Battle Royale

here they stood. The company – surprised and unarmed – was standing in the middle of the ballroom surrounded by palace guards and the elite soldiers from the three commanders, all armed with scimitars. The remaining guests in the ballroom were running around in panic looking for their closest exit. From one of the corners, a palace guard shouted: “They’re trying to take over control! Alaarrggghh”. Mulchanor looked towards the noise and saw the palace guard falling forward on the floor, a knife stuck at his back. Behind him, Mulchanor recognized the 2^nd officer in command of Captain Farsig. Farsig looked at him and gestured wildly, seeming to ask what on Magnamund he was thinking. His officer simply gestured back. It was clear to Mulchanor what he was trying to say: “I know it wasn’t planned, but we had the opportunity. Now GO FOR IT!”.

Meanwhile at the table of the three commanders, Sintar and Qwidas looked at each other and nodded towards each other. Commander Sintar spoke: “Divided we fall!” Qwidas answered: “Together we stand!” while they both looked towards Commander Shanxi. Captain Farsig then turned towards Erleothir: “On whose side are you on?” Erleothir was visibly surprised by this question and not knowing what else to say, he replied: “euh….on your side”, however it was more a question than an answer.

Several palace guards who were outside the room heard the noise and ran inside. Yesnarel tried to use his powers to detect evil, but this failed because of the chaos around him. Rameldin was very keen and decided to hide under the table. Mulchanor shouted: “Get out! We’ll talk later. This is not our fight! GET OUT!”, but Draug did not listen. He grabbed his hand on the table next to him and picked the first thing that crossed his fingers. He was already moving towards the palace guard behind Captain Farsig, before he realized he took a simple fork. Skillfully as a knight, he placed the fork in the eye of the palace guard and thus saved Farsig’s life. Captain Farsig looked at the rest of the company until his eyes met the young knight and said: “Good job”. Then he suddenly saw the handkerchief that Draug was wearing, depicting a ship on a blue background. Captain Farsig gestured a thumb up towards Commander Sintar. It seemed to Draug that Farsig was conspiracing together with Sintar and now had the help of the company.

Commander Shanxi was waving his hands in preparation of a spell, but was interrupted by Qwidas. His hands then touched the table which immediately caught fire in the process. Erleothir ran up to the buffet table and picked a shashlik skewer. Yesnarel turned towards Farsig and replied: “Has it all started a bit too early?” but Captain Farsig did not answer that. From underneath the table, Rameldin picked a shuriken and prepared to throw it to any guard that comes to close. Mulchanor, who actually did not intend to mingle in what seems to be not their fight, noticed that his fellow companions did not share his opinion. He picked one of his throwing axes and hit a palace guard with it. Draug decided to leave the fork in the eye of the dead guard and picked his scimitar instead. After he was equipped with a real weapon, the sound of bells in the tower of the palace was heard. The alarm sounded!

Erleothir lured a palace guard to attack him, but while the guard was coming towards him, Erleothir made a quick step forward and pierced the skewer through his armor. The guard fell on the floor with a deadly wound and Erleothir took the scimitar from the dying guard. Yesnarel saw Rameldin and throws himself on top of her. “Have no fear. I will protect you!” but Rameldin was not interested to be protected by the magician. She bumped him to the table and tried to crawl away, but Yesnarel grabbed her ankles and pulled her back.

Shanxi decided it would be best for him to leave this chaos and he escaped through the door behind him. Commander Qwidas saw how Shanxi escaped and decided also to make a run for it, shortly followed by an elite guard in blue outfit. Many guests were also screaming and running outside, but it did not turn out that the room got less crowded. Instead more palace guards rushed into the ballroom in response to the alarm bells. Mulchanor and Draug killed another guard and Mulchanor took his throwing axe back together with a scimitar.

Meanwhile under the table, Rameldin has her Shuriken ready to join the fight, but she is hindered by Yesnarel. Their quarrel drew the attention of a nearby palace guard who then kicked the table away. Yesnarel and Rameldin were now out in the open. Rameldin saw her chance and threw the Shuriken to the guard’s forehead. Rameldin, now eager to kill even more guards, wanted to get up, but then heard a cry from Captain Farsig. “DUCK!”. Several palace guards were standing at the entrance with their crossbows ready to fire and kill everybody in the room. The whole company quickly dropped to the floor, except for Erleothir, who looked up and simply asked: “What duck?” The knight got hit by a bolt, but his armor saved him from worse. Also Draug was not fast enough with his heavy armor and got hit by a bolt as well. The rain of bolts hit all remaining palace guards and they were now either dead or dying.

