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Book 1 :The Exile of the Republic

Paragraph 1. The Awakening of Dragoncastle. 


"My lord, my lord, We spotted a strange light above Tristram!", Dragonking slowly rose up from his bed still struggling against the effects of the deep sleep he just rudely awoken from. When he looked up he saw in the doorway a fully armored knight. "What are you talking about, Braveheart?", Braveheart was that night the captain of the watch. He had expected an easy watch as he already had done the same duty countless times without any disturbances. But tonight all that was going to change. "My lord, lookouts have reported that the sky above Tristram is stangely illuminated, i already have sent a small force to look into the situation." Dragonking walked toward one of the windows looking out in the direction of Tristram. Indeed the sky was brightly lit above Tristram and a sudden feeling of danger awoke Dragonking fully and with a loud voice he began ushering commands. Ten minutes later the whole Citadel of Dragoncastle was bustling with activity. Dragonking, with all off his knights, had taken up seat in the throneroom. All were speaking at the same time and the situation was confusing . "I sent Darija with the force from the eastern gate to investigate one hour ago"' said Braveheart. A knight dressed in shining silver armor spoke with caution but was not able to hide some exitement. "Well then they are overdue, we had to hear something from her by now", Dragonking looked at the knight and replied 'Well then in any case we will have to fear the worst then , knight Mightnmagic ,and we will have to know soon if Count Pjotr and Baron Maximus and Baron Crovax are assembling their forces also. So send out scouts to warn them". "We still do not know what caused this light., it could be just a barnfire". Dragonking looked over the long table to the knight who spoke these words. Knight Neonium stood the farthest away from Dragonking and his eyes were primed on the table as serv ants were busy with bringing maps, documents and other writing materials. "Well in any case we must act with caution.' spoke Dragonking and he started to unfold the maps. At that moment the sound of the horns from the castles lookouts ended all discussion. And almost immidiately a guard enterd the throneroom. "My lords, there is movement on the way leading to our castle at one hour travel, however it is slow and sounds of battle can be heard". For a moment all the knights looked at each other and then at their Noble . Dragonking looked them in the eye and answered their expectations "Well lets ride then! Nothing gained by waiting here. Saddle the horses, we will look for ourselves and see what this disturbence is". Five minutes later a large force left the eastern gate toward Tristram, Dragonking and his knights led the way into the dark toward the bright light of burning Tristram.


