OOC: That doesn't make sense. We left the same day you left the palace. It only took us 8 minutes to get here. A week couldn't have passed.

Edit: Actually never mind that. If we left the same day that would leave room for a lot of continuity problems considering Alixenus is already in his nation. Let's just say Sandromin and Thanatos discussed a mission plan during the week or something.

"Wouldn't have guessed the doors can only be entered, not exited. No wonder there was no one here. Perhaps I underestimated the Logipriests. To answer your question Sandromin, no. I assure you I am no AN. We only need this piece to finish the cipher. Then I can use it to translate the Dark Arcanum and dispel the magicks which brought about the golem/zombie threat. The Logipriests would immediately return to normal. Now let's end this shall we. What say you Xavier?"

OOC: It could be 8 hours then instead. I just wanted to express the fact that if you left we'd certainly get there first. Didn't mean to make it seem OP.

OOC:I mean we now have a nation full of mechs and androids and Sandromin is fine with that. This isn't really an established Medieval Age. It's Dustia. Diyad was supposed to be the lost city with technology far beyond the other nations. The PAI represents basically the best my nation has to offer it is and always will be the most powerful thing I have.

>Team-R99 reporting. Foreign entities discovered.
>Overseer-R99 replying. Describe foreign entities.
>Entities are humanoid in appearance. With green skin and covered with glowing runes.
>Analyze runes.
>Running image recognition subprogram...
>Accessing languages.db...
>Attempting match...
>Negative, runes do not seem to belong to any documented language.
>Attempt Protocol-C12.
>Affirmative.

And with that, the squad of millitary androids moved in on the logipriests from all directions, phaser rifles set to "stun", and attempting to neutralize and capture their targets for analysis.

The day had been long and hard. Much had been lost. As much as the Logizombies seemed to exhibit some tactical sense, there were a few amongst them that had not stayed with the 'army'. These zombies were not beating at the gates of Venezzia.

They had came upon the city in the dead of night. Most of the gates were shut. The north gate, however, was not. It had been left open for any late Dwarven refugees. The swordsman in the guard post was slumped in a collapsable chair. Half drunk-half asleep. A volunteer like all the others. Alixenus and his forces had returned, but they were recovering in the barracks from their journey. So the Militia was still on duty. The guard never heard the zombie. Everyone heard his screams.

Within 20 minutes, Alixenus had been awokened by a herald with news of the zombies. Within 30 his dressed and armoured. Within 35 he could see the houses all along the North wall ablaze. Some of his troops had been sent off to the Dwarven lands and the desert in case the war dragged on. The ones that were left were the ones that Alixenus wanted to be here. Like the all-merchant units. Like the 2nd heavy horse. The very unit that Alixenus led out of the gate at a full gallop into the zombie hoarde. The gates closed again behind them as they powered through the mass of claws and teeth. Crossbow bolts rained down from the walls, more and more as the professionals arrived.

Alixenus drove his lance through a dwarven zombie and pinned it into the earth. But in that time a dozen more came and overwhelmed his steed. Alixenus swung wildly with his sword as he struggled to get his still-wounded leg free of the stirrup. Tumbling off in a metallic heap, he would surely have been trampled to death had his shield not been on his back.

Venezzia's new ruler awoke several ours later in a daze. The sun was rising, he could tell that much and he could hear something tapping on his helmet. Looking up, he saw it was a carrion crow testing his palatability. Alixenus shooed the Crow off and rose to his feet. Utter horror greeted his eyes. The ground all around him was littered with dead. At least the ground that he could see. The air was thick with acrid smoke from the burning houses and incindiary weapons. The rising sun turned this into an inpenetrable, bitter smog. The outlines of defensive fieldworks resolved themselves around him. Ditches, Gabionades, Timber command posts. The Tattered banner of the 2nd heavy horse stood in front of him. A plate-clad arm still hung onto it, a trail of blood indicating where the owner had gone.

Alixenus checked his shield. Shattered. He dropped it. Next his sword. Gone. Unarmed save for his gauntlets. Then his hearing came back to him. The discordant instruments of war still played around him. The dead were still groaning. There was the crackle of burning wood. The ripping and tearing of flesh. He gazed through the smoke. The command post was too far to go without a weapon. He was still searching for one when a zombie came upon him...

