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Tournament of Champions! (The game has begun)
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I think you should give more general information about the places and the world for slow people like me. When I write Tiamat's story, I always try to figure out what kind of environment the surrounding world has? Are there humans only, or elves as well? These kinds of small questions. )
Then I continue with Leandra in the tournament. Feel free to do what you want with Maern @TheCenterOfTheUniverse but if you would freely roam the seas I would like you to contact me on private chat as there are som limitations within the sea.
@TenebrisNemo I will remember to notify you about all minor stuff when we get to Crastine. Crastine is by the way part of an origin story for one of my planeswalkers so I know more about that place then I knew about Legorna before the tournament.
Humans are the main race mostly because of a specific "kingdom/empire" that I will mention later.
There exists goblins in the world mostly to the west in the mountains. You will however not se many or any of them as they are hiding from humans. I might go more into that.
Elves exists in minor numbers mostly in the south (around dragon's blue river).
There did exist a society of elves further north but they where moved away.
Dragons exists. There are in general three categories of dragons. Blue small dragons (could also be considered drakes). These live almost everywhere where there are no cities. Mostly harmless to larger groups of people.
The second class are the "red dragons." These are not necessarily red but they pretty general dragons, you know 4/4s and 5/5s.
The last dragon class are the "Great dragons" asd they are called by the general population. The gods call these "Akon Caerakar" which means something like great flying beast of darkness or Abyssal winged monster. These are few but very powerful. The most powerful of these could even rival some of the gods.
Not to say that these are all enemies of the gods. A very few are servants or pets to the gods.
There are no angels here except angel-like gods.
There are some demons but they are rather insignificant compared to the dragons.
I don't even know if there are any dwarves. If so they are way better at hiding than the goblins.
I feel that there is something which i have forgotten. I'll have to think more about it.
"Your balance is wrong Tiamat, you have to move with your weapon as a part of it and it as a part of you. If you are forcing your weapons movements you will end up with bad balance and difficult control."
Tiamat was tired from the training. Haide had used her unbalance against her. But she had become better as now she rarely fell and she could easier move out of her attack. Still not good enough.
Someone was applauding behind her. Tiamat looked back and saw Nathan standing there with her letter in his hand. "I think our training is over for today" Haide said as she began to change clothes. "Thank you very much for today's training." Tiamat bowed. "You don't have to thank me every time we train. By the way you have someone waiting for you. Go before he gets bored and fills the whole place with his butterfly illusions." Haide said with her usual smile.
Tiamat walked to Nathan who stood in the opening to the training grounds.
"I am sorry for your house mr Nathan." She said with shame.
Nathan gave Tiamat a little pat on the head. "You don't have to worry about my house. Are you hungry? I know a good place at the riverside."
They sat down at a food place called "Legorna's heat and sweet". There where many kinds of smells in the air. There were fish and beef and chicken. Tiamat could also see wine made by the local grapes, apples and most fruits. "Don't worry about the price, I pay for it." Nathan said as he prepared his dish with salmon and wine made from passion fruit. Tiamat was a little confused but she find something that she interested in.
As they sat down together Nathan started to speak.
"You don't have to worry about the furniture or the doors. I assume that you saw those paintings in the bedroom." Tiamat nodded. "Those are paintings of my father. Anthony von Moxartine, he was a wizard as I am and he was a star the local theatre. He loved his job and he played in many different shows. There was one in particular he loved more than any of the others. It was called "The homeless beauty and the wizard."
"Your father was a great performer I assume" Tiamat said.
"People say that he was the greatest thing that had ever happened to the theater and Legorna. Legorna was in love with him and he was so in love with the theater that only my mother could win the other part of his heart. She played the homeless beauty in his show." Nathan said with a happy but a little sad smile.
"Where are your parents now." Tiamat asked expecting a bad response.
"Oh, well they are gone. They died sixteen years ago when..."
A bell started to ring in the tower. Nathan looked away with a minor confused facial expression before he continued to speak "As I said they..."
Now a larger bell joined the ringing in the tower. Nathan stopped speaking as fear started to fill his expression. He looked as he was hoping that the bells would stop.
