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Alberich sighed as Sakem kept poking him. He had finally begun to realize why the old man in his village was always so cranky as the boy kept pushing the stick into Alberich. Youngsters could often be a pain in the ass to deal with, and with each poke, Sakem grew more annoying. "We do have a list of things to do, as well a few places to visit - as long as the orcs didn't get to them first. Now, will you stop poking me with that thing?" Alberich replied, standing up from his bed mat when Sakem had finally stopped poking him, and began to speak philosophically, but Alberich already had an answer in his mind.

"Of course not. I believe in gods, yes, but I don't believe that there is another powerful being telling me how to move my arms or eat my meals. Everyone has a soul, and since it is their own, they are the ones to dictate their actions. What matters is how people react to them, whether for better or worse." Alberich stated, shaking his head. He had studied academics growing up, but philosophy was all too suspicious, especially being too close to events that could be explained through gods. In any case, Alberich shrugged the thoughts he was having away and approached Elyria, recently having returned from her departure into the woods.

"Let's see here... swallow and robin eggs. Not a bad bunch, and you managed to gather a lot. It'll be a change from eating fish for the next few weeks after Ysran summoned a horde of them for us to cook." Alberich stated, looking back to where the roasted fish were stored. They roasted in the fire, then salted to preserve the fish long enough for the party to either eat them, trade the fish away, or use them to capture a bigger beast such as a bear. Thinking back to his village, all the fish that they had gathered would have certainly made Alberich a fortune when food was stressed because of the approach of the Dark Lord, although he wasn't evil to withhold food from his starving neighbors in dire need just to cash in on a few more coins.

For the first time since the Aetherwing's departure from the heavens, silence had taken over the airship's atmosphere. Hardly could a voice be heard throughout the ship chambers, nor could one hear the quiet hum of the Aether or the growls of drakes kept in the bestiary. The decks were silent, and for the crew, it was felt well-deserved. The airship had been at war for what was now a hundred years, but they could not rest. There was no way they could rest when the Dark Lord had continued to endanger the realm, his armies marching across Aeos and slaughtering entire populations and terrorizing the kingdoms.

And it seemed that their constant dedication to their task at hand, given to the crew by the Emperor himself, was the reason for their success. While the world of Aeos was slowly crumbling to the Dark Lord's vicious onslaught, where ever the Aetherwing had went, it seemed nothing would defeat the airship. Like how their captain was praised as a savior in the war against the Demon Lords, wherever the massive airship was sighted, a trail of good luck would follow. Such a thing was true with the kingdom of Ven, a kingdom nearly brought on death's door because of various assaults by the Dark Lord.

It was a week ago when the battle had happened. The Venese were defending a city from the Dark Lord, yet it had been months since they were under siege. Food, sickness, as well strife and civil unrest had begun to run rampant in the besieged city. Anyone inside the city had no contact without the outside world, and mothers would cower along with their children as they awaited the evils that would come once the city fell. The Venese were ready to surrender, faced with months of hardship and forced to look for a way to save the people when the Aetherwing had arrived to the battlefield.

The Dark Lord's host hadn't expected an airship to charge in alone, nor an airship to begin with. The host had little defenses use against the Aetherwing, and their tents and other various barracks were arrayed nicely for the airship to strike. Flames, steam and even bolts of holy magic had burst from the clouds, while serpents with riders armed with lances and magic-powered rifles swarmed the encampment, as if the gods themselves had come to pierce the strength of the Dark Lord. To Venese who had prayed for a saving grace for months on end, many of them fell to their knees, crying and thankful that their savior had arrived.

As the dust had settled from the aerial assault, there wasn't anything that could be considered an army, much less an encampment. Bodies were missing limbs and lying flat on the ground, while tents and barracks were torn and crumbling like rubble. A crew had been sent to clean and purify the lands free from the Dark Lord's taint while the Aetherwing went to dock in the city. As soon as the airship had landed, the people swarmed the crew, thankful for their aid and service. They had begged the crew to allow them to see the captain of the airship, so that they may praise and offer what little they had to them.

