Mega Story II: The Unfreezing

Attacks on the Malakim

Groups of desert Orcs have begun to assault the Malakim position. While the numbers of the attackers are few so far, their numbers could quickly grow. No demands have been sent, which means this will likely be a battle to the death. The Malakim had better prepare their defenses or they could surely lose everything they had achieved.

Demon

Groups of walking skeletons and specters have been sighted near the Hippus, Ngomele, Kuriotate, Bannor, and Clan lands. Many believe that these groups are connected in a way, possibly controlled by a demon. These undead are surely a threat to exploration and possibly to further expansion.

Kraken

Several large creatures, resembling squid, have been sighted in the oceans. While not close to any cities at the moment, they could easily become hostile and attack. The Lanun and Grigori are the ones most at danger as most of their trade takes place over the seas, being island-bound nations. These creatures could bring in quite a profit if harvested correctly, but for the moment, the question is whether they will attack or not.

Rockslides

In the Khazad nation, large rockslides have endangered their workers and threaten to close down several of their mines, the source of their wealth. Their is no answer as to what caused these rockslides, but the Dwarf citizenry of the Khazad whisper of curses bestowed by other nations, the Gods punishing them for leaving their caves, or one of the many other explanations that have been given. The leader of the Khazad should be careful going forward to avoid anymore rockslides.​

 

The pact

Spoiler :

After a long journey first over the sea and then through land, a small group of Balseraph ballet dancers arrived to gothic-like black temple. This group was sent by Perpentach to investigate the cause of bright light that had flashed in the sky a while back. They were all young and agile females with their faces painted with snow white paint and they wore colorful clothing.
Lojlii, the commander of her ten ballet dancers eyed at the temple and then pointed his hand towards the temple. The group started moving towards it in an instant. She had gone through a harsh training like the others to become one of the ballet dancers. The training stripped one almost compleatly out of personal feelings untill there was nothing left but their deadly dance, almost as if they were always on stage. The king of Balseraphs himself had given Lojlii a special task to perform in the temple: A living being had to be sacraficed at the altar. If nothing else was found, she'd have to kill one of her own troops to carry out her king's orders. She had no problem with that.
They entered to a large hall which had taken damage over the time it had been abandoned: moss was growing on the walls and there were holes in the roof. Without these holes the temple would have been a very dark place. This was nothing like Balseraph buildings back in Hanube. Lojlii couldn't help feeling a bit uncomfortable in the darkness of the temple, someone was watching her from the darkness, atleast that's what she felt like. She could see that the others felt the same thing.
Suddenly they heard loud plonk from the nearby room. Lojlii nodded to that direction and the troops sprang into room. Lojlii followed her troops as the last one. The room she entered was a storage room with a lot of decomposing wooden boxes. She heard whispers behind the ones in the corner of the room.
"Look what ye did Kil, now they 'r 'ere ya fag!"
"It wasn't mi' idea to come here in the end Gomli!"
"Oh shat up ye two. We ain't goin' to walk away from 'em."
Then they rose behind the boxes with their hands up. They were three dwarves. Greedy treasure hunters that had come in search of gold from this temple. Lojlii stared at them with her emotionless gaze.
"Ya' can have all treasure lasses, we just came 'ere to do some sightseein'." The oldest dwarf said.
Lojlii turned to her troops.
"Leave the one with longest beard alive."
The dancers leaped towards them, spinned around with their blades in their hands like windmills. Their complex and unpredictable moves confused the two young dwarves and they were soon mortally wounded. The oldest one was disarmed by cutting his sword arm off. Ballet dancers lifted him up and started carrying him. Lojlii led them back to the hall and they started searching for the altar. The old dwarf kept screaming in pain.
"Ye' goin' to kill me for some dark god of yer? Ya' 'r doin' a terrible mistake 'ere! The demons ain't to be trusted! Yer' life as ya' know it will be over!"
None of the dancers paid attention to him.
The altar was harder to find than Lojlii thought. It wasn't in the ground floor so they descended to underground from the stairs they found. It was pitch black in there so a few torches were lit. The dwarf kept cursing his fate as they walked down the stairs and then through dark passages. Suddenly he had had enough. Unprepared dancers lost their grip on the dwarf as he struggled free with last of his strenght, grabed a dagger from his boot and sliced his own throat with the dagger in his left hand. His beard was colored with blood. Under it he had a slightly relieved face. Lojlii glanced at the corpse of the midget and then motioned her troops to keep going.
Finally they found the altar room. Strangely the room was lit with torches buring with bright red light. The altar was at the center of the room. Scarlet carpet ran over the altar to the door they came in from. As their sacrafice had just killed itself, Lojlii pointed at the dancer that was standing closest to altar and motioned her to go to altar.
"Lie down."
She did without questioning. Lojlii walked towards her, drew her wrist blade and stabed her own dancer to heart. She did not scream, but she had a terrified look as her life waned away. Lojlii noticed she was biting her lips. She slowly pulled the blade out of the chest, wiped a bit and turned to entrance of the room.
"We are done here." She said and walked out of the altar room, her dancers behind her.

