Valchyrie

A dragon's breath means death (Fetzen & Valchyrie)

Eliza studied Vyzel for a moment. He was bigger in every aspect compared to her, but then again, Sylvaris weren’t known for being bulky or muscular creatures. They could still pack a punch and be just as strong as a Charr, but their bodies almost never looked like it. She shook his hand gently, but firmly and gave him a small nod. “Glad to be on Muria. A first for me, but I have already seen a lot of the continent on my way here.” She said softly. A tavern maid came over to her, as the good maid she was she had spotted a new customer and asked if Eliza would like anything. Eliza looked at her and just ordered a bowl of onion and tomato soup. The maid nodded and went away again, leaving the two of them alone to continue whatever conversation they had going, though the maid was intrigued to have a Sylvari in the tavern. Eliza then continued with their conversation “Supplies won’t be a problem; I can make a meal out of mother earth. Travelling…” she considered this for a moment, she had her own way of travelling, but she supposed that it was best to keep it to the normal ways of travelling, and not scare the shit out of people here on Muria. “…would be nice with a horse, so the offer is appreciated.” His last question though, was a bit strange. He came from the Order of Whispers and yet he came so unprepared, unless it was a way to make her give him information, in which case he had just failed at luring it out of Eliza.

Nevertheless, Eliza had been planning to talk strategy with the man anyway, so it didn’t really matter that much. “I assume you have heard the rumors at least and that we might not return from this journey, should the rumors be true. I’ll spare you the details for now, but from the information I’ve gathered on my way here, it seems we need to go into the swamps of Muria first, as that was where this creature was first seen.” The maid came over with a bowl of soup and put it down in front of Eliza. She smiled a little at Eliza before she went away again. Eliza then continued “The strange thing is, that a creature of that size would normally not be able to be in a swamp, there’s too many tight spaces for it to roam around as it pleases, but the rumors started there, so that’s where we are going. You’re going to lead the way for the time being, as you know this continent better than I do.” She took a spoonful of her soup and let it warm her body. She was still dripping, but the heat from the fireplace in the tavern and the soup that she was now eating, was helping her body to dry.

She shrugged a little though; she didn’t feel like it was too good of an idea to stay in the tavern for too long. While a Sylvari wasn’t more dangerous than any other race, a rare race was always treated with distrust, or almost always. “I’ve shared the starting plan with you, there are more plans, depending on what information we gather from the swamps and whatever hides in there, but I don’t think I should stay here any longer. I’ll take the soup with me outside to the stables and I’ll stay out there until you are ready to move. I’d prefer to avoid an incident with the customers here.” She didn’t know how many eyes were on her, but she could at least feel a few, and that was more than she needed. She stood up again, making no sound as she did, grabbed all of her stuff plus the bowl of soup and gave him a small nod “If you’d like to speak more, you know where to find me.” She said and then she left the table. A few of the guys in the tavern had already gotten up from their chairs, but seeing that she was about to leave the tavern, at least the indoor parts of the tavern, they sat down again.

Eliza went out to the stables and walked for a few seconds through the rain again, it wasn’t long, but it was enough to make her all wet once again. She found an empty horse booth and went in there. There were some unused hay that she put on the ground to make it more soft and then she sat down with her legs crossed and the soup in front of her. While it was a risk, she decided to put on some spiders above the stable doors, that could function as an alarm bell, should anyone come into the stables, including her newest ally. Even though she was going to work together with him, she preferred to stay on the safe side of things, and that meant knowing what was coming for you, ally or foe. The spiders crawled up the walls, very tiny spiders, and went to the entrance, created their web and waited while Eliza began eating the rest of her soup.

A dragon's breath means death (Fetzen & Valchyrie)

Another dragon had been said to have been spotted. It was like this world just wanted to be in chaos constantly. There had been countless of wars between the different races until the first dragon had arrived. It had taken a lot of lives and a lot of constant fighting and planning to take down the dragon, only to know another one had risen again. It had just kept going on like that for ages, and now there supposedly was a new one. If one thought their life was boring, they would only have to join one of the orders to make their life exciting and dangerous. Though of course, many people preferred the more casual life, instead of fighting dragons and undead creatures and what else they could come up against as a soldier for the world. But to Eliza, these things didn’t matter. She had travelled from the continent of Tyria, where her home as a Sylvari was. She came from the Grove, which was the main home to the Sylvari. All of them were born with a dream, a dream that showed them what they should do in life. It could be to take down a dragon, help find information on something, become a famous scholar or something else. But Eliza La Chev had been born with nothing. Some said she was a fraud, a fake sylvari, though no one had been able to explain just how that would work. The Mother of the pale tree knew Eliza from the day she was born and that was proof that Eliza was a true sylvari. However, even the Mother had been unable to explain why Eliza had been born without a dream.