To their amazement, the Venese were surprised to find that someone so young was captaining the airship. Chione had appeared foreign to the Venese with her red eyes and way of dressing, but they were lost in her youthfulness. They praised her as an angel, an idol to inspire courage in the youth of the world to take a stand against the foe of the realm. When the Venese had offered Chione what wealth they could afford to give to their savior, she turned them down and asked to visit the large chapel in the city. Confused but willing, they led her to the chapel, and upon her entrance, the ground glowed a golden hue, and priests were taken back by the archangel's appearance.

Several of them flipped through their religious texts, seeing if their eyes had matched the woman they had read whom aided the legendary hero Miernes several times in his battles. Others were dumbfounded, unable to speak a word upon their eyes locking on Chione, unable to look away. The air had a calming and serene feeling to it as Chione stepped forward to the center of the chapel and knelt down, muttering a soft prayer to the Emperor. Glancing at her hand, a ring had formed with the holy energy that fed from the chapel, golden with engraved runes. "Give this to your king. Tell him that the Emperor's wrath has come." Chione explained to the Baron in charge of the city, passing the ring onto him.

A week had passed from then, and the Aetherwing was once more on the prowl. Flying high in the sky as the sun had begun to rise, Chione and the Aether itself, taking a humanoid form of a young black-haired girl were lost in a game similar to the mortal chess, but advanced in style of play. The game consisted of three boards, and players were able to move their pieces upwards or downwards to the other boards that existed.

Despite being the messiah of the Emperor, Chione fighting the Aether in a battle of wits was difficult. The artifact could process any move, calculating the game like a modern-day supercomputer. "Checkmate, Chi." The girl spoke in a cheerful tone as Chione sighed, leaning back in the chair she was sitting in. She had only beaten the artifact once in the past, and that was by 'a stroke of sheer luck', or so it was claimed by Chione's opponent.

"Don't think me defeated. The next game will surely be in my favor." Chione replied, standing up and walking out on to the deck from her quarters. She gazed out on the balcony, admiring the sea of trees and the peacefulness of the forest, but the angel felt the air odd. She leaned forward on the railing, looking far off in the distance as Chione noticed a speck of movement moving among the trees. They had blended well within the trees due to their green skin, yet it was impossible to mistake the horde of orcs, doubtlessly splinter group from the warband rumored to be in the forest.

"Aether, check your scanners for me. Are you picking up anything?" Chione asked, and the girl had done as her captain asked. Disappearing for a moment, the Aether went to inspect the charms, sensing the beginning signs of evil nearby the airship. The artifact soon returned with the news, and Chione returned to her quarters to gather her equipment. "Sound the alarm. We are going to battle." Chione ordered, twirling her pistols as she went to holster them.

It wasn't long before the whole ship had sprung up, ready for battle. A burly man was barking orders, shouting for the cannons to be armed and ready to strike the orc menace down below. He nodded to his captain as Chione approached before returning to his orders, and soon the cannons were locked and ready to ignite. The cannons were pointed downwards, and they were charging with holy energy to strike down the orcs. "On my command," Chione had said, raising her arm high in the air. "FIRE!" She shouted to the chorus of a thundering explosion that could be heard for miles.

"Crextal, secure the ship! Maelka, get your drakes and follow my lead!" Chione barked, charging towards the ledge and leaping over the railing. Activating a spell to allow her to flutter down safely, Chione landed down on the ground without incident to finish off the remaining orcs. Not that they was many orcs left to fight after the holy barrage, but Chione was sure there would be more reinforcements nearby to come to the aid of this group. It had to be only a matter of time before their foe's allies realized their comrades' situation.

Mornings were not Kathryn's thing. In training they attempted to force that for her. All it did was give her more marks against her overall ranking up process. With that, she had nightmares again. They weren't too bad, but she had a lot on her mind already. She mistook Elyria as someone who used to be close to her, she passed out in six inches of water out of pure fear, and her attempts to make friends failed again. "welp... up now." She grunted as she stood up. Her clothes were still roughed up from getting soaked and being unable to dry properly. She had nothing else to wear unless she wanted to wear only her armor. Not something she was up for doing.

