Quest First Introductions[Templar]

[Saul Talith]

Saul didn't draw his blade just yet, staying his weapon as the scout went riding through the dug out graveyard. The man's armor looked worse for ware, though there was not a scratch on him that The Lord Captain could actually see.

Lips thinned as the scout approached, reigning in his horse so he stopped directly in front of Saul and the two trainees.

"Sir, a Village to the north is under attack. Two or three hundred Ghouls."

Fingers tightened around the helmet clutched at his side, blood pumping just a bit faster. "Any signs of the necromancer?"

The scout shook his head.

By all right it didn't make any sense. Why send every single ghoul to a single village? Was it more than a test this time?

"Anything follow you?" Another quick shake of the head.

It didn't make any sense. Ghouls were not intelligent, they chased after what they saw and heard. None of them were intelligent enough to stick to a single goal, unless they were being controlled.

"We need a ghoul." Saul said slowly. "Alive."

Well…unalive...still walking.

With it they could trace whatever magic had summoned it, and hopefully whatever was controlling it.

 

[Ivo Coppercrow]

Ivo slowly sheathed his sword once more as the scout explained the situation, growing steadily more comfortable in the fact that no corpses had chased him back to the grave yard. Though, 'comfortable' may not be the right word; While the fight hadn't been brought to the main group yet, the scenario was far from worry free. Over two hundred ghouls were thrashing a nearby village, and the Templars' numbers did not approach a tenth of that.

Capturing a shambler alive wouldn't exactly be easy, but if Saul thought it would help find the man or woman responsible for all the walking dead, then it must surely be so. "I can see about making an animate snare. That should help us get a ghoul to the ground."

Immediately, the recruit shrugged his bag off of one shoulder and unstrapped a coil of rope from its side. Taking a knee in the grass while the rest of the Templars talked strategy, Ivo withdrew a series of vials from inside his coat and began painting intricate runes near the rope's end, tying the rest into the rather infamous Hangman's Knot.

 

[Kalianna Romane]

A breath that Kalianna had unknowingly been holding was finally let out as the explanation given by the scout provided some solace. She lowered her weapon, the threat of following undead having been laid to rest. However, there was the threat of an attacked village, a horde of over two hundred as the assault, and no necromancer seen leading it. Her eyes glanced over their group; the Templars would be vastly outnumbered. Still, it was likely they were the only armed force in the area capable of helping the village.

She nodded at Saul's command. The task of capturing one of the ghouls alive was a difficult one, albeit one that was needed. As Ivo stated his idea, Kalianna added on, "And I can work on an illusion capable of fooling a ghoul and leading it to that snare."

She turned her gaze to an empty patch of land, her mind going through the possible illusions she could conjure. Pacing, she thought through them. The illusion had to be a prime target for the ghoul, something that would be ripe to chase. Every now and again, she would stop and cast an illusion to look it over as the conjured image would act out in fear and run, only to be waved away soon after.

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul watched as the two recruits began to quickly prepare, noting in the back of his mind that both of them seemed more than willing to quickly move forward.

It was impressive.

"Alright." Saul motioned towards the other Templar still nearby, bringing them in closer and quickly instructing them. Two were sent back to the original village, two were to stay with him and the recruits, the rest were to be sent to the surrounding villages to act as watchmen.

"Gear up." He told everyone. "Finish what you need and then we're heading out."

There was no real time to wait or prepare, they had a job to do.

As soon as everyone was prepared Saul unclipped his cloak from his left pauldron and dropped it onto the floor. Fighting with it was never the best option.

 

[Ivo Coppercrow]

With the snare tied and its runes properly treated, the recruit laid the intricately tied and painted rope across the ground. Ivo rose to his feet, holding a hand over where the temporary artifact sat. With his grip ready, he spoke the object's command word quickly and clearly- "Courtesy."

The noose leapt up into his hand, with the rest of the rope trailing behind and coiling obediently around the recruit's forearm, perfectly wrapped for transport. "Ready, sir." Ivo gave Saul a quick nod before giving himself a quick pat down. Sword, check... Tools and paints were back in their place... Arm-guards were attached and ready...

With his inventory properly taken, the recruit nodded once more and cast a glance in Kaliana's direction. Her illusion work was impressive, especially considering the situation and stress under which she was conjuring.

 

[Kalianna Romane]

Kalianna nodded, giving a final look to the illusion conjured before her. An old man, cowering in fear, dressed in poor clothing like that of a farmer. An appetizing target for a ghoul to go off and chase into a trap, she thought. She turned around, the illusion dispersing as if it was dust blowing in the wind, vanishing.

