Power Awakens

As Fraykus moved away from the Archduke, a commotion with the Royal Guards behind him caused him to turn. “What is it Jonsin?” growled the Archduke.

Jonsin, and what looked like a member of the Bruk Northern Lancers considering his uniform, hurried over to the Archduke. “My lord, this is Carl, he’s from Quotient five of the Northern Lancers on tour duty in the Northwest. He has come with an incredible tale, or a terrifying truth, I have sent Wesley to find out which, Wesley has apparently seen a picture of one of the creatures Carl describes when he was serving in Mank.” Jonsin was talking in riddles in his haste to tell his over lord what he himself could hardly believe.

“What is it Carl” asked the Archduke distractedly.

“Sir, incredible as this seems, a Demolt is heading straight for Bowltown, it has already killed twenty of our men and over forty civilians, when it reaches here it will cause devastation,” replied Carl.

“A Demolt” repeated the Archduke incredulous, “I’ve heard of them, they were all killed in the War of Attrition over five hundred years ago, they were supposed to be indestructible but some Majee or other managed to kill them, at least that’s what I thought. Fraykus!” the Archduke shouted, “Over here, we need to speak, now!“

Fraykus walked back to the Archduke, a little more sprightly than when he left his side a few moments earlier. “What do you know of Demolt’s, Fraykus?”

“A precious little my Lord, they were virtually indestructible, extremely tough, and even if you managed to damage one they regenerated at an incredible speed, but they are all dead, extinct in the War of.”

“Yes, Fraykus” cut in the Archduke, “I know all this, but how do you kill one”

“I” Fraykus was interrupted by the arrival of Wesley and Petrek, Captain of the Guard.

“Wesley I assume, hello Petrek, timely arrival,” said the Archduke.

“Thank you my Lord” replied Petrek.

“Petrek, I am sending your boy to the keep with his friends and my daughter, there is much we need to discuss but now we have more pressing matters it seems,” interrupted the Archduke, ”When this current incident with an apparent Demolt is over we need to talk about your son’s future.”

“Demolt” exclaimed Petrek, “What Demolt, I’ve read about them and seen a picture of one once, thought they were dead?”

“Yes Petrek we all did, apparently young … Wesley is it, was just about to confirm what he has seen destroying my countryside.”

“Sir ... I mean my Lord ... Sir” stumbled Wesley, “Its true, there is a Demolt, its about thirty minutes ride away full gallop, but its only moving slowly, the Northern Lancers have it engaged, but it seems to be ignoring them and killing them every time one gets in its way, its enormous, as big as a small house, but it moves slowly, a man could probably outrun it, but I’m not sure, its exactly the same as the one pictured in Mank”

“Thanks Wesley, you can return to your unit now, I’ve heard enough that we need to act,” replied the Archduke. “Carl, from what I know of this creature, it is pointless engaging it in the open, tell your Captain to meet me here in my keep and we can discuss tactics on how to deal with it. Petrek gather your men, see if you can delay it, don’t endanger the men unnecessarily, once you have given your men their orders, meet me in the library of the keep, Fraykus come with me, bring my daughter and the boys, this is a strange day and I want to discuss this Nexii issue with you as well as the Demolt, I can’t help but think there is some connection.” The Archduke finished more to himself. He looked around to see everyone still staring at him. “Well don’t just stand there,” he bellowed, “get to it!”

Within ten minutes the strange collection of individuals had gathered in the Keeps Library, including a very dusty and weary Svelte, who introduced himself to the Archduke.

The Archduke opened up the discussion as he turned to Svelte and said “Captain, how far away is it now?”

“About ten minutes from the outer wall” replied Svelte.

Bowltown had six span high, two span thick outer walls, surrounding the majority of the buildings in the town. As the town had grown the number of dwellings outside the main wall had increased to about two thousand, with thousands more dotted around the surrounding suburbs, inside the wall and at the centre of town was a twenty span high fortified keep, where the Nobles, some privileged Rich and the Archduke lived. This also held the main barracks which housed the Archdukes personal guard of fifty men and four Quotients of the Northwest Mank Royal Infantry, better known as the Royal Guard, which befitted a town the size of Bowltown.

