Shield of Lies Chapter 4: The Siege of Bastion
 

Gabriel awoke with a start, his head pounding and his hair matted with sweat. He sat in his bed and tried to sort out his thoughts, and the dreams which plagued him last night.

Then the cold reality hit him. The memory of his father cut into his stomach like a cold knife. He sat for a long while, not moving, not speaking, not even thinking.

Eventually he looked to the window of his room within the tall spire. It appeared to be around 6:00 AM by the suns position. Outside he could hear the sounds of hundreds of Avariel wings beating, and harshly barked orders. What little army Gwaethir could conjure up was now forming outside in the town square.

He grudgingly pulled himself out of bed and got himself dressed. He picked at a light breakfast provided by the Royal servants before donning his familiar Steel Plate armour. He heafted Thanatos off the ground beside him, and frowned.

That's odd. he thought. It's a lot heavier than it was before...

He tossed the zweihander into its sheath on his back and with a heavy heart, made for the door. He was to go to war this day, and a hangover is the last thing he needed.

Gwaethir had found a package in his room last night, another dagger. He chuckled, almost hoping he could get a chance to try them out...even though he was more skilled at combat from a greater distance.

Avariel City was not, despite popular belief, the only city of the Avariel people, nor the only place where they could be found. It was their capital, but the cities tended to function independently, and so Gwaethir had sent delegates. He looked at the army before him, and felt a surge of pride.

Thousands of Avariel warriors filled the sky, drawn into neat aerial formations. His own troops were at the front, in their white-and-gold armor, the mages clad in robes of the same colors.

Metrius woke up to the sound of many wings beating. Looking out of his window, he gaped as he saw the thousands upon thousands of Avariel troops in tight formation, preparing themselves for the battle ahead. As his head cleared itself from the fog of sleep, Metrius thought back to what had happened yesterday, of how he had gone into a rage that he could not recall, of how Laine had revealed his darkest secret to Metrius. That reminds me. Looking over to the other bed in the room, Metrius saw that Laine was still asleep. "Laine, dawn has come, and with it has come the day of battle. We must prepare ourselves for the coming war."

(OOC: Sorry about saying that Alec was still there SS, it just worked with what I envisioned the situation to be)

Gug awoke again, this time because he had felt the presence of what sounded like a million wings beating in utter chaos, not much of an improvement over the snoring of Alec, who was still there and still plugging away.

Gug hopped out of bed for the second time. He blocked out enough of the ever-flapping wings to ruminate on how he had gotten into bed the second time. It had been quite a fiasco, but not in Gabriel's drunken bender way. Instead, his returning had been a more lighthearted affair, involving (but as always in Gug's past, not limited too): a magic enhancer filled with Light magic, an Avariel washroom reserved for the fairer gender, a roll, a few Avariel guards, and an unfortunately mistimed (but non-lethal) explosion caused by being held too close an Avariel girl's chest while falling two stories. Luckily, Gug hadn't been the only one embarassed, and all parties involved had made a solemn pledge to never speak of those fifteen minutes again, which Gug thought was quite generous, since he believed the whole dwarf goat incident would have damaged that poor girl's reputation.

Gug sleepy-eyed-looked through his bag. He found a magic 'hancer, and saw it was already ready for explosive use. He thought about trusting his device's information, but he also had once thought that a cloaking spell would last at least five minutes, so he double and triple checked, then got out a fresh one. He charged it up, then set it under Alec's bed.

"Hey, Alec, free warning, I'm pretty sure something's going down, and if I have to be awake, I'm sure not leaving without you." He stepped backwards, snapped his fingers, and watched as the small-ish 'splosion knocked out the front two legs of the bed.

Talos nodded to Hakar. "Yes, I guess you are a Veldrin."

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The next morning, Talos stood outside near the ranks of Avariel troops. He leaned over to Gwaethir. "I'd feel much better if we had a force of drow. My old hunting party, the Black Death, for example."

Hunting party was an invalid term for the Black Death, along with the groups like them. The so-called "hunting parties" were drow mercenaries who hunted down escaped criminals and killed for sport, razing and pillaging countless villages and slaughtering many people. Many of them had disbanded years ago, but now that the Drow were also being persecuted more than usual by humans, several, the Black Death included, were active once again. Most of the members of the Black Death, Talos among them, had colossal cash bounties of millions of gold pieces or more on their heads for nearly every crime imaginable, from murder to mooning a prince at his manhood ceremony when they were drunk after a particularly perilous mission. They were the drow enforcers of chaos, panic, and disorder.

Talos turned to see Gabriel, still slightly hungover. "Not a good day to be drunk, Gabriel." He took a flask of primitive coffee and chugged it down. "Why do I drink this shit?"

The explosion knocked the foot of the bed up, sliding Alec's head down to slam against the wall. When it returned, it slid Alec straight out of the bed.

Wearing only a pair of pants, he wasn't as intimidating as previously hoped. A brief fight ensued, the ended with Alec's hair being extra crispy, the destruction of a vase, and Gug getting stuffed into the bag that had held the deer meat.

When the fully clothed and ready to travel Alec walked out to meet Talos, he vaguely wondered if anyone would question the wildly thrashing and screaming bag.

Laine woke from his peaceful sleep to stare up at Metrius' face. "Good morning, Metrius."
I seconds he was out of bed. A fairy flitted around the room after appearing from his palm. Metrius looked startled. "A simple Servant Summoning. It will do anything I wish it." he explained. I wonder why I didn't spend all night meditating. I guess I was just too tired. The fairy began making both beds.
Laine walked out of the room, followed by Metrius. He entered a large courtyard, where a few Avariel were practicing battle techniques. What a good way to wake yourself up.

He turned to Metrius and drew the Ultima Weapon. "Do you spar?"

"Normally I would, but what good is it to spar against a polearm with a simple mace? Besides, I must meditate, so as to prepare for the coming battle. I have to tell you, though, I still haven't becomes used to the feeling of being off of the ground yet, or at least off of the ground in a floating city. It lacks appeal to me."

(OOC: I'd be inclined to argue, but I'm not stupid enough to realize that any sudden struggle with Gug vs. Someone with access to a sack would end any way other than Gug being in the sack...damn that sounds dirty)

Gug valiantly struggled, but as always happened when faced with a fearsome sack-wielding opponent, he ended up struggling valiantly while staring at brown cloth. This was one of the better brown cloths though, smelled remarkebly well. At one point he considered going docile, but then reasoned that he was going to get out whether he struggled or not, and struggling was more fun.

Gwaethir gave Talos a rather sharp look, "Yes, and bring in some of the few people who are better at destroying lives than the orcs...what a pleasant idea! This is what we're using, and leave your friends OUT of this!" he realized how little headway he was going to make against the stubborn drow, and silently prayed to whatever gods were listening.

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Hakar yawned, out to look at the army with all of his equipment already on. His dreams had been rather disturbing, but he could control them, he hoped.