covering the gate with his crossbow, he looked to see if any of the fallen had crossbow bolt on them.
"Have you a problem with panthers?"
Saris said while turning to look at Rei, shooting him a recriminating glance. She placed her hands on her hips as she walked away from the wounded shaman. "We better leave the questions to Gaius, ok?" she said, pretty sure Rei's manners would make the wounded guard think they were the enemy. She looked at the entrance to the city, wondering how far inside the Deck was. Getting closer to the opening, Saris listened for any noises coming from inside.
Coming upon the sceen,
Hiro-Matsu thumbed his katana and inch out of the scabbard, placing his hand upon the hilt. Waking up beside Elise and Virul. "These men died with honour Virul, don't defile the spirit of such and act."
Shugu was beginning to feel better, but still didn't seem to be completly aware of all the people around him, speaking only to Gaius and Ke'an. "I'm in the Forest Guard. We were to guard the tree. When the guards were called away, only two regiments remained, as well as the Sentinels. Then they came, they completly overran us. One moment I was looking around, the other fighting somebody, I didn't even get to see his face. Are the, are the others okay?"
Ke'an got up to examine the ground for tracks or clues, muttering to himself. Aloud, he said "Do you think there are many others who are still alive?"
Hron-bar arrived, having fallen behind. Glancing around, he gaped at the sight of the carnage, kicking aside a dismembered arm. "What in the Wilds happened?!" He glanced around again, and spotted Shugu. Striding over to him, he grabbed the panther by his collar and bent down. "Out with it, panther! What happened? Are you with the Deck? Why are you here?"
Tylien had followed the others as unnoticeably as it could, and seeing as they seemed to be tending to the atrocities they faced, it didn't do much. It did start, however, to feel a sort of contempt toward Rei'zel because he was so uncivilized and brutish, even seemingly much more than the catfolk in the party. Tylien distracted itself by following Virul's example, but instead of looking for stuff, it tried to spot other survivors. (Spot)
Tylien looked around, seeking movement rather than a whole body, since that could've been deceiving. Unfortunately no one other than Shugu seemed in a condition good enough to be alive.
Not giving Saris a proper response,
Rei instead opted to merely snort and glare in contempt before the sounds of the two parties came ever closer, "Tch! N' the rest uh' the goon patrol 'ave arrived." He muttered before Hron-bar's interrogation of the bewildered panther caught his eye. Deciding to answer the lion himself, the Ignean growled out, "Whattaya' think 'appened 'ere, yuh' animal? N' does this chump look like a Deck member tuh' you!? He's just a guard, yuh' shit."
Shugu, even though he was now quite aware of his surroundings, was caught completly by surprise by Hron-bar. Not noticing Rei saying something, he started speaking at the same time Rei did. "What in the spirits' name... Let go of me, you Lion goon! I'm a guard!" He tried pushing the Lion away. "Get the hell away!"
Hron-bar let go of Shugu, and immediately stomped over to the entrance to the tree, sniffing around the door.
Hiro-Matsu walked around the area, searching for anything that might have been dropped by the attackers. (search)
Keeping an ear on the conversation,
Amadea surveyed the bodies, looking for crossbow ammunition he might be able to use. (search)
Both Hiro-Matsu and Amadea looked around the ground, recognizing soaked backpacks, weapons, clothes an armor amongst the corpses, however, it would take hours to clean and sort everything in order to identify if anything was useful to them.
Shugu crawled up against the tree, and for the first time saw the gory battlefield as the Deck left it. "By the spirits... NO!! Cliffton! Kendrick!! Neeeemaa!!!"
Finding all his former comrades and friends to be dead, Shugu sat himself down at the tree again, with clenched fists, his own nails piercing his skin in rage. "They will pay for this... They will pay!"
Hearing the clansman's cry for those lost,
Amadea closed his own eyes, remembering. He relaxed his guard, and approached the wounded panther and clasped him on the shoulder. "You will have your revenge."
Flinching slightly from the touch on his shoulders,
Shugu growled lowly and said: "I will not rest until all their souls have been ripped out of their rotten bodies."
Looking around, and seeing the two parties, his rage took over, and he stood up. "Stop looting the corpses, you're not maggots! We need to stop that scum, now! Who knows what damage they'll do to the City! Or worse, who knows what they might find. C'mon!"
Deciding that it would take too long to check and since the others were getting restless,
Tylien decided to so-calledly not waste time and wound among the corpses and other people and through the gate and further, but of course not without being careful and moving along silently. (Move silently)
Tylien carefully advanced towards the gate, making the sight of the half-breed trying to sneak around while 11 other people a few feet away cried, yelled and argued in loud voices the only comical image amongst the carnage.
Hiro-Matsu shifted his eyes from the ground to the gate and Shugu. "What exactly is it they might find sir?" he asked, moving over to Shugu.