Her Armor was in a pile not far from the pile of sand she slept in. She felt exposed without it. Vulnerable. Weak. Once she was more or less awake she put on the bare minimum for it. Chest plate, and a few bits to protect part of her arms and legs. No chainmail yet, or the extra bits. But the basics, her knife, and her mace. She felt safe enough like this. Now that she was ready for more basic things she walked over to Alberich. He seemed to be organizing the morning events. "What's the plan for today? Are e making plans to find a town or something? I could use some supplies personally" Mostly it was the clothes. She had one outfit due to her situation with her last group of freedom fighters. She had a dark thought of how long it would be before everyone here was dead as well. Sure someday they may defeat the Dark Lord. But how many of them... or of all of them would see it? If any at all. Would she? Or would she be another nameless face lost to history?

She needed to think of something new. Her thoughts were starting to go places she wasn't a fan of. "We may also want to consider how we are going to handle our situation against the Dark Lord. We could attempt to raise a new army and hope they don't get decimated on out way to the final fight. Or we could come up with a more tactical plan for smaller units. It really depends on what we can gather. Or who." She tried to say calmly. But she did worry. Even an army of Hundreds could only go so far before supplies ran out. Or before they took too many casualties to keep fighting.

Ysran opened his eyes. The sunlight was nearly blinding he he tried to sit up. What happened last night? There was... Chuckles. He got to say hi.then there was the whole lake thing. There were... Murlocs. And... a fight. And then, some new guy showed up. He looked around. Everybody seemed to be in one piece. Chuckles had been sent back to the Void before Ysran went back to sleep.

He stood up. Sakem was prodding Alberich with a stick, and Elyria had...Eggs? That seemed nice. Ysran wasn't too hungry, and even then he could just light up a fish or two. Looks like Kathryn was up, too. The plan huh? He should probably get in on this, throw some more ideas out there. He walked over.

"Well, I think we should find the next town. Who knows, I might have some connections there. Stormreach Harbor is very well known around certain parts. If anything else, I could probably procure supplies."

Yran thought back to his wealth. He really wasn't a high-life guy. He preferred the simpler stuff. It built character. Didn't turn you into a posh bastard. But money did have its uses. People generally listened to you more, or less depending on their views. With any luck, these guys wouldn't change their views.

Caractacus moved toward the group, in time to hear Alberich give the wild man a bleary rebuke. Caractacus very quickly steered away from the pair. The wild man unnerved him, and his bloodied arrival the previous night did not help the feeling. Soon, however, Elyria awoke, and started preparations for the day. Caractacus tried to wave a good morning, and spoke up when she offered to go out in search of breakfast. "Ahem, I would ah, join you. If you don't mind my doing so, of c-course. I just needed--er, wanted is better, wanted to sp-speak with you."

Caractacus walked with Elyria, trying to find a comfortable place to be. He did not want to trail behind, yet still, to be close beside her would surely be off-putting. He tried to keep to a friendly meter aside her, when the forest allowed. "Last night, I did not take the opportunity t-to thank you. Your assistance, er, or kindness, was greatly appreciated. It made for a m-more comfortable night. If there's anything you need of m-me, of course, you need only ask, and I..." Caractacus stopped, thinking back to the day before. "I completely forgot. Y-yesterday, when I was in the lake, you called out to me. Asking me not to--To ah, well, use your bod--wait no that's wrong." Caractacus cleared his throat. "Apologies. What I mean to say is that I w-will of course honor your request." He nodded, satisfied with the revised statement, and continued along the forest path.

On the walk back toward camp, Caractacus spoke up once again. "I must say, you have quite the precise magic. I do not th-think I have seen its type before." Of course, the only type of magic he saw was his own necromancer, and the magic of the battlefield. Fire and thunder. Caractacus stood near by the fire as Elyria began cooking. He looked around the camp, and spotted Kathryn up and relatively ready. He approached her, and Alberich, as she was talking to him. Caractacus only caught the tail end of her side of the conversation, something about gathering someone or something. "Er, ex-excuse me, Miss Kat...thryn...Ahem. I do hope I'm not interrupting, but I need to speak with you. On a couple, or more, matters of importance. Well, one matter of importance, and a f-few other matters."