Whatever the case was, Eliza had become a very well respected necromancer, rather feared in some corners of the world as well and she was highly intelligent. She had joined the Durmand Priory order, though she hadn’t come to them, they came to her to ask if she would join them. At the time, she didn’t feel like she belonged anywhere in the world specifically, her skills as a necromancer had served different nations well throughout her long life, but without a dream, she had no goal to keep her focused on. When the Durmand Priory then offered her a position with them, she saw no reason to say no. Since then, life had been very interesting for the most part. However, she wasn’t sure if she would call a new dragon interesting, it was dangerous as hell, but it was her job, with the rest of the Durmand Priory members, to investigate into the rumors of the dragon and see what could be done about it. There was one catch though, the dragon was not in Tyria, it was in the continent of Muria, which had so far avoided the attention of dragons. It was a continent that Eliza had never visited before and now had to live in for a long time, possibly for many years, depending on the ruler of this continent and how willing people would be to cooperate. One thing she knew though, was that she was supposed to meet up with another man at a tavern called The Warped Nail. She didn’t know if this continent was used to seeing Sylvari, maybe they had completely different races here, but she didn’t want to hide herself. Besides, on an evening where it was raining as much as it was this night, she felt at home.

She wore a staff on her back, which seemed to be made out of very fine wood, with what seemed like a demon with two big wings, made out of bone at the top of it. Along the shaft, there were green lines, that looked like it could be vines, though it could just be decorative markings as well, it was difficult to tell. It was a very fine staff though, high quality and it looked very expensive if you had to buy it. She wore nothing besides a kind of leaf top, that was connected with a leaf skirt that went down to her knees. It was in beautiful colors. Sylvari was made of the nature, which meant she didn’t have normal skin, though it looked like skin at some parts of her body, other parts looked like it could be part of a tree. She was an attractive woman though.

She arrived at The Warped Nail with the rain dripping down from her whole body. She had walked all the way here after she had arrived with the ship to Muria. It had taken a while, but she had found it without too much difficulty. She looked up at the Tavern sign to make sure it was the right place, and it seemed to be. She could hear horses being taken care of around the side and the back of the Tavern, though she had no interest in going to check them out. She had a description of the man she was going to meet and there was no reason to delay their meeting any longer. She went into the Tavern and for a moment, people turned to look at her. At least that answered her question that Sylvari wasn’t a common sight here, could be that she was a woman though, but she felt it was more the Sylvari situation. Then people turned around again and started buzzing with conversation once more. She looked around the room herself and found the man that she was going to meet. Despite trying to lay low, choosing a table that was deserted all around it, kind of made you stand out, but she supposed it didn’t matter here.

She walked over to the table and looked at him. She was still dripping wet and it was running down her skin and into her nature outfit. She sat down without the chair making a sound and crossed her legs. She took off her staff and placed it next to her, against the window that accompanied their table. Then she opened her mouth and a breath that was unnaturally cold came out of her. It felt like the breath that came from the undead creatures, which could freeze anything that they came close to, but she didn’t kill, she spoke. “I’m Eliza La Chev, from the Durmand Priory on the continent of Tyria. I believe you are the man that I am looking for.” She didn’t speak loudly, there was no reason to make everyone eavesdrop on what would probably become a tense conversation, but she had to make sure this was the man she was looking for.

A dragon's breath means death (Fetzen & Valchyrie)

Eliza La Chev:

A dragon's breath means death (Fetzen & Valchyrie)

Fetzen Opening Post:

The weather was dreary as if the location had been some remote island in the middle of a harsh ocean. The sky's floodgates were wide open, unleashing huge amounts of vater in volleys set a few minutes to several hours apart from each other. Were things weeping due to the many victims a dragon's arrival could possibly claim ? Or had the gods in some strange act of compassion decided to preemptively drench the world in water to make it harder for the creature to set things on fire ? Whatever it was -- at least temperatures were above freezing. While it was cold noone had to be afraid of slipping on ice, even though it would have made the ground rock solid again.