Gaius shook his head slightly, "Revenge is a waste of your strength, you must honour your friends with good deeds rather than foolishly seeking their killers and getting yourself killed. Join us, we are in an enterprise of far greater significance, and we will bring about justice, not revenge, for your friend's death..." said the acolyte firmly, thinking that a shaman like Shugu would know better than to embark in pointless vendetta against an unknown enemy. "Now, I generally consider grievance and mourning an importan process, but we do no have time for such. Guard, what is in there?" he asked pointing towards the slightly opened stone gate he knew they were about to cross.
Surprised at seeing the injured panther strut about unexpectedly,
Rei nevertheless felt contempt toward the stranger as he started giving orders. "First of all, drama-cat", the Ignean growled out, "What the hell's yur' name? N' second, who's this 'they' yur' blubberin' about? We're in a 'urry and don't 'ave time tuh' be doing scum favors." Immediately after saying this, however, Rei lost interest in the interrogation and instead headed toward the gate, "Aah screw it, I'll meet yuh' bastards up ahead." In a foul mood and seeing Tylien up ahead, the Ignean attempted to push it out of his way, all the while muttering out, "Outta' the way, fruit bag."
Ke'an folded his arms,and stepped closer to Shugu. "Revenge is a war with no winners and no end. Justice, however, will restore balance and peace. Help us, and we can get justice."
Hearing the big assortment of ruckus right from behind it,
Tylien turned right in time to try and evade Rei'zel's little invasion of its privacy. However, at the moment Tylien was pretty full of his behavior and lashed out: "What the hell do you think you are!? What is it with you and your behavior? Can you not be polite in the least? Why the hell are you calling me names?"
Shugu swallowed down a great deal of anger, but saw no point in arguing with whoever these people were. They did heal him. "Vengeance, justice, sometimes they don't differ much. Bah... I don't know what's behind the gate, I am a guard, not a sage. Rumor goes there are dangerous things down there, which shouldn't be meddled with. Fact is, if the City Under The Tree wasn't important, Deepwood wouldn't station alot of guards around it, now would they?"
After that, Rei socially headbuted his way in, closely followed by Ke'an. Restraining from saying Ke'an could shove his peace into his arse, he instead answered Rei. "My name's Shugu Eduxi. 'They' would be the fine lads
who came over and killed us all, while you were at a bloody party!"
He clasped his wounds again, and let out a small growl. "Would that answer your questions?"
Darius turned at hearing Shugu's outburst at Rei, "We were at that
party guarding my master while we were being backstabbed and having those people come here and kill off the rest of your friends, so now I suggest if you don't want
Me to kill you, I'd say you should shut up and help us before they get to whatever is inside that tree, and kill us all."
Somewhat stunned to see Tylien actually react,
Rei halted his movement for a moment and eyed the creature for a second in surprise before letting out a razor-sharp toothy grin, "Suh' even fruit bag pervert 'ere 'as some balls." The Ignean commented aloud as he continued staring at it, "I am what I am, scum, and that's all I'll tell yuh'." Hearing Shugu speak to him all of a sudden, Rei turned around and simply let out a, "Uh?"
Getting all the answered he needed from Shugu,
Hiro-Matsu turned towards the gates and headed towards them. "The time for talk is over. We will get no more answers out here. We came here for a reason, so let us continue."
"The only fucking
pervert here is you! What's with the speech defect? Didn't you ever learn to even speak properly?" snapped
Tylien. "You are what you are eh? And what you are is a stupid defective brute, right?" Seeing as he turned, Tylien thought he was dismissing it and it couldn't have that at the moment, so it tried to bash his head from behind, using its right fist.
"Peace, people! We'll not get anywhere by fighting each other!"
Ke'an yelled to get attention.
Shugu breathed in and out a few times, and decided to leave the argument for what it was. There were more important matters at hand, and continually fighting with these people wouldn't help, seeing they were the only ones he could co-operate with. Totally ignoring Darius' reply, he used one of his glyphs of life to get to full health again, aking awhile to channel the healing magic long enough.
Saris had been standing by the gate for a while now, just staring at everyone trying to do something. The only worthy comment she heard came from Hiro-Matsu, and she couldn't but agree that it was time to leave the dead guards behind and enter the misterious City under the Tree. "I'm going in" she announced aloud, maybe that would make people stop fooling around and get to the point. Having said that, Saris slipped through the opening, having all her senses in alert. Who knows what would she find in there.
"Hm hm, rather grim state of affairs we're all having, aren't we?"
Virul sighed as he stared at the escalating conflict that was happening as he spoke. "Still, their business is not my own." Quietly walking around the more hot-tempered members of both parties, the thief followed shortly behind Saris, speaking merrily as he walked, "Mayhaps in finding these vagabonds we'll come across some treasure."
Darius, now extremely annoyed at being completely blown off by the panther, grabbed for his mace, bu thinking better of bashing in the other cats skull decided to follow after Saris into the tree, keeping on the ready.
