OOC: Great. Earth

IC: Exile focused, building up the power of Earth Elemental Magic inside him and spoke a word of summoning "Come forth, Stonewall."

Lucas

Lucas arrives to see Exile with a little army of undead minions along with him rising something from the ground.

"Oh goody. This is not going to end well."

OOC: While Exile and Jack were at the graveyard Kamelion was at the temple.

At the Temple

Kamleion ventured to the temple. It was a simple building with little in the way of adornment. But not for the signposts out front, there was little to indicate that it was even a temple in the first place.

The signs simply read, "Temple."

"How strange," Kamelion wondered, temple of what? Temple of whom? I've never seen such a generic worship center."

A series of tall bushes and vines lined the exterior. Kamelion detected a hint of smoke from within.

The guards at the front doors were dismissive. As he attempted to push his way into the temple, they quickly shoved him out of the way.

"Temple's closed for the week," they say to Kamelion, "you'll turn around now if you know what's good for you."

[Quest unlocked]

OOC: By the time Kamelion returned to the group:
10 minutes until rendezvous

OOC: It looks like it's been decided that you will all converge on the shack of Lucas' assailant. Wait until the scheduled time or head there early?

OOC: I don't know about everyone else but....

Lucas

Lucas starts searching for any way to get a drop on the enemy from above. If not he would search for any other entrance.

Exile would do the frontal assault, with a stone elemental and three undead, chances were slim for him to get hurt

OOC: Guess the fight is joined!

Lucas

OOC: Lucas rolls 2/5 - Athletics.

He finds a small window on the side of the shack and crawls up the wall. All the windows are either small or covered. Visibility is limited. You detect a single man seated at an end table just below you, tipping a mug of ale to his bearded face. He appears to be armed with a battle axe. There is a horn around his neck... possibly to sound an alert.

OOC: If/when you decide to do so, you should be able to leap down from the window sill and attack him by surprise using athletics.

Exile

The wooden door on the shack is cracked open - slightly. Entering the building through the front should be no problem. It is eerily quite inside.

"They said they would outnumber us..yet no noise can be heard within.... strange," Exile thinks.

5 minutes. OOC: Anyone can make the first move... if they dare!

Exile decides it was time as he knocks on the door, leaving the earth elemental between him and the attack as the undead stood around the door

OOC: Enter first, or give Lucas the sign to launch his sneak attack from the window?

Zaranak glanced across the beggar's faces as they spoke. Upon them ending, he replied "About your house infestation, I'll see to it once my current quest has concluded. venomous spiders in the middle of a city is dangerous enough alone." he then let a moment pass by as reminisced upon their words regarding the army.
"Intriguing... This coup - do you know why it took place, and why these Knights of the Ton have been condemned for treason? And why would the army chase them down? If you worry for my allegiance, understand that it is currently to neither party. As you have pointed out multiple times, I am, after all, Quenhali."

OOC: Lucas the sign for the sneak attack. Am I really the team leader again? lol

Lucas

Lucs attempts to knockout the man with the battle axe with his sword.

OOC:Really need to proof read my writing, even on the forums.

OOC: Would work out. Exile IS going in the front way

In the slums

The youngest beggar again rubs his bushy white beard before replying, "Oh, you see that's quite o'story, going back some ways now...20 years and 4 monarchs."

He turns to his comrades, seeking their approval to continue. The elder nods, and the man resumes,

"So as not to confuse you, I should tell you that we... that is, the 3 of us," he says, pointing to his friends, "we like to refer to Monarchs by their numbers rather than their names. Why, you ask? Because they're all bastards and don't deserve the dignity of their names, o'right?

Some 20 years ago, maybe more, we had King the 131st. He was probably the least bastardly of the lot, I'd say. Looked out for those of us in the slums, he did.

There was once a town just east of here. They called it Den Sile. During the reign of King the 131st, they pushed westwards into our woodland areas, claiming them as their own hunting grounds.

That led to o'whole bunch o'problems, namely starvation, as hunting had always been our way of life. These forsaken slums you see here? Used to be half the size. But with our food sources so diminished, many more fell into poverty...

Now, the Knights of the Ton was an order of men loyal to the crown of Hammerhall. Damned if they weren't the best fighting force south of the marshes.

So, King the 131st dispatched them to liberate our hunting grounds from Den Sile. Their mission proved to be much more difficult than expected, for reasons that still aren't clear to this day, but fight they did....

By the end of the war, Den Sile was ruined, but a group of their renegades persisted in terrorizing the lands just east.

The length of the war caused King the 131st to fall out of favor, and the Knights of the Ton suffered many casualties, nearly three-quarters of their order fell in the war.

A new group rose to power, one that claimed to speak for "the people." They advocated a bunch of nonsense ideas, like 'farming is a superior way of life compared to hunting'"

The beggar rolled his eyes, "Farming, Quenhali! Have you heard such madness?

"Be that as it may, these people rose to power and installed King the 132nd, who was a way bigger bastard than King the 131st. He raised taxes even further, and used that to build his own fighting force to track down and kill the Knights of the Ton. He knew that the Knights would be the major obstacle standing between him and complete control over Hammerhall. Not to mention, he didn't even *try* to reclaim our hunting grounds. Total, total bastard, I'd say.

To this day, you'll still find a ragtag clan of Den Sile roaming the woods just east, causing all kinds of mayhem.

Needless to say, this King the 132nd quickly fell out of favor, and with his own little army stretched out across the world, tracking the Knights... he was rather easy to overthrow in just a few years.

That brings us to Queen the 133rd, whose reign only ended recently. She liberated the jailed Knights, well, those that were alive, at least. Things were quiet under her reign, but she was promising to rebuild the army and take the woodlands back once and for all.

Course, people can't just be content with good things, can they, Quenhali?

So here we go again with King the 134th, telling us he's gonna show us all o'bout the 'wonders' of agri-culture! I'll be damned! A man needs meat, right Quenhali? A man could use a purse too, that would help. Least then we could buy some meat.

Point being, King the 134th says that King the 132nd didn't "go far enough," so now he's claimed the throne to capture the rest of the Knights of the Ton once and for all and punish them for that 'treasonous war' against Den Sile. Treason? What a joke!

That's a brief history of this most unfortunate situation. If you were from around here, bet you would agree that the Knights must be restored.

Thank you for agreeing to help us out with the infestation. Nobody gets hurt that we make a little profit, too, you know?

Anything else we can tell you?"