Amiel listened to the story of Grash's trials in the sewer, and was suprised to hear that so many vampries lived within the sewers. When Grash turned to him and asked him what his story was, he paused for a moment to consider his response. Recent events would be a good start...should start with how long I've been in the fighters guild

"Well, I've been in the fighters guild for about 15 to 16 years, give or take, and I am at the rank of Protector. I lived at the fighters guild hall in cheydinhal, along with Waylas." Amiel paused for a moment, and then smirked. "You know, this whole corpus infestation started on a really weird note for me. I was going to the pub at around dusk, I sat down at the bar, and I ended it up sitting next to Fanier and some mage who lacked eyebrows. Then of all things, one of those black worm necromancers strolls in and sits next to me. So there I was, sitting next to a mages guild mage and one of mannimarco's necromancers."


"After the initial attack, me and Fanier, along with some others, fought our way to the castle, where we spent the night. The next day, we went to the fighters guild hall and stumbled upon Waylas and Ulfgar."

Amiel's somewhat lighthearted tone changed to a more serious one, as he recounted the following events. "Within a matter of minutes, the necromancer, calendras, killed Ulfgar after filling a wagon with recently murdered victims. He fled, but lets just say that he didn't last much longer. After burying Ulfgar, we spent another night in the castle, but those blasted fast corpus broke in. We fought our way out of the castle, and there we encountered one of thsoe magic corpus I told you about earlier. After fleeing the city, we came here."

OOC: ok lets get this moving, people.

IC: Fanier found himself sitting across from Amiel, silently listening to his story. When Amiel brought up Calendras, he broke in: "I really hated that wise-ass son of a [censored]," he gave a small chuckle before adding, "I was looking forward to bashing his face in, but Amiel here got to him before me. Just remember," he said, addressing Amiel with a smile. "If we ever come across another one like him, I get him first, okay?"

Fanier sat back against the side of the wagon. After a good forty-five minutes, he felt the wagon stop. "What's going on, Waylas?" he called to the front of the wagon.

Waylas turned around. "We're at the Waterfront gate," he said with a sigh.

"Alright," Fanier said as he got up, giving Amiel a little pat on the back. "Let's get that gate open." He climbed out the back of the wagon and began walking toward the gate winch.

Grash decided to tag along as well, as a bodyguard if need be. He jumped nimbly off the wagon and walked next to Fanier, his sharp Orc senses scanning their surroundings for any signs of danger..any sight, sound or scent of the marauding blighted horrors. His big strong hands tightened around his warhammer.

Amiel exited the wagon with an audible grunt, the kind one would expect from someone who's been cutting off the circulation to their legs. his legs tingled with fresh blood as he moved over to the gate winch, and assisted Fanier with turning it. As the gate began to open, a massive waft of air bellowed out through the gate. The tunnel to the docks was open, but it was just as Amiel feared. A measurable number of corpus beasts could be heard murmering inside the confines of the tunnel. There was no telling how they got there, but now they had to deal with them.

"So, do we go through the tunnel or simply exit the city and travel along the beach? I think we could handle these beasts, but there's no reason to hcarge through without any idea as to what our strategy is."

edit: damn phrasing mistakes.

With their minds still holding ever lingering thoughts of the noble Jean Fournier, the group rode through into the temple district, the dusk light casting an orange glow over their armor.

Talib was the first to speak, " Look there, " He pointed a finger to the Waterfront gate, " A wagon, and survivors. "

Wary of vampires after the incident not an hour earlier, the horses hooves clattered on the stone, as the reigns were pulled and Francois called out.

" Greetings, survivors are a welcome sight with recent events. Are any of your group at threat of becoming a beast, Corprus or otherwise? "

( OOC: Sorry for the short post, nothing else i can think of, and i'm preoccupied.)

Fanier looked down into th dark tunnel. He could hear muffled grunts and scraping sounds echoing from its walls. There were probably a good twenty or thirty beasts in there; maybe more. But Fanier really didn't want to find out.

He looked up at the sun to gauge how much time they had. "We've got two hours. I don't think that leaves us enough time to leave the city and go around. I don't want to," Fanier swallowed a sizeable lump in his throat. "But I think we need to go through the tunnel." He took another look at the dark hole. "Can anyone here cast a decent fire spell?"

