Dreadlords The Lost Ones

[Edric]

Epressa - Location Unknown

Edric's eyes snapped open, a deep hissing breath flowing into his lungs as he shot up to his feet. Fingers flexed almost immediately, hand reaching for the sword that sat at his hip. The blade flickered free in an instant, letting out a ring as he shifted into a stance any swordsmen would have praised.

As useless as it was.

He had awoken with a start, expecting to be surrounded by enemies, expecting to see some sort of threat. Yet nothing of the sort presented itself, not even a hint. The Young Initiate stood in a field, his fellow scattered upon the ground around him, a massive stone disc laying beneath. Within it's center stood a cracked and broken obelisk, towering near twice as tall as him.

Edric seemed to freeze for a moment, his chest rising and falling, head peering left and then right.

He did not understand how they had gotten here.

The mission had been a simple one, at least ostensibly. They were to take the Ambassador to the Portal Stone, travel with him to the Allir Reach and then ensure he made it to the safety of Allira itself. Yet...they were most definitely not within the Reach. There were no forests, save for those in the distance, and to the west he could see mountains which dwarfed any he had ever seen.

More than that, he didn't see the Ambassador either.

Something had gone wrong. "Guys."

Edric shouted to the others. "Wake up!"

Gently he kicked one of the other Initiates laying on the ground.

 

[Davi]

Davi grunted as a boot connected with his ribs and dragged him from the dark depths of unconsciousness.

"RUN! What are you doing boy - run!"

The memory drifted across his consciousness like a hazy, sluggish mist. Was it real? Or was it a part of a dream? He forced himself to focus on the dirt and stone beneath his palms, something real, then dragged the rest of his mind from the darkness to reality. Pain hit him first of all. Something had severely taken its toll on his body. He could feel bruises all down his sides and his knees and hands as though he had fallen and rolled. Off his horse? He had been on a horse...

"What.... happened?" he slurred as he forced himself to turn and sit. A few other bodies were scattered nearby some moving others... not. Davi swallowed and ran a hand through his hair.

 

[Samantha Black]

"...Ed..."

Ralene had awaken shortly after Edric, but was still on the ground trying to understand why her limbs felt like they were on fire. The last she could remember was the blinding light of the Portal Stone ignition and the pull on her gut as the magic took them all in one fell swoop and shot them halfway across Arethil. There were the shadowed silhouettes of the other Initiates around her, and the Ambassador at her side.

But the Ambassador was no longer there. In his place was the company of a dagger plunged through a gap in the side of Ralene's armor and the growing puddle of blood pooling beneath her.

A gasp of air bubbled from her lips, Ral spit up blood as she attempted to sit up. Something was very, very wrong...

 

[Drastus Tal'deneshaar]

Drast would groan as his eyes flickered. Cursing he would roll onto his hands and knees, white gloves pressing into the ground. This was the worst hangover of his life, yet he hadn't drank a drop.. yet.

Ral called out to Ed weakly, a sobering enough cry that alerted him to the pain of another. Everything hurt, but he would have to wait. He would move to her side and see the blood, also the dagger. That didn't just happen. Someone had done it and fled. He would remove a glove and tuck it into a pouch at his belt before rolling up the sleeve of his right arm.

He leaned down to inspect the wound. "I need to get this out of you. Its going to hurt, but I will stop the bleeding." A healer could go in and fix what he did, but the loss of blood was more than a cause for concern.
He would take her hand and press it down just above the dagger, he then removed a leather strap and hovered it over her mouth for her to accept it. "Bite down. When I remove the dagger, apply pressure. I got it from there."

He wasn't sure if he did, but he wasn't going to let one of them die. Yet. He could always bring them back later. One hand would wrap around the hilt of the dagger, whilst another traced the rune for fire on his arm. It wasnt good for a continuous stream, but it was good in a pinch. "Three, two, one.." he would yank the dagger free before the free hand dipped into the wound, the first contact creating a burning sensation as it flash sealed part of the wound. Soon the scent of burning flesh would be amongst the group. Drast would remove his hand and trace the rune again, before dipping his hand into the wound and cauterizing it further. The process would repeat until the bleeding stopped.

