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The Blood Crusade

Feroth, Kingdom of Boren, many consider the most powerful nation ever in the world. The only true civilization to remain throughout the three titan wars, it has lasted through the ages. Many consider it the kingdom of light, perhaps even a place of paradise. This was of course before the spread of the abominations.

Of the March of the Wood Elves and the Reforming of the Grand Army

While some put the blame on Nerull himself for creating the vile race, the true blame is put onto Artek, who corrupted them. Branching off from vampires, these people have mutated into a race that can live in the daylight. They come from two different ways, breeding amongst themselves, or turning another into one of their kind. While they preferred to feed on blood of anything living, they could also eat as a normal person would, making them not have to be desperate or dependant for just blood.

In the beginning, they acted more like locust, spreading throughout the forests of Yethil with no organization or strategy. This made the Commanders of Feroth not take them as seriously as what they first should have, for despite their severe lack of organization, their numbers were beyond belief. Along with that, they are as quick footed as a horse, making them move much faster then than any force ever seen by Feroth. Yethil was home to Iruven, Goddess of Nature, and her magic was the only resistance the abominations had until Dethrin arrived with his personal force, the Phoenix Reborn. The greatest force Feroth had to offer; led by the greatest mortal the world had ever seen. At first they slaughtered the abominations by the thousands, but the abominations’ numbers were limitless. Iruven and Dethrin made the decision to flee from the forest; known as the March from the Green. The march took them to the Grey Mountains, Where Boren and the capital of Feroth was located. Lord Boren put Dethrin in charge of building the refugees a new city.

While Dethrin’s forces escorted the elves back to the mountains, he created a council in charge of creating the elves new home. Lords from throughout Feroth were in attendance throughout the council, but all eyes went before Stelas, a lesser lord from the capital who made his fortune in trade. His plan for the city was flawless, an easily defendable city that could also become the center for trade in the kingdom. While his idea was going to take a large amount of resources to create, the council agreed to it, and construction began that same season.

Lord Boren had always been negative about the plan to make the city so massive, since his plans were to eventually rid the forests of the abominations so the wood elves to return to the ancestral home. In an effort to make Dethrin and Stelas change their ideas, he created laws forcing the vast majority of Iron, Cloth and other valuable resources to be sent to the Capital to prepare his army to retake Yethil. Immediately there became a division in the leadership of Feroth. Dethrin wanted to establish the city and learn more about the abominations while Boren wanted to quickly retake the forests and push the abominations out before they could establish themselves in the forest and corrupt more then they had done already.

With Boren busy in Feroth preparing the army, it gave Stelas and Dethrin the room to search for a way to continue to build their wonder. Stelas pondered at the idea of trading with the barbarians of the northern tribes. The tribes had left the protection of Feroth shortly after the death of Dorthalas, perhaps the great hero of the north. He aided Feroth during the Second Titan War, Giving his life to what some say saved the gods from losing the war. Today, the tribes hardly spoke with any outsiders. Few trade caravans ever went to the north, for fear of raiders and it actually being against Lord Boren’s policies since he felt poorly of them leaving the kingdom. While they both knew what the risks of them doing this was, they decided to go through with their plan and establish a small but steady trade line, as well as creating protection from raiders on the northern roads. Stelas thought it best if he went with the first caravans as he was quite famous in the north.

Refitting the army was no small task; it was expected to take nearly a year to reform the main army. Boren pushed through many training exercises his Generals told him were extremely important, but he felt they would be ok without against such a mindless foe. Iruven agreed with him, that haste was the most important thing at this point, since there were still elves in the forest fighting against the abominations.

