Setting
The harsh climate and bombardment of the elements leave its people both weather worn and hardy. Ice storms coming in from the north are prevalent, and the surrounding wilds are ripe with hostile wildlife and all manner of ills that Terra can throw at them. Few denizens of Windcrest aren't battle-hardened.
Windcrest is predominantly populated by humans; though, the humans of Windcrest are reputed to be slightly larger than is typically average, and they possess an iron fortitude. Other races from all over Terra also are known to make their home here, and Windcrest sports a large number of refugees that have fled northward from the wars that have routinely ravaged the Midlands.
Windcrest's primary revenue comes from mining and fishing.
The city walls are laced with adamantium that the mountains are rich in and have been imbued with the protective enchantments of the Patronus. The city defenses are maintained by the Knights of Le'thorian and the local militia.
(RP Notes: Windcrest's local culture is loosely influenced by a mingling of Norse, medieval western Europe, and fantasy, but due to the large number of refugees from other regions of Aslund, other cultural denominations are present as well. Windcrest is not a particularly advanced city, and it lacks in many modern comforts. The harsh climate wrecks havoc on machinery and you won't find much in the way of motor vehicles and other such things.)
"Good," The man muttered upon hearing of her overtaking. With her sire gone, someone had to hold footing in the north. Not like they had it before but, perhaps things could cha-werewolf? His brows crawled up towards the hat as Grace told the little tale of adopting a werewolf-a werewolf-but he made no remarks just yet. She had befriended and employed, enserviced, a werewolf. A sparkle glinted in his eye. Repairs, strength. Potential.
"I have been well," Casren nodded, not caring to discuss his own perplexing matters. Meeting with Gods and Heroes and Oracles on mountains? Wars with intergalactic superpowers on his doorstep? Time freezing? Hah! Still he studied Grace with those eyes. "The Detente has also been. Send notice to the Castle, in my name if you'd like, have a squad of those Forces sent up to protect and aid you. Help you with the skeletal situation at hand. Goodness knows what they're good for if not that." Again Casren sipped his drink.
"So the North has a new Queen," mused he. Perhaps the Vankoryth Detente stood a chance yet.
"So you think that I am the new queen of the north, well, I might be once I can handle these problems I have been having. I mean to establish a good connection with other parties, so then I can get a supply route going, you know, establish relations, build more good reputation for the Detente, expand the horizons......." she said with a very intelligent sounding tone.
"Another reason why I don't want your forces helping is because you might need them more than I do, but I do appreciate the offer, because that's kind of you" she added with a warm tone.
"I don't need them," Casren commented off hand on the security, making note to himself to send them anyway. Sometimes he was just a bit old fashioned, the way he thought of ladies. Delicate creatures, flowers. The better with thorns. This one was a whole bushel of and he enjoyed that! For an instant his face grew sad, as his thoughts slipped to two women. One a distant memory, one he could still hear in his ears. One had loved him, and one-
"So glad to see the North establishing itself as so. Do keep in touch with the rest of the world," said Casren, finishing his warmed ale. A shame his phone had dropped in the snow. Another thing to do today. "Have we any a way of contacting you?"
"I will try to keep in touch with the world but it's hard when you live up in the cold expanses of a mountain and the castle on top of it, I do not know how else you can contact me......hmm.....I do have an email, that I rarely use, but I thin I can use it for this, just email me there" she said and then handed him a note that said her email on it.
"That's if you aren't too old to use a computer" she said with a grin.
"Not too old, no," The smile was back, "However technology is most unfortunate around the likes of I. Or maybe it's just the weather!" Standing, Casren began to rearrange his fabrics and scarves. "Grace, it has been wonderful."
"It was a pleasure seeing you again Cas" she said, giving him a little nickname.
The unsuspecting denizens looked on to the creatures with confusion and terror as they fell prey to the ghostly invaders, souls forcibly extracted from their body and used as feed for their insatiable appetites. The mortals scrambled through the streets, screaming and begging their attackers to spare them. It was to no avail, however. They were merely seen as the creatures' next meal. If left unattended, the entire city would soon fall victim to the Hollows' eating spree.
For a region covered in snow and ice nine months out of the year, and that was filled with hostile predators and frequent ice storms from the north, one learns to be self-sufficient and ready to defend ones family from all manner of dangers prone to frequenting Terra.
Miners abandoned their carts as they sought shelter in the city; though, many fell to the Hallows before they could reach the safety of the gates where the Knights of Le'thorian were sounding the alarms in the form of thunderous warhorns.