The keep was sufficiently big enough to hold up to four thousand people at a push, ten thousand at a crush, but this could not be sustained for long. Usually, there were three Captains and one Sub-Lieutenant in charge of the Royal Guard, but for the last two months, Petrek had been in charge as the Sub-Lieutenant had been in Mank arranging for two newly commissioned Captain’s to be assigned, as this was a time of relative peace the Mank High Command was taking its time assigning these new commissions.

“This is not good, ten minutes, how long will the wall stop it?” asked Petrek

“From what I saw in IronMast, nothing will stop it for long, what it doesn’t climb over, it destroys, that thing is from hell. Its unbelievably strong, it can crush stone, I’ve seen it, and you don’t want to know what it does to humans.” Svelte grimaced “I don’t know how we can stop it, our spears and swords hardly made a dent, when they did it seemed to heal itself in the blink of an eye, I swear I cut one of its digits off its right. …Hand or claw whatever it is, but within a few heartbeats it had grown back. How do you fight that, it almost seemed to ignore us. We tried to stop the monster, it just crushed us, crushed us as if we were nothing. I can’t help here, I can’t think of anything that’s going to stop the thing, sorry Petrek, my Lord, I’ve used all of my ideas between IronMast and here, and they had no effect, maybe if we knew what it was looking for, I just don’t know.”

“Ok, don’t let’s fail before we start, Petrek, Fraykus do you have any ideas” asked the Archduke,

“I read that once in the War Of Attrition, a brave Warrior had been crushed but as a Demolt stepped over him he managed to pieced its belly which stopped it dead in its tracks, I don’t think it killed it, but it managed to stop it, anything else I read about said it was an unstoppable killing machine” replied Petrek “Fraykus, what about you?”

“Nothing useful my Lord, I have also read about the beast and I agree with Petrek, though I think it a freak accident that anything survived to get underneath it, I can hit it with Logain’s Fire, that may damage it, I could draw enough for two attempts, after that I’ll be too drained for another shot”

With a determined set the Archduke looked his Captains and Fraykus in the eye, “Its all we’ve got, clear the area we think its going to hit first, Fraykus can hit it with a burst of Logain’s Fire, though I think that is highly dangerous as I’ve seen that used once before in a battle with the Morrs, it can go deadly wrong, but its all we have, Petrek pick three of your strongest men, when the fire hits keep them at least twenty paces back, then run in and hit in the underside with heavy lances, use the rest of the men to distract it, Logan’s Fire should rock it back on its hind legs and expose its underside, Svelte, can you keep a Quad of your men in reserve, you know the speed of the creature, if it gets past, then Fraykus can hit it again, and then its your turn, Jonin, work with Petrek’s men to hit it with our biggest Ballistae, lets see if we can damage it that way, if we knew where it would strike we could set up a better defensive barrier.”

The Archduke was remembering his days as a Major General in the Royals and his crushing defeat of the Morrs, realized that if half of what he knew about a Demolt was true, then Bowltown just didn’t have what it takes to destroy it, if this ploy didn’t work, then he had nothing more to give, he was trying to show leadership to his men, but he was truly worried, his confidence was for show, inside he was nervous about his decisions in case they were the wrong ones.

Svelte looked at the Archduke, “My Lord, I can resolve one of your problems, as to where it will hit, that is a simple problem to resolve, as far as the eye can see, there is an almost perfect straight line of destruction and death, the Demolt is heading directly for the centre of town, possibly to this room”

With a worried frown the Archduke turned and began to march from the room.

“You have your orders men, boys, Taegan stay here with me”, inside he was now terrified, had the Demolt been sent to destroy him, if so why, as a man of power he had some enemies, but none that could command something like a Demolt, he had to stop it.