 

[OOC] Its been quiet recently. cypher132 has disappeared. Should I try to carry this on without him, or what? I'm open to suggestions [/OOC]

Some people say the Gods are uncaring, that they've forgotten about us, but when I walk into the halls of Valledia, the grove of Thessa, the gardens of Ethne, and I feel the presence of all the souls that left us in the previous age, and all the souls that are yet to leave us, I can't help in wondering, and when I strum on my harp, and I let the pain and suffering out, I realize that the Gods haven't forgotten about us, they don't interfere to try and protect humanity. And, for that reason, all gods have good in them.

 

((OOC: Well, here's the Bannor Starting Story I posted on the disscussion thread. I made some minor edits, so it might be slightly different than the original one. I hope it's better now!))

I finally recieved the activation Email. Anyway, I'd like to play the Bannor, if you'd let me. Here is my starting story, I hope it's good:

Lord Commander Constans had returned to the palace of Warrior's Promise, so named because of his army's proclamation that as long as it stood, Mazrea will never be threathened by another period of suffering. He had been among the scholars at Eagle's Haven, debating on the properties of the white slab they found there. Shortly after, he had made a series of surprise inspections to the new mines in the northern mountains to see if decent production had begun yet. He followed that up by making several trips to the east in response to rumours of the Bannor's old capital, and the Holy of Holies where the Angel Sabathiel still waited to resume communion with them.

He had failed to find it. He came back to the palace with his retinue, hoping at least that the Council of Notables had kept order in his abscence. He hoped wrong. The forces in the west had encountered the Ngomele, a race of gnolls who had returned to savagery after Auric's reign, and the Kuriotates, who hadn't. In a move that he considered idiotic, the Council had started a series of skirmishes against both factions, culiminating in a battle for an iron city, which the Kuriotates won. They had been busy massing armies for a conquest of the west when he had returned.

"Foolishness! Rank foolishness!" After hearing the news, he had called together the Council and told them excatly what he tought of their doings.

"But, they were abdominations! And people who consorted with abdominations!"

"Did they worship demons? Toy with the borders between life and death? Attempted to bring another unnatural winter to Mazrea?"

"N-No, but..."

"Then they were not abdominations! Only people who do, or have done those deeds deserve that label."

The councilman who had argued with him slumped back in his seat, defeated.

"The mountains are rich with their own metals! There are fertile lands to the east and south lived on by no one except barbarians and greenskins! Why spend our strength on dedicated foes on the west, when we could be winning an empire that could save the world?"

The rest of the councilmen were now attentive, ready to recive orders from the greatest warrior since the Age of Rebirth.

"Envoys are to be sent to the Iron City. They will acknowledge it's conquest, and propose a treaty that would allow trade between our nations and free rein for them in the west. At the same time, send a force to the island just southwest of our city, and have them build fortifications in order to secure our position against the gnolls. The scholars at Eagle's Haven are to be both watched and encouraged to rediscover the secrets of magic and restore communion with Junil. We need to strengthen ourselves, we cannot be caught off-guard."

