Cythera Chronicles: The Shadow Warriors: Chapter two

[url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/newsdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number=52&forum=*Cythera+Chronicles&DaysPrune=25&article=000052&startpoint="]http://www.AmbrosiaS...052&startpoint=[/url]<< [url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/newsdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number=52&forum=*Cythera+Chronicles&DaysPrune=25&article=000052&startpoint="]http://www.AmbrosiaS...052&startpoint=[/url]< [url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/newsdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number=52&forum=*Cythera+Chronicles&DaysPrune=25&article=000058&startpoint="]http://www.AmbrosiaS...058&startpoint=[/url]>

Mercenaries

Lukyan got up from the floor. Talos fetched a blanket, with which he covered the corpse. Some drunkards quietly and quickly left the tavern and Lukyan said a prayer for the fallen man. "What was he talking about?" he wondered, "who destroyed Kaleeah?"
"It is possible that he didn't quite know what he was talking about," said Victor, "he looked like he had been running without rest for quite some time."
"Yes, but what did he run from?" Lukyan responded, "this man probably had a heart-attack. Something scared the life out of him, he fled to Cademia to get help and died from combination between shock and fatigue. I suggest we bury his body and then head for Kaleeah to see if the man knew what he was talking about. I've had a strange feeling ever since we wiped out that raiding party...it was too easy. Let us bury this poor man now."

They took the corpse to the graveyard. Talos and some other patrons helped bury him and Lukyan prayed for his soul. A man went to talk to the priest, so that a ceremony could be arranged a few days later. "We must get to Kaleeah as fast as we can!" said Lukyan.
Victor looked back at the tavern and responded: "Sadly, all of our men are too drunk to come with us. We have to gather up some other men or travel alone." Talos voulenteered to come with the two liutenants and suggested that they go back to the tavern to see if some, preferably sober patrons were willing to join them.

They went back to the tavern and, not to their greatest surprise, new patrons had arrived, wondering where the barkeep was hiding. Talos quickly grabbed a drunkard, who was about to raid the storage room, by the collar and threw him out the front door.

"Rumors say that the Seventh Legion attacks on hellspawn in and around the great forest has not been enough to stop the evils from preying on the living Cytherans, and that the town of Kaleeah has recently been raided by an unknown force. We have to form a party and head for Kaleeah to see if these rumours are true! If we can trust these rumours, the inhabitants of the village are most certainly in great danger as we speak!" announced Lukyan, "Me, Victor and Talos are going, but we need more men. Who is willing to join us?"

After a few seconds, a man got up from a bar stool. The man was Rogan. "I will come with you" he said, "I'm good with the sword, daggers and magic. You could need me."
Lukyan, being an old friend of Rogan, quickly responded: "Good, my friend, I know we could need your skills to defeat the enemy."
"Looks like you still need some more men," a voice said from the top right corner of the tavern. A large man walked out of the shadows and approached Lukyan's team as he continued: "I am Eyolf, warrior from the North. I grew up in Kaleeah...my brother lives there."
Lukyan, noticing Eyolf's ring mail armor and the huge battle axe he was carrying, asked: "So, Eyolf, you will join us? We could use that large axe of yours in a number of situations." Eyolf laughed and answered: "I think you may need my skills in a large number of situations!" He drank some mead from his tankard and continued: "Yes, I will join you. If the village is destroyed, we must rescue the survivors and eliminate the marauders."

Silence was upon the tavern once again. Patrons calmly returned to their peculiar activities and tried to avoid any eye-contact whatsoever with the newly formed party. "Well, I guess we don't need any more in our party..." said Lukyan as he examined the gathered team of his. "And the treasures we might be so lucky to stumble upon..." some heads turned as Lukyan said this and several pairs of eyes gleamed with interest again. "We split it five ways, no?" Lukyan continued.

As he finished that sentence, another man got up from his chair. The bald, small man raised his bushy eyebrows as he introduced himself: "Good day to you fellas! I'm Gheed, and I can already tell ya I'll be a great ally out there in the hostile landscape! I'm not that good with heavy melee weapons and such, but, I tell ya I'm the best negotiator and..." he coughed, "...legalised salesman on this forsaken island!"

Everyone narrowed their eyes simultaneously and Victor asked: "Well, can you kill something then?"

Gheed laughed an incredibly resounding laugh and responded instantly, "Why yes! I've brought down hordes of foul creatures I tell ya, cause I'm so lucky to own this sacred scepter!" He opened his robe, and pulled out a gnarled staff with a large orb on it. Red in hue, glowing with beautiful colours. "I thought he wasn't wearing anything under that robe," one of the patrons muttered. Everyone around that table smiled and chuckled.

"You would have to pay much for that sort of exhibition!" said Gheed. Seconds later, the patron blushed. Someone chuckled again, but Rogan interrupted: "Well, what good does that... scepter do then?" The orb was still glowing brightly.

"It's a very magical scepter I tell ya!" Gheed responded, his eyes gleamed with a combination of greed and craziness (at least, that's what Rogan thought of his expression), "it holds magical powers I myself can barely begin to comprehend!" He paused for a second, then pulled out another, smaller scepter with a blue orb attached from his robe. "Wanna buy? 5000 oboloi?"

"No thanks," Rogan declined as politely as he could, "but are you joining our quest?"

Gheed chuckled, but suddenly turned dead serious and responded: "Err...no, I just got up from my comfy chair and waved my sacred scepter around just for some good, ol' fun! What in the name of the Scylla did you reckon? Of course I'm going to join you in saving the... town...of... watcha call it? Kaljah?"

"Kaleeah!" Lukyan, Victor and Talos said simultaneously. They were all growing tired of the conversation.
"Very well then, let's go already!" said Rogan as he turned and started to walk. He opened the tavern door and went out, with the others close behind. Gheed quickly made his way to the front of the party. He turned his head and grinned at Victor, only to receive a sour expression as response.

The party moved out of Cademia, over the ridge and further up into the forest.
"Well, from here, I would say it should take approximately five and a half hour to reach the first Kaleeah guard outpost. Then, another ten or so minutes to the village," announced Lukyan.
They all agreed to walk for three hours, have a rest and then walk to the outpost, have a new rest and then proceed to Kaleeah. Gheed, who wanted more rest and complained about his shoes, was a little reluctant though, but when someone mentioned that lazy people would be abandoned in the woods, he totally agreed on the first suggestion.
The men went through their sacks one last time to check if they had forgotten anything vital, checked their weapons and then started on the long quest to Kaleeah...

(to be continued)

[url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/newsdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number=52&forum=*Cythera+Chronicles&DaysPrune=25&article=000052&startpoint="]http://www.AmbrosiaS...052&startpoint=[/url]<< [url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/newsdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number=52&forum=*Cythera+Chronicles&DaysPrune=25&article=000052&startpoint="]http://www.AmbrosiaS...052&startpoint=[/url]< [url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/newsdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number=52&forum=*Cythera+Chronicles&DaysPrune=25&article=000058&startpoint="]http://www.AmbrosiaS...058&startpoint=[/url]>

[This message has been edited by Slayer (edited 11-05-2001).]

Ambrosia Software Web Board: Cythera Chronicles: The Shadow Warriors: Chapter two - Ambrosia Software Web Board