Tales of Evanhearth: Siege of Cudsul {IC}

[Lydyn]

The woman paused, though choose to stay standing as she looked right at Kyr unflitchingly, her expression only noting a small amount of thought to the Peorian's barrage of questions. "Shadows," she said at first as a single word, almost as if that should've cleared up all the question. She continued though with a subtle smile briefly gracing her lips. "Shadows of a supernatural origin.. they are capable of killing and raising the dead. As for the rune, yes - I am the only one that I know of that's capable of properly reading them, except dragons perhaps. You see, my magic is not normal. I can decipher and activate draconic runes.. and I'm sure now this is why the Archmage sent me here and not another. Suffice it to say that.. a friend told me quite a bit of the situation - wizards and all that." She had added the last bit with a playful smirk, though she fully expected the effect to be lost on Kyr.

Brushing back a lock of hair and sliding out from the booth and standing more so in the isle, she continued to address the other woman. "As for the town's involvement... elves live a long time," she said, pausing, sure Kyr knew this. "The speaker was even showing signs of age.. and even in his story, all this seemed as if legend, though perhaps he was there - I doubt it. That was generations ago. These people are hardly at fault.." Another pause was given, but somehow this seemed more meaningful as the magi stood a little taller, a resolve sparking in those deep blue eyes of hers. "Do not mistaken the situation though.. we are not going to bury these shadows again - I mean to destroy them entirely."

The waiter came back with a small piece of bread and an apple, to which drew Rehora's attention and she pulled out a few coins to pay her. She obviously didn't plan on staying as she took a bite of the bread and quickly swallowed it. "I need to talk to the Baron while I'm able.. get rest.. and leave early in the morning to catch as much daylight as possible.. it would be much easier if you could accompany me inside the mines, but it's likely to be very dangerous.. so it's your call." Rehora? She planned on going regardless.. she was confident she'd find someway of ending this.

[Barsavis]

"I will see what I can do. I will need a map, some numbers of the enemy and previous battles fought with them might be ideal," Kyr reasoned. Already her calculations kicked into play. One idea stuck in her mind above all... a sprint. If these creatures were drawn to one place, Rehora and her could charge in and get this magical hugidy-boo done without them even knowing it. From the mention of them they might be mindless killing machines not likely to protect themselves from something so volatile. If, however, they were intelligent and reasoning... well that left problems. One thing was for sure though, they had never encountered the Peori before, and that would be an edge.

[Lydyn]

Rehora raised an eyebrow to the woman's reply and was silent for a brief moment. "You shouldn't treat these enemies like anything mortal ... they are in far greater number than the entire town of Cudsul, with the shadows and the undead that their existence brings.. previous battles would be lost to ages gone by - look at the elf's tale. The dragons themselves had to seal away the shadows because of their threat.. the only sure thing is getting that rune of light to activate.. other than that, courage and a strong heart must be present to resist their pull - from what I gather."

Sliding her fingers across the table one last time, she added, "I'm going to talk to the Baron now and advise him to disregard Erskine's suggestion, for it's one based in misinformation. We just need a way to get into the temple mostly unharmed, give me enough time to study the rune and find the orb - the orb that the shadows are coming from.. then I can ignite a wave of light against this unholy relic." Rehora was done wasting time as she started walking away, with or without the Peorian. Soon enough she had exited the tavern all together and nearly marched through town quickly until she reached the guards.

A very brief exchange was made as they let her inside the home. She quickly strode towards the office door and was about to open it, having seen it cracked, but quickly heard words being exchanged inside the room. Instead of bursting into the conversation, she thought it better to wait outside and re-frame from interrupting. Even though she hadn't intended to, she could hear the conversation...

[Disciple Cain]

The Baron stared at Erskine for a long moment. He appeared pensive, trying to take in the whole story the Diplomat discussed with him. He clasped his hands together and looked down at his desk, pondering, deliberating. He didn't once look up from his desk for perhaps another minute before first breaking the silence.


"Cudsul may yet still stand after all this chaos..." he murmured, "I had certainly found it strange that the goblins attacked so suddenly when they have before been so..." he thought carefully of his choice of words before finishing, "Neutral, I suppose."


He remained quiet for another few moments before he moved his eyes back up to meet Erskine and nodded, "Alright. What are their terms, Erskine?"


Erskine nodded back and gave the short version of their terms, "Their terms were as follows: for the space of three days the Or'roz will not attack Cudsul, and if within those three days we-- I don't know why they said it like this-- but if we 'bury The Enemy', they will return to their lands and remain neutral to Cudsul."


The lack of a description following 'The Enemy' put a puzzled look on the Baron's face. "The Enemy? That's all they refered to it as?"


