Baron Arkhon pulled his sword from it's sheath and rolled to avoid the strike of a nearby bandit. He swung his blade at the legs of the sai wielder, but he leaped to avoid the strike. Getting to his feet he stabbed at the bandit, who deflected the thrust and dug a sai deep into Arkhon's arm. He staggered backwards and clutched his wound, then took his sword two handed and struck with a verticle slash. The bandit caught the blow with his other sai, then twisted beside him and in one fluid motion, pulled the sai from the Baron's arm and shoved it into his back. The Southerner gurgled as he fell forward and dropped to his knees, losing his grip on the sword.

Gabriel charged forward, and hacked at the elemental, only succeeding in cleaving a mound of dirt as the elf rolled to the side. the bandit scissored his legs into Gabriel's, knocking him down before summoning his staff back into his hands. Just as he began to stand, the Half-elf got to his knees, grabbed the bandit's legs and flipped him into the air. He grabbed his zweihander and ran after the recovering elf, noting that he was now in a fit of uncontrollable laughter.

"HAA HA HAA HA, Ho SHIT! HA HA!" he heard him utter as he thrust his sword down, but the bandit still managed to roll backwards to avoid it. instead of pulling his sword from the ground he shoulder thrusted the wind elemental. knocking him against a tree, grabbing his throat, and drawing the dagger that Jechir had given him. He he cocked his arm back and prepared to stab the elf in his laughing face-

-and was dragged back by Hakar.

"He led this group, Gabriel! He might have some information! Control...your...damn...bloodlust!" The agile, but slightly less muscular strained to hold the enraged Gabriel back, while throwing a rope of mental force around the laughing elf.

Gabriel struggled against him for a few seconds longer, but eventually the rage disipated. He looked around and saw that all the bandits had been either killed or immobilized, the latter being held down with various weapons at their throats by the other elementals. And Arkhon lie unmoving on the ground not far away.

Gabriel bit back a curse and grabbed the nearest bandit by the hair and dragged him over to the Elf.

"Listen you swarthy bastard, your men just killed the one guy who knew how to get us into the Citadel in the south. Now we need to get in there as soon as possible. I'm assuming that Ashtar sent you, so if you don't compensate us in some way,"

He lifted the dagger and pressed it against the bandit's throat. "Then I am personally going to slit the throats of every one of your men until you do. And if you still don't tell us, I am going to take your staff, and give you a steel enima. Should you continue to resist, I will begin cutting off various parts of your body, starting with the more valuable ones. I trust I make myself clear."

The elf's eyes were filled with defiance, but he nodded slowly.

"Good." Gabriel said, his weapon not moving from the man's throat. "You can start with who you are, why you're here, who sent you, and any little details that you can think to throw in."

"My name is Arthos." he began, his voice gravely with stress. "We're bandits."

Gabriel rolled his eyes and dragged his dagger across an inch of the man's neck, opening a small slit. "Enough of the obvious, who sent you?"

"We were sent by Lord Ashtar to track your group down. Our orders were to kill you..." Arthos said, a hint of panic entering his voice; and then he noticed something he hadn't before. "You're elven." he said.

"Half." Gabriel replied. "Remember, I'm the one asking the questions. You work for Ashtar, do you know the way into his citadel."

Arthos nodded. "Yes, but that information is privledged." Before Gabriel could lose his patience he added. "And if you kill my men, I will still not tell you. I will not tell you if you mutilate me either; but I will tell you if you give me something."

"Right now I'm offering you at least five more minutes of life, I think that's a reasonable offer considering our positions at the time." Gabriel said, allowing a hint of anger seep into his voice.

"Tell me about the Elves. Are there others? What happened to those that survived? for it appears that I am not the only one."

Gabriel starred in silence for a moment, sending a reflexive glance to Sarin. "Very well. As near as I can tell, there are no other elves on the mainland; the Spirit of Water and Tanthalas made sure of that. My father was one of the group who brought them to justice afterwards. The only ones that remain are my mother, Sarin and possibly a select few like yourself. However, there is rumour that those from neighbouring forests were not killed, but instead fled from the mainland, traveling to the Northern tip of Rikklain. It is unknown what has become of them, for it is only a rumour."

