Joek glares at Kobold Cleaver. "Your team failed. Funny thing, though: You sent 17 new recruits on the trip. Losses were terrible because of this. And now three of our best soldiers cannot help in the siege because they are banned from the Eyrie. Kobold Cleaver, please explain to me how this is not a sign of your true loyalties.
Kobold Cleaver glares back. "My loyalties lie with the Servants of the Board, my lord. This I swear."
Joek scratches his chin. "I wonder...but very well. Kobold Cleaver, I am putting you in charge of this siege. If it fails, I will hold you responsible."
Kobold Cleaver bows. "Very well, master." He leaves the room.
Meanwhile, Stina is studying in her tomes. Suddenly, her eyes widen. "Tarvek! Dral! Look at this!" She holds up the passage from the tome she was poring over. They hurry over.
Meanwhile, Stina is studying in her tomes. Suddenly, her eyes widen. "Tarvek! Dral! Look at this!" She holds up the passage from the tome she was poring over. They hurry over.
"What? What is..." Dral sees what she is pointing at. "Oh. Oh dear."
"What? What is it?"
"Tarvek, have you ever heard of the Champions?"
"Naturally. They are people chosen to fight for a certain element, whenever the five elements are imbalanced. Right now, we have three champions still active: Aiden, Champion of Fire, Kobold Cleaver, Champion of Board Essence, and that other guy, Champion of--"
"--water, yes. Do you remember, last week, we were discussing that theory of mine?"
"Yeah, you said you were wondering what happened when Champions lived on after the imbalance had been stopped."
"Well, we just found out." He points to the passage.
"'Champions are not meant to live past the point of peril. If the condition is not in some way stripped or lessened, they may begin feeling extreme irritability or suicidal/homicidal thoughts. If left long enough, they will become their element incarnate, meant to create destruction until destroyed or otherwise disposed of.'" He looks meaningfully up at Tarvek and Stina. "We have to warn them."
"What are you talking about?" Stina asks, looking apprehensive. "'Them'? The way I see it, we only need to warn Kobold Cleaver, the others are our enemies."
Dral is already putting on his trench coat. He turns to glare at Stina. "First, they are not officially enemies. Second, they can create untold destruction if not either disposed of or repaired. Stina, you take the Bard. Tarvek takes Kobold Cleaver. I take Aidan. Come on!"
Meanwhile, Joek wanders into the study where Stina had been reading mere moments ago. His eyes fall upon the book, and the page that it is on. He swears. With a word, he destroys the book. "How did they find that?! I thought I had destroyed all of them...what to do?" He hesitates, then makes a decision. "They must be stopped. For the greater good. Guards!"
Joek hears the enormous dragon outside, and sighs. He walks outside.
He is disturbing, to say the least. Some of his skin seems to have been stripped from his bones, his face is practically a skull, and his eyes bulge out, flowing red. He smiles grimly at the dragon.
"Yes?"
The dragon glances down at Joek, not deigning to show signs of anything, except perhaps for impatience.
I am waiting for an explanation of just why your organisation has apparently recently become full of bleeding heart do-gooders? I had understood that you had always kept a tight grasp on your minions and underlings, and kept them away from attempting to ease the pain and suffering of others? Right now, however, I gather several of your organisation's officers have rushed off in several directions to attempt to prevent harm in occuring in situations involving the ones currently known as 'Aidan' and 'The Bard'.
Joek's voice is not pleased, but he maintains the smile. "What we do in our own organization is hardly your business, wyrm. We protect the Board, whatever the result may be to its inhabitants."
In one of the circles outside the building, an armored man appears, looking shaken. When he sees the dragon, he nearly jumps out of his skin. "What?"
Daelemos snaps off an arcane word of holding and binding of epic power, and stabs a claw down at Tarvek, to smear him into paste.
Tarvek brings up his sword above his head, directed so that the dragon's attack will result in a hurt foot.
The claw that strikes down at Tarvek is larger than he is, and is not much marked by the man's sword. A pool of blood spreads from the fallen Tarvek.
I have neither the time nor inclination to take steps at present to prevent you from raising such a poor servant from the grave, if the mood so takes you, but I would be greatly displeased to hear that it had been done for any reason other than to impel your own, proper, rigorous disciplinary procedures. You once had some relatively ingenius ways of dealing with your own traitors.