That was step one. Step two, with the bleeding stopped, he would remove the armor to apply some sort of bandage. His hands would unfasten the buckles of her armor required to create a big enough area to work, careful to expose no part of her. "Ral, how are we doing?" He asked before he used the dagger that stabbed her to cut a length from his cloak. "Someone mind helping me lift her a bit to wrap her?"

Ralene Edric Davi

 

[Edric]

Edric glanced down as Drastus worked on Ral's wound. A frown pulled at his lips and he half turned his head to make sure that Davi wasn't injured. Despite the slur to his words the other boy seemed fine, so Edric quickly stepped over towards towards the other two and assisted.

His arms flexed as he picked up Ral, moving her gently enough that the wound wouldn't flex too much. "Not the worst wound you've taken."

The Initiate reminded her, before glancing back at Davi.

"I don't remember shit." Edric admitted, his mind still a cloudy haze. He couldn't even recall getting to the portal stone. It was all distant, like someone had thrown him into a swamp and he was trying to see through the water. "Davi, check out that stone?"

The odd obelisk wasn't a portal stone, at least not like any other Edric had ever seen. The strange stone disc was odd too, like nothing he'd ever seen before. Not that he had extensive experience.

He figured Davi at least would have an inkling, he always did like his books.

 

[Samantha Black]

There was a fair amount of snarled swearing through Drast's medical aid. Ralene bit down on the strap of leather so hard she'd managed to bite straight through it and spat the pieces out as Ed moved in to help. He was right, it wasn't the worst wound she'd taken - hell she'd done worse to herself in her own experiments - but something still felt off.

The burning in her side she knew the sensation of. The burning of her veins was something else entirely.

"He was right next to me," Ral stammered while Drast continued his work of wrapping her up like one of his damned mummies, "the Ambassador. There was a-" she blinked, eyes searching the immediate area she could see of the strange stone formation, "a shadow. Just before the flash."

 

[Davi]

Davi cast a cursory glance over to Ralene when she revealed her wound but once the most capable healer among them had set himself on the task, he left them to it. The worst thing in the world when injured was to have people hovering about you like annoying gnats. Instead he focused on checking himself and his weapons. His own sword was gone. He didn't feel... surprised by that. Something in the fog of memory told him that that was right and at least he still had his daggers. Whatever had happened must have meant he hadn't had the chance to draw them.

Aside from bruises and a few cuts he found himself unmarked and so when Edric suggested he check out the odd obelisk he shrugged in agreement and ambled forth.

But when his foot hit the stone of the disk surrounding it something made him stop. Hairs on the back of his neck stood up on end and a beast snarled in the back of his mind that this was led danger. Instead of ploughing forward he skirted round the edges trying to read the runes from a distance.

"It looks like a gate," he called back then stopped to crouch at the Northernmost point. Warily he brushed off a clump of moss obscuring some of the words.

 

[Drastus Tal'deneshaar]

"At least you won't be shambling after this." He would say with a grin as he finished wrapping the cloth around her torso. Once the makeshift bandage was bound, he would ensure there was a little extra fabric around the buckles, before re-tightening the armor.

Once done, he would rise to his feet and pull Ralene up with him. "There we go." There was some pain along the length of his leg but the fog kept him from pinpointing the cause. "Anyone else need medical attention?" He would ask as he checked his knife. Good. It was there, and based on the weight of his pack, Rupert was still there.

At least the once boring escort was now getting a little exciting. He would have to thank the proctor when he returned to the Academy. This was a definite step up from what he would be learning about right now.

Edric Ralene Davi

 

[Edric]

Edric pulled away as soon as Drastus had Ralene's bindings figured out. Nodding his head as she recounted her memories. Lips thinned, and he tried to pull through that odd fog which lay on his own mind. He thought about that shadow, what she said.

Tried to remember about the Ambassador. "He must have..."

