The War of the Brothers

[SkaForHire]

The War of the Brothers (Call to Arms AND a LDD Contest See next topic)

This is the story thread, the call to arms and challenge is in thread two.

Backstory:

In the New City district of Eastgate, Dugal’s entourage and one of DaMaximus’s generals Herondle meet to discuss how to bring the Siege of Eastgate to an end. Herondle had just come back from a mission to Ximus, so he was unfamiliar with history that led his master’s army to this point. Dugal explained it to him in brief:

eastgate by skaforhire, on Flickr

The Free City of Eastgate had been ruled by its first Lord Dugal MacLean for five years before it swore allegiance to Kaliphlin in 101 AH. Dugal had gone on a few adventures, leaving Petera, the Second Lord of Eastgate and Dugals first brother in charge of the city. Unbeknownst to most of the population of Historica, Petera , a powerful mage, had been apprenticed to Victor Revolword a few years before becoming the Second Lord of Eastgate.

When the Revolword war broke out, Dugal, Petera, and Paulos (the third brother) fought in the resistance against the destroyer of Historica and his elemental forces. Dugal was preparing to lead one of Historica’s main defenses against Revolword’s men at Queens Cross, but was assassinated on a scouting mission. At the Battle of Queenscross, Paulos took charge and won a narrow victory.

Meanwhile, back in Eastgate, Petera , now First Lord, had erected a magical dome to protect the city from elementals. However, rumors soon surfaced that Petera had been behind the death of his brother. Assassins also struck at Paulos, but he was able to avoid death. A secret message from Dugal arrived to the High Council of Kaliphlin, asking for their support beyond the grave. Lord DaMaximus was to siege Eastgate and put it back in the hands of the merchant council, while defeating Petera. Others, such as Masa and Ageven were to save Merith, Dugal’s Fiance, by secretly removing her from Eastgate.

After Merith’s escape, Petera became openly hostile to Paulos, while still keeping the city open to trading with most of Historica. DaMaximus laid siege to Eastgate, taking the New City area (the portion of the city outside of the walls) and sieging the heavily fortified Old City. Still, Petera was able to supply the city through magical portals, despite Paulos’s agents trying to stop this resupply. At the same time, Masa led the effort to bring Dugal back from the dead. They succeeded, and after another attempt on Dugal’s life, they were now here, in the New City district planning a final assault on Petera and Old Eastgate. It would have to come down to an assault because all attempts to starve the enemy out had been thwarted by Petera’s ability to create magical gates to resupply points.

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Dugal and Paulos

Dugal looked to Paulos, and said “What about a diversion?”

DSC_0928 by skaforhire, on Flickr

All three men in the room knew that the last three attempts on the Old City walls were met with failure. Petera appeared on the parapets himself to fend off the attackers. He hurled lightning from his fists and turned the ground outside the city to molten lava in places. Many men had already died in the siege attempts, and now it was time to do something more clever.

“What did you have in mind? “ Paulos asked.

DSC_0938 by skaforhire, on Flickr

“We split the forces up and try to siege the Inner Bastion (the portion of the old city across the Red River) and the main city from three different points. Then, we lead two strike forces into the heard of the Old City, one will take out the Mage Cabal that controls the Eastgate College of Magic and Navigation. The other will take out GEAR headquarters, and hopefully Petera. “ Dugal drew his plan up on the map.

Herondle looked at the map before him, “that might just work.” He said.

<iframe src="https://www.flickr.c...stream/player/" width="640" height="640" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen></iframe>

“Well, unless we have a better plan I think this is our next…” Dugal was cut off by a messenger running into the room.

“My Lords, grave news! Petera has reinforcements marching South from Avalonia on the Oil Road.” The man said, nearly out of breath.

“We will have to put this plan on hold,” Dugal said. “We must meet these new troops in battle away from the city, as far as possible. I do not want to be sandwiched between Petera on a perch throwing down the elements and whatever this new army has.”

“Agreed” Herondle said. “I will hold the bare minimum of a siege force here, and you lead your forces north to fight this battle.”

“We will need to call for more allies around Historica.”

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Petera

Meanwhile… inside the Old City Walls of Eastgate

DSC_0929 by skaforhire, on Flickr

Petera looked to Elden Logan, the current Second Lord of Eastgate. The Logan family had been quick to ally with him once he revealed his plan. Elden’s family was guaranteed positions on the Merchant’s Council once Eastgate had been secured and his rule was recognized by the other Lords of Kaliphlin.

“If Dugal is really back from the dead, do you not worry that the people of Eastgate that have chosen you will see him as the First Lord still?” Elden muttered. “I mean, you still have not proved that you can call the Golden Axe of Eastgate.” That had been the one thing that he could not do, it belonged to the rightful ruler of the city, and its enchantment had prevented him from calling it. Even when Dugal was dead, the axe never appeared to Petera.

DSC_0934 by skaforhire, on Flickr

“ I can call it just fine.” Petera said. “I have to wait until the right time, in front of my people.” He turned to the matter at hand. “I must use the rift circle to invite our Avalonian guests here. He turned and began to incant. Soon, the glyph on the floor glowed, and a portal to a wooded clearing appeared. A moment later a an Elf and two humans came through the portal.

“Lord Baldwin, Duke Tyweld, and Lord Eldris, so good to you to have joined us. We may be the last of the Order left in this part of the globe.” Petera said. He was referring to the Valkarian Order, a group set up to bring Historica into a golden age. Petera had been initiated into the order by Victor Revolword before Victor went mad with power.

