With the Gods in high Heaven, and the Council as middlemen, Allaria entered a lull which allowed a mysterious group of men and women to form and begin a takeover. It started as a peaceful one, the group encouraging those of the world to release their faith and put it in people they could see and feel, people they could talk too. As their ranks grew, did their methods turn from peace to violence - ultimately culminating in the heinous act known as the Mayor Drag in Port Jinn. An Apotheoses Leader, Ivan, used his malicious form of Healing to keep the Mayor of Port Jinn alive as he dragged him from the Hall, and out of Port Jinn, blood and guts trailing the way.

From the Eclava, the Drow Apotheoses leader, launched a full scale war on Port Jinn, as it was the last remaining major city or town not under the Apotheoses Iron Fist.

Groups of adventurers set out, leaving from Port Jinn and headed towards Rocoa, in hopes of recruiting there - but it was so havily under the fist of the Apotheoses they could do nothing. Yet, with the help of a traitor in the Apotheoses ranks, named Fananatu, a grup was able to escape a harsh fate - aided by the distraction of one of the Rocoan Three, the Rocoan Chimera.

Fananatu sent a group out to Mallah, which saw them aid in the resurrection of the second of the Three, the Undead Leviathan, in Valgar. This group was to participate in a gathering of Warlords and the like, in an effort to band Allaria together against the Apotheoses. This too, ended in somewhat of a failure.

On another island, a group was contracted to find out the state of the final of the Allarian Three - the Emperor Dragon. However, they were tricked by the Apotheoses and now they have control over the city sized dragon.

The Allarian Three came together at the Summit in Mallah and began a reign of terror, sending everyone scattering. Many died, but some remained to pass on word, or stop it.

Respected Warlord, Szazah has been saved, if a little worse for wear. Now the resistance must recruit more members for the war effort.

Allaria is my roleplay baby, one of the biggest I've done and by far the longest lasting. I have high hopes for this RP, perhaps one day it being featured as a persistent world, but until then, I want you all to enjoy playing here and helping shape the world! It has been through many variations, and may even go through more. I'm a pretty easy going GM and usually try to be prompt with answering questions; however, I currently work on a sort of revolving schedule(next week, I'll be working Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday; 6:30 pm -9 am, accounting for sleep before and after. )

Allaria has hosted more than 50 roleplayers, and more than 70 characters, prior to Guildfall, in all of it's both successful and failed attempts.

Human: Tall, strong, quick. Often wearing light armor, or heavy armor. Intelligent, able to become skilled in many weapons, including swords and bows, as well as all magic. The most compatible for a large selection of skills. The drawback, is they are only average in all skills, which lends to their ability to learn most things all around. Thus, growing in one, means leaving others behind to be picked up later.

Surface Elves: Standing at or around 5'11, they have gold tinted skin, pointed ears, and slightly almond shaped eyes. Generally always with blue to green eyes the Elves are forest dwellers. With intellect beyond that of most other races. Quite commonly in Light armor, if any. Their defenses are small, and they are incapable of learning Dark Arts, mostly.

Drow: Around 5’7”, lean, quick. Mostly wears light armor, for mobility. Fond of the Darker areas; as it reminds them of the underdark. Highly intelligent, Drow are the best spell caster when it comes to the power of a spell. Feared for the power of their spells, though they are often slower in casting than their Surface-bound cousins. They suffer from the same lack of defense, as the Surface elves as well.

Dwarves: Short, and stocky. Wears heavy armor. Excellent night vision, and somewhat exceptional daylight vision. Proficient in navigating mazes, and caves. This race is quite powerful, their stout size allows for their muscles to be bound tighter together, making for harder blows and increased endurance. However, what they have in power and endurance, they lack in speed and agility; as well, many of them do not have an affinity for magic, but make up for it in their ability to build things in half the time it would take another race. There is the extremely rare dwarves mage.