Noticing Ivo glancing over, she returned a friendly, if worried, smile. "Nice work on the snare." Her experience with artificers have always been of the merchant or toy-maker variety, with small trinkets being their main application. To see one work on something more advanced was fascinating, although the circumstances were undesirable. Hopefully, they'd be able to talk without the presence of more stressful and pressing matters.

Looking over to Saul, she gave a final nod. "Ready as well."

 

[Saul Talith]

"Right then." Saul motioned to the others. "Off we go."

A team of five Templar would be able to move faster than the lot of them trying to get these Ghouls. This was a quick snatch and grab, nothing more. If they encountered the main group their role would not be to fight, but instead to run.

It wasn't exactly the most heroic thing, but Saul knew that even with their whole number they would be unable to take down a whole horde.

Thirty against three hundred was not good odds.

Without waiting for another word Saul and the others quickly headed in the direction that the scout had come form. The journey took longer on foot than it did by horse, nearly two hours in fact. By the time they reached the village most of it was already gone.

The Ghouls were still shambling throughout, corpses scattered about on the ground, building burning from knocked over lamps and fallen torches.

He shifted slightly as they entered a small bit of underbrush about half a mile from the village.

 

[Ivo Coppercrow]

Ivo watched from the underbrush as village burned, snuffing out all memory of the countless lives that had begun and ended in its idyllic expanse. Unlike many of his Templar brethren, the recruit hadn't yet seen such complete and utter destruction, and he knew his fellow recruits must be sharing in his heartbreaking plight. Nevertheless, they had a job to do if they wanted to find out what was responsible and wipe it off the face of Arethil.

He held his noose-like snare tightly in one hand, raising it to his lips before murmuring three quiet syllables. At once, the loop at the knot's business-end began to expand outward, making no noise louder than the faint rubbing of rope upon itself. "Captain," the artificer whisper, creeping up to Saul's side. "Do you think it's prudent to lure a ghoul out this far, or should we move closer? I'll confess, I feel much safer with the forest to our back."

 

[Kalianna Romane]

The village was a burning, radiant glow on the horizon, black smoke billowing off into the sky. The dark silhouettes of Ghouls could be seen shambling through the ruined village, picking off the few living stragglers so that they may join the scattered corpses that littered the ground. It was a depressing sight, seeing a village that was once so full of life only occupied by undeath.

Kalianna turned her gaze towards Ivo and Saul as she shifted closer, nodding. "I can cast the illusion some distance away from where we currently are. It's your call, of course, Captain."

 

[Saul Talith]

Unfortunately they would have to move closer, at least a little bit.

"There." He pointed towards a spot away from the village where a group of a dozen or so Ghouls had already wandered away.

It would catch the attention of more than one of the creatures, but that was about what they could manage. He and the others would simply have to take care of some of them while Ivo used his contraption to carry a live one.

"Ivo." He turned to the neophyte. "What do you need us to do?"

He had made the thing, he knew best how to use it after all.

 

[Ivo Coppercrow]

Ivo blew a breath quietly out of his nose as he thought. He was more than thankful for Kalliana's talents; They made what was to come next remarkably easier. Praise would need to wait, though, for there was still much business to attend to.

"I just need one within a good distance of me, and the snare should do the rest. It would be best if we can avoid drawing out a vast swathe of the shamblers, but I should be able to down one from a small enough grouping." The recruit nodded once, face a stoic picture of confidence. Of course, he had no idea how well the trap would work. Like many of his contraptions, much of the mechanism was hypothesis layered upon the discoveries of past geniuses. Still, he had at least eighty percent certainty that their plan would go off without a hitch.

... Maybe seventy-five percent.

"Lead on. I'll be close behind."

 

[Kalianna Romane]

Hearing Ivo's directions, she nodded. "Got it." She couldn't guarantee that her illusion will be able to attract only one of the many, many shamblers that infested the village, but she had to try regardless. "I'll work my magic and you work yours," she commented, in the hopes of introducing a slight bit of levity into the very stressful task they were setting out to do.

Kalianna turned her attention to the group of ghouls, following the Captain as they crept closer until they were close enough to enact the plan. She focused her gaze on a singular undead, one that was farthest away from the rest of his horde. Weaving her hands in the air in front of her, the illusion formed.

An elderly man, ragged and tired, hid behind the dilapidated ruins of a nearby house. He began to attempt to move away from the Ghouls, coming closer to the group of hidden Templars. However, there came the sudden sound of a twig snapping underneath his walk, loud enough to alert the closest Ghoul, and with luck, only that Ghoul. Now, she just had to see if it was willing to take the bait and follow.

