The earth quaked under the marching Dhaugrian army as they passed through the Upper Stratum’s wastes with a clear direction in their head. The trembling paired eerily well with their silence as they continued on, led by a bulkier elder Kriegersforin appearing in the centre of the army as he slowly road on his ginormous draconic mount, a blessed Vaurdr that completely transformed now resembling a lovechild of a dragon and a wolf. Except for the heavy plates that served as both protection and to train its draconic muscles.
The army came to sudden halt. A marching sound is swiftly replaced with the clanking of armor pieces as the Dhaugrians stand aside in a straight line to the east. The draconic mount of Kriegersforin growls after stopped for a second, kicked in its sides with a blunt metal head part of the saddle. It began to trudge forward reluctantly while snarling at the silent Dhaugrians with their faces hidden behind malformed skeletal masks of dhaugrite.
Kriegersforin jumps down from his mount, kicking up dust particles as he lands. He puts his left knee on the ground while his fish clashes with his chest plate while staring down at the ground. In front of him is the almost three meters down strange undead with a bipedal reptilian shape, his skin ethereal shadows that eat the light, glistening plates with jagged edges grafted onto his body. His elongated draconic head completely covered except for the mouth, in the back it even extends onto his two curling down horns. A guttural, deep distorted sound emanates from its throat as it jaws open to reciprocate Kriegersforin’s greeting. Its bulky right arm imitates the Dhaugrian’s while it remains standing, then points towards the direction of their aim, Oplikynasc, the former dark elven city of Oplikynasc that once served as a gathering for their bravest, or the most foolish adventurers heading down to the Middle Stratum of the Bottom Layer.
After Kriegersforin acknowledged the order, he raised his battle axe on top of his mount and the combined army continued their march towards Oplikynasc, carrying the stench of death along the path towards the illuminated fortress city visible in the distance.
**
Oplikynasc the former border city of the Eviscai Kingdom, differs slightly in its arrangement compared to Adiriniech. For one it is directly built into the so-called Maw of the Middle Stratum, a natural formation of a wide hole where monsters and undead migrated from one stratum to the other. Now walls cover the enormous entrance from top to bottom, built with gaps for the archers and the maguses to stop incursions.
A similarly high wall, almost a kilometer in height, runs a curve on the opposite side, built to withstand the giants that tend to attack the city, its stones inscribed with protective enchantments in case of an attack from either the Dhaugrians or from the World Above. From the distance, with the watch towers at impeccably measured intervals, the city walls appear to resemble the lower jaw of an enormous beast.
Between the two walls, the districts are separated with lower walls where the city guard patrolled. The centre housed the upper and middle echelons including the adventurers’ headquarters where they took up their quests to eliminate monsters that threatened the lower echelons living in the outer districts and worked outside the boundaries of the city. The statue of King Cholernd stands today, although in a much decrepit form with his face melted beyond recognition, sculpted after uniting the city’s adventurers and magus-guard when a hoard of highly evolved undead assaulted the gates on the Middle Stratum’s side.
Said Magus-Guard of Oplikynasc were housed in the eastern district. Their members comprised mostly of exiled Maguses from the Academy of Ashaneaeas either because they failed to meet the expectations of their families or because their dealings with devils and demons resulted in their minds tainting, but in this case mostly the still useful ones were sent.
Opposite to them, the western district housed the Abyssal Church holding rituals to keep the Triumvirate content by sacrificing the slaves they themselves swore to watch over, creating Arachnids for the patrolling guards outside the city and holding masses on every start of the weekend.
Most of these structures still tend, compared to the other dark elven cities Oplikynasc is in the least decrepit state, even got maintained by the Dhau-Íssz since the years they took over. Its thanks to the Deadfire opting for a different path, concealed from any besides him and the closest of his none mortal servants still prowling at the edges of the planes.
“Alert the others!” Geirlaug, a northern human formerly known as the Sparring Raven of Virdr, now a blessed of the Nightscale, while turning her draconic left half towards the Dhau-Íssz moon elven mage. Her mauve stormy left eye revealed as she parts her layered long hair as she watches the army of dhaugrians and weird creatures of the darkness circle around the border city, she quickly counts at least two hundred crossbowmen amongst the dwarves on the elevated points. Their square formation leaves enough space for the approximately twenty or so mages clad in dark armoured robes with alabaster faceless masks with rows of tendrils.
Just as she starts counting the dhaugrian warriors, they start beating their weapons onto their shields, humming in a metrical dissonance that plants a shivering cold feeling within her spine. The weird creatures joining in the eerie cacophony, beating the plates grafted onto their ethereal flesh blending them into the dark landscape. As their warped growl start, her head starts aching, shadowy tendrils with eyes innumerable staring at her, whispering a strange ode in a language she never heard in all her travels across the northern regions of the continent.
She falls on the stone railings, both sides of her body covered in sweat as silence falls once more, the enemy outside the gates standing motionless while waiting for the orders. Then the ground under her feet starts trembling as earth on the elevated points grows out from the ground.
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“What took you so long?” She frowns as the moon elven Dhau-Íssz returns, appearing out of nowhere after reality warps his outlines where he stood.
“I apologize, that spell breached my protections oh Blessed of the Night.” He says while getting down onto his knees.
“Did you get the undead too?” She asks while massaging her temples as the headache subsides.
