As soon as the group left the kingdom heading towards the elven territories, a quick tenseness fell over them. Kierra breaking it by opening her mouth, “I realize you all probably know, but we’re entering enemy territory. Watch your steps and avoid making too much noise.”
The guys, and Kaature, all just nodded. Maybe they had snarky comments in their heads, maybe they didn’t. Only they could truly know, though I suspect they do. Now, I have watched ahead for a little bit.
The whole trip over to the tower is fairly boring and lasts about a week, they pretty much just hunt wolves and run into only one set of elven scouts near the end. Yeah sure, they have some bonding through fighting together and seem to relax but really nothing too huge. Though, some people do enjoy that so I guess I’ll leave you observers some kind of vote to see if you want to hear this. If enough people respond positively I’ll pull back an old mirror to write it up as an extra or something, let me just save the spot… there, uh what? They don’t want me to be taking up this much space since they don’t know my name yet?
Alright then maybe I’ll also throw in that temporary communication spell so they can ask questions. For now, I’ll give you all access back to the group once they reach the tower. This abyss or whatever it actually is isn’t furnished so… maybe I’ll add a couch for next time, either way back to writing out what I see in the reflection!
So, the group of humans. If you don’t remember that is completely fair, we’ve got Wuulph Ireme, our current focus and a decent Witch, proficient in the enchantment of objects. Kierra, our paladin of Rah’veihly. Kaature, our hunter and the only person Wuulph actually knew before the king sent off the group. And Harvit, the swordsman who is pretty much there to help the chance of survival.
Anyways, they see the tower now. A fairly small building, which really just looks like a three story cobble house. If it wasn’t for the structure being round instead of square it probably would not be described as a tower. There is about five meters of flat land nearly devoid of vegetation around the tower.
The group scans the tower, not seeing a door until they start going around a perimeter of trees and bushes. Which are pretty much everywhere else. The door itself is nothing extraordinary, a simple wooden door made to fit one humanoid at a time that looked like it would fit better in a dungeon, with two elves standing guard, one on each side of the door.
Contrary to popular belief among worlds without elves, they are fairly easy to differentiate from humans. First of all, their ears aren’t just pointed, they are long. One of the easier ways to tell and elves age is by the approximate length of their ears, which grow like tree branches. Their skin usually has a similar texture to tree bark, and is similar in texture. Luckily enough for the group, they are definitely under 200. After which point they would gain a superior power over the plants.
Based on the length of the ears, as best as the group can see, they estimate about 20 to 30 years each. The group pulls back to discuss a plan, Wuulph speaking up first. “I don’t think we’re gonna be taking them down, the best we can do is distract.”
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Next one to speak up is Kaature, “I’ve got a little bit of knockout powder, should keep them for a minute.” She holds out a clay bottle, shaking it a tiny bit. Kierra and Harvit nod at her, and Wuulph gestures for Kaature to do her thing.
She steps over to the edge of the opening, cautiously and slowly. Lifting up her right arm, she winds it up and throws. The jar shatters a bit above the door, making a loud smashing noise as the dust starts to settle, a bit too high to reach the guards.
Before they can fully react, and seeing their cover is blown, Wuulph stands up. Holding a twig to help him focus, he chants “Viilj-Nagh-Dure!” as runes flow from his mouth, snaking around his arm and over the twig. Forming a point on its tip before seemingly vanishing, before the dust above the guards suddenly gets pushed downwards, causing the guards to cough and collapse.
Kaature gives a sigh of relief and the group heads into the door, pushing open the unlocked door. The inside seems fairly empty, no life to be seen. But the air, just breathing normally the team can feel an influx of mana, filling their certainty that this should be where the raw core is. Kierra lightly mumbles a prayer, an ethereal shield with the same rose and thorn pattern as her armor appears in front of the group. With confidence in their protection, they head towards the obvious way forwards. Up a spiral staircase, which leads them all the way to the top floor.
The group goes up, avoiding checking the middle floor as to make their job faster, with less sacrifice of life. They emerge into a spacious room, filled with about ten elves. All looking very ready for a fight, each one having either an intricately carved staff or fine and smooth wand. In the middle of them all a smooth floating blue sphere which literally radiates mana. It fits the description of a raw core, at least. Though it seems a bit bigger than it should be, like a rock instead of a pebble.
Their goal is retrieval, not a slaughter. Kierra starts the charge, pushing her magic shield forwards and separating a bit more than half the elves rightwards, causing the shield to shatter though it served its purpose. Kaature and Harvit push the left, cutting the elves down and firing arrows into the group, trying to incapacitate or kill as many as possible. The elves, of course, fight back. A cacophony of chanting filling the crowd, as they all start casting. Balls of ice, and forceful winds start pushing back at the party. Easily overpowering the small group as the elves try to retake their position.
Wuulph however, now has a clear opening. A quickly closing passage straight to the core, and he runs. Wuulph goes for it, one leg in front of the other as he picks up speed. He gets just within arms length when another shattering rings out through the room. As Wuulph looks back for a moment, Harvits sword lays on the ground, shards of metal filling the battlefield.
As the elves see the humans advancing, they switch tactics. Suddenly rather than balls of ice balls of fire start flying around. The room starts to quickly heat up, and instead of winds a blizzard starts building up, cooling it back down. As hail starts forming, pelting the party, and fire begins striking they realize they’re finished. The elves were better than they expected, and Wuulph is the only one close enough to the core to finish this mission. He may have needed to retrieve the core, but at the very least he had to make it so the elves couldn’t use it. Jumping for the core with a slight push of wind at his feet, pushed out of him through adrenaline and panic, he grabs the core with one hand.
As he goes through the air he starts trying the only thing he could think of, the first spell casters learn most of the time. A spell to fuse two objects together, though it is forbidden to do so with a living being unless for medical purposes, and even then only with the appropriate permits. “Ferhk!” He shouts, mana going from his hand and through the orb. He’d have about one minute to press it onto an object so it could fuse properly, as he flies through the air, falling downwards.
Wuulph reaches, hoping to grab anything with his spell, as he feels a quick burning sensation on his side, a fireball having just hit his other arm as he instinctively releases the core, reaching his now open hand over to the burn on his arm, pushing the orb with it. As he realizes what he did it is a bit too late, as the spell finishes and he can feel the core fusing with himself. A searing pain runs through his body as it works to adapt the core into itself, and the core tries to adapt him into itself. His vision starting to go red, then dark as he passes out from the pain. All his senses fading out as he hopes the team can make it back to the kingdom and report his death properly, maybe even with his body… that’d be nice.