The results were swift as members of the local guard reached the height of the walls while others began to exit the gates to form a defensive line out front of the city. At their front stood Shelby Lockhart - Captain of the Windcrest garrison of Le'thorian knights.
As the Hallows reached the stone bridge that crossed the deep icy chasm leading to the city, Shelby drew her longsword and buried it in the ice before her.
"In the blessed name of Le'thorian, I consecrate these grounds!"
Her voice rang out with icy intent as she knelt as a conduit to the power invested into the Knights by their patron, Le'thorian. The sweep of divinity that fluctuated out from the paladin would bolster morale of those that fought beside her while weakening those of the Hallow who reached the far side of the bridge to engage the knights in combat.
Meanwhile inside the city even the civilians weren't defenseless and many were being passed arms as they joined the knights upon the walls in defending the city. The children, elderly and infirm were quickly clearing the streets as the alarm continued to sound. It was almost routine how quickly the city fell to defending itself.
"Starting a party without me?" he asked. "What's the story with this guys?" he asked Thorin, the captain of the local volunteer militia.
Thorin shook his head. "No idea. They came out of nowhere," he told Adriaan.
"Well, it sure looks like a welcome home committee to me," Adriaan replied with a lopsided grin as he hopped the wall to join the knights on the ground.
Walking forward to join the defensive line he gave his knuckles a crack. Though the avorian monk appeared unarmed, he seemed confident in his approach and he drew forth a set of prayer beads that he began to entwine around his hand and wrist.
"Where's the others?" Tahlia asked as the small handful of mages rushed to take up their assigned tasks in the event of a city siege.
"Siral's on the way, and Karin's not here. There was an accident out at the mines earlier," another woman replied.
"Well we'll just have to make do with what we have," Tahlia replied. "They probably won't make it past the walls, but everyone knows what to do if they should."
Tahlia's teleportation capabilities had left her arrival in Windcrest well ahead of the rest of the patroni that were still responding to the alarms from the nearby temple - but others would no doubt be arriving soon.
"Tahlia Where do you need me?" She asked. Her shield was strapped on one arm and she held her small staff in the other. She knew the general plan for the cities defense but she wasn't sure where would be the best position for her to defend.
The remaining Hollows increased their pace by entering a fearless charge to close the remaining distance between them and their prey. They converged on the ground units, grabbing or swinging at them with any appendage capable of killing them. The Hollows were growing in number. As the seconds passed more and more entered the Living World via tunnel created by their Garganta.
There was a crackle of lightning in the sky that dissipated horizontally, revealing a shoji hovering above the battlefield.
The gate's doors swung open, and when the brilliant rays from within started to fade, the tattooed Shinigami known by Kaen was standing inside. As the Senkaimon dispelled, Kaen surveyed the area. Not normal for this many Hollow to be in one area. He shrugged his shoulders while descending, "No problem."
The 'shing' produced by his Wakizashi-style Zanpakutō exiting its sheathe rang against his drum. He advanced with utmost confidence, seeming to push off the air with his foot as if it were solid. Swiftly maneuvering out of a Hollow's grasp, he delivered the finishing blow via downward strike to its mask. The resulting blow released a stream of dark blood that dissipated shortly after along with the felled Hollow.
"Bloody hell. And after that journey?"
It seemed he would not be merely ignoring the battle, this time. Changing course, the spirit focused his energies, essence boiling and forming into a ghostly rifle. As he began to glide forward, however, the heavy rounds it fired in chilling silence were anything but intangible. A hollow near the lead had its head virtually blown off, the round dissipating into glowing smoke as it passed through and into the air. Another lost a leg and hand as they aligned at the bullet's impact. And still he fired into the mass, the scarf that covered his face hiding the grim scowl on his face. Shots hammered into the fiends to devastating effect as he continued to advance, then began to drift away from the point of origins to skim out over the chasm, raising himself higher in the air as only a ghost could.
Holy light flared around him, bleeding from the bridge's consecrated ground to assault him. Dark essence writhed in answer, thrusting the aura from him with equal ferocity. A paladin was evidently active, and his dark-tainted spirit was drawing just as much power to him as the damned hollows. The distraction was manifold as he was forced to beat at Kushin's grasping persona, making several shots he fired miss completely.
"Hurry the fuck up and die already, you pale imitations." Josh snarled with the cold fury of the assassin he once had been.
Achaeos bounded in a single leap from the city streets onto the walls, pausing for a moment to gaze across the bridge at the battle beginning in earnest below. The soldiers on the wall stepped back to give the ethereal fox space. To his eyes they were nothing more than hovering wisps of light, their souls given form in the spirit world.