The world zooms into Aranel Elensar. This elf has been present as a child for many of Dethrin’s amazing feats. He was trained by masters in both Feroth and Sanghelios, he was even taught for a brief time by Dethrin himself. Some have hailed him as the next Dethrin, but tonight on this patrol, he does not dwell on it. He has seen Dethrin fight, Dethrin does things instinctively that most men would never dare; this daring and inventive fighting style is what earned him his championship over all mortals. From this, his thoughts drift to those of his race. It makes him unhappy to see so many of his own elves in the ranks of the undead. The elves are few now; it is a shame, once they roamed these woods under Iruven, now they remain pinned in Sanghelios by the hoards of abominations. He shakes his head and in a moment, he snaps out of this, goes back to his job of scanning the forest; tonight is patrol night. He has taken fourteen others, his best soldiers, on a scouting mission though the woods, looking for abomination settlements, buildings, something, anything. They don’t know much about their foes and that is why they must patrol and scout. All of his men are wearing light studded leather armor, something he regrets. In a fight, it is not very reliable, but it doesn’t shine, nothing could shine; that was his first lesson in stealth training. All their swords are sheathed, something else he hates. These things are fast, if the group gets ambushed, the abominations could kill one maybe two before a sword is drawn. These things bother him as he moves his men further and further into the woods.

They pass easily through the woods, he knows it well and could even navigate another person through the thick brush blindfolded; such is the elven knowledge of their woods. Tonight, something feels off, well, why wouldn’t it, look where he is. He has never been known to question orders or even think critically about them. That is why he has risen so quickly, he's only sixty-three years old and he's a captain in the ranks. He is the youngest captain in the history of the army. But tonight, he doesn’t like anything about this mission. They will surely die if anything goes wrong. Separated from help in a sea of abominations, nothing could survive that. He shakes his head again, one of his men notices.
“Hey Capt’n, are you alright?” asks Findecáno Lossëhelin.
Aranel turns and smiles, “I’m fine Fin, it’s just a twitch.” He had only passed this off in order to not worry his men. He knows that Fin can see right through it. Fin has always been there with Aranel, just had, they were kids together. They grew up together. When he was selecting men for this “suicide” mission, it hurt him to select Fin, but he knew it would calm over his nerves. As he was thinking this, he watched his friend die. Right in front of him. He saw as the arrow pierced his head and his limp body fell to the ground. This drove Aranel into a rage. He jumped from the shallow ditch they had been traveling in and over the embankment. He found his first creature; he thrust his sword through its heart, decapitating it, stabbing it repeatedly. He wanted it to suffer, he did not care what happened to him. When he had finished with his first victim, he surveyed the woods. It was dark, he could see his soldiers killing the abominations en masse around him. He knew there would be more, he signaled the retreat, his men falling back behind him, running to the fortress of Sanghelios.

Along their retreat, they ran into a wall of abominations. Aranel knew they were surrounded. He stabbed and slashed everything he saw. This bloodlust continued until he was covered in his blood and the blood of his enemies. At this point, it was all about killing as many of them as he could before he himself fell. In his last memories, he decapitated the abomination in front of him.

He awoke in Sanghelios, a similar bed, he has been here before. Ah… yes, the old medical center bed. How? How did he end up here? He was surrounded and dying, he was bleeding and he was killing. Who had saved him?

Aranel sits upright in his bed. He looks himself over, he looks at all the bandages. He stands slowly, his side hurts. A nurse runs over to him, "Aranel, what are you doing!? Lie down. Didn't you hear, the Phoenix Reborn is here, you're safe, we're safe, you can rest."
"You know I'll never be satisfied with that, I need to fight." Aranel clearly states, eyeing over the attractive woman he knows so well. "Besides Tari, why are you still here with me? We both remember how much of a crush you had on Arie."
Tari replied, "Something just live in the past, he has moved on completely, but still, lie down."
He chuckled and laid down. Swearing at least to himself that he would be back amongst the lines before a couple of days.

"I led my men straight here as ordered by Dethrin to do before we were shipped." Arie said as he stood up and walked over to the map. "We stopped at what we thought were Abomination settlements, exactly how all of you have described their settlements to me. We walked through the entire forest barely seeing any of them at all, until we came upon Aranel's forces that is."

