Fires in the West: THE BALEFROG RISES [EMPIRE!]

[Morph Bark]

Invitees:
Silverbit
Lord_Burch
Elemental
Logic
Everyone who wants to play as someone who is present


The newly birthed volcano had finally assumed a dominance over the landscape and began its reign with aggression. Fire and earth it spewed forth and made rain for miles around. The army of militants under command of Lord Charlesdau Finir had spread their banners throughout the lowlands of Sulvan's Fury in circles with lines towards the mountain and rode their fullbred horses around the mountain for a week long, day and night. The grounds cracked in Sulvan's Fury and let loose ghastly noises and smoke. The smell of brimstone no longer came from Bordeux alone. Then, on the summer solstice, it finally, truly began. The earth shook, and the lands around the volcano began to fall apart as the sounds from the depths became more pronounced.

[Lord_Burch]

Duke Lannius Cerise stood upon a hill overlooking the volcano, his step-father's great sword on his back. He cursed Lord Cedrik, briefly, for not recognizing the threat that was to arise. A hundred men. Too few. And of those, no more then ten have even seen action. A messenger mounted on a Kingbird had been sent south, but it would take are too long for it to arrive, and even when it did, Cedrik would be unlikely to spare any soldiers, in fear of a Salterri attack on Solus. Mounted messengers had been sent to the nations in the immediate vicinity, requesting aid in whatever monstrosity crawled from the depths of Hades.

[Silverbit]

From the southeast to Lannius' hill in haste came young Prince Freki of the dwarves, with a small retinue. All were mounted on Razdissi horses, and covered in the dust of the road.

The wiry half-orc reined in when within speaking distance.
"Hail to thee, duke. I come from Razdis, with news pertaining. My father, the Mormaer, is concentrating his efforts upon the Blazing Temple; I come without an army, merely as an observer. And if necessary, a warrior."
Freki unsheathes a two-handed Mithril claymore, of orcish design but Razdissi manufacture.
"The fools here have been blinded by staring into their fires too long; any aid you and your allies can bring will be welcomed to Sulvan's Fury."

[Logic]

Kirith was old, and war weary. He had brought two dozen men, all had a reputation for being the best fighters Celero had to offer, though most of the stories of their prowess were mere exaggeration.

Kirith guessed he could defeat the lot of them using only his quarterstaff. No more than three had experience fighting in anything beyond the bandit wars, and the remaineder were just good enough to be called veterans.

The real problem was that they had just enough family connections to force a position on this expedition. Kirith had wanted to select the team he brought. But it was too short notice to gather his men from all corners of Celero's holdings. In all, he trusted two with his life, while a third was beginning to grow on him.

Kirith and his company were making their way to the Borduesi camp at a rather slow pace. They had spotted the occasional scout, yet it was never obvious who stalked them, or who these scouts reported to. When they arrived at the camp without incident, the men rejoiced. Kirith was ever the suspicious one, and made note to ask the Borduesi Commander of it immediately upon meeting him.

The Duke was not what Kirith was expecting. He had seen only a few Borduesi in his life, and never a soldier. This man had an air of command to him that Kirith knew at once meant he was in charge. As he approached, he saw him conversing with a dwarf. By the looks of it, a dwarf from Razids proper, not the area of Sulvan's Fury.

"Hail Duke. Hail, Master-Dwarf. I am Captain Kirith of Celero, and have been sent by my Uncle Rion to investigate this.... hell-mountain, and provide assistance to you, should it be required." Kirith paused and looked to the north, in the direction of the new Volcano.

"Duke, I must ask, have you posted scouts on the trail to the east? My men and I were stalked for quite some time, yet never engaged."

[Elemental]

From the south, a solitary figure in a black cloak, trailing a white flag edged with red rode up to meet those assembled on the hill. He bore the signs of one who had travelled with little rest.
"Greetings gentlemen. I am Marshall Sevael and I am afraid I must bring grim news. Though as we speak Ashenia mobilises to meet this threat, it will take time to raise the needed men."
Would that Queen Idrisa exercised more caution in her invasion of Lacertia, we would have the troops we need.
He dismounted from his horse and removed his gloves.
"Until then, if it has not already been done, the Sulvan Dwarves should withdraw to their strongholds and valleys away from this threat. Hopefully, these militants will slow down whatever it is that seeks to reach the surface.
"Now, our scholars observed the initial growth of this thing for some time, but unfortunately, they can't tell us much as they had the good sense to withdraw when it started spewing fire and smoke."