As soon as
Tylien noticed that its fist did make contact with the Ignean's head, it decided not to pursue the issue further unless Rei'zel gave reason for that. It withdrew its hand quickly, muttered "Stay away from me and don't address me" through its teeth and went on to attempt going through the gate like the few others before it.
Feeling something smack against the back of his head,
Rei winced before immediately turning around to face the culprit. Not having heard Tylien's previous comments, instead only hearing the "stay away from me" part, the Ignean's eyes nevertheless saw nothing but red as he let out a brutal growl and raised his claw, "Turn around fruit bag, so I can slaughter yuh'!"
Tylien startled at Rei's yell and turned around simultaneuousl
y. "Stupid defective brute!" it wailed in a half-mocking tone. "You act like brainless dah'kin scum! Are you with dah'kin scum? Because I wouldn't be surprised! Leave me alone!" Tylien walked forward, but sideways, always turning to look back at Rei because it didn't want to get stabbed in the back by him. "Don't address me and stop hindering everyone!"
Seeing Tylien turn around and yell back at him, Rei grinned maniacally and growled aloud, "I'll kill yuh' here and now. Say yur' prayers, fruit bag!" Stalking up to the androgyne, he attempted to strike it with his cestus.
Virul, meanwhile, having overheard the insults and knowing a brawl was going to be imminent, turned his head toward the instigators and quietly commented to no one in particular, "Now now, this won't do at all." Dashing in to break the conflict before it got too bloody, the thief attempted to grab Rei's attacking arm, all the while firmly stating, "Enough bloodshed has been spilt on this night, good sir! I implore the both of thee to stand down!"
"Indeed!" said Gaius, quickly running over and trying to stand between the ignean and Tylien. "Let us stop wasting time here! let's go in the gate." continued the Acolyte, he then turned to Shugu. "Shugu! whether for vengeance or justice, I recommend you come with us." and with that, the Acolyte started walking towards the Gate.
Tylien obviously tried to evade, no matter the quick intervention of Virul and Gaius. It half hid behind them for a second, clearly scared but made a good attempt at hiding it – not that Tylien cared much if others knew it was afraid, to it the feeling was just another emotion to get over with after taking advantage of it. However, when Gaius stepped out of the way, it said: "I don't care if you don't like me, but leave me alone. You get what you ask for and you should stop asking for violence." It then offered a hand to him, to be shaken. "I don't want to fight with you. Please prove me wrong and have some civil manner. I won't bother you and you won't bother me." Tylien looked at him with its eyes wide, ready to yank its hand back immediately if he showed a sign of attack. It appeared quite shaky, which seemd to contradict with its direct way of expressing itself at the moment.
"Guh..!" Rei blinked with angered confusion as Virul's and Gaius's interferences appeared as if out of nowhere, causing the Ignean to pull back from his attack, lest things went too out of hand, "Keh!" His fiery temper diminishing, in part to the androgyne's sudden reserved manner, Rei sullenly listened to Tylien's following words in silence before gazing at it's raised hand with a glare. After a small moment of internal debate, he raised his own hand shook firmly, all the while muttering, "Fine with meh'."
Virul, whose heart was pumping with nervous adrenaline at this point, let out a breath he didn't know he was holding and wiped away a sweat from his brow. "Alas, I fear my hair will turn gray sooner than I would like..." He sighed before turning to Shugu with an apologetic expression on his face, "Please forgive our recent actions, sirrah. 'Tis been a truly trying day and every one of us is on edge." Having nothing more to say, the thief continued forward toward the gate.
After having shaked hands, Tylien too felt very relieved and backed away a bit further, seeming shaky and wary. It created a little gust to blow on itself for a few seconds as it heard Virul speak. "My hair is gray... Well, two shades of it", it said, figuring that the comment would be at least slightly amusing at the moment. Tylien didn't really want to dwell on that though so it just consciously shook its body to loosen up after being way too tensed over the whole setup, and continued on its way.
Hiro-Matsu watched as the fight beaking about between Rei and Tylien was quickely quashed. "This is foolishness. Fighing with allys. Might as well breath in a river," he muttered as he neared the gates.
Finding no chance to heal himself as the sudden fight between Rei and Tylien erupted and was stopped, Shugu nodded to everyone adressing him. "Yes, it is time to go. And I can see you're all... edgy. I feel quite the same. I'll try not to shout at any of you anymore, let's help eachother in this task first."
Although he thought it strange that two party members would fight, it also comforted him somewhat to see he wasn't the only one with stress. Having more or less apologized for his behavior, he too went through the gate. "I've never been inside either, so don't ask me questions about the way - I don't know."
Back to Realms of Lemire
P1 P3
Saris Asdar------------Shugu Eduxi
Darius Kontar---------Ke'an Aste
Gaius Varro------------Elise Marass
Amadea Tor-----------Tylien Taiveme'le
Hron-bar Akua--------Toda Hiro-Matsu
Rei'zel Armada--------Virul Bassior
Stumble!