Ember Wind: Starlight City

Watchtower

The elven city of light was close, very close. It was still night time too. His anger from the fight a few minutes prior had died down with the adrenaline rush. The dump also happened a couple of seconds later with him regretting it. The emotion was short lived. He forced his mind clear of emotional distractions and focused on making it to the Starlight City.

Suddenly, there was flash of light and Tangurple was hunched over, blinded by its effects. It died down and vanished after a few seconds. It was painful but far from the pain of the glitches in the previous month. He looked up at the city again and sighed. He realized that it was further away than he'd originally thought. There were a couple of scattered trees in this grassy field. The grass was only knee high at most and unlikely to house nasty creatures. He approached a lone maple tree and sat down. He leaned against it fell asleep.

When he awoke, it wasn't to daylight like he'd hoped. Instead it was to a menu. A popup menu hovered in front of him.

Congratulations Adventurer,
Upon reaching level 50, you've unlocked the option of further specialization within your selected class, Juggernaut. If you wish to enhance your combat and unlock new spells and abilities, then open the character window and select the tab marked "Specialization Progression"

He did just that. He opened the tab and looked at the glowing options. The tab was designed like a tech or skill tree. The origin piece being Juggernaut. The next level stemming out from that and so-on. The next tier was designated "subclass" and contained two options for him. He could be either a Shadow Knight or a Paladin. The difference between both was minimal changes in effects but the following tier was very different from its counterpart.

He saw the stats attuned to each subclass and later specialization. The shadow knight seemed geared towards solo events whereas the Paladin was built for raids and large scale battles. He stared at both options, weighing the value of each both in legitimacy and in association to his self-acclaimed title "Angel of Death".

Shadow knight seemed promising for his solo time in this new land but he knew that he would return to the guild whether by choice or force, sooner or later. He saw it as an inevitability. The poison effect given by the shadow knight was very tempting but he declined it. He nodded to his own thoughts, of which were many, and chose Paladin. In his book of abilities, a tab in the character menu, some spells and abilities changed elements, some were gone with new ones as their replacements. He gained three new taunts and aggro abilities including an area of effect ability.

He yawned and took a look around him. It was still night time despite being asleep for several hours. The city of golden light was unusually bright. He turned his attention towards it just in time to see a unique effect. Like a wave, the bright light swam up towards the tower's pinnacle. It left the lower portions of the city in a darker state, a vibrant copper instead of the sun blessed gold. With all the light suddenly concentrated in the tower, there was a huge flash. It wasn't like a photograph flash but rather a sweep of a lighthouse. The large ray of daylight swept across the land.

He looked out to his right over the field and watched a hundred or more shadowy figures instantly vaporize. He rubbed his eyes and gazed back up at the tower. "A lighthouse? Is that was the flash is? Other than killing shadows, what is it doing?" Tangurple was suddenly very intrigued by this and had to investigate further.

However, he ran into a small problem. He recalled the fight he'd picked with the lumber mill guards and he was sure they'd made their way back to the city by now. He wrapped the cloak around his armor making sure nothing was visible. He then continued his swift walk to the city.

He approached the city gates within an hour and they were teeming with guards who were actively searching everything. Other Aldails, those who'd been out of the city limits for most of the day, were subject to searches. Tangurple watched from a distance as the guards threw loot, food and logs around. They were searching for something or someone. He tossed up the hood and took a deep breath.

He merged with the crowd of entering travellers. His dark robe mixed in with the regular peasantry attire. Keeping towards the middle, he kept his head low and pushed with the crowd. As he neared one of the guards he looked the other way and tried to walk past. But he was stopped by a firm steel hand. "Hold it," the voice commanded. "Lower your hood."

Tangurple ignored the command. The guard repeated a bit more sternly, "I said lower the hood, peasant."

Tangurple held his sword beneath his cloak ready to make a break for it. But something else happened instead. On the other side of the line, there was shouting and chanting of arcane words. A blast of purple magic which sent an Aldail guard flying. The revealed sorcerer was a Khunait and now having been exposed, began channeling magic and creating chaos. The guard who was attempting to expose Tangurple, ran to join the fight.

"Die Khunait scum!" the guards shouted one after another.

Tangurple took the break in order and ran with all due haste inside the city. He slowed to a fast walk and kept the hood up. He scanned the area regularly and made numerous observations. Inside on the city streets, guards were few in number. Just enough to keep order and the fear of law in the public's eye. It came as a relief to Tangurple.

