King's Knight

[BrotherhoodUK]

"Hm. Finally awake then, I see." The storm giant's voice was irritated, but not unfriendly. She was about 18 feet tall, slightly shorter than normal, but she was probably still growing.

"Er... Yeah, I'm sort of all here... What the crap just happened?"

"I don't know..." The giant sighed and twirled an iron bar between her fingers. "It's so cold in Jotunheim. I've been here for four weeks."

Aurelia widened her eyes. "Four weeks... I swear I would lose it if I was alone for that long."

The storm giant shrugged. "I'd say. Well, seeing how we're now cell mates, may as well get to know each other. Introductions are due. You look like a Drow... Are you that Shadowstrider one? The... One with the big sword?"

Aurelia shook her head. "Her daughter."

"Ah, right... So you must be Aurelia then." Aurelia nodded, and the storm giant continued. "Well... My name's Thurea."

"Hm, that's an... unusual name. But I won't judge, seeing how I am who I am. So then, Thurea, what's it like, having to be here by yourself for four weeks..."

[Holeypaladin]

"Well well..." said Frederick. "We've got about a half-century of Furian dragon knights joining us, do we?"

He hovered up a bit and scanned them. "Hm... looks like Balthy's bunch. He might make a good distraction."

Seeing him hovering, a frost giant considered Frederick an easy target and hurled a large boulder at him. "Hmph," said the Achenaran, incanting a quick spell that shattered the boulder mid-flight.

"I've got him," said Kain, leaping into the air. While the dragoon was airborn, Frederick fired several flame arrows in rapid succession, downing some winter wolves that the frost giant was sending at him. Two of Lilian's fire elementals engulfed a yeti, causing the beast to howl in pain as it was burned alive.

"Is this the best they've got?" said Arngrim, charging between a frost giant's legs and chopping one of them off at the knee with a mighty cleave of his huge sword. The rock-thrower drew a large axe, but was cut short as Kain landed on top of its head, spear downward.

"You really love that jump attack," chuckled Frederick, shooting a frost giant through the eye to master the last of Aurora's bow skills. "Area, proceed forward," he muttered, dismissing the bow and rushing ahead.

"I can't keep up!" said Lilian, and Frederick sighed, lifting her with both arms and carrying her forward. "Mmm..." said the mermaid, pressing up against him and wrapping her arms around his neck. "I feel like a princess, being carried to safety by a heroic knight."

"Bleh," muttered Frederick. "Don't talk like that."

[Cosmic Fury]

The formation that was with Balthazzar quickly advanced, avoiding direct conflict until they reached a group of frost giants that stood directly in their path.

Those with frost powers blocked the giants' magic, while those who could control fire burned them to a crisp. In that fashion, they advanced at a more moderate pace towards the citadel, where they planned on simply blasting through one of the walls to gain entry into the keep. In the meantime, they destroyed any resistance that attempted to halt the small formation, which only slowed them down, with them taking only two casualties on the way to the center of the castle.

[BrotherhoodUK]

Aurelia listened as the storm giant regaled her with tales of the mountains of the lands south of Jotunheim, and of the peoples who lived both in the ranges themselves, and in their shadow. The storm giants were a peaceful, friendly race, quite unlike the frost giants of Jotunheim or the idiot hill giants of Swadia and other regions.

The storm giant stopped as they heard sounds of battle from down the hall. Aurelia looked out, and saw a frost giant battling... something. It had an axe, and it was armoured in impressive plate armour and a tower shield...

"Magnus!"

The frost giant blocked Magnus' first two swings and countered with a thrust of his spear. Magnus dodged out of the way and severed the spear with a massive swing of his axe down onto the cornel wood shaft. The giant's spear had a butt-spike, however, and the giant attempted to impale Magnus on the spear. Magnus blocked the thrust with his tower shield, before slashing at the giant's exposed front leg, cutting a deep gash into the shin. The giant roared in pain and dropped his spear, exchanging it for an axe of his own. Magnus, recognising that he needed to be on par with his opponent, cast Enlarge Person on himself and engaged the frost giant in brutal hand-to-hand combat. Even though he was only half the size of the frost giant, Magnus' skill with the axe and his immense strength eventually broke the frost giant's defence. Magnus inflicted several serious wounds upon the frost giant, but the giant kept going, still trying to kill the frenzied half-orc. He scored a hit deep into Magnus' shoulder, but the half-orc felt nothing - the red mist had descended and he was utterly focused on killing the giant. Several axe-strokes later, and the giant's lower left leg had been severed, and Magnus finished off the giant with an axe to the throat. Aurelia watched as Magnus noted with only passing interest the wound in his shoulder as he walked down to the cell.

