Eternal
“It can’t hurt to ask, if he declines we can just go through with the regular plan.” You say.
“I guess so, but I still don’t see Flog going for this idea.”
You approach Flog about your idea and just as Talia said he isn’t keen on it.
“The whole point of having you kill Mog is so Flog doesn’t get siege!”
“But you have the advantage now of us helping you. Think about it Flog, if you send us to assassinate Mog you get rid of your rival, but you still need to bring his followers under control who will all break up into petty warbands that you’ll have to chase down. That’s time wasted. On the other hand, if Mog were to die in battle against you, that would be different. You’d not only be killing him, but also killing most of his troops on top of it. You might even get some to switch sides and pledge new allegiance to you. You’ll also have the added bonus of still looking like a powerful chief who can defeat would be rivals. You could be ruling a lot longer than you think.”
You just said all the right things because it doesn’t take long for Flog to think about your words and agree.
“Hmm, you shadows might be right. Okay you help with siege instead, but must prepare quickly!” Flog says and leaves to go bark orders at his people.
“Well you convinced him, but I’m curious why this change in tactic? You don’t really think we couldn’t have succeeded the other way?”
“I’m sure we could have, but let’s just say I think we would’ve suffered greater losses. I suppose the recent battle with the wendigo and this very trip up here has made me realize that I AM getting old and trying to prove that I can wade into battle either by myself or with only a small group isn’t necessarily the best option for me anymore, especially not when your life is in danger too. Here, we can keep low and not be the main targets. Mog is going to be focused on tearing down the defenses and killing Flog first and foremost. He’s not going to expect us sneaking up on him and neither are his troops. I’d prefer if we had as many orc grunts taking the brunt of the fighting.”
“Just like the old days huh?”
“Just like.”
You make your plans to stay; you just hope you don’t have to wait too long for an attack. A couple days pass and you get a visit.
“Slumming nowadays are we?” Dendrin asks.
“Trust me I’m regretting that I ever came here now.” You answer.
“Oh, I think we both know you had to do this, if only to see if you still could do it. After this is all over, this’ll be out of your system and you’ll content setting up assassinations from the safety of your desk again.”
“Thanks for your confidence in me, and while you’re probably right, I can’t help but think I’ve just given up and accepted mediocrity and the eventual limitations brought on by old age now.”
“What limitations? You’ve made the shadows a force of fear to entire nations. You’ve got some of the leaders of those nations to even show deference to you in the form of gifts just so you might not take a contract out on their miserable lives. So what if you aren’t as effective with a sword anymore? You’ve got magic to compensate! And what is any of that compared to the influence you’ve spread?”
You have to admit, Dendrin is right.
“When that half breed moron comes marching down with his army over grown brutes, you needn’t go skulking around his camp like a common thief. You don’t even need to rely on ducking and weaving while casting shadowfire from behind some boulder. Stand on top of the world and tap into your full potential and most of all trust in me.”
“What do you mean exactly?” you ask.
“You’ll have to figure that out for yourself, but it’s pretty easy. You don’t much time though.”
Just as you’re about to ask Dedrin what he means, you’re sudden awakened by a general alarm.
“Mog’s coming! Everyone to arms!” you hear shouted several times throughout the fort.
Talia is already preparing for battle, she sees you’ve awakened.
“Good, you’re awake we’ve got to get moving.” She says approaching you.
You slowly get up and take your time as you shake away your grogginess.
“No we really don’t. You go gather all the rest of the shadows and meet me on the battlements as soon as you can.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Not sure yet, but I’m going to do something.”
You don’t even get fully dressed in your armor. You just head to the highest battlements, which you know to be at the roof of the tower portion of the fort. When you reach the top, the cold wind whips around you and there are no orcs here. You imagine they’re all on the lower battlements or reinforcing the doors.
From the top of the tower you can see Mog’s army in the not so far distance. Besides the orcs and ogres, he’s also got several giants with him along with hordes of human slaves dragging the baggage carts and pushing war machines.
You continue to watch Mog’s army get into position to attack the fort. You look up into the sky and see that more snow is starting to fall. Funny, but you don’t feel the cold at all now.
You close your eyes and concentrate. You mentally chant in your head and try to draw on the power of Dendrin and of the shadow realm.
Talia and the other shadows eventually arrive during your chanting and while you hear a couple of them call out to you, you ignore them and then you can’t hear them at all. It’s like your whole body has shifted into the shadow realm and nothing around you exists save for that numbness.
The attack on Blood Tooth begins and a boulder goes crashing into the side of a wall and you don’t even know about it. Talia and some of the shadows try to pull you back in since they fear a boulder could hit the tower next. But its silly, you have nothing to fear because you’re about to bring it…
The sky begins to darken unnaturally and you suddenly find yourself outside in between Blood Tooth and Mog’s army except it isn’t “you” its some sort of shadowy avatar of yourself. You see hundreds of Mog’s orcs and ogres before you. They looked confused at first, but they should be scared and they soon will be. You move in for the attack.