They did not stop.
"I need to go!" Nathan said with dread in his face as he began to run towards the federation building.
He was sitting on the bed in his room. Kara kept thinking. "It has been almost a week now since they put me here."
Then the door to the room opened and a middle aged woman came in.
"So this is the mage with the unstable powers?" she asked as she sat down beside Kara. The watchman answer with a clear "Yes lady Bristana."
Bristana took a good look at Kara and then let her hands touch of the bracelets.
"Do you know why you have this powers and how you got them? I have been told that you cannot control them so I wonder if you maybe want to have them taken from you. I believe that you understand that we can't have someone so powerful as you wander around the town with so unstable powers. The woman said in a stressed and also comforting voice. She seemed to care very much for Legorna but also for Kara somehow.
"I don't believe that we can help you control these powers of yours so I want to you to know that we may be able to "burn" away the source from within you if there is such a source. If neither of these are possible we need to send you home." She said with her hand holding each other as she looked at Kara
We have sent for a clergyman of the Crastinian cathedral that may know how to help you. He should be here in two days so I want you to be prepared for bad news.
* A bell started to ring outside.
Kara was sitting there thinking what to answer this strange woman who also was amongst the other hosts during the games.
Bristana looked at Kara as she put her hand on his. A second larger bell tolled.
The woman gave an expression of fear before she jumped up from her chair and began to go out of the room with haste. The watchman was now suddenly very nervous.
"What is going on?" Kara thought.
Leandra was walking towards the library. Maybe she could find something there regarding this "goddess" she had dreamed about. When she came into the library she asked one of the young scholars if there were any books about their gods and books about musical rituals and healings.
The scholar showed her to a shelf at the upper level of the library. There were some man behind the shelves reading through a couple of old books. The scholar took out two books, "Legornia's theater shows" and "The language of gods - The songs of Lisakdonia."
"Are there no books about the gods?" Leandra asked the scholar.
"I'm sorry madam but the only books about the gods are limited to scholar uses." The scholar said before she returned downstairs.
"You are one of the tournament contestents." said the man at the table.
Leandra looked closer on the man and saw that it was one of the hosts from the games.
"If you want to know about the gods you can't ask the ordinary scholars." The man said as he took a piece of paper and wrote something down.
Leandra walked closer to the man and saw something interesting.
"You are an elf!?" "One of very few in all Legorna. we rather remain hidden in case the wrong people would find out about us." He said as he continued to write the paper.
"So i'm not one of those wrong people?" Leandra asked.
"Of course not. You are not even from this world." He responded as he finished the paper. He stood up and handed the paper to Leandra. "Here you have the basic knowledge you could need to know about the gods. If i'm not mistaken your name is Leandra, the very intelligent woman who created a resurrection serum. My name is Fedron, I'm pleased to meet you." Leandra responded with the same as she shook his hand before Fedron took his book and went downstairs.
As leandra went back to sit at her usual place she saw a particular book that caught her interest. "The Kingdom of Lisakdonia" Lisakdonia? it was written on one of the books she got from the scholar and Nathan had mentioned it during their first visit to the abandoned town. She took the book together with the others.
She stopped as she heard a bell toll from the other side of the town.
A few seconds later another larger bell also tolled.
Mishra was down in the harbor and discussing some business with one of the merchants.
The assembly workers were moving boxes all around Mishra as he moved closer to the house where the meeting would take place. On the other side of the harbor he saw two of R5-T4's goblins running around. They seemed to have not found that head of tears.
"Or maybe it is their own heads they are looking for." Mishra tried to joke to himself. Well he had more important business than to care about.
A bell tolled in the tall tower. The people around him started to look around as if they were expecting something or someone. Mishra appeared at the house and the merchant opened the door. "Ahh finally. mr Mishra. We are very very happy that you could join us today."
A second larger bell tolled.
People now started to kind of hurry home for some reason. The soldiers began to hurry towards the federation building.
The merchant now began to shake. "Ehm can we discuss this another day mr Mishra." He then closed the door before Mishra could even answer.
"What is wrong with these people?
