Polar Dawn - Battleforge Fanfiction; Chapter 2 UP!
Posted: 2010-07-11 12:49pm
Aye, so I was hoping to hone me writing skills on a game I've taken a liking to, but after 150+ views, the only thing I got was a tl;dr, so I posted here. The prime thingy I need is feedback. There be a coupla things I need to improve.
Battleforge is a (theoretically) free game, MMOTCRTSG. That is, a Massively Multiplayer Online Trading Card Real Time Strategy Game. You can download the full game for free, but to get anywhere really fast, you'll need to shell out money for BFP. It's one of those buy points and spend them in the shop deals.
Main site's http://www.battleforge.com/
Not an amazing game, but I like it. Rich universe.
It's got kinda a jumbled, messed up, confusing backstory, but I'm hoping to flesh it out for a bit.
Mostly, I want advice on stretchying things out. Like, describing landscapes, setting scenes, expressing character emotions.
Any help in fantasy writing realism is also win, yes, I see the oxymoron. And general good writing tips and tricks.
Also, I really need help getting out of the whole Said Bookism mentality, in which I try to be deep and avoid the word 'said' at any cost. srsly, noticed it now. Need halp.
I'mma cite my prime inspiration right 'ere: Peptuck. I just had to do it. Read through Tiberium Wars, and I was all "I FUCKING WANT THAT!". Imitation is the sincerest for of flattery, aye?
So the plan was to run the entire singleplayer campaign, stretchy it out. It's all of 10 missions, since other campaigns are co-op. Like Peptuck. But with dragons.
I'll give you a summary of the game story; you play as a Skylord, an immortal guardian of the gods. You've been chilling out in the Forge of Creation for the last couple dozen generations.
The Forge of Creation being a place that can create just about anything. 2 rules.
Only the dreams of mortals; myths and such can be made. Second, it needs a link to the 'elemental forces world-magic'. I don't geddit either.
Then something went wrong, the gods disappeared along with the sun.
Yeah. That Sun. So the people flee into the giant's caves, wherein the giants hide after getting pasted in a bigass war against the people earlier. They make a deal with the Giants. A helluva lotta riches in exchange for making a new sun and throwing it into the sky. (stay with me, here)
It's done. A year or a bit more later, people emerge to find a Twilight curse has afflicted everything. Twisted it. It works for the Twilight now.
So now half of the Skylords are trying to find the gods, the other half are just in the mood for helping the mortals out. It's an internal conflict, but doesn't ever come to blows.
That's the short version. Cluttered, confusing, incomplete, yes. But plenty of room for fanfic writers like me to spin our shit.
NOTE: I'm planning a complete rewrite, it's not a lot, but still. In this rewrite, I'll abandon the whole 'roll with what happens in game' and just roll onto big battles, characterisation and stuff. At this rate, we'll rarely see anything big and scary open up on the battlefields.
The idea's to drop the 'squads, platoons' crap and role with more traditional, fantasy medieval type army units 'stead. I can rationalise resourcing and getting new troops elsewhere. Tell me what you feel.
It'd be 'ere, a colossal work in progress.
DISCLAIMER: Battleforge itself belongs to EA and Phenomic, I am using this for non-profitable, recreational purposes only. All rights go to their original creators.
This fic peers into the lives of the people being wasted and their thoughts on the matter of a war and getting pounded by Rhino-lizard-Olympic weightlifter crossbreeds.
The story runs mostly through the Lyrish Reaches campaign and parts of Mo, 1 player only campaigns. I'm playing with a Frost deck 'ere.
Further Author's notes will be posted here and at ends of chapters.
_/\/\/\/\/\_
PROLOGUE - REBIRTH
Valerian Albanis held his head. They told him imprinting would be uncomfortable. They lied.
It was bloody excruciating.
He'd just had the experience, memories and personality of a veteran Northguard pounded into his head and it hurt.
"Steady yourself, rise slowly," spoke a soothing, almost ethereal male voice.