You cut down the first row of attackers in front of you with ease and then the next, and then the next and so forth. The hundreds of weapon blows you experience are nothing to you as they pass through your avatar. Eventually they wise up and start panicking, crying out about dark magic and running in the other direction.
A couple of giants try to stop you, but they don’t have any more luck than anyone else. Their large bodies eventually just become large corpses that only manage to crush a few unlucky souls that don’t get out of the way in time.
Eventually you make your way through to Mog’s encampment where you see a very large orc with light green skin and a great fat belly. You’re guessing that would be Mog. Mog still isn’t fully aware of why his men are breaking and running. All he knows is his battle plans are falling into disarray. One of his lieutenants sees your shadowy form and points at you shouting several things in orcish.
Mog shouts something as well, motioning a haggard looking human woman to help; you’re guessing that this is his witch. She begins to cast some sort of spell, but she blinks once and you’re suddenly before her eyes. This breaks her concentration, but not as much as your blade through her abdomen.
Seeing his only source of magic power killed and most of his troops running away he attempts to do likewise. He may as well be running in slow motion though due to your speed. He doesn’t even feel it when you thrust your blade through his back and pierce his heart. He just looks down long enough to see the tip of the blade disappearing from the newly made hole in his chest as it is being pulled back out. He doesn’t have time to ponder anything else except his own death within that split second and then fall down dead.
Your goal here in Rask is done and you slowly fade from the battlefield. You suddenly find yourself back in your own body, which is still standing on top of the tower. Talia and your Blades are standing by.
“It is done. Mog is dead.” You say.
“What happened exactly? I mean we tried to approach you, but a force of some sort suddenly protected your body so we didn’t wish to proceed any further. We just observed, but we could hear the fighting still going on from below.” Talia says.
“I tapped into my full potential like Dendrin suggested. Though I might not be doing that all the time in the near future, I actually feel a little drained from it. Still, it felt good to be on the battlefield just one more time. We better go find Flog, I’m sure he’ll be wondering what the hell is going on.”
Your actions were seen by most of Flog’s soldiers and they were in awe. Flog himself is pretty humble when talking with you again. You do not gloat over any of it though because you believe you’ve made a lasting impression here. Even if the orcs do manage to keep some sort of kingdom together, your actions today are going to remembered well enough for them to tell stories about to their offspring and those offspring will fear the shadows properly just as their parents do today.
Eventually you take your payment and begin your journey back to Delerg.
While you appreciate Dendrin’s suggestion and it helped you out immensely, but if his goal was to make you more into a “believer” it didn’t entirely work. One act of channeling divine power doesn’t make you believe in him as your “god” so much as it makes you desire that power on a more stable basis.
“I guess so, but I still don’t see Flog going for this idea.”
You approach Flog about your idea and just as Talia said he isn’t keen on it.
“The whole point of having you kill Mog is so Flog doesn’t get siege!”
“But you have the advantage now of us helping you. Think about it Flog, if you send us to assassinate Mog you get rid of your rival, but you still need to bring his followers under control who will all break up into petty warbands that you’ll have to chase down. That’s time wasted. On the other hand, if Mog were to die in battle against you, that would be different. You’d not only be killing him, but also killing most of his troops on top of it. You might even get some to switch sides and pledge new allegiance to you. You’ll also have the added bonus of still looking like a powerful chief who can defeat would be rivals. You could be ruling a lot longer than you think.”
You just said all the right things because it doesn’t take long for Flog to think about your words and agree.
“Hmm, you shadows might be right. Okay you help with siege instead, but must prepare quickly!” Flog says and leaves to go bark orders at his people.
“Well you convinced him, but I’m curious why this change in tactic? You don’t really think we couldn’t have succeeded the other way?”
“I’m sure we could have, but let’s just say I think we would’ve suffered greater losses. I suppose the recent battle with the wendigo and this very trip up here has made me realize that I AM getting old and trying to prove that I can wade into battle either by myself or with only a small group isn’t necessarily the best option for me anymore, especially not when your life is in danger too. Here, we can keep low and not be the main targets. Mog is going to be focused on tearing down the defenses and killing Flog first and foremost. He’s not going to expect us sneaking up on him and neither are his troops. I’d prefer if we had as many orc grunts taking the brunt of the fighting.”
“Just like the old days huh?”
“Just like.”
You make your plans to stay; you just hope you don’t have to wait too long for an attack. A couple days pass and you get a visit.
“Slumming nowadays are we?” Dendrin asks.
“Trust me I’m regretting that I ever came here now.” You answer.
“Oh, I think we both know you had to do this, if only to see if you still could do it. After this is all over, this’ll be out of your system and you’ll content setting up assassinations from the safety of your desk again.”
“Thanks for your confidence in me, and while you’re probably right, I can’t help but think I’ve just given up and accepted mediocrity and the eventual limitations brought on by old age now.”
“What limitations? You’ve made the shadows a force of fear to entire nations. You’ve got some of the leaders of those nations to even show deference to you in the form of gifts just so you might not take a contract out on their miserable lives. So what if you aren’t as effective with a sword anymore? You’ve got magic to compensate! And what is any of that compared to the influence you’ve spread?”