A large horse with a dark fur pattern was struggling to pull a medium-sized cart along the worn road. Despite the slow speed its wheels were digging deeply enough into the mud to throw up chunks of it behind them, littering the rear end of the supplies loaded on it in the progress. Luckily Vyzel and his carriage driver, Gharak, had been thorough in their preparations: Everything was tightly packed in wooden crates and wool or leather in order to optimize both usage of space and protection. From top to bottom the stack of crates had been arranged in such a way that they'd not have to jump from an upper level to a lower level in order to retrieve a certain thing. The plan was to unpack crates as they became the top of the remaining stack in order to have a constant stream of those supplies whose demand could be planned ahead. Two more horses were accompanying them, none of them saddled but both seemed to be more suited for riding.

If these were reserved for Vyzel then it would be clear why there were two of them: The man who had been promoted to the rank of slayer dwarfed his companion by about two feet -- and Gharak couldn't really be called small given that he stood at about six feet himself. Vyzel wasn't a beanstalk either - a look at his relatively massive thighs and upper body could tell that he had some experience with a strict training regime. However he didn't look anywhere near being a brute: His halfway dark beard put up a contrast to his rather pale complexion which ran along his jawline in a neatly pruned manner. What little hair was sticking out beneath his hoodie appeared to be properly organized and cut short. His clothing ? Definitely of high quality. The leather did its job repelling the ubiquitous moisture and there was a layer of soft cloth below it to keep him warm. If one looked closer and was even more attentive one could also see that there was nothing loaded onto the cart that looked like any kind of huge weapon which would probably suit such a person. In fact there didn't seem to be any weapon present at all. Of course this wasn't true, but some things Vyzel usually relied upon were delicate and he certainly lacked interest in them being exposed to everyone's eyesight.

The carriage came to a halt in front of a not-so-well looking tavern. Vyzel craned his neck to get a brief look at its roof, trying to boost his confidence in there being no annoying leaks or even hidden instabilities. Not that he would have had much success with that attempt. His heavy traveling boots left almost Norn-like imprints behind and once more in his life a doorframe proved to be too small to pass through comfortably. Gharak remained outside and maneuvered the vehicle to a more appropriate location. His job was to stay with it and make sure that noone would put his hands on the cargo.

The Warped Nail had as much patina on the inside as it had on the outside. While all the wooden surfaces told that its owners did put effort in cleaning them the furniture itself was just plain old. Vyzel picked a table in one of the corners where no other guests were nearby. He didn't like the prospect of anyone being able to eavesdrop, yet the precariously groaning noise of his stool did gather quite some attention as the more than heavy man sat down.

A War Filled World (NecroKnight x Valchyrie)

@NecroKnight

Posted, sorry it took so long.

A War Filled World (NecroKnight x Valchyrie)

Marosa listened to Riverdane and what he thought of the situation. She found it hard to believe that either of the two scenarios he had suggested were possible. For one, if the orcs had used magic to hide the fact that they had destroyed a large part of her forest and gone through that way, that meant that not only did they have someone to control them. They also had someone who were very experienced in magic, and as far as she knew, orcs had never had anyone that were experienced in magic like that. The other suggestion were that they should have dug a big tunnel underground and come through that way, but if they had done that all the way into the forest, Marosa and her people would have felt the disturbances of the earth. It was truly difficult to figure this one out, which meant it was even more difficult to form a plan of defense.

She sighed a little and took a sip of her own tea as well, thinking it through before answering. “I’m not sure that either of the two scenarios are possible. The problem is that the orcs would have gained some powerful allies for either one of those scenarios, and we both know orcs aren’t really known for making allies of any kind. This would have to be someone who was willing to go to the orcs and, without getting killed on sight, somehow turned them into an obedient army, I simply can’t see how that is possible.” She shrugged a little and took another sip of her tea. “However, since you are here, I suggest that we prepare for both of those scenarios, just to be safe. We form teams to cover the ground and look for suspicious tunnels and we form teams that look for magical disturbances in the air. I will form some teams that can take to the tree tops and scout the skies to see if some kind of flying device, or if luck really isn’t on our side, a dragon might appear. This should at least buy us some time and give us some information as to what is going on.”

She had no idea if any of this would actually help, but considering their situation, it was probably the best they could do. They had managed to survive without even being prepared, which meant that if they could at least find some clues as to what was going on, preparing to the protect themselves against the next wave would be a lot easier and a lot more effective. Traps could be planted all around the forest and they could put up stealth scouts that could take out a large portion of the forces before they even reached the castle walls, but of course, to be able to do that, they would need facts, and they would only get that by risking their men and women to gather information.