The goblins were also confused over the sudden event.
Beq had just been trying out her new powers on the barren fields before the Trogon forest.
A soldier was riding on a horse as fast as he could from the forest towards Legorna.
Beq did not think too much about it as she continued her training. The sky had become dark though so she started to walk home. "Strange, is it really that late already."
Some bell was ringing in the city followed by a larger one just after.
Beq thought "Does the bells have something to do with that soldier?"
Only a mere 30 seconds or so later she began to hear something that sounded like a galloping horse, no multiple. When she approached the gate to the city she had to throw herself down the ditch as a huge group of soldiers on horses was dashing past her. There must be at least 80 or something soldiers heading towards the Trogon forest in fullest speed. All with their weapons drawned. Beq could recognize some watchmen and others amongst the cavalry too.
When she entered the city she was met by a group of foot soldiers that also was in a hurry.
"By order from the Federation mentor Clementia, all citizens and tournament contestants must remain within the city limits." One of the soldiers said to her as they continued towards the gate where they took position.
She continued down the street when she remembered. "But, Radhe is in Trogon forest!"
Hans is humming on a song while he is plowing the farm at Wardnan's.
Hans looks at Wardnan's daughter who smiles back at him.
Hans continues to plow but with a face red of modesty.
The air was filled with the twitter of the Trogons and all other kinds of birds.
Two soldiers on horseback appeared on the road from the south.
"Good day! A little colder today than usual is it?" Said one of the soldiers as they approached Radhe and the watchman that was watching her. May I ask what this young contester is doing so far out here in Trogon forest?". Said the other soldier.
"The contestant is, ehm. Touching the forest..." said the young watchman.
"I'm making a bond to the network of all trees and plants in the forest through the orbs I craft. Said Radhe as she almost embraced one of the trees.
Neither the watchman nor the soldiers seemed to understand what she said.
Well if everything is going well here then we should continue to Clementia. said the second soldier.
"Clementia? What is your business with her? asked the watchman.
The soldier took out a small bunch of letters from his package.
"Bad news from the village of Astra vika and the Blue river town. They cannot bolster the soldiers that Clementia had asked for because of the outbreak down there."
"that's 5 towns in under a week. She is not going to get it easy from the federation leaders because of this." said the watchman rather disappointed.
"Well good luck with your... tree hugging?" "Orb crafting and network establishing!"
"Uhm, what she said. We must get going now. Clementia rather have bad news than no news at all. Have a good day to both of you. Said the first soldier as they continued towards Legorna. The watchman turned towards Radhe. "How long is that going to take?" He said in an impatient voice.
"It takes as long as it has to. I can't really make it go faster."
"Why are you in such a hurry by the way?" Radhe asked the watchman.
"... I promised my little sister that I would show her how to shoot with a bow today." He said as he scratched the top of his helmet. "What's your sister's name?" "Her name is Harley. She is always so eager to persuade me to teach her new stuff. Radhe could feel how he was smiling underneath his helmet when he said that.
"When I think about it, I haven't gotten to know your name yet." She then added.
"My, my name? It's Howard my lady."
Radhe now stood up "Well, Howard. I am finished here so it's time to go home."
Radhe did not get to see Howard's face but she knew that he was very young. He could not have been more than 16 years old.
"How comes it that you who sound so young are amongst the watchmen?" Radhe asked as they walked on the road back.
"My father was one of the few watchmen last year. He tried to stop a contestant that went on a killing spree but he got killed himself. So to pay for my family I took up my fathers armor and joined the watchmen. Clementia only puts me up with low risk contestants though."
"Low risk contestants?" Radhe looked at Howard.
"Oh! ehm with that means contestants that are most likely not likely to attack or kill civilians or other non-contestants. Sorry if it sounds bad to you." Howard said with his face directed downwards.
"No it does not. The opposite actually as it makes me feel good that Clementia trusts me to see me as non-dangerous to the people." Radhe responded while scratching her own head.