Dragoniods: This race is a rarity in of itself; being picked off by the Minotaur, due to their mutual distrust of each other. Capable of gliding several seconds, but not capable of extended flight. While smart in terms of the environment and battle tactics, they are quite dense in other areas, and lack speed a bit. This is made up by their strength and defense, the latter of which doesn’t hold up to a Dwarf’s. They are proficient in Magic, but not nearly as much as a human,

Beastkin: These have taken the place of the Minotaur race, to allow for more types of creatures. They are strong, and have many of the same basic advantages of animals, as well as losing some. There are many different sects, as some congregated based off what animal they are, and some live in a happy harmony, so to speak. They aren’t very magically inclined, most of their magic is based on self, and not so much as projecting magic. Prominent races include Minotaur, where one is a prominent member of the Apotheoses and Tengu, one of the Warlords, while the rest usually stick to themselves.

Goblin: Goblins are very short creatures, who believe in no God, but hold to the spirituality behind Reincarnation. They believe that when they die, they’ll simply be born as something as based off their deeds in their past life

Gods: These are always NPC, and will only serve to bend the PCs in a certain direction. Unless a person prays to that God, specifically, they won’t see them if they show up. It is not necessary to believe in any God.

Michael: The primary Human God; often appearing in a pristine set of armor.

El’I: The God of the Surface Elves; brother to the merciless God, Lloth. His teachings lend towards the way of good magic and how it affects the world we live in. Elves pray to him for guidance of their magic and protection of their home.

Lloth: The Black Goddess of the Drow. Most respect, fear, and love this Goddess, despite her tendency to be the harshest of the Gods.

Abbathor: The strong God of the Dwarves. Little is known about him, as most records show him constantly hammering away at his anvil; attempting to build a weapon, or material that outstrips anything before it. Dwarves have said that his blessings come in the form of better buildings and strength, something they value greatly.

Ouroboros: The God of the Dragonoids, and several snake-lizard-Dragon races in the world of Allaria. His true form is rarely seen, as it is often the form of the person he is appearing before. His mind state is psychotic at best.

Anomandaris: This is the God of the Beastkin, often appearing as a Minotaur or a Lion. He resides with the rest of the Gods, and often has a very war-like attitude when it comes to the events of those below.

Reincarnation: This would be the primary ‘God’ of the Godless race, the Goblins. They don’t believe in Gods, but to be represented, they were allowed to send one representative to reside with the rest. It often appears as a rotating set, from butterfly, to cat, to human, to butterfly.

From the corruptible minds of scheming liaisons, the Council has become obsolete and the God’s have given up on those who once prayed to them nightly. Misconstrued words from the Council have fallen onto the ears of those who faithfully follow their Councilmen’s orders without question, leading to the hectic disposition of the world now. And this, this world that has fallen from grace, is the world you’ve been giving to shape and mold in the name of good. But, of course, you have no real reason to change the world; nothing was taken from you, not in the least. Or was it, where has your freedom went, when the place you called home has began to take in slaves? Began praying, not to the God’s above, but to the God’s who claim themselves a more accessible Council? At first, things were alright, a false trust built in people who had halted the messages from being truly passed along. And now, with their grasp steady around the necks of those who foolishly danced to their tune, once colorful words became as black as night and freedoms were stripped wherever they went.

You are the final frontier, be it trapped in one of these slowly rotting towns, or in a place where the dark grasp has not reached and belief in the True Council and God’s have remained true. This adventure takes you on a journey across a land, fighting to return peace to the land and power back to the rightful owners, or even show people that while the Council is a historic front, it is the people that truly make their own decisions. In this, you shall also find yourself, be it your salvation, or what you’ve always wondered about the world and how you fit.

Go forth and save the world.

Reaching the main plot, overreaching as it is, will take several plots and quests to get anywhere; like all questing Rps. This is to account for the large amount of land and the NPCs who all have different information and needs. It also helps to develop the plot and effect how people(The NPCs and fellow PCs) view you.

I really want this to succeed, so I expect everyone to play their part and play it well. I want everyone to end this with new friends and roleplay partners, as well as a sense of accomplishment.

