Rise and Fall - IC

[Palamon]

Uthum

Hmm, she may be difficult to win yet. The prince though as his horse rode alongside her's. He kissed her hand gently lifting his eyes. "If I might say my lady you are of the fairest and most beautiful I have seen. I count myself as the luckiest man on earth for having the ability to look upon you.'' His eyes then looked at her from head to toe. "Seeing you with my eyes now I am tempted to take you off into the wilderness and marry you this night, for I leave to conquest in the morning."

His eyes were slightly drawn to the black clad man riding nearby. A peculiar man, he must be dying in that suit the Prince thought. The sun is highest in the sky at this point, how can this man not fall over and sleep?

[Victorian Style]

Uthum streets.

she looked upon the man and chuckled "We'll then, my prince, may you have my blessing and wishes that you return unharmed." She looked at him then, her Brit blue eyes staring into his, before nodding and gesturing for her palanquin to move on, through the gates where Arvalian soldiers were marching out from in droves.

Ghemspey however remained, sat upon his horse he silently looked at the prince, and without so much an inclination or word spurred his horse to ride on through the gate to join with the rest of the convoy.

The Mythic sea.

Arvalian legend states that humans could tame the waters of the mythic sea to do their bidding as Elementals, these creatures were of solid water and could be as big as the islands that they were sent to devour, however whether this is fact or fiction has been debated for centuries by Arvalian scholars, but it was true that before the calamity that severed the Arvalian,s ties to magic and rendered them into their current state of industrialist domination.

Captain Robert needless to say was a superstitious man, more so now then ever, his meeting with the Ederians had solidified this fact, but such superstition was unsuitable for a captain of the Kings vessel, and thus he shoved the thoughts from his head promptly. The seas it would seem were getting even more rough by the day, bringing promises of storms to come, the ship however was ready, being repaired and restocked in Uthum they had set sail on the orders of General Havelock, once more on their discovery expedition, however the book was now in their grasp, and they at least had a map, their next destination however had a name "The Mythic isles."

"This should be interesting" The Captain mumbled to himself as the craggy rocks came out of the pre-storm fog.

[Palamon]

Uthum

The Prince smiled as the Princess's palanquin rode down the street. "What a woman." he muttered under his breathe. It was as if he was under a spell, but as she left he sprang back into the reality at hand. He watched as Arvalian troops and Ederian troops marched down the street. He spurred his horse onwards down the line, returning back to its head. The Prince would lead the host of men to a camp outside of Uthum, then in the morning they would set out for Dul Rak, the last dawarven stronghold.

Averham

Thesius and his company of exhausted men could now see Averham's billowing smoke. The sky grew grayer as they neared until it seemed that the sun would almost fade away. "Company Returning!" Thesius yelled up to the guards above the gatehouse. Then before long the gates openned and the Ederian company proceeded through the gate. It was an odd sight to return to such a welcome party. Thesius told his men to just wave and keep walking, there had been no glory gained in the mission they just competed.

[The Whacko]

South Molreos
Nyphaldus City
By the river Encelldal (Known of the River of the Serpent in Rasalhague)

"General!" A voice shouted up from the deck, stirring Kerensky from his light doze. He almost fell out of his seat before he managed to stand up, much to his embarassment. The young Breton almost running down the stairs didn't seem to notice, though, as he looked too frightened to be focused on anything at the moment. Almost immediately after he reached the bottom of the stairs, the young man snapped a smart salute, and Kerensky had to stifle a chuckle as he returned the salute. "General, we saw something out on the plains, sir."

"Calm down, private. Now, calmly, tell me what you saw." Kerensky said patiently, like a parent extracting the truth from their child. The young man swallowed and tried not to look as frightened as he'd fealt a moment ago.

"Sorry, sir. We saw something moving out on the plain a few minutes ago. We weren't sure if it was a person or...an animal. We got a better look at it when it got closer to the camp...it looked like a shadow, sir, but..."

"One of the natives, private, if the Rakand are to be believed." Kersensky explained, and he thought he saw some of the color return to the man's face. "Wake the rest of the delegation. I'm going up to...greet them." He said the last bit with more confidence than he really fealt. The Rakand had gone and ruined the first impression these people had on Rasalhague. He hoped they would be willing to accept the second. It took less than ten minutes for the general to reach the deck and hop over to dry land, where he saw the other three privates he'd left on guard detail beside the ship, all clutching their halberds nervously as what looked like living shadows closed in on their position. Kerensky took a deep breath before he spoke.

