((Incoming Great Text Wall of China!)) Lord Rain's current form was very weak. It was just a somewhat muscular human wearing an old, torn up formal white outfit with a partially-destroyed golden mask. He had forgotten where he had even gotten the things, and he was fairly certain they made him look like a pushover. He was going to be the warlord of a village, but how could he even scare people in his current form? The looks were half the part of being an evil, intimidating, feared warlord! Therefore, he would change his current form from his humanoid form into something much more evil, and much more intimidating. He would no longer look weak, he would instead look like he should be feared! He would live up to his name, and show why he was a Lord. Lord Rain gave his orders to his Construct. Make sure production runs smoothly, keep the soldiers in line, and oversee the imps building up the defenses. After all, ripping huge chunks of land and moving them into the sky along with huge lightning bolts will probably attract some attention to them. Attention that they neither wanted, nor needed. And to top it all off, attention that they would get soon. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was around mid-day. A group of Humans, in suits of shiny white and gold colored armor, sat in cover behind the edge of a crater. Nearly just above them floated a sprawling flying castle. The only way up was a staircase. It would be pretty hard to take the loot from this castle, as they all had figured out the castle was probably protected by a wizard. They were wrong, very wrong indeed. The group of men in armor walked up the staircase as silently yet quickly as they could. About 2 minutes later of walking, they reached the top. It was the entrance to the castle, surrounded in reinforced walls made of a stone-like material. A few of the men walked up to the walls, looking for a way to get in. What they didn't know was that a Keeper was inside this castle, watching them, waiting for them to make a move. They began banging on the large wooden door, which seemed sealed by some force, which was actually the Keeper keeping it closed. They began demanding entry, and suddenly, the doors swung open. A few of the men stumbled because the sudden opening had caught them off guard. As soon as the group entered the castle, they encountered a strange sight. Over a hundred humanoid beasts, composed of clouds and lightning, were fighting and training. The men thought these beasts would be no match for them, but they were very wrong, as usual. Instead, they would have a fun time dodging bolts of lightning raining down from some place above them and a bunch of swords and spears. That would happen later, though. "Where is your leader? We are taking this castle by force!" announced a man with much more regal armor than the others, presumably the leader of the group. Suddenly, a voice rang out through the halls. It was deep, and powerful, the essence of the Keeper and the Heart itself. "Right here. Or not. I'm the walls. I'm the ceiling. I am the castle." said the voice. The group looked around, stunned, and the leader spoke again. "I am Count Swadia, and I command you to tell me who your leader is! Stop playing little jokes! We are taking this castle by force along with all of your wealth!" said the leader of the group of humans. Suddenly, a lightning bolt struck down in front of them. The creatures also turned towards them, and rushed to the Armory to grab their weapons. A man in grey-ish white armor ran towards a door, and sliced it open, revealing nothing but an empty room. The rest of the men began splitting up, looking for the Treasury, leaving the Count alone. "I shall give you one warning, leave my castle or feel the wrath of a true Keeper," the voice said. The Count simply gave a small laugh, obviously a bit nervous, and attempted to regain his composure. "I shall not leave, because I am taking your castle by force!" the Count said. Suddenly, a few lightning bolts struck down in front of him, and he flew back. In the distance, the sound of a man screaming could be heard in the room that was the Armory. Meanwhile, at the Armory... A man walked up to a rather large door. He slowly opened it, sword in hand. He heard a dark, evil voice presumably briefing a group of soldiers on a mission. He tried not to be seen, and listened closer. "...mission is to kill..." "human in the castle" The man held his sword tightly, and walked into full view. Like an idiot, the man charged at the first group of soldiers he saw. He was instantly impaled through the pelvis, and the spear was twisted and ripped out of him. The man fell back, in extreme pain, screamed, and then was knocked out. He would make a good victim for an upcoming torture room. Back in the main hall... The Count got up, dazed. He whistled, and all of his men rushed into the main hall. Suddenly, a small army of about 25 cloud-like humanoids and 10 skeletons made of lightning filled up the room. The front line was armed with spears and shields, and the back line had their shields up covering themselves and the front row's head. They were armed with swords in case the defense was broken. They had created a wall that was impenetrable, spanning