Shadows of Darkest Soul (An Elder Scrolls RP)

[AurianaValoria1]

Caius Cosades, Ashlands, To Kogoruhn

 

Caius was too embroiled in his own battle between two steel-clad mercenaries to even notice his comrades. He could tell by the warriors' builds that they were Nords. One swung a greatsword in an arcing overhand while the other attempted to behead him with a gleaming battleaxe.

 

He jumped backwards, the two heavy weapons missing him by inches. As they tried to recover, he swiftly dove in, Akaviri steel biting through their armor with ease. Each time they swung, he dodged them and countered with three or four accurate slashes. He grinned as he played defensive, letting them wear themselves out in their reckless attempts to hit him, their growing number of bleeding wounds weakening them even further.

 

Finally, he gained a sufficient opening. In one fluid movement, he plunged his katana between the plates in the swordsman's abdomen, wrenched it free, and then smoothly decapitated the axeman.

 

Rotating his shoulders and popping his neck, he fixed his piercing eyes on another unlucky merc, another grin spreading across his face.

 

Next?

 

 

Velanya Therys, Ashlands, To the Urshilaku Camp

 

Velanya shook her head, "I don't know. But if they have all of them, we are in serious trouble."

 

She sighed, turning to the merc. She noticed that the steel breastplate had a strange logo emblazoned on it...something like a sword crossing an axe over a shield. Her eyes widened when she traced her fingers over it. She recognized it, as she had seen it before when she was stationed in Elsweyr and Black Marsh.

 

"Serra, I know this group. I've seen their men in other provinces. This mercenary...he was part of the Blackwood Company."

Edited December 6, 2011 by AurianaValoria1

[darkedge42392]

Adrynn Indarys, Ashlands, to Kogoruhn

 

Adrynn jerked his body to the right, just as a rock flew out of nowhere and hit the blade of the mercenary's sword, knocking him off balance. Adrynn's shield came up and deflected the staggered blow just as a soft thud reached his ears and the merc went limp. Adrynn wasted little time in making sure this one was dead, as he drove his blade up through the merc's head and spun the blade, scrambling the brains inside the steel helm.

 

Adrynn ripped the blade out and turned to his next opponent, a beefy Dunmer in Chitin armor. Adrynn's Daedric blade destroyed the chitin material and the man inside, splitting him nearly in half. As the dead Ashlander fell to the ground, blood spraying over the dark ash, Adrynn's fury began to build. He could feel Azura's brand throbbing in his left hand, blazing with white heat. He had had enough.

 

With one had holding his Daedric Katana and his other clenched around his shield, he could feel the anger inside him throbbing though his body, giving him power, strength. With a loud cry, Adrynn threw himself at the large circle of warriors guarding the shamans. Adrynn tore through the first three that got in his path, cutting them down with little effort, but he still couldn't breach the large Shield spell they had cast over themselves.

 

"Damn you! You will rue this day, Ashlanders!" Adrynn yelled, falling back once more to regroup with his comrades. They needed to finish this. Now.

[Sarogath]

Dar'ji'ra, Road to Mournhold, a couple of miles north of Tear, South-East Morrowind

 

"... and I'm hungry!" Ra'Jirr whined as he had been fussing about the whole time since they passed Tear's outer city walls. They had been walking the whole night through to establish distance to that unsavoury place Ji'ra had saved her current party from. Ra'Jirr continued...

 

" Did it ever come to your mind that not everyone is used to that sort of walking, eh? " he asked in complaining tone that seemed innate to his voice. As he received no immediate answer he grew even more edgy. " Oi! I'm talking here. Don't you have any regard for your fellow travelers?" Dar'ji'ra, who was walking in front of her group as to keep the deception of her being a slave-trader, stopped and turned to Ra'Jirr...

 

Dar'ji'ra: " Renrij'jeko-ja'khajiit! " she answered in a outright hostile voice, cussing him out in a quite unfriendly Ta'agra. Ra'Jirr had not spoken in their mother-tongue for a long time but understood well what he was just called. She didn't actually mean to harass Ra'jirr but his character reminded her of that Bosmer whom she had meet in Rimmen. Talkative bunch.

 

Still, during their nightly walk the idle chatter about Morrowind had thought Ji'ra a bit about the local landscape and where she would be headed next. The city of light and magic. Sounds just like the place for me. She needed to lose her companions though. A Khajiit leading and selling a party of presumed slaves is a rather uncommon sight around Mournhold. Unfortunately her party didn't disperse as quickly as she had hoped and *those* characters seemed to be rather clingy...