(Fun fact, this guy is descended from the guy who invented the Printing Press.)

[Silverbit]

From the south, a solitary figure in a black cloak, trailing a white flag edged with red rode up to meet those assembled on the hill. He bore the signs of one who had travelled with little rest.
"Greetings gentlemen. I am Marshall Sevael and I am afraid I must bring grim news. Though as we speak Ashenia mobilises to meet this threat, it will take time to raise the needed men."
Would that Queen Idrisa exercised more caution in her invasion of Lacertia, we would have the troops we need.
He dismounted from his horse and removed his gloves.
"Until then, if it has not already been done, the Sulvan Dwarves should withdraw to their strongholds and valleys away from this threat. Hopefully, these militants will slow down whatever it is that seeks to reach the surface.
"Now, our scholars observed the initial growth of this thing for some time, but unfortunately, they can't tell us much as they had the good sense to withdraw when it started spewing fire and smoke."

(Fun fact, this guy is descended from the guy who invented the Printing Press.)

Freki nodded.
"Hail to thee also, Captain Kirith and Marshall Sevael. I'm sure the Sulvan folk have already retreated of their own volition; as the Ashenian savants have noted, when a mountain starts spewing fire, it is a good time to leave. As for the militants, I am not sure if they intend to assail the titan or aid it. They do not act rationally. If they do act violently towards us, there frankly isn't much we could do."
He sweeps his arm back, indicating the half-dozen Razdissi, half-dwarves and Eyrecradians composing his retinue.
"Though I am armed, we are not fully equipped for combat; we rushed to the scene as soon as we heard of titans of fire beneath the earth."

(Prince Freki is the son of Mormaer Vali and his orc wife, and thus might look a bit… homely. The fangs don't add much to his appearance.)

[Morph Bark]

A sudden cheer arose from nearer to the mountain, drowned out soon by deep rumbling. The cheering subsided and was replaced by the sounds of drums. The horsemen that rode around the mountain seemed to have stopped and came together on another hill, looking down on the smoking field of cracked stone and crumbling dirt. The cracks began to emit a fiery glow, and from the top of the mountain lava began to spill and pour slowly over the edges and flow down its slopes. The very earth began to fall away, and the militants that were still in the field had to run to make their way out of there. Many who were not capable runners or seated on horseback ended up falling with the rocks and dirt into the depths of the earth that opened up. The smell of sulfur was in the air and the clouds began to yellow. A long arm rose in the midst of the yellow smoke from the depths, thick as a tree and twice as long, with three long fingers at the end that were bathed in the glow of the heat, contouring the arm within the smoke before it crashed down on the edge of the hole. An unnatural sound came with it, like a thousand roars at once, but strangely shrill.

[Silverbit]

A sudden cheer arose from nearer to the mountain, drowned out soon by deep rumbling. The cheering subsided and was replaced by the sounds of drums. The horsemen that rode around the mountain seemed to have stopped and came together on another hill, looking down on the smoking field of cracked stone and crumbling dirt. The cracks began to emit a fiery glow, and from the top of the mountain lava began to spill and pour slowly over the edges and flow down its slopes. The very earth began to fall away, and the militants that were still in the field had to run to make their way out of there. Many who were not capable runners or seated on horseback ended up falling with the rocks and dirt into the depths of the earth that opened up. The smell of sulfur was in the air and the clouds began to yellow. A long arm rose in the midst of the yellow smoke from the depths, thick as a tree and twice as long, with three long fingers at the end that were bathed in the glow of the heat, contouring the arm within the smoke before it crashed down on the edge of the hole. An unnatural sound came with it, like a thousand roars at once, but strangely shrill.

Freki's horse rears up, nearly dislodging him. His voice was unsteady when he spoke.
"That… that seems dangerous. It seems that the militants are welcoming… whatever that thing is. Maybe we should flee? We cannot hope to best a titan like that."

