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Chapter Eight - In Darkness, Light
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Idea master



Joined: 10 May 2004
Posts: 1787
Location: Sneaking Idearium into your beverages.

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 9:57 pm    Post subject: Chapter Eight - In Darkness, Light  

I'd like to thank you all for voting for me! And if this isn't evil enough to make your skin crawl, then I've added in a pint of good to make the evil stand out that much more!

Chapter Eight - In Darkness, Light

Deemer made his mind up. He turned to the lead shadow dragon in their group. “Dragons,” he hissed at them.

“Yes, we are dragons,” the dragon replied smartly.

Deemer seethed. Somehow, he knew these things would do that. “Fight. Dragons.”

“Oh, you want us to fight the other dragons! Of course.” The lead shadow dragon turned to the others and bellowed, “Brethren, let us be off! To the namby-pansy gold dragons! Let us show them our power!”

There was a mighty roar as the dragons took wing again, headed towards the north end of Deemer’s kingdom.

-----

Two lizardmen were on sentry duty a ways east of Greensbough. “Hey, did you hear?” one asked the other.

“Hear what?” the second replied in kind.

“Apparently, the Red Hand is moving in to take our town.”

“Blimey, that stinks. Does the mayor know?”

“I don’t think-”

The conversation stopped then, as one of the participants had turned into a stone statue. The lizardman left alive whirled around and was punched in the face by a large Minotaur fist. The lizardman moaned as he felt his face flatten. The poor lizardman fell flat on his back in the swamp, and was then picked up seconds later. Looking around, he saw the face of a Minotaur he had never hoped to see again. “You,” he hissed.

“Yes, me,” the Minotaur replied. “My Master left me in charge of his army and gave me a few toys to use as well. Now tell me, where is the secret way into your town?”

“You will never learn it, Furg-”

The Minotaur nodded to someone behind the lizardman, and the poor lizardmen felt his tail being stomped on. He cried out in agony, for the tail is very sensitive in lizardmen. The Minotaur asked again. “Where is the secret way into your town?”

The lizardman replied while biting back sobs. “I am…sworn to keep…it from you…”

The Minotaur punched the lizardman in the gut, breaking a few ribs with audible snapping noises. Blood started to seep out from under the matted green scales of the lizardman. “If you do not tell me, then I will keep you alive for my Master to play with.”

The lizardman smiled. “If I…shall die…then let…me…do so…in peace…Remember…when we…played together?…Our way…out then…still…exists…”

Before his last death rattle, the lizardman smiled and gasped out, “Farewell…Furgeton…”

And with that, the lizardman hung limp. The Minotaur, one hand still fused to his sword, walked up and laid his free hand on the lizardman’s shoulder. He paused a moment, then replied in kind. “Farewell…H’gnash.”

Furgeton looked up at the minotaur holding H’gnash up. “We strike now. Rally the troops here; I shall lead the way inside with the Troglodytes, in case they are waiting to collapse the tunnel on us. When it is safe, I shall signal the rest of you inside. This town will be flying our Master’s colors by the end of the day. It’ll probably be painted in them as well.”

The minotaur nodded and dropped H’gnash’s body on the ground, running off to the army’s camp. Furgeton looked down at the body and sighed. “Why didn’t you join him, H’gnash? Why didn’t you do like I did? He’ll rule the world, soon enough, and you still opposed him, even in your death? Oh, my old friend, how I wish…that you didn’t have to have died…How I wish I wasn’t the one to have killed you…”

-----

Deemer was riding on the back of one of the shadow dragons, waiting until the gold dragons were in sight to start casting any spells. He rather hoped he’d be able to steal a few of their voices before the shadow dragons killed them all. After all, it was the voice of a gold dragon that had restored his voice to him…

He frowned. Where had that memory come from?

There was a sudden blast of light in his mind, and he remembered…

CHRIS!!

He cringed. A friend, betrayal of that friend, and slaying that friend…he didn’t understand! His memory, his past…it was all gone, wiped, erased by the dark lord…nothing from then mattered, nothing from then happened…why, then, could he remember all these things? One of the two was false, and he aimed to find out which one.

He didn’t have long to dwell on it, for the shadow dragons roared. “Gold dragons in sight! Descend to attack!”

Deemer snapped back to what was happening. “Sigilus!” he shouted, thus unleashing a particularly powerful spell, one that would remove all the air around a gold dragon or three.

However, the gold dragons merely vanished in a shower of sparks. The shadow dragons roared. “Illusions! Deceptions! Disguises! Solymr is here! Fan out and find him, or we’ll get nowhere!”

-----

All around him, Greensbough burned.

Furgeton quietly sobbed. This place had been his home. It had raised him when he was but a small child, abandoned by his parents. These people had taught him how to survive, the whole town had raised him. Even though he’d always been the outcast because he looked different, he’d had a home here, no matter who actually lived in it at the time.

Now, nothing would be right again.

He’d led the army in through a secret passage under a tree. The troglodytes quickly got to work on expanding it so that everyone could fit in, except those that could fly over the walls. The evil eyes and medusa queens were the first ones in, and they silently cleared the building in the town that the passage connected to. The minotaurs were the next ones in, carefully making sure that there was absolute silence in their plans. And that was when all hell broke loose.

He’d ordered the attack. He’d ordered that none be left alive.

He’d betrayed them all. All his childhood friends.

The harpies had carted off at least twenty men right off. Men that saw him and knew what had happened while he was away, where he had gone so long ago, what he was doing now.

There was only one way he could avenge the town, and restore his honor. Only one way he could make sure that Deemer was stopped. The way had fallen in his lap.

This army would not be leaving this town. Nothing would.

Furgeton hefted his sword and pointed it straight up at the heavens.

Above him, there was a loud rumbling as storm clouds gathered, preparing to strike.