 

Ra'Jirr: " Listen! I don't want to cause you any trouble ..."

 

Dar'ji'ra: " You are... "

 

Ra'Jirr: " Well but you freed me and the others and now... "

 

Dar'ji'ra " And now - I will not be Mara the Mother Cat for you. So ..VA-KHAJ! "

 

The other freed slaves of whom two were Khajiit too, noticed Ji'ra's increased hostility. They had seen how Da'ji'ra had snarled as she shouted at Ra'Jirr. Not too long after their short arguement, they came to pass a fork in the road. The wodden signpost placed right in the middle of the fork pointed out two directions. One read 'Mournhold' the other 'Narsis'. Dar'ji'ra turned around only to see that just Ra'Jirr stood by the sign. The rest of her party had silently moved on the path to Narsis. Ra'Jirr called out after them " Oi! We are not going that way! ". One of the previous unlucky fellows peeped over his shoulder and allayingly replied: " Var var var..."

Ji'ra had not stopped during the conversation hoping Ra'Jirr would choose to join the others on their way to Narsis. Or wherever.

Much to her displeasure Ra'Jirr did not do so. He picked up pace to close the gap between the two of them. Being a bit out of breath he spoke to Ji'ra again...

 

Ra'Jirr: " Well it's only us now... " he put on a smile. Acting as all the preceiding fret had not happened. " ... and it's still quite some way to Mournhold, eh?" he added in a ridiculously cheering intonation. Indeed, it still was quite a ways to Mournhold and the prospect of sharing 'quality time' with Ra'Jirr irritated her.

 

Stuck with a foot-lame ja'khajiit. One Khajiit will raise some attention, two will undoubtly get into trouble. Oh joy...

Edited December 6, 2011 by Sarogath

[mythicdawnmaster]

Iodiria, mournhold, high chapel, Iodiria's chambers.

Iodiria sat at her desk and sighed, things were starting to get tough in mournhold, and she knew that helseth would try and remove her from the city by force...

 

She read threw a few books and tomes, sapping all of the knowledge she could. When she joined the Tribunal she was expecting respect and love... but deep down she knew that would not happen. So she took a deep breath and breathed out, she hardened her heart and prepared for the hardships ahead, the people were growing restless, and the influence of the temple slowly draining away, but she would be strong and prevail, the tribunal were the protectors of the people, guardians of faith, albeit two gods down. She knew she had to succeed for her sake, and that of the divine temple...

Edited December 6, 2011 by mythicdawnmaster

[Zephyr2011]

Kriak was a whirlwind. His shortsword and dagger sliced the ashlanders to ribbons as he tore towards the circle of shamen. He gracefully plunged his dagger to its hilt into an unfortunate foe's skull and decapitated another with his vicious sword. He pulled himself through the crowd of enemies towards the shamen, hacking and slashing as he went, bathing in a torrent of blood.

 

The woodsman gained ground rapidly, the steel-clad warriors barely had a chance to realize how fast Kriak was approaching. Suddenly they were engulfed in a sickly blue flame, boiling them in their own armor and juices. Corpses littered the ground in wake of Kriak's onslaught, a new sense of urgency and purpose had manifested itself within him and it brought hell to those that stood against him. Suddenly he was upon the shamen. Their magical barriers held him back, but only briefly.

 

Kriak's anger and determination was seeping out of him in the form of great tendrils of darkness that slowly began to devour the protective orb around the shamen. Kraik's eyes lost any light and became great dark ovals as his fists clenched and legs began to meld into the darkness stemming from his person. A great, thorny lattice engulfed the shamen, and they tried in vain to bolster their defenses. The shield glowed brilliantly and seemed almost ready force back the darkness which threatened it, but then It began to develop deep, glowing lines that arced throughout its exterior. All of a sudden, the great tentacles crashed through the barrier with a great crash and the shamen were thrust into the center of a black mass of darkness. The form seemed to shrink and shrink, all the while becoming rougher, developing great spines that jutted out. Suddenly, the darkness burst forth in a maelstrom of shadows and blood.