"Can you heal this for me?"

Aurelia shook her head. "Can't use magic thanks to these things. If I could, I would've been out of here ages ago. Where's the others?"

"Alice is free - she managed to unlock the gate and get out of her cell, because I don't think they actually put any restraints on her for some strange reason."

"Hm. Break this gate and these shackles and then I'll fix that spear wound." Magnus nodded and split open the lock on the gate with two swings of his axe, and then broke open Aurelia's shackles. Aurelia rubbed her wrists after she had been freed of the iron holdings. Thurea cleared her throat to attract Magnus' attention.

"Hm, I guess I'm obliged to free you too, then. Well, hold out the shackles." Thurea held out her wrists and Magnus, once again, split the metal with his axe. "Right, then. Time to get the hell out of here."

[Holeypaladin]

Frederick noted an open portcullis ahead of him. "Hm..." he said, "Strange, that they'd leave it open. Well, let's not delay then."

He quickly made his way through, only to have it close behind him. "A trap? But then... where's the ambush?"

He looked behind him, noting the Furian dragon knights in the courtyard behind him. "Oh... they're the ones being trapped," he remarked, as a large number of frost giants appeared on the rafters above them, hurling massive boulders down on the furians.

"Eh... Balthy can handle it," said Frederick with a shrug. "Let's keep moving. I think they're underestimating us."

He set Lilian down as he noted several giants and ogres ahead. "Time to kill," he said, drawing forth a greatsword called Skofnung and charging into battle.

An ogre tried to intercept him, but Frederick took a mighty swing at the ogre's leg, severing it cleanly as he drew forth the skills imbued within the greatsword. He felt an intense rage consuming him, and he hacked the ogre until it stopped moving.

Frederick's vision went red as a battle rage took over him, drawing forth the skills of the blade. Lilian watched in horror as he cut a frost giant apart. A heavy ax stroke impacted him, but he didn't feel the blow. Arngrim and Kain outflanked the frost giant and took it down, before Frederick cut through two ogres with two strikes.

Feeling himself mastering the berserker sword, Frederick dismissed it, and suddenly felt the pain from his injury.

"Ow..." he said, slumping to the ground. Lilian was at his side in a moment, healing the wound rapidly.

"Frederick..." said the mermaid, tears in her eyes. "Don't ever, ever use that crazy sword again. You scared me..."

"Right..." said Frederick. "Note to self: Berserk scares Lilian."

[BrotherhoodUK]

Aurelia decided that she would be of little use in this battle - she was still feeling the effects of the poison, and she was too lightly armoured to really do much. Leather armour wasn't going to cut it from now on. Magnus and Vierinissa had once again gone off to the very front line, leaving Aurelia with a very confused Haldor.

"Where were you?"

"Some ******* shot me with a crossbow bolt that was impregnated with poison that rendered me unconscious. Magnus broke me out of prison. As you do."

"Huh. Not bad. I guess you'll be wanting to stay away from battle until Raeviir finishes that Gothic suit. At least, we think it's Gothic. It could be Greenwich for all she knows."

"Greenwich and Gothic are really quite different - she'd tell the difference easily." Aurelia sighed, irritated. "Why is it that I can never do anything well?"

"Well," Haldor said, opening a Gate to the Palace, "perhaps you can prove that wrong, eh? You need cheering up, you do. You're always so melancholy."

[Holeypaladin]

Busting through the doors of the palace, Frederick charged straight ahead, directly towards the throne room. Several frost giant guards stepped in front of him, moving to intercept.