To sharpen our minds, I officially issue this thread as a logic RPG meta-game thing. We will create a faction on this thread (not real, just make one up) and war with one another.... Let me give you an example:

I am Sandromin, leader of the sandmen. We use camouflage in the desert to ambush people. Our strengths are against anything pertaining to vegetation, but our weakness is water.

Let's see where this goes? Huehue...
So, in order to sharpen our minds, let's do this! But there are rules:

1) You must state your strengths and weaknesses. If you are weak against an opponent, you lose, unless...
2) You have a 3:1 "Population" ratio. Each time you win, you gain a 'follower' for your group (population). If you beat out an enemy you're weak to, then you lose 2 people as an aftermath effect... Default Population is 1...
3) You must post an epic battle description, just so people have fun reading this thread...
4) No orbital strikes...
5) You MUST have one weakness and one strength. If you are neutral against an opponent, it results in a stalemate.
6) If you lose all your people, then you revert back to only one person. That one person is you. You can't participate until the next day due to your loss too.
7) No trolling.
8) HAVE FUN! Anything Else Goes!

I'll manage this thread and see where it goes!

Edit Rules:
9) You get 3 types: your base terrain, your strength terrain(s), and your weakness terrain(s). You get 1 base terrain, 3 strengths, and 3 weaknesses.
10) [Reserved for more rules]

no OB?
i quit!

EDIT:well, having read the last page, this went off the deep end.........

OOC Okay Brutus, essentially there's been a zombie apocalypse brewing for a while and it's finally spilled over. Now Sandromin and Thanatos fixed it in a previous post, but my subplot is running slightly behind their's. So we just have to hold out until the Zombies are suddenly roasted in a blinding light from heaven. I was planning on wrapping up this battle in the next post. any objections?

OOC Okay Brutus, essentially there's been a zombie apocalypse brewing for a while and it's finally spilled over. Now Sandromin and Thanatos fixed it in a previous post, but my subplot is running slightly behind their's. So we just have to hold out until the Zombies are suddenly roasted in a blinding light from heaven. I was planning on wrapping up this battle in the next post. any objections?

OOC alright then let's save Venezzia!

"No time to explain now Brutus", Alixenus yelled to his lofty companion as he scooped up a flanged Mace, "Just get me to that hut over there!"

The yelling attracted yet more of the living dead and it was now obvious that fighting their way to the command post was going to be a heroic struggle. But Alixenus was far from a heroic level of health after his ordeal. So, using logical that only a Giant can concoct, Brutus picked up Alixenus and threw him (Under-arm!!!) to the command post.

"Plate armour. he be fine" and with that he proceeded to decimate the surrounding necrotics with his horned helmet.

Alixenus had a relatively pleasant landing: chest first into half a horse. When he picked himself up and got the taste of offal out of his mouth he saw a pack of zombies beating on the door of the command post. He could see no signs of resistance from inside. But then he heard the whoosh of fast flowing water behind him. Turning about he saw one of Venezzia's many 'flood gate' cannons blasting away a pack of zombies: some were disintergrated by the torrent while others were carried away in the deluge. Alixenus could see gunners pointing at the beleagured command post. That cannon would wipe it out. There might not be anyone inside but he had to try.

Charging into the back of the group beating on the door, Alixenus smashed his flanged Mace into the skull of one of the larger specimens dressed in a loin cloth. It twitched and quivered before turning around to try to eat him with what was left of it's mouth. Alixenus struck again and turned most of it's head to pulp. It now wandered aimlessly whilst it's cohorts now seeked vengance. This was no time for artistry or virtuosity. Alixenus attacked with brute force, using himself and the Mace to break limbs and knock down the dead at every opportunity. Mace to the knee. Elbow spike to the eyes. Fist to the nose. Boot to ribs. Severed arm to the arm still attached. and all the while he could hear the cannon slowly filling with water.

Using the remains of his last opponent as a springboard, Alixenus lept onto the roof of the command post and started waving frantically at the cannon. For an eternity it seemed to stay aimed at him. The gunners peering at him with curiosity through the mist. The zombies he just fought through were getting back to their feet. At last Venezzia's defenders turned their bile upon another group of undead. Alixenus slumped over on the roof, exhausted, not caring about the many hands clawing at him.