Then Davi called out. His head turned, tilting curiously as the other Initiate announced that it was gate. For a brief moment he wished that he had paid more attention in class, for he had absolutely no idea what the difference was between a Portal Stone and a...gate.

"Well, what the fuck does that mean?" Edric asked. "Did the thing...rip us out of the portal stone?"

The words seemed to flash through his mind, evoking a memory.

He remembered touching the stone. He remembered the others coming around him in haste, he remembered the Ambassador being there too.

"Fuck. He was with us." Meaning he should have been there.

Almost immediately Edric turned his eyes away from the great stone towards the earth. He quickly gazed around, and then noticed a depression in the grass. He rushed over to it, and then noticed the grass folded over in long drag marks. "Shit."

He swore quietly.

 

[Samantha Black]

"At least you won't be shambling after this."

Ralene shot Drast a sideways grimace, one hand lightly clutched over her injured side for support. Now situated on her feet, she stiffly leaned to step closer to the odd stone monument for a look. Attention shifting between Edric and Davi, the Initiate moved to stand nearby the latter and watch as he slowly uncovered the base of the stone.

"Those symbols ... runes," she pointed over Davi's shoulder, "they look similar to portal stone runes, but they're not the same." With a short shuffle backward to get a better look, Ralene puzzled out the unusual coincidence of how they ended up here instead of the target portal stone.

"It looks like someone tried to copy the portal stones. No one's ever been able to replicate their power, so how the fuck did this one actually work?"

 

[Davi]

"Because it's not a portal stone," Davi pointed out quietly as his mind begun to piece it together. Off came more of the moss that was too easy to remove so must have been placed there purposefully to hide the stone. For once, the grumpy, sullen teenager who usually was Davi was nowhere to be seen. This one could almost be called mature. Useful, even. With all the stone cleared he stepped back and ran is eyes over the symbols.

"Portal stones can transport you anywhere in the world if you know the right symbol, right? But look at the runes. This one, this one was just meant to bring whoever touched the stone in Alliria here. To this one," it was genius. "They must have known when the Ambassador was travelling and enchanted the stone. The question is who," he scratched his chin almost completely forgetting there was anyone else there.

 

[Drastus Tal'deneshaar]

Not even a thanks. And no appreciation for sarcasm. The first one, he didn't care about, the second one was a biggie. Seems like he wound up with the serious kids. With no one else saying they needed help, he would inspect himself quickly. A little fire here, a little fire there, and he would staunch any blood and clean any wound. For now, at least.

He took the moment to look around, just in case someone was trying to sneak up on them. Seeing nobody, he would join the others. The drama, the suspense, for him, the excitement. They had gotten bamboozled. "Can we at least use this one to go back to Alliria? Or does it only work one way? This has to be very recent, or there would be reports of people using that portal stone and not appearing in their destination."

The plot thickens, and he could barely hide his excitement. Someone betrayed them, it was pretty cool. "So, we check out what this portal can do and then try to find the Ambassador, no?"

Edric Ralene Davi

 

[Edric]

Edric squatted down just besides the drag marks on the floor. They seemed to lead through the grass, eventually picking up to a section of trampled foliage. He guessed there had been horses, or some kind of animal anyway.

He listened to both Ral and Davi explain the stone, his head shaking slightly.

Such things were entirely above his means, he knew that. Edric had powerful magic by the standards of Dreadlord's, but he wasn't any sort of Academic. "No."

Edric said, turning back towards the others.

"We go after the Ambassador first." The stone was undoubtedly interesting to some of them, hell, there were probably wizards the world over who would have clambered to study it. But it wasn't their mission. "Who knows how much of a head start they have, and if he dies..."

Not good. "We can figure out a way home later."

Slowly he stood, and then began to walk towards the mountains.

 

[Samantha Black]

Davi's entire response tracked well enough to aggravate Ralene. Yes, clearly it wasn't a Portal Stone. That much was blatantly obvious - the point he was missing was that regardless of what the monument was or wasn't, it still should not have been able to transport them here. Teleportation wasn't possible beyond the power of the Portal Stones, so how was this thing able to break that specific Law of Magic?