This is set in Advanced, so I would like Advanced standards. You don’t have to post as much as I do, but I want you all pushing the story. If not, then why even come here?

The participant limit will be down to at most five, however, if entry interest is sufficiently enough to have a team of people on either side, then I’ll come up with a suitable way to get everyone on board.

I also expect differing characters, while they may be of the same race, I don’t want all of them to be mages or warriors straight out of the gate. Make something you can grow into. Detail the change from a simple baker to fame, or infamy. Character Development should be the main point of this RP. Real Personalities, and not generic cookie cutter ones would be superb.

Just because I am the GM, doesn’t mean I need to be the only one to take initiative and push the RP. So, I expect the participants in this RP to move the RP, instead of just reacting to what I write. Have to get somewhere, don’t be afraid to get there; if I want you to change something, I’ll ask, but that probably won’t happen often.

Tech Level: As this is a medieval world, everything will be as it was in that timeline, though ingenious inventions happen all the time. Therefore, there may be shimmers of the first sprouting of clockwork, nothing extremely large and certainly no firearms past crossbows.

Magic and how it works: In ‘An Imagined World’ magic is present everywhere, however, it is unable to manipulated by anyone who isn’t heavily trained in the magics of the universe. Because of this, people manipulate their own magic reserves(Their soul) to cast their magic. This has both consequences and rewards. On the good side, this opens up the world to a non-structured set of magic, by that, I mean, the type of magic is not limited to certain things, but there are still limits(Time/Space Manipulation is out; Reality; and extreme teleportation. Anything else is up to scrutiny, anything seen as overpowered, will be denied). On the bad side, you are casting your own soul when using magic, however, it DOES slowly replenish itself the longer you go without using magic. Healing, is allowed by those who specialize in it, and they are every rare. Most healers have no other skills past healing, as they are often used to in places where battle skills are unneeded. Also, with healing, healing magical wounds are often harder to do by magical means(Soul vs. Soul). It is possible, but it requires a longer period to do.

Magical Limits: I ask that people who choose magic, do so and forego, for the most part, major skills in more physical combat. Like, if you choose to manipulate(Including creating) fire, I would like it if you were not able to fight on par, always, with someone who went the physical route. There is a way to circumvent this, however, and that is using the magic purely on yourself and/or weapon. Say if you were manipulating lightning in a weapon sense; you’d only be able to use it in the form of arrows(If a bow and arrow were your weapon choice), or in conjunction with your fists or sword to give a shock(dependent on the strength of the spell). You get the gist. At the start, your magic may be relatively weak, growing as you progress in the story. Also, each soul has certain things it can do; a fire-related soul, for instance, won’t be able to do anything wildly differing from fire. Magic, as it stands, cannot be used to make a weapon composed completely of fire, doing so would consume a lot of a person’s soul, if not it in its entirety.

Character Type: This differs from race, as it goes more into profession. Not all of you have to be wanderers, nor do all of you have to be specific mages or warriors; add some variety, throw in some everyday folk.

Skills: Yes, there will be skill castes in this RP. Ranging from most things your mind can think of. Being an advanced RP, I would expect that you would come in with something sensible - A Major and a Minor.

Created Race(s): Not without very, very good reason. Most of the time, there won’t be a good reason.

Starting Level: At the beginning, I want everyone to start as novices/beginneers/noobs, in their chosen fields(See: Class/Skills), so as the story progresses the characters can develop, instead of starting off outright good at what they do. A baker/cook would cook for the group, during downtimes, and eventually get better at it, after cooking not so good meals.

Spirit Animals: These characters are physical, or metaphysical, representations of your spirit and what it represents. They act as spiritual guides, and can sometimes be used by god’s to convey thoughts to their spirit’s vessel. The closer a person is to their animal, the stronger his/her magic will become. At the beginning, most are only able to get their animal in the form of a hazy imprint; as time progress it’s ghostly presences comes about, and finally a physical specimen. Non-magical people have animals as well. Using a lot of magic causes the animal, if manifested, to slowly deplete based on how much magic you spent. Completely losing it, causes it to revert back into your body and be unable to summon(Cutting off your magic) the animal until sufficiently recovered.