 

[Saul Talith]

The creature shambled forward, nearly tripping over itself in a hurry to chase the old man that Kalina had brought into existence.

Saul watched carefully, fingers tight on his sword.

A part of him hated doing just this. If he'd had more of his men they could have cleansed the village and made sure not a single Ghoul made it out, but he knew doing it now would have been suicide. They had to be careful.

"Ivo." Saul said as he motioned towards the ghoul that had broken away from the pact and was moving on it's own.

The thing stumbled forward, still moving and letting out a loud groan as it did it's best to catch up with it's prey. Saul watched it, his eyes wandering towards the pact still in the town to make sure none of the others broke off.

 

[Ivo Coppercrow]

At Saul's word, Ivo knelt and let snare fall to the ground in a loose a loop. He straightened it out haphazardly before whispering another command, each consonant hissing with sharp emphasis.

"Audacity"

At once, the rope tensed with life and began slithering towards Kali's masterful illusion. It disappeared into the grass, movements only marked by the sway and rustle of the foliage it passed through. As the ghoul giving chase to the simulacrum grew closer to the hidden Templars, so too did the animate trap stalk closer and closer to its prey. While the shambling body clawed blindly at the illusion, letting out a loud, burbling groan, a flash of movement struck out from the shadows.

Rope tangled around the zombie's ankles, wrapping loosely up its legs. The noose-like business end of the snare flew upwards out of the grass, lodging one side of its loop into the ghoul's snapping jaw before pulling tight. The rest of the trap followed suit, drawing the beast's legs tightly together and binding its arms firmly behind its back. The ghoul toppled like a felled tree, landing with a solid thud as it met with the ground.

Ivo stared at his handiwork with a slack jaw, thoroughly surprised at just how efficiently the trap had bound up its mark. He'd need to draw its design out later...

 

[Kalianna Romane]

The illusion continued to flee, an enticing lure for the following Ghoul, always just out of reach of the decayed claws that swiped after it. Kali's eyes watched the rope steadily slither towards its target at the command of Ivo, her fingers meanwhile dancing in the air to guide the false image away.

The undead, letting out a sickening moan, lurched once more after the elderly victim, arms outstretched as its jaw snapped as if it were a beast. In a sudden surge of movement, the trap Ivo devised unleashed, quickly enveloping the Ghoul in arcane rope as it fell limp on the dirt. The illusion, its purpose completed, vanished into the air, leaving the trapped shambler on the ground and unable to escape.

Kali looked from the welcome sight to Ivo's shocked expression, an alleviated grin appearing at their success. She patted him on the back, commenting, "Nice job, Ivo. That rope of yours works pretty well." Turning her attention to Saul, she asked, "Is that all we should do here, now that we've got our catch?" She glanced over at the still present pack of undead roaming nearby, in case any picked up on their presence.

 

[Saul Talith]

If they could have seen his face the Neophyte would have observed nothing less than complete agony crossing his expression.

"Yes." He answered curtly.

It hurt him to say the word, even though it was only one. There was nothing more he wanted to do than run into that village and slaughter every single ghoul in sight. Perhaps in his youth he would have done it, but now? Now he knew better.

Attacking the ghouls could only end in disaster. They were outnumbered, and the sound of battle would only draw the rest of the horde in on them before they could do anything. The time to act would be when they found the Necromancer.

Not now.

"Back to the first village." He said quietly. "We'll track this magic and put an end to it."

The statement was so firm one might have believed it was already done.

 

[Ivo Coppercrow]

Ivo made a quiet clicking sound and waved one of his fellow Templar forward. The two men crept slowly through the underbrush, reaching the ghoul in short order. Ivo gripped the foul creatures by his snare, wrapping his digits around the knot at the back of the ghoul's head with knuckle whitening-tightness. The other recruit simply grabbed the thrall by its ankles, and the two Templar lifted it off the ground as it still wriggled against its bindings.

Thankfully, with its jaw sufficiently muzzled, the shambler couldn't groan out for backup. The two man detachment joined back with the rest of their group, captive in hand. Ivo gave Saul a faint smile, only narrowly cracking through his stress and fear. "Back to the village, you said? It should make a good place to fortify for the time being, in case the undead seek out a new target."

 

[Kalianna Romane]

She gave a solemn nod to the affirmation, quietly saying, "Understood." She watched as Ivo and another recruit lifted the struggling undead off the ground, still squirming in their grasp, as she then shifted her gaze to the still-present group of shamblers in the distance. Her hand was hanging by her rapier, ready to unseath should the Ghouls come to realize one of their own was taken. Luckily, no such thing occurred, as the pair returned to the rest of the Templars with the shambler in tow.