Furgeton saw the town leveled, building after building, unit after unit, and the armies of both sides dismantled and destroyed. He looked up to see one large bolt of lightning heading towards himself. He opened his arms, welcoming it towards himself, welcoming death.

He felt one large jolt, and then knew no more.

-----

Deemer roared as he finally found his adversary. “Solymr!”

The blue genie turned towards him, his turban teetering dangerously. “You! You who lead this campaign to conquer the world, you shall be stopped here and now! Ceword!”

A bolt of fire rushed from Solymr’s outstretched palms. It dissipated as it hit the shadow dragon, for the fire of the spell was weak compared to what burned inside the dragon, what lurked under its skin. “Fool. Calc!”

Shards of ice formed out of thin air and rushed towards Solymr, who couldn’t bat them all aside in time. One struck him through his arm, causing him to howl in agony. “You utter imbecile! I will not be defeated! Thalafa!”

Whispy spirits rushed towards Deemer, but the shadow dragon consumed them all. “Mmm, nice appetizer. Now for the main course!”

The shadow dragon then tore into the gold dragon’s neck, ripping away a large portion and causing instant death to the mighty being due to many of the key arteries being severed. Solymr cried out as he plummeted to the ground. The gold dragon impacted the ground and caused a significant dent in the earth. Deemer’s dragon landed much more carefully, still being alive, after all. Deemer strode up to Solymr, who had somehow survived the impact. “Soul,” he hissed at the genie.

Solymr coughed, spitting up a little dark blue blood. “You have none. You never could have had one, not if this was all you ever wanted.”

Deemer took up his green crystal and plunged it into the genie’s chest. There was a flash of dark energy as something white was slowly pulled out of the genie’s chest and into the crystal. All the while, both Solymr’s body and soul howled in agony, until, finally, they were separated. One dead, the other imprisoned.

Deemer looked around. The gold dragons had been destroyed utterly. And yet, there was still an issue at hand here. “Magi. Veks.”

The shadow dragons nodded. “We shall return with all haste! Let us ride the winds! Let none survive!”

-----

The next day, Deemer stood before where his town had been. The only thing to convince him that it must still be standing was that there was no rubble. Indeed, there was nothing where his town had been. Naught but dirt was there anymore. No walls, no remains, no troops. That whole space above the ground level simply was not.

The dragons were puzzled. They had attempted to enter the area where the town should have been and had been rebuffed by an invisible force. “It appears,” one of them said, “That Solymr passed on a few tricks before he died.”

Deemer frowned. This could simply be an illusion. Or this could be an attempt to literally destroy the town by removing it from the world. And he had no clue as to the location of the magi. They could be inside the effect of the spell, meaning he would have to break it to kill them, or they could be outside, meaning he could break it or kill them to break it. It was such a toss-up…he was so confused…

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
*Trots around shiny new forum and puts up the evil chapter, as per his promise.*
Well, now that I'm here, I leave you this chapter and a few questions. Keeping in mind that we are polling for the last chapter as well, here are my questions to you, my loyal min- er, readers.
How do we find Veks? It has to be there somewhere...
And the less important, but equally interesting...
What will Deemer do for an army of evil now?
F12
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Masterweaver



Joined: 21 Nov 2006
Posts: 1463
Location: Look around

Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 4:36 am    Post subject:  

Of course, the army of evil will factionalize in a bid to gain control, Harpys against Medusas, Tryglodytes against Minotuars, etc.

As to Veks, you've got a swarm of dragons! Simply surround where the city should be and flame inwards. Anything invisible will become a bonfires, and if it's not there, you can figure out what to do next.

GREAT chap, by the by.
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tramp in a storm



Joined: 11 Apr 2005
Posts: 1585
Location: You never know...I could be in YOUR dust bin.

Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2007 4:45 am    Post subject:  

Yey! You won!
Really good chapter IM, if not the best so far.

Deemer could cast a spell to trace where the Magi are or a spell that would make Veks visible again.

As for his army, he could try to convince the Dragons to join him and if he finds the Magi he could try and get a few of them to join him too (that might be hard and I doubt he'd get many).

The only other thing I can think of is to conquer any towns or cities that might be left and gather troops from them. When he runs out, he could try and find keys to go through doors into other worlds to gather troops from there.
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NeverNeverGirl



Joined: 18 Jun 2007
Posts: 1216
Location: dreaming away of tomorrows to come

Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2007 5:35 pm    Post subject:  

Could Deemer raise an army from his dead soldiers? They would be even more formidable and undead so would have al te powers associated with this...

As for Veks? If he cant walk into it but there is obviously a barrier/force field of some type then perhaps it is some residue of the genie or furgetons sacrifice. Maybe deemer is unable to enter Veks until he gets a soul? This (Veks) could then become a haven for Innocents. Say theres someone in Veks who sees Deemer trying to enter and works out that he can neither enter nor see Veks and relays this info around the place... maybe this was Furgtons gift to the people he ahd betrayed?
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Idea master



Joined: 10 May 2004
Posts: 1787
Location: Sneaking Idearium into your beverages.

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 9:12 am    Post subject:  

The poll has risen from the dead! It will shamble about for two weeks, so find your shotgun of voting and shoot the body part of polling quickly, please.
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The White Blacksmith



Joined: 02 Apr 2006
Posts: 2629

Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 12:43 pm    Post subject:  

I've voted Other. I rather liked the idea of trying to burn it, at least some of it. Most would be stone, of course, but thst would minimize destruction of his own town.
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Idea master



Joined: 10 May 2004
Posts: 1787
Location: Sneaking Idearium into your beverages.

Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 9:12 am    Post subject:  

The poll is closed and the chapter being writ even as I type this up. It should be up tomorrow at the latest.
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