Knights of Absolution

"The Chronicles"

Retribution

 

The days seem to be passing rather quickly the past month or so.  With the discovery of this new land called Malas, the Knights have been busy with exploration.  It's a wonderful thing to discover new lands, with new possibilities.  Yet I still worry.  This Malas seems peaceful enough, although we did encounter some dark robed wizards outside of a city in that land known as Umbra.  The Paladins we met in the only other city named Luna, warned us of these dark ones.  Hinting that their magic was related to the dead.  Thankfully though our encounter with them was without incident.

 My mind is set to a new level of awareness however.  With the discovery of new lands also most times comes the discovery of trouble.  It was so when the lands of Ilshenar were found.  The Juka proved to be quite a handful.  It makes me wonder what Malas may have in store for us further down the road.  We shall, however, take our message of Absolution to the people there.  As well we will continue our helping ways with the people of Malas as we do with our countrymen here in Britannia.  Recently we completed the construction of our new Malas home, which we have named Draconshadow Keep.  It is a good name, for it has been the name of our home here for many years.

 I suppose I should wrap up this journal entry as I am expecting the last scouting party to arrive home from Malas.    We have heard of a place there called Doom.  The Paladins in Luna told us about it but offered us little more information other than to never go there.  We sent out one scouting party several weeks ago and have not seen or heard from them since.  I can only assume some ill fate has befallen them.  Three more parties were sent out a week ago.  Two returned with nothing and the last is due in at any moment.  What news shall they bring for me?  Will they have found the missing Knights?  Did they find this place called Doom? I despise the suspense of waiting.  I only hope they bring good news, yet all I see as I look out the window are dark skies.  A hint of something evil is in the air.  I like it not!

 

Day 68 of the year 942

 

            Lord Kalatar, Guildmaster of the Knights of Absolution, looked up wearily as he finished his journal entry to a knock at his office door.  He had not told anyone he would be in here so he wondered who had found him this late at night.  Had the last scouting party finally returned?  "Come in." He said as the door slowly creaked open.

"Kal? Kal I have been looking for you everywhere."  The Lady Jirel stood radiant in the doorway, dressed in her white skirt and forest green leather hunting armor.  Guildmistress of the Knights and wife to him she was very good at finding his hiding spots.

"Jirel, please come in my dear.  Has there been any word?  Has the last scouting party returned?" The look in his eyes showed he was hopeful for some news.

"No Hun, I am sorry, they have not yet returned and no one has yet to see them."  She walked to the window and peered out with worry.  "I am beginning to wonder myself."  Turning to look at him.  "They should have returned hours ago"

Kal slowly got up from his cushioned chair and walked up behind her, gently laying a hand on her shoulder, admiring the fiery red curls of her long hair.  "I guess we should not worry to much."  Brushing a loose strand of hair from her cheek he said, "Tupacalypse was leading the party and you know how hardheaded he is."  He grinned.  "He most likely spied an ogre on the way back and is chasing it all over the countryside so that he can, as he says: "put the poor thing out of it's misery!"  They will return I am sure."

Jirel smiled slightly and said, "I hope you are right Kal."  She turned to face him as the moon broke briefly through the dark clouds, silhouetting her shape from behind through the window.  "We have already lost ten Knights from the very first scouting party we sent out."  She frowned a bit.  "I would not want to see us lose more."

"Nor would I my dear."  Kal said.  "You trained the men in the scouting parties well Jirel."  He took her hands in his. "I am sure they are out there somewhere safe and sound."  He turned and walked back to his desk sitting once again, shuffling through reports that the other two parties had made after returning from Malas. "The others found nothing at all.  No trace of our Knights.  Its as if they vanished into thin air."  He leaned back relaxing a bit in his chair.  "I truly hope Tup had better luck.  He did have Osiris with him and he's the best tracker I have ever seen."

Jirel walked to the desk as well and sat in a chair across from him.  She looked tired and worn from worry.  She had been a Ranger for a long time and the men she had trained were very important to her.  They were her own small army, which she had named the Jackals.  Each one had become a close friend, and now ten of them were missing, with another ten long overdue in returning home as well.

She looked across the desk at him.  "What if Tup and his party fail to return as well Kal?  What do we do then?"  She looked up at him with glassy eyes.