 

There was nothing left of the shamen but tiny particles of blood that splattered in a great supernova of gore in the midst of the battle. Dark whisps of shadows tore through the sky only to disipate as quickly as they had appeared. The immense onslaught of darkness utterly crushed the shamen and even their best defenses couldn't stand against it as it imploded, reducing them to lettle more than vapor.

[AurianaValoria1]

Caius Cosades, To Kogoruhn

 

The Spymaster had just jerked his blade free from another merc corpse when he saw Kriak and Adrynn whirl against the tide of Ashlanders with disturbing ferocity. From Adrynn, frightening martial skill was to be expected - not any different than any other hot-tempered Redoran warrior. But Kriak...

 

The woodsman was appalling. Plain and simple. His magics were alien and terrible...horrifically destructive.

 

He slowly made his way towards Lecuaro, watching closely as the shamans were vaporized. He clenched his katana tightly, wincing as blood sprayed in a fine mist through the air.

 

"Marczon, I don't know what to think about that man. But I'm sure glad he's on our side."

Edited December 7, 2011 by AurianaValoria1

[SoulofChrysamere]

Lecuaro Sulnair Marczon - To Kogoruhn

 

 

Lecuaro grimaced at Adrynn's bold headlong rush into the fray. He was hoping the Redoran wouldn't be quite as gung-ho as his temper indicated, but it was evident that he was. After Adrynn returned to the rest of the gang, each of whom was busy with their own adversary at the moment, Lecuaro moved to get close to him.

 

 

Lecuaro dispatched the Ashlander axeman he'd been fighting and closed in on where Adrynn and his new foe were. However, his progress was halted by a large flash in front of his face. He turned to the left and saw one of the few metal-armored blokes left running at him full speed with a throwing axe in hand. Lecuaro assumed form and dodged the mercenary's wild throw with relative ease. The mercenary then drew his main battle axe as he drew near. The weapon was a monster of a thing; a large two-handed, double-beard-bladed, steel axe. Lecuaro used his greater agility to his advantage, parrying and evading the axe blows like a cat.

 

 

Although he was successfully avoiding getting halved by the mercenary's axe, Lecuaro couldn't find an opening. He was hoping the group wouldn't have to use its special weapons until it reached Kogoruhn, but that didn't seem likely now. In between axe-swings, Lecuaro reached into his spark bead pouch and pulled out a small handfull. He sidestepped another overhead chop and threw the beads at the merc's helm. The bright flashes of light made him cringe slightly and gave Lecuaro the half-second he needed to wrench the axe to the side with one hand and run him through with his katana in the other. Then he spun off of the man and delivered a parting slice to the hamstring as he kept pressing toward Adrynn.

 

 

Then suddenly, he saw a rather awesome display of power from Kriak as he summoned the dark powers at his command and surged through the bulk of the remaining assailants with relative ease. He then saw him come upon the hapless shamans, whose magical shield provided little resistance against the onslaught of dark magics that wholly engulfed them and popped them like ripe melons. This display of power was indeed impressive, but Lecuaro scarcely had time to appreciate it since he noticed what looked to be the last steel-plated adversary running up behind Kriak, somehow managing to slip through the hunter's snare.

 

 

"Kriak, behind you!" He yelled.

 

 

However, he was worried that Kriak would be too late and suddenly, he felt a deep, pulsating magical essence bubbling. An orange tint fell over his vision as the tide of magicka rose inside of him. Then, brilliant bright orange flames appeared in his hands and his eyes locked onto the unfortunate mercenary. Barely thinking consciously at the moment, he just threw his arms forward. The flames flew forth from his hands, completely covering the defenseless warrior. He had to actively try to keep the flames from extending to Kriak, but he managed to restrain them. Several seconds later, the flames dissipated and Lecuaro's target, likely cremated inside of his own armor suit, fell over. The armor itself was jet black from scorching. Lecuaro didn't know what race he was, but it was plainly obvious that even the staunch natural Dunmeri resistance to fire would've made little difference against that kind of intensity.

 

 

Then Lecuaro suddenly noticed Caius, wide-eyed and mouth slightly agape at what he'd just witnessed. His comrade of course hadn't heard his comment about Kriak since it was made right before the flames appeared and the mercenary got roasted. But now, he seemed to be back in full control of his actions and he addressed his friend.

 

 

"Sorry, did you say something, Caius?"

 

 

Out of the original three dozen that the enemy began with only about seven or eight remained, and the death of the shamans had surely broken their morale. They fought still, but it was with a halfhearted effort.