Drawing forth the greatsword Quern-biter, Frederick noted that it had the skills of two separate users inside it, and ranked rather low among legendary weapons in overall power. Nevertheless, he drew on the skills of its users and charged the giants.

He felt an anger burning within him, but this wasn't the same sort of wrath as the berserker sword had given him. Rather, it was more a desire to smite evil, a strength used to destroy the opponents ahead of him. Using this power, Frederick hacked into the shaft of one of the giant's axes at the giant took a swing, cutting through the wood and severing the ax-head.

He then took the creature's left leg out from under it with a heavy stroke, causing the creature to fall to the ground and opening it up to a heavy cleft that cut into its chest. Frederick forcefully thrust deep into the wound to pierce the heart.

Another giant swung its ax down, and Frederick rolled to the side to avoid it, while Arngrim assaulted the giant's flank. Seeing that the mercenary had the creature under control, Frederick turned his attention to a giant that was charging a stunned Lilian.

"No you don't," said Frederick, using his grav belt to propel himself through the air, thrusting the greatsword through the giant's back from behind, piercing its heart. "It's not nice to attack girls," he muttered, turning his attention to the others.

He noted Kain was dealing with two of the giants, and the ceiling was too low for him to use his jump attacks very well. He decided to help the dragoon, outflanking one of the giants and severing its weapon arm as it raised its ax to swing at Kain. Frederick then jumped into the air and delivered a mighty blow that severed the giant's head, mastering one of the wielders of Quern-biter.

Noting another giant was trying to attack him from behind, Frederick spun around, ducked the swing, and took out both legs with one stroke. He then stepped forward and brought the blade down in a massive overhead strike, splitting the giant's head while mastering the other wielder of Quern-biter.

Glancing around, he noted that the area was clear. "Alright then," said Frederick, dismissing Quern-biter, "Looks like we've reached the throne room. If this is following typical RPG tropes, Ymir should be inside, chilling and waiting for us, rather than out commanding his troops like any realistic commander would be."

[BrotherhoodUK]

Aurelia was about to step through the gate Haldor had opened, but then, she stopped.

"That poison."

Haldor arched an eyebrow. "What about it?"

"That poison rendered me unconscious. Only one poison I know of can do that in such a short space of time - Drow poison. This raises the question - how would frost giants acquire such a poison. Simple answer; they don't have it."

"You're saying that there are assassins in the city?"

"More than just assassins... Remember when I was at Valencia?" Haldor nodded. "They referred to me as the 'Drow witch'. Now, as you know, my magic isn't to be laughed at, but it's nowhere near as powerful as Raeviir's. I'm also about the same height as her, and, at a glance, we kind of look similar. So, my theory is that these 'assassins' are not actually looking for me, but for Raeviir." Aurelia had a slight tinge of triumph in the last few words.

"No. I also saw the note that you found on the Carthaginian. It was signed 'K', wasn't it? Well..."

"What is it?"

"Kyrranwyn. Who else can it be but her? She wants you dead, preferably at her hand but if not then she'll get someone else to do it. They're not looking for Raeviir. She's looking for 'you'. Not her. You."

Aurelia walked through the gate and into her room, followed by Haldor, who quickly closed it again. "It's... not possible for Kyrranwyn to be behind all of this! She's dead, Haldor, and she has been for years! I heard it with my own ears - ambushed by Umber Hulks whilst out on a journey! They focused on her, and then after they slaughtered her, they retreated! House My'athar was in mourning for days afterwards - Kyrranwyn was a particularly successful Matron Mother, and she had been killed!"

"It was not Kyrranwyn who was killed on that day." Haldor's voice remained quiet in comparison to Aurelia's raised tone. "Kyrranwyn was safely in Raven's Tower on that day - I know, I saw her whilst in disguise as a trader on a reconnaissance task there. The woman who went out against the Umber Hulks was a slave who acted as a sort of 'doppelganger' in case Kyrranwyn needs to be somehwere but she doesn't trust the local security. And rightly so, in most cases."

"You mean... you knew that she was still the Matron Mother for all of these years... And you didn't tell me? Why, Haldor?"