the width of the main hall. The Count and his men charged, and ran into the wall, attempting to break it. A few men were impaled, and another couple had received a few light injuries. Blood was everywhere, and the sounds of swords hitting shields rang through the main hall. Finally, only about five men were left out of the original 15, and they retreated back. What they didn't realize that a whole row of the humanoid beasts that were made of clouds had moved in behind the main defense, all armed with bows. They took aim, and fired a rain of arrows. The swordsmen defending the top realized this was their cue and began raining small lightning bolts upon their enemy. Three men had died from getting hit by the arrows, and one was shocked to death. Another was subdued and had blacked out, leaving the Count as the only one standing. "I wish to duel with your leader." the Count said, not realizing the leader was actually unavailable. Then, the wall parted, revealing one of the humanoid cloud beasts, except covered head-to-toe in steel armor that coursed with electricity. He held a steel sword in his hand, and spun it around with a generation's worth of skill, despite the fact he had only been alive for about a week. "I guess you wish to die, then." the 'leader' said. "I bet you want to know the name of the thing that will kill you, so I shall tell you mine. I am Shock." He stopped spinning his sword around and got into his normal sword fighting stance. The Count did the same, and the fight began. The wall of soldiers cheered Shock on as the duel continued. Parry after parry and dodge after dodge were made. It seemed as if both opponents were equally skilled. Suddenly, Shock hit the hilt of the Count's blade, disarming the Count. He then raised his own sword to the Count's neck. "Do you surrender?" Shock asked. "I fight to the death." the Count replied. He then jumped to the left, and attempted to punch Shock. He simply dodged the punch, and put his blade up. He then roundhouse kicked the Count in the side, with the power stronger than that of a normal human's. He then launched himself at the count, and began punching. By the time it was over, the Count's nose was broken beyond repair. He then roundhouse kicked the Count in the side and then did a side kick into the Count's ribs. A deafening crack was heard as the Count's ribs broke. The Count fell down in pain, and struggled to get up. "I... fight... to the death" the Count said once again, and swung again. Shock dodged the Count's punch, took out his blade, and decapitated the Count. He took out a small cloth, wiped the blood off his sword, and put it back in its sheathe. He then walked off, ordering his troops to deal with the two prisoners gained. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lord Rain, now undisturbed, began the transformation process. He planned out what his body would look like. He would wear black armor. His helmet would be themed after that of some new word that came to his mind from nowhere: a 'Roman' helmet. A plume of electricity would come out from the top, running vertically across it. Along the sides of the top would be small spikes. His shoulder armor would be fashioned in the style of a dragon's head, and the eyes would glow blue. He would have black gauntlets that had a skull design on the front of them, and they would go up to his elbows. His chestplate would consist of a black layered chestplate, with the design of a dragon's skull on the front. Its eyes would also glow blue. His torso armor would be simple layered armor, and the leggings would be chainmail leggings. The boots would be made of layers of black metal and would have a skull at the top of the front of them, at the area below one's knee. On his back would be two axes, with an extra-sharp edge. They would glow with deadly power, electrifying anything they touch except for the Keeper, the Keeper's constructs, and anything the Keeper creates or owns, minus human slaves. The blades would be a dark grey and crescent shape, with a light blue crescent shape on the inside. The handles would be black, in order to go with the rest of his armor. They would be bounded to his hands by attachable chains that come out of the mouth of the skull on the front of his gauntlets, in order to be able to do ranged attacks without using magic. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [hider=Compendium Entry (Thanks to Cyclone!)]Lord Rain: A keeper that resembles a large person wearing an intimidating set of black armor, adorned with a few metal skulls on it. He charges into the fray of combat with two axes that cackle with dancing electricity, both of them far too heavy for any normal human to wield.[/hider] Forces: 30 imps, 100 Stormers, 50 Bolters, 2 Captured Humans Constructs/Rogue Beings: Shock (Stormer Construct) Resources: Several bags of iron and steel tools, and food for the army, 30 enchanted steel swords, 20 enchanted steel spears, 25 bows with 25 arrows each, 50 sets of basic steel armor, 50 sets of wooden training gear, along with some stone, dirt, and a whole lot of clouds. Infrastructure: A dungeon heart, the flying-castle-dungeon itself, a Lair, a Hatchery, a Portal, reinforced stone walls, and a Forge.