Fantasy Incursion: Call to Arms (CLOSED)

[Thinslayer]

Reserved for Thinslayer, Eltrooper, Archemiday The Bard, Topoyozada, and Bluearceus.

 

[ELTtrooper]

I'm posting on an RP forum thread!  (Checking in)

 

[Thinslayer]

We were young once.


When we conquered Aetherion after three years of constant war, we felt like kings. Ragnor always told me it was possible, but I could scarcely believe him until the three of us stood as one before the white throne. I still fondly remember Madeline looking at me - and I mean really looking at me, as a man and husband, not just as a noble stepping stone to higher power. More fondly still do I remember the moment when Ragnor looked me in the eye and nodded. I would have given my kingdom to have such a friend as he, and more for him to respect me, and I felt I could burst with joy to have had it all. As I looked down upon the cheering crowds from the balcony, I believed this was truly worth the effort.


Surely God mocks me. The courtiers stare as I clench Madeline's necklace. Ragnor still stands at my side as he always did in time past, but he looks harried and withered. Now, I would give anything, anything to see him smile again. But it is too late for that now. The kingdom stands on the edge of the abyss, fit to collapse if but a single hair falls out of place. I fear it has already begun. Millions of souls will perish in the aftermath, and I am responsible for them all. I am not proud of everything I have done for them, but I sometimes wish that just once, someone would look at me and say, "You did well, my king." Alas, it is not my lot in life. And as a king, I must bury my heart and prepare to greet the poor human products of my wretched experiments.


"Ragnor."


"Yes, my liege?"


"Let me know if Jolt returns."


"Yes, my liege."

 

[ELTtrooper]

Gavin Griffin casually made his way along the packed gravel trail the served as the path to his small home.  After a long day of repairing farm machines, he and his mobile forge he pulled on wheels behind him were ready to cool off beneath the shade trees.  Maybe he would jump in the nearby stream with Charlotte later on.   They both needed it.  During the harvest season he wished he could be at their oversized forge working with his daughter, but the field workers needed him for repairs far too often for that to be practical.  Taking his smithing services to them seemed to work well enough, and coming home after a hard day’s work out there created a homecoming scene he did love to experience each day.


As he passed his mailbox, he gave it half a glance, then stopped.  A second full glance revealed that the red flag was indeed up.  Gavin Griffin did not receive mail.  Opening the small door carefully, he peered around into the mottled shade of the woods around him looking for telltale signs of hiding people.  Inside lay nothing but a small white envelope with an all-too-familiar logo embossed on it.  Proceeding home, his long legs ate up the distance far quicker than usual.  Whatever this envelope had in it should be seen in the privacy of his home. 

 

[Thinslayer]

To Sir Gavin Griffin


By Royal Order of Dragan Von Loxley Aralon Parachis Rex, return to Aetherion Castle in three days time.


The message curiously did not explain its intent.


As Gavin made his way home, he could see smoke rising from the chimney of his cobblestone house. A steel sword, one of those he recently forged, was planted in the dirt just in front of the door next to a very beat-up dummy made of corn husks. Whether Gavin approved of someone using real swords for training rather than wooden swords is yet to be decided, but the wielder made no attempt to hide the display either way.

 

[ELTtrooper]

Passing the practice equipment and sliding his carefully crafted key into the precision lock he had made years before, Gavin opened his front door on its nearly silent hinges.  


"Charlotte!"  he called out in his voice that could carry through the whole house.  "We're leaving.  Pack your things like I showed you.  From the point in time that we leave this house on, we are outlaws.  Before we leave, I have a lot to tell you in a short amount of time, but first read this letter."  


As Gavin handed off the letter to his fairly confused daughter, he briskly trotted to the oversized metal cabinet he kept in the forge area marked "Files" in roughly stenciled paint.  Sliding a second key into a lock on top of the cabinet instead of the one on the door handle and pulling on that handle allowed Gavin to pull the file cabinet out as the door swung open revealing equipment he hoped to never have to use again in earnest.  


"So much for that jump in the river..." Gavin muttered to himself.

 

[Thinslayer]

With dinner on the hearth, all the laundry folded, and all the forging stuff put away, Charlotte felt pretty good about herself right about now. A merry jingle dwelt on the tip of her tongue as she stirred the pot of stew boiling in the pot. Just then, the door jammed open. "CHARLOTTE!" Father called out. Startled, Charlotte stopped stirring the stew and dried her hands on a rag. "Yes Pa?"


Gavin charged inside. "We're leaving. Pack your things like I showed you. From the point in time that we leave this house on, we are outlaws. Before we leave, I have a lot to tell you in a short amount of time, but first read this letter." He shoved a letter into her hands and started crashing around the house for supplies and equipment. Charlotte, now thoroughly alarmed, slipped the letter out of the envelope and folded it open.


Her brow creased into a confused frown.


"I don't understand, Pa," she pleaded, holding up the letter to him as if he hadn't read it already. "If they wanted to punish you or something, it would be pretty stupid of them to write you a letter demanding that you turn yourself in. Shouldn't we at least check it out? Besides, I just cooked dinner! At least let me serve it! We're not going to get far on an empty stomach, you know."