Ic: "Well I can't cast a spell, but maybe that Ice staff you found could be used to clear a path?" As Amiel looked down the tunnel, a mixture of emotions flowed through his mind as he considered their prospects. Excitement, fear, anger, the emotions that one feels before a battle were all playing out, till a new group approached them. Amiel turned to look at these newcomers, and found himself somewhat impressed by the high quality armor worn by two of them, but not by the other two, who seemed to be nomads of some sort.

"None of us are infected, newcomer. Though I must ask, how did you acquire that equipment? Did you raid a armory or something?"

The group waited patiently, shifting in their saddles as a man began to speak to his comrads as if they were not even there. Finally, after a few long moments, someone replied.

"None of us are infected, newcomer. Though I must ask, how did you acquire that equipment? Did you raid a armory or something?"

As they all sat silently, as Francois spoke up " If collecting ones own possessions can be called raiding. Enough chit-chat, i suspect night will be setting soon, and we must all seek shelter. Before any more lives are lost. "

This last part came out with a slight akwardness, as he remembered his loyal friend. Gaston sat straight on his horse, Ghalib looking dead serious as ever, and Talib quietly observing their surroundings. If night fell with them trapped outside, even with the group they had, a city this large must be host to more corprus than we have witnessed thus far.

( OOC: Sorry for the shortness and low quality of my posts, school work and a few personal problems at the moment. )

Grash approached them, eyeing them over carefully.

"Pardon me, sir, if this may seem crude, but...." he circled around the men, holding his hammer, and sniffed the air around them. He then calmly returned to Fanier's side. "Sir, they don't smell like corprus beasts. My keen Orc senses tell me that much, if nothing else. I don't pretend to have the natural smelling ability of, say, a Khajiit or even a Bosmer but I would recognize that stench anywhere." He looked their armor over "Good stuff by the way. You guys knights or maybe crusaders or somethin'?"

OOC: @W00tz: don't worry about your posts being short. This isn't Cyrodiil Shattered; you can see that most of our posts are pretty short, too.

IC: Fanier walked up to the man who seemed to be the leader of this band. "We're heading out to the Waterfront. You and your men can tag along, if you like. But I must warn you," he gestured toward the tunnel. "We're going through there, and we'll probably run into a nice bit of corprus along the way. You all look like you can handle yourselves in a fight; we could use a few more good swordsmen with us."

He held his hand out to shake. "The name's Fanier, by the way."

Stupid, brutish, filthy Orc. Francois had grown up relatively close to Orsinium, but the majority of the Orcs residing in the city were rather intelligent and civilised, as they would need to be in order to be left in peace by the rest of High Rock. Sniffing us like dogs.. Ghalib looked down at the green brute.

Francois however, appreciated the polite, friendly manner in which this Fanier addressed him.

" We can indeed hold our own in combat. Corprus are no match for a Knight and his warhorse, or a Redguard and his hardy desert horse. We will accompany you, and aid in the slaying of any beast that happens to come before our blades. " Including that damn orc if he gets in the way. Talib thought to himself, letting out an inaudible snicker.

The tunnel was dark, but that could easily be remedied with torchlight. All they needed was light enough to see, and all would go well with such a large company.

" I am Francois Gautier, former Lord of Aleine, and this is Gaston Moreau, Talib Orhan, and Ghalib al-Suhim. " The Breton motioned to each of the men as he spoke their names.

" In the district preceding this one, we lost a friend, Jean Fournier, another Knight. He was claimed by a pack of Vampires. I sincerely hope that they are not rampant throughout the city in addition to the already numerous troubles. "

Grash's brow darkened when he saw the snooty, haughty look the Breton gave him, as if he were some sort of beast and not a civilized being. "Arrogant jerk." the Orc thought to himself. "I don't care if you ARE a knight..my father was a knight, and he was probably twice the man you are."