"We must have victory." He then left, black cloak trailing behind him.

 

Demonic presence appeared in Balseraph lands

Demons and other creatures from hell have appeared in southern Balseraph cities. They are helping Balseraph army in battle against constant orc attacks and instructing a few chosen people with demonic magic.
Chaos mana node uncovered

With the help of demons, a ancient node of chaos mana has been uncovered under hamlet of Jouska, near capital of Hanube. Full excavations are being performed and the ways to harvest this mana are researched.

(( Assuming that Cypher was planning something like this to happen when the pact was done. She could have thought of something else, but she's been away for pretty long time. ))

 

Prelude to Expansion.

The envoys were sent to the city of Lorda with a small escort of twelve men and women. They were instructed to avoid the Ngomele frontier, and to use stealth instead of force when dealing with threats. They also carried gifts, a robe of silk with an image of a silver lion on it, and a mirror gilded with mithril and encrusted with gems. They were one of the few items salvaged from the great Bannor Treasury as the ancient capital froze and the second Age of Ice set in.

The proposal that the envoys carried was as follows:

- The conquest of the Iron City by the Kuriotates will be recognized.

- Reparations for those killed in Bannor skirmishes are to be given to the families of the dead and wounded.

- A market and agricultural settlement is to be set up for purposes of trade in the grasslands northeast of the Iron City. Kuriotate troops are to be allowed there as well, but only in numbers sufficient for the safety of their traders.

- The great bay seperating their empires is to be the official frontier between the two nations. All west of it is to be the Kuriotate sphere of influence, all east the Bannor's. This part is open to renegotiation, if is too disadvantegeous for the Great King.

Lord Commander Constans considered it fair. He still wasn't certain about the prospect of peace, but it at least showed that he was willing to negotiate. He needed peace, or at minimum, mutual noninterference in order to pursue his goals toward the strengthening of the Bannor. The prescence of the skeletons and specters that had put an end to his last trip east had convinced him that the real danger was in that direction, even without the urgings of the prophet that had accompanied him on that expedition.

There is a Demon controlling the walking dead.

He had been in the final battle for the Deadlands, and was one of the last to leave when the enemy was finally defeated. He knew the machinations of the hellspawn, how to tell their moves and countermoves. Despite being out of practice for an entire age, he knew that he had to nip the threat of another feindish incursion. He had not come through more than more than a century of ice just to see the world ended by fire. He would not allow that.

Mazrea had to be saved. Never again would the Bannor fall before evil.

 

--- COMPLETELY OOC POST ---

We have a lot of players. And only a few post.
I know that there has been a lot of changes and downtime, and I apologize for my lack of updates for some time, but, if we want to keep this going, people need to be more active.

And, any views on what to do with this? Tempted to start a new MS to try and drag some new people in

 

Secret Journal of Lord Commander Constans, Date Unknown.

Edit: I accidentally pressed the 'Post' button instead of the 'Preview' one. Here's the rest of the Entry:

I remeber the days of the Overcouncil, when the nations of Old Mazrea stood together against the evil in the world. I remember the Deadlands, where the Elohim and the Amurites stood beside our army against great odds. The former were as good in defense as they were in diplomacy, if not better, with their monks always on hand to repel attacks on our camps, and their warriors ever ready to face overwhelming numbers with no fear in their hearts.

As for the Amurites, I was suspicious of them at first, but I knew that their magic was necessary if we were going to turn the tide. Fire to burn our enemies, Earth to build walls to replace what our enemies destroyed, Life to bring damage upon the Undead and Demons sent against us, and more to strengthen their friends and confound their enemies. Even Entropy, the sphere of Agares, was used against his servants to corrode the weapons of those Sheaim who have not been sufficiently corrupted by their dark masters.

Our armies were the best of the best, however. The story of Sabathiel and Capria's pilgrimage through the depths of Hell was recounted every night, reminding us that worse things than our ordeal do exist, and that if we falter, if we do not give our all to the fight against evil, they will come. We strengthened each other, doing things that would have been outside one person's reach. All of us fought with devotion, prayers on our lips as our swords swung. But we learned caution as well, as the enemy tried to lure us into manifold traps.