Messenger Magic/Magic of the Messanger: This is a peculiar magic type, as it is very specific. It allows long range communication between messengers, and even between messenger and God(a very rare occurrence, almost always one way). They are identified by their once famous status of body ranging tattoos, head to toe. These are rare, as the Apotheoses member, Eclava, was able to construct a type of tower that was able to magically intercept messages being sent without proper approval. Messengers were also rounded up and killed, if not ‘impressed’ into the Apotheoses ranks.

Name: Polaris
Size(Height/Weight): Six feet on all four paws, twelve on the back two. 2,950 pounds.
Area: Mostly found along the coast, where the forest is dense and there is access to the oceans.
Description: The Polaris Bear, commonly referred to as Polaris, is a fairly hard to find creature. Only an estimated thirty exist. They almost all have burnt orange fur, though one has been known to have black fur with a burnt orange underside. Their fur, unlike the common bear fur, is more akin to a German Sheppard’s. Their paws are between a foot, and sixteen inches long, and half as wide. Tough skin makes them harder to kill, as well.

Due to genetic mutation, their blood has altered their claws, which are a fearsome three to four inches long, into a metallic form - making them sharper than before. Their blood also has the peculiar property which makes them infertile, but also able to be reborn. If their blood is spilled, and not burned or otherwise disposed off, they can spawn up to two more Polaris Bears.

They are aggressive hunters, even going so far as attacking people if they stumble across them. Their normal food includes large elk, and oddly, great white sharks. They are wildly territorial, but have no loyalty to others of their kind, more often than not just staying out of each other’s way. It has only been reported once that two Polaris bears inhabited the same area.

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Name: FleshBeast
Size(Height/Weight): Varied size, depending on what the flesh beast resembles.
Area: Commonly found in Valgar, city of the Undead, though at least one is known to work for the Apotheoses.
Description: Like all of the species inhabiting Valgar, the Fleshbeast is a reanimated deceased creature. They have no real magic, though some do have magical abilities, with the most known being able to shape shift.

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Name: Undead Leviathan
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Area: Formerly off the coast of Valgar, current whereabouts are unknown to the general populace.
Description: The Undead Leviathan, also known as One of the Allarian Three, is one of the legendary creatures of Allarian History. It forms a trio with the Roccaon Chimera, and the Emperor Dragon. It is made now of bones magically mended together and dilapidated flesh stitched to it. It is an omnivore. It was killed by a legendary fisherman, named Bolit Heger and his crew, all of whom died within weeks of returning to shore. When Valgar was created some years later by a infamous Necromancer, he inadvertently drew the bones of the Leviathan to the coast of Valgar, where it remained in rest until recently.

Name:
Size(Height/Weight): Average size of a goldfish
Area: Freshwater rivers of Allaria, very populace, especially in the Southern parts of the country.
Description: These tiny carnivorous fish are the bane of many river fishermen, though they have developed some form of defense against them. They like to eat meat and often will settle for the bait fishermen use. While extremely common, many small villages use them as badges of honor - particularly, having proof of being in the water with them.

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Human: Tall, strong, quick. Often wearing light armor, or heavy armor. Intelligent, able to become skilled in many weapons, including swords and bows, as well as all magic. The most compatible for a large selection of skills. The drawback, is they are only average in all skills, which lends to their ability to learn most things all around. Thus, growing in one, means leaving others behind to be picked up later.

Surface Elves: Standing at or around 5'11, they have gold tinted skin, pointed ears, and slightly almond shaped eyes. Generally always with blue to green eyes the Elves are forest dwellers. With intellect beyond that of most other races. Quite commonly in Light armor, if any. Their defenses are small, and they are incapable of learning Dark Arts, mostly.

