It was noon and bitterly cold with occasional flurries of snow as the gigantic Ice Wyrm, Sceaða ColdDrake thrusts themselves, churning through the snowy land, leaving a cratered ridge to mark their passing as they reach the edge of the forest and can now see Jade City unobstructed, and where those on the Walls may appreciate the sheer scale of the threat represented by the Primordial Ice Wyrm. The Ice Elf King Gorthaur Iceberg emerges from the trees, and beside him is his favourite Ice Troll, who continues to walk on without the other two.

The Ice Troll approached afore the Walls of Jade City under a flag of truce and shouted, "I am The Voice of the Ice Elf King Gorthaur Iceberg."

At this, the Icekin Alliance Horde starts the encirclement about a mile further away from the Walls by fanning out to the left and right, and the numbers do not stop until the City is surrounded, then the forces laying siege thicken with rank upon rank of troops. The Army displayed is entirely hybrids, half Ice Elf, half Orc, in heavy Armour, all of it White which somewhat blends with the snowy background but is nonetheless apparent to the onlookers.

While this is taking place, the Ice Troll shouts, "If your King abdicates his Crown to my King, then he will intercede with Sceaða ColdDrake to spare the people; if not, then you will feel his wrath, and any blood spilt will be your King's fault. If, however, he isn't a coward and would rather than simply give up the Crown, he may choose to fight the Ice Elf King Gorthaur Iceberg in single combat for the right to the Crown of Jade City and the Kingdom of Fecundity,"

Josephine Bera came rushing through the Dwarven Expressway, bumping into Joy Bera, who was waiting for news at the Underground Expressway entrance at the Adalbern Embassay; another Page took Joy's place as he raced off to find Theria on the ramparts of the Embassy with Josephine in toe. Theria smiled when Josephine approached, excitedly saying, "They've done it the Feybeards Starsteel that the Blacklocks helped them to conceive of, and now the Ironchest's forge, they got it to stabilise, and they have enough to make four ballista bolt heads and with an idea from the Firebeards suggest using sprung barbs as one of them, uses them on a hunting arrow, as they never knew when they'd needed to get more hides quickly. Anyway, they have a design that they are forging the sprung loaded barbs on ballista bolt heads which are Runed Warded with a Cleansing blessing and both elvish Starlight and Starbright, something the High Elf Archmagus and High Elf Arch Cleric are enjoying helping with. They should be here hot out of the forge, one at a time, with/ one hour to cool and a further hour to enchant, so we can produce one every hour if we get enough raw materials, but we don't have them for now, with the first of the Feybeards experimental bolt heads arriving in two hours, in the meantime a wagon load of Iron Oak Ballista bolts are arriving within an hour, they are all enchanted with chainlightning as we suspect that even the Ice Wyrm might yet be susceptible to lightning." Joy stood open-mouthed and then was sent away by Theria, to go make sure all four ballistae on the roof were ready to fire and have the elevation they'll need to hit the Wyrm if it continued on its approach towards us, and then Josephine was sent to help Joe. Theria went straight to Ur'sid, and together they went to see the King to report on their weapon upgrade and timings.

At about 2pm the Horde finished deployment so they would all have eyes upon the walls of the City of Jade, and at the same time, the first Ballista was loaded with the new bolt head.

The Ice Troll, who had been patiently waiting for a signal, stretched and now moved forward to approach the Walls of Jade City under a flag of truce again and shouted in excitement and with a bit of tension in their voice. "Have you no answer for me? Is your King a Coward?" a cheer rose from the Horde in response, but silence remained on the Walls of Jade City,

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Knowing they needed more time to have both the maximum surprise and chance of success, Ur'sid turned to Theria, asking if he were to die would she avenge him, but please grant him the boon of letting him face the Ice Elf King as he had already slayed the Orc Shaman Warband leader. He didn't think the Ice Elf King could ignore that, and it would enable them to play for time. Theria didn't like it and feared for her Cousin but could not deny his boon request. So he ambled to the City Gate and requested to be let through, and with reluctance, the King allowed it, at 2.15pm Ur'sid emerged and Ur'sid shouted at the Ice Troll so all might hear, "Who are you to call another Coward did you not flee the field from me last we met? In case you forgot, that was when I slew your Orc Master. Perhaps your Ice Elf Master would give me the Honour of letting me slay him as well, or Is your King a Coward?" a cheer rose from the Walls of Jade Cityat this, but silence remained from the Horde.

Gorthaur scowled and assessed Ur'sid as not being his match, so he nodded at the Ice Troll, who shouted, "My King thinks the Horde would benefit from some entertainment; come let my Master show you what slaying looks like." The Horde thundered! in response and then settled down to a rhythmic beating of sword against shield as the two approached the centre of no man's land, and the Ice Troll changed places with his Master. Ur'sid slowly circled but did not close; he dragged out the fight by making the Ice Elf King come to him. Typically Ur'sid fought to win, and now he fought to prolong and to deny an advantage to the enemy but not to press home his own advantage; at first, the Gorthaur thought he was being played with, but soon he suspected Ur'sid was up to something, but he couldn't put his finger on it, he had experience fighting Bearkin in human and werebear form, but his opponent was definitely holding back for some reason. When Gorthaur got an opening, he went for a wound and drew first blood to cheers from the horde. The fight continued in this vain, with many cuts being landed on Ur'sid, but he resisted and fought on, circling one way then the other. When Ur'sid felt alignment for the first time, he charged and transformed into a werebear and quick strikes with Orcslayer at the space where the Ice Elf was moving into but he twisted and dodged the blow curling himself around Ur'sid back with a knife in his second hand in Ur'sid's throat while his main dug into Ur'sid side. Holding the Ice Elf King in place, Ur'sid could feel himself weakening. Still, he tried a back flop onto the ground putting all his weight into it with the Gorthaur landing heavily and pinned, Gorthaur may have been injured, but he continued to twist back and forward, both blades until Ur'sid struggled no more... The Horde went wild, and Gorthaur drank a health potion, but he was drenched in blood and victorious; the watchers from Jade City were quiet but not unaffected, and time ticked on to 3.30pm.

Theria was enraged, and she channelled the anger into action; she went first to the roof of the Embassy and removed one of the loaded Feybeard ballista bolts to the bafflement of those present and, in a feat of strength, carried it on her shoulder herself to the front gate of the City and taking a leaf from Ur'sid. She bowed before the King and asked for Boon for permission to avenge her favourite Cousin after she had slain the Wyrm and freed the City from the Wyrm sickness shadow curse it projects, and then the I'll deal with the Ice Elf King. The King was taken aback, but the fierce countenance and energy radiating from her were palpable, and he felt that he could not deny her request, so he bade her go and prayed for Victory. The front gate opened to let her through and was locked again after she emerged in sight of all the Horde.