[Elemental]

"Whether they're welcoming it or not doesn't matter. It's already shown it has no qualms with killing them all. That is, if it is capable of having qualms at all."
Never had anything like that been seen, either in memory, history or legend. To be truthful, Sevael expected a dragon. Fortunately, this thing didn't seem to be able to fly (he hoped) so that gave them some advantage.
"I wouldn't want to engage that thing without a thousand men with long spears at my side. I suggest we leave our best scouts to keep track of its movements so we can evacuate civilians from its path. No offence good dwarf, but I do hope that it decides to take the path towards Sulvan's Fury. I'd rather it deplete its strength attempting to assail the gates of one of their legendary strongholds than climbing over the walls of an Ashenite city.
"That said... Gentlemen, I suggest we ride fast."

[TheDarkDM]

Another thousandfold scream split the air as a second clawed arm emerged from the smoke, gouging deep furrows in the lip of the newly formed chasm. As the sound echoed down the crumbling mountainside, many of the fleeing militants fell to their knees, their bodies contorting in pain as they brought their hands up to cover their ears. Those closest to the creature collapsed further, their bodies wracked by inhuman spasms, like marionettes whose strings had been cut. Then, without warning, a trio of barbed tendrils lashed out of the smoke, trailing fiery oil as they impaled a score of men and dragged them into the earth.

There was a brief moment of silence, a final calm, before the roar came again. But this time it was no mystery to the source, as the demon's head finally escaped the blinding fume. It was brutally flat, with a blunt snout preceding six baleful red eyes, blazing with fiery purpose. Its maw stretched around the fullness of the head, extending near fifteen feet down the side before the shoulder of its arms finally appeared. It's scaly flesh was black as pitch, and was coated in a deep red oil that could almost have been coagulated blood. The oil dribbled off the demon's sides, seemingly without end, and where it fell even the naked stone burst aflame.

Heaving its arms, the monster continued to drag its bulk forth from the ground, and before long another pair of deceptively slender arms were scrabbling against the mountain. The thing's body was bulbous and slender all at once, a lean and powerful frame supporting a terribly bloated stomach. More terrible still were the creature's final legs, far larger and more muscular than its two pairs of arms, and angled unnaturally behind the creature. Emerged fully from its fiery prison, the demon's hunched body towered almost twenty feet in the air, while its body was almost twice as long. Its eyes roved madly, and an oily foulness burst forth from its gullet when its lips parted, revealing row after row of jagged, yellowed teeth. Then it reared back, and the underside of its head distended alarmingly. The bladder began to glow with a hellish light beneath the black scales, and a high pitched whine began to shake the ground.

Then the beast opened its mouth anew.

Lunging forward, it expelled a pyroclastic cloud. Accompanied by the sound of thousands of distinct screams, the black wall washed over the fleeing militants, turning flesh to ash in an instant and eating away at what was left of the mountainside. Not a single man escaped the onslaught, and the cloud finally dissipated. Smoke rose into the air accompanied by the smell of charred meat, yet still the demon's mouth remained open. The why came soon enough, though, as wisps of smoke broke away from the rising cloud to rush into its gullet. But in those wisps screamed the faces of the fallen, writhing against unseen bonds in a grizzly shadow play before they disappeared into darkness. When the last soul of the betrayed militants had been consumed, the creature's mouth finally closed, and it turned to survey the landscape with far more care than its initial maddened search. Before long, its eyes fell upon the distant hilltop where Duke Lannius and his cohort watched. A dangerously intelligent gleam filled its eyes, and it opened its mouth anew. But what emerged was not a screech, nor a cloud of scouring ash, but words. Words in a tongue so blasphemous and old that not a man among the cohort could comprehend them. Yet they could understand the echo beneath the words, a susurrus in their home tongues that struck like a needle through the brain.

Trin kor dirr arat so kyarum
<Yet more souls to feed my hunger>

It took a step towards them.

Ea rhekt glin ayen inatum
<And the blood of kings to whet my appetite>

The demon broke into a run, charging towards them and trailing an inferno in its wake.