Drow: Around 5’7”, lean, quick. Mostly wears light armor, for mobility. Fond of the Darker areas; as it reminds them of the underdark. Highly intelligent, Drow are the best spell caster when it comes to the power of a spell. Feared for the power of their spells, though they are often slower in casting than their Surface-bound cousins. They suffer from the same lack of defense, as the Surface elves as well.

Dwarves: Short, and stocky. Wears heavy armor. Excellent night vision, and somewhat exceptional daylight vision. Proficient in navigating mazes, and caves. This race is quite powerful, their stout size allows for their muscles to be bound tighter together, making for harder blows and increased endurance. However, what they have in power and endurance, they lack in speed and agility; as well, many of them do not have an affinity for magic, but make up for it in their ability to build things in half the time it would take another race. There is the extremely rare dwarves mage.

Dragoniods: This race is a rarity in of itself; being picked off by the Minotaur, due to their mutual distrust of each other. Capable of gliding several seconds, but not capable of extended flight. While smart in terms of the environment and battle tactics, they are quite dense in other areas, and lack speed a bit. This is made up by their strength and defense, the latter of which doesn’t hold up to a Dwarf’s. They are proficient in Magic, but not nearly as much as a human,

Beastkin: These have taken the place of the Minotaur race, to allow for more types of creatures. They are strong, and have many of the same basic advantages of animals, as well as losing some. There are many different sects, as some congregated based off what animal they are, and some live in a happy harmony, so to speak. They aren’t very magically inclined, most of their magic is based on self, and not so much as projecting magic. Prominent races include Minotaur, where one is a prominent member of the Apotheoses and Tengu, one of the Warlords, while the rest usually stick to themselves.

Goblin: Goblins are very short creatures, who believe in no God, but hold to the spirituality behind Reincarnation. They believe that when they die, they’ll simply be born as something as based off their deeds in their past life

Gods: These are always NPC, and will only serve to bend the PCs in a certain direction. Unless a person prays to that God, specifically, they won’t see them if they show up. It is not necessary to believe in any God.

Michael: The primary Human God; often appearing in a pristine set of armor.

El’I: The God of the Surface Elves; brother to the merciless God, Lloth. His teachings lend towards the way of good magic and how it affects the world we live in. Elves pray to him for guidance of their magic and protection of their home.

Lloth: The Black Goddess of the Drow. Most respect, fear, and love this Goddess, despite her tendency to be the harshest of the Gods.

Abbathor: The strong God of the Dwarves. Little is known about him, as most records show him constantly hammering away at his anvil; attempting to build a weapon, or material that outstrips anything before it. Dwarves have said that his blessings come in the form of better buildings and strength, something they value greatly.

Ouroboros: The God of the Dragonoids, and several snake-lizard-Dragon races in the world of Allaria. His true form is rarely seen, as it is often the form of the person he is appearing before. His mind state is psychotic at best.

Anomandaris: This is the God of the Beastkin, often appearing as a Minotaur or a Lion. He resides with the rest of the Gods, and often has a very war-like attitude when it comes to the events of those below.

Reincarnation: This would be the primary ‘God’ of the Godless race, the Goblins. They don’t believe in Gods, but to be represented, they were allowed to send one representative to reside with the rest. It often appears as a rotating set, from butterfly, to cat, to human, to butterfly.

Character Sheet

Name:

Age:

Race: Human, Minotaur, something different?

Class: Major and Minor

Major: This is the class you were before you entered the Resistance. Not everyone was a solider in their past life, not everyone extensively studied magic. Some, however, were.

Minor: This is your new class in the Resistance, which, perhaps, is not different from your former class.

God:

Appearance: Description and/or Picture

Personality:

Spirit Animal: A animal/creature representation of your spirit, a spiritual guide if you will. This allows for, rare, communication with your chosen God, if any.

Equipment:

Skills: Up to two. A major, and a minor.

Magic:

Strength:

Weakness: Nothing that can’t be exploited, somewhat, readily. Like a rare flower in the middle of a desert that is, commonly, hidden beneath an impossibly cold ocean and is only available for five minutes every ten thousand years.