He steamed to himself, not saying any of this out loud, merely thinking it. At the mention of vampires, however, he chimed in again. "Most of the vamps I've seen stick to the sewers. They may be getting braver though, since the city's damn near empty and they got nothing to feed on down there 'cept mudcrabs and rats. And even a vampire would be a fool to try to svck the blood of one of them..zombie things. So I reckon within a week this city will be swarming with them. They may even start to feed on one another. My da' told me horrible things about the Orc vampires of Orsinium and how they didn't even have tribal loyalties to one another like most Orc families do."

He stood beside Fanier defiantly, casting a look to the Breton knight that said "You're no better than me." He crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes.

ooc: I aint done with Radek yet, I'm just having a few 'complications'. So, until I settle that, here's my second character. I'll post tomorrow.

OOC: *Lurks in the shadows expectantly*

"Well its nice to meet you all. My name is Amiel. But enough chit-chat, I think its about time we advance down this tunnel!" Amiel moved over to the wagon, hoping that his battle preparations would spur the groups towards their objective, instead of an escalation of the obvious hostilities between grash and ex-noble. Still carrying his title, how foolish. The titles don't matter once you lose your land and power. Once at the wagon, he grabbed a torch, and created the spark to light it with by striking a stone agianst his sword. The sword received a minor scuff, but that didn't matter. With his torch lit, Amiel now looked towards Fanier
roup.
"How many more torches do you think we'll need Fanier? Two or three should provide enough illumination right?"

ooc: Dont worry Krimsin, Me and Aula'll hopefully have our little 'problem' sorted out soon. And Gump, you can go ahead and add Ronin into the character list

Also, please dont bash me if I get the setting wrong. Haven't posted here in a while

IC:

Waterfront District

A small fire pit burned several feet away from the tunnel gate. The flames kicked and struggled in the pit as it burned through the wood. A gray-ish smoke fled into the near night sky. Over the fire was a small pan, filled with discolored water, with bits and pieces of meats and vegetables floating freely.
Several feet from the fire, something stirred slightly. But, it being dressed in all black, one could not see the Argonian laying on his back on the grass, staring up into the sky.

Ronin's mind was wandering; something he did a lot to keep his mind off of the Corprus breakout. He didn't worry about the beasts finding him though, there were only a few ways one could get into the Waterfront district. Ronin made sure that they would be impassable to Corprus. You see, at every one of the districts entry points, the Argonian had left several 'booby' traps for anything that strayed to close. If anything decided to get too close, they expect an 'explosive' surprise.

Out of sudden boredom, Ronin began to study one of his hands, by raising it over his head. With a single thought, his hand was suddenly engulfed by a bluish-yellow flame. He smiled, as he flexed his hand around, watching the flames dance around on the surface of his black leather glove.

Then, with another thought, the fire was extinguished. Corprus never liked fire... they were quite easily flammable. The lizard chuckled to himself with a heavy hiss accent, as he remembered setting fire to dozens of Corprus, not only by the fire though, but with the help of some of Ronin's homemade explosives, he could make short work of anything that came near him.
Well... him and the other survivors there in the Waterfront. Its almost night...they're probably all in hiding by now..., Ronin had only been in the district for several days, and these other's flocked to him like a sheep would to a bin of slop. They knew he could fight the Corprus effectively, so they counted on him for protection. Though, always at night, the survivors fled to god knows where. There was another group hiding here though, that Ronin thought they could fight Corprus, Which they probably had...

To Ronin, they looked like Knights. They dressed like Knights, fought like Knights, hell, even spoke like Knights. He had only seen them a few times; walking about in their heavy plate mail armor, and their giant steel longswords. They even bore large steel shields, which engraved on them was a very conspicuous emblem, that caught the lizards eye more then once. The knight's insignia depicted two curved knives across the shield adorned with four snakes. Ronin always found himself wondering who these men were, but he never actually had the guts to ask them.
His little recall was suddenly interrupted by a soft, bubbling sound. He turned his head to his fire, and the small pot. The soup he was cooking, seemed to be over-broiling. With haste, he crept up near a small boulder, where a small leather backpack lay. He dug around through it for a few seconds before pulling out a wooden ladle. He crouched near the fire and stirred the soup with the wooden utensil.

He then scooped out a small amount of the soup, and blew on until it was at a cold enough temperature to eat. After a small taste, his stomach immediately demanded more. His dinner was done. Now... He thought, Where are the bowls...?

