Eternal
The idea is so repugnant to you that you can’t even bring yourself to even lie about joining him. It probably wouldn’t work anyway; you’ve never been a good liar. You breathe deeply before speaking again.
“Kane, I am NOT going to help you. Now you do what you must, and I shall do what I must.”
“Told you this was a waste of time, let us be done with this.” Cyrus says and points a small crossbow on his wrist and fires it at you, though Kane knocks his hand away causing the bolt to just hit your shoulder.
You fall back in your chair and grab the battle mage who was still standing by. He falls to floor on top of you and you break his neck. You feel a little dizzy though; whatever was in that dart is putting you to sleep fast.
You hear Kane and Cyrus arguing as large orcs stomp into the office and begin kicking you as you fall unconscious.
When you wake up, you hear an unexpected familiar voice, though the most unexpected thing is that you woke up at all.
“Hey, get up. Good thing that weak ass poison doesn’t work on us very well.” Edgar says helping you up.
“Edgar? What’s happened here?” You ask looking around and finding yourself stripped of most of your clothing and in a cell.
“I knew he wouldn’t be able to convince you. I told Kane that, but he kept going on about how you’d understand, just like how in time I would come to understand. He said that siblings may have their fights, but in the end they always make up.”
“Is that how come he hasn’t killed us?”
“I guess so, though I don’t think Cyrus would have such sentimental feelings and would have us killed if he had more say in the matter.”
“Well, Cyrus at least seems to be thinking like an Eternal in that respect. Kane has apparently gone completely mad though…how the hell did this happen?!”
“You got time for a story?” Edgar asks rhetorically before explaining from the beginning.
Edgar says that when he and Kane first arrived they were met with a little hostility from everyone else and while their prowess in battle earned them respect, they still were never really “accepted” by anyone.
Edgar says he didn’t care of course and was content with the respect that he had earned and getting accolades for slaying giants and such. Kane wasn’t handling the isolation as well and was becoming increasingly more withdrawn. He did his job, but he behaved in a manner that even the orc soldiers found a little unnerving. Nobody wanted to even eat with him, got to a point where the captain of the fort had to send him out primarily on scouting missions by himself.
Edgar believes that Kane must’ve really taken the split of the team harder than any of you could’ve known. He suspects that might’ve first lead to his quirk of referring to other Eternals as siblings. He would often mention to Edgar sometimes about how much he missed spending time with you all and couldn’t wait for the day when you all would be together again.
“(Sigh) All he needed was for me to interact with him on a regular basis, but I was too busy concerned with my own glory. Time in this cell has really given me time to reflect on a lot of bad choices I’ve made in the present and the past.”
“What’s done is done now, but where does Cyrus come in?” you ask.
Edgar explains that Cyrus was transferred here four years ago as part of a replacement Shadow Guard detachment to help with the latest giant incursion. He knows Kane was sent on a mission with the Shadow Guard during that time and that’s probably where they started to talk more to each other. Normally Shadow Guards don’t interact with anyone other than other Shadow Guards, but Kane hung around him to such a degree that Cyrus eventually began to talk with Kane on his own accord.
“I don’t think Cyrus’ Shadow Guard buddies approved of it too much, but he was their leader so they didn’t say much.” Edgar says.
“So how did they control over the whole fort?”
Edgar explains again that Cyrus and Kane must’ve cooked up this plan in secret for years, as in time various changes began to occur.
The only initial thing that Edgar began to notice was the increase in orc troops being sent here. Granted there was always some stationed here, but now they were starting to out number the human soldiers, and he thought they were mostly going to the front lines on the Felkan border. However, this area was still very dangerous, so ultimately more orc troops here didn’t raise any immediate alarms.
The next thing he noticed was that there were less and less attacks by giants and ogres, but Edgar chalked that up to him killing so many of them that naturally they would probably have less members to spare now. Not to mention with all the orcs here now, the giants were having a tougher time of it.
The third thing he noticed was Kane becoming less introverted and more aggressive towards the orcs. He witnessed several fights that Kane himself started with various orc leaders. He won with ease of course and it appeared as if he was just being combative out of boredom, but in retrospect there was very real purpose. To establish no doubt to as who is the “real leader.” Captain Ian wasn’t fond of this sort of behavior in any way though and reprimanded Kane several times, but it was obvious he didn’t care.