He could tell this was weighing heavily on her.  "Don't think that way J.  They will return."  He straightened a bit.  "We must have faith in Tupacalypse's abilities as both a warrior and a leader."  He set down the papers he had been looking through.  "He has been my Second in Command for a long time now.  He's good at what he does."  Turning a bit in the chair he said, "He'll bring them home."  Kalatar could not help but notice that Jirel did not look any less worried than she had before.  He looked out the window for a moment checking the position of the moon in the sky as it once again briefly broke through the clouds.  "It’s getting late."  He looked back to Jirel.  "Why don't you go ahead and get yourself some sleep.  There's no use in you exhausting yourself staying up worrying all night."

She looked at him with heavy eyes that betrayed her words.  "If I could even get to sleep.  Most likely I would lay there staring about the room."

Kal got up and walked around the desk to her, holding out his hand to help her out of her chair.  "Why don't you go see Kadar?"  She took his hand and he helped her stand.  "I'm sure he is still in his lab playing around with some experiment of his."  He stopped for a moment near the door and turned her to him.  "See if he can make you something to help you get some sleep."  Kal kissed her lightly on the forehead.  "Go get rest my dear, I will be to bed shortly."

She looked up at him then turned and walked slowly through the door, lightly shutting it as she stepped through.

The Lord of Absolution walked back to his desk, sitting in his overstuffed chair relaxing as a gentle breeze sifted through the open window.  "Where are you Tup?"  He whispered to the ceiling as he leaned his head back and rubbed his temples.  "What's going on out there?"  He sat there for a long time before his weary body and mind finally let sleep overtake him.  As he slept he dreamed, and in his dreams all he saw were shadows.

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            He was hurt badly, but he could not stop to rest.  He must keep moving or they might catch up to him again.  He had made the mistake of stopping once already and they had found him quickly.  The bloody war hammer in his hands had dispatched a few of them allowing him to escape, but not without the injuries he currently carried.  I'm not going to last much longer at this rate.  Thought the injured man.  But I must survive to tell them what I saw.  He stumbled and fell as he turned to look in the direction of a loud sound in the trees to his left.  C'mon Tup get yourself up and RUN!  He yelled to himself in his mind.  Tupacalypse, Second in Command of the Knights of Absolution picked himself up off the ground and despite his injuries ran like the wind.  He could still feel something behind him, so close, so evil.

            Tup was alone now as he ran.  He was the last one of ten that had left over a week ago to find the missing Knights.  They had found them all right.  They had almost become missing themselves.  The visions of what they had seen when they had found the missing party would not leave his mind.  It was grotesque, it turned his stomach, and it made him angrier than anything ever had in his life.  One of his own party was lost soon after the finding as they were beset upon by creatures unlike anything they had ever seen.  The lost man had given his own life so that Tup and the others could escape and carry the information home.  It was not as easy as that though.  They were followed.  One by one they fell as they raced through the first leg of their journey home.  Now Tup was all alone.

            He slipped again on some rocks that managed to find their way under his feet.  As he tried to keep his balance something very large hit him from behind, sending him rolling to the ground.  He caught his breath quickly getting up as fast as he could, then turned and swung his hammer as fast and hard as possible.  He heard a wet crunch and felt the breaking of bones as he hit his target.  A grotesque, fleshy form fell to the ground before him.  He looked at the fallen beast only for a second before incredible pain lanced through his left shoulder nearly bringing him to his knees.  The things claws had opened a new wound on the back of his shoulder, ripping through his already tattered chain mail as if it were only paper.  He was bleeding heavily now.

            He needed to get moving again.  The first evidence that the sun was coming up was the faint light sifting through the treetops.  If only he could just make the edge of the forest.  He was so closer to being home.  He stumbled forward no longer able to run as he had.  Tup hoped there were no more of those things following him.  If so then he would be unable to fight them with any effectiveness.  His shoulder wound began to burn painfully.  The beast's claws must have been poisonous.  His pace was slowing steadily as he looked up and saw a much lighter patch of forest a ways ahead of him.  Home.  He thought.  He stumbled forward again barely able to pick up his feet, dropping his favorite hammer as he could no longer grip its handle.  He reached the lighter area and realized he had finally come to the edge of the forest.  He stepped out of the trees into the dawning light, and not far away in front of him saw the towering walls of a great keep.  Tup smiled briefly.  He had made it.  He was still alive.  He was within sight of home.  In the light of a new day, within a few minutes of home, darkness overtook him and he slowly slumped to the ground.