[Silverbit]

"Aye Sevael. The holds and doughty Sulvan warriors can hold it off, the mountains are high and cold, and the blasted thing doesn't seem to be moving much at any rate-


Another thousandfold scream split the air as a second clawed arm emerged from the smoke, gouging deep furrows in the lip of the newly formed chasm. As the sound echoed down the crumbling mountainside, many of the fleeing militants fell to their knees, their bodies contorting in pain as they brought their hands up to cover their ears. Those closest to the creature collapsed further, their bodies wracked by inhuman spasms, like marionettes whose strings had been cut. Then, without warning, a trio of barbed tendrils lashed out of the smoke, trailing fiery oil as they impaled a score of men and dragged them into the earth.

There was a brief moment of silence, a final calm, before the roar came again. But this time it was no mystery to the source, as the demon's head finally escaped the blinding fume. It was brutally flat, with a blunt snout preceding six baleful red eyes, blazing with fiery purpose. Its maw stretched around the fullness of the head, extending near fifteen feet down the side before the shoulder of its arms finally appeared. It's scaly flesh was black as pitch, and was coated in a deep red oil that could almost have been coagulated blood. The oil dribbled off the demon's sides, seemingly without end, and where it fell even the naked stone burst aflame.

Heaving its arms, the monster continued to drag its bulk forth from the ground, and before long another pair of deceptively slender arms were scrabbling against the mountain. The thing's body was bulbous and slender all at once, a lean and powerful frame supporting a terribly bloated stomach. More terrible still were the creature's final legs, far larger and more muscular than its two pairs of arms, and angled unnaturally behind the creature. Emerged fully from its fiery prison, the demon's hunched body towered almost twenty feet in the air, while its body was almost twice as long. Its eyes roved madly, and an oily foulness burst forth from its gullet when its lips parted, revealing row after row of jagged, yellowed teeth. Then it reared back, and the underside of its head distended alarmingly. The bladder began to glow with a hellish light beneath the black scales, and a high pitched whine began to shake the ground.

Then the beast opened its mouth anew.

Lunging forward, it expelled a pyroclastic cloud. Accompanied by the sound of thousands of distinct screams, the black wall washed over the fleeing militants, turning flesh to ash in an instant and eating away at what was left of the mountainside. Not a single man escaped the onslaught, and the cloud finally dissipated. Smoke rose into the air accompanied by the smell of charred meat, yet still the demon's mouth remained open. The why came soon enough, though, as wisps of smoke broke away from the rising cloud to rush into its gullet. But in those wisps screamed the faces of the fallen, writhing against unseen bonds in a grizzly shadow play before they disappeared into darkness. When the last soul of the betrayed militants had been consumed, the creature's mouth finally closed, and it turned to survey the landscape with far more care than its initial maddened search. Before long, its eyes fell upon the distant hilltop where Duke Lannius and his cohort watched. A dangerously intelligent gleam filled its eyes, and it opened its mouth anew. But what emerged was not a screech, nor a cloud of scouring ash, but words. Words in a tongue so blasphemous and old that not a man among the cohort could comprehend them. Yet they could understand the echo beneath the words, a susurrus in their home tongues that struck like a needle through the brain.

Trin kor dirr arat so kyarum
<Yet more souls to feed my hunger>

It took a step towards them.

Ea rhekt glin ayen inatum
<And the blood of kings to whet my appetite>

The demon broke into a run, charging towards them and trailing an inferno in its wake.

-ah. Damn. Yes, let us ride fast."

[Lord_Burch]

Fifteen of the sixty heavily armed Destroyers, men clad in heavy armor and carrying tower shields and spears, stood their ground. The rest fled in terror, as this creature of the tales told in the dark made flesh bore down on them. Of the mounted Criman archers- most of whom were actual veterans, not green boys, moved to the demon's left and right flanks, loosing arrows, al though they seemed to do little to harm the beast except to annoy it. Of the ten Kingbirds assigned to the battalion, four winged away from the battle- one to Vernon, one to Arissyeux, one to Ashenia, and one south, to the army in Solus. Each hoped to raise armies against this monstrosity. The remainder circled the beast, darting in when they could.

