Fall From Heaven NES

I assume you are refering to EkoNES, as the current NESes are both full. It's tough though because FFHNES does seem to have a player number fixed around 7, and I will probably be offering some sort of first refusal to the players of teh previous games. I may try to squeeze in some extras but I'm not sure I can promise it, this is my first NES and I don't want to bite off more then I can chew.
 
The second part of the story in which Alexis is smuggled out of Prespur.

The Chamber

It had been a long journey, but at last they had arrived. The village of Hoon was a surprisingly smart-looking place, with whitewashed buildings, roofed with blue-grey slate tiles from the mines and quarries of the Hersemein Hills, the rough borderlands that separated the Lanun and the Plains of the Bad Prince from the Northern Nomes of the Calabim. The Village was centred around a small, solemn Inn and Church, and bordered on one side by the extensive farm lands of Hersemein, where much of the Empire's wheat was produced, and the dense Walakr Forest on the other. This morning it was quiet, as the vast majority of it's inhabitants were out working the fields, growing the Nome's famous wheat.

''Right, well... Onwards, Milady?'' Morteros said meekly as he jumped to the ground, Alexis had been in a foul temper during the last few miles of the journey. She had complained of dizziness, and a raging migraine, which she was convinced was caused by the ''vulgar'' animals that had wandered in the fields on either side of the road. Bizarrely, she had not recognised the cattle and sheep at first, and when Morteros had explained to her what they were she had seemed quite offended that they had been allowed to roam free, fouling the fields with their excrement, instead of being confined to their natural habitat, the smokehouse. Sometimes Morteros was amazed how ignorant Alexis was in some subjects, considering she was an Archangel of what was once the greatest of all the Gods.

''Onwards indeed.'' She replied, emotionlessly, whist climbing gracefully down from the cart, still covered head to toe in the dark robe.
The pair walked along in front of the cart, Morteros leading the horses. The Nome of Hersemein possessed strict laws against the riding of carts, horses, chariots and wagons in its towns and villages after one of its ruling Nobility, Harska'an Mournheart was struck down by a wild, run-away horse in the town of Meriya. Despite no murderer being found, few believed the tyrant's death had been an accident, yet the following day the Northern Council immediately passed the law to prevent such a terrible act of human defiance from ever happening again. Vampires rarely die of natural causes, and the majority of Vampiric Deaths are caused by exposure to human diseases, some of which Vampires have very low natural resistance to, and assassination, although the more experienced and powerful Vampires have become more or less immune to assassination. Nevertheless, this caused paranoia to run rampant whenever large numbers of Vampires were grouped together.

Morteros lead the cart into the Inn's stable and filled the horses' nosebags with fresh wheat from a pile nearby. They arrived at the church after a short, and rather scenic route through the village. It was incredibly tidy, and the cobbled roads had been entirely swept of hay and dirt. Alexis suspected that it's current Governor was rather compulsive when it came to cleanliness. The Church was a small building of perfectly carved stone, apparently the only building in town that had avoided the whitewash. It was shaped, as were most Churches of the Natural Order, like the Ancient Calabim rune ''Thergos'', which meant ''Servitude'' in the old tongue, and had been written similar to a modern ''T'' on top of a square shape. The Oakwood doors were imposing and grand, and looked quite out of place on the small, single-storied building.

Suddenly uneasy although unsure why, Morteros cleared his throat nervously and said, ''Would you like to knock, milady?''
She sighed angrily, ''He is not inside, I cannot sense his soul.''
''Are you sure, milady?'' Morteros had never been completely convinced of the reliability of a Vampire's sixth sense.
''Yes. But don't open the door. I'm not sure you'd like what you'd see. Go back to the cart please.''

Morteros scuttled away to the cart in a hurry, he knew this tone of voice well, it meant 'Disobey me, and face the consequences.', and Morteros doubted that even he would be able to talk his way out of some serious punishment. For a moment, Alexis's eyes shone a terrible shade of green, before the Church door, quivering as if with fear, swung open. She stepped inside, raised her hand, and the doors shut once more.

