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Post by Admin on Aug 26, 2019 15:01:42 GMT
"We would have given you everything!" he spits through his gasps.
The stranger looks very injured and tired, the point of the short sword he points at Calvera shakes. But Calvera feels his knees turn to water as his word dispels the magical aura about the man, he slightly staggers from exhaustion.
The stranger anticipates the kicking of the fire and steps back but slowly and not far enough to dodge all the ash and cinders.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2019 12:52:28 GMT
I'll talk if he wants to talk, he's getting weaker with every drop of blood and my head will clear quickly.
"Give me everything? You wouldn't even show your face. You would have let me do your dirty work and then killed me. Corwin was on shadow earth long enough for Machiavelli to learn a thing or two, I'll be no ones Remirro de Orco.
But if you truely meant for us to be allies prove it, throw down your sword and show me who you are. You may yet live through this."
Calvera stalks around the fire knife held low ready to parry. He paces back and forth so the man has to turn his body to keep Calvera in view and keep the wound in his side from clotting.
--assuming he doesn't surrender Calvera will keep attacking low and making him move. Trying to back him up against a cliff on the up hill side or at least into the rougher ground off the path. Keeping preasure and trading blows if necessary. The man gets no time, no breathing room.
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Post by Admin on Aug 29, 2019 1:39:23 GMT
"It's too late now fool; you've shown yourself unfit for the trust we had in you.
The silver-orange nimbus returns to outline the man. Calvera feels a weight of fatigue come over his body; legs feel heavy as weights, arms too weak to lift.
"Don't blame yourself; it was my friends who made a poor choice in considering you for the throne.
The last thing Calvera seems before sleep overtakes him is the man begin to fade away, parts flickering and fading into the black night.
He awakes in the morning dawn with a still tender wrist and a crick in his back. Beside a cold, dead campfire and amid cold mountain winds. On a the blasted tree sits a large falcon which seems to be disappointed that its hoped-for meal has begun to wakeup.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 3, 2019 14:22:21 GMT
Calvera woke sore and damp from the dew. And angry. Very angry. Someone was trying to pull him into their schemes. Who ever that was last night they weren't some local Oni or godling. That was a Prince of Amber, or a Lord of Chaos. Strong, fast, he knew my name and new my birth right.
Calvera stretched and drianed his water skin before filling it again. He was too angry to eat so he headed up the path.
I don't think that was an Uncle. He denied it for one. Only Bleys Cain and Random would come masked like that. I can't see Julian hiding his face, and Gerard or Benidict would have clobbered me. It could be Corwin. By the Unicorn I hope that was Corwin.
His lips trun up at the corners in a savage little grin at the though of the Traitor with a knife in his guts.
It could have been Bleys, but he said Bleys would have to be crushed. If he was lying I don't see his game. He could have recruited me if he had come openly, well maybe, Random doesn't seem to be having much fun as king.
Was it Random? They say he walks his realm cloaked and hooded. Was that a bazaar loyalty test? No, Any man can dye his mustash, but he had the wrong build.
No I don't think it was an uncle. That leaves Cousins, and Choas. Choas Lords are shapeshifters if the rumors can be believed. They wouldn't have to wear a mask to disguise their identity. Although taking the likeness of Bleys hiding it and letting me catch just a glimpse would throw me off.
I hope Brand is truely dead. By the Unicorn I hope that wasn't Brand. Back from the dead and madder than ever.
I won't guess who that was this way. It could be any of the Cousins. I don't know many of them well.
He had help. A hidden allie. A sorcer of some power. Either connected by Trump or sorcery. Or else hidden near by. I should have read the tracks at the shrine. Too late now, I won't turn back.
Why did they leave me alive. I was powerless, at their mercy, I know they intend to move against Amber and I attacked them. Why leave an enemy at their back? What part am I to play in their schemes? They must still have a role for me. The mask means they don't want me to be able to identify them when I take the fall.
What do they want me to do now? Run back to defend Amber? Random will have to protect his own kingdom. I will guard my land. This is mine!
...
They may try again. A different recruiter with a more open pitch. They know I'm here and can find me. I should get a ward from the Saffron Plaidins. In this place at least it should protect me from sorcery. I wonder if it would block my own power words? No matter, it would be worth it to be protected.
With that Calvera climbed the last couple steps in the pass and entered the high vale. A clear glacier fed lake sparkled at the far end of the valley, a few trees clung to the slopes and the center of the valley was a lush meadow dotted with sheep and yaks. There was a small village at the far end and a large Pagoda 8 sided and 8 storied.
Calvera walked up to the Pagoda and bowed to a monk (in black and brown not safron).
"A pilgrim arrives seeking the wisdom of Sifu Lei."
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Post by Admin on Sept 5, 2019 21:05:52 GMT
"As was prophesied, the wandering pilgrim comes to see the Master on the eve of war," the monk says then leads Calvera deeper into the pagoda passing through clouds of incense smoke.
In a large room sits Sifu Lei, a falchion in his lap half drawn from its scabbard one of his old hands upon it. His other hand holds up an opened iron fan and he studies the small curls of smoke wending through the fan's blades.
"Khan Calvera, Prince of Amber, your arrival brings honour to our monastery. All omens indicate the end of the world is nigh; will you be the one to break us or fight to save us?"
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Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2019 20:17:54 GMT
"This place is mine!"
"I will defend it. Tell me how.
My enemy knows me. But as I've just discovered doesn't understand me.