“Yes, but, and excuse my intrusion, is it a good idea to deploy them?” He asks while staring at her feet. “The Chosen instructed us to not use them until he orders so.”
“His order was to not use them against the undead that attacked our outposts, these are just Dhaugrians and their weird new creations.” She speaks with a firm voice, putting her helmet on that hides her split face, with only a straight opening for her mismatching eyes.
“As you command oh Blessed of the Night!” The moon elven Dhau-Íssz complies as he stands back up.
“Mages! Wards!” Geirlaug focuses once more on the Dhaugrian earth-shapers as they form the grown rock formations. They form the earth into a barrel shape on top of flat roofed pyramid, carving various runes into it that light up in a light blue hue. She screams at the mages, runes filled transparent walls appear around the gigantic walls as hardened rocks surrounded by necrotic auras tear through the air.
“Archers! Draw!” At her next command, the scale plated Dhau-Íssz members draw their ivory bows, their muscles tensing as they wait for her next command.
“Release!” As the flying rocks of necrotic energies explode several meters before the walls, arrows fly towards the Dhaugrians. Most bounce off as the dwarves raise their shields, quickly consumed by decay midfall. Some do manage to find their target, the blackened blood flowing out from under the skull mask of the Dhaugrians while they remain silent.
The bombardment continues on, while Geirlaug shouts the same orders over and over again until she decides to leave command to the moon elven Dhau-Íssz while she heads down to regroup the warriors in the courtyard. He gives commands for mages specializing in fire and lightning to start bombarding the Dhaugrian earth-shapers as he starts spotting cracks appearing over the ward. Spells fly from the high walls towards the earth-shapers, earth shaped like triangles grow out from the earth, hovering high in the air by pairs, floating them in the way. Then after they appear useless to them, throw it at the ward, weakening it even more as the others continue their relentless attack.
Then as holes begin to appear on the ward, the weird reptilian shaped creature walks to the front with a dhaugrian with a large blessed vaurdr. The reptilian creature growls as the ward breaks and the walls begin to be bombarded. The first few projectiles shatter to pieces while the wall remains unharmed. The next three start creating cracks in its smooth, gleaming surface. Then the fourth and fifth create holes large enough for a wyvern or gryphon to fly through.
The strange horde of creatures began their charge when the second projectile shattered, reached the bottom at the fourth and started climbing while the earth-shapers continued the attacks, though slowed down as some of their members started being consumed by Terrana, turning to still sculptures of blackened earth.
On the other hand, the dhaugrian warriors charged at the gates, several of their strongest lifting their heavy war hammers, striking with unnatural strength its still pristine wooden door. They breached through on the sixth combined strike, rushing into the Dhau-Íssz warriors awaiting them. The first dozen felling to the arrows of their archers waiting atop the buildings, while the next batch clashing with the undead, former city guard of the border city.
On the walls the mages started focusing on protecting the archers on top as the dhaugrian crossbowmen started their retaliation against the Dhau-Íssz, the stench of their fellow fallens fuelling their senses. Just as a few of the Dhau-Íssz mages felt safe using their elemental oriented spells, the strange creatures reached the top, grabbing the nearby mages and archers and pushing them down into the depth. A few of the falling met their grizzly fate, as some of the climbers leaped at them, claws aggressively tearing into their flesh, their necks twisting until flesh gives in and blood paints the glistening Stahlaar plates pushed into the shadowy flesh.
The walls themselves got quickly overrun by the Eliovadeks of the Nameless, screaming of the living turning warped groaning of the dead, while Geirlaug joins the fray with her spear piercing through two dhaugrians, while a flaming ball carves through the space with a velocity, greater than the naked eye could see. It explodes at the gate, Dhaugrians silently getting on their hands while their bodies scalds under the armour before time seemingly hastens, freezing them into dhaugrite stills.
“Shieldwall!” Geirlaug yells as she sees the crossbowmen appear in the gaps. She raises her arm with confidence to parry the ones aimed at her. She screams after the sensation of pain rears its heads in a long time. She quickly pulls it out and splits her blood on the ground, while a smile curves onto her lips unconsciously.
Eliovadeks pour in not long after a second shower of bolts, this time piercing through the scaled shields of bone and metal of the Dhau-Íssz, just as their undeads necrotic light blacken consuming the light around them as they charge against their former masters.
“Pull back.” Geirlaug shouts while piercing the head of an Eliovadek with a nimble feminine body, piercing through its throat. They warriors of hers slowly retreat into the centre of the city while the remaining archers and mages on the inner walls rain down flaming arrows at the Eliovadek and Dhaugrians. As the arrows approach the former, the flames gradually die out around the tips, bouncing off the Stahlaar plates while they continue mowing their way towards the retreaters. The latter either manage dodging or raising their shield in time, or as the arrows pierce their eyes or flesh in the gaps their armour-clad bodies erupt in raging flames.
The reptilian Eliovadek enters the city while Kriegersforin stays behind with the rest of their forces. The designated commander leaps towards Geirlaug, a straight line appears on her shoulder part of the armour, sliding down not long after in tandem with her arm holding her long spear. The shock makes her frozen, then reptilian Eliovadek in front of her spins before gradually reducing to only its legs as the spinning stops.
It lifts up her head and lets out a warped growl as blood drips onto its covered head, and jaw. Her body then gets up from its knees and after getting her spear back, charges at the retreating former clans-kin of it…