Orcs and War[rivaan&Valcyrie]

With everything that was going on, the crowd in the royal hall had started to flee in horror. Whatever was happening, they didn’t want to be a part of it. Many of the people that were here now, and who were adults, had never heard of Adalia, because it had been literally ages since she had been in this world. Foul magic was the only reason why the king and the queen was still alive and it was magic that Adalia had refused to help them create when they had once approached her with their suggestion. That had been the reason why she had been thrown into the hands of the enemies to this nation, who had struck a deal with the king and queen to seal Adalia away in another world. But world travelling wasn’t as easy as just that. To fully make sure that Adalia couldn’t return, and that she would stay away for a long time, hopefully for eternity if they could decide, they made her turn into a child again, born anew from a woman in the other world. Only the king and queen knew this, perhaps a few other people were still alive and around to know her, but at the moment, they weren’t present in the royal halls.

Adalia was focused on the king and queen, but Chalsea’s cries made her turn around to look at her. A phoenix was being born within Chalsea, either that, or Chalsea was a phoenix, whatever the case, she held a lot of power within her. Adalia looked back to the king and queen, who had risen from their thrones in order to try and escape while Adalia had turned to look at Chalsea, though they didn’t get far. Before they could move anywhere, two black spikes pierced both of their shoulders, pinning them to their thrones and making them unable to move. They both screamed in pain, but there was no one left to hear them, besides all the dead guards, Adalia and Chalsea. “You stay there for a moment, I’ll attend to my coming bride.” She said. She hadn’t actually discussed anything with Chalsea, neither had they even dated or anything yet, but it was safe to say that emotions was running wild and crazy inside of Adalia, though that didn’t mean that she was lying.

She turned around and walked back over to Chalsea who had the phoenix lying on the ground behind her. Instead of stopping at Chalsea, she walked past her and over to the phoenix. “You are a majestic creature, born from fire and legend. You have no reason to hurt your host or be confused. Embrace the magic of this world, which is so very different from the world you knew only moments ago. Intertwine your body with your host and become one.” She put her hand onto the phoenix head, gently caressing it. It burned Adalia’s hand badly, but she didn’t say anything. Then she walked to the front of Chalsea and reached down to pull her up on her feet, her hand healing with incredible speed now. She looked at her, the aura of death and destruction still surrounding Adalia, but she gave Chalsea a smile “I’m going to reclaim our thrones, be prepared to become the ruler of this world, and the other, as soon as we destroy our enemies.” She smiled. She leaned in and, well, a kiss would have been romantic, this was more like an unromantic but very deep and hot kiss, but she leaned in and gave her that deep kiss on her mouth. When she pulled away, she turned around to walk back up to the king and queen. “You can’t do this to us! People will come after you!” Adalia smiled “Not when I show them the secrets I stashed away for you. Enjoy the afterlife.” She grinned and with that, a black spike pierced each of their hearts, instantly killing them. She used her magic to make the spikes disappear and throw the bodies away from the thrones. Then she walked up and sat on the King, well, ex-king’s throne and looked to Chalsea. “Here’s the deal, my love. If you can make your way to the throne next to me, you’ll be my bride.” She grinned to Chalsea.

A War Filled World (NecroKnight x Valchyrie)

@NecroKnight

I posted, hope it's okay :)

A War Filled World (NecroKnight x Valchyrie)

Marosa gave Riverdane a smile as he talked about where he wanted to sleep and that his men would be comfortable with the accommodations that were provided for them. She gave him a small nod at that as well “Very well, if that is how you feel, you are allowed to sleep where you wish.” She said. She listened to the rest that he had to say, and was happy to hear that he wasn’t all brute and muscles, but that there were a tactician underneath the rough outside. Though that didn’t mean he could keep it for a long time, but at least it meant he could keep a civilized tone while they were talking and not in any kind of battle. Furthermore, it meant that he was open for working together for an extended amount of time, at least until the thread of the orcs had been dealt with.

“I’ll share with you all the information I have of the area, and the latest orc attack. From there, you could sleep on it and see what you think of the situation. Please follow me.” She said to him. Then she led him through the city, which was beautiful. There were a lot of wall paintings and beautiful nature all around the city. People were buying things from each other, like there had been no attack at all. The reason for this was that the walls had never been breached once, and while the orcs had been close this time, the people of the Eternal Grounds, had no idea of how close they had actually come to death.

Marosa led him all the way to the royal palace and into the dining room of the palace. Here there were a couple of couches made out of leafs and branches, though they were rather comfortable, even though you would have thought couches like that were uncomfortable. There were a few long tables with high chairs, clearly for the more formal dinner party that could take place occasionally, and there were paintings on the walls here as well. “Tea please!” she called out, before she sat down in one of the couches. She motioned for him to sit in the other couch instead of next to him. “Maps!” she called out as well.