Other scouts and commanders gave reports and opinions on what they felt like should be done. One thing was becoming clear however, These abominations weren't as mindless as they all had previously thought.


___________________________


Dethrin continued to orchestrate the construction of the new city, which had been going surprisingly smooth with all things considered. He was still very upset with Boren's decision to send Feroth's best men into what looks to be suicide, but he kept his frustrations to himself. He wished every minute of the day that he could be there, but he knew Boren was not ready to send him out before the main army goes.

Dethrin had been given word that Stelas was not far from the new city, having been in the north keeping the trade fair for both sides. This was difficult for him, because never was he trading fairly for his own self gain. At one time, he controlled nearly every ounce of salt that entered Feroth, completely monopolizing the market. Boren however did not enjoy the hundreds of complaints from the peasants about the unfair price of salt during that time, so he put an end to it. Dethrin had big plans for him in this new city, he wanted to have him appointed as the magistrate, the overall leader of a city when Dethrin, Boren, or Iruven is not present.

Stelas was not the only one coming today. Iruven was planning to show up that night to help oversee the final constructions so Dethrin could return to the battlefields, where he truly belonged.

"You don't seem like the magistrate type my Lord." said Captain Durn as he walked in with the latest report on the east gate's construction, " I think you should be out fighting with Captain Arie and the rest of the Phoenix Reborn." He paused for a moment, thinking about old memories of his friends in Yethil, "I wish i could be at their side"

Dethrin suddenly jumped up out of his chair, "Thats it!" he screamed, "As soon as Iruven is here we shall go! We shall go and save our brothers! i cannot believe i didn't think of it already... All the work here has kept my mind full."

"Should i tell the men, my lord?" Captain Durn said with an excitement in his voice.

"Not yet, It cant be many of us. You, me and a few of the commanders is all we will be able to take, The rest of the regulars go to the Capital for Boren's use while a few officers stay here and train some of these elves to be ready to fight. " Dethrin's plan was falling into place in his mind quicker then he could say it to the captain. Hope at last he thought, I might be able to get to my men before the end.

After Arie had finished speaking, various others spoke. Grammatically correct dissertations and whatnot, it was all boring to Aranel. But, Aranel listened to them until it became apparent; they knew nothing of the situation. How could they, they hadn't seen these things fight, he had, they were savages. He continued to tune in and out to them, nodding with the crowd when he was supposed to, putting on a facade of interest. After the various generals had argued and speculated about the best strategies for about two hours, Cirnelle called for the meeting to end. Right as she was saying this, a watchman came into the council room. He stopped, leaned over and whispered something in Cirnelle's ear. She announced what she had been told to the group saying, "Men of war, there is an abomination horde outside of our gates, and they are asking to speak with the Queen." One of the generals scoffed at the statement, "they will never make even to the city gates never mind into the castle." All the others in the war room seemed to agree with his confidence. Aranel analyzed the message in his head, two things about it puzzled him; one, they had never before been to Sanghelios and it was near impossible to find unless someone led you and two how did they know we had a Queen? As everyone was leaving, Aranel walked over to Arie. "Arie, did any of the abominations follow you here?"
Arie replied confidently, "No, we killed them all."
"Thanks, and I never thanked you for saving me." He embraces his old companion. "Keep a sharp eye on the Queen; she may not be as safe here as she thinks."
Arie didn't say anything, simply nodding. With that, Aranel left, running for the south walls. He was eager to see exactly what was going on but not from the walls. He grabbed himself some rope. Tying it to the rampart, he descended, telling one of the privates to cut it when he was at the bottom. Once on the ground, he caught the slack rope and coiled it around his arm. He climbed the nearest tree and moved towards the horde overhead.

