The Chalice of War

Ella stood within the cave of Kezhendrelk, it had been a long time coming, though, seeing her foe, she kind of wish she had the artifact monsters with her. Kaliora would be helpful right now, and that new dagger of Kerrivas would do some good work too. Still, the three of them made a formidable team. Indeera headed the troupe, clad in her full black plate armor, bright red hair flowing behind her, and her enchanted black morning star, the adamantine head swinging heavy at her side. Varrin took up the right flank, today he wore no armor, instead bare chested, wearing leather breeches, and holding his long blackened steel great sword. Already hornets were swirling about him, and a pair of large insectoid wings sprouted from his back. He was ready for this battle, we all were. There foes numbered four, One was the large and powerful looking red dragon they had all heard about. Most of his face was covered in a mask made out of mithril silver, and it looked like it was braketed in plates. To ella, it seemed that the thing was actually holding part of his head together. Another foe before them was an azer, they were dwarvish looking creatures with bronze skin, and beards and hair of fire. This azer had on brass plated scale armor, and was wielding a pair of picks, one in each hand. Another foe before them was a 20' tall pillar of pure fire, an elder fire elemental, These monstrosities were extremely powerful, but ever worse, they were quick. The final foe was the great benefactor Zelekhet, looks like the greed of the half black dragon was bigger than they had thought, that, or he had this worked out with Kezhendrelk from the very beginning. Well, that wasnt all the pieces though, there was the probationary stand in, Etsura. Etsura was the uldrak born arcanist that Kerrivas had recently aquired, and he was more than happy to lend them to the circle for this mission. She had short black hair, wore simple brown breeches and a loose white cotton over shirt. Ella had heard of her powers, and managed to convince Indeera to add the caster to her plans. Indeera motioned to Ella, and that started the battle. From that motion ella whispered in Etsura's ear. "Now!" The arcanist, wide eyed from fear at the foes before her, but still holding herself together with her resolve, she closed her eyes and thrust her hands up into the air, clasping them together and shouting loudly. As etsura shouted a massive wall of water began forming around her, seemingly conjured from nowhere, the volume was massive, and it shot up around her almost 40', then exploded out as a giant wave in all directions. Varrin was already airborn, as was Zellekhet, but everyone else was caught up in the wave. Indeera was flung to the far side of the room, very near Kezhendrelk, and Kezhendrelk was pushed back against the wall, were he hissed in irritation and anger. The fire elemental and the Azer unfortunately met a quick, unfortunate end, there elemental natures giving way to the stronger element. At the top of the Cave, flying about, Zellekhet was throwing bolts of lightning and blasts of fire at Varrin, who was hounding the half dragon mercilessly. Zellekhet, was by far the more skilled of the two, and was making sure to keep out of range of varrins hornets and magical attacks. Unfortunately he had not noticed the invisible ella who had been clinging to the cieling since the start of battle. Already the half dragon had been cursed, and his spells and attacks were suffering, but he was still outmanuevering varrin. Motioning to Etsura she used her illusion on the ground to whisper to the arcanist. "slow him down" Etsura looked up, breathing heavily after her massive spell, and stood upright, motioning to the half dragon. All around Zellekhet the air began getting heavy, frost began forming on the half dragons wings. His flight faltered. Furious he turned to throw a spell down at the arcanist, but it was too late, Varrin was already upon him. Varrin slammed into the mage with the force of a boulder, and all around the hornets began stinging the half dragon mercilessly, slipping under scaled, crawling into his nostrils, mouth, and ears. Varrin was too close for his sword, so dropped it. Instead he wrapped his arms around the half mage, stopping there flight and sending them plummeting to the ground. Zellekhet broke most of Varrins fall, but unfortunately the impact crushed the left side of the half dragon, including most of the magus's head. That fight over, Ella turned her eyes to look at the other fight. Zezhendrelk and Indeera had been facing off for some time, and the elder dragon was almost done. Blood seeped from his scales, poured from his nostrils and mouth, and even oozed from his eyes. His left fore leg and hind leg had been crushed, and his right