Post Color: Mainly for me, but if you wanna use them for dialogue posts, you can.

History:

Post Sample: A previous or new post. Can be waived if I know what you can do.

If there's one thing to say about Kalam, it's that he's an optimistic man. He always tried tries to find the good in every outcome, even if it's a stretch. He believes wholeheartedly that a person decides their own happiness, and so he chooses to remain happy. He is also something of a generous man, believing that he should spread whatever happiness he can in a world so full of sorrow and dread. And along with his optimism, Kalam is one with both a dark and healthy sense of humour both, knowing well the dark corners of his mind and tapping into it as an ironic method to brush it away, to make light of the dark thoughts that swim in his mind and threaten, in some small way, the happiness that he works so hard for.

He is also a man that is, when the time calls for it, incredibly self-controlled. He holds himself to a high standard, higher than many others hold him to, and some see this as stuck up or that he is in some way better than them. Kalam holds to no such thing, he believes a man is as great as he makes himself to be and so, like happiness, he tries to make himself great in what little corner of the world he's in.

Of course, along with these qualities, he has just as many flaws, or even a bit more. Despite his self control, he's a man that struggles with rage issues. Although not exactly quick to anger, when he does become angry, it's severe and usually resultes in him lashing out in some way, and takes ages for him to cool down. Not something he is fond of talking about. He is also afraid of facing his faults and would rather smother them under his great outlook towards life than confront them and deal with them head on. Faults that include his unhealthy addiction to alcohol, somewhat slight paranoia, and his obsessive nature to perfect everything including himself.

Kalam was born as the third and only surviving child to an incredibly poor family in Menover. His days as a youth were filled with adventures through the city slums, the wild adventures of street urchins with their own dangers in the form of belligerent adults and vicious street bullies, the former of which Kalam quickly learned to stay away from but the latter was a problem he could never quite escape. That is until he joined them. As a youth Kalam was big, big enough to get the notice of the local thug and with the promise of wealth and a chance to help his family, Kalam joined them. There were few opportunities otherwise for one in his position; and as he terrorized children, even some of the adults, he found himself beginning to like this newfound power. Thus, gone were the days where he would run away from bakers threatening him with a cleaver, the butcher throwing knives in his direction, the shady man on the corner of the alley trying to convince him to follow.

Instead, bread was given to him as a favour, money was thrown at his feet just by walking into a store, and whoever didn't pay up would find themselves tottering on Death's doorway, compliments of his fist. For the first few years, Kalam was given a taste of a great life. His family finally managed to move out of the slums and into a district that was, although still poor, deeper in the heart of the city and far removed from the slums and his father finally found a job as a butcher and worked towards bettering their lives.

As he rose through the ranks, however, many became jealous of Kalam's sudden favour. The way he strut around like everything was his, the way he could make the older thugs give him respect and treat him like one of their own. It rubbed them the wrong way. And so they decided to pull him down a few pegs. Teach him a lesson. He had to climb the ladder the old-fashioned way.

Alas, the next morning Kalam woke to his mother screaming and upon entering their room had found his father killed. Throat slit wide open, trachea and esophagus lacerated with a clear view of the vertebra beneath. Horror stricken and distraught, Kalam went on a rampage throuhgout the slums to find who had killed his father only to learn it was the local thug's boy who had done it. Kalam knew to do anything to him would be suicide and so he gave up and resorted, instead, to drinking.

Several months thereafter, a friend of his told him a safe way to get back at his father's killer: joining the city guard. Nobody would question a guard taking down a local thug, no one would question the guard's honour if he hapened to kill the boy. It was a thought, and it mulled within his mind for several days until he went and signed up for the city guard.

They knew him, of course, and at first laughed him off until the Captain of the guards told him he'd give him a shot. But he'd be trained harder and dealt with harsher than anyone with him. He agreed. And so, he joined the recruits and went through the usual training with a special twist specifically for him. Every morning he would jog around half the city, in full armour, and do the other half just as the sun set.