The hollows, as they were called, were visible to him filing towards their portal. When they passed through they took on a more ethereal shape, much as he appeared to the soldiers. Once more the fox leaped. In the air his tail split, becoming nine as he landed on the bridge before Shelby and sped forwards. He passed through the hollows that had already moved into the mortal realm, intangible to them due to his physical form being within the spirit world, until he reached the portal.
The nine-tailed fox darted between the line of hollows and their access portal to the world, flames sparking from his tails and bursting towards them in a nova of bright blue spiritfire, easily enough to incinerate most spirits and harm even more powerful ones. He scored a line before them, cutting them off from their access to the mortal realm and stood proudly, challenging them.
"Return to your rest, spirits." The fox intoned, "The mortal realm is not your place. I will not hesitate to strike you down should you attempt to pass."
The beams that were unleashed upon the knights didn't reach their mark as they instead met an unseen barrier only inches in front of the shields. The beams that passed overhead struck the walls and caused the ground to tremble as bits of stone rained down - but the walls held. Laced with the adamantium that the mountain was rich in and imbued with the protective enchantments of the Patronus - it would take sustained damage to bring them down.
Some of the men along the wall heights were dislodged from their positions though, and others fell beneath the Hollow's attacks. The majority though were well prepared to return fire.
When the Hollow rushed forward to meet the Knights of Le'thorian they would find themselves bottlenecked at the mouth of the bridge as the knights lowered their shields and engaged the front line of Hollow in combat. In the close melee, the Hollow could no longer utilize their beams of focused energy efficiently without doing as much damage to themselves as their enemies which shifted the advantage to the knights who rend their foes with fierce intent. Their purpose though was only to stem the attack so that those upon the wall could thin the numbers choked up on the bridge.
The Hollow that were unable to progress across the bridge past the Knights of Le'thorian were sitting targets as those upon the wall unleashed a torrent of attacks back down into their masses. Gunshots echoed alongside more primitive weaponry, and flashes of light seared into the Hollow as they were engulfed in a volley of fire, ice, and lightning from elementalists.
Unfortunately the new arrivals, Kaen, and the kitsune Achaeos would be equally caught up in this volley as they were not among the line of defenders. Wading into the horde of Hollow alone had left them both right in the line of fire from both sides of the battle - one of the worst places to be when a city is under siege as it left one at a very high risk of being struck by friendly fire.
Many of the Hollow fell beneath the wide arc of her sword as it left glowing rends in the bodies of the abominations before the light simply engulfed them in their entirety, and her men at either side of her fought with a matching level of grim fierceness.
It was with inhuman grace and agility that the avorian monk ducked and weaved his way through each new assault that was thrown his way with little restraint behind his retaliatory blows.
As one of the Hollows opened its mouth to unleash a beam at him - he threw his gauntlets up in front of his face and the volarian steel took the blow as he was skidded back several feet across the icy ground.
The gauntlets held up under the assault, but his clothes and feathers were a bit singed for his efforts. As the beam subsided, Adriaan launched forward once more, this time his feet no longer gracing the ground as he drove his spiked gauntlet through the mouth of the Hollow as it attempted to open it once more.
There seemed to be a steady stream of the creatures arriving, but the purpose of those defending the gates was only to hold the line while the men on the walls did the heavy damage.
As they swept out into the streets Rynhart approached Tahlia to get debriefed on the situation.
So that's where there coming from.. Kaen shunpo'd forward, disappearing into the rift in space-time. Once on the other side, he noticed the cat-like male who blocked the Hollows' path. "They're past the point of rest." he objected, "The only option is purification."
As expected, the Hollows had no intention of abiding by the Kitsune's request, and likely didn't understand him. Instead they were met by a volley of small-scale Cero that moved with considerable speed. The former 3rd Division Captain dashed forward, flickering past the minatory beams fired at him. A series of rapid strokes of his blade created several crescent-shaped waves of energy which, upon contact with the hollows, produced a violent explosion. The surrounding scenery was painted with their charred remains.
"Hmph, and I haven't even broken a sweat!" he shouted, looking back to Aecheos with a cheerful grin.
Many of the Hollow fell to the defenders' barrage of magic and gunfire, left severely mangled or completely destroyed by the counter-attack. Those that remained however stuck to their original tasks: those in front engaging the ground soldiers while the ones who remained behind bombarded the city wall with cero of varying intensity. Although weakest and least intelligent, these class of Hollow still put up a thrilling fight.
