Apostles of Doom

As Lord Tommus returned to Vaselle and Tamarin, Tal Gor slumped over his saddle, exhausted and drained worse than anything he could recall. He’d had to use almost all of his mana reserves, plus that within his mana pool, to deflect and redirect the fireball.

As a loud roaring noise drew his attention from his own thoughts. What was that noise? He looked up to find himself surrounded by his tribe, along with the D’Orcs. They were screaming, shouting, yelling and laughing.

“Tal Gor! You did it! You saved our butts and took out nearly a dozen alvar and their mounts in one fell blast! Unbelievable! Incredible!” Elgrid shouted.

“I never even imagined you had that sort of skill, lad!” Lob shouted with joy. “Horrgus could never have done that at his peak and sober!”

“You defeated and forced an alvaran wizard to flee like the slime-encrusted tilapean tape worms they all are!” Zargvarst said with a wide grin.

Tal Gor grinned and nodded his head happily. He was just so tired he could barely speak. “I owe it to the support of Lord Tommus. He showed me how to do it.”

Bor Tal and Soo An looked rather puzzled, as did the other orcs. Clearly they had not seen anything.

Zargvost nodded. “So, you got a little one-on-one time with Tommus. Orcus used to do the same with his shamans and warlocks. He would train them personally; it was what made them the most feared mana wielders in the multiverse.”

“Indeed,” Nagh Felwraith agreed.

Bor Tal looked around, once more verifying that there were no more alvar in the air. He then looked down towards the ground far below. “What should we do with any still alive down there?”

Zargvarst grinned. “With my D’Orc sight, I noticed a band of tents to the north of us. We will inform them of the presence of these interlopers. It is important that the tribes know of this incursion, and if they can capture some, they can be questioned; if not, the corpses will provide proof of them breaking the armistice.”

Lob Smasher nodded. “Definitely. I think the corpses will be enough; it’s not like we can trust anything they might say under questioning.”

“True, but questioning can be a lot of fun,” Elgrid chortled.

Kirak spoke up. “You said they broke an armistice?”

Lob nodded. “They came onto our lands and attacked an authorized delegation of the tribes. Remember all those tokens of safe passage we got?”

“Yes,” Kirak said, nodding. “Exactly my point. I have lived my entire life at Mount Doom, so am not completely familiar with how things work on the Planes of Orc, but from the legends that I’ve been told, breaking an armistice in such a manner can mean only one thing…” he paused.

Lob, Elgrid, Zargvarst and Nagh all laughed and nodded. “Indeed. It means war!” Lob said, grinning from ear to ear. Everyone started slapping each other on the back in excitement. Today had been a very good day indeed.

The Inferno: Late Fourth Period

“We are now within five leagues of the emanation,” XO Stevensword reported to the others on the bridge.

“Captain,” Chief Sorcery Officer Halferth interjected.

“Yes?” the captain replied.

“Given our last encounter, I recommend we engage all cloaking shields,” the CSO suggested.

Captain Cranshall nodded. “Excellent point. Proceed. Bring our defensive shields up to half power as well.”

“What are these cloaking shields?” Barabus asked.

Halferth looked over to him and replied, “Even as we have magical defenses, shields, against damage, we also have sorcerous shields that hide us from detection, that make us invisible to most detection mechanisms.”

Gadius made a snorting sound behind him. Barabus could only agree with the knight.

“If we had such cloaking shields before, then why did we not deploy them?” Barabus asked wearily.

“Well, yes… ahem.” Halferth glanced at the captain.

The captain explained, “To be honest, we did not think a band of outlaw demons would possess ranged weapons in a volcano. We assumed that if they were going to attack us, we would have seen their forces leave the volcano and so could engage defensive mechanisms.”

“And, as well, I might add,” Halferth interrupted, “while these shields block most forms of detection of us, they also block our ability to scry outwardly. If we’d had them all up, your priests would not have been able to detect much of anything. In this case, we have already pinpointed the location.”

“So we are completely invisible?” Sir Lady Sera asked.

“Mostly,” Halferth admitted.

“Mostly?” Gadius asked.

“We are not perfectly invisible, or we could not see where we are going. We have left ourselves slightly open to visible light. Observers will see a ripple of air, at most,” Halferth said.

Gaius, to Barabus’ right, nodded. “As with various cloaks of invisibility.”

“Exactly. Same principle. If we do not move, or move slowly, it is very unlikely anyone will notice,” Halferth agreed.

“So we are going in slowly, I take it? Not the usual breakneck speed?” Gaius asked.