Cirnelle had walked out over the gate, looking down from her high walls at the creatures. The ambassador addressed her directly, "Cirnelle *he motioned behind him* look at this army. Each eager for your blood, open your gates, surrender and you will be saved. Resist us, and we will return in four days and conquer your city, burning everything." Cirnelle wondered why he would say four days, then she realized. In four days, there would be a strange phenomenon. There would be nothing but night in four days, it happens once every ten years on this world, the day when the light is consumed by darkness. They might be abominations, but they stemmed from the vampires. Their strength was linked to the night. Of course, she replied, "Never will we surrender, if you wish to take this city, you will have to kill all its inhabitants to even enter the gates!" She had confidence in her words and her walls.

Aranel had moved into earshot of the northern walls. He heard the short exchange between the two, his Queen and the abomination. He couldn't help but smile, she was a great leader. He moved deeper, further away from the city, judging the numbers of the abominations. He found what he had wanted to find, the abomination leader, Dirge. What he saw, he frankly did not believe. No wonder they had known so much about the city, next to Dirge was an elf. This elf wasn’t chained, wasn’t being restrained, had he joined the abominations? Aranel couldn’t let this continue any longer, he notched an arrow, aimed at the elf. “No, wait”, he thought. “He has already given the information to them, to kill him is useless now, however my information is unknown to my people and thus important, and theres no way I can kill him and get away.” He frowned, desiring greatly to murder the traitor. He quickly moved back towards the city.

The horde departed, leaving sentries behind to detect elf movement; perhaps they weren’t as barbaric as originally thought.

((I was wondering about getting Thurukhan involved in this. He's been idle for some time. Would thou be opposed Tulky?))

Dethrin and his commanders split off from the army as it marched towards Feroth on the second night. He had already instructed those he left in charge of the army to tell his men what his plans had been, and why it was just a few of them that could go rather then the whole army.

Durn was still unsure why Dethrin had chose the path he chose. "Why this way my lord? Why not split off from the army two days from now and have a straight shot to the forest?"

"Its not only going to be us five going into that plagued forest alone Durn, although if we had to, i wouldn't have any other men with me." Dethrin replied to him in a confidence none of them knew why he would have right now.

Commander Rexick was the first to speak out in confusion,"Forgive me sir, but who are we going to meet with? Theres no villages from within twenty leagues of our entire path to the forest from here."

"Exactly Rexick, This way, no militia loyal to Boren will know where we have gone, and in these valleys we will fine the perfect friends to bring with us to slay the abominations."

Rexick understood before Dethrin had finished speaking, "So this is where Iruven sent her Dris is it?"

Dethrin smiled, "Indeed,who better knows the forest then the Dris? Not all of them are here of course, but when i was in council with Iruven before we left, she told me there was at least a few hundred."

The Dris were some of the smartest creatures throughout the entire world. From birth, they understood the basics of healing, and were able to move through the forest swifter then anyone else. They had a humanoid look to them, except they were covered in fur, and have feet much like a tiger. Most had a black fur coat, although some had a dark maroon and even fewer were white. Their hands were shaped similar to any human, so they were capable of holding arms. Iruven saw to it that they never used them as she wanted to keep them a peaceful race. That is, until the abominations came. The Dris were naturals with spears, and with some practice, could fight just well as any other race.

Dethrin had already planned for this. Him and Stelas had already planned before consulting with Iruven to see them fully equipped. Spears, throwing knifes, and leather armor for all them. Dethrin originally wanted to give them two spears a piece, but Stelas wanted to give them the option of having an extra spear, or duel short swords. Most took the swords. As soon as the reached the Dris, Dethrin put his commanders to work. They trained the nearly three hundred Dris all day everyday since they had arrived. Some were become as deadly as Durn or even Rexick, but Dethrin wanted them all to be that strong.

"I want to see everyone of them capable of fighting Rexick to a draw." declared Dethrin, who had been helping with the training of the Dris he had chosen to be officers amongst their small army. "In two weeks, we march to reclaim the forest."