“It was at this point I finally started to talk to Kane on a serious level, just to figure out what was going on with him. All he said to me, was you’ll see in another year brother, with a great big grin on his face. Of course when that year came I found out everything. His private orc army. his alliance with the neighboring giant and ogre tribes, his plans to unite this land completely under him and take on the Empire itself. As you can see I didn’t agree with his plans. I know I have my faults, but disloyalty isn’t one of them.”
“He’s allied with ogres and giants? So wait, how long has Kane taken control of this place?” You ask. “We were still getting reports from here from Captain Ian up until last month.”
“Hah! Captain Ian’s been dead for more than a few months now! Kane’s just been going through the motions of sending reports and messengers, probably to make sure you or nobody else sent anyone to investigate before he was ready to openly defy the Empire.”
“By the Emperor I can’t believe I was so close and never suspected anything wrong going on up here, let alone treason!” you say.
“If it’s any consolation, you weren’t the only one. Besides like I said, I was here and I should’ve been the one to do something before anyone. Instead I got myself captured. Tried to bust out a few times, I figured I’d either escape or die trying. There’s just too many of those tough orc bastards though. Even when I managed to get a weapon the blasted battle mage would cast some sort of spell and I’d go completely weak and groggy. Then I’d end up back here again. Heh, Kane’s so crazy now that he still believes that I’ll eventually side with him.”
“Did you say battle mage? As in one?”
“Yeah, used to have two and they probably would’ve liked to get more stationed here before unleashing their plan, but they had to make due with the ones that cooperated. I killed one of them before my first capture.”
“Well they don’t have any now, because I killed the other one before I got sent here.”
Edgar tries to contain his enthusiasm.
“That’s great! I mean with you by my side and none of that magic shit to complicate things, you’ve given us a much improved chance to escape for good!”
Never thought you’d hear Edgar to be so happy to fight along side you, and normally you might even be a little happy too, but right now you’re concerned with escape. The longer you’re gone, the more likely Lieutenant Verant will send someone up here to investigate. They’ll be killed of course and then Kane will undoubtedly push a full attack on to Fort Destiny ad you don’t have the highest hopes that they’d survive an attack by a combined army of orcs, ogres and giants without being prepared at least.
You waste no time coming up with a plan. Simplest ones often work the best, Edgar tells you that it’ll be feeding time soon and that you should remain “unconscious” and he’ll do the rest.
You get into position and eventually hear the footsteps of your orc jailer.
“Here’s yer food, Ed!” one of them says carrying a bowl.
“Hey! Why’d you dump a dead body into this cell with me?” Edgar says.
“Wha? He ain’t dead he’s just knocked out! I should know I was one of guys that kicked him in da head! Har har har har!”
“Well he died in his sleep then from your kick to his head. I recognize him as an Eternal and Kane’s gonna be pissed that you killed him!”
“He ain’t dead! He sleep!”
“I’m telling you he’s dead! Don’t believe me, you better check yourself.”
“Oh no, I know you Ed. You gonna try bash my skull in as soon as I open door. If he really dead, then I just say you killed him.”
“And you really think Kane’s gonna believe that? He knows Eternal don’t kill each other, that’s why he’s keeping me alive even though I escape!”
The orc pauses for a moment and decides he can’t take the chance.
“Bah, alright, I’ll check, but I’m tellin’ you he’s just still unconscious! That shadow guy hit ‘im with one of doze bolts of his. But YOU are gonna do something first.”
The orc tells Edgar to turn his back and get close to the cell bars, at which point the orc shackles him so her is unable to attack him. Thank the Emperor that most orcs are still not the brightest lanterns.
The orc approaches you and that’s when you spring into action. You struggle with the orc jailer until you manage to grab his dagger and repeatedly stab him in the throat with it to the point where you nearly decapitate him.
After kicking the dead orc in the face you grab his keys and release Edgar.
“Okay I know of a route we can try to escape through, nearly made it the last time, but again the mage showed up. That won’t be a problem this time and they probably won’t think I’ll try it again.” Edgar says.