Valerian obeyed and felt a respite in the pounding.
"Right. Anything I need to know?", he spoke through clenched jaws.
"The Skylords are at war. A Twilight Curse has spread during the Sun's death and all afflicted have become mad, bloodthirsty creatures", recounted the voice in a wistful manner.
He opened his eyes now and found himself in an infirmary of sorts. Taking the time to examine his surroundings, he noted the unusual devices and cabinets of potions and elixirs stacked high in the small room. The only notable thing was a large window which took an entire wall.
The view was stunning. Blue skies above and a great cloud cover to the land below, with a few choice openings in between. Great flying creatures patrolled in formations and guarded the Forge of Creation.
The Forge of Creation. Nice.
The voice had not spoken during the pause.
"What does that mean for me?", asked the Northguard. The pounding in his head had suddenly returned, upon putting the voice's words through some thought.
"You and your century will spearhead the first assault and make contact with a band of refugees.", the voice responded. It didn't seem to note the sarcasm.
"Am I back in the army?"
"Affirmative. Your gear is checked in at the armoury. Mission briefing is in 2 hours. Deployment in 4."
"Ay, hyessou."
_/\/\/\/\/\_
Prologue. The first of a probable many characters you get to know. The primary goal of this story is to make my upgrade grinding less boring, as mentioned above. The secondary goals are to improve writing skills and show a different world to the one you experience.
The rewrite did plenty. I'm abandoning the modern organisation completely and hitting off with older formations and tactics.
I'm basing the Frost armies offa ancient Latin, Greek and a bit of Medieval England. Gonna butcher the fun bits and put 'em to use. Juste, troopes I write doth not spake like morones.
They're a grim, determined bunch. Disciplined and well-drilled troops. Formations and such. Well suited to battle.
"ay, hyessou"? Go pick up a Greek dictionary.
This is gonna be fun.
Please read and review.
_/\/\/\/\/\_
CHAPTER ONE - FEAR FACTOR
The Forge of Creation's Staging Area 4 was an enormity. Like the other staging areas, it was a magnificent sprawl, dozens of entrances and exits to the rest of the Forge and briefing areas. Unlike the other staging areas, it was kept at a relatively cold 8 Degrees Celsius.
Staging Area 4 was dedicated to the Frost Corps of the God's Armies.
The massive central plaza and shimmering teleporter were the main attractions, however. Towering Constructs stood awaiting maintenance and the Battleships lay moored to the sides, their crews hurrying about to prepare for the oncoming storm.
Valerian stood at one of the many briefing room exits and peered on like a giddy child. Never in his lifetime had he seen such a mobilisation. He'd never even seen a Construct up close. Occasionally, he'd feel the footsteps of one or something on the floor above, but never knowing exactly what patrolled the halls.
The excitement had even managed to dull the weighty feeling of his hammer and armour somewhat.
The teleporter, a gigantic ring of segmented, floating stones, each with hundreds of Amii glyphs carved onto it, stood ominously at the end of the wall, taking up most of it and easily dwarfing anything in the room. A small, glowing orb floated at the centre, ready to expand, flatten and provide a much needed gate to the rest of the world.
He put his mind back on track and thought to the briefing.
He and his century of 100 men would lead an attack and claim the first monuments and power wells needed to allow proper mobilisation. He would be recalled once the monument at an Amii gate was captured. Lyrish locals would provide some aid and need support against the Twilight. The battlefield was a one way trip, ending at an old burial mound and snaking through valleys. The valleys would be all he needed to care about.
Valerian was part of something bigger, now. Every operation in the war against the Twilight would be launched by his century. Sounds like a lot. Isn't. His century would be recalled the moment the first Monument and enough Power Wells were taken to make way for the Phalanx and Rangers who would carry the battle onward from there.
If this war ever ended, he'd be at the head of one of the most experienced units ever conceived.
Valerian felt an anxiety making its way through his mind. This Twilight curse had never been seen before, so not even the Skylords had an idea as to what they were walking into.