wing was useless now as well. Each swing of Indeera's mace seemed to cause explosive impacts, blowing off scales and chunks of flesh as if a boulder had been thrown at the dragon. Kezhendrelk had tried his mental persuasions, illusions, and mind tricks, but none of them had worked, or it should be said, Ella had guided her lover through those ruses. Indeera herself was mostly unscathed, there was some blood oozing from her armor, and she was undoubtedly injured on some level, but you couldnt really tell from looking. The dragon, wounded, and overcome with pain, moved from the priestess, cowering backwards as she approached. It hissed out at her, roaring, and showing its fangs, but she wasn't phased. She eyed the dragon coldly and motioned to it. Its eyes bulged as blood erupted from the creatures head. It vomitted a great deal of blood up, stopping its roar, and the dragon thrashed its head back and forth as it hemorrhaged painfully. She motioned again and one of its eyes exploded outwards, it coughed out a final loud wet hacking sound and then thrashed its head solidly onto the ground. It breathed shallowly, but it was faint. Indeera approached the dragon, swung her flail once, and crushed through the thick plates of mithral, through the dragon bone, and smashed Kezhendrelks head on the heated stone of the floor.  Etsura couldnt believe what she had seen, she had heard of the circles power, but this was incredible. Etsura watched as indeera waded through the treasure horde, her prize was setting on an onyx pedestal, a large golden chalice, though the gold had a faint redish tint to it. The chalice wasnt overly lavish, and its design looked fairly simple, aside from being made of solid gold. Indeera stopped at the pedestal and took a breath, then look back to Etsura. "This is not for your eyes." Her voice was cold and hateful. Etsura knew better, and bowed, turning to leave. She never got that far. At first she thought she was flying, as she was lifted off of the air, there was also the incredible pressure that shot through her chest. Her last sight was the cause of that pressure, and she recognized the black steel blade of Varrins sword. She twisted her head to look at the man, and he was smiling, in death, she couldnt tell if that was a smile of pure evil, or simply a smile of pleasure. It may have been both. With a soft sigh Etsura's soul left this world. With a motion Varrin shook his sword, the magus splitting in two and falling beside him. Nonchalantly he picked up the upper torso and threw it to the other side of the room, then did the same with the bottom torso, he then moved towards indeera. "No loose ends." Indeera nodded and motioned for ella, who at this time dropped from the cieling landing on her feet very near her lover. Ella smiled, as best she could in her hybrid form. "This is it love, this is finally yours. I wish the others could see this moment. I really do." Indeera nodded and looked back at the chalice. She spoke softly. "I as well, but there paths demand there freedom, and there tasks are extremely important. We shall be together when the end meets the end. That is whats important." Carefully she removed her iron gauntlets, tossing them to the ground. She then held her hand out, and varrin made quick work in forming a small cut on her palm. She watched as the blood oozed out, smiling, she poured the blood into the chalice, filling it to the very lip. Smiling, she turned to Ella. "This is it my dear, the beginning of your reward. The beginning of all of our destinies." Ella smiled, and pondered how the chalice was also her reward. No matter, let a bit of madness slip into her love at this moment. They had waited so long for this. Indeera rose the chalice. "Kaliora, you made this dream possible. I only wish your sanity could see your great triumph today. Fear not. To all of my circle. The devoted ella, The Malicious Varrin, The Murderous Kerrivas, and the Zealous Kaliora. This is to my circle, and to our destines. Know we shall triumph together." With that, she took the chalice to her lips, drinking the thick, dark liquid. Varrin eyed Indeera, saw as she drank the liquid. There was no transformation, there was no clap of thunder or crashing lightning. Varrin did note onen important thing though, he heard, what he thought, was distant, haunting horns. Aside from that, he felt the immense power that radiated from Indeera, so powerful that it actually made standing difficult. Indeera cold do little as the power poured through her, then varrin noted beside her the scream. Looking over he saw Ella clutching at her head, she was screaming horribly, in a way varrin had never heard before. He felt the power that was flowing through indeera, also coursing through ella, though it seemed that the cat lady was handling