"Ho there! We mean no harm! We come in peace on behafe of the United Kingdom of Rasalhague!"

[Forseti]

Ritona docks, the Lonely Isles

Richt looked from the main deck of the Narwhal's aim the provincial settlement of the Lonely Isles. The town hadn't had faired much better through the storm than the expedition squadron, Richt observed as the ship came into one of the remaining, stable looking docking piers. The Caravel came up along side the pier as Richt looked at the gathering party of the bird-men Avarians waiting for them. Four marines waited with Richt as ropes and sailors leapt off the caravel and secured the ship to the pier. The marines had drawn straws among themselves who would volunteer to go ashore with Richt, something that he nor the marines senior officers approved but which he could sympathize with. They were after all walking onto foreign territory and vastly outnumbered by non-humans, a marine more than any sane Frissien would be aware of the tactical disadvantage they were being put in.

The diplomatic party went up the boarding plank as the deck of the caravel was a bit short for the pier designed for the unusual avarian ships. Richt was followed by the four marines onto the pier and walked towards the greeting party. Richt had attended the talks between the Frissenmark and the Avarians as a diplomatic aide, so the sight of the tall, feathered beings with their intimidating beaks was not unusual sight for him as he walked towards them. " My name is Richt Stalmarrick, I am an envoy in the service of the Firssenmark, I am here to speak with the governor of these Isles to amend and expand articles of trade with the Avara" said Richt to the party of non-humans, stopping in front with the four marines at his sides with longbows and sabers.

Unknown shoreline, west of Frissen island

Captain Fraxnarr Bornn was seated in the landing boat as they came up to the unknown coast. The Horizon chaser had made rendezvous in the night with Stormdodger last night and they had compared their findings. It was conclusive that this landmass was too large to be an island, Fraxnarr smiled at the idea that the south westerly winds were more of a blessing than a curse, as the longboat made landing on the pebble beach of this unknown continent. This boat was third to land on the island, two longboats earlier in the day had dropped off some fifteen marine scouts to scout the landing area and had yet to return to the shore. Fraxnarr and the marine/sailor crew of the longboat disembarked the boat as a second longboat pushed up against the crunching sound of wet pebbles. Their cloaks flayed in a temporary moment of wind as they walked up the beach, the same crunching of pebbles as their boots landed on them. They all scanned the forest just beyond the shore and the mountains in the distance, and across the seemingly endless beach to the south and the rising cliffs to the north of the coast.

" I, Fraxnarr Bornn, captain of the Horizon chaser, fellow captain of the western exploration squadron, do claim this land under the banner of Frissenmark, during the reign of our King Alphred the second, sovereign of Frissen island and the outer islands." shouted Fraxnarr, the landing party looked to him as he made his speech before some of them tried to drag one of the boats up onto the shore.

A shout came from the forest beyond the beach, followed by more shouts and a figure, one of the marines, running down the beach towards the landing party. They watched in apprehension as the canopy beyond the tree line began to shift and brake to something beyond their sight. Another marine carrying a wounded marine came out of the forest, the wounded man had lost his leg as the blood poured down his savior's uniform. Another marine armed with a longbow came out of the forest to shoot an arrow into the trees. " What is happening!" shouted Fraxnarr to the fleeing marines, those around him readied their weapons, the captain could hear the loud clicks of loaded crossbows and the unsheathing of sabers.

Suddenly a large ugly being, it looked like a scarred, damaged human stood triple the height of normal men beat the fourth fleeing marine with a twisted tree trunk before stamping on the man savagely. Some men shouted terrible oaths and Fraxnarr among many men swore in terror, bolts and arrows flew towards the savage beast. A few of the projectiles hit their target, causing the giant to squeal by the combined pain, it stopped stamping the mashed remains of the marine and turned its long bearded face towards the landing party. " Back to the boats!" shouted some men as the giant came closer to the party, Fraxnarr was inclined to agree, helping some men push a longboat out while the others would try to fend the beast off.