A Skylord by the name of Tarsus would command him and the rest of the army through this.
"Whaddya think these Twilight guys look like? The name's a bit vague on descriptions," piped the young centurion, "like, maybe...Shadow dudes with red eyes?"
Centurion Xander Kallis. 3rd Century, 1st Cohort. Arrogant, disrespectful, headstrong. Like any 'master' Archer. Has he not figured out he's not even an archer, but a crossbowman yet?
Arrogance justifiable. They definitely shot straight. Ice tipped, lead cored bolts were rather simple to use. The ice shattered on impact, fragmenting and tearing flesh while the pointed lead core drove itself into the wound like a traditional bolt and began poisoning the target slightly. Their only disadvantage was offset by the Forge's incredible manufacturing abilities. Crossbow ammunition was child's play for something that could construct entire armies in mere months.
The teleporter flared and the single, white orb spread itself across the whole circle. Lightning arced from the edges to it and a vague, flowing image of the destination shone through.
"Northern Steel, Sharpshooters! We strike the first blow in the war against the Twilight curse! Assault drop into action begins in 30 seconds!", Valerian shouted above the din of the staging area and the noise seemed to die down a bit.
"30 seconds!", the whole century repeated.
Valerian looked on and saw the focus of the portal image become more clear. The view pointed to the ground below and he noted a strange, golden brown pyramid. An unfortunate side effect of teleporter scrying magic was that the view had to point at the destination. If he used it to get a look at the enemy and jumped in, he'd probably find himself 'falling' toward a valley wall.
"15 seconds! Load and lock!", belted Kallis. A cacophony of clicking and chattering resulted from the Archers coaxing whatever dramatic noises they could from their bo- crossbows.
Valerian and the other 80 members of 1st Century stepped onto the platform in front of the teleporter. Each man doing a very hasty final check of their armour and hammers.
"5 seconds! Prepare to drop!"
"4!"
"3!"
"2!"
"1!"
_///\\\_
The world turned white, faded and Valerian looked ahead. Movement in the distance, some kind of creature was fighting off humans.
Then he registered a peculiar breeze from the bottom.
Valerian looked down, the large front of his armour limiting his field of view to the essentials.
That ground was coming up to him way to fast.
Wet slush formed just in time to soften his landing, but the fall from a good two storeys in the air was only degraded from 'bone breaking' to 'this is gonna suck tomorrow morning'. The padding in his armour did its job and most likely only left him with a nasty bruise. He'd need to have a word with the Skylords about this.
The grunts of surprise of pain from behind him echoed his sentiment.
The century gathered into formation at once. A solid mass. Better equipped soldiers up front and everyone else in further ranks.
The men heard a pop, saw a flash and looked up in unison.
The 60 men of 3rd Century fell from the sky several dozen meters away from the 1st.
"Hyessou!"
"Crap!"
"Ow! That bites!"
Valerian grinned and suddenly had reason to believe he might enjoy this tour.
"1st Century, form up! I hear a battle up ahead! If it's got more body heat than 'ball-numbing-puberty-negating cold', hit it until it drops!"
A roused cheer mixed into some chuckles rose from the still recovering force.
The group took a steady jog away from the deployment area, Archers leading and to scout and unload first.
"Sarge! Large opposition...thing...", Kallis trailed off, unable to finish his sentence and slowed down to more of a 'you-go-first-I'll-be-behind-you-using-you-as-a-shield' brisk walking speed.
It took a lot to get Xander to shut up and Valerian soon found out why.
Some 70 meters ahead, were 4 monstrosities. A gleaming gold and deep blue beast with huge pincers and a hideous, pointed face. It's form was that of some kind of crustacean. A giant lobster gone horribly wrong. The thing was merrily swatting away at the beleaguered Lyrish Northguard who were still emerging from their caves.
"Archers! Open fire!"
A distinct, deep clunk was heard and the first 40 bolts went ahead, briefly followed by the other 20 or so. Valerian charged, knowing the men would follow with him.