the new found power with far less ease. Ella fell down, holding her head, her voice had gone out, and she was simply hissing out air. Varrin moved over to her and slammed a fist down into the side of her head twice. She passed out after the second hit. Varrin stood near her, watching indeera silently. Indeera stood silent for what could have been an hour until finally began moving. Carefully she tied the chalice off to the side of her belt, then put her gauntlets back on. She turned and looked at varrin, then down at Ella, she narrowed her eyes and looked up at varrin who was smiling. "Hey. Dont be pissed, she was screaming and carrying on. I had to knock her out before she started clawing her eyes out or something. Also, she was getting close to you, I had a feeling she might try and reach out to you. I figure you guys touching while that magic stuff was going on was probably bad." Indeera looked at him for a moment, here eyes cold and dark. "A wise decision. This time." She looked around. "Gather the treasure, we could always use more in the coffers. Ill take Ella. I want to make haste back to the circle, soon we will have to implement our coupe." Varrin nodded and went about collecting valuables, he looked back curiously after a few moments. "Why arent you crazy and fucked up like Kerrivas and Kaliora?" Indeera, who was tending to Ella's wounds, looked over at the evil warrior. "Its my boon, as i said before, faynish magics have no ill effect on me, the same goes for his artifacts, though truth be told, most priests suffer little if any drawbacks from holding the powers of their god." Varrin thought about this for a moment, then looked at indeera. "Hey.. if you were to stop being a priest of Fayn do you think they would mess you up?" Indeera got the rest of the blood from her lover and looked over at Varrin. "Undoubtedly, yes." Varrin nodded. "Oh, well shit. Thats good then." Indeera looked at the man and furrowed her brows. "What do you mean?" Varrin who was looking at a small gold idol looked over at Indeera. "Huh? oh. I mean, Its good that thats how it works, I mean, you guys have been saying how this high priest isnt really a high priest of fayn anymore, and more than likely he had one of his artifacts, i mean the fuckers old, so that should be a weakness we can exploit." He then looked back to the idol mumbling something about tor'kir. Indeera blinked, then picked up Ella. "Come varrin, we need to get back to Kaliora, i need her to do some research."

The Troll

All seemed lost, the battle had gone on for days, and there seemed to be no end to the massive hobgoblin horde. What was hurting even worse was the fact that two hobgoblin warlords had entered the fray. The warriors of ravenspire were doing there best to rotate men into the front lines while letting others rest, but the last 24 hours had been so horrible that there were barely enough men to hold the line at all. First Man Kethis Bane-Breaker was a noted warrior and tactition, but even he knew that this battle was lost. The captain had also been missing for the last 4 or so hours, which meant he had either deserted, or died. There was little else Kethis could do however, he really only had one option, the small farming village to there west would fall and become a hob goblin base or staging point, and that was unacceptable. His only option was to hold the area as long as he could, all the way to the last man, and hope that bought enough time for reinforcements to show up and reinforce the area. What Kethis knew for sure, was that he was going to die. Well, he knew this until that man showed up. The man, a mysterious figure, rode in to battle alone. He had a long flowing red cloak, and rode on a night black horse. The man had long raven hair, and had a sword that seemed to dance with crimson in the light of the sun. Dashing into combat, over the lines, the man went war. He was amazing, powerful, and unstoppable. Each swing of his sword sprayed streams of red across the battlefield, and he never once retreaded, constantly pressing forward. Kethis lost sight of the man several times, only catching a glimpse of that flowing red cloak in a sea of blood red every few moments. The First had no clue how much time passed, though it seemed like hours, it was more than likely far less, but in the distance, trotting back on his horse was the man with the red cloak. The day had been one. Trotting past him, the mysterious man kept riding, not saying a word, until Kethis interrupted the silence with a question. "Who.. who the hell are you?" The man stopped a moment later, halting his midnight horse and moving his cloak around him as he turned. "You may call me... Kechupe'" with that, he rode off, no doubt on a quest to pave more red into the depths of the hobgoblin enemies.