"It surerly have started to become cold and it is completely quiet too" Radhe said after a while. "Yeah it surely.... quiet!? It is never quiet in this part of the Trogon forest." Howard became nervous. "It is surerly nothing, they probably just went to sleep because of the cold. See! It is already turning dark." Radhe said as she pointed towards the sky. "Have we really been out here for so long? But you are probably right. It is still strange though that it is completely silent. The black backs usually sing during both night and winter time, why are they silent?"
"I don't know but I can check the plant network I spoke of earlier. See if I can find the reason they are silent." "Uhm yeah that is probably a smart idea."
Radhe was looking into her network trying to find the source or anything out of the ordinary. "I found something! It's... crying, in fear and pain, It needs help. We must help it!" Radhe said loudly as she started to run towards it. "Lady Radhe, we should take it easy. Howard shouted before he started to run after her.
"The screams becomes louder, I'm almost there... Here!"
She stopped. She looked around but there were nothing but dead trees and plants.
"It is the trees and plants that screams. But how can they do that if they are dead?" She thought. She looked around again and then she saw someone lie down a stone throw away from her. She moved closer until she could see who it was. It was one of the soldiers. He's dead. She then heard something further away from her. She looked at that direction. Her whole body froze as to ice and she was paralyzed of fear. She then heard Howard screaming something as he ran towards her.
"LADY RADHE! RUN!"
'Do I even still obliged to attend the tournament? Did that merchant have something to do with it?' Wondered the dark elf while was carving the deer's carcass on a large wooden plank in the back of her shelter atop of the forest.
The wind blew a shivering cold air, the sky then turned dark.
'Something is certainly amiss here.' She stopped her current activity and put on her night-vision googles. An item she bought from the same merchant who helped her before for a better of navigating dark paths in a night or in a dark cave. She still swore that the item was enchanted anyway.
Then she heard it. In the distance, she could hear the ominous screaming from which source was unknown to her.
Besides that, she also could hear another screaming that came definitely from human's vocal cords.
'This can't be good.' Leaving her current work behind, she then packed some items in her pouches, slung her black sword, amd prepared her mechanical contraption in her right hand, namely a slinger to swing her body if the gap between trees were simply too large, or just to pull her up above the trees. Another useful item she bought from the merchant she normally used to spying the passing people from the trees above, or to hunt animals that were living in a certain high position.
Jumping from trees to trees were always easy for every kind of elf to do because of their natural agility that was more advanced than a human being. Adding with a slinger, no large trees were too high or too unclimbable for her.
Suddenly, she saw someone running. A human girl to be exact. Neerayne could say that the girl was currently terrified of something.
'Is that that plant sorcerer girl? What is she doing?' Spied the dark elf while crouching in a hidden position above the trees. She of course knew the fact that the girl was one of the champions after she met her and the other champions in the arena. And sometimes she also saw some of the champions were roaming free in the city, that also includes the currently terrified human girl.
'This is not good at all.' Finally she decided to follow the girl by silently jumping from trees to trees.
The soldier rode as fast as he could. He had to get to Clementia as soon as possible.
His had to hold onto his horse's reins as much as he could so that she did not panic at the wrong direction. When he closed in to the city an old guard signaled him to stop but he had to continue. He could not lose any time so he shouted "Outbreak! Forest! Akon!" as he rode past the guard.
When he came into the courtyard of the Federation building, he jumped of the horse so swiftly that he almost fell. He repeated the same three words to the guards at the door.
Clementia was sitting with sir Wardnan in the great hall discussing something. The fire in the fireplace was burning as usual. Then the doors slammed open and a soldier tripped in while he shouted "Lady Clementia! Outbreak in the forest!" before he fell onto the floor trying to catch his breath. Clementia walked towards him as one of the guards helped him up. She looked at him with shock. "Explain what is happening." she said still shocked. "There is an abyssal outbreak in the Trogon forest. It killed my companion!" The soldier as he was still trying to catch his breath. "how severe it is?" "It was an Akon beast and one of the contestants is still in the forest, The plant girl!"
Clementia looked at the guards "Ring the bells! shut down the city gates! Ride out and kill that monster before the outbreak becomes worse!" She turned to sir Wardnan but he was already on his way out.
She went back to her chair and sat down with her face in her hands.