Dozens of the bolts that crashed into the beasts did none more than scratch itheir hard carapace. The rest more went long and flew elsewhere, ploughed into grass or canyon walls. The last few drove into unprotected joints and other nooks and crannies in the armour and the monsters screeched, finally recognising the threat.
They turned over to face the new arrivals some grimacing on their grotesque faces, others howling at the troops.
There was plenty of room in this brawl for more. Valerian and his Northguards took up the call, turned their hammers around so the spiked end faced the beast and began smashing away at them. Using the hammers as a two-handed weapon brought much more punch. The Northguards had not unstrapped their shields from their backs so as to prevent friendly fire incidents.
Valerian could only reach it's legs and worked with what he had, most of the carapace had been chipped away below legs and he took aim with a mighty blow. The spike flew deep into the monster's knee and the beast screamed ever louder, falling to one knee.
A second salvo of bolts flew into it. This wave was better aimed and lacerated it's already worn arm, though many of them still bounced off without incident.
The monster came to face Valerian now and roared in his face. Valerian responded in kind with a great strike to the creature's twisted face.
It slammed it's useful arm into Valerian and he recoiled from the blow. While badly wounded, it still fought hard.
The Lyrish guard for on, slamming at the weaker armour behind their legs and bringing them closer to their ends.
The monsters prepared for another blow and was stopped cold by the third salvo. Multiple bolts flew home and found themselves embedded in heads and joints. The creatures fell one at a time, each more quickly than the last and nearly flattening soldiers on the way down.
A resounding cheer went out from the refugees and a man stepped forth, armoured in studded leather and carrying a wicked two-handed war scythe, presumably the leader.
Valerian introduced himself, "I am Valerian Albanis. 1st Century, 1st Cohort of the Forge's Liberators. We got your call for aid."
"I am Rogan Kayle. Leader of this band."
_/\/\/\/\/\_
Whew! End chapter One and we haven't gotten past the first 5 or so minutes in the game.
Hehe, "stopped cold"
I'm not that good at writing fight scenes, so feedback is welcome.
If you have any questions, stick 'em in the thread and I'll answer them some time. As per usual, read, review and tell me if you find something wrong.
Battleforge is a (theoretically) free game, MMOTCRTSG. That is, a Massively Multiplayer Online Trading Card Real Time Strategy Game. You can download the full game for free, but to get anywhere really fast, you'll need to shell out money for BFP. It's one of those buy points and spend them in the shop deals.
Main site's http://www.battleforge.com/
Not an amazing game, but I like it. Rich universe.
It's got kinda a jumbled, messed up, confusing backstory, but I'm hoping to flesh it out for a bit.
Mostly, I want advice on stretchying things out. Like, describing landscapes, setting scenes, expressing character emotions.
Any help in fantasy writing realism is also win, yes, I see the oxymoron. And general good writing tips and tricks.
Also, I really need help getting out of the whole Said Bookism mentality, in which I try to be deep and avoid the word 'said' at any cost. srsly, noticed it now. Need halp.
I'mma cite my prime inspiration right 'ere: Peptuck. I just had to do it. Read through Tiberium Wars, and I was all "I FUCKING WANT THAT!". Imitation is the sincerest for of flattery, aye?
So the plan was to run the entire singleplayer campaign, stretchy it out. It's all of 10 missions, since other campaigns are co-op. Like Peptuck. But with dragons.
I'll give you a summary of the game story; you play as a Skylord, an immortal guardian of the gods. You've been chilling out in the Forge of Creation for the last couple dozen generations.
The Forge of Creation being a place that can create just about anything. 2 rules.
Only the dreams of mortals; myths and such can be made. Second, it needs a link to the 'elemental forces world-magic'. I don't geddit either.
Then something went wrong, the gods disappeared along with the sun.
Yeah. That Sun. So the people flee into the giant's caves, wherein the giants hide after getting pasted in a bigass war against the people earlier. They make a deal with the Giants. A helluva lotta riches in exchange for making a new sun and throwing it into the sky. (stay with me, here)
It's done. A year or a bit more later, people emerge to find a Twilight curse has afflicted everything. Twisted it. It works for the Twilight now.