The city itself was very crowded and close quartered. A boon for him. Houses stacked on top of each other leaving little to property lines. Most of the ground level portions of the houses were some sort of marble base followed by painted stone further up and gold on the roofing trim.

This was a city of rich people no doubt. Tangurple hiked up the stairs to the next tier of the city which seemed to be only more housing. He went up three more tiers before coming onto a large circular platform with rings of market stalls. Even the stalls were of high grade painted stonework. "So all the region's wealth is concentrated here? No wonder the wood elves hate these guys."

He looked up towards the sky but couldn't discern the Lighthouse from other skyscrapers. Until another flash of light erupted. He saw the bright stream of light it casted outwards into the landscape. He wasn't blinded by it this time. He pinpointed the tower and traveled the maze of streets and alleyways. It took sometime for him to reach the doorstep of the great tower.

Naturally, four heavily armored guards stood at the main entrance. Unlike the rest of the town, this tower was enclosed by a twenty foot high wall of stone. The only way in or out was through a choke point, the front gate. Four guards were a problem he couldn't handle himself. He'd need back up, extra muscle.

He opened up the mail system via the menu and wrote Falcher and Creoft letters, telling them of the urgency and situation. However, he knew it could be days before either of them find him and that was without getting intercepted by the Niriilins.

Tangurple watched the guards from the alleyway, wondering if there was any change in shift. He wasted many hours waiting but to his fortune, there was a gap in the rotation. A five minute window between each group of guards.

Tangurple kept a note of that and turned around. He knew he was going to be lingering here for a while and plotting escape routes was the next best idea. He wandered throughout the town with the cloak over him. A couple of well dressed Aldails gave him looks of suspicion but never acted. The streets were long, windy and often made giant loops. As far as he could survey, there were two exits, the main gate and the sewers. Unless he got so desperate to want to jump off the walls.

He turned around and headed back to the lighthouse tower just in time to have the guards rotate. Once they had passed the corner, Tangurple madea full sprint through the entrance, up the stone stairs and through the door. He was inside which meant going up should be easy. It started with the first step up the very long circular staircase.

After ten minutes, he felt exhausted and nearly collapsed on the stairs. He crawled up to the next platform and rolled onto his back. "It's official... Stairs are my worst enemy," he grumbled. Reluctantly, he pushed himself up onto his feet and forced himself to climb some more. Naturally, the second half of the climb was no better than the first but it wasn't nearly as long. He reached the top of the tower and popped through the hatch.

The platform where the source of light was coming from was open aired and a large reflective metal piece hung from the ceiling. Tangurple rounded the corner just to see the light flash again. Tangurple stumbled backwards and fell onto his back. The light faded quickly but Tangurple was slow to recover from that. He pulled himself up and hesitantly approached this source.

Sitting inside a pewter bowl was a glowing gold colored gem just like the Elder had described. "So this is the stone of light? Tiny thing ain't it." Tangurple reached out for it.

Something clobbered him from behind, knocking him to the floor. Tangurple scrambled and equipped his sword and shield. In front of him was a blind Aldail. He looked like the others in the city except he was very old, wrinkly and wizard looking. He spoke with a gruff voice, "What are you doing here?"

"I've come to see the source of the bright lights," Tangurple replied.

"Wrong!" the old man rambled off arcane words and in a blink of an eye, a spear of light passed through Tangurple.

Tangurple stumbled back and bumped into the railing. He looked over his shoulder and saw the long drop down. His fear of falling kicked in as his feet and hands went numb and sweaty. He stepped forward and took up a defensive stance. "Old man! Who are you?"

The old elf held his staff close to him. "I'm the lightkeeper. Now be gone and never return, outsider."

"I don't believe that to be an option."

"So be it." The elf rambled another slough of arcane words and lobbed a ball of light magic at Tangurple. It hit but did little damage. Even the lightkeeper realized that. "Paladin..." he scoffed. "A light user who isn't serving the light. Betrayals are funny that way."

Tangurple raised his shield unsure of what other abilities this Aldail knew. "Betrayal? I'm not betraying anyone!"

"You may not know yet but you will soon enough." The Aldail mumbled some more arcane words and his walking stick became a stabbing stick. Despite being old, the high elf had moves and agility.

Tangurple struggled to keep pace with the Aldail's quick strikes. Jabs were barely skimming the side of his shield. Tangurple lunged forward and slammed his shield into the Aldail. The elf was off balance momentarily and Tangurple struck him in the side with a heavy swipe. The elf wobbled and recovered. He held his side and groaned. "Scavenger."