The obvious thing to do is to concentrate on escaping the fort, though another part of you wants to go back to find Kane and Cyrus to kill them.
“Kane, I am NOT going to help you. Now you do what you must, and I shall do what I must.”
“Told you this was a waste of time, let us be done with this.” Cyrus says and points a small crossbow on his wrist and fires it at you, though Kane knocks his hand away causing the bolt to just hit your shoulder.
You fall back in your chair and grab the battle mage who was still standing by. He falls to floor on top of you and you break his neck. You feel a little dizzy though; whatever was in that dart is putting you to sleep fast.
You hear Kane and Cyrus arguing as large orcs stomp into the office and begin kicking you as you fall unconscious.
When you wake up, you hear an unexpected familiar voice, though the most unexpected thing is that you woke up at all.
“Hey, get up. Good thing that weak ass poison doesn’t work on us very well.” Edgar says helping you up.
“Edgar? What’s happened here?” You ask looking around and finding yourself stripped of most of your clothing and in a cell.
“I knew he wouldn’t be able to convince you. I told Kane that, but he kept going on about how you’d understand, just like how in time I would come to understand. He said that siblings may have their fights, but in the end they always make up.”
“Is that how come he hasn’t killed us?”
“I guess so, though I don’t think Cyrus would have such sentimental feelings and would have us killed if he had more say in the matter.”
“Well, Cyrus at least seems to be thinking like an Eternal in that respect. Kane has apparently gone completely mad though…how the hell did this happen?!”
“You got time for a story?” Edgar asks rhetorically before explaining from the beginning.
Edgar says that when he and Kane first arrived they were met with a little hostility from everyone else and while their prowess in battle earned them respect, they still were never really “accepted” by anyone.
Edgar says he didn’t care of course and was content with the respect that he had earned and getting accolades for slaying giants and such. Kane wasn’t handling the isolation as well and was becoming increasingly more withdrawn. He did his job, but he behaved in a manner that even the orc soldiers found a little unnerving. Nobody wanted to even eat with him, got to a point where the captain of the fort had to send him out primarily on scouting missions by himself.
Edgar believes that Kane must’ve really taken the split of the team harder than any of you could’ve known. He suspects that might’ve first lead to his quirk of referring to other Eternals as siblings. He would often mention to Edgar sometimes about how much he missed spending time with you all and couldn’t wait for the day when you all would be together again.
“(Sigh) All he needed was for me to interact with him on a regular basis, but I was too busy concerned with my own glory. Time in this cell has really given me time to reflect on a lot of bad choices I’ve made in the present and the past.”
“What’s done is done now, but where does Cyrus come in?” you ask.
Edgar explains that Cyrus was transferred here four years ago as part of a replacement Shadow Guard detachment to help with the latest giant incursion. He knows Kane was sent on a mission with the Shadow Guard during that time and that’s probably where they started to talk more to each other. Normally Shadow Guards don’t interact with anyone other than other Shadow Guards, but Kane hung around him to such a degree that Cyrus eventually began to talk with Kane on his own accord.
“I don’t think Cyrus’ Shadow Guard buddies approved of it too much, but he was their leader so they didn’t say much.” Edgar says.
“So how did they control over the whole fort?”
Edgar explains again that Cyrus and Kane must’ve cooked up this plan in secret for years, as in time various changes began to occur.
The only initial thing that Edgar began to notice was the increase in orc troops being sent here. Granted there was always some stationed here, but now they were starting to out number the human soldiers, and he thought they were mostly going to the front lines on the Felkan border. However, this area was still very dangerous, so ultimately more orc troops here didn’t raise any immediate alarms.
The next thing he noticed was that there were less and less attacks by giants and ogres, but Edgar chalked that up to him killing so many of them that naturally they would probably have less members to spare now. Not to mention with all the orcs here now, the giants were having a tougher time of it.
The third thing he noticed was Kane becoming less introverted and more aggressive towards the orcs. He witnessed several fights that Kane himself started with various orc leaders. He won with ease of course and it appeared as if he was just being combative out of boredom, but in retrospect there was very real purpose. To establish no doubt to as who is the “real leader.” Captain Ian wasn’t fond of this sort of behavior in any way though and reprimanded Kane several times, but it was obvious he didn’t care.