Inside it was pitch black, and even her piercing grey eyes could not make out the dark, cold room that she sensed around her. She groped the wall beside her slowly, so as not to make a sound, until she felt her long, slender fingers close around a torch, which she lifted carefully from its socket on the wall and brandished in front of her like a weapon. After a second or two of deep, calming breaths, she concentrated on the torch for a moment. The torch burst into flame, and Alexis's eyes widened in horror, she gasped and dropped the torch to the floor, illuminating the fine, silver sand she remembered so well. She reached down to the floor, and composed herself. The traditional furnishings of a Church, the Altar and benches, were no-where to be seen, and the usually bleak stone walls of the room had been painted with the colourful murals she had seen in her dream the night before she allowed Agron to succeed her on the Throne. She followed them frantically with her eyes, they were the same. She saw in them the Fall of the Empire, the Brujah, everything. This was the chamber? She felt a shiver run down her spine. This was the Chamber? Suddenly she felt her eyes drawn to the far corner of the room. There was a body, presumably the cause of the spilled blood she had tasted in the air before entering the holy place. She approached it slowly, cautiously, suddenly aware that she may be in danger. As she gained towards it, and it fell within the sphere of dark, orange light the torch emitted, she realised the corpse was several days old, and had began to shrivel and grey despite the cold of the room. He, for it was a man, was wearing the long, dark red robe of a Priest, and was surrounded by a pool of thick blood. Alexis recognised him as Hadroen Vanliere, the local clergyman, and the man she had come all this way to see. She quickly examined his body for a possible course of death, and found a long, silver dagger embedded in his stomach, right down to the hilt. She removed it easily, for all Vampires possess some degree of supernatural strength, and cleaned the blood from it by wiping it on the man's robe. Suddenly, it caught the light and it's carving became visible, causing Alexis to drop it in surprise and amazement. It rang out with a long shrill sound as it made contact with the masonry of the floor. It had read 'Ka Ypeigna sor ka Heim Nroghe', The Bringer of the New Age, Agron's Knife.

A loud knocking came from behind her, causing her such shock that she felt her ancient heart beat within her chest for the first time in years. She span, running her hand through the fine sand of the floor and sweeping up the dagger. She would at least have something to defend herself with, she concluded. The door creaked open slowly, and Alexis braced herself to leap towards her aggressor, knife in hand, holding her breath.

''Mistress?'' Came a voice with comforting familiarity, ''Mistress!'' Morteros ran towards her apparently unaware of the strange murals, the body, or the knife in her hand. She breathed once more, ''I am here.'' She hissed back , willing him to be quiet, as he arrived at her side. ''Mistress our cart is gone! With all our equipment!''

''Shhh! We may be in danger!''' She whispered, remembering only too well her encounter with her brother the last time she had seen the Murals. ''What do you mean milady? This place is like a fortress.'' He replied. Churches were the traditional strongholds of the villagers when their village was threatened with invasion. Alexis replied with a simple motion to the body of the Priest and the murals around her. Morteros observed the bench, and traditional statue depicting the execution of the Four Black Kings, the Brujah, questioningly. These were commonplace within any Church, Temple or Shrine dedicated to the Natural Order, the fact of which Morteros hastily began to describe to Alexis. She must be in one of her moods again, he decided. He supposed such periods of confusion were a result of her immense age, and had brought it upon himself to try to contain them as much as possible. ''What!?'' She cried, ''The body! Look!''. Morteros became more and more uneasy. ''I see no body...'' He admitted cautiously, not wanting to upset her. Alexis stood, carefully, and walked to behind Morteros, who turned to face her. She could tell he was uneasy, and was confused that he seemed to be seeing the normal church instead of the grave scene she saw. She held his head in her hands, gripping strongly, and forced it towards the body. She pressed lightly, and muttered an incantation. Morteros shook with fear, and wriggled out from her hold, vomiting onto the strange sand that he was sure had not been present a second ago.

Morteros looked around in wonder, wiping the sweat from his face, as Alexis coolly explained to him that the scene was the same, or similar at least, to the one she had seen in her dream, the night Morteros had woke her with news of Agron's betrayal. His eyes fell upon the knife, that now lay next to the body of the Priest. ''Agron's Knife!'' He cried. ''I found it embedded in the corpse. It was the murder weapon.'' Morteros's mind swam, wildly trying to make sense of the bizarre scene surrounding him.

''Come, I do not wish to stay in this place any longer.'' She told him, pitying his weak resolve. She led him by the hand, through the narrow stone passageway that began in the far right hand side of the room, near the body, and then doubled back on itself towards the centre where it split in two. She led him down the passageway on the right, the one that connected the Priest's home with the church. They reached a wooden door, similar but much smaller then the main, grand door. Alexis opened it with a large iron key that she had removed from the corpse, and they stepped inside.
 
Good story Kol. I wonder who stole their cart and who glamoured the scene and most of all, who murdered the priest. Also, silver sand? Nicely written- i long for explanation.
 
See if you can work out the mystery before Alexis does ;). (It's all linked in with the previous stories, but I think you are lacking some important information atm)
 
Alright, boys... [cracks knuckles]


When are orders due? I wanna see some wars, here. The stories can only tide me over for so long.