OOC: Ronin has been added to the character list.

IC: Fanier brought his attention away from the knight and turned to Amiel, who had just come to him asking about torches. "I think," he started. "That three should be enough. We don't want to use up all our torches just to go through a tunnel." He turned away from Amiel and faced the rest of the group.

"All right, everyone," he addressed the band. "Let's get ready. Francois, if you want, you can take some supplies from the wagon before we move out. Grab a torch, too, if you feel you'll need one." Fanier then turned to Waylas. "Waylas!" he called. "Get the wagon ready. We move out in ten minutes." He moved over to the wagon and found a torch.

"Amiel," he said to his comrade. "Give me a light." He held out his unlit torch to Amiel's flaming one.

Gaston nearly winced as the man scuffed the sword. Swords were meant to be used as weapons of war, not fire-starting tools.

" We have our own torches. May we light them on yours? " Only the two Knights lit their torches, the Ra Gada preferring to duel-wield their weapons from the backs of their horses. The Nomad was attuned to hunting in darkness, so the lack of torch would not bother him much.

IC: Amiel lit Fanier's torch, and then allowed two of Francois' group to light their torches with his. Amiel chuckled to himself as one of Francois' men, Gaston, gave a dissaproving wince to his scuffing of his own sword.

"Gaston, you haven't learned from your fall, have you?"

Amiel drew his steel shortsword, which would be easier to manage while carrying a torch. He was now just waiting for the decision to charge.

"Is everyone ready?"

"I'm Ready Amiel." Was Waylas' quick response.

OOC: I was thinking we'd wait for Faldom to post again, but I suppose we should go ahead anyway. He'll probably be back before the end of the tunnel.

IC: Fanier looked around. It seemed everyone was ready. When he looked at Amiel, he could see the Imperial's eager expression. "Be patient, Amiel." he said. "We don't want to just charge into a bunch of corprus ready to eat our brains. We'll go in slowly."

He then turned to the knights. "Try to keep your horses quiet. We'll move in as quietly as we can, but that doesn't mean we won't end up in a fight. Be ready to jump off your horse at a moment's notice." Fanier turned again to the mouth of the dark tunnel. He made sure his bow was securely fastened to his back, and his sword was at his hip.

"Let's go," he told the rest. He held up his torch and began walking.

OOC: I'll make the first post about the corprus after everyone else posts.

IC: "You're right Fanier, patience right now is a good thing." Amiel took a moment to calm his mind, before he began walking into the tunnel. He was careful to avoid making any loud noises, but couldn't help noticing the odd smells of the tunnel and covering his nose. Once could smell the rot and decay.

Waylas prodded his horse forward, and the wagon began to creep into the tunnel, with only the slightest of creaks coming from the wagon. Waylas was quite a bit unnerved by the dark tunnel, by the corpus, but he had to stay strong. He couldn't allow himself to become afraid. His face had a look of distress on it, but he quickly returned it to a more neutral state.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The waterfront: Inside a warehouse

Five knights, protected by a full set of plate mail, helmets, and their snake adorned shields, stood in front of a sixth figure, his helmet removed, his shield no where to be seen. The man had dark brown hair that was incredibly short, Barely covering his scalp. The hair had thinned out, and it was quite evident the man was going to end up bald within a few months. He was an Imperial, and he wore a star shaped amulet, with a fire red ruby in the center.

"Does everyone remember there tasks?" The man asked, and in response his men answered in the affirmative.

"Excellent, move." The five knights left the second floor of the warehouse, and advanced downstairs.

"Try to keep your horses quiet. We'll move in as quietly as we can, but that doesn't mean we won't end up in a fight. Be ready to jump off your horse at a moment's notice."

The group was more than capable of keeping their horses quiet, having ridden them all their lives, but they weren't about to ease into the tunnel. The corprus would attack them regardless, it would be better to spearhead through them, get in and out as quickly as possible. Everyone remained still, horses trotting forward slowly, until Francois turned to them.

" Gaston, flank the wagon, Talib, al-Suhim, follow me. "

Calmly speeding up slighlty, the three drew their swords, and charged forward.

OOC: You rushed things W00tz, and this is what you get.