So now half of the Skylords are trying to find the gods, the other half are just in the mood for helping the mortals out. It's an internal conflict, but doesn't ever come to blows.
That's the short version. Cluttered, confusing, incomplete, yes. But plenty of room for fanfic writers like me to spin our shit.
NOTE: I'm planning a complete rewrite, it's not a lot, but still. In this rewrite, I'll abandon the whole 'roll with what happens in game' and just roll onto big battles, characterisation and stuff. At this rate, we'll rarely see anything big and scary open up on the battlefields.
The idea's to drop the 'squads, platoons' crap and role with more traditional, fantasy medieval type army units 'stead. I can rationalise resourcing and getting new troops elsewhere. Tell me what you feel.
It'd be 'ere, a colossal work in progress.
DISCLAIMER: Battleforge itself belongs to EA and Phenomic, I am using this for non-profitable, recreational purposes only. All rights go to their original creators.
This fic peers into the lives of the people being wasted and their thoughts on the matter of a war and getting pounded by Rhino-lizard-Olympic weightlifter crossbreeds.
The story runs mostly through the Lyrish Reaches campaign and parts of Mo, 1 player only campaigns. I'm playing with a Frost deck 'ere.
Further Author's notes will be posted here and at ends of chapters.
_/\/\/\/\/\_
PROLOGUE - REBIRTH
Valerian Albanis held his head. They told him imprinting would be uncomfortable. They lied.
It was bloody excruciating.
He'd just had the experience, memories and personality of a veteran Northguard pounded into his head and it hurt.
"Steady yourself, rise slowly," spoke a soothing, almost ethereal male voice.
Valerian obeyed and felt a respite in the pounding.
"Right. Anything I need to know?", he spoke through clenched jaws.
"The Skylords are at war. A Twilight Curse has spread during the Sun's death and all afflicted have become mad, bloodthirsty creatures", recounted the voice in a wistful manner.
He opened his eyes now and found himself in an infirmary of sorts. Taking the time to examine his surroundings, he noted the unusual devices and cabinets of potions and elixirs stacked high in the small room. The only notable thing was a large window which took an entire wall.
The view was stunning. Blue skies above and a great cloud cover to the land below, with a few choice openings in between. Great flying creatures patrolled in formations and guarded the Forge of Creation.
The Forge of Creation. Nice.
The voice had not spoken during the pause.
"What does that mean for me?", asked the Northguard. The pounding in his head had suddenly returned, upon putting the voice's words through some thought.
"You and your century will spearhead the first assault and make contact with a band of refugees.", the voice responded. It didn't seem to note the sarcasm.
"Am I back in the army?"
"Affirmative. Your gear is checked in at the armoury. Mission briefing is in 2 hours. Deployment in 4."
"Ay, hyessou."
_/\/\/\/\/\_
Prologue. The first of a probable many characters you get to know. The primary goal of this story is to make my upgrade grinding less boring, as mentioned above. The secondary goals are to improve writing skills and show a different world to the one you experience.
The rewrite did plenty. I'm abandoning the modern organisation completely and hitting off with older formations and tactics.
I'm basing the Frost armies offa ancient Latin, Greek and a bit of Medieval England. Gonna butcher the fun bits and put 'em to use. Juste, troopes I write doth not spake like morones.
They're a grim, determined bunch. Disciplined and well-drilled troops. Formations and such. Well suited to battle.
"ay, hyessou"? Go pick up a Greek dictionary.
This is gonna be fun.
Please read and review.
_/\/\/\/\/\_
CHAPTER ONE - FEAR FACTOR
The Forge of Creation's Staging Area 4 was an enormity. Like the other staging areas, it was a magnificent sprawl, dozens of entrances and exits to the rest of the Forge and briefing areas. Unlike the other staging areas, it was kept at a relatively cold 8 Degrees Celsius.
