bloonewb

Magic RP (Open to new players)

The carriage careened through the streets, in a mess of splinters and thatching. Ardasa quickly whispered a prayer to Scen when the carriage drifted wide and missed the wall by mere hands. The back end of it was on fire, and massive holes had been gouged from it by equally massive arrows. In the background, somewhere far away, the sounds of explosions rang out through the city streets. It was magic, it must be.
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The court stood silent. Rughoi stared at the messenger, with an expression that would strike fear into any kobold. The messenger shifted about on his feet, and continued.

"Yes, Your Might. A carriage was spotted approaching the talon pass, claiming to house the empress."

"And you didn't let her in?" Rughoi growled, his voice barely audible. The messenger gulped.

"We thought it best that it go through you first," he said.

"Ready my worg. Tell the good warriors at the pass that should I find their judgement false, they will all suffer a humiliating demotion." The messenger turned to leave, but Rughoi stopped him. "Wait. No, I'll have it this way. If their judgement is false, I will turn them over to Ardasa, and she will decide what is to be done with the guardsmen that chose not to admit her." The messenger nodded, and ran off to complete the tasks given.

Dark Ocean Piracy

Hey, if there's still room here, is it alright if I join in?

Magic RP (Open to new players)

"Protect Her Mercy!" shouted a guard, leaping back from the arrow's strike. A second one followed the first, landing on his chest. The strange fire ate through the lamellar, as well as his natural scales, in a matter of seconds. He clawed at his chest and screamed, his own claws digging deep and red gouges from the wound.

More arrows quickly followed, feathering another guard. Ardasa threw herself to the floor of the carriage, and the driver cracked his whip upon the great beasts. They had hardly moved before one of the worgs toppled over, having been pierced twice. The driver drew his sword and cut the reins, pushing the other forward. They sped away, as another crashed through the thatched window, spraying straw and wood splinters into the carriage. Ardasa spit some from her mouth in disgust.

Dracons emerged from the shadows of the buildings. Some wore armor, hammered with the insignia of the state and armed with cruel swords. Others were clad in dark cloth, nocking arrows into strings as long as she is tall. Were they Hekaga soldiers? Did they serve the prince? The carriage stumbled along, under the power of only one worg. It rattled through dim alleyways, occasionally hit by an arrow with such force that it caused the entire box to shake, and approached the city walls, as well as its open gate.

Magic RP (Open to new players)

Ardasa wasn't surprised by the servant's comment. She had heard it too many times in this city, most often from Ternoc himself. She didn't want to live in fear like these people did, expecting at any moment for a cold-blooded killer to leap from the shadows and put her to death. Yet, these people knew the city better than she, and it was not her place to tell them how their city is, or even ought to be. "Thank you, I'll keep that in mind," she said, removing the crown with a sigh. Carefully, she replaced it beside its counterpart, and closed the box. "Now, I suppose I'd best be off now."

Ardasa found her carriage outside the palace, flanked by kobold guards. Had they better armor, they would have been almost intimidating. As she approached, one opened the carriage door while the rest knelt. "Uhh . . . arise, warriors. No need for this ceremony," she said. The carriage driver idly tossed a slab of meat to the worgs, as she made herself comfortable inside. Well, this was it. "We'd best be going now. I hear stories about the crime in this city." The driver nodded, and set his whip upon the worgs, bringing the carriage into a jolting start as it made its way towards the city gates.

Magic RP (Open to new players)

I'm beginning to suspect someone who is not me has access to my RPG account.

Magic RP (Open to new players)

"How kind of him," Ardasa said. Curiosity struck her, as she accepted the box from the hands of the dracon. She grasped the smaller crown and, with unsteady hands, placed it upon her own head. "How does it look?" she asked the messenger. She had thought that there were mirrors lining every part of the palace. It seems, that by some stroke of poor luck, the exception just so happened to be where she found herself. "I don't know, it just seems so fancy. It's a bit . . . much. Maybe you don't understand. You must have grown up in this city of colors and riches, oh how lucky you are. This is just the way your life is, isn't it? Once you see miracles up every tree and along every path, they just lose their magic." She stopped her rambling, only to notice that the dracon has not had the opportunity to speak at all. "Oh! Silly me, you'll just have to bear it a little longer. I do this sometimes. Well? Does the crown fit right?"

Magic RP (Open to new players)

Ardasa, without any ceremony, plopped herself upon the bed and sank into it. This was not the mat she kept in the palace at home, but a mattress, stuffed with the feathers of birds. Words swam through her head, arranging in the most nonsensical of ways before fading into the ground mush that is her thoughts. The crown, the words, the legends lulled her into a fitful sleep.

She dreamed a wild dream in the night. Arjun charging that impossible tower, as arrows rained down on him from above. When his sword struck the stone, it gave before him, sending the entire stoneworks tumbling down. Blood spilled out, and the scream of a woman rang out as blue cracks of magic danced along the air. Lightning struck the ground, shattering it open and revealing the world below. A world of fire and death, and Arjun backed up. But he was stopped, just before he could leap out from the opening circle of doom. A claw, a dracon claw, reached out and grabbed Arjun, flinging him back. Nergamesh. He laughed, as the kobold fell into the flames. Then, Nergamesh jumped, far into the clouds, beyond the very sun itself, up to where nobody can know. The clouds grew heavy, and rains carved into the ground like knives and shovels.

Ardasa was jolted awake by the morning. The sun, it danced painfully in her eyes. She rose and rubbed them with a groan, pulling her robes over herself and sneezing. When she left her room, she found herself face to face with a kobold. A Xigyll legionnaire, by the looks of his armor. He kneeled, and spoke. "The good commander Rebat has chosen to embark for home, feeling his duty here to be done. He has left myself and those under my command to escort Your Mercy home, if it so pleases you." Ardasa nodded numbly, and he rushed off, presumably to repeat the order to his troops. Where was Ternoc? Perhaps it was best that she give him a proper farewell. The dinner last night was not the most spirited, and she wanted to make amends before she returned home. Less importantly, she was curious about the crown she was promised.