"Because..." he faltered, and did not say anything more.

"Because what?!" Aurelia drew her rapier. "Answer me, Haldor! Now!" When Haldor remained silent, Aurelia finally lost her temper and slashed at him. Haldor rolled out of the way just in time, and he drew his own sword.

"Aurelia! Cease this madness!"

"Not until you tell me why, insolent cur!" Aurelia gave vent to her more brutal, Lolthite side of her personality. No matter how much she venerated the Dark Maiden, she was still the daughter of a Lolthite Matron Mother, and she still had a fiery temper that was inherited from Kyrranwyn.

"I don't know why, Aurelia!" Haldor dodged out of the way of two more slashes from Aurelia, but his luck finally ran out - Aurelia caught him with a shallow cut across his back. Haldor gritted his teeth. "Will you stop with this, woman?!"

Aurelia refused to listen. He had kept this secret from her - her mother, that ***** of a woman who sacrificed to her pathetic spider-goddess, was still alive, and HE had the gall to keep it from her? Enraged, she threw down her sword and attacked him with her fists, punching, tearing and kicking until eventually he was on the floor, blood streaming from wounds and bruised almost all over his body. She stepped back, and watched him curled up on the floor, trying to protect himself as best as he could.

"Don't think of keeping things like that from me again. Do you understand, damn you?" She spat on the floor and watched as Haldor slowly, agonisingly got to his feet.

"No. I don't understand. Care to repeat that?" His words were laced with venom towards her. She took note of the sarcasm and did not reply. He was still standing there, fists clenched. "Do you mind, perhaps, healing this damage you inflicted?"

"You brought it on yourself, Haldor. Perhaps you should learn not to keep secrets like that from me, no?" Aurelia lay down on the bed, slightly tired from the exertion of marital violence. She waited until Haldor had sat down to read and she slipped out of her armour. Her sword was stained with Haldor's blood, but she simply sheathed it and dropped the scabbard on the floor, next to her blackened leather. Haldor looked up, evidently in pain, from his book.

"What are you doing..."

"Truce, Haldor?"

"Oh, no, don't think you're getting away with shedding MY, I repeat, MY blood that easily. You drew blood. That means either you take some in return, or you better have a really good excuse otherwise." Haldor's resistance, though, was crumbling.

"I have an excuse. You shouldn't hit a girl, that's why." Aurelia adopted a faux-young girl voice, which finally calmed Haldor's anger. He sighed and walked over to the bed.

[Holeypaladin]

As Frederick and the others entered the throne room, the huge doors closed shut behind them.

Arngrim and Kain turned around and tried to pull them open, but they wouldn't budge. "It's no use," growled the mercenary, "They're sealed shut."

"And there's a null-teleportation field as well," noted Frederick. "They don't want us to escape. An ambush, perhaps?"

"Welcome, Frederick the Dragonslayer," boomed a voice from the other end of the room. "Welcome to the location of your death."

"How totally cheesy," muttered Frederick. "Ymir, is it? Jarl of the frost Jotuns?"

"I see you know who I am," said the frost giant jarl, standing up from his throne. He was easily the tallest frost giant Frederick had ever seen. "Surt told me about you. And he told me about your dragon knight friends. Therefore, I prepared a welcome for you." He motioned to a large white orb in the middle of the room. "Like it? A relic from the last Ragnarok. You see, Bahamut and Tiamat used dragon knights then, as well. So we titans developed a device that nullifies the abilities of your little amulets. You're just a puny humanoid, here."

"We puny humanoids managed to cut our way through your not-so-titan-like soldiers well enough," shrugged Frederick. "Too much inbreeding, right? You frost giants are nothing like your Titan ancestors, these days."

"Be that as it may," say Ymir, "You'll find me to be a much more difficult opponent than they. But first, I prepared some entertainment for you. After all, what's a courtroom without a court jester?"

Frederick noted a very exaggerated jester-like creature loping toward him from the other side of the room. "By all means," said Surt, "Cast a spell at him. Cast lots of spells at him."

"Meh," shrugged Frederick. "I'll take it out in one shot, then. My name is Tiamat and I have brother issues."