Brutus casually walked up to him, a tree over his shoulder like a club. He looked at at Alixenus curiously.
"Friend dead?"
"Friend tired"
"Oh, but still fight?"
"Yes"
"fight now?"
"Hmm.... may aswell"

So he heaved himself to his feet, grabbed the Mace and lept off the roof at a human zombie. But as the blow was struck blazing fire came down from the skies, blinding all present. When they felt they could open their eyes again, they found the dead were vanquished. Alixenus found his mace was deep in a pile of ash. He looked puzzled for a moment, then he shrugged, dropped the mace, took off his face guard and sat down on that half a horse.

He said to himself, "Not bad Sandromin, not bad at all. But, I don't think we did too badly ourselves... Yup, Thanatos may have all his fancy magic and such, but I think we did alright"

The smog lifted, it was midday. The birds were singing. The walls had held.

OOC: Well that settles it, 12 hours. That seems realistic. Now it does seem pretty silly to say 8 minutes. I was running on a severe lack of sleep. Trying to make sense of what you're typing whilst half asleep isn't as easy as it may seem. So it was a 12 hour journey. Now back to the story.

The blue markings on the hilt of saber now glow with more intensity, cracking the ground around the alter. Nothing of great effect. More than likely to create an obstacle between himself and Xavier. Gold is slowly invading his once hazel irises. He was now uncharacteristically furious.

"Hear now the gravity of my words. I AM RUNNING OUT OF TIME! Do you have any idea what I sacrificed by coming this far! You could never understand this endless struggle. A struggle between preserving this world or your people! Between protecting yourself, or becoming subject to the cruel path that Fate has set you on. I CAN'T PREVENT THE INEVITABLE!"

He takes from his pocket the rest of the cipher, grabbing the final piece and uniting the two from his pocket he grabs a long thread that he transforms into the Dark Arcanum. Before his very eyes the words and incantations becoming clear to him. After flipping through pages he recited...

"Thorak onvay ohkai corone!"

At that moment the page of the book burned to ashes. The golems had turned to rubble and Logipriest back to humans as promised. But then something unexpected happened. Thanatos drew his saber.... and impaled himself through the chest. The last expression on his face being that of pain. Not physical, but something much much deeper. The book falls near Sandromin's feet, fully translated. Then suddenly time seemed to stop. Xavier and Sandromin were frozen in place. They only watched as an ethereal figure approached Thanatos's lifeless body. The figure appeared to be female. She embraced him almost lovingly.

"It was only inevitable."

It was only a whisper, but her words echoed loudly throughout the room. In an instance, both her and Thanatos's body disappeared, and both Xavier and Sandromin regained control of their bodies as the temple started to collapse around them.

OOC: for simplicity's sake, the memory modification of the logipriests during their transformation back from zombie form only effects identity. That is, we're still speaking English. On a side note, thank god we didn't decide to make up whole new languages yet. Anyway. Identities. This means we don't know who we are, who you are, proper nouns, mostly. We recognise villages, but not their names. If we see a sign saying Venezzia, for example, we will no longer recognise it as a trading, water oriented race of people recently undergone a revolution, but we will then associate you guys as venezzians once more.

END OOC.

-

"Who are you?"
I turned, and a woman was staring at me. She was naked but for a loin cloth and on her body ran the same golden runes over the same greenish skin. The others gathered around and stared at each other as well.
"I... I do not know."

"Why are we here?" The smallest of us squeaked.

"I can't answer that either."

"You know", began a bald, wizened man, the golden lines of runes broken by folds of old skin. "I was looking down at the village, and I saw some who looked similar to us. However, you might not like how they looked."

We all strode over to the edge of the tree line and peered down the hill. I gasped. Strewn across the plain before a coastal town were piles upon piles of ashes, and scattered along the ashes were bodies. Green bodies, with gold runes. They were all dead.

After a long silence, I regained my senses.

"It would seem we are not welcome down there, at least. I assume those were our kind... And we're slaughtered by whoever resides in those towns. Brutes, I'd wager. Look, I see no one else dead besides those who look like us. It did not seem as if we wanted a battle at all."

I turned.

"Friends, I do not know your names. I do not know our purpose. All I know is if we reside here any longer, we will not be treated warmly. We must go."

And with the ringing sense of finality and adventure, I took a step forward... then was paralysed and fell to the ground, unconscious.