Caractacus took a few steps away from the group, looking back for Kathryn to follow. He made sure that the wild man was in his sight line as he did so, and made sure he was well away from earshot of the man. "That man, the one with Alberich just earlier," Caractacus spoke carefully, in a low tone to keep his voice from travelling. "He was out in the forest last night. I saw him return, he was covered in blood. I-I know, I didn't come to help you after you said we should stick together, b-but I still think it's better to have a fr--someone looking out for me, and-and I can help you, right?"

Elyria had blushed several time when Caractacus had gone out to search for eggs with her. She couldn't help the fact that she liked him, even with his undead who were extremely creepy, and the fact that he had gone with her told her that he at least seemed not to be ignoring her.

She had answered him with a smile, "I thank you for that promise and I will use my magic to help us all but I will do my best to keep you alive...and my other friends of course." She stumbled over her words a little. She had no time to mention that she had managed to defend herself against the dark lord on their last meeting successfully, more or less. She had suffered injuries but she had survived. Her defensive skills were extremely good.

When they got back Alberich engaged Elyria and she smiled and agreed, "Yes there were many eggs this morning. I doubt there will be so many every morning though." She looked up to see Caractacus talking to Kathryn and Ysran up and about when she heard something that sounded like artilery in the distance.

"What was that?" She asked no one in particular as she turned in the direction it came from. "Could the rebellion against the dark lord already be underfoot?" She asked Alberich.

@dereken@Aquanthe

Before getting into too many details with how to handle their situation Ysran mentioned being able to go into town. She liked that idea, and having possible connections would make things easier overall. "We should get going soon, that way we;ll have time to get back to camp before nightfall. I don't like the idea of being outside for that long. Especially when sight is an issue." She was a good fighter, but fighting blind was something that wasn't pleasant for anyone.

At some point during the conversation Caractacus came over to Kathryn to strike up a conversation. Calling her Miss Katheryn? "We can talk yeah, but please don't call em miss. Makes me sound like a maid or something. Or worse, a desk worker..." She followed the socially awkward man to a part of the camp that was more isolated area from the rest of the group. Something was odd. Though Caractacus seemed more nervous them usual. "What's going on? Is someone watching us? IS there a disturbance in your powers that we can't feel?" Kathryn didn't know a lot on magic. For the most part she was able to beat and talk her way out of all of her problems.

Then he started to explain the situation. He was talking about one of their party members coming back the night before covered in blood. Maybe fresh? This made Kathryn uneasy. Kathryn was having trouble placing a name. She had this issue a lot, mostly out of her own denial. "He doesn't seem like a traditional Hunter. Nor does he have any meat here in camp other then fish. That being said that is very odd. And to not say anything makes it worse." Caractacus soon started to apologize for the events that had happened the night before. Mentioning about the lake, and saying that it was still better to have friends and allies then not. "Look, we're good. You and I. Alright? Stuff happens." She looked over to the strange man again. "Now is definitely a good time to have allies. Maybe more then ever. So yes, I could use your help. We need to figure out what happened last night while we were dealing with the lake people and afterwards." She was now nervous again.

They had a more or less safe camp, but if a possible enemy knew where it was and how to find it then there would be problems. "We'll need to talk about this more. But not here. I am not sure who to trust yet. Right now I think you are the only one I can for now. Let's talk more once we get to town alright? That way we can get some space and decide who we can and can't trust with this information. I don't want to find out that everyone here works for the Darklord and get stabbed int he back." She would wait for his response before doing much else.

Before much else could be done, there was an explosion in the distance, a big one. She couldn't even imagine what it was that could have caused it. Part of her didn't want to know. Maybe it was something to do with the raiding party? Or maybe it had nothing to do with their conflict at all. Maybe it was an accident? She would wait for others to respond before making her own choice. She wasn't familiar with the area at all.

Caractacus cocked his head, having missed talks of going to town while out looking for food. "We are going to town? Er, p-perhaps it's best if I stay behind then. I'm sure I wouldn't be welcome, aheh. Especially if I b-brought them." He looked to the pile of murlocs. "Though, if we're together, I suppose I wouldn't n-need them so much. As long as we're quick about it." He delivered the ultimatum as though he were trying to convince himself, and took a moment to think on his options.