At that the elf seemed to turn sickly white. "What ever became of the two that killed my people." he whispered.

"Tanthalas was killed by the drow standing not three meters from you." he said, indicating Talos. The spirit was diffused and it's host set free, though she remains in penance still."

"Who was the host?" he asked.

"That I am not prepared to tell you." Gabriel said icily, and then cocked an eyebrow. "Is there something about the rumour that bothers you?"

Arthos nodded bitterly. "Ashtar plans to attack Rikklain any day now. His fleet is preparing even as we speak to assist Antarrak in accomplishing his task of exterminating the Rikklainians."

Gabriel dropped the bandit he was holding and moved barely an inch from the Elf's face. "So Ashtar is in league with Antarrak?"

"Of course." he replied. "It was Ashtar's idea to unify the Orcs in the first place. He said once he has complete control of the Empire, he can use his guise of tracking the Orcs to annex the entire continent, but first he has to neutralize any and all threats."

Gabriel turned from the Elf and looked to Hakar. "The only way to take over the Empire is to get rid of the king..." he turned back. "You promised to tell us how to get into the Citadel. We need the information now."

Arthos nodded solumnly. "I will do better. I shall lead you there myself..."

Hakar listened quietly, digesting the information, "We have to hurry, if we want to get there before Ashtar kills the king. He can't just stick a knife in his ribs, assassinating an important political leader requires discretion, and a degree of subtlety that can't be achieved instantaneously." he turned toward Arthos, "If you want your people to survive, I expect that you'll want to lead us to the Southern Empire with all due haste."

The bandit nodded, but glanced at his men. Hakar looked over at them as well, and saw that they were still helpless with laughter, "Gug...how long until they recover?"

"Should be any second now...look an explosion!" He pointed as a fire erupted then quieted in the forest. After the nigh-instaneous distraction, the bandits seemed to come to. "So now we head on...why am I happy about that?"

Looking over at the remaining bandits, Hakar casually mentioned, "You have ten seconds to run. If I ever see you again once that time is up, I'll kill you."

The defeated bandits immediately fled into the underbrush, running away in the opposite direction.

Arthos nodded, and the group set off southward. After a day and most of a night of traveling, following the quickest routes that would keep them away from Orc outposts, or Ashtar's men, they could see the lights of the capital city, where Ashtar's Citadel was located, glimmering in the valley below them, with thinner woods to the west of the city, and rolling plains to the East.

At long last, they had reached the Southern Empire.

Gug looked over the alien world, so different from his mountain birth and his cramped city life. The wide spreading plains offered seemingly limitless adventure, the vast blueness (was it really the sea everyone gushed about?), the giant nation that promised to be filled with danger and glory.

"Meh, I've seen better, which part are we destroying first?"

"Does it really matter?" Jerick asked in a joking tone. He knew now was a time to be serious, but sometimes it was good to be humorous in serious times. It also seemed like something from Gug was affecting Jerick, something destructive.

ooc:Sorry for my absence, I just couldn't think of anything for this RP. It was like writer's block for this thing only. Very annoying.

Ooc: Not a big problem. I've been there myself, which is a bad thing when you're a GM.

Ic: Gabriel looked over the seas with a mix of wonder and dread. Wonder at the serene beauty of the oceans that he had so rarely ever seen, as though the sky was reflecting itself in one great mirror, leaving another expanse to pass through infinity.
And Dread at what he saw resting within that watery expanse.

Warships. the waters were filled with the black sails of over a hundred ships, ranging from small and agile corvettes, to the larger and stronger Destroyers, to the massive Galleons, their sides bristling with weaponry. And in the center of the formation, was a single 200 meter Galleon, it's bow and sides covered with giant iron plates.

"It is the Black Fleet." Arthos said from beside him. "Ashtar arranged for them to be outfitted with Orc cannons. The large one is the Chimaera, the flagship of the fleet."

Gabriel tried to work the saliva back into his dry mouth. "Come let's get into the city, we haven't much time."

"Hold on a moment." Arthos said. "I think you're missing something. Your trying to sneak into a city, with a goblin by your side, while the populous believes they are at war with the Orcs?"

Gabriel looked over at Gug; a none-to-pleasant grin growing on his face.