OOC: I'll be using Khaagas Naladak, just approved this morning, and some NPCs non-combatents... which for this battle will provide some extra motivation for both characters.

Begin In Character:


There is a road.

This road stretches between two distant cities, and winds to avoid forests, find springs of water, and find the safe passage within the mountains. This road has once upon a time seen far greater travel than these days. Once, the rulers of both cities took great pains to care for the road, keeping it clear of bandits and maintaining the tremenous stones that ensured ease of travel, even during the wettest seasons.

In recent years, however, the roads have fallen into further and further disuse as the relations between the two cities grew cold. These days the stones are full of cracks and pits, the forest has overgrown some of the passage, the springs have dried up, and even the mountains are more trecherous than ever. Few travel the road these days.

But now as we overlook this road we find a family in transit. Carried in a finely wrought ornate carriage drawn by expensive white* horses which navigate the bumpy road with as much grace as is reasonably possible, given the circumstances.

Sitting on top of the carriage, driving the horses, are a man and his eldest son, who is about sixteen or seventeen years old. They are both belted with swords and are keeping a close eye out for bandits. Inside the carriage is the man's wife, two daughters, and yougest son, who is too young to use a blade yet.

At this time, they are making their way through the forest. The dark and mysterious Fyrillys Wood, with tall magestic trees lining either side of the road, and powerful oaks ripping apart the stones of the road with their roots, making the ride rough indeed.

But we are not the only witnesses to this scene. Another watches as well, from the shadows further up the road.

Were the traveling familiy close enough to hear, they would have heard the sound of cracking stone, as a pentagram is etched into the roadway. Crack! goes the stone as a line is formed. Crack-Crack-Crack! it continues, an eerie red light pulsing from the rents in the stone. And then a final Crrrack! as the final line is put into place, completing the star. And then a spark flares up from one of the points, and starts encircling the star, etching a black ring into the symbol.

The portal was complete, and the creature watching from the shadows stepped through. It waited for a moment then, sheilding its glowing red eyes from the light of the sun filtering through the trees. And then it slinked off into the bushes.

Its eyes FLASHED brightly as it began the next spell. The carriage was approaching now. A second circle began to burn itself into the stone. Seconds pass. The horses are now ontop of the circle. A column of red light bursts upwards, stretching up, up, UP, to the very heavens in the sky. The man and his son attempt to get the horses under control. Hell breaks loose.

Within the light, a fire burning with the power of the very sun in the sky burst through the rear of the carriage, still caught within the circle at this time. The force of the heat alone was like an explosion, and the rear of the carriage lifted up off the ground, dragging the fron the the carriage with it. Then it came crashing down, nose first into the horses, throwing the man and his son from their seat, battered and bruised on the stone road. The carriage continued its fall, bringing the rear of the vehical forewards, now flipping it entirely over with the roof skidding along on the ground.

The carriage was burning. Inside, the mother had taken serious burns from being caught in the edge of the circle of flames. All four of those inside were tossed around pretty brutally, and the carriage was still on fire.

And the monster approached the carnage it had created with an evil looking grin on its face. It made an evil sound, "Kharzagat Khalacht!" and laughed.

A hero is needed in times like this. There is still time left. The family still lives. How long will they last, though? How long can they survive?


* Amongst horse enthusiasts, there is no such thing as a white horse. In the real world, all "white" horses are called "grey". The horses described here, however, are unmistakably WHITE.