She eyed the thing, watching as Davi continued to peel away the dirt and moss, and followed the line of a fresh crack in the stone foundation of the gate, "Looks like it was a one-way gate," Ral said, slowly forcing herself to stop visually studying and shift her attention to the others.

Someone or something somewhere was paying the price for this particular infraction and Ralene would be both lying and remiss if she said this gate didn't interest her on every single intellectual and magical level she knew. Tearing herself away from it to go after the Ambassador was going to be a true act of discipline and practice of self sacrifice.

Ralene looked to Edric and nodded. He was right, of course. The mission came first. Gritting her teeth against the slow but intense burn of pain in her side, the Initiate followed after him.

 

[Davi]

Davi was entirely oblivious to any hint of irritation Ral might have offered in his general direction, and if there was none was even more oblivious to the idea anything he had said might have caused irritation. He was too enthralled with the whole premise of what they had discovered and the implications of what that meant for the future of magic. Even a one way gate would be... well. Even the Proctors would want to know about this.

He trailed reluctantly after Edric and Ral even though he wished he didn't have to. He'd have much rather studied the runes in greater detail on his own. He even thought about the idea of suggesting he stay in case one of the criminals returned but he knew it was a stupid idea. They had what they had wanted. At least finding the ambassador might mean finding whoever had made the gate.

"The scents are roughly five hours old," he commented as he stuck his hands into his pockets.

 

[Drastus Tal'deneshaar]

One way. Even more exciting. Not to him, but Rupert chittered in the back of his mind in excitement. Looks like hunting first, that wasn't a problem to him, he could use a chance to kill some cowards.

Oooh.. or maybe even torture them. Find out how they did what they did. So he would follow after the others. He'd summon Rupert later, before the fight, hopefully. If not, he was more than capable without his trusty companion.

"Five hours old and heading to the southwest." Drast would concur with both Eddy and Davi. "Quite the headstart. If they don't have horses, we should be able to catch them before sundown." Prime spoopy hours.

Edric Davi Ralene

 

[Edric]

Edric nodded in agreement with the others, though knew their assessments were based off of assumptions.

They had absolutely no fucking idea what lay ahead of them. No idea who had taken the Ambassador or even why. His memory was still a blank, and everything else...everything else was just a pile of clues with no real answer.

"Anyone gets tired." He glanced at the others. "Tell me."

There was plenty of life around them. Grass, animals, insects.

Edric intended to take from whatever and whomever he could to drive them fast. "Keep up."

The Initiate said as he began to run. His steps thundered against the earth, rushing as he broke out into a steady jog towards the direction that the trail took them. All four of the Initiates ran for what seemed like hours.

Each time one of them would get tired Edric offered them a bit of his own power, sapped from the life around them. Each time they slowed, he encouraged them. His words rang through the air until the sun disappeared behind the mountains of the spine and the air grew cold.

By the time they came to a stop even Edric felt ragged, his chest heaving with breaths, his head spinning with exhaustion. The trail was warm, they stood now at the foot of the mountains, and yet it felt as though another step would kill them.

"Fuck...me." Edric breathed, barely able to get the words out as he collapsed into a small clearing of grass.

 

[Samantha Black]

Ralene kept up, barely. Between the blood loss from her wound and the continued spread of pain along her side, the challenge to stay in stride with Edric as he lead them along the path was a monumental effort. She wasn't one to complain, ever, and Ral would run herself into the ground before admitting defeat but the Initiate would be lying if she said she wasn't unbelievably grateful to watch Ed come to a full stop.

She was the next to collapse against the base of a tree. About an hour in she felt the fever set in, and halfway through their trek it had fully taken hold. Ral managed to power through it, aided by energy from Edric, but she was slicked with sweat and straining against the agonizing fire in her veins.

And yet...

"We can't let the trail go cold," she pushed herself to sit up, visibly wincing, "if we lose them, we're fucked. I'll scout ahead, try and locate them before we completely lose daylight while the rest of you recover." Teeth grit, Ral forced herself back to her feet, "Ed...I'm gonna need a boost."