Erskine resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he shook his head and replied, "No of course not. That's just what it translates to. They refered to him as Magh'Ryath in their tong--"


The second Erskine had finished the name, the two in the room had suddenly seemed to be very uncomfortable. The red-robed man jerked his head up from under his hood and shot a look at the Baron. The Baron's eyes widened and he immediately put his hand up and interupted him, "What... what was that name?"


Erskine shifted his eyes around the office nervously before he repeated, "Magh'Ryath? That was the--"


This time the red-robed man interrupted him, something that Erskine was getting quickly irritated by and even groaned at, but instead of verbally lashing out... he listened.


"That was our name for him... not the Goblins'," he said.


Erskine furrowed his brows and opened his mouth, then closed it. He looked away for a brief moment before he turned back to the red-robed one and said, "Can we all cut to the chase here? What *exactly* is the significance of the name Magh'Ryath?"


The Baron put his hands over his face and looked like he was far too distressed to continue speaking. It took him a moment before he pulled out a piece of parchment, dipped his quill pen in the inkwell to his side, and began writing. Meanwhile, the red-robed man stepped forward from the side wall and explained what he could to Erskine... whose jaw soon after dropped and stayed as such for nearly a minute before he could speak again.


"A bloody dragon?!" He shouted, and immediately there was some shuffling heard outside of the office. The Baron looked up and gave Erskine a significant look, to which Erskine threw his hands up in the air and exclaimed, "What? These are things we need to know about before we go diving into cursed caves and sending people into treacherous mountains and forests!"


The red-robed man shook his head once and tried to explain, "We would've told you if we had known Erskine, but we didn't know that the curse upon these lands was powerful enough to raise such a beast."


The two seemed occupied with arguing on for another minute before the Baron shouted at the both of them, "Quiet, both of you!" Both of them were startled by the sudden outburst of the Baron... Erskine stumbled back a bit and the red-robed man bowed his head and retreated a couple steps back to the wall. The Baron took in a deep breath and exhaled, saying, "I truly regret the loss of one already..." the Baron scribbled out his signature on the bottom of the note, dropped the pen in the inkwell, and after folding the parchment neatly he stamped it with the seal of Evanhearth to seal it. He set it aside for a moment and lay his palms flat on the table, taking a brief moment to swallow before he grabbed it and put it forth on the table toward Erskine, "And as such I can not leave someone as valuable as you to die here, Erskine."


Erskine's expression couldn't be seen at the moment, but the way he stayed silent for so long must've meant he was at least caught off guard. "Sir?" he choked out, and hesitantly reached forward to take the folded parchment. He looked down at it for a moment, flipping it around in his hand and examining it, then back up the Baron.


"A commendation for your services here in Cudsul, Erskine," the Baron informed him, "Though you have only been here for a single day, you have already provided good results. Your knowledge of the Goblin language and culture has proven greatly useful, and even effective if you were to give this town three days."


"A--" Something suddenly changed. The man they once knew as arrogant, combative, and argumentative seemed to speak differently. For Erskine, something changed for him. His arrogance turned to confidence instead, because surviving the nightmare for even just this day and receiving this commendation may bring him well on his way to his career path. He cleared his throat for a moment and said a short thank you. The Baron and Erskine exchanged a few parting words before the Diplomat walked out the door with a smug smirk on his face. Perhaps something had changed but... the man was probably still a prideful ass.



He passed through the halls without a word to Rehora, and the door was left open...

[Lydyn]

Rehora let Erskine walk by and sighed, partially in relief that the man was leaving the whole situation behind him. Normally, he would've done more damage than good, but she was glad that Mathras had been there this time. Slowly, she entered the office without so much as knocking and looked at the two in silence. After a few awkward moments, she reached up to brush her hair back and let out another soft sigh. "So ... we have two problems to deal with now, hm?" She then gave the red mage a glance when she mentioned that. "The shadows and the orb they come from - with their curse - and a dragon that has risen from it.." She was careful to talk slowly and thoughtfully, more so than she had been before. "M'lord.. I.." She glanced back to see if Kyr had come into the office or not. In all honesty, she hadn't even paid attention if the woman had followed her all the way over here.

Looking back, she gave the baron a serious look. "I need to get back into the mine.. I'm sure something Mathras hasn't had time to tell you yet, but you uncovered a dragon temple.. which could account for the risen dragon, but more importantly there's a very particular rune inside. It's a rune of light that I can read and activate.. but only I can do it. If I can get to it and draw it upon the orb that caused all these shadows, I believe it'll shatter and -" She paused, trying to word her thoughts. "With it gone, the dragon won't have a chance to rise again. We can.. try and destroy it then." She took the moment of silence to look at the floor in a sort of thoughtful daze, having been caught off-guard by the news of a dragon. A dragon!? Rehora reached up again to rub her forehead lightly, dropping it as she looked back to the Baron for his reaction.