The Duke Chapter 4

The Kathreoul towered over Dallen and swung his oblique cudgel clumsily in a downward arc that splinter a fruit stand to dust and fragments of wood. Pulp shrapnel showered Dallen as he scrambled to the side of the road, but the Kathreoul was relentless. With one step of his giant gait it was upon Dallen again swinging his bludgeon into the upper portion of the building Dallen was seeking refuge under.  Beating aside fallen timbers Dallen rushed around the corner the crumbling house and down the tiny alleyway between the tightly packed buildings. Enraged by his escaping quarry, the Kathreoul swatted aside one of the smaller creatures that now surrounded his legs, but that did not slow their charge.

Dallen hadn’t noticed them at first, so focused was his gaze upon the giant Kathreoul, but as he glanced back while running down the alley he saw them for what they were, Bracchan. Bestial humanoids with protruding snouts garbed in tattered letters and portions of plate mail, carrying all manner of devilish weaponry sprinted after Dallen, though forced to turn sideways in the narrow passage due to their broad shoulders. Still, they were gaining on Dallen even as he quickened his pace. Finally, he broke free of the narrow alley and bolt down the next street, but to his overwhelming dismay another line of Bracchan stood snarling and barking in their hoarse strained voices at him. Behind him the Bracchan chasing him poured out of the alleyway, hemming him in on both sides now another Kathreoul lumbered just a bit further down the road. There was no hope of escape.

The Duke Chapter 3

               Upon the high cliffs overlooking the Sea of Serpents on the one hand and Callahan’s Harbor on the other sat a grim castle fortress with lengthily extending towers piercing the clouded grey skies. Ships of all size and shape bustled about in the congested waters even still on this gloomy day for there was much harvesting and trade to be done along the Derelict Coast.  Fisherman, merchants and sea captains each navigated carefully as dock masters barked orders to deckhands who scurried along the piers pushing carts full of equipment and other provisions to and from the moored ships. Dallan Almerieth was nearly crushed under the heavy wheels of one cart clumsily bouncing over the swollen planks of the docks. Scrambling aside quickly he shouted belligerently after the man to no avail and turned once again to his lonely musings.

                After staring at the murky water splash against the barnacle covered pillars supporting the wharf he stood on for some time Dallan’s gaze drifted towards the jagged stony cliffs and he caught a flash of light out of the corner of eyes. A heartbeat later the dreary outer tower of Castle Callahedron rent and plummeted towards the earth. Screams erupted around Dallan who starred in shock at the crest of the cliffs. He was not alone in watching the calamity unfold before his eyes. Even before the first tower had crumbled to the ground a second flash blinded the onlookers and burst through the heavy stone of the main keep, throwing heaps of disintegrating rock spewing over the cliff side, splashing into the harbor waters.   

                Scattered guardsmen ran along the remaining walls of the fortress in some vain attempt at defending the keep from the unseen attackers, but it was not long before the entire castle was engulf in an endless stream of light blinding flashes each hued a slightly different shade of blue.  With an earth shattering wretch the ground beneath the castle was torn asunder and the mass of earth lurched grudgingly over the cliff as if it were a child desperately trying to cling to his mother’s skirts while she was being hauled away by inquisitioners.

The tremendous spray of water and the huge waves spilling of docks snapped Dallan back to consciousness and he started to run into the port district of Fal Talamund.  To his great surprise after going no more than past the first storehouses along the water’s edge Dallan found almost all of the terrified citizens running towards him, back to the harbor. Ducking down an alley to avoid being trampled as wave after wave of civilians rushed on towards the boats moored in the harbor, Dallan sprinted on hoping to reach the boarding house where he roomed  before whatever the others were running from found him. Blessing the Great Sea King for his knowledge of the shady back alleys of Fal Talamund he had nearly reached the apartments when he turned onto a larger street and stopped dead in his tracks.

There, not sixty paces in front of him, stood the looming beastly shape of a snarling fifteen foot Kathreoul, offspring of the Outcast Gods Banished by Tal-Renda from his lofty palace pantheon to roam the desolate lands of earth.

The Duke Chapter 2

Orellion’s image descended into the midst of the crowd facing the Duke. Covered in fur clothe that from a bear’s hide no less, with galvanized steel pauldrens about his shoulders and hanging from the specter’s back the fabled Scarlet Cleaver, the great war axe forged by his father, the High God Tal-Renda, from the fires of Mount Hexellar and quenched in the mythical springs of the Tearsore Isles.  And Lord Orellion cast his gaze o’er the multitude and then fixed his gleaming eyes upon the countenance of the Duke.  Undeterred, the Duke bowed in submission and raised his voice unto his King.

“O, my Lord Orellion, Keeper of the Southern Gate of Heav’n, we bid thy grace upon us. What is it you would have us do?”

And Orellion’s lustrous visage flickered with a deep fire that burned them, yea all those where they stood, unable to move for it surrounded and encompassed them completely. He spoke not yet all who stood heard and obeyed, even the Duke did question his orders naught and thusly they descended from the mound and the flowers upon which where scorched black.

The Duke

     Across the expanse there rested a mound. And encompassed about it was sprung several flowers of various assortment, neither white nor black, but plentiful in variety as the rainbow. Further along was the Fence, none were allowed within the gate save its keeper and, as one would reckon, the Duke. Hearken, for the Duke cometh nigh!

     Dressed as a pauper to the pope, with a red striped vest and black clothe rob that cascaded around his feet and trailed behind him along with his caravan of retainers and servants slithering betwixt him and the crowd gathered on this day.  As he approached the gate, the warden bowed ceremoniously and unlocked it swiftly.  The Duke stood in the center of the gateway and turned to face the audience gathered roundabout. After studying their countenances for a time his lips parted and he spoke.

“Dearest brethren, forgive not those who came against thee, suffer not their transgression, for the day soon cometh when we shall reign again over thy aggressors. We have the key, and they will despise thee for it, yet ultimately, victory shall be ours. Listen! He may be manifest unto us…”

And thus a hush fell over them all and the skies dimmed and upon them a light descended. While the crowd gazed in awe the Duke new it to be Orellion, King of Kings…