However, not even that was enough. It was only when the Cassiel of the Grigori made a pact of alliance with Capria that the tide began to turn, with a fleet under the Adventurer Panlupan taking an important fortress of the Infernals. My memories of what happened next are imperfect, but I remember the Scions of Patria and the Lanun under Falamar pledging themselves to the task of checking the Western Sheaim and the Infernals, and Flauros of the Calabim repenting of his ways and turning his nation towards good.

Brigit the Shining was freed, and she and the former warlord Jonas Endain established a new Nation called the 'redeemed' in the lands of the far east. A new spell was developed against the Legions of D'tesh, which would have helped to end their threat forever. Despite intrigues relating to the assasination of Flauros by his sister Alexis, there were only a few ominous notes of that time, few signs of danger that could have been averted with quick action.

Do I regret our failure to stop the Ascension of Auric Ulvin? Yes. Do I think that I should hold the days of the Latter Age of Rebirth in contempt, that I disregard the achievments of that period because of what happened out of our watch? No. I belive that we did well then, and that we could do better now. I will see Mazrea saved in this age, in this life, no matter how long it would take. Whatever the outcome of my negotiations with the Kuriotates, my armies will still march east, and may those who would destroy Mazrea reel at our strength1

((OOC: Something I just tought up today while waiting for either Zugvogel's response or a final desicion regarding the MS, whichever comes first.))

 

----- This thread, for all intents and purposes, is now dead. -----
The lack of activity, coupled with cypher132's inactivity, means that I have moved on to Legacy Of Erebus: The Rebirth. I hope to see some of you there.

 

Seeing as this has happened to every story attempt like this (MS, MS2, Mazera), I'm not too confident in this new one.

 

The first mega story was a major success, and only failed because some players got too powerful, and nobody could fit any other stories in doing anything

Trust me, I've learnt from these previous ones

 

I don't know that I'd call it a success when it devolved to a single person posting, because there were no true limits on what you could do and he'd developed too fast for the others.

 

I agree. I joined the first MS for a few posts, but dropped out pretty quickly when I couldn't keep up with the other posters. I have joined a FfH-themed NES with more structure and weekly updates, which is much more fun that the MS was. Rules and structure are a good thing.

(BTW, Immaculate is looking for one full player and one 'NPC type' player in the above NES, if anyone is interested.)

 

That is exactly why I'd been hopeful about Mazera; It was only dropped because Jemon had no internet for a while.

I had quite the story line planned out for me evil Khazad empire, too.

 

Damn, I would have joined that as well if I'd known about it earlier!

I would consider starting another one, I've got summer holidays starting end of this week, so loads and loads of free time, but I'm not sure how many people would join

 

Sorry, sorry. Ran into more personal problems than I expected, but hopefully, this new pill should work.

In essence, I sincerely apologize from the bottom of my heart. I'll try to make the world more interesting, but that requires recruitment and participation. Maybe send me PMs. You have a %75 percent of me answering. So if you know anyone interested, please let me know. Thank, and sorry once again.

P.S. What happened to the chat site?

 

Additional post, out of character.
I'm trying my best to keep this thing running, but my pills are still getting worked out. I'm trying my best, I promise. Just keep faith. You know stoners. When they have an idea, they stick with it for a while or two minutes.\

Any ideas about reconstructing this or just an idea, please PM me. And try not the be too crabby. I know, I'd be upset, too. Can't wait to hear from you.
Of course, you will be noted for your outstanding work

 

One more post.

Please help bring life back to this thread. I don't want my summer sniffles and my lack of internet for a few days killing the thread. I know you can help me, and to try to help, I'm going to post a Nightwatch report on the Nortek, their society, how they hunt, the creation of their weapons, an insight to Nortek religions, and most likely the Nortek style of kicking a nosey reporter out of a city. Hopefully, it'll inspire you at least a little bit.

 

Will be replaced with something better.

 

PM me your thoughts and complaints, but please, be civilized. Thank you,