Captain Farsig gestured that everybody should come and hide behind the Buffet. From the buffet, they have an entrance outside towards the balcony of the castle. The Hazardous Company together with Captain Farsig and Commander Sintar made it behind the buffet and were now at the balcony door, while the guards were preparing their crossbows for the next attack. Erleothir had an idea and gestured Draug to help him. They took the ice sculpture and tried to throw it towards the guards. Of course the Ice sculpture was way too heavy for the 2 knights. Sintar and Farsig looked in disbelief towards them, but were even more astonished when the sculpture moved and slided towards the group hindering some of the guards. “Desperate situations ask for desperate measures.”, said Erleothir to no one in particular.

Rameldin used the situation to shout at Yesnarel what he was thinking by interrupting her actions. She went on and on until Yesnarel decided to use a silence spell on her. However this backfired and Yesnarel turned silent himself, not being able to defend himself anymore to the ongoing ranting of Rameldin. Mulchanor decided to loot the nearby guards and picked up another weapon. After his action with the ice sculpture, Erleothir bumped the table just in the nick of time. Another round of bolts were fired by the guards, but only the table was hit.

Behind them, on the balcony, a loud *CLUNK* could be heard. The room turned dark as a shadow went through the room. The group looked and saw three Ithikars above them. On one of the flying creatures was a little fight going on followed by the fall and death of a guard in green clothes. “With the compliments of Commander Qwidas”, they heard one of the riders saying and now they recognized that is was the 2^nd officer in command of Captain Farsig.

Erleothir shouted “Come on! Get outside!” while moving on. However, Rameldin was not paying attention as she was still confronting Yesnarel and thus Erleothir bumped into Rameldin and both fell on the floor. She shouted: “Is nobody capable to do something useful?”

There was no time for the Ithikars to land on the balcony, so the group had to run and jump on 1 of the Ithikars while they were flying low on the balcony. The group ran outside and Yesnarel was going for the first Ithikar, but failed. Mulchanor on the other hand was fast enough on his dwarven legs and jumped succesfully. Yesnarel noticed how the dwarf made it without a problem and tried to jump on the first Ithikar…again - and failed….again. While Captain Farsig jumped on the second one, Rameldin said: “I don’t need you guys!” and ran also towards the 2^nd Ithikar and made it without a problem. Yesnarel followed her then onto the 2^nd Ithikar, since the first one was already out of reach and was successful this time. Although it appeared that Yesnarel was not too happy, since he was still silenced and Rameldin did not intend to stay silent.

Draug and Erleothir were still behind as they were defending the group from the remaining palace guards. The palace guards were getting closer and closer and Draug got hit by a bolt.More bells are ringing in the city and archers from the palace guards can now be seen on the roof. While Draug killed a guard, he shouted to Erleothir to run and go for the 3^rd Ithikar. Erleothir made it up and shouted to Draug to come as well, but he saw that he was possibly already out of reach. This was the last Ithikar. If he would fail to jump onto it, Draug would be doomed. Erleothir reached out his hand towards Draug, trying to help him. However he leaned too far and fell on the balcony. This would have been the end of the 2 knights, but Yesnarel used a “freeze flight”-spell on the Ithikar so the knights would have some extra seconds to get onto it.

From the rooftop, the guards are shooting with fire arrows putting the rooftop on fire. Time was running out and they had to act quickly now. Draug helped Erleothir up again onto the Ithikar and was ready to follow him. Then suddenly he was taken from behind by a palace guard who was holding a knife to his throat. Now safe on the Ithikar, Erleothir raised his scimitar and killed the guard behind Draug. Draug jumped up just before the “freeze flight” spell finished.

Everybody was now safe on 1 of the flying creatures. Mulchanor and Erleothir started searching for their skyship, but saw that it was gone. The bells were ringing in the palace and soon after the bells all over the city could be heard. Below them, people were screaming, the city was on fire.

Revolution had started.