To Take What is Blue

[SteppeNomad 1552]

 

There are certain techniques involved with the slaying of serpents

 

 

Directly Following The Events of The Battle of Bronze and Horn, the Brave Heros of the band, and the warriors that followed them into glorious battle, paid their wages and just-dos of salt and wine. Know finely the fruits of their labour. Greatly do their panoplies grow more elaborate, their legends more vast. In the coming days, gathered together they had from the islands and the lands of their youths and the nations which grant them best privileges. For it was recent, that Worldly Pamphilos, son of Iphigenia, had heard word in the far off tabernacle of The Lectorate. There, behind the Never Broken, Walls of Great Du-Loc, had gathered. In their lengthy discussions, the father spoke to that young Hero, who stood alongside the truest patriots of that Polis, and granted the rights entitled to any citizen. He told of a beast, child of Akezo and Kinul, a serpent of great might and power, a great and terrible Basilisk. The Ender of Men. Inheritor of the Coldwyrms which guarded a great treasure that the Lectorate sought. Their mystery cult revealed to them many secrets of the mundane and esoteric. Through learnings protected through deep initiation, they understood, as the wizened enlightened people of the world do, that no such Mythic Creature could be defeated by but an army of men, for the killing of mere men is that what those such beasts, spawned of the realm, do. Instead of the ways of the squad of mere fighters or mercenaries, mustered for a cause or paycheck, who's ways are not in promotion of victory, but mere success, they chose the ways of the Band of Heros. Individuals, great warriors, famed across the lands for their great deeds! UNBREAKABLE in battle morale. Their spirit and determination, unflinching. For they know they will be paid their salt's wage. Their true prize, the Undying KLEOS of the legends!

 

 

The last thing a serpent will see after a HERO gets a hold of it.

 

 

 

 

Wise are the lectorate, their Mystery Cult a wellspring of thought and actions. So, knowing Pamphilos called upon the sacred promises of the lads, and together they came forth, polishing their tools of war, and their skills, for that lightless battle that was to come.

 

The bravest of the heros were those who strode into the darkness of those icy caverns, lead by the likes of a machine. The very metal hoplite, the machine lad who would come later to be known as Periander of Du-Loc, Son of Danzen. A metallic Adonis of gold and laurels, wreathed in toga and the finest oils. His halberd a mere feather in his hand. Besides him stood BRAVE Ulagula'Ugluk, the Goliath of the Phalanx, his Aegis, the blessed layered bronze of Daskur in one hand, and his spear in the other. The pair nearly matched in height, and each one stronger than the last! And oh did brave Pamphilos beam, standing besides them. His blades of cruel bronze, edges hammered and honed for this. Not yet, had he cast his cuirass, so all that protected the son of Halkyone were his greaves and that Legendary Silver Shield. Atop his head, his brazen helm, a crest of blue horsehair nearly reached the heights of the other two besides him.

 

The three entered that tavern, behind them, came forth the other elven skirmishers. Magicians and missile throwers of the band, and the young and swift Kax'ayla! Green to the lads, a noble Kha of the phalanx. Keen of eye, and great of heart, ready to sling of the potions and bottles that the Lectorate had prepared.

 

Then, that phalanx began to enter into the howling cavern. It opened up wide, an ominous blue glow emenating from the outcroppings in the middle. The treasure the lectorate had called for. Before continuing onward, the mechanical hoplite set his commands, and the warriors prepared. Wide reaching Ulagula, First of The Kruggers, stood his ground in the center. His towershield, a wall protected on his sides by spikes of cruel and unrepentant bronze. Their hearts filled with furies as the lads prepared their skirmishing positions on the stones and ice above, and finally, the lectorate had completed their own preparations. As though every spirit had served in the favor of those intrepid hero's it burst forth, a shower of icy wind and cracking ice! The beast, larger than they could have imagined, suffused the cavern with but some of the mass of its coils! Each scale, as large as Bronze-clad Ulagula's towershield! In that instant, volley after volley of the lectorate's alchemical concoctions were hurled by those heros and the Knights of Flame, but what resounded above all, was the howitzer that they had brought into the cave. Their secret weapon against it! Or so we thought. The first shot had the effect of but merely dazing The Big Blue. The bottles shattered upon it, concussions and flames and ice. All to little effect. Except for a spear launched by a great Ulagula!. Which had pierced the brittle ice of a frost encrusted scale. The brave Kha slinger prepared his vials!

 

In the moment of its emergence, the Great Beast of The Mountain's coils had smashed apart a stone. It crumbled to earth, almost to break the beautiful form of Swift Footed pamphilos. In his defenses, the fate of Heros had shown him well, and as he pulled the cord on his mighty shield, he wielded it to bat away the boulder which came upon him! His life saved, but now, that shield and the magic that held it, ceased its function.