“It was at this point I finally started to talk to Kane on a serious level, just to figure out what was going on with him. All he said to me, was you’ll see in another year brother, with a great big grin on his face. Of course when that year came I found out everything. His private orc army. his alliance with the neighboring giant and ogre tribes, his plans to unite this land completely under him and take on the Empire itself. As you can see I didn’t agree with his plans. I know I have my faults, but disloyalty isn’t one of them.”
“He’s allied with ogres and giants? So wait, how long has Kane taken control of this place?” You ask. “We were still getting reports from here from Captain Ian up until last month.”
“Hah! Captain Ian’s been dead for more than a few months now! Kane’s just been going through the motions of sending reports and messengers, probably to make sure you or nobody else sent anyone to investigate before he was ready to openly defy the Empire.”
“By the Emperor I can’t believe I was so close and never suspected anything wrong going on up here, let alone treason!” you say.
“If it’s any consolation, you weren’t the only one. Besides like I said, I was here and I should’ve been the one to do something before anyone. Instead I got myself captured. Tried to bust out a few times, I figured I’d either escape or die trying. There’s just too many of those tough orc bastards though. Even when I managed to get a weapon the blasted battle mage would cast some sort of spell and I’d go completely weak and groggy. Then I’d end up back here again. Heh, Kane’s so crazy now that he still believes that I’ll eventually side with him.”
“Did you say battle mage? As in one?”
“Yeah, used to have two and they probably would’ve liked to get more stationed here before unleashing their plan, but they had to make due with the ones that cooperated. I killed one of them before my first capture.”
“Well they don’t have any now, because I killed the other one before I got sent here.”
Edgar tries to contain his enthusiasm.
“That’s great! I mean with you by my side and none of that magic shit to complicate things, you’ve given us a much improved chance to escape for good!”
Never thought you’d hear Edgar to be so happy to fight along side you, and normally you might even be a little happy too, but right now you’re concerned with escape. The longer you’re gone, the more likely Lieutenant Verant will send someone up here to investigate. They’ll be killed of course and then Kane will undoubtedly push a full attack on to Fort Destiny ad you don’t have the highest hopes that they’d survive an attack by a combined army of orcs, ogres and giants without being prepared at least.
You waste no time coming up with a plan. Simplest ones often work the best, Edgar tells you that it’ll be feeding time soon and that you should remain “unconscious” and he’ll do the rest.
You get into position and eventually hear the footsteps of your orc jailer.
“Here’s yer food, Ed!” one of them says carrying a bowl.
“Hey! Why’d you dump a dead body into this cell with me?” Edgar says.
“Wha? He ain’t dead he’s just knocked out! I should know I was one of guys that kicked him in da head! Har har har har!”
“Well he died in his sleep then from your kick to his head. I recognize him as an Eternal and Kane’s gonna be pissed that you killed him!”
“He ain’t dead! He sleep!”
“I’m telling you he’s dead! Don’t believe me, you better check yourself.”
“Oh no, I know you Ed. You gonna try bash my skull in as soon as I open door. If he really dead, then I just say you killed him.”
“And you really think Kane’s gonna believe that? He knows Eternal don’t kill each other, that’s why he’s keeping me alive even though I escape!”
The orc pauses for a moment and decides he can’t take the chance.
“Bah, alright, I’ll check, but I’m tellin’ you he’s just still unconscious! That shadow guy hit ‘im with one of doze bolts of his. But YOU are gonna do something first.”
The orc tells Edgar to turn his back and get close to the cell bars, at which point the orc shackles him so her is unable to attack him. Thank the Emperor that most orcs are still not the brightest lanterns.
The orc approaches you and that’s when you spring into action. You struggle with the orc jailer until you manage to grab his dagger and repeatedly stab him in the throat with it to the point where you nearly decapitate him.
After kicking the dead orc in the face you grab his keys and release Edgar.
“Okay I know of a route we can try to escape through, nearly made it the last time, but again the mage showed up. That won’t be a problem this time and they probably won’t think I’ll try it again.” Edgar says.
The obvious thing to do is to concentrate on escaping the fort, though another part of you wants to go back to find Kane and Cyrus to kill them.