"I thought it could not become worse, and now there's an Akon beast outside the city. One of the contestants, a young girl is trapped in the forest with that monster.
If you come in contact with it. Then run girl, run." she said in a whispering voice.
The bell tolled, the second bell tolled. Moments later the other hosts appeared. Clementia explained the situation.
Radhe
She stood as frozen to stone when she saw the back of the large beast. It did not resemble anything natural she had ever seen. No this was a beast, a monster made of pure dark magic, evil magic that wished nothing else but to destroy. Was it worth to run away? It was as if all hope of survival had ran out of her. She then felt a large impact as she was lifted from the ground. She regained some of her consciousness and she realized that it was Howard who had picked her up. She looked back at the monster who now had turned towards her. It had yellow glowing eyes and there was a thick dark floating aura around it. "Can you run!" Howard said in a loud voice.
Radhe took a second to recover from her shock. "Yes.. Yes I can run!"
Howard put her down on her feet as he still ran helping her to gain speed. Radhe and Howard was now running side by side as fast as they could. Radhe then heard sounds of bursting trees behind her. She gave a quick look back and saw the monster moving really fast towards them straight through the trees as if they where chopping sticks. "IT IS CATHING UP TO US!" she screamed as she began to channel her mana. She created thick barriers of trees to stop the beast but it just broke straight trough without losing much speed. It came closer. Howard shouted "Whatever you do, keep running" as he turned and ran uphill. Radhe kept running as she noticed the beast turned to chase after Howard instead. The monster left a trail of dead plants and trees behind it.
She ran and ran but the exhaustion began to overtake the adrenaline. Then she heard a human shout. She stopped and looked uphill. Her heart sank as she witnessed that Howard had stopped and had his sword drawn in his hands. The monster threw himself towards Howard who stepped aside and struck the monster a the side. The monster however was very quick to recover as it turned almost instantly and ripped through Howard with it's huge claws. Howard now bloody from the attack flew straight into a tree. The monster went to him and with one final slash finished the job. The monster yet again turned towards Radhe who now had her eyes full of tears as she began running downhill towards a lake.
As she ran she tried to block the monster with everything she had creating barrier after barrier of trees and anything she could use. The trees began to die as soon as the aura from the monster touched them before itself crushed trough. Radhe had trouble to see because of her tearful eyes as she ran. She then stopped as she came to a cliff. "Maybe I can jump and create a plant bed before I land." She thought very quickly as she created a last barrier behind her. The barrier exploded behind her as soon as she jumped. She was too late as the monster got one strike on her in mid air. She fell down the Cliffside hitting it three times before her body hit the ground below. Leaving a trail of blood alongside the cliff.
'By the Dark Mother...' She silently cursed, then used a dark spell to conceal most of her body and her scent.
'That beast is definitely not a normal animal.' Thought the hidden elf.
The black beast sniffed the air for a while, then decided to leave the scene and return to the deep forest instead after it found nothing.
After a while, Neerayne then dropped the concealment spell. 'It is official that the forest is now more dangerous than before.' She gritted her teeth.
In a quick motion, she then used her slinger to go to the corpse, looting for some valuables. She only found some coins and an empty leather bottle aside from the standard guard's equipments.
Then she quickly went to the edge the cliff to see the ground below the cliff and saw the bloodied form of the plant sorcerer by using her night-vision googles.
'This is indeed very bad. Ugh...' She gritted her teeth again and finally decided to use her slinger to reach the bottom below.
Arrived at the ground she checked the bloodied form of an almost dying girl and checked her pulses.
'She's still alive... But for how long? Ugh, alright then.' She rummaged her pouch and picked a greenish vial, then pours it inside the dying girl's mouth, with a gently movement she forced the girl to swallow it.
'Come on..' She waited the healing potion to take its effect. Every hunter must always have at least a dozen of it, especially a lonely one like Neerayne. So it wasn't really a surprise if she always had one in her pouch. Another useful items she bought from the ominous merchant after she regretted that she never had one of them after her first arrival in Legorna.
The wounds at the forehead of the almost dying sorcerer girl were slowly closing, then she coughed in the arms of the sweating dark elf.