She turned her gaze back to the Captain and Ivo, nodding. Taking a slight step away from the captured Ghoul, who still shook and wrestled against the snare that kept him captive in their grasp, she said, "Enough to give us some defenses until we figure out who summoned all of these undead." When they were ready to move on, she followed at a steady pace, keeping a close eye on any nearby groups of shambles they might come across.

 

[Saul Talith]

The trip back was a solemn one. No one really spoke or said a word, though there were a few swears as the ghoul attempted more than once to gnaw it's way out of the situation.

Saul didn't say anything, though once or twice he wondered if this ghoul would spread it's plague like the ones in the north had. It had been sort of a disease there, a devolved form of Vampirism. He doubted it since the corpse had been raised from a long dead, but it was still a worry in the back of his head.

Eventually they found their way back to the first village, the Templar he had sent back already waiting there.

"Clear the town center." Saul said as they encountered the first sergeant. "We're going to trace the spell that wrought this damned thing."

Anti-magic was good for a few things, this was one of them.

The spell would require a bit of ritual, but it would be worth it.

As the sergeant moved out Saul motioned towards two other Templars, pointing them towards Ivo and the other man helping carry the ghoul. Then he turned towards the two recruits. "You can rest. Both of you have done well, after we trace this ghoul things will be...difficult."

They would need every man for this fight, he could feel it in his bones.

 

[Ivo Coppercrow]

Ivo followed along within the train of Templars, keeping quiet on the trek back to town. A muttered trio of syllables beckoned the ropes tighter around their captured ghoul, but it did little to quell the creature's ceaseless struggling. Thankfully, restricting its movements was far easier than stopping them entirely, and the troupe made it back to town without too much trouble.

The recruit was eager to pass off the wriggling captive as Saul gave the word for two others to take reins on shambler-handling. He went to the captain, concern laying heavy lines across his face. Rest would be good, there was no doubt about it... "Alright, sir," Ivo responded after a moment's silence. "If you require my assistance, do call upon me once more. 'Til then, I won't be far."

Before trying to find someplace to briefly pass out, he spared his fellow recruit a parting smile. "Kalianna, right? You're quite skilled. I wouldn't mourn fetching tea sometime." With that, he left for the only tavern in town and promptly fell asleep near the fireside. No matter what was coming next, he would need to conjure whatever acuity was left in his noggin.

 

[Kalianna Romane]

The walk back to town was a quiet one. Quiet, save for the constant sound of decaying flesh writhing against the tightening rope, the captured undead no less determined to attempt to break free. Kalianna did her best to block out the sound and focus on the closing town in the horizon.

When they returned, she was glad to see the shambler swiftly taken away from them for whatever ritual was planned for it. At the mention of rest, her eyes drifted back to where they had come from, recalling the still-present horde that could return at any moment. However, she resisted her urge to disagree. They'd be worth nothing if they didn't rest. She nodded, saying, "Understood. Just call if you need us."

She looked over to Ivo, meeting his smile with one of her own. "You're not too bad yourself. I certainly wouldn't say no to the offer." It was at that point that she retired to the tavern, finding a spot to rest and let the time pass. She closed her eyes, but no sleep came to take her. It was better than nothing.

 

[Saul Talith]

H
Four hours later the apprentices were once again called upon.

Two sergeants woke them, and told them in quick terse words to head towards the Mayor's Residence. The place was mostly burnt out now, but Saul had managed to find a large opening over a section of the roof that hadn't yet collapsed. It wasn't warm by any measure, but it would shield them from the coming rain.

Within the residence a dozen Templar stood gathered, at the center of them was the ghoul.

It's chest had been split open and it's insides removed, replaced by an odd sort of stone inscribed with runes. The thing still moved of course, Ghouls always refusing to die until most of its corpse was entirely eviscerated. Saul was standing in front of the tied up figure, glaring down at it with his helmet removed. "Ah good."

The Lord Captain said as the initiates arrived.

"You helped in this things capture." He explained. "I wanted you to be here when this happened."

Saul then went about quickly explaining that the odd runes tone was a mixture of Rune Magic and the Broken Swords ability of anti-magic. The stone would act as a focal point, breaking the spell around the ghoul and tracing it back to its source. Because Saul had been the one to carve it, he would be able to get a vague sense of where said source of magic came from.

It wasn't exact, but would be close enough. He motioned the others to stand back. "Alright."

