The Great Gate [POST HERE FIRST]

Roy walked down the road, looking up at the huge, imposing doors. He hadn't wanted to come here. If he had a choice, he would have stayed far, far away. Still, he'd gotten lost, and didn't want to spend another night on the road sleeping under a bush. If he were to get back to Gauldin, he'd need directions, and this seemed like a place to get those. He did wish that it were less scary-looking, though. Trembling, he walked through the massive gates and into the Steelscape.

Two guards would look up and give a glance over of Asthor and the two men with him. One was an ogre while the other was a goblin. The ogre seemed rather baffled by the question, not being the brightest creature, but the goblin would respond to Asthor swiftly.

“From another nation you are? Well then, use the portal directly behind me, it will take you to one of the Sorrowful Spire’s entrances.”

The goblin would point a bony finger to a deep purple colored purple behind him, it stood about twenty feet high and fifteen feet wide. Numerous creatures were passing in and out of it as they spoke.

“Although you’ll need to get authorization at the entrance to the Spire, if you are who you say you are they’ll likely let you in.”

Author and the two taller guards went out of the gate to find the other guard and the horses. Suddenly that guard was spotted,laying face down in the dirt. Worried Asthor ran up to the limp body and turned him over while wondering what had happened to him. The guard was immediately placed on a horse as the rest of he group climbed on one themselves."WE GOT TO GO AND FIND A CITY TO GO INTO FIR HELP," Asthor screamed.

<Enter from Exchange>

Jun hopped through the Great Exchange portal and looked around to see if there were any other places she wanted to check out before she left. She was very curious about this 'Equinox Industries' people kept talking about. If they were such a big organization why hadn't she heard of them before?

She sighed. The world was too big sometimes. She decided to make for the stone doors, where she would immediately take flight towards the Black Tower.

"What the- BEL NAL KUHN!" As soon as Jun sensed a random gathering of mana above her head, she draw out Resonance and swing it around. After casting her spell, a bubble of light energy would materialize around her. The spell would protect her against the gust of wind and the lightning bolts, but it would also make it impossible to fly using traditional aerodynamics. Poor Blackbean and Jun would get jostled around inside the bubble. "Sorry! Ah jeez!" (Jun would probably accidentally poke herself trying not to poke Blackbean with her sword.) 

The bubble would rapidly speed towards the forest below, mostly because Jun did not want to expend too much energy maintaining the bubble, which was still being beaten by spells. It was a controlled fall, but when they landed Jun and Blackbean would still come tumbling out of it, rolling onto the forest floor.

They would both recover just fine, although Jun would have a mouthful of feathers to spit out. Pheh, ptuh puh.

Jun wiped her mouth just in time to see the orcs rushing her from the top of the hill. As soon as she saw them she instinctively gathered a fair, but not excessive, amount of psionic energy from her body and channeled it into Resonance. With a wave, the energy shot at the orc's feet and stuck to it. With a thrust of her sword forward, the orcs would trip and fall forward with a heavy crash.

As soon as they made it down the hill far enough, the mages would gain their line of sight against Jun and her mount. With a sneer, Jun raised her sword and dragged the orcs into the air by their feet, using them as a shield against the initial acrid green spell.

"Blackbean, go!" She cried. The giant crow would fly off into the trees and make a wide circle, as if he wanted to try to flank the mages in about 30 seconds.

Luckily for Jun, her adventures with Vaelar, Jill, and the Sun Marshalls had given her some experience in melee combat. Jun would be able to leap forward and to the side, ducking and rolling out of the way of the so readily telegraphed slash. As she recovered she pulled out her shield, a rather simple steel buckler with a special little blue gem, which she obtained from helping Koren Quinn in the Expanse.

Presumably by being so close to the lumbering orc, she was once again out of line of sight of his comrades' knives and the mages.

Jun would stand up and call upon the enchantment immediately. The gem would glow a bright cyan and a violent surge of water would spring forth. A veritable river would writhe and whip around the air in front of her. It would lash at the orc's faces, and tendrils of water would also surge forth towards the other orc's mouths and necks. The idea was to suffocate them. The unfortunate consequence of this was when the lightning bolts struck, the water would conduct the electricity along its path, electrocuting the orcs.

Jun had one last enchantment. Her helm, made from one of Lum'Valia's scales, would serve to block exactly one spell. The residual electricity from the spell would fall harmlessly around her.

Meanwhile, Blackbean was speeding through the forest, waiting for a safe time to strike.

The steaming acid would prove little challenge. Jun glared at the mages. She would end this now.

Jun rotated her torso, pulling her sword to her side and her shield to her front. Then there was a flash of light. Jun would no longer be at her present position. Instead she would appeared right behind the backs of the mages with a loud electrical crack. "GOTCHA- oh."

She would have slammed her buckler into the back of one of the mage's heads, and them thrust her sword into one of their backs. But all her weapons met was air and smoke. At the same time Blackbean would have struck from behind, attacking the third mage. But instead he paused and flapped his wings just before making it to their position, helping to clear the smoke away.

Jun's heart was beating a mile a minute. She wiped the sweat from her brow. "Sorry... Resonance... I know you don't like it... when I kill... things..." She stared at the giant orc corpses. "Damn."

***

There was no sense in wasting perfectly good orc armor. She decided she would take their belongings and bring them back to Steelscape, after burying their bodies. The process wouldn't take long. She'd use light constructs to create large shovels to help her dig. She'd bring their belongings back by creating a light construct sphere and towing them through the sky while she flew on Blackbean's back. Of course she'd examine them first.

A little note would be attached with their belongings:

I didn't want to kill them, but I will if I have to. Send twice as many or don't send any at all.

There was a storm brewing outside of the great gate, heavy winds laced with piercing lances of cold rain battering the landscape. The trees flailed as if possessed by some wild spirit in the heavy gusts.

Out of these animated woods and into the clearing directly in front of the gate would emerge a hulking armored figure. The armored figure would be barely visible in the stormy night with his dark armor, and completely silent in his approach as clanking armored footsteps were concealed by winds and bolts of rolling thunder. Occasionally, however, lightning would flash across the night sky, illuminating the clearing and the monolithic figure, each flash making it appear closer. 

Eventually Damtion would lumber his way up to the gate, and if no one was there to stop him, he would walk right through the portal at the same steady and unyielding pace he always moved, even during the storm.