It didn’t take long before both the tea and maps of the area had been given to them, and Marosa started going over the area for him. “As you can see, there’s only one way to get up to our kingdom, and that’s the same way you came from. The orcs must have taken that route, unless they somehow travelled through the sky, and last time I checked, they had no means of flying. So unless they have some new gear, which I strongly doubt, they would have taken the same route as you, which means, only one direction that we need to defend.” She took a sip of her tea. “However, it seems that it’s not that easy anymore, as they do seem more clever than usual, which could mean that someone else is controlling the orcs. But having managed to control orcs is not a small feat, so we might be dealing with someone who is interested in a lot more than the Eternal Grounds. Thoughts?”

Orcs and War[rivaan&Valcyrie]

While they were eating the breakfast, it seemed that Chalsea had finally calmed down a bit, at least for the time being. Though that didn’t seem to last long, as she soon started to feel hot again and start thrashing around on the couch like she was on fire. Adalia put the food away from herself and quickly turned to look at Chalsea’s body more closely. It seemed like there were actual flames under her skin, and if that was the reality of what was happening, then normal magic wasn’t going to help her with getting better. Something was going on with Chalsea’s body and it wasn’t going to stop in any normal way. Adalia had seen many things through her eternal life and she knew when something wanted to be unleashed and whatever was inside Chalsea’s body, was looking to be released. She quickly took her up in her arms “We don’t have a choice now Chalsea, I’m going to go through with the experiment.” She said and then she hurried down into the basement.

When they got down there, four of her mages was doing work on the big crystal shard in the middle. It seemed to have grown in size over the last few days and more magic was fluctuating from it than there had been before. Things was getting weird, and Adalia wasn’t sure if it was a good or a bad thing. Adalia looked to the mage that was in charge on today’s team. “We are going to go through with a live experiment. Chalsea is having some problems with her inner systems, and if we don’t do something, her body might self-destruct from heat and flames, and we can’t let that happen.” She explained. One of the mages looked at her “But we have no idea what will happen if we pour all the magic into it, we have theories, but it could kill her.” Adalia sighed “And so could the flames inside her body, do what I say.” She said and put Chalsea down in front of the big crystal.

The mages then stood in four corners of the crystal that was hovering in the middle of the room and then started to pour their magic into the crystal. As soon as they did that, the crystal started to respond by shining brightly and sending out it’s own magic, into everyone that was in the room. Adalia felt it as well, and what was even more strange, was that she started to hear voices and memories started to flood her brain, memories that seemed to have been accumulated over many years, but from a life she didn’t quite remember. It was hurting, and she fell down onto her knees, taking her hands to her head. The mages looked to her “Should we stop?” Adalia shook her head “Continue, it’s the only thing we can try.” She said back. She hoped that the magic the crystal was pouring out would either release what was inside Chalsea, or calm it down. But before they had a chance to discover that, the crystal suddenly melted away it’s hard shell and transformed into what looked like a window, that had a room on the other side of it. The memories stopped flooding Adalia’s mind, but something had happened in the meantime, she remembered. She remembered everything. She looked down to Chalsea and grabbed her, then she looked to the mages “Rose will be in charge while we’re gone, I don’t know how long that will be, but this portal should be open for quite some time at least.” She then stepped through the portal with Chalsea, and as soon as she did that, she completely transformed in her looks and the clothing she was wearing.

They were in a big royal hall, which seemed much different from the royal halls that existed in the other world they had just come from. This world was also heavy with magic, a lot heavier than the other world they had been inside. This should help Chalsea release her inner demons, or whatever it was that was inside. However, there was another situation to take care of. In this royal hall, there were hundreds of people and guards, all looking confused at what had just happened, and rather scared, as their Royal Battle-Witch, the one who were thought dead, had just returned through a portal. Adalia felt all her powers return to her, the powers she were feared and respected for, and she was not a happy witch. She looked to the throne, where the King and Queen of this technological advanced and magical advanced world, was sitting, the same people who had thrown her into the hands of the enemy and sealed her away for hundreds of years. The deadly aura, that was filled with death and destruction, surrounded Adalia again now, and everyone could feel her intention to kill and conquer. The lights were being disrupted and destroyed all around the hall, and she let go of Chalsea now, while slowly making her way to the thrones. The king and queen were surprised, to say the least, and they could only command one thing “Guards! Kill the traitor!” the guards tried to do as they were commanded to do, but before they could move, they were pierced by black spikes, from Adalia’s magic, and the rest of the crowd in the hall, just stepped back and looked on in horror.