[Elemental]

For but a brief moment, Sevael looked on in horror as those soldiers who had the courage, or sheer foolishness, to remain engaged the creature. He wasn't even going to wait for the Duke's permission before putting a horn to his lips and sounding a general retreat, hoping against hope that they would understand. Only then did he mount his horse, riding at the creature, veering off just before he came into its reach. Hopefully a long strip of red and white cloth would attract its attention.
It was fast, but his horse was faster, and he hoped that he could distract it long enough for the others to escape. And of course, escape himself. No point being heroic if you don't survive.

[TheDarkDM]

The creature hissed as Criman arrows rebounded from its hide, but its speed only increased as the men from Bordeaux arranged themselves in its path. It seemed not to notice the fluttering pennant of the Asheni Marshal, so intent was it on its prey. Then, less than one hundred feet from the line of destroyers, the beast stopped, digging into the ground and skidding the rest of the distance. Chips of stone rained down on the armored men, and a cloud of dust almost concealed the titan they faced, but not enough to hide its lowered head. There was a hissing sound, then the demon's three tongues were flying towards the line. Blood red and trailing fire, the fibrous tendrils bristled with black fangs the size of daggers, and moved with the speed of striking vipers. They wrapped around three of the mighty tower shields, ripping them from their bearers' hands and whipping them towards others in the line. The shield wall wavered, and before they could recover the tongues recoiled and struck again, snaking through the gaps to pierce the chinks in the destroyers' armor and constrict arms and legs and heads. Eight men were drawn screaming into the creature's gnashing teeth, and those that remained could do naught but flee, and be caught themselves.

Cracking through plate armor as though it were rice crackers, the demon let out another blood curdling shriek as the last of the destroyer's disappeared into its maw. As if to answer it, the Crimans let out a war cry and loosed a second volley, send a steel rain into the beast's black hide. It roared in protest, but the riders were well beyond its reach. For a moment, the demon seemed to be stymied, stamping its feet against the blood soaked ground as the two groups of riders arced towards each other to continue their attack. But then the groups crossed, and that hope was dashed. The muscles in the beasts hind legs tensed like steel cables, and with a howl it launched itself into the air, covering hundreds of feet in an instant and landing amid the mounted archers. Those horses not crushed in the impact reared up in terror as fire and the sickly smell of death enveloped them, and despite the Crimans' skill they could not be calmed. The battlefield became a flurry of blood and shadow and terrified screams, a terrifying symphony of carnage. Then all went silent, and as the minutes passed the dust settled, revealing the demon, its mouth full to bursting with the hanging corpses of the dead, staring in defiance and unchecked malice towards the fleeing lords of the West. The Kingbird riders, their morale shattered, turned east towards home and fled. The demon paid them no mind. Tilting its head back, it gorged itself on Criman soldiers, then turned towards the north. It had business in Sulvan's Fury.

[Silverbit]

The demon crept over a knife-edge ridge, and beheld a new source of victims. Below it, behind a thick wall of loose boulders, stood the Sulvan Capital. Long had the Sulvai dwelt in that land, leaving behind great longhouses sunk into the ground, their roofs covered in turf on which grazed the odd goat. Taller, more western buildings were also present, mainly the homes of newcomers and outlanders. In the centre of the city, atop a high crag, there hunkered the administrative buildings of the entire region. Another wall of loose boulders protected them, and they were constructed of worked stone expertly carved.

The coming of the demon did not go unnoticed; whether the thing had been spotted as it climbed the mountains, or a brave westman had escaped the carnage and warned the city, the Sulvai and Razdissi were ready. Bells of Mithril rung - all who survived would remember that dolorous chime - and most of the thousand soldiers in the region were armed and ready in the streets. The dwarves would not die easily. Among them was Freki Valison of the Unbroken Line clan; he had escaped the destruction, and stood amongst the defenders, with those others who had survived and chose to join him.

OOC: Just a vehicle for if other people want their characters from before to join the defence. Aside from them (and for any new people), people from most of the west would be present in the Capital, among with Razdissi, Eyrecradian elves and Elbarazi. Oh and DarkDm, I'm fully expecting the city to go all Dale/Erebor/Khazad Dhum. Go wild :smalltongue:.