 

 

Seeing clearly the strategies to employ, the Lectorate and the acolytes of their cult prepared the Howitzer, blessed gift of Kannon, at the word of a wide-seeing elven skirmisher, the lads hucked their ice, which shattered with a great crash when the projectile now hurtled at it once more. Prompting the Battlecharge of Ulagula. The Ugluk Bullrush. His heavy shield, more than enough to defend him, or so we thought. Dent after dent did it sustain, charging through those coils, but still it held. Carrying Ulagula to that wound, his savage charge thrust his spear with a throwing action, depositing it to the buttspike into the behemoth of a creature.

 

Roars filled the cave, and ice fell from the roof in chunks. The phalanx deflected this until the Big Blue had fully tunneled into the walls. Unbroken, and unafraid, the Phalanx found their positions uncertain. They reformed ranks, while the lectorate acolytes protected their holy idol to Kannon, and the magicians prepared their largest spells. Suddenly, the head of that monster, cursed by Akezo crashed from the tunnel, into the ranks of skirmishers and magicians! The cries of the hero's were heard in the ears of their fellows as they were swallowed whole and cut by razor teeth!

 

Oh what greatness! What legendary death! But now! To avenge those mythic lives!

 

 

-Never forget the strategy

 

The fight raged on, and defended did the warriors stay, their ranks holding, and the beast's damages growing. It fell through the cavern, its bulk upon the warriors as it pushed past them to engage the Howitzer crew, but, those heros of the frontline, wealthy beyond measure, wear proudly the gift of health. Olive oil, the great healer. Its slickness allowed the warriors to escape being crushed! But same could not be said of young Kax! The Kha, wary of putting oil in his fur, had gone in without the blessed protection! And his legs, crushed deeply under weight of beast.

 

Great Periander, and Bronze-clad Ulagula hopped from the top of the iceflow, to engage the creature directly! A leap from the heavy orcish hero toppled the creature in time for it to receive that final blow! And Blow it did! SERPENT slayers, the lads! The Big Blue, a beast of a primordial time which haunted the region, at last fell to blade and bronze. At last, the Lectorate may take their prize. Or could they?

 

 

-These lads, proficient in serpent slaying, know how to combat their subversive ways

 

Know it widely, and know it well. The greed of dwarves unimaginable. For they had come to claim rare metals, and drops of the beast, of the legendary Big Blue, but not alone did these dwarves come. They came with a most foreboding number of all. The Treacherous fairyboys. Known far and wide as a great warband, they and their collaborators fight both sides so as to extract wealth, and to terrorize the very lands that give them succor. But, Far-seeing fathers, those of the lectorate, predicted and anticipated this. For this is why they chose to hire the unbreakable Hero's of the band, and the auxillaries who held a grapeshot canon at the surface for this situation. Instantly, were fairies blown to pieces. Those within the cave, were sprung upon by the hammers of lector steel, and spears of cruel bronze. Immediately, did one of them explode into ash and dust. Of course, such men would harbor the serpent men themselves! Turning to face the last of them, and cut down they were. All for the act of loot-goblining. Clearly, their warband a shadow of a glorious past.

 

 

Finely rewarded these Heros were, their bags laden with treasures, and the promises of legendary weapons that flowed from the mouths of the kind cultists, those mystics of flame, they emerged to the surface, intent to return home to sacrifice a bull for their community and the fallen of the battle. May their deeds be echoed in all time. Though... In the air they say something else... A beast that broke the clouds with a single wingbeat. Large enough to pick up an elephant in each talon... It's feathers like the mid day sky, and its call like screaming thunder. Thats when they saw it. Another legend to face.

 

The Bigger Blue

 

 

Edited May 6, 2022 by SteppeNomad

[wowj 2810]

Evaristus poses in his aurum-chains.

 

[Peepa 65]

Kax'ahli read over the missive with a smile. "I can not believe I broke my legs and now I'm going to be having a baby. What a strange world we live in."

[Valannor 6345]

A Jovial Keeper would smile upon the brilliant tale woven of the Big Blue's demise, and from the deck of her warship, raised a mug of ale in toast to the legend they had wrought! 

 

"Toss a coin to the bard, this must be commemorated in song!"

[Reckless Banzai Screamer 11594]

GOLDEN Periander wandered the Eastfleet road, the same poleaxe he used in the battle carried on him by the half shaft. There were plenty battles long since the Big Blue, but none had touched the clockwork heart of the steel behemoth as much as that fateful day beside his Lector handlers and the hoplite Bronze Band who bestowed upon him his very name.

 

An aging Oyashiman kekeke's about his plan and cannons working out to this day.

[Jihnyny 2572]

        “Zkah wuz fun” - Ulagula’Ugluk

[ronin_champloo 5951]

Spoiler

Wonderful read ! -- Thank you for writing this, and taking part in the event, even if it did fall apart at the end. See you next time.

 

A huntsman of yore meandered around Almaris, his steel glinted like the moon, and a blade -- as long as him -- bore the trophy of a hunt beyond Almaris. He donned a sigil upon his tabard, one shrouded in wings; The Fourth Fleet. Around him were compatriots, garbed in similar attire. They stood in the very cave that the battle was fought; remnants of the charge littered around the dark cavern, and with a deep huff, the hunter spoke;

 

"A Lesser Blue was hunted here, split apart from the main island. The trail grows, gentlemen. Our tracking continues."