Caractacus was shocked from his thoughts by the none too distant sound of artillery. He jumped, spinning to face the source. "Agatha's skull!" He had to get his servants now, whatever that cannon fire was, it meant conflict was far closer and likely on a far larger scale than he was expecting. Caractacus failed to give Kathryn a proper goodbye before breaking down the beach for the corpse pile. He had to work fast. Caractacus slid to a stop, tumbling to his knees to begin the ritual. A mass resurrection would take a lot of energy, but he had no time for the easy way. Switching between muttered swears and oaths, and harried prayers, Caractacus readied the bodies.

After a few minutes of struggle, the bodies were prepared, each one laid separate, with long cuts on their bodies. Caractacus stood, stumbling back into the position, ignoring the miasma of death, and the stench of murloc blood. With his staff planted in the usual position, he chanted as quickly as he could. He held his eyes closed tight, separating himself from the world as the spell took effect. A wave of fatigue washed over Caractacus, and the air around him seemed to darken as sepulchral energy flowed from the necromancer to the bodies. The dead murlocs started to jerk and shake, and one by one, their skeletons burst from the very flesh of the monsters, clambering and scratching out of the long cuts left in the bodies.

"To me...to me..." Caractacus ordered the skeletons while panting for breath. As stoic as any other undead, the skeletons complied without hesitation, surrounding the necromancer. Caractacus fell to a knee, catching his breath. He shook his head, and pulled himself up against one of his servants. "Th-there. I am ready."

Elyria saw the smoke and the visions of war. Kathryn had left camp and she was uncertain where everyone was going or when they would be back. Her heart racing she saw Caractacus run to prepare the dead and bring them to life. She had to admit bringing back the dead was creepy but she liked the man behind the army of the dead and she ran over to him as she looked at the battlefield in the distance.

"Caractacus? Where is everyone going and what do we do now?" She was only standing a foot or so from him and she jumped a little closer when the next blast exploded.

Elyria ran back to the camp and stood in the middle of it. Chanting loudly she cast a solid but clear dome around the camp in case there were artillery that were to make it's way over to the camp. Breathing hard as the noise got louder and seemingly closer she readministered the original protection spell.

"What else can I do to help?" She wondered out loud. She turned and saw the servants of Caractacus and wondered if there was a way to piggy back his magic and strengthen the army he had brought to life.

Walking to Caractacus she looked at his army, "I want to try a spell on your army. Is this okay with you? I want to try and strengthen them by giving them armor of sorts so they can handle more physical damage. Can I try it?" She took his hand in hers and waited for the answer.
@dereken

Explosions. And nearby, too. It sounded like artillery fire. But why out here? Was this Dark Lord out here? Ysran watched as Elyria cast another sort of protection spell, and as Caractacus fell flat on his ass. Ysran would have laughed, but now wasn't the time. "Well, the way I see it, we either wait this out, or investigate. Both really aren't good options. I could send Chuckles out to scout, but they might attack on sight."

He grabbed his equipment from beside the fire. His sword, crossbow and whatever was in his pack. He could always Commune, but that really didn't seem like a good idea at the time, and the Elders don't like having their time wasted. He then heard Elyria say something about some sort of armor spell. He could cast Fishscales on a few of the zombies, but then again, they were already covered in scaled, so it wouldn't have much effect. None of his other spells would really be of any use here. All that was left to do was wait. Or... "We could just run to the next town and try to avoid this all together, or for all we know, they're planning on attacking the city. That explosion might have landed there."

Kathryn got ready for battle, put on the rest of her armor, gathered her weaponry, and checked to make sure her gear was in top shape. The cannon fire made her uneasy though, for most of everything it meant being blasted to bits. There was no surviving it. "We need to investigate it, if it does decide to attack the next town we will be defending with non-combatants in the way. That is something we can not risk in this case." Though there was reason to go to the town, the risks seemed too high.

Having the last of her gear ready, and more or less ready for combat, she started to work her way out. "Being ready in case we can't cut off what ever is causing that noise may be a good thing though. We may need to split up, one group to confront the cannons, the other to head towards the town and prepare for the worst." She wasn't sure what to expect when confronting said cannons, or how well they would face against them. But she would head out with who ever decided to go with her and find out.