Does you prophecy say who they are? What their plans are? Their goal?"
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Post by Admin on Sept 11, 2019 5:51:57 GMT
Sifu Lei turns his eyes back to the streams of smoke as if their twisting trails are secret messages to be read.
"Not one foe, no, no, I read two forces that act against you and against our world. One slithers like a snake in the high grasses hoping to poison and ensnare in its coils. The other struts proud as a bull hoping to charge into a direct confrontation."
A moments pause while he stares deeper into the smoke.
"The snake has been injured, It's has slithered back into its den to heal and find a better time to strike but the bull....a grey bull of uncanny power - still marches abroad in the lands searching for a new home and a promised battle."
He coughs in the dense fog of incense.
"This is what the smoke reveals today."
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2019 14:17:59 GMT
Calvera nodded along. The snake and the bull fit what he knew of the serpent and the Unicorn. Both the nature oc the invasion and the vist last night would make more sense if the major powers were on the move.
He stared into the smoke, one eddy catching his eye,threating all his easy answers.
"What do you mean 'the bull is looking for a new home'?"
And the snake is ingured? He lost his eye at the begaining of time. That doesn't match either? Something has happened.
"Does the bull have to be fought? Can he be bargained with?"
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Post by Admin on Sept 16, 2019 7:07:35 GMT
"The bull searches impatiently, striking out at what it sees looking for its home. To fight? Maybe - or, yes! Fight us? Fight you? Or have them fight someone else? Evasion, deflection, redirection?"
"This is what the smokes tell us. Always they speak truths but only the truths they wish to reveal. I have been here in this temple studying these smokes since I was a child and still have not found my way through all their subtle twistings and streamings."
He sighs. "All we can do is take what is given then hopefully act with wisdom."
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Post by Deleted on Sept 16, 2019 18:21:44 GMT
"Bah! Mysticism and non-sense." Calvera punded hi fist on his thigh. "Give me something I can use old man! I know less than I did when I got here."
With a visible effort he regains his temper and bows his head to the floor.
"I apologize for my out burst sifu. The world is not as I wish it. All other beings have their own intentions, and no obligations to act as I will.
I remember your lessons Sifu but they are still hard for me."
He raises his head from the floor. "I will still meet the invaders in the field. The world has no obligations to me, but I may still act on it. I should understand more once I face their forces."
[My next stop is down through the pass and back at my keep unless you have other plans.]
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Post by Admin on Sept 20, 2019 1:49:41 GMT
"Travel well, Calvera. Remember that you are always welcome to return and resume your training when you wish it."
The return down the mountain is without incident. In the lowlands, he comes across refugees fleeing the advancing army. They say that this army's commander now knows of Calvera and is marching directly to his fortress.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 27, 2019 16:11:03 GMT
[OOC Calvera's duchy is a relatively hospitable valley in a high mountian pass. To the south are jugle low lands the realm of the preiest king and his Saffron plaidins think Thailand. To the North fertile fields and feuding city states think China. Higher still in the Mountians is the vale of Sifu Lei. There is a steep mountian pass climbing thousands of feet both to the north and south. It will be difficult to get the Elephants through. When you only need to know what you are looking for inorder to find it somewhere in shadow you can settle in a defensible possition. Any amberite could hold either pass against Benedict at a thousand to one odds. Unless there is a suprise of course.] Calvera and his 50 cavalry forced their way through wet roads and streaming refugee's searching for advace elements of the enemy force, the horses were exhused and the men tiered and dirty from the mud. It was too early for war but the invader seemed to have no respect for traditions. After a week on bad roads, at the banks of the Zheng He, they met rangers from the Marquess en Rouge with news of enemy movments.
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Post by Admin on Sept 29, 2019 14:55:30 GMT
The rangers have sighted the approaching army and questioned a few of the refugees fleeing their march. These invaders have finished attacking and looting the smaller towns and now move quickly towards Calvera's valley. They have put the locals to the question and learned much of Calvera and his lands. They number in the thousands, more than three thousand but less than five. They are of average height with grey skin, sharp teeth, and red bloodshot eyes. They fly flags unknown and their leader rides a great white horse with a red mane. He wields a giant mace which has become encrusted in the blood of hundreds killed in this campaign. If it is any consolation the marauders do not drag along implements for a siege but are equipped for quick movement.
And they are getting close. Calvera can look across the wide plain before his mountain passes and see the cloud of dust their march raises into the skies.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2019 13:54:10 GMT
I am using a bit of pattern in this passage to make things as I wish them.
The Zheng He is a wide river but slow even in flood. Fortunately the rangers have a small boat. As the light fades into evening Calvera rows accross the river by himself, leaving his Calvary patrol to secure his retreat on this side of the river. He is familiar with these lands, he has traveled through them many times and even laid siege to the Marquis's keep some years back. There is a dry hill where the road turns west and heads for the bridge. Thats where he would camp, thats where he heads to assay the invaders.
He's wet and cold by the time he works his way by gully and hedge row to the trees at the edge of the field. There is a tumbled shrine, to the Zheng He the ancient guradian dragon of the river, at the edge of the meadow. When he was here he could not resist exploring it. If the invaders are anything like him someone would come to explore or pray. If they were truely alien they might not even be camping here.
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Post by Admin on Oct 7, 2019 19:25:06 GMT
Approaching the ruined shrine he can see the vanguard of the approaching army about a mile off on his side of the river. A few of their scouts are searching about the ruins.
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