Throughout the night the fires on the northeast side of Valhiem raged. Greenglow Forest was ravaged by the CogHeads who had set up on-site manufacturing and smelting stations. Through the use of industry, alchemy and magic, iron and lumber was quickly produced from the forest and mountains. Seige towers. Catapults. Ammunition. More catapults.
What unusable trees there were did not go to waste. Pyromancers built bonfires, danced and performed rituals to enchance the power of artillery fire and also launch their own magical attacks on Valhiem's walls.
Valhiem City Ritual Barrier was holding. The Academy had divided all those with the talent to uphold the city shield into 3 shifts, giving the mages a chance to get some rest. The airspace was prioitized, leaving the strong city walls to take occasional damage. It was the best they could do, but what rest the mages and students could get would eventually not be enough to recover from the continuous drain of High-Tier Ritual Magic. But for now, the city was protected.
General Saladin, The Marquis
General Saladin, 1 of the 5 Antiquinites: The Witch Queen's personal think-tank, her most trusted people, and the heads of the invading forces divisions.Saladin was nothing if not a patient man. Calculated and cunning. He knew how much time he had. He knew how long it would take to raze Valhiem to the ground. Everything was going as he had planned. There were only 2 variables he could not account for. 1 was currently inside Valhiem's Academy:
The Control Core. It probably wouldn't matter much. The magical technology was locked behind the most innocuous of doors, a door that they would never suspect.
The 2nd variable Saladin was unsure of?
That variable was currently sneaking into the city...
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In spite of the vampire fledgings spotted around the city aswell as the patrols of Lizard Cavalry and Dark Riders, Second Chance were making progress through a combination of their intelligent decisions and talents.
Waiting until midnight was not foolproof, as some of The Witch Queens patrolling forces were mostly non-human, many possessing dark vision. But the cover of darkness certainly helped to some degree.
Fenna's injury meant that she could not swim for any real length of time, try as the tough woman did. Not even she could overcome that impossibility. But that did not mean that James' plan to use the river was completely out of the picture.
Fenna's innate talent for scouting and stealth made her the perfect lead for the party along the riverside. Adam's ability for rapid growth of plants and bushes to subtlely grow the already-existing cover that Fenna was routing through, perfectly synchronized with Fenna's skills.
James was smart enough to chant Undaya's blessing onto the party anyway, giving them all the Waterbreathing ability. On the few close calls, where Second Chance was almost caught, Adam did not need to sacrifice himself as a distraction. Instead the entire party would drop into the river and use riverweeds, grown by Adam, to hold themselves to the riverbed. Waterbreathing allowed them to stay as long as they needed underwater until the threat passed.
Still, it was a slow grind of a process. Especially at parts where there was no natural cover and Adam was forced to slowly and surruptiously grow vegetation and foiliage without anyone noticing, to create cover against the far-seeing, fast moving enemy patrols.
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Elsewhere:
The village of Cherrad, after being blessed with a full pouch of gold, sent out messengers to the Sibliconian Fortress in the north,
Fornost, aswell as the nearest city,
Helecarsus, for reinforcements.
Fornost would take more than 10 days to get to, and the request would be regrettably declined anyway. Valhiem was an important city, but
The Free People's Empire could not risk any troops or warriors leaving Fornost. Most likely, the commanders at Fornost would suspect the attack on Valhiem to be a move for the specific purpose trying to spread the
The Free People's Armies thin, so that The Witch Queen could take Fornost and have a clear path to
Capitol City. In any case, it wouldn't matter as no messenger would arrive in time to make any difference.
The City of Helecarsus was closer and within the Northern-Central Mytherian Region. A messenger riding hard and fast from Cherrad would reach Helecarsus anywhere bewtween 4-6 days. Only time would tell if this would do any good for The Siege of Vahiem.
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When Second Chance made it to the walls of the city, soaking wet, cold and injured, the dangers that they potentially faced had finally passed. They had been successful on every front and avoided all of the possible pitfalls in their plan.
MacKensie could use her magical grapplehook to scale the walls easily and would be greeted by an escort of adventurers who had been waiting for the arrival of Second Chance. This party went by the name of
Silver Arrow, and their leader, Wulrik, was explained that Silver Arrow was sent by Lucy Bottrill to help.
Silver Arrow ordered the South River Barricade to be lifted and the rest of Second Chance entered the city by the waterway. Wulrick was asked by the Guildmaster to bring Second Chance up to The Citadel, but upon seeing all of their injuries, he took them first to Valhiem's hospital to get patched up, which was done free of charge in this time of great emergency.
Once The Heroes from the Sky were fully healed to perfect health through the Source Crystal technology of the hospital, the adventurer party, Silver Arrow, would be ready to escort them from the hospital, up the moutain to The Citadel.
Pyrrhic
Dark Cloud
Ariana Grey
Zapdos
Izurich
Lewascan2
Lunafreya Miku
Alby47
Vec