Paragraph 2. The fall of Tristram


"Hurry, run! Leave that behind!" For over two hours knight Darija was busy with the still growing flow of refugees fleeing Tristram toward Dragoncastle. Most people were carrying too much baggage and the stream of people was moving too slow. The sounds of battle were coming closer and Darija knew that is was still one hour ride from the safety of Dragoncastle. She could still not believe what she had seen. Only hours ago she rode out the eastern gate from Dragoncastle to investigate the light above Tristram. But nothing prepared her and her party for the horrific sight of burning Tristram and the forces of Evil roaming the streets. Skeletons, Carvers, zombies and other beasts were plundering and burning the town. Near the center of town a small force was holding their ground helped by some townspeople. Darija immediately recognized Dannato and some other knights from the Council Guard. She pressed on through the evil infested streets of Tristram, and managed to fight toward the besieged force. Onl y then she saw that Lord_Mystic was among them. Standing on top of the basin of the fountain he was wielding a two-handsword which wrecked havoc in the ranks of the servants of Hell. When he saw Darija approaching he quickly faught his way toward her and through the sounds of battle yelled at her "Noble knight all is lost here, I do not know where the others from the council are. I will give you this extremely important mission; Ride back toward Dragoncastle, warn Dragonking and the other nobles and most important warn the all people along the way because as you can see we cannot hold this town much longer". Only then she looked toward the river and saw what seemed to be an ocean of undead pouring over the two bridges toward the town. There was some fighting at one of the bridges but it was just a matter of time untill all defenders here were overun. "My lord councillor, i cannot abandon you here" she answered. Lord_Mystic quickly looked around and replied. "Well then we fight and leave together, besides I will not let everybody here die in vain". At that moment the Rising Sun , burning already for over an hour, collapsed in a blaze of fire. Lord_Mystic looked around and saw Dannato fighting off four goatmen by the healers house. Pepin had already died in the first wave of the attack and his broken body lied in the doorway. Quickly Lord_Mystic turned to a knight fighting beside him "Knight Eraser tell the First Knight.that we must sound the retreat now and try to break our encirclement or we are never going to get away!." Eraser ,while fighting off an attack of skeletal warriors , hurried to get to his commander and finally reached him. And after some moments the horn shouted the retreat. Quickly Lord_Mystic turned toward Darija and spoke "Well, make haste, we will try to break free here, when we succeed you must quickly travel west and warn all people of this danger. I will try to find the rest of the council's whereabouts". Lord_Mystic knew perfectly well that Dennizon and Albertus were on a hunting trip an d the last he saw Silencer, just a few hours ago, he was studying the books in the councils library. She tried to answer him but Lord_Mystic had already thrown himself back into the battle. Slowly but steadily the defenders moved away from the fountain to the western road leading awayfrom the town. However, the forces of evil pressed on and the defenders were almost overwhelmed. Suddenly great balls of fire swooped down on the attacking forces of evil. At a hill nearby two figures were standing and with massive firebalss were doing great damage in the surprised forces of evil. One knight shouted, "It is Dennizon, and I see Albertus also!" Albertus and Dennizon, had travelled with high speed toward Tristram for over an hour. They had been hunting the whole day and became aware of trouble when they left the hunting cabin in the dense forest to travel back to Tristram. Only then the strange light above Trisram became visible. The whole road back Dennizon looked at Albertus who was uncharacteristicly silent. H e only uttered the same words over and over "Not again, please not again". Dennizon knew of Albertus' dark history and his self induced exile from his homelands in the east but he himself was struggling with his thoughts also. When the hunting party was near Tristram it became clear that there was a battle being fought and they prepared themselves for battle. When they reached the vinyard overlooking the town of Tristram, their breath stopped for a moment. The whole town had been set on fire. The streets were crowded with beasts and undead. It was almost impossible to distinguish friend from foe in the large masses of beings within the narrow streets of Tristram. Suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere, a woman wearing a purple robe approached them. "My lords, quickly look, there are still many of our townsfolk and knights fighting in the town." Adria pointed down toward a melee and both suddenly saw the standard of the Council Guard that they had missed before. "I have enough potions with me, quickly we mu st help them to escape". Quickly Albertus drank the potion offered by Adria and walked downhill a bit. After some concentration Dennizon joined him and both men exerted themselves, hurling massive fireballs towards the nearest enemies, trying to force a 'path' which the defenders could use for their retreat. And silently behind the two man, Adria put down all of her potions, and vanished into the night.The confusion which temporarely stunned the legions of hell was not lost on Lord_Mystic and the defenders as they quickly broke free from their encirclement towards the western road. After some minutes, the remnants of the defenders of the town reached the hill were Albertus and Dennizon were standing. "Thank all that is good that you arrived on time", Lord_Mystic spoke to his fellow councillors. Lord_Mystic looked around and saw to his great relieve Darija leaving to the west with a small force of men. "We must try to hold them here as long as we can and try to find Councillor Silencer", Dannato shouted while trying to stop the bleeding from a deep wound in his forehead. "Did you see Silencer?" Albertus asked. Lord_Mystic, nodding slowly, replied ,"No, I havent seen him since this afternoon. He was going to study in the library". "The, library?" Dennizon asked softly. The three men looked toward a large building beset in flames just one mile east of Tristram. The library was build only a year ago by Ghostkillah.. Ghostkillah was a counciller then, but he left the council soon after the completion of the library to build libraries all over Sanctuary. However, there was little time to contemplate this, as the legions of Evil had shaken of their surprise and pressed on towards the vineyard. Dannato, stood still and spoke with aloud voice, " The councilguard will not leave untill we know the whereabouts of Councillor Silencer. We will hold the road open for as long as we can but, I must ask you noble lords leave now before escape becomes impossible". The three councillors looked at Dannato and knew that there was nothing they could do to persuade the First Knight to other thoughts, besides, there wasn't much three more men could accomplish here. With the three councillors relatively safe, all of the guard were busy searching for one councillor they had not yet accounted for. The three councillors joined the stream of refugees and wound their way west while the Council Guard and some townspeople prepared themselves as quickly as they could on the little vineyard hill.