 

 

==========================================================================================================================================

 

Cheriana Mondasten - To Kogoruhn

 

 

Kriak's powerful display also caught the attention of Cheriana, but only for a second as she saw a new foe running full speed toward her.

 

 

She wished that she could be helping her comrades by downing enemies from a distance, but an Ashlander spearman had slipped past them and had locked onto her, forcing her to put up her bow and draw her fighting knives. He was a rather nimble sucker, lunging forward with quick pokes and then reeling back. Cheriana was reduced to parrying his thrusts and circling him, waiting for him to miss a step and leave an opening. Eventually, he did. He lunged a bit too forcefully with his spear and threw himself off balace, allowing Cheriana to deflect the weapon away with her left blade and chop his hand off with the right. Then, not giving him a moment's rest, she spun around behind him cutting his side as she went and then she jammed both shortswords straight through his back. He fell over into the ash, blood spurting from multiple places.

==========================================================================================================================================

 

Mercando - To Kogoruhn

 

 

All throughout the battle, Mercando had found himself taking down his opponents one by one with his unique fighting style combination of magic and swordplay. He felled one Ashlander by casting a frost spell at his swinging arm, immobilizing it just long enough for him to counter with a neck-severing slice. One of the steel-armored mercenaries was simply met with a small inexpensive shock spell that utilized the metal's conductive properties to cook the occupant. On and on they came single file, and by and by they went single file.

 

 

Then, Kriak made his push to the shamans, which had thrown the whole lot of people, both friend and foe, for a loop. As he tried to regain control of his senses, Mercando saw that there were no more bad guys heading for him, and so he moved to assist Cheriana with her new enemy.

Edited December 7, 2011 by SoulofChrysamere

[darkedge42392]

Adrynn Indarys, Ashlands, to Kogoruhn

 

A fierce smile was on Adrynn's lips as he watched Kriak destroy the Ashlander shamans. Adrynn knew his skill was great, but he knew he couldn't compare with Kriak. Not like this. Adrynn turned in time to see Lecuaro's massive use of a flame spell, cooking some poor fool in his armor. Adrynn only shook his head and made his way up to Lecuaro, dispatching a screaming Ashlander as he passed by. He glanced around the battlefield. There were only a few stragglers left, and they were quickly realizing that they were far outmatched. They were making their way away from the group. They were heading in all directions. He noticed one trying to sneak back east and quickly threw a frostbolt at him, freezing him in place.

 

"Don't let anyone escape!" Adrynn yelled to the others. Adrynn sprinted to the east, cutting down those who were trying to escape by cutting their legs out from under them. As he reached the one he had frozen, he noticed wide panicked eyes and a shaking, frozen form. Adrynn's eyes were dark as they looked over this poor soul.

 

"You're coming with me, Ashlander," Adrynn said, dragging the frozen Ashlander back to the others.

[AurianaValoria1]

Caius Cosades, Ashlands, to Kogoruhn

 

A frantically fleeing merc tripped on a trama root as he passed by the Commander and the Spymaster, the latter of whom taking this opportunity to stab his katana deep into the foolish foe's back. As he wrenched the blade free, he again remarked to Lecuaro, "I said I'm glad Kriak is on our side!"

 

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw another running mercenary - a khajiit judging from the tail - close to clearing the far hill. Caius gathered his magicka, "Oh, no you don't."

 

He flung the power from his left hand, striking the steel-clad warrior just as he reached the crest of the dune. It manifested as a paralyzation spell, and the merc promptly fell prone. The Spymaster rushed to seize him just as Adrynn was taking his own captive.

 

By the gods, they would have answers.

Edited December 8, 2011 by AurianaValoria1

[SoulofChrysamere]

Lecuaro Sulnair Marczon - To Kogoruhn

 

 

Glad indeed -- Lecuaro thought as Caius repeated his comment. He walked over to where Caius and Adrynn had dragged their two detainees: a leather-dressed Khajiit and an Ashlander man wearing what looked to be a mix of netch leather and chitin armor.

 

 

"Let's see what these blokes know..." Lecuaro said.

==========================================================================================================================================

Serrabinashiah Masseribalit - To The Urshilaku Camp

 

 

Serra looked quizzically at Velanya. She'd never heard of the "Blackwood Company".

 

 

"The...Blackwood Company?" She asked.

Edited December 28, 2011 by SoulofChrysamere