[h3]The Subjugation of the Horde[/h3] Lazarus, the most secretive of bastards. (0 might) Vestec, the most giggly of bastards. (1 might, 2 Freepoint) Tez, the most hating of bastards. (4 Khookies) In a flash of multicolored light, the leader of the Horde was suddenly in front of the two divine beings, his sword out, Hand of Discord flexing in preparedness. As his eyes fell on Vestec he fell to his knee. “My Lord! You do me too great of an honor. What do I owe this honor?” The troll’s eyes shifted to the other being in the room, a demi-god from the feeling and look. “And who is this?” Vestec waved a lazy hand. “Enough prostrating before me. I am not Logos. This, dear Tez, is Lazzy. She wants control of your horde. I told her she needs to beat you first.” Immediately, Tez went from contrite and complacent, into full angry and hostile. A pulse of energy went off from his arm, causing smaller things to fall apart. He bared his teeth at her. “She can die trying.” “Die trying?” Lazarus responded, slowly inspecting Tez. “Tell me, what exactly have to achieved with that arm of yours? What have you achieved with it?” She crossed her arms, pointedly staring at the black arm. “Established an army.” Tez snapped back. “Slain dozens of Hain villages and hundreds of Sculptors. You won’t be any challenge.” The Hand seemed to be drawing power, steadily, as Tez watched the Demi-god. “So you’re a minor barbarian. You have achieved naught but pathetic failures and at best minor successes. With only a hundred men at my back, I [i]ascended[/i]. Without any support from the gods, I took my place in the pantheon. Can you say the same? With the blessings of a god, can you say that you have done the same?” She looked dully unimpressed with the hand. “Ascended.” Tez sneered the word. “Yes, O mighty God. You truly have taken your place among the pantheon. Is dirt hovels and sniveling worms for followers what Godhood is like? You can keep it then. I have purpose. I have [i]power[/i]. You are just here, aimlessly scribbling notes in a book and sitting in the dirt.” He gestured towards the closed book of Lazarus, contempt written into every feature. Lazarus whispered to herself, suddenly blasting a curse of force down upon Tez, in the hopes of driving him to his knees. Purposely pumping divine energy into her eyes, making them glow, she slowly walked up. “I will give you two options. You will obey my orders, and I will have an army and a citadel to stand at your back, under my command, or you can die. You can die here and now, and I will still achieve my goal. Which will it be?” Tez snarled as he was suddenly driven to his knees, hand gripping his sword tighter. The Demi-God approached, eyes glowing with power. Tez spat at her as soon as she was all too close to him. “You. Die. First.” His arm gave a pulse of powerful discord magic, having been gathering this entire time, and suddenly the things that held the curse together fell apart. Tez lunged upwards, sword driving towards her chest. The sword found its target, plunging into her chest. She didn’t even flinch. Instead, Lazarus gripped Tez by the neck, lifting him up in the air as she slowly and deliberately drew the sword out of her chest. “Wrong answer,” she snarled, before beginning to pump raw, unfiltered divine power into his head. Tez screamed in agony, pain searing his very being, even worse than the flames of his arm, before every organic part of him popped like an overfilled balloon, bathing the room in gore. The Hand of Discord dropped to the ground with a rattle. “Tsk.Messy. ” Vestec said, catching the troll’s soul and shoving it into the arm. “You’re gonna have to do that a couple more times. The Horde won’t follow a stranger. And now you have no idea of it’s strengths, weaknesses, traitorous types, power hungry types, really you could have handled that much better.” “I don’t care about the internal politics of the horde, as long as they prevent any incursions on the mountain before the dwarves can defend themselves. If I need to kill anybody else, lead me to them,” she responded, turning to face Vestec. She then, for a brief moment, turned back to pick up the Hand of Discord. “The internal politics of the Horde are what keeps the Horde from fleeing to the far winds. You can’t kill them all.” Vestec reminded her, before perking up with interest. “Oh? And what are you planning on doing with that?” “I’ll be hiding it in the Dwarven Citadel, an artifact for them to protect, unless you have other plans for it. Now, should a display of power keep the horde in line? That I can do easily enough,” she casually remarked, beady eyes focusing back onto Vestec. Vestec shrugs. “Who knows? They followed Tez because he commanded their respect. Gave them loot and victory and all that. Fear only goes so far. They might disappear in a week, or they might stay forever and guard your sacred halls till they die. I can’t predict what they’ll do now. Or what their new leader will do.” “I can promise them that were they to defend the passageways, soon they will see success beyond their wildest dreams as an organized army backs them,” she said, “now, are we done here? The horde can be moved into position, and I need the dwarves to begin work.” “Should be done, yeah. The Horde needs to be chatted too, they’re a bit confused why they’re in the mountains. Take this little rascal,” Vestec grabbed the surly, sober, dwarf. “And his wife,” There was another dwarf suddenly in his arm. “And go have fun making an empire out of them!” She frowned a moment, “I can’t make much out of only two of them. It’ll take centuries before they’re ready to go beyond just simple subsistence. May I have more? A couple thousand at the very least should suffice.” She then considered the problem of booze. The dwarf was already angry about not being drunk. “Hmm. Fine. If you insist.” Vestec copied the genetic code of the Dwarves and transferred a couple thousand goblins into the Mountain of the World. While they were all still wondering what had happened and was going on, he transformed them into dwarves. Immediately, the confusion became complaining and anger as all the dwarves were painfully sober and unhappy about it. “Annnnd done!” Lazarus simply nodded. “I’ll look into brewing techniques, or we’ll get nothing done.” [hider=Summary] -Tez arrives. Prostrates before Vestec, wonders who Laz is. -Tez takes offence to the notion Laz wants his Horde. They argue, and Tez tries to fight. Laz pumps him full of divine energy, turning him into gore splattered everywhere. -Vestec shoves Tez’s soul into the Hand of Discord, and Laz takes the Hand for her own uses. -Vestec and Laz chat about how to control the now Leaderless Horde. -Vestec turns a couple thousand Goblins into Dwarves since Laz didnt’ want to wait with the two she already had. (-1 FP) -Laz starts looking into brewing techniques to keep her dwarves happy and drunk. [/hider]