Paragraph 3. Vineyard Hill.


For one hour now the small force of Council Guard and townspeople fought off wave after wave of attacking servants of Hell. Skeletons, Carvers, Goatmen and other figures ,which were too horrific to describe, tried to work their way up the hill. At the foot of the hill, the broken bodies of hundreds of creatures were vivid evidence of the fierce fighting. Dannato was worried, they kept the western road open for over an hour now, and that was an accomplishment already. However, there was still no word of the whereabouts of Councillor Silencer and they were completely surrounded. There was no chance of escape without help and Dannato knew that help was not likely to come. So there rested nothing more then to hold on to the hill as long as they could so the council could warn Dragonking. In the last hour they saw , in the almost burned town below .helpelesly that elder Cain and other townspeople were taken away in bondage. Nobody knew what was in store for them but it was most probably too horrific to im agine. "Look out, there they come again!" knight Neutie yelled. And again the defenders prepared themselves , tired as they were, to ward them off. Some 50 yards below, a wall of skeleton warriors marched uphill. From behind the hill skeletal archers had the defenders pinned down. Dannato looked around, the spirit of the defenders was still not broken. However this massive attack could be the end. "Steady people, let them come closer" Dannato ordered. When the attacking skeletons had almostreached the top, the defenders rose up and a fiece fight broke out. At some places the defenders had to give way and for the first time parts of the hilltop were overun by the enemy. The circle of the defenders shrunk steadily and all seemed lost. Suddenly, the attackers stood still and slowly retreated downhill again. Surprised and confused the defenders looked into the darkness. And after a couple of seconds, they heard what was causing the retreat of the enemy. The distinct sound of a warhorn was heardcoming from the s outh-east of Tristram. And after some minutes, the sound of battle was heard coming from that direction. The silence that befell the little hill after the fierce fighting was almost unreal. The defenders wasted no time and the wounded were moved downhill toward the road to the west. "I recognised the warcry of the warriors of Count Pjotr", Dannato exclaimed, "He must have come to our aid". The sounds of battle became louder and louder and it seemed that the battle was coming towards them. Suddenly in the light of the burning houses below the defenders of the hilltop saw that there was fierce fighting near and on the southern bridge. "Blow the horn!" Dannato commanded. "We must let them know the road to the west is still open". The few archers the defenders of the hill still had were positioned on the eastern side of the hill to give supporting fire. In a matter of minutes Count Pjotr and his force reached the hill. Only then they saw that Baron Crovax and Baron Maximus were also present among the force that broke throug. "Hail noble Council Guards, we were extremely worried that the road to the west was cut off for us." Count Pjotr spoke. He slowly turned to look at a man who was being carried by 3 men. "He must have immediate attention", Count Pjotr continued. Only then Dannato saw that the wounded man was Councillor Silencer. "This man is responsable for his rescue" Count Pjotr slowly nodded to Knight Jurek. Everyone knew Knight Jurek. Once a councillor, he had decided to serve the people as a wandering knight. Fighting evil anyplace and anywhere. "I found him 2 miles east of the library surrounded by ten Carver bodies." Lord Jurek explained. Dannato and the councilguard hurried to take care of the wounded Silencer. Dannato then turned to Count Pjotr. "My lord, it is only a matter of time before the army of Duke Dragonking will be here. Perhaps it is best that we make a stand here so we can retake Tristram." Count Pjotr looked to the ground and replied softly. "No, I don't think you fully understand what has happened here today. All of our castles were destroyed. A lonely man traveled east past our castles yesterday and only hours after that evil poured out of every direction. From our sewers, cellars, from the hills and the forest. All rose up to attack us. We have held on as long as we could but when we saw that Tristram was lit up also we escaped west to avoid total annihilation, all the republic east of Tristram is conquered and the shire of Tristram will be conquered soon'. Dannato looked perplexed for a moment, and then with a bitter voice replied. "Then all is lost, we must quickly try to reach Dragoncastle. Perhaps there we can make a stand and warn our allies." "Our idea exactly", Count Pjotr answered. Beaten down but not defeated, remnants of the defenders of the hill embarked on the same road west as so many in the last three hours had done before.

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