She wasn't feeling fit to fight in her current condition, but she could scout.

 

[Davi]

Davi shook his head.

"I'll go."

His hair was plastered to his forehead and curling where it had gotten wet from his sweat. He threw his jacket down on the ground which he'd removed some miles back and his chest rose and fell in quite rapid movements. But he didn't look as though he were about to pass out like Ral was. When it looked as though she were about to protest he carried on.

"You're a better fighter. If we need to fight, we need you more than me," it was the blunt, straight truth of the matter. "Besides, the night will not be a problem for me," not many initiates knew the depths of his abilities. For the past 10 years of his life they had kept him from using them in this way but since the revolution everything had changed. Still, he felt disgusted enough still with the 'otherness' his gift made him that he looked away from the group before his body began to morph. It took painful seconds but soon in Davi's place stood a silvery wolf who would not be given a second look in their landscape.

 

[Drastus Tal'deneshaar]

His poor dreds. The run had been brutal. Drast was in no way out of shape, but this was Olympian level running. If not for the pain lancing up his leg the entire time, he would have never needed to rely on Edrics power, for unlike Ral, he hadn't qbeen shanked by some psycho.

When they finally came to a stop he doubled over, hands on his knees. "Fuck.. at least we're making good time." He was about to object to Ral, until Davi stepped forward and took all other options off the table by transforming. As Davi in wolf cosplay went scamping off, Drast would look at Ral. "Let me change those wraps and make sure you haven't ripped open again."

There was no way they didn't. And he knew she would be stubborn, but he was already making more wraps. "If a fight comes, you not being open, will be much better than you bleeding all over yourself. How are you feeling?"

Davi Edric Ralene

 

[Edric]

Edric took long, slow breaths. "Alright Dav."

He said with a nod. What he said made complete sense, and of the four of them he was probably best suited as a scout. "Don't go too far."

If something happened they needed to be close by. There was still no fucking telling who had actually taken the Ambassador. All they knew was there had been magic involved, and if it was strong enough to redirect a portal stone...it was probably strong enough to hurt them.

"We'll rest, when you get back I'll." He glanced at Ralene as she gritted her teeth and asked for his help. A nod jerked his head. "I'll top everyone up."

He breathed, nodding to the now silvery wolf, motioning in the direction the trail headed up towards the mountains.

A long breath filled his lungs, and then slowly the other Initiates would see the grass around them begin to die. Bright green faded to drab brown. Leaves curled in one themselves, and slowly the field they stood in began to look as though no rain had fallen here in years.

With each second Edric seemed to look better. His breathing slowed, the sweat stopped, and he stood a little bit taller.

 

[Samantha Black]

Ralene frowned as Davi stepped in for the role, glaring at the other Initiate not out of hate or spite, but simply out of pain. She relented to the plan with a nod, and watched with surprise lifting her brows as he shifted into a wolf. For as long as they had schooled together, Ral had very rarely seen him employ his powers in such a way. Had he taken animal form before? For as keen as she was on animals, Ralene felt like she'd remember.

Perhaps those memories had been beaten out of her at some point, like many others she only caught glimpses of from time to time.

Her gaze watched him go, loping off into the fading light of day and up the slope of the mountain before shifting to Drast. The stubborn part of her didn't want to be bothered, but the smart part of her knew he was right. She nodded and carefully began to work her chestplate straps off.

"I'm fine..." the response came through grit teeth as she pulled the armor off with a tight grunt. The gauze wraps were soaked through from fever sweat and stained by blood ... and dark, rancid ooze. Beneath the bound layers, the skin around her wound was turning black, spreading along her veins up and down her side. Everything around it burned and her fever pounded in her head.

Fuck.

 

[Drastus Tal'deneshaar]

Oh hey, she did listen to reason. Sweet. That made his job much easier. He would help her with the chestplate and set it down at her feet, then he undid the thoroughly soaked bandages, blood, black ooze, the usual. Black ooze? Fuck.