Magic RP (Open to new players)

Ardasa quieted. This was not a man who wanted to socialize. Was Xigyll's reputation so horrible, that even its allies cannot hide their revulsion? Was it Ternoc's blindness that keeps him critical and distant, or her own? The soup was thick and creamy, the lamb fat and hearty, but she was unsatisfied.

The night, inevitably, wound down. The sunset sky changed from its vibrant pinks and golds to a deep purple, which was eventually swallowed by the merry light of the burning torches. She doesn't think she has said a word since Ternoc's earlier rebuke. She was trapped in her own mind, thinking back to the two stories, playing them in her mind again and again. How could both legends be true, while completely opposing each other? She lived her entire life taking Aunt Sasak's word as it was said, but was the old storyteller lying, misinformed, or does the fault lie in the dracon scribes?

"It seems to be getting late. I intend to return to Xigyll come the morning. I'll call it a triumph of good spirit over evil, if you would agree. We both need a triumph, I think, tonight of all nights. Would you be so kind as to show me to my sleeping quarters tonight?" Ardasa said, hopping off of her chair. The ground seemed further away than she remembered it.

Magic RP (Open to new players)

Ardasa couldn't help but laugh upon hearing Ternoc's comment. "Really, Your Majesty, you speak as if you had never grown up with stories! You, in your youth, must have had your share of favorite larger-than-life heroes, who you longed in your heart to be, despite your head knowing that their feats were impossible. We the kobolds of the north adore our heroic legends, and have more of them than perhaps we have tribespeople alive now."

When her laugh subsided, she continued. "My memory is not as good as that of my aunt Sasak. She was the wise woman of our tribe, and has perhaps all the traditional tales of our people. How she can keep them all in her head is a mystery to me. Yet, even her great mind was not so perfect. I could swear the king's guard in Arjun's tale gets larger with every telling!" She speared a bit of the food with her fork and placed it in her mouth. "This is truly good, you must teach me how it's made sometime. Rughoi had to teach me how to use this tool, he having grown up with such things. It were silly to me when I was still a child, but I think I'm growing fond of the . . . fork?"

Ardasa took another drink of water, and continued. "Where was I? Right. Upon discovering the old king was dead, his son swore vengeance against Arjun. He brought his engineers together, and they built a tower as tall as the sky and as wide as the depths of the earth to repel the kobold tribe. Arjun attacked the tower many times, but was thrown back without fail. As he sat in the grass and formed his next strategy, his eye caught the most beautiful female he and anyone had laid eyes upon, bathing in the nearby river. Her name was Deborah the Stonecutter, and she was the greatest mage the surface kobolds know of. Other stories tell of even greater tunneling kobolds, but they are so far removed from us now we would never know if those stories are at all founded. My grandfather claimed to have found the very location where their eyes met the other. The neighboring tribe has claimed the same thing, but in a different location entirely. Wars have been fought over where the true location lie."

"Her love for Arjun, and for the tribe, were great, and she saw the tower as halting the progress of her subjects as empress and consort to Arjun. This is where the tale dips ever more into metaphor than it already is. Aunt Sasak tried explaining the philosophical significance behind the story's characters and objects, but I could not wrap my head around it. Deborah somehow attuned to the very stones making up the tower, either by a pact with a dragon, a demon lord, or even a wish granted from a god. As she was spiritually connected to the stones, she drew a blade and killed herself. The stones themselves were made weak by her death, and the tower collapsed, burying the army with it. Where Deborah's corpse lay sprouted a tree, which quickly bore fruit. Trees of the sort are still called Deborah trees by my people, and its fruit grows only a day for each year. It is the sweetest thing you could ever taste, and is said to have the ability to cure diseases, patch wounds, and dispel sadness."

"Arjun, grief stricken, flung himself from the highest cliff of his empire, and the tribe, leaderless, scattered, becoming the Invincibles, the Unreachables, and the Deathless tribes, all members legendary in their own right. From them are born all the kobolds and kobold tribes of the entire north, including myself, as the tales say. Arjun's corpse also birthed a tree, which we call bravery trees, and its fruit may only be consumed by the most valiant of warriors. Consuming one gives the chief visions that offer supernatural wisdom from the gods. My father, after eating one, changed his demeanor entirely, from a hotheaded warrior to an even-handed and pragmatic leader of our tribe."

Magic RP (Open to new players)

"Perhaps dracons mean a different thing when they say empire," Ardasa said, taking the cup and drinking from it. "This is a story that every kobold learns from the moment they are born." She set the cup down and got herself comfortable on the chair. "So, it's not a short tale, but I'll see if I can condense it to one meal's time." Crossing, her legs and clasping her hands together, she began. "So, it all started with a leader of kobolds, who crossed over from the home continent through a tunnel under the sea . . ."

". . . His name was Arjun, chief of a grand tribe of our tunneling cousins. In his dreams, he heard the voice of Scen calling him to the surface, and with his pick, he hammered a tunnel straight up so wide that it became a cave on the surface. We cannot seem to find it anymore, sadly, but I have no doubt that it must exist somewhere. He led his tribe to the surface, to the blessed home that the gods had found for us. That would be this continent, of course."

"Yet all was not well. There already were peoples living here, who were taller, stronger, and far more magical than we the kobolds were. It is said that a great king of these people dishonored Arjun, speaking to him as if master to slave. In his anger, Arjun strangled the king with his hands, as well as his entire guard. There, he declared himself an emperor, making himself greater than all kings in the world, and thus may never be subject to one."