[TheDarkDM]

As the demon glowered down on the assembled defenders of Sulvan's Fury, the sky behind it swirled with oily black smoke, rising from the burning countryside to choke out the sunlight. The beast screamed a challenge at the proud city of the Sulvai, and jumped. The ridge disintegrated beneath its weight, and it sailed through the air towards the city's main gate. The force of its landing sent cracks through the dwarven masonry, as it hung like a malformed gargoyle over the assembled army. It hung there for minutes, swaying on the unsteady gate, surveying the meager force arrayed against. Then it began to laugh. The sound was an avalanche of breaking glass, jagged and fractured and wholly unnatural. It's eyes were filled with a sadistic glee that betrayed its foul intelligence, revealing to the assembled soldiers what only Freki Valison had known for sure - this was no simple beast. And then the laughter ceased, and the demon's throat bulged with a monstrous breath.

Freki's eyes bulged outwards in terror at what was to come, but he could only manage a strangled cry of warning before the ashen tide exploded from the demon's mouth. Its pyroclastic cloud flowed through the streets of the capital like water, incinerating the mithril armored soldiers like cordwood. The doors of the Sulvai longhouses disintegrated beneath the burning gas, and the longhouses themselves were soon flooded with the deadly black fume. From the buildings of the regional government, it seemed as though an impenetrable shadow had fallen over a quarter of the city, and panic began to sweep through the city's remaining inhabitants when the smell of charred meet wafted over them. By then the creature's breath was spent, yet its mouth remained wide as thousands of tortured dwarven souls were sucked into its hellish crucible of a stomach. The screams of the populace reached it as it finished digesting its meal, and the demon answered with a scream of its own, a thousand times more savage and powerful than the mightiest living dwarf in the city. It leapt into the street to hunt its cowering prey, and the gate finally collapsed. There would be no escape for the Sulvai.

[Silverbit]

The demon seemed so confident, as if it could eat the very moons themselves. So powerful, like unto a mountain bearing down upon the Sulvai. And yet so predictable, like an ass tied to a post and only grazing in that circle of greenery. Though Freki was terrified almost out of his wits by the thing, he still felt contempt for it, as he retreated towards the crag.

As most of his soldiers burned and were consumed by the demon, some fled. Yet some brave souls had other plans; there had been some warning of the demons advance, and preparations had been made. As the main mass of survivors retreated towards the central crag, firing arrows as they went, some well-nigh insanely brave dwarves rushed forwards, wielding hugely long pikes of Mithril. These were thrust at the thing as it came forward, in an attempt to delay or perchance to kill the demon.

OOC: just noticed this post might have sounded a bit antagonistic, sorry! All is meant in good humour (even if you just did destroy most of my city :smallbiggrin:!).

[TheDarkDM]

Seeing the approach of the shining dwarven pikes, the demon screeched out a challenge. Leaping from the street, it landed atop one of the longhouses adjacent to the oncoming dwarves. Before the soldiers could reform their line, the monster's tongues slammed into them, throwing them towards their brethren while setting them alight. The blazing dwarves struck their fellows like stones from a catapult, spreading the demon's insidious oil with a touch. Soon the brave charge faltered, and they were caught off guard as the beast sailed over them. Its tongues lashed out like whips, wrapping around groups of pikes and tearing them from their owners hands. The roof the creature landed on shattered beneath its weight, but before the dwarves could regroup they were assailed by their own weapons, hurled like javelins from behind the smoky cover of the creature's destruction. Men were impaled where they stood, yet still their morale did not falter. Not until the demon came among them.

It roared as it exploded out of another longhouse, having burrowed its way between the subterranean buildings like a slime covered mole. The showering debris flickered with the demon's fire, and it was all the rear ranks could do to retreat back to the fastness of the crag, leaving the main body of the force to crumble beneath the monster's onslaught. Watching from above, Freki could feel the demon's eyes upon him, mocking him, mocking his people, for their bravery. Then the last of the screams subsided, and the demon rose once again above the smoke of its carnage. Looking towards the crag, it let loose a thunderous roar, but it did not charge. No, its eyes swept downwards, to the crowds of people still fleeing their homes for the safety of the crag. It was an easy choice for the predator, and as it leapt forwards to indulge its sadism the screams started anew.