More goose feather fletched arrows flew towards the giant and missed more than struck the giant. The giant ran at a pace towards them, kicking the first marine of the party who charged at the beast in blind terror into the ocean, a pair of halberdiers thrusted their polearms towards the giant and forced it to back up the beach a few steps. The legless marine was put on board the longboat along with Fraxnarr who would later come to regret such a selfish action, turning back to see the action on the beach. A marine screamed at the giant as he thrust his pike into the side of the giant, it roared in pain before swatting the marine to the ground and removed the painful pike, the giant swung its tree club down on the marine and swiped at the halberds from their exposed flank, killing the first as the dead roots of the tree brutally stabbed into his chest.

The second long boat had been filled and was cast off into the sea, Fraxnarr moved to the side of the longboat so a arbalist could get a better shoot at the giant from their longboat, the crew rowing frantically back to the Horizon chaser. Fraxnarr watched as the Horizon chaser must have seen the fighting on the beach and started shooting its ballistas at the giant, forcing it to give up its pursuit of the landing party. Fraxnarr watched to wounded man cry as a marine tried to comfort the man while a sailor put healing herbs on his wound and bandage it.

[Victorian Style]

The Mythic Islands

This land was beautiful. Tropical trees swayed in a light breeze and as the early morning mist cleared the full extend of the jungle lie before them. Greenery spread for as far as the eye could see, exotic animals flew called and many brightly coloured birds of all kinds swooped from in and out of the canopy. Above the sky shone a brilliant sapphire blue, which the landing Arvalians were unused to, coming from their grey and dreary home.
They rowed their boats up to the shore, five men to a vessel and seven boats in total. Beyond the beach blue waters stretched out, disturbed only by the ship which lie anchored offshore, wooden planking slightly damaged by turmoil on the seas, but ultimately formidable.

Captain Robert was the first to leave the boats and step upon this new land, the first Arvalian to visit such a place for near two hundred years, and the feeling was great, one by one ranks of soldiers filed from the ships and stood upon the land, weapons against their shoulders and their right hand in a salute across their chest. A fife player and a drummer then started up and a banner was produced, then the lion of Arvale stretched it's claw over this land.

"In the name of his Majesty King Albert Grisham the Tenth, we do claim these isles for Arvale" The force of Thirty-five soldiers all bellowed as one, "ALL HAIL ARVALE!" Only then did the supplies begin to come ashore, tents were set up and fires began smoking soon enough. This was only the beginning.
However, nearby in the bush squatted an ugly creature its bulbous eyes scanned the new comers, pale of skin and soft. The creature let out a series of grunts and croaks, before standing, it's green skin caught in the light for a moment, slimy and wet it glowed a little, before half sprinting half hopping.

Captain Robert looked around the beach, pleased with the progress the Arvalians were making, tents already had been raised housing the group of soldiers, and work on the palisade had begun, the logs were already piling up from off the ship - reserved in case such an incident such as finding a new land occur, and indeed it had, and from the looks of it, it was unoccupied, the book given to them by the Ederians had shown this land as a blank spot, only right that they should claim it and all it's resources, only then did he catch a glimpse of something in the bushes to the far end of the beach, he blinked before turning to his men, thinking it merely one of the many creatures that lived in this beautiful land. "I want scouts!" He called... this is going to be a long day, he knew.

Averham

The Prime Minister grew bored, the paperwork seemed to be neverending. The grand Exhibition was only a few days away, and it was the one event of the year the man truly enjoyed, showcasing the superior Arvalian technology to the nation, grand inventions were displayed here, and if their inventors were lucky be given a Royal Patent, meaning that it will be mass produced, funded and sooner or later improved upon, last year the winner was the steam pump, which allowed the miners to dig deeper down, with air being circulated in their work stations, or water be removed so the threat of flooding is removed - needless to say, this was a large problem with Arvale being a soggy country- This year will prove to be very interesting, he knew.

However he also had to deal with the invitations for the various Lords and Ministers of the state, the Ambassador from Edyr would have to come, but of course, to awe him and subsequently their nation, and then marriage preparations would have to be assembled for the Princess and the Prince of Edyr. But that could be handled at a later time. Not to mention that the man was still recovering from his fight in Shindra's plot. Perhaps this would be a useful diversion.

Uthum

The men had filed into the grand square of Uthum, joined with the Ederian soldiers, these men, instead of assuming a parade stance, took one of war, their weapons instead of held at their shoulder was in their hands, muskets gleamed in the sunlight and the cannon that they had took from the Embassy was poised They were ready for their orders.