The Valkarian Order had been created over 300 years ago, and was instrumental in establishing Historica about 104 years ago. Since then the order had gone dormant. That was until about ten years ago when powerful and just nobles began disappearing. This included Dugal and Petera’s own father. In fact, that is how his brother became First Lord of Eastgate to begin with. All over Historica nobles, including the second to last king, had disappeared without a trace. The power void caused by the missing leaders led to corruption in all of the guilds and a weak king in Cedrica. The order came back together and was determined to install real leaders in all of the guilds and the capital. There were even desires to take over Varlyio and other continents beyond for the glory of Historica.

Then Victor went crazy. At first the Valkarian Order sided with him, his power play would bring order out of the chaos. But it had become evident that Victor desired power for himself over glory for Historica. Petera had supported Victor until the man finally went mad. Victor had supplied the Spear of Horris to Petera in order to kill and trap his brother. Petera knew that Dugal was part of the old regime, and could never accept what had to be done in Historica to bring glory and strength to the nation. Killing Dugal and taking over Eastgate may have been Victor’s idea, but Petera could see the sense in it.

Petera never thought Dugal would return though. Now they had to do the job all over again.

“What news of your brother?” asked Lord Baldwin. He was a minor border lord in Avalonia, but he had a lot of men. They were conveniently not fighting the dark elves at the moment.

“Well, if he is out there, I am sure he wants the city back. That is why you all are bringing your army south. We will crush the siege against the walls of Eastgate and the war will be won.” Petera Said.

“your war.” Eldris said dryly. “We have failed to turn the Revolword incident into a significant change for Historica.” It was odd having an elf there, Eldris’s clan were one of the few elf clans you intermarried with humans frequently, they also had been an important factor in regional politics for as long as Kaliphlin had existed. They were based on the plains between North Kaliphlin and East Avalonia. Eldris was a wizard also, but much less powerful than Petera, although he had ancient magic, which was always dangerous.

“Once things are settled here, we can begin our plan to take the throne again. We will have to rebuild armies, and the Order will need Eastgate’s army and navy if we are to secure Kaliphlin in the New Historica.” Petera replied. Without a king, many in the Valkarian order wanted to march on Cedrica to claim a seat of power. Petera agreed, but knew that he must hold on to his city in order to have a position on the new Council of Cedrica. A new king would be crowned, and he would be one of the Kingmakers. First, to take care of Dugal.

“I will meet you in two weeks’ time to open the portal for our Mitgardian and Nocturnan allies.” Petera said.

“ Why not portal everyone to the woods outside of the city, they would have no warning.” Duke Tyweld said. Tyweld was a very wealthy Avalonian, wealthy enough to pay the Drow to fight for him in this most recent conflict in Avalonia. Schooled in strategy he was not…

“We need to spread the men sieging this place thin. They will leave half of their army here, the other half will march north, and we will be able to crush each half one at a time.” Eldris answered. “The more powerful Alleenridders of Mpya Stedor will likely stay here, while the other MacLean leads an army north.” This should not be hard, these two armies were severely beat up during the Revolword War.

“Sounds like a plan,” Baldwin chipped in.

“Now is a good time to call those who may be willing to join the Valkarian Order to the field.” Petera said. The three men agreed.

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And for that reason, there would be two battles on the horizon.

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The build for this is a WIP that I probably will not finish. It was supposed to be four scenes, the two talking scenes above, and two scenes of Petera's history. Unfortunately, it has sat for a while and I need to get moving with other things. Plus, the battle for the Wither Woods is going to happen in a little over a month, so I had to introduce the Call to Arms and the LDD challenge sooner rather than later.

DSC_0925 by skaforhire, on Flickr

Edited April 22, 2014 by SkaForHire

[Lord Vladivus]

I was about to say nice "pair" of builds, and then realised it was a single build! Nice build, love the use of the bright colours! Great story too!

Edited April 22, 2014 by Lord Vladivus

[de Gothia]

Lovely color combos! I like the elephant in the room! Did you remove the head for it? Have to read the story when I have more time though..

[Scaevola]

I like the elephant hunting trophy- great story as well.

[TheUtilityBelt]

Nice story, Ska! I too like the elephant.

[-Carson Haupt-]

Nice!

[SkaForHire]

I was about to say nice "pair" of builds, and then realised it was a single build! Nice build, love the use of the bright colours! Great story too!

Yeah, I hoped to get the other scenes in, so that i could put it on a lazy susan and rotate the story. Each of the windows was designed to look into the next part of the story. Like I said, I am not sure if I am going to finish it.

Lovely color combos! I like the elephant in the room! Did you remove the head for it? Have to read the story when I have more time though..

Yep, it is just pegged into a 1x1 with peg hole attached to a headlight brick. Although the thing likes to fall off because of its weight.

I like the elephant hunting trophy- great story as well.

Nice story, Ska! I too like the elephant.

Nice!

Thanks!

[robuko]

Great story Ska, as always. I love the bold colour choices!

[Niku]

Nice story and interesting interiors, strange to see the pink on walls but original also.

[Gideon]

Nice story, looking forward to seeing how this develops!

And nice intro builds, good job with both the interior details and the photography

(Note: The Eastgate battle plan picture seems to have the wrong code, uses iframe instead of BBcode, but the link worked at least)

[Mike S]

Excellent job! I love the colors combos and decorations!

[Hammerhand]

I see now that Dugal is married, his wife is influencing his color choices...

But really nice build, the architecture and color schemes are very pleasing to the eye, and those custom curtains are cool!

[soccerkid6]

I don't think I've ever seen an Elephant trophy head in a build before, it looks pretty cool I like how you angled the table in the first room as well

[HammerBro]

Great story, and the map is very detailed!