EDIT: I'm not sure I ever posted these - but, to avoid the dreaded double-post, here are a couple little writeups from my secret files...


The Barefoot Legion... a few notes: a "Buccaneer" is my Lanun-y word for a marine; I did in fact specifically mention the use of marines in the Assault on Kwythellar; this is actually meant to be a speech, not a written story.

Spoiler :
The history of the Barefoot Legion is still young, but full of valor. This new unit is formed of the best our nation has to offer, an elite force on both land and sea. Of course, the first question that everyone asks is “why are they the Barefoot Legion?” Well, they are not usually barefooted, but it is true that they do not wear shoes. When aboard ship, sailors and Buccaneers are more mobile barefoot. Since the Barefoot Legion is a Buccaneer unit, when they first were sent to land many of them did not have shoes or boots to wear, and thus went into battle with their feet in heavy socks or wrapped in cloth. It became a tradition, and while the Barefoot Legion generally wears boots while marching they never fight in them when they can avoid it.

The unit began as a group of Buccaneers, taken off their ships and reformed into a brigade under the command of Captain Wilwallace. This was during the first days of the Assault of Kwythellar, when neither side was well-equipped, well-organized or experienced. For our people, the siege was largely a debacle from the start. A successful seabourne assault was stopped just short of success, and the Assault then became the long, bloody Siege that we are familiar with today. However, there were some bright spots to be seen through the clouds.

The very brightest was that of the Provisionary Buccaneer Force. These men were not accustomed to fighting on land, yet they fought harder and better than their mudfoot brethren. They were the first to land, and the first to reach their objective – and the only unit that landed within the city to do so. They didn’t stop there, either. Once they had captured their objective, Captain Wilwallace was required to send nearly half his force to assist the beleaguered First Militia. He did so, and the men he sent went a long way towards stemming the retreat that had been developing until then.

The men that stayed behind were even more heroic. Outnumbered, outflanked, and without the hope of support, they not only held their position at the South Road but advanced, forcing the Kuriotate defenders to fall back toward the city palisades. Admiral Hardskull commented on their action, “It’s about damn time that someone gets off their arses and fights like men should. If only all my soldiers were as good as them Buccaneers.” It is said that Hardskull himself gave the Legion its name.

The next few weeks of the Siege were rather uneventful for the Barefoot Legion. However, the landing of the Brave Brothers saw a new development. The Brave Brothers are a very competitive unit, but the PBF was just as competitive. When the Brave Brothers were ordered to march away from Kwythellar and assist the united Khazad-Hippus army in fighting the main Kuriotate body, the Legion was ordered to go along. The two armies marched on different roads; the Brave Brothers had to travel 40 miles while the Legion had to travel 45 miles. The Legion beat the mercenary unit to the battlefield by two hours.

At the Battle of Icea, the Legion once again excelled. The tale of Gnar Howoull’s Relief is too long to tell here, but the actions of the Legion to save the lives of a thousand allies is a legend among the dwarves.

The Legion is still on that far-away battlefield, fighting for gold and glory. However, when they return, the Barefoot Legion will have a home here in Kingsport.




The victory celebration after the Kuriotate War...

Spoiler :
The harbor was full of ships. Of course, that wasn't unusual in Dunwich, but the cargo of those ships was quite different. These ships carried men - the Army had finally returned from the Continent.

It was meant to be a celebration to exceed anything the world had ever seen. Rum flowed everywhere, Amurite fireworks lit the sky, Luichirp machines flew everywhere, games of all kinds spilled into the streets and citizens from all over the Lanun lands had traveled here. However, the pinnacle of the party was the Triumph Parade, where the victorious Army would march from the docks to Admiral Plaza, outside the Captain’s Complex, through the mighty Arch.

Admiral Plaza was packed. Lanun of every age and race, women and men, and even some foreigners filled every nook and cranny up to a thin rope that marked where the Army would stand. As the first men of the Barefoot Legion entered, an ear-shattering cheer erupted that some claimed could be heard even from Kingsport. Rank by rank, the Army entered. The Barefoot Legion led the way, as always. They were followed by the First Militia, called the Landlubbers. After them marched the Brave Brothers mercenaries, who this day were Lanun. The cheers never faltered, the waves of sound kept crashing down.

And then... the Driftwood Regiment entered the plaza. It was once known as the Second Militia. Where once thousands of men would have passed under the Arch, there were only a bare hundred. Most were wounded, and the normal brisk march of the Army had become a slower, pained shuffle. Worst of all, the men of the Driftwood Division hadn't closed ranks - they marched in their normal positions. The gaping holes in the Regiment were apparent. Here and there, a half-dozen men would stand together, but the Division was mostly empty space. The second that the first man passed the Arch, a silence began to grow in the Plaza.