With that, he released his multichromatic blue magic, blasting the jester-thing with five chromatic dragon breaths. However, by some sort of miracle, the jester-thing managed to evade most of it, taking a significant amount of damage but still standing.

*Court Jester learned blue magic: Multichromatic dragon breath.*

"Huh... a blue mage," shrugged Frederick. "Stand behind me, everyone. I expect he'll respond with the same attack, and I'm immune."

The other three did just that, hiding behind Frederick as he raised his force shield.

True to his word, the jester blasted Frederick with a multichromatic breath weapon blue magic, and he shrugged it off. He managed to shield his companions well enough that it was a simple matter for Lilian to keep them healed.

*Learned blue magic: Mime.*

"Interesting..." said Frederick. "Looks like I can copy other peoples' spells, for what it's worth. Thank you, mister jester."

Wordlessly, the jester titled its head, and made an exaggerated motion of thinking. Then it raised its finger exasperatingly to indicate it had an idea. The jester inhaled a deep breath... and its wounds seemed to go away.

"Huh..." said Frederick, shrugging. "Let me try that." Using his mime ability, he breathed in in the same fashion as the jester, and discovered that he was inhaling healing gasses. "This is... a breath weapon..." he said to himself. "Sort of. It's Bahamut's...."

*Learned blue magic: Healing breath.*
*Learned blue magic: Memetic mutation.*

"Wait a sec..." frowned Frederick. Ymir was chuckling to himself at this point. "If the mime can mutate a Tiamat ability into a Bahamut ability, then that means.... everyone, disperse!"

He barely managed to say that before the jester blasted everyone with another attack... a dragon breath weapon, kenetic in nature. Frederick rolled away from it, evading the majority of it, but it still blasted him with enough force to send him flying across the room, slamming into the sealed doors.

"Ugh..." he said, shaking his head. "That... hurt."

He glared at the jester. "Playtime's over, mister mime," growled Frederick. "What goes around comes around."

Channeling magical energies, he incanted the blue magic he had just learned. "There's a reason why Bahamut is so awesome. Mega flare."

The spell consumed a ton of magical energy, but the kenetic breath attack completely disintigrated the jester, as well as two frost giants that were standing between the jester and Ymir. Ymir himself raised a large round shield to protect himself, and that too was disintigrated, though the Jotun Jarl himself remained relatively unharmed.

"Hmph..." said Ymir. "Surt failed to mention that you were a blue mage. No matter. I can tell by looking at you that you lack the mana to use that attack a second time. You are restricted to swords and arrows, now."

"That's fine..." said Frederick. "I'm pretty good with a sword." He glanced around at his companions, noting that they had not escaped harm from the breath weapon either. Lilian, however, was strumming a gentle tune on her harp.

"Distract them please," said Lilian via the amulet, "Hold them off long enough for me to heal everyone."

"Sure thing," responded Frederick. Smirking, he said, "I have a giant-slaying sword, you know. This one is called Cortana."

Drawing the shortsword of Ogier, he charged forward towards the enemy.

[BrotherhoodUK]

Raeviir stepped back from the suit she had just finished hammering, forging, welding and moulding. It was certainly impressive - a fine set of Gothic-oriented light plate armour. It lacked the full protection of plate armour, but it was much lighter and easier to wear. Raeviir began enchanting and casting spells upon the armour to improve the performance, including an additional resistance to all elements and, as it was classed as Light Armour, Aurelia could still move about freely, without too much hindrance to her movement.

"So... She's now better protected than she was before - time to see if it fits her as well as it should." Raeviir summoned several servants to carry separate pieces of the armour and told them to follow her to Aurelia's room. There, they were dismissed. Raeviir knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" A breathless voice, female in tone, came from behind the door.

"Only me. I have your finished armour with me... Am I interrupting something?"
She opened the door, and slipped inside, quickly shutting it again. Aurelia got up off the bed and looked over the new set of armour.

"Damn, girl. Looks good. I need to try it on." With Raeviir's help, Aurelia donned the armour. It was, of course, form-fitting.

"Just don't grow or gain weight and you'll be fine."