IC: Fanier moved quietly through the tunnel. The cold, humid air was condensing on his skin, forming small droplets of water. He looked around, but his torch only illuminated about ten feet around him. He could see Amiel, just a small oasis of light in the darkness. Fanier barely noticed the smell; he had been around it enough in his travels not to mind it. Amiel, as he could see, was not so lucky.

Fanier felt a small whoosh go past on his left, and then he saw Francois in his torchlight, charging deeper into the tunnel. Oh, [censored], he thought in despair. As the knights foolishly charged forward, the corprus were awakened by the loud gallops of the horses. Fanier could hear muffled footsteps, speeding up as they drew closer. And in the torchlight of the knights ahead, he could see a good dozen corprus, only a small fraction of those who actually inhabited the tunnel.

"NO!" Fanier almost yelled. "You IDIOTS!" More corprus came into view, and Fanier moved next to Amiel. "Amiel," he said to his comrade as he drew his sword. "We're in some serious [censored]."

ooc: Just a little heads up; Ronin placed a few 'trip mines' near the end of the tunnel, just in case some of the Corprus got a little gutsy, along with many other traps around Waterfront

ic: After failing to find any sort of utensil, Ronin just grabbed the pot's handle, and used the ladle as a spoon. He took a few cautious tastes for eating, the soup was hot, and it probably wasn't a good idea to burn his mouth and tongue.
As he slowly began to eat, night began to creep in. Now any normal person would dive for any sort of cover to hide from the Corprus. But... Ronin wasn't normal; Oh no... he was different, a little odd, but different. He never worried when night fell upon him, in fact, he enjoyed it. Sometimes, a Corprus Zombie would lumber too close to his set up trip mines and detonate it. Seeing something bet blown to smithereens was Ronin's translation of a 'good time'.

He had even risked setting up a few traps in the tunnel to the Temple district. Of course, he did it during the day, but even then the tunnel was quite dark. Ronin had his ways though, even if they weren't always the best options. Corprus don't like light... He reminded himself as he downed a spoonful of broth, diced pork and potatoes. Some garlic would have made this soup better...oh well...
The Argonian set the pot beside him and stood up, the fire seemed to be dying. Ronin had a pile of firewood at the ready; he was always prepared. He plopped several sticks into the fire, then used a fire spell to ignite the wood.

Something suddenly caught his attention though; a faint clatter, followed by a dull moan. Ronin crept away from the fire, to the tunnel gate, and pressed the side of his hooded head against. He didn't hear anything.
Probably just hearing things... He shrugged slightly and sat down near the fire again, then returned to his late dinner.

Amiel's thoughts were starting to drift towards a dunmer lass he had met once when he heard the galloping of horses. As Fanier moved over to him, saying that they were in "serious [censored]," Amiel exclaimed his agreement.

"No [censored] kidding."

He could see a plethora of corpus beasts charging on their positions. Most charged towards Francois and his knights, but a few went around them and made their way to the wagon. Amiel went in front of the wagon in order to defend it, slashing off the leg of a lame corpus beast. A few more lame corpus made their way to the wagon, and Amiel met them once they came close, all the while trying ot maintain his forward momentum. As one of the beasts swatted at him, Amiel ducked, stabbed the beast in its left arm pit. He then took the oppurtunity to stab the creature in the neck. Another corpus beast gave him a resounding punch to the back, and staggered forward, his back writhing with pain. Fortuantely he did not fall, and he managed to turn around evade the second punch. Amiel then took his torch and set the creature on fire, which caused it to flee.
--------------------------------------------------------
The people on the first floor of the warehouse were relieved to see the knights return from their meeting. Four of the knights positioned themselves behind the men guarding the food, while the fitfh stood in the center of the room. The food supply opposite the stairs was enough to feed a small group for weeks. Four of the knights then drew daggers, these daggers were curved in such a way that they could rest perfectly on a human neck. They then slashed the throats of the four guards, while the fifth knight started slaughtering the people who were in the warehouse. One man managed to escape, and he ran towards the heavily robed argonian with haste.

"Sir! SIR! HElp!" The man was panting as he collapsed in front of the argonian.

"The knights! Their killing everyone in the warehouse!"