Staging Area 4 was dedicated to the Frost Corps of the God's Armies.
The massive central plaza and shimmering teleporter were the main attractions, however. Towering Constructs stood awaiting maintenance and the Battleships lay moored to the sides, their crews hurrying about to prepare for the oncoming storm.
Valerian stood at one of the many briefing room exits and peered on like a giddy child. Never in his lifetime had he seen such a mobilisation. He'd never even seen a Construct up close. Occasionally, he'd feel the footsteps of one or something on the floor above, but never knowing exactly what patrolled the halls.
The excitement had even managed to dull the weighty feeling of his hammer and armour somewhat.
The teleporter, a gigantic ring of segmented, floating stones, each with hundreds of Amii glyphs carved onto it, stood ominously at the end of the wall, taking up most of it and easily dwarfing anything in the room. A small, glowing orb floated at the centre, ready to expand, flatten and provide a much needed gate to the rest of the world.
He put his mind back on track and thought to the briefing.
He and his century of 100 men would lead an attack and claim the first monuments and power wells needed to allow proper mobilisation. He would be recalled once the monument at an Amii gate was captured. Lyrish locals would provide some aid and need support against the Twilight. The battlefield was a one way trip, ending at an old burial mound and snaking through valleys. The valleys would be all he needed to care about.
Valerian was part of something bigger, now. Every operation in the war against the Twilight would be launched by his century. Sounds like a lot. Isn't. His century would be recalled the moment the first Monument and enough Power Wells were taken to make way for the Phalanx and Rangers who would carry the battle onward from there.
If this war ever ended, he'd be at the head of one of the most experienced units ever conceived.
Valerian felt an anxiety making its way through his mind. This Twilight curse had never been seen before, so not even the Skylords had an idea as to what they were walking into.
A Skylord by the name of Tarsus would command him and the rest of the army through this.
"Whaddya think these Twilight guys look like? The name's a bit vague on descriptions," piped the young centurion, "like, maybe...Shadow dudes with red eyes?"
Centurion Xander Kallis. 3rd Century, 1st Cohort. Arrogant, disrespectful, headstrong. Like any 'master' Archer. Has he not figured out he's not even an archer, but a crossbowman yet?
Arrogance justifiable. They definitely shot straight. Ice tipped, lead cored bolts were rather simple to use. The ice shattered on impact, fragmenting and tearing flesh while the pointed lead core drove itself into the wound like a traditional bolt and began poisoning the target slightly. Their only disadvantage was offset by the Forge's incredible manufacturing abilities. Crossbow ammunition was child's play for something that could construct entire armies in mere months.
The teleporter flared and the single, white orb spread itself across the whole circle. Lightning arced from the edges to it and a vague, flowing image of the destination shone through.
"Northern Steel, Sharpshooters! We strike the first blow in the war against the Twilight curse! Assault drop into action begins in 30 seconds!", Valerian shouted above the din of the staging area and the noise seemed to die down a bit.
"30 seconds!", the whole century repeated.
Valerian looked on and saw the focus of the portal image become more clear. The view pointed to the ground below and he noted a strange, golden brown pyramid. An unfortunate side effect of teleporter scrying magic was that the view had to point at the destination. If he used it to get a look at the enemy and jumped in, he'd probably find himself 'falling' toward a valley wall.
"15 seconds! Load and lock!", belted Kallis. A cacophony of clicking and chattering resulted from the Archers coaxing whatever dramatic noises they could from their bo- crossbows.
Valerian and the other 80 members of 1st Century stepped onto the platform in front of the teleporter. Each man doing a very hasty final check of their armour and hammers.
"5 seconds! Prepare to drop!"
"4!"
"3!"
"2!"
"1!"
_///\\\_
The world turned white, faded and Valerian looked ahead. Movement in the distance, some kind of creature was fighting off humans.
Then he registered a peculiar breeze from the bottom.
Valerian looked down, the large front of his armour limiting his field of view to the essentials.