No further ceremony was needed. The stone inside the ghoul began to glow, then suddenly grow brighter and brighter until looking at the thing was almost enough to cause searing pain.

"That's no-" Saul was cut off as the stone suddenly exploded into a thousand pieces. Fragments bounced off armors, stuck in wooden beans, and even left a shallow cut across Saul's face. Before the Lord Captain could say anything a voice boomed out, a maw of broken and burnt flesh tearing its way out of the ghoul.

"YOU THINK TO FIND ME, TEMPLAR!? YOU THINK TO HUNT ME DOWN? NO! IT IS YOU WHO ARE THE HUNTED!" ​

The words rang through the burnt out home, the odd maw of flesh collapsing into itself and falling to dust as the words echoed.

 

[Ivo Coppercrow]

Ivo awoke feeling rested and prepared, but if he knew what was coming, his assuredness wouldn't have been quite so certain. The day had worn long, and his arm ached just slightly as he flexed it free on the walk towards Saul's temporary sanctum. The burnt out shell of a building served as a sobering note to quell the recruit's budding excitement, standing out as a bad omen against burnished skies.

"Gory," he remarked at the sight of the ghoul, split open and stuffed with stones as it was. Ivo had studied runic magic for quite some time-- Okay, perhaps 'studied' is too professional of a word, but the old magic had proven quite useful for his experiments in artificing. As the lord captain explained his methods, he might notice the gifted maker-of-things peering into the shambler's split chest, reading the stones like a tabloid and mouthing the words to himself. Ward, seek, strengthen, focus... Stars and stones, his ritual may just work out after all.

The recruit backed away from the still wriggling corpse, sparing both Kali and Saul a nervous look before the latter began to work his anti-magic. Light, only as harsh as it was blinding, began to fill the room. Ivo had to squint as it grew brighter, looking away entirely before the flare could do any lasting damage to his sight. He tucked his face down into his elbow just in time for shards of stone and splintered rib to cascade past like a wave coming to shore, ripping small grooves into the tough material of his coat and sending a lock of dirty brown hair fluttering slowly to the ground.

A voice came and went, rising to a crescendo before crumbling to ash and dust. Silence fell for a tense moment, then two, then three, before Ivo broke the quiet. "Well, then... That didn't seem right."

 

[Kalianna Romane]

Kalianna cracked an eye open as the sergeants woke her and Ivo. Despite the relatively brief amount of rest she had managed to get, she felt as though she was more able to handle the oncoming trials of the task that laid before them. As she left the tavern, her eyes once more gazed at the rubble and debris that littered the ground, the only remnants of the town that once stood in its place. It stood in stark contrast to the sights she was used to; the dazzling cityscapes of Alliria and Elbion, with crowds of people weaving between the forest of brilliant fountains and buildings. Looking out, she could hardly imagine the people that once lived here amongst standing buildings. Hopefully, their efforts today would be able to put an end to, or at least delay, these attacks.

Hopefully.

Kalianna made her way to the makeshift base, taking comfort from the shelter and its defense against the onslaught of rain. Looking at the dissected ghoul took away that comfort almost immediately. "Well, that's certainly a sight." She looked over the runes, recognizing only a few from the brief lessons given to her as a child, nodding along to Saul's short explanation.

Watching the ghoul as the ritual began, she couldn't help but notice the increasing brightness of the runes within the still living corpse, causing her to squint as the light became nearly blinding as it grew in intensity. Her hand immediately pulled the mask at her belt up to her best as she turned, fragments of stone impacting her as the rune suddenly exploded. One of the stones embedded itself into the mask, carving out a small groove in the wooden mask, with various other pieces skidding across her armor.

She lowered the mask, listening to the booming voice as it seemed to radiate through the room. "I take it that wasn't supposed to happen?" She asked after Ivo broke the ensuing silence, glancing between those in the room.

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul was silent for longer than he should have been, staring into the ashes that were the now completely destroyed ghoul. He frowned, and he could feel his stomach rumble as hunger began to eat away at him.

How long had it been since he’d eaten? ”No.”

The Lord Captain confirmed.

Something had gone wrong with the ritual. He’d felt the necromancers presence, knew that he was within a days ride of where they stood, but somehow the man had...sensed him back. An odd feeling, the filth of it still seemed to cling to his skin.

”We need to fortify this town.” Saul said, picking his head up and looking at the others. ”Every entrance in, all the buildings we can.”

He looked at the two neophytes. ”Every single ghoul from that graveyard is on it’s way.”

And they only had thirty Templar.