The Shield of the North [IC]

[Breitheamh]

My mistake lass must have a twin out there bwahaha. Anyways since we will be working together im hasgraek icegrasp. if anyone is familiar with dwarves of the region usually they will name thier clan as well.

"Right..." she replies uncertainly, "Um, I'm Cha---Shad... Just Shad." A forlorn look crosses her face for a moment, but she quickly changes the subject. "A fitting name for you, then!" she continues jovially, "I could barely get out of that grip of yours!" Then her face suddenly drains, "Uhh, um, that is, I mean your handshake."

She pauses awkwardly, looking anywhere but the dwarf's eyes, then abruptly turns and walks very quickly over to Connor and pretends to be listening to something he's saying.

Before you leave the courtyard, the Duke himself appears from the keep to address the crowd of adventurers and others a cut above the common militiamen.



Pierre Ci Gît was a warrior in his day, and a mighty one, but now he is old. Much of the defense and running of the city has passed to his heir and daughter. But for the men and women of Coldwater, it's still moving to see him girted in his armor and carrying (perhaps leaning on...) his partisan. He turns his lined face to the crowd and speaks in a voice that is still deep and strong.

Spoiler: He gives an inspiring speech.

Show

"Greetings on this fair Wintertide to you all. I look out over this crowd and I see many faces I know... citizens of our city and old friends, come to our aid once more. To you I have nothing new to say, only my deepest thanks and love to you, who rise once more to the challenge. But many of you are new to me, and new to these walls. I speak to you, now."

"Anyone who lives in Solus must know that the dead go north. Even children learn it, when they face their first lessons in loss and grief. But we of Coldwater know it to be true in a way that others don't. Over the Straits of Ice and beyond the terrors of Blackreach is a hell of ice and darkness. That place belongs to the dead, and the dead keep it. This land belongs to the living, and the dead covet it... the necromancers of Blackreach desire it... the devils seek it... but it is ours, and we keep it. We pledge our lives, and many of us pledge our deaths. The Maiden awaits me, friends, she grows impatient for her dance, and soon I must take her hand. But when I go, I will join the Diet of the Still, the spirits pledged to keep this place."

"Every year, by blood and ashes and the ringing of bells, we consecrate this city anew to Life. And while this city stands, the continent of Solus, this whole living world, will stand as well. If the world of the living falls, it will fall here first. And it must. NOT. FALL."

"By our lives and deaths we rebuke the forces of undeath and we buy, at greatest cost, another year. We are the keystone... we are the shield of the North! Fais sonner les cloches qui peuvent encore sonner!"

At his command, the Iron Carillons begun to ring, for the first time today but not the last. In the stones of the Keep and in the walls around the city, spirit guardians stir and stand, spectral, beside the living guards. In the harbor, a net of copper and silver is raised across the bay, held up by tall towers. The soldiers of Coldwater clash their swords on their shields, a vast ringing that echoes the bells and fills the city.

Beatrice looks at the four of you. "You have the rest of the day to prepare. Sleep if you can. Sunset, at the Porte Aguille."

Shad feels the stirring in her heart almost unbidden as the duke rallies the soldiers and citizenry with his speech. Whoa... okay this is serious now... She looks around at those lifting their voices to the rousing battlecry, and almost instinctually joins in, her shriek matching what she let loose whenever she managed to finish a flawless joint-lock or pin a man bigger than her through sheer willpower. It was the primal scream of a warrior's spirit joining chorus with its fellows... and it felt good.

Of course Charity knew where the spirits of the dead go, and she had heard the stories of Coldwater standing alone against the forces of darkness that sought a foothold in Solus, but it was always distant. They were mere fairy tales to her and her brothers, no one she'd grown up with had any true understanding of what it really meant that there was a SHIELD in the north. But now Shad was here, and though not truly of her own accord, with the Duke's speech echoing through the toll of the bells and ringing in her heart she began to understand... If Coldwater fell, so would Croplan...so would Jenny... so would everything she had ever held dear.

Shad gripped her halberd a bit tighter and cracked her knuckles, her mouth curling up in a wolfish sneer. I'm here now, Blackreach, and you've never seen the likes of me before. So bring me your monsters of nightmare, and go **** yourself while I strangle them with my bare hands.