"Halt!" a guard shouted. "Querulous denizens of Legorna, I cannot––"
The weird walked right through the guard, and it tottered to the ground, smoke pouring from its ears. Thibble rolled her eyes.
"C'mon, move, you lummoxes!" a wizard grunted, shoving the enraged guards out of the way, making room for a massive circle. The faeries clumsily set down the trunk in the middle of the empy space before wheeling away, exhausted.
"Ho-how dare you?" a guard shrieked, trying to push through the adamant Izzet mages. "This city is about to become under siege! I command you, by the law of Legorna, to depart at--"
"Law, schmaw" Bibble jeered, and the guard's face turned as red as her pigtails. "All the rules in the world won't prevent this monster from destroying the city, and ultimately, interrupting our competition!" He opened the chest and drew out what seemed like a massive black silk carpet.
"Point is, the Izmagnus has decided, unanimously enough, to intervene" Thibble added, helping Bibble draw out the black circle. "Your petty pinpricks for swords and buttons for shields will be as effective as staring down a Homunculus. We've decided it's time you twits get some help."
"Real help" Bibble added. He finished flattening the circle, then snapped his grubby fingers thrice.
"You question the strength of our milita?" another guard yelled.
And then a massive construct stepped out of the circle. It was twelve feet high, its polished Mizzium armor glinting dully in the dying light. A powerstone throbbed sickly blue light in its chest. Eight silver arms peeled back to reveal nozzles, which then ignited. The flame that issued out was like a mirage; colorless and without heat, but seemingly cutting into reality itself.
"We of the Izmagnus have lots of questions" Thibble said to the guards cowering at the sight of the gargantuan mech. "Some are thoughtful and creative. And then there are the ones with such obvious answers like yours."
"You can join" Bibble said. "We would actually appreciate all the help we can get. This monster's gonna be a tough Cluestone to crack."
"We're actually not sure we'll win or not" Thibble admitted. "But the city will have already lost the fight if you just go."
"You remember our orders?" Bibble asked the mech.
"i ShAlL dEsTRoY AnD oBlItErAtEE wIthOUt mErCy" R5-T4 recited.
"Aah, actually not this time" chastised Bibble. "We would prefer an alive subject to study. And preferably in one piece, too. But if things get too out of hand. fall back on your previous orders."
R5-T4 nodded jerkily, then proceeded to stride through the legion of soldiers.
Thibble sighed. "Do you know if any other competitors are coming to help?" she asked.
When I realized that Neerayne was still left in the forest I planned on including her somewhere but I could not make it work as I needed some key elements to be included.
I would suggest that she leaves as soon as she sees the beast but it's up to you if you want to include the looting of Howard. but only coins and lesser things. (It would be too
suspicious if a watchman lost his equipment just after he was killed by an abyssal beast)
What she can't do however is to follow Radhe and the beast down towards the cliff.
Just keep try to keep away from the beast at all cost. It is however not the only one in the forest, It is just the most dangerous.
Sorry that this makes much of what you wrote non-existent. It is rather difficult for me to change stuff in between parts of a story segment so I chose to keep the old plan.
Messages are good, makes it easy for me to be a control freak. mohahaha... ehm yeah.
If you are acting outside the active area such as the current Trogon forest then it should not be too much trouble.
I'm just trying to avoid akward scenarios and too many plot holes.
If I move on a specific path. try to move beside that or behind it unless you contact me about what you can do on that specific path. That is mostly story segments of multiple parts.
I will begin on the third part now. The conditions for your characters should be somewhat clear after that.
@Faiths_Guide I don't see why it not would have happened. However see the "siege" part as a may happen instead of will happen.
I'm sorry but if I can even continue with these external story segments within a reasonable time. I have to do them when I have time. Otherwise it might take months or I have to only do the tournament matches and nothing else.
Maybe it would be fine to ask (some) people what their champions are doing at the moment when something big is about to happen, only if it wouldn't be too much of a work for you. I haven't had time to post anything what Tiamat has been doing lately, but I'm more than happy to see how you put her in this part of the story! )