That ground was coming up to him way to fast.
Wet slush formed just in time to soften his landing, but the fall from a good two storeys in the air was only degraded from 'bone breaking' to 'this is gonna suck tomorrow morning'. The padding in his armour did its job and most likely only left him with a nasty bruise. He'd need to have a word with the Skylords about this.
The grunts of surprise of pain from behind him echoed his sentiment.
The century gathered into formation at once. A solid mass. Better equipped soldiers up front and everyone else in further ranks.
The men heard a pop, saw a flash and looked up in unison.
The 60 men of 3rd Century fell from the sky several dozen meters away from the 1st.
"Hyessou!"
"Crap!"
"Ow! That bites!"
Valerian grinned and suddenly had reason to believe he might enjoy this tour.
"1st Century, form up! I hear a battle up ahead! If it's got more body heat than 'ball-numbing-puberty-negating cold', hit it until it drops!"
A roused cheer mixed into some chuckles rose from the still recovering force.
The group took a steady jog away from the deployment area, Archers leading and to scout and unload first.
"Sarge! Large opposition...thing...", Kallis trailed off, unable to finish his sentence and slowed down to more of a 'you-go-first-I'll-be-behind-you-using-you-as-a-shield' brisk walking speed.
It took a lot to get Xander to shut up and Valerian soon found out why.
Some 70 meters ahead, were 4 monstrosities. A gleaming gold and deep blue beast with huge pincers and a hideous, pointed face. It's form was that of some kind of crustacean. A giant lobster gone horribly wrong. The thing was merrily swatting away at the beleaguered Lyrish Northguard who were still emerging from their caves.
"Archers! Open fire!"
A distinct, deep clunk was heard and the first 40 bolts went ahead, briefly followed by the other 20 or so. Valerian charged, knowing the men would follow with him.
Dozens of the bolts that crashed into the beasts did none more than scratch itheir hard carapace. The rest more went long and flew elsewhere, ploughed into grass or canyon walls. The last few drove into unprotected joints and other nooks and crannies in the armour and the monsters screeched, finally recognising the threat.
They turned over to face the new arrivals some grimacing on their grotesque faces, others howling at the troops.
There was plenty of room in this brawl for more. Valerian and his Northguards took up the call, turned their hammers around so the spiked end faced the beast and began smashing away at them. Using the hammers as a two-handed weapon brought much more punch. The Northguards had not unstrapped their shields from their backs so as to prevent friendly fire incidents.
Valerian could only reach it's legs and worked with what he had, most of the carapace had been chipped away below legs and he took aim with a mighty blow. The spike flew deep into the monster's knee and the beast screamed ever louder, falling to one knee.
A second salvo of bolts flew into it. This wave was better aimed and lacerated it's already worn arm, though many of them still bounced off without incident.
The monster came to face Valerian now and roared in his face. Valerian responded in kind with a great strike to the creature's twisted face.
It slammed it's useful arm into Valerian and he recoiled from the blow. While badly wounded, it still fought hard.
The Lyrish guard for on, slamming at the weaker armour behind their legs and bringing them closer to their ends.
The monsters prepared for another blow and was stopped cold by the third salvo. Multiple bolts flew home and found themselves embedded in heads and joints. The creatures fell one at a time, each more quickly than the last and nearly flattening soldiers on the way down.
A resounding cheer went out from the refugees and a man stepped forth, armoured in studded leather and carrying a wicked two-handed war scythe, presumably the leader.
Valerian introduced himself, "I am Valerian Albanis. 1st Century, 1st Cohort of the Forge's Liberators. We got your call for aid."
"I am Rogan Kayle. Leader of this band."
_/\/\/\/\/\_
Whew! End chapter One and we haven't gotten past the first 5 or so minutes in the game.
Hehe, "stopped cold"
I'm not that good at writing fight scenes, so feedback is welcome.
If you have any questions, stick 'em in the thread and I'll answer them some time. As per usual, read, review and tell me if you find something wrong.