The Ultimate Artifact Part 1

Jeros

Part of the furniture
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Dec 27, 2003
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It was a sunny day as Jeros and Loreal walked through the east gate of camelot, Jeros turned to Loreal and said “Do you have anything you need to get?” Loreal replied “nothing that cannot wait until after the seminar” , “ok” replied Jeros and they made there way to the academy.

Loreal Plainswalker was Jeros cousin that had moved to Ludlow from Cotswold, he was younger than Jeros and was a Cleric, He had come to stay with Jeros and his brother Gereld the retired armsman, while Jeros was out adventuring Gereld had filled young Loreals head with stories of adventure and glory, Loreal decided he wanted to follow in Jeros and Gerelds steps, and being very religious went to see the acolyte trainer at humberton castle and received a training mace and shield and went out to hunt beasts for five seasons, then he became a cleric, Jeros returned home one day, tired from trials in far away Atlantis, he walked in and was surprised to see Loreal sitting at the fireplace cleaning blood off his mace, Jeros asked were he had got the mace and Loreal told him of his exploits then he decided to ask the question he had been waiting to ask for a long time, ”Jeros, you have achieved so much and helped so many people, i want to do my best to help others as well, and uphold the word of god in this land, will you take me with you on your adventures and show me how to be a hero?”, Jeros was shocked and after repeatedly telling Loreal of the dangers involved in adventuring he agreed to take Loreal with him, Jeros liked the idea of having another member of his family defending the realm, besides ”its always good to have a cleric around” he thought, Jeros had been training Loreal for thirty five seasons, and Loreal had lernt how to increase Jeros and others physical abilities greatly while learning some healing magic aswell.

When they got to the academy they met with one of the scribes at the entrance who showed them to there seats, the large outside courtyard of the academy had been filled with rows of wooden seats and at the end were you would normally enter the academy main building was a large desk with luxuroius chairs behind it, Jeros said as he sat down “i dont think this will be very interesting” Loreal smiled and said “dont be silly Master Tarkov is the oldest wizard in camelot!, nay.....albion!”, After about half and hour the academy was filled with people, more came than there were chairs and they were allowed to stand by the walls, Jeros looked around, he saw what he expected to see loads and loads of spell casters, wizards, thurgists, cabalists, a few necromancers, sorcerers and one or two clerics and friars, amongst this mass of casters Jeros spotted a few mercenaries and paladins, he even saw an armsman he knew.

Loreal patted him on the shoulder and said “here they come” Jeros turned back around in his seat and watched, five old men with long beards came out of the academy main building , all holding staves and the fifth to exit was Master Tarkov, he had a golden luxuroius robe covered with deigns and patterns, and in his hand was a large yellow glowing staff that was bent at the top, he sported a HUGE white beard and walked slowly showing his considerable age, he sat down at the table in the middle of the other four, he almost immedilaty stood back up and in a quiet elderly voice addressed the crowd “greetings to you all, thank you for coming to this seminar that will cover how magic effects us in a daily lives and how we can use it to drive the evil from this land and defeat our enemies in the frontiers”, Jeros rolled his eyes in his head, Master Tarkov had always talked down to him when he was training to become a master minstrel and indeed Master Tarkov did not consider minstrels a true part of the academy, whitch is why indeed Jeros was the only minstrel there! we had come because Loreal had wanted to come.

After about half an hour Master Tarkov started to recite a passage from “Magic, a begginers guide by Merlin” word for word, Jeros had heard and read this at least a hundred times when he was training and he could take it no more, Jeros got up and left, he apologeticly pushed past people and walked out of the main entrance, he was about to walk towards the market when he heard a voice “psst Jeros, over here!” Jeros immediately recognized the voice of his friend Sclient the Infiltrator, Jeros peered into the area were he heard the voice and saw the dull shadow of the hiding Scilent, “Scilent!, what on earth are you hiding for in the middle of Cam.....” Jeros was interrupted as another Infiltrator putting a hand over his mouth and a womens voice whispered in his ear “I know your trained to sing but do you think you could keep quiet for once” Scilent whispered “Jeros, meet me at the guild of shadows, its very important” Jeros felt the hand move away from his mouth and he looked around, No one was around, the people the frequent this part of camelot were all in the seminar, Jeros took one last look around and melted away in the shadows, Jeros started life as rouge after all, and if theres anything rogues do well, its hiding.