Unless you have any further comments you wish to make, I shall take my leave of you.
Suddenly, Dral appears in the circle. His eyes widen as he sees Tarvek's corpse, and he sees Joek not moving. His mind being significantly sharper than Tarvek's, he comes to a conclusion rather quickly. He lets out a cry of rage.
The claw that strikes down at Tarvek is larger than he is, and is not much marked by the man's sword. A pool of blood spreads from the fallen Tarvek.
I have neither the time nor inclination to take steps at present to prevent you from raising such a poor servant from the grave, if the mood so takes you, but I would be greatly displeased to hear that it had been done for any reason other than to impel your own, proper, rigorous disciplinary procedures. You once had some relatively ingenius ways of dealing with your own traitors.
Unless you have any further comments you wish to make, I shall take my leave of you.
Suddenly, Dral appears in the circle. His eyes widen as he sees Tarvek's corpse, and he sees Joek not moving. His mind being significantly sharper than Tarvek's, he comes to a conclusion rather quickly. He lets out a cry of rage.
Joek smiles. "Ah, this is perfect! Guards! Dispose of this man! Daelemos, you may help if you wish."
As the guards rush out to kill Dral, Dral smiles. "Joek, I am...disappointed. You have underestimated me once again." Eldritch magiks swirl around his hands, and flame blasts into Joek and the guards. "You see, I, unlike Tarvek, am very smart, and unlike Tarvek, I am also very powerful. You have, I am afraid, made a mistake in forgetting this."
Dral turns to the dragon. "I can sense that you are very powerful, and as I would like to mourn, I will give you ONE. CHANCE. To leave."
he sees Tarvek's corpse,
"I've been waiting for you. You see Evil always turns on itself."
"Ready for a tour of your new home? How's the singing voice? I know just the perfect girl for you."
His eyes widen as he sees Tarvek's corpse,"I've been waiting for you. You see Evil always turns on itself."
"Ready for a tour of your new home? How's the singing voice? I know just the perfect girl for you."
His eyes widen as he sees Tarvek's corpse,"I've been waiting for you. You see Evil always turns on itself."
"Ready for a tour of your new home? How's the singing voice? I know just the perfect girl for you."
His eyes widen as he sees Tarvek's corpse,"I've been waiting for you. You see Evil always turns on itself."
"Ready for a tour of your new home? How's the singing voice? I know just the perfect girl for you."
Tarvek glares at his oppressor. "Release me, creature of war. Or my friends will see you dead."
Tarvek glares at his oppressor. "Release me, creature of war. Or my friends will see you dead."His eyes widen as he sees Tarvek's corpse,"I've been waiting for you. You see Evil always turns on itself."
"Ready for a tour of your new home? How's the singing voice? I know just the perfect girl for you."
"You've already been released by your master."
"I'll see you around, fool."
CH's image fades
Tarvek sighs with relief. He had feared that the warspirit would bind him as many other undead he had encountered would. He sighs again with peace as he floats to the Gates of Heaven...
Tarvek sighs with relief. He had feared that the warspirit would bind him as many other undead he had encountered would. He sighs again with peace as he floats to the Gates of Heaven...
Dral turns to the dragon. "I can sense that you are very powerful, and as I would like to mourn, I will give you ONE. CHANCE. To leave."You amuse me, and for that reason I am going to strip you of your magic and leave you to discuss if the balance of the boards is served by preventing the abberation that is the goddess and her clique from burning themselves out with your elder and better, his lordship Joek here.
The dragon snarls a brief incantation and slams Dral with an abjuration of mind-numbing power that was old whole ages of the world before Dral was born; a true dweomer of such might that it requires a dragon to channel and focus, from the spellbook of the first true caster ever, Sallimnandrissal, the Wyrm of Spells. A flash of blue light washes over Dral, and then the dragon is gone, leaving only an empty sensation, and inrush of air into where he was.
Dral shrieks in horror as he loses all that he ever had going for him. All those years spent in his study gone in an instant. Shakily, he leaps out and grabs Tarvek's sword. Then he leaps back in the cirlce and vanishes.
Joek screams in fear at the magic and leaps away unnecessarily (though he doesn't know that). Because of this, he is unable to stop Dral in time.