By the time the Driftwood Division moved to stand at attention under the steps of the Complex, the silence was complete. It was a harsh silence, compared to the noise that an entire nation had made in celebration. It was loud; it grew in the minds of citizens until most were desparate to hear something, anything. Yet none broke it, until from the ranks of the Barefoot Legion a single voice rose up.

That one anonymous voice began to sing. The tune was that of a solumn dirge, and in a deep bass the words carried to the furthest corner of the Plaza.

'Twas a long cold day off Dunley Reef
A hurricane blew, and hail feel t'beat
the sheets hung off the fo'ward mast
but a pirate ship allows no defeat.
An enemy laid near off port bow,
the Captain ordered, we accepted the call
and thus began the battle.

(refrain)
I left me mates off Dunley Reef,
the sea mistress keeps all her souls.
I mourn to the bodies that walk now still,
and I'll sing on the day I drink with me hearties.

We crashed upon our foe off Dunley Reef
And we left our deck for battle...

The song continued for seven verses. That voice never stopped, but on the second refrain of the rest of the Barefoot Legion slowly joined in. By the fourth, the entire Army had joined together, and by the last rendition of I'll sing to the day I drink with me hearties, the whole population of Dunwich was giving voice. Through it all, the men of the Driftwood Division never moved a muscle and stood to attention under the eyes of their countrymen and their High Captain.



The next day, two things happened. First, Off Dunley Reef was offcially made the Lanun anthem. Second, a hundred of men were seen lined up at the Barracks to sign into the Army, and make the Driftwood Division whole again.
 
Hey Jopa, can you respond to that pm I sent you while you were gone?
 
Take my two trade routes away from the Calabim. Send one to the Khazad and one to the Amurites (if they won't attack my ships this time...)
 
Does anybody realize how much of the world has changed over the last half-dozen turns? Go back and look at turn 10.

The first battle of Grindstone was just completed. The Kuriotates were by far the largest nation. The Hippus were little more than a half-dozen people crowded in a couple huts. The Sidhans were the Svartalfar, and hadn't even started their civil war. The southern islands were all unclaimed. The Amurite Civil War had just barely finished. The main conflict was over some simple slavery.


Look now. Grindstone is forgotten, and what was once a major atrocity is now seen as little more than a slap. The Kuriotates have been toppled as a world power, left with little more than an unstable rump state with no influence over their own nation. The Hippus are a true nation, controlling the vital center of Erebus. The Elves are reunited after their own civil war, and have created a colony-state of sorts. There are only a handful of unclaimed lands left, at the very edges of the world. The Amurites are arguably the strongest nation. Wars are commonplace, now...


It makes it easy to see why Kol says it's a new age, and Algeroth is writing prophetic speeches of doom. No longer can a nation stand by and ignore the rest of the world, thinking they are secure. It's a harsher Erebus, gentlemen. :mwaha:
 
I have to agree with your closing statement Orange.
I think most of us have started to invest much more heavily in our military lately; it remains to be seen if wars and strife will continue or if we can find peace again.
Junil save us all (except the Lanun :) )
 
Hey, what's up with that? I haven't even attacked you [yet]. Besides, I obey my own version of honor. It's not my fault that you follow it as well (or that you don't quite understand it). I've never knowingly lied, but I'm OK with misdirection; a person who's weak enough to attack is allowing himself to be attacked; a promise made is a promise kept, but not everyone agrees as to what's a "promise". In short, I'm a "neutral" in the FFH sense...
 
i was just joking with you- as i suspect you know :)
 
I think I will decrease the reliance on military to be considerred powerful in EkoNES. I want there to be other options that can be pursued.
 
I think I will decrease the reliance on military to be considerred powerful in EkoNES. I want there to be other options that can be pursued.

Remember, Erebus is dark and dangerous place. No man will live if he can't fight.

Even more dangerous that it is in this nes, actually.
 
@ Eko
I agree, such as Mercenaries and Allies, they should be bonuses of power for Diplomacy and Money, not military, based states.
 
Remember, Erebus is dark and dangerous place. No man will live if he can't fight.

Even more dangerous that it is in this nes, actually.

Of course, fighting will still be a very large part of it, and you'd be a fool not to have some kind of standing army.

@ Eko
I agree, such as Mercenaries and Allies, they should be bonuses of power for Diplomacy and Money, not military, based states.

Diplomacy and Money are very much interlinked with military. I haven't decided how I will do this yet so my lips are sealed. I have some vague ideas a-swirling though.
 
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