This choice: Help suppress a slave rebellion • Go Back...Chapter #5Help suppress a slave rebellion by: Yote   -help them suppress another of their blasted rebellions. The salarian slaves are on the war path and dragging the rest of the animals along with them. Normally we'd let the Nagras clear up their own damn mess, but the city Elders have made us an offer." The flaming head of the old warmage grins a smile filled with holes. "Somehow the slaves have got one of their own inside the body of the city's patron deity, the Goddess of Sacred Waters. If we win this fight for them and secure the deity, they're willing to let us have it."
"You really think they'd let us?"
"Of course we don't," Magnus scoffs. "But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. For the time being, you're to meet up with and support the team of four already attempting to restore the peace down there. All Jade Order. They're trying to establish a class four storm enchantment inside the city. It'll bring on the rainy season prematurely, which'll hopefully cool off the Salarians, literally and figuratively. You know how lethargic those reptilian bastards get in the cold. Since they're leading the rabble, it should cut off the head of the snake, so to speak. Journeyman Nathan Snigguh should be waiting to meet you in the portal room once you arrive. Good luck." With that, the fire gutters out, leaving you alone on the quiet, darkening moorland.
So Nathan is down there too. He's been in the field only a year but was already developing a taste for high-risk environments and a reputation for dangerous bravado. You urge the horse on a little faster.
It is midnight by the time you arrive at the wizard's tower built halfway up the side of a valley littered with old dragon bones. The tower sways unpleasantly as you climb the many tightly-coiled steps to the portal room. The two magineers are waiting for you. The apparatus that surrounds the wyrmhole portal already crackles with energy.
"You'll only have a few seconds once the wyrmhole opens so don't dally," the head magineer says as he carefully slides the final lodestone into the machinery with a carefully selected alignment. The whole array begins to spin and the dormant wyrmhole that floats in the center of the room ripples and undulates like water. "Try to keep your arms tight to your chest. Don't be tempted to jump through the gate - you will end up slicing your head off. Get ready. Stabilising in 3...2...1..."
The mass of formless dark energy is rent open, forming a circular rift in the air just wide enough for a human to fit through. The magineer pushes you hard in the back and you step quickly towards the portal, meeting that blast of hot, dry air that comes from the other side.
Then you're through, out of the Vavatch exit portal. The bright light burns your eyes. Shielding them, you see you stand in a round room of golden-white sandstone. The air is like the inside of an oven and choked with smoke and the sound of fighting nearby.
Stepping away from the portal, you see the bodies of two magineers slumped across the portal control machinery, blood dripping from their robes. Before you can draw your sword, an immensely fat, black man in sumptuous robes barrels into you, running for the portal, the two sacks beneath his arms spilling coins and gems onto the floor.
"The city is fallen! Flee now while you can!" he screams in his foreign tongue. He makes it to the portal just as it destabilises. At least, most of him does. The portal collapses with a bang, leaving behind a pair of smoking, sandalled feet.
There is no sign of Nathan in the room. As you hesitate, unsure of what to do next, the door shakes violently. It sounds like an army is out there. It has been barricaded but it won't hold. You move quickly to the window, searching for an alternate exit.
The sprawling desert city of Vavatch stretches out beneath you, an ocean of slums and palaces. The streets are choked with people and beastmen fighting bloodily. A tide of emerald green bodies, the Salarians, forges in from the fringes of the city against a sea of black-skinned Nagrandians. The latter seems to be losing. They are surrounded and pushed back to just the central districts.
It is too far to jump. Another thud rattles the door, splintering the wooden barricade. A scaled claw reaches through the gap, slashing deep gouges in the timber with a ferocity that alarms you.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
| Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
<<-- Previous · Outline  · Recent Additions © Copyright 2025 Yote (UN: yote at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
Yote has granted Writing.Com, its affiliates and syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work within this interactive story. Poster accepts all responsibility, legal and otherwise, for the content uploaded, submitted to and posted on Writing.Com. |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author