It seemed that they were capable of learning, however. For instead of firing randomly at the fortified wall, they focused on the Knights that lined the tops; the width of their cero capable of engulfing several in its lethal rays. Sieging the city would be a lot easier without the constant assault of pesky protectors.
His presence in the alternate realm, of course, made it difficult to communicate with him. The fox did not hear Kaen's words, nor see him as more than another wisp. Leaping and bounding upwards, springing off the air as though it were solid ground, he wove his way out of the path of the attacks launched at him.
Fire again burst from his tails and swept through the crowd, each lick of soulflame incinerating the very essence of the hollows it touched. The line of flame he had scored between the hollows and the portal remained constant, largely cutting the flow of reinforcements to the siege in the mortal realm off until they found a way to circumvent it or dissipate it.
"Help man the walls," she finally decided.
The girl would be able to do more damage up there in the open with the other elementalists than down here in the streets if the Hollow made it inside the walls.
As Rynhart swept over with a number of patroni in tow Tahlia moved to speak with him, gesturing occasionally to the front gates.
"There wasn't much warning, they just came out of nowhere," she told him. "But the walls are holding, and casualties are minimal. It's unlikely they'll breach the walls. It's almost like running drills," she remarked with a roll of her eyes. "You would think this far north that these things would be less common. What do you suppose it'll be next week?" she asked with amusement.
Rynhart shook his head as he moved past Tahlia, pausing only to clamp a supportive hand on her shoulder. "Good work," he told her before he moved to join the walls where he could survey the battle for himself. He was more inclined towards melee combat, but his presence was good for those manning the walls as he joined them up above the city to watch the events below.
"Alright I'll head right up there." Sha said as she took off in a sprint up the stairs to the walls. She could see more clearly up here she looked at the hoard fighting the knights but she didn't want to risk the chance of her lightning hitting them. She set her eyes on the Hollows that were bombarding the walls and the defenders ontop of them. Raising her staff to the sky she focused as she called down two bolts of lightning from the clouds above. If successful two of the besiegers would be hit, she opted to call down natural lightning for now to save her staffs power for close range. Plus she knew the natural lightning was much more powerful and easier to call down than generating her own.
The satyr stopped and slammed the tip of his overlarge sword into the ground beneath him, leaning on his hilt and taking a flask from his belt. The satyr tipped his head back and poured something golden brown down his gullet. The satyr threw the empty flask on the ground.
Jon swept his sword up and to his shoulders, giving the knights around him a few smiles and did his damnedest best not to interrupt the groups stuck in fighting, eventually he saw some of the strange creatures not currently engaged in biting, clawing or getting stabbed.
Jon shoulder charged in, throwing his sword in cleaves, he wasn't so much as swinging the sword, it was the sword that was taking him for a ride. It was time to live up the name of Talren's bloody heroes.
On the other hand, it seemed bullets were starting to lose effect, and besides, friendly fire was now an issue. Now that's a term I've never thought before. Worrying about shooting someone on my side? Not even in life.
Time for a change of pace, though Josh snarled as he drifted closer to the bridge where the core of the fighting was taking place. The rifle in hands smoked and seethed, altering into a long, hand and a half blade, and though the holy light flared brighter and his own aura of dark essence boiled with more fury in response, the speed at which the manifestation occurred was just as quick as it ever was. Kushin was the only reason the consecration only slowed Josh, and not drained his power.
After all, as far as undead went, they were tougher than most. Taking a point hovering near the edge, Josh "stepped" into his place at the front of the melee, and went into motion. The sword whipped in and out of the melee as if it were quicksilver, biting deeply into arms, legs, torsos, faces. His presence, though precisely why he didn't bother guessing, seemed to turn the heads of several nearby Hollows his way.
On in particular slithered through the mass with startling speed, masked face yawning wide to bite him as he struck a blow on yet another of its kind. It's only answer from Josh was a flash of Kushin, gleeful fury evident as with monstrous strength and fingers that coiled into talons, he thrust his arm into that maw and ripped its face head off at the top of the spine before casting it away. The change was just that, a tapping of the other as he set back into the mass.
She chuckled deeply, swinging the blade of her weapon around to carve into an approaching enemy. When she made contact a small crack of thunder accompanied a flash of lightning that launched the thing backwards into a smoking heap. "As this land's sports fans might say," she quipped, "Four!"
Pausing in consideration, the warrior tilted her head, "Though I'm still not quite sure why they say it."
Any further remarks were to be lost to the battle as Anria made her way fully into the fray