Yelena
Searing Strike: Activated
She sliced through the pieces of wall and melted stonemasonry that flew her way, and the crumbling roofs of houses that fell upon her and the Gnolls sprinting forwards, surging through the town like a living mass of fury.
For her part, she kept close to Amara and the Elder, who seemed to be supporting each other.
“Pretty good trick!” Marius whistled, inspecting the outer wall. “Now, how about another blast aimed right at the top of that there dome?”
Amara groaned, but it was the Elder that answered. “This power has spent me, Ch’alokk. My destiny was to open the door to our retribution and walk the sands of this city again. What happens next is your dominion.”
Amara pulled her forwards. “We can’t just leave you behind.”
“Peace,” came a voice that interrupted them all. “I will guard the Elder.”
Yelena smiled to see him – tall, blade at the ready, and ushering his soldiers forward to take up positions in the city streets.
“Mendax?”
“The Elder is one of our own,” he explained to the surprised Amara. “She needs rest. The bloodying of my blade can wait. My first duty is to my Elder.”
The aged Gnoll grimaced behind her veil and allowed Mendax to take her arm away from Amara’s firm grip.
“A child can always be counted on to protect it’s mother,” she said. “But do not forget that your mother is here to protect you too, Mendax. Do you fear this place?”
He looked at her grimly and a tight lipped smile smeared itself across his face. “Has Mendax ever feared death?”
It was Amara that answered: “No.”
“Onwards, now,” the Elder commanded the three surfacers. ‘See the finest hour of our children flourish against this new dawn and…and see the Black…the blackbird…”
Amara placed her hands on hers and finished her sentence. “Burn.”
The old Gnoll smiled.
“Marius,” Yelena commanded, stiffening up the thief almost instantly. “Scout ahead. Watch for ambushes.”
He saluted her mockingly. “Can do, miss!”
“Amara –“
“You don’t command me,” Amara replied. “I’ll be in the frontlines with the rest. If you want to follow, be my guest.”
And as she ran past them all, Yelena couldn’t help but smile.
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Di, she thought. Was I ever this brash with you?
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Marius
Stealth (LVL II) activated
You may remain in stealth so long as you keep to shadowed areas.
The rising sun of midafternoon didn’t exactly aid a covert scouting mission, but Marius wasn’t one to shirk away from sticking to the shadows where he couldn’t be hurt. Indeed, as he watched the Gnoll armada stream through the city streets, checking through every house, he was rather put off by the bloodshed in their animal eyes.
Maybe Yelena’s right, he found himself thinking. Maybe they really aren’t mortal like us.
He watched them from atop the sunkissed roof of one of the sparkling white huts that made up the town. His eyes swept over the streets and alleys.
Completely deserted.
Marketplace stalls empty even in the middle of the day. Windows open but with no occupants looking out at the liberation force. The fountain in the town center streaming in the sunlight alone – no one graces the marble steps that paved the way up to the grand palace where Yelena and Marius had first been taken to in chains. His eyes swept over the green oasis at the edge of the city, just before a grand canyon rose and signaled the desert layer’s end. He watched the algae on the surface of the waters send little ripples through the pool – giving the impression that this was the only piece of sentient life in the entire city.
Marius cocked his head and scanned the other rooftops, moving quickly from shadowed bough to each interior space, seeing only pots, tables, and untouched chairs. Each room’s cupboards bore no items. No paintings or household appliances graced the walls and crooks of the tiny homes. Granted, he’d never actually seen them when he was captive here, but the cracked stone walls that looked like they’d been slowly whittled away by time and the elements – blasted to crumbling nothingness by uncaring dust-storms – these things did not surprise him. It was a story as old as time: a city of oppressed slaves all under the governance of a greedy, despotic ruler in a house of gold. The Everloft was subtle like that.
But what did surprise him was just how empty everything felt.
Each piece of furniture was perfectly straightened and neat. Shag rugs bore no signs of a struggle or of a mass exodus. Marius had seen sieges before. Usually it was the invaded people who were the first to crack, or take to stealing before getting as far away as they could. Very few were ever brave enough to defend their homes in the face of the horrors organized armies brought. Not just their weapons, but their men…
He remembered seeing women and children on these same streets that he looked at now. The broken cobblestones glimmered against the sun – stones that were once trampled on by the people of this place, hemmed in by the slum housing. He’d expected to see at least some of them still here – especially the old, the beggars, the infirm – some of whom he’d seen as he looked out his prison carriage on the way here.
Even some of the Gnolls were looking around confused as they broke into the houses and found nothing and no one. Their battle fervor as they roamed towards the Golden Palace was starting to wane in the face of the deserted city.
Could it be…
Uncanny Danger Sense (LVL II)
Visual danger: undetected.
Auditory stimulus: undetected
He looked to the skies inadvertently, scanning the darkened clouds that had gathered over the spire of the golden domes. His Everloft skills may not be serving him here, but that didn’t mean his own roguish senses weren’t tingling like hell.
Has the place been evacuated?
No…Marius realized as he sprinted towards the Western Gate and saw that it was closed up tight. His eyes caught sight of the other arched gates at the other sides on the city perimeter and perceived the same thing.
He fingered the hilt on his new shiny dagger, its poisoned tip glimmering in the high sun of noon.
They’re still here. They have to be. But…
A shadow threw itself over the city. Marius’ eyes slowly drew themselves back to the rippling waters of the oasis.
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Amara
The first one to realize something was wrong was the Argent.
They had pushed through the crowd of soldiers to the center of the city, where a fountain baring the image of a white-haired man aiming a sword at the Golden Spires was gushing with clear water.
Amara watched as Yelena dropped to her knees, using her sword to steady herself. Her breaths started coming in stuttered rasps.
“He…”
Amara bend down and looked into her eyes as the Gnolls around them started looking around. Their eyes were perked up. Their snouts huffing the air.
“The dream…” Yelena was saying, looking at her shaking gauntlet.
Amara followed the gazes of the Gnolls as they looked towards the darkening clouds of the skies. The sun had hidden itself.
And the ground was starting to vibrate with power, so that the statue of the proud swordsman started to crumble.
Amara felt the Argent grab her arm suddenly and rise steadily to her feet, looking towards the oasis in the distance with wide ripples playing across its surface.
“Amara,” she said. “We need fire.”
The Lightbringer bristled, but her eyes remained glued on the rippling waters as they started to rise.
“Is that a command?”
Yelena shook her head slowly as a wave of darkness roared over the entire city.
A thousand dark eyes gleamed from within.
“Only if you want us to live.”