You have to admit, Dendrin is right.
“When that half breed moron comes marching down with his army over grown brutes, you needn’t go skulking around his camp like a common thief. You don’t even need to rely on ducking and weaving while casting shadowfire from behind some boulder. Stand on top of the world and tap into your full potential and most of all trust in me.”
“What do you mean exactly?” you ask.
“You’ll have to figure that out for yourself, but it’s pretty easy. You don’t much time though.”
Just as you’re about to ask Dedrin what he means, you’re sudden awakened by a general alarm.
“Mog’s coming! Everyone to arms!” you hear shouted several times throughout the fort.
Talia is already preparing for battle, she sees you’ve awakened.
“Good, you’re awake we’ve got to get moving.” She says approaching you.
You slowly get up and take your time as you shake away your grogginess.
“No we really don’t. You go gather all the rest of the shadows and meet me on the battlements as soon as you can.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Not sure yet, but I’m going to do something.”
You don’t even get fully dressed in your armor. You just head to the highest battlements, which you know to be at the roof of the tower portion of the fort. When you reach the top, the cold wind whips around you and there are no orcs here. You imagine they’re all on the lower battlements or reinforcing the doors.
From the top of the tower you can see Mog’s army in the not so far distance. Besides the orcs and ogres, he’s also got several giants with him along with hordes of human slaves dragging the baggage carts and pushing war machines.
You continue to watch Mog’s army get into position to attack the fort. You look up into the sky and see that more snow is starting to fall. Funny, but you don’t feel the cold at all now.
You close your eyes and concentrate. You mentally chant in your head and try to draw on the power of Dendrin and of the shadow realm.
Talia and the other shadows eventually arrive during your chanting and while you hear a couple of them call out to you, you ignore them and then you can’t hear them at all. It’s like your whole body has shifted into the shadow realm and nothing around you exists save for that numbness.
The attack on Blood Tooth begins and a boulder goes crashing into the side of a wall and you don’t even know about it. Talia and some of the shadows try to pull you back in since they fear a boulder could hit the tower next. But its silly, you have nothing to fear because you’re about to bring it…
The sky begins to darken unnaturally and you suddenly find yourself outside in between Blood Tooth and Mog’s army except it isn’t “you” its some sort of shadowy avatar of yourself. You see hundreds of Mog’s orcs and ogres before you. They looked confused at first, but they should be scared and they soon will be. You move in for the attack.
You cut down the first row of attackers in front of you with ease and then the next, and then the next and so forth. The hundreds of weapon blows you experience are nothing to you as they pass through your avatar. Eventually they wise up and start panicking, crying out about dark magic and running in the other direction.
A couple of giants try to stop you, but they don’t have any more luck than anyone else. Their large bodies eventually just become large corpses that only manage to crush a few unlucky souls that don’t get out of the way in time.
Eventually you make your way through to Mog’s encampment where you see a very large orc with light green skin and a great fat belly. You’re guessing that would be Mog. Mog still isn’t fully aware of why his men are breaking and running. All he knows is his battle plans are falling into disarray. One of his lieutenants sees your shadowy form and points at you shouting several things in orcish.
Mog shouts something as well, motioning a haggard looking human woman to help; you’re guessing that this is his witch. She begins to cast some sort of spell, but she blinks once and you’re suddenly before her eyes. This breaks her concentration, but not as much as your blade through her abdomen.
Seeing his only source of magic power killed and most of his troops running away he attempts to do likewise. He may as well be running in slow motion though due to your speed. He doesn’t even feel it when you thrust your blade through his back and pierce his heart. He just looks down long enough to see the tip of the blade disappearing from the newly made hole in his chest as it is being pulled back out. He doesn’t have time to ponder anything else except his own death within that split second and then fall down dead.
Your goal here in Rask is done and you slowly fade from the battlefield. You suddenly find yourself back in your own body, which is still standing on top of the tower. Talia and your Blades are standing by.
“It is done. Mog is dead.” You say.
“What happened exactly? I mean we tried to approach you, but a force of some sort suddenly protected your body so we didn’t wish to proceed any further. We just observed, but we could hear the fighting still going on from below.” Talia says.
“I tapped into my full potential like Dendrin suggested. Though I might not be doing that all the time in the near future, I actually feel a little drained from it. Still, it felt good to be on the battlefield just one more time. We better go find Flog, I’m sure he’ll be wondering what the hell is going on.”
Your actions were seen by most of Flog’s soldiers and they were in awe. Flog himself is pretty humble when talking with you again. You do not gloat over any of it though because you believe you’ve made a lasting impression here. Even if the orcs do manage to keep some sort of kingdom together, your actions today are going to remembered well enough for them to tell stories about to their offspring and those offspring will fear the shadows properly just as their parents do today.
Eventually you take your payment and begin your journey back to Delerg.
While you appreciate Dendrin’s suggestion and it helped you out immensely, but if his goal was to make you more into a “believer” it didn’t entirely work. One act of channeling divine power doesn’t make you believe in him as your “god” so much as it makes you desire that power on a more stable basis.