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            It was still early morning yet when Kalatar was awakened by the sound of horns blowing throughout the keep.  The horns were a warning that someone or something was approaching.  Tup's party.  He quickly thought.  He threw himself out of the chair he had fallen asleep in nearly tearing down the door and he slammed through it.  He made a hard left and raced to the telepad at the end of the hall that would take him down into the courtyard.  He reached the pad and hastily stepped onto it instantly being teleported to the matching pad in the yard far below.

            He stepped quickly off the courtyard pad and was instantly greeted from across the yard by his brother Kadar Shadowfax, who was a renowned Alchemist of Grandmaster ability.

"What news Kadar?"  Kalatar yelled.  "Who approaches the keep?"

Kadar came running up to him.  "A man stumbled out of the forest a moment ago and collapsed."  He paused a moment to catch his breath.  "Not sure who it is yet."

"Only one man?"  Kal asked." No more with him?"

Kadar looked at him a bit worried.  "No one else came out with him."  He waved towards the gate.  " Some of the guard has been sent out to bring him in."

Kal looked around the courtyard. "Where is Jirel?  I don't see her anywhere."

"Most likely still asleep brother."  Kadar said.  "She came to me in my lab late last night and I gave her some tea herbs to help her sleep."  He smirked a bit.  "They are very effective."

They turned quickly at the sound of the guards atop the wall yelling for them that the men sent out had reached the collapsed man at the edge of the forest.

Kalatar turned quickly to his brother.  "Kadar go wake up Jirel and get her down here please."  He looked back towards the gate.  "And get a healer out here we will need him I imagine."  Looking back to Kadar.  "Do it fast I want that healer here before they get back with this man."

Kadar turned and ran as fast as he could into the keep to carry out his brother's orders.

"They have reached the man!"  A guard on top of the wall yelled.  "He does not appear to be moving!"  The guard turned and looked back out to the forest edge.  "They are picking him up and starting back now!"

Kalatar rushed hurriedly to the gates to wait their return with the man.  He peered worriedly out at them but from this distance could tell nothing of the one they carried.  Tup I hope that's you and you better be alive.  He thought.  And if it is you then where are your men, and Osiris?  They were getting closer to the gate now and he could make out a bit more of the features of the man.  It was then that he saw the bloodied war hammer that one guard carried and his heart began to pound a bit harder.  As the guards came into the gate Kal could finally see that the man they carried indeed was his Second in Command.  They laid Tup down on the ground in front of him.

"By the gods Tup, what happened to you?"  Kal kneeled down beside him and lifted his head.  "Tup?  Can you hear me my friend?"

"He's still alive Sir."  One of the guards told Kal.  "But only just barely.  He needs medical attention badly."

Kal looked down at his torn friend and cradled his head.  "Tup…Tup come on wake up."

Tupacalypse's eyes opened just a bit as he looked up with slight recognition.  "Kal?  Kal… am I home… did I make it home?"

Barely able to stand the sight of how badly injured his Second in Command was he replied, "Yes my friend… you are home… you are safe now."  He paused a moment.  "Tup, what happened, where are the others?"

Tup struggled to speak as a wracking cough overtook him.  Blood trickled from the corners of his mouth.  He settled a bit and said, "Kal… I tried… tried to bring them home."  He coughed slightly again and shuddered a bit.  "We found them… the missing… Knights."  His eyes started to close again.

"Tup!"  Kal said.  "Please my friend try and tell me what happened."

Kal heard the sounds of rushing feet as Kadar and the healer ran up from behind him.

Tup's eyes opened again only barely and he said,  "Kal… their gone…all dead."  He shuddered again.  "Osiris…  Kal… Osiris is dead!"  And with that the darkness once again took him and he slumped unconscious in Kalatar's arms.

Kal looked at his friend as the guards carried him away with the healer.  He stood slowly barely registering everything Tup had just said.  Osiris…not Osiris…

The Lady Jirel burst through the main doors leading into the keep and saw her husband standing in the middle of the courtyard.  His once pure white robes stained by the blood of one of his closest friends.  She watched as he threw back his head and raised his arms to the morning sky and screamed in fury as tears of sadness and anger overcame him.