The first few weeks he could barely do it without passing out a quarter of the way through, by the end of six months however, he was able to finish most of it without throwing up. By the year, he was jogging with only a little difficulty, and by the second year, it had become almost second nature. His body had become rougher, stronger, whatever fat he had been carrying had disappeared replaced with lean muscle. He was officiated six months later as a city guard and thus his hunt began. He started by rooting out the smaller thugs, gaining information on his target, learning whatever he could to indict the man who killed his father. Several months of this and he was finally able to convince the Captain of a massive raid in the slums. It was a massive success. The thugs scattered as the guards began breaking down doors, tearing down shops, and razing several houses to the ground. And Kalam found his target kneeling, begging for his life as he plunged his sword into him.

The raid caused massive backlash from the populace which eventually reached the ears of the nobility. Even though they had wiped out the thugs, many civilians were killed and Kalam was their fall-guy. Seeing an opportunity in this, he quit from his service as a guard, talked his way out of being goaled, and decided to sell his skills to the rebellion as they arrived in the city, freely advertising himself and his capabilities in the way he took down the thugs within the city.

The horses' hooves drummed against the dirt road as a pair of riders rode south at a canter, their cloaks billowing behind them while thunder threatened overhead as they crested a hill, the man in the lead pulling on the reigns until they came to a stop. Ahead of them, by several klicks they could see the evergreen treeline that marked the valley floor of the mountain ranges. The man, Captain Hoardy, had been experiencing a loss of men of late and had sent a squad to scout the area several days back with yet any of them to bring back word. Normally he wouldn't get involved, these areas were known for their banditry and it was common for the harsher men of mercenary bands to leave their brothers behind to join the bandits. He had suspected as such and would have sent another squad after them, were it not for reports of the Rebellion creeping in these parts.

Thus, he had little choice in the matter.

The other man, Sergeant Crapper, reigned up next to him and spit on the ground. A bald, but otherwise handsome fellow. "I think we should've brought more men, Captain. An entire squad goes missing and we're the only responders?"

"Aye. We're not to engage, unless we absolutely have to and even then, far easier for the two of us to escape than a squad."

"It don't smell right to me."

"Nothing smells right to you, Sergeant."

Sergeant Crapper grunted and mumbled a few curses under his breath.

Hoardy spurred his horse forward down the slope into a canter following the dirt track until they reached the forest, reigning in to a trot as they went inside and eventually to a walk. It wasn't long after that they found a clearing and decided it'd be best to continue on foot. After tying their horses, Sergeant Crapper began following a track that led towards a shallow stream that cut across a second clearing where they found evidence of a broken camp and a severed hand.

Half an hour later they came across the bodies of the missing squad. Their corpses arranged in a circle as though they were fighting a single target. Beyond the bodies by some distance a man was sitting on a tree stump sharpening his sword.

He looked up without stopping, a smile playing at his lips. "Took you long enough. And here I thought you'd never show up."

Captain Hoardy gripped his sword. "Shit. Kalam."

The dark skinned man grinned as he stood and grabbed his shield. "I have to admit, Hoardy. Never thought I'd be the one to kill you."

Hoardy closed his eyes for a moment then turned back to the Sergeant. "Crapper, go back to the city. Tell them I've been slain. Tell them it was the rebels."

"Sir?"

"No questions, Sergeant. Just do it. That's an order."

Sergeant Crapper saluted and walked back.

Once he was out of sight, Hoardy turned to the bodies and walked towards them. "Good men these. Loyal. Died honourably."

"As honourable as any man can."

"I suspect you took their drinks off them?"

Kalam chuckled and tossed him a clay cup, producing a bottle of a particularly strong brand of brandy and poured them some.

"Here's to dying honourably," Hoardy said.

"It's all we strive for, Captain."

The both downed their cups in one gulp.

Captain Hoardy then unsheathed his sword and approached. "Let's get this over with, then."

"Aye, let's."