He definitely discarded those wraps. They were.... nasty. "Well fuck. Ral, this skin right here is darker than me." He said with a laugh. Poison. She was definitely poisoned and there was no way of telling what it was that had done the work. Well, there was one way, so he would have to give it a try. "Here. We. Go. He would dip a finger into the ooze and lifted it to his mouth and took a taste. Only a few seconds before he spit it out. "Nightshade. Fuck. If only I noticed you were poisoned earlier. Why didn't you mention this sooner?" He would ask.

Cursing again he would wave Edric over. "Ed.. you give her some strength so her body can fight this. I need to harvest some herbs. For this. And you stay put." He would say to Ralene, putting some bass in his voice.

Then he was off and trotting down the hill. He had seen some herbs that might help during the run. He was gone maybe twenty minutes before he returned. He had half of what he needed. He didn't have anything for crushing herbs, so he would take the herbs and chew on them a bit before spitting them out into a bowl and added some of his flask to it. Using his fingers, he would mix it together until it was paste like.

Finger traced the fire rune on his arm and he would flash seal the bleeding skin some more, before applying the paste. Almost immediately, she would feel the wound start to get cooler, the pain would soothe and the area would numb. "Its not a complete antidote, but it will give your body a better chance to heal. Okay?" He would pause, and pull his knife, scraping away some of the ooze gently away, burn, paste. He would finish applying the half-cocked remedy. "I apologize in advance, there is a very small chance that you're going to see about thirty minutes of hallucinations. You're fine. Theyll go away and you'll feel a lot better."

Once done with the application, he would re-wrap with 'fresh' wraps and keep it tight. Then the armor was strapped back on. Damn, was he good. "Edric, mind giving her more energy? She should be good in a bit."

Ralene Edric Davi

 

[Edric]

Edric lingered in the dead field for a brief moment, and then slowly turned on his heel as Drastus called out to him.

Ralene looked to be getting worse by the moment. Her skin was pale and there was a slight sullenness around her eyes. Poison didn't work on him like it did others, but he had suffered at the hands of Everleigh enough to know what his companion was going through.

Unfortunately, he could not cleanse her blood like he could her own.

All that he could do was offer her a bit more strength, a bit more life to fight off the poison coursing through her veins. He stepped up besides her, crouching down. "You'll be fine."

He put a hand on her shoulder, and she would feel that trickle of strength once again flow through her body. It was less than before, but enough to help her for a little while at least. Edric knew that they had to be careful now.

At the end of this hunt lay their foe, and it was important that at least some of them could still fight.

If he gave Ralene too much energy, she'd still not be fully healed. That would only lessen himself. There was a balance he had to maintain, even if meant that she had to suffer a little more.

"Rest for now." He told her. "Least until Davi gets back."

 

[Samantha Black]

Ralene was not without gratitude, but she often had a difficult time expressing it in a manner that befit the feeling. Grit through the pain of Drastus' quasi-medical attentions, she spared no effort to converse with him. Her own knowledge on poison barely extended beyond the basic education every Initiate was given on it. She at least knew that Nightshade wasn't one to be trifled with and it often spelled death for the recipient.

She did her damnedest not to think about that, and instead focused on staying present and conscious while he tended to her before allowing herself the reprieve of sitting down. A silent, staunch nod given to him in thanks, Ral turned her attention to Edric as he approached and made no fanfare of accepting his given energy.

Before Edric could leave her side, Ralene grabbed hold of the arm he held her shoulder with. A glance was given to Drast as he milled off to take care of the soiled wraps before she locked eyes with Edric and leaned in closer.

"If I die," she hissed low at him, gaze hard and defiant against her very own words, "don't let that fucker bring me back."

It was not a request, but a demand. Under no circumstances would she allow her mortal coil to be bandied with like a hapless pet ... or worse, servant. She had no intentions of dying, but sheer stubbornness alone might not be enough. Releasing her hold on his arm, she carefully pulled her chestplate back on and cinched it snugly into place.