Loreal walked out of the main entrance of the academy, the seminar had been going for four hours and Loreal had found it rather boring in all honesty, he noted to himself that he should listen to Jeros more often, Were was Jeros though? Loreal thought for a moment and realized were Jeros would most likely be, in the bars chatting up young maidens, Loreal chuckled and made his way to the nearest pub, he spent a hour going round to every pub and tavern in Camelot but could not find Jeros, eventully he checked out the markets, he still did not see Jeros but became distracted by a man selling holy items and began to peruse the merchants wares, “I will take this Cross please” he said to the man holding up a large golden Cross, “40 gold pieces” said the merchant, Loreal was surprised at the cost and started to open his gold pouch, “Dont rip him off Darran, he's a mate” said Jeros suddenly, Loreal jumped in surprise and turned around to see Jeros smiling face, Darran the merchant chucked and said ”Sorry Jeros dint realize this cleric was your friend, 20 gold pieces mate”.

Jeros and Loreal walked towards the exit, it was getting dark, ”So were did you disappear to then Jeros?” asked Loreal, ”some sinful madians bed chamber no doubt!” Jeros laughed and said ”something like that” and rubbed the back of his neck, Loreal knew that meant he was lying, you dont spend thirty five seasons with someone and not get to know them.

Back at home Jeros was staring at the fire with a blank expression on his face, Loreal was cooking a meal at the fire and noticed Jeros face, ”What is the matter old friend?” he inquired with concern, Jeros turned to him and said ”oh nothing, after dinner get some sleep, we have a big day ahead of us tommrow” Loreal replied “keep raid?” Jeros said “you will see in the morning”.

The next day Loreal awoke to Jeros footsteps in the hallway, Jeros was NEVER awake before Loreal was and was certainly not a morning person, infact Loreal had often become very angry in attempts to get Jeros out of bed, Loreal opened the door to his room slightly and peered out , Jeros was fully clad in his best armour and was sitting at the fireplace as he had done the night before and was filling too large backpacks with food, blankets and other supplies, Loreal was glad he had just lernt a new strength increasing spell, he would need it to carry that heavy thing, highlander though he was, Loreal put on his armour and walked into the main room, Jeros looked up and said “Here” and threw a backpack into Loreals arms, “OOOOF!” was Loreals reply, the backpack was very heavy and Loreal awkwardly put it on his back, Loreal asked “We are going to another realm i take it?” , Jeros simply said “Yes”, And sat back down and started to sharpen his swords.

They left the house as the sun was still behind the hills and there was a backlit darkness about the black mountains, they got on a horse and made there way to castle Suavage, Jeros was very quiet the whole journey, when they arrived at castle suavage they met with a mercenary, he was clad in Atlantis armour and was equipped with atlantis weapons too, Jeros and he spoke quietly to one another and the mercenary look at Loreal, Loreal puffed out his chest and tryed to look big and powerful, the mercenary went back to talking to Jeros.

Jeros walked over to Loreal and said, “ok lets go”, “To where?” asked Loreal started to get annoyed, Jeros had not yet said where they were going and Loreal did not like going to some ware dangerous and not knowing were it was!, but Jeros would not say, Jeros the mercenary and Loreal made there way into the frontiers, Loreal learned the mercenary name was Rhauc and was a member of the Drakan Templars, Loreal began to ask “So were ARE we goi....” Jeros interrupted him with “Caer Culbridge” Loreal replied “Caer What? , “Caer Culbridge” repeated Jeros, “there is no keep of that name” said Loreal, “Wait and see” said Rhauc, they walked for what seemed like hours, and eventully got a forest and began to make there way through it.

They got to a large clearing and Rhauc took a step forward and bellowed “Fellwood!” there was a pause of a few seconds then there was a creaking and the sound of metal chains moving, suddenly a large trapdoor opened in the ground, Loreals eyes widened and mouth opened, he had never seen anything like this before, Jeros face remained emtionless, “Come” said Rhauc and motioned them to follow him and the three walked down a ramp into the ground and came to a large reinforced metal door, there was a mechanical sound yet again it the huge door opened, and they walked through, they came into the top of a massive room and Loreal walked forwards and put his hands on a wooden railing, he was speechless, all around the massive room there were walkways on the sides, with stairs leading up and down with wooden lifts moving up and down infrount of them, the whole area was circular and was a hive of activity all around there were people going about tasks, some carrying wood some discussing things with each other, others inspecting weapons or examining notices pinned on large board, Loreal looked up, high up there were several battlistas on raised platforms, above them were nets with dirt on top of them, and chains attached to the nets, ”if this place comes under attack the nets and pulled away and the battlistas are raised up into the clearing” Said Rhauc, Loreal turned around and stammered out ”What......What is this place?” Jeros looked at him and said, ”Welcome to Caer Culbridge....the rouge keep".

The conclusion will come tommrow :)
 

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