Tangurple leapt up and brought the point of his sword down upon him. The Aldail ducked and dodge-rolled as Tangurple hit the floor. He swung his staff and jammed the pointy end into Tangurple's exposed back.

Tangurple rolled onto his back, knocked his shield into the staff and thrusted his sword upward. The point pierced the Aldail who quickly responded with more arcane words. An electric shock paralyzed Tangurple long enough for the Aldail to free himself. The Aldail was hurt worse than Tangurple was but he had yet to use his strongest magic.

Tangurple stood up and readied himself for another attack. The lightkeeper chanted numerous arcane words which chained several spell attacks. First, a ball of fire was lobbed and ricocheted off of Tangurple's shield. The second was a another mess of lightning strikes which fried him. The third, a move to add insult to injury, topped his pain with a bright light beam to the face.

Nearing less than a fifth of his health, the lightkeeper began to channel magic from the gem of light. He was casting more spells per minute than before and Tangurple took a hefty beating from it. Despite the magic resistance increase from the Paladin class, the quantity of magic being thrown at him was enough to weaken him substantially. One of the Aldail's stronger attacks was a long enduring beam of light which dealt burn damage to Tangurple.

Tangurple trudged forward, pushing closer to the lightkeeper. The burning effect from his attack was close to paralyzing but Tangurple wanted this fight to end. Once within range. Tangurple ducked beneath the beam and swung his shield low, tripping the lightkeeper. The old elf laid flat on his back looking up at a very pissed off human. Tangurple slammed his heavy sabaton onto the Aldail's chest. "What a good day it is, lightkeeper. I think I'm going to have fun executing you."

Tangurple pulled his foot off of him, pulled the old elf to his feet and stabbed him. The sword went all the way through him. The aldail coughed and stared at Tangurple with a scowl of disappointment. Tangurple shook his head. He turned around and tried to yank the sword from him. Instead, it pulled the Aldail too. He tried again but the sword was now stuck. He glared at him and yanked again but to no avail. He groaned, pulled his sword close to him and swung his shield. The metallic edge dug into the elf's face and the force applied allowed the sword to be ripped free.

The lightkeeper laid on the floor, dead as a roadkill and looking just about that way as well. Tangurple huffed. "Betrayal my ass." He regarded the old man's warnings as nothing more than gibberish and reached for the light gem. He wrapped his metal fingers around it and ripped it from its resting spot in the bowl.

Suddenly, all the light from the tower was drained, darkened. Tangurple leaned over the railing to look at the city below. It too had gone completely dark, not even a shimmer of gold reflected the moon's light. He stuffed the gem in his pocket and clambered down the hatch and into the stairwell.

The journey down the stairs isn't nearly as bad as going up but it wore him out nonetheless. He exited the tower and stepped out onto the front lawn. He was greeted by a dozen city guards. Naturally, Tangurple raised his defenses and held his sword and shield at the ready.

The city guards just stared him down. It wasn't until the Premier made herself known. The Premier was a middle aged Aldail female with a rather large amount of jewelry wrapped around her neck and arms. Her face was heavily wrinkled, not from age but rather anger. "What do we have here? I see a lone Emporian with the enough brains to steal our gem." She spoke with a very condescending tone. "I'll give you credit for winning against the lightkeeper. I suppose that's what you Emporians are good for if nothing else."

Tangurple's cloak had been made a cape during the skirmish in the tower and he forgot to readjust it. "Let me guess, you're the high and mighty 'kiss my ass' type of lady. Tis a disservice to meet your authority deprived scowl."

That sort of comment didn't sit well with her. She wielded no weapon other than her commanding voice. "Is that so, Emporian? I didn't think your kind was interested in another war. I think I'll enjoy that very much."

Tangurple burst out into laughter, pointing and mocking her, "Interested in another war?! Bwahahaha! Have you heard yourself speak lately? You're mentally insane! Even the damn tree huggers knew I wasn't Emporian."

Her face lit up like a christmas tree; a very red christmas tree. She clenched her fists tightly. "Scavengers..." she hissed. "Kill him."

The couple of guards she brought with her were well armed and more than ready to make his endeavor hell. They unsheathed their various assortment of weapons and aimed at him. Tangurple weakly grabbed his sword and shield, still recovering from his laughing spree. "I can't wait to see the look on your face when I lay you out on the floor. I'll make sure to rub it in your face, mark me."