Suicide Kings Chapter 1: Initiation

[Krylo]

"You're the most pathetic lot of recruits I have ever seen in my life," the words were spat, with a sort of disgust as the middle-aged man in half-plate standing near the 'dungeon' entrance spoke. "But it's lucky for you worthless specs that it's not up to me to decide... then again," he said with a sneaking grin, "Maybe not..."

He stepped aside revealing a steel hatch in the center of the Suicide King's own little city-state: Gluthstaenen. A couple of younger men dressed like squires walked up to the hatch and began unbolting and unscrewing it to get it open.

"In this here pit," he said with a sadistic grin, "We have captured kobolds, goblins, troglodytes and a few even less intelligent beasties. Might be a bugbear or even an ogre, I don't remember. The main thing you maggots gotta remember is this--we told them all the only way they're getting out, and with a paycheck at that, is if YOU all don't. And that ain't the end of it--our crack team of engineers, dirty and violent, the lot o' em--they've developed all kinds of fun little traps for you down there too." Noticing a few of the recruits seemed nonplussed by all this he added, "And don't worry about holding back, kids--it's all live fire. You die in there, and you weren't worth shit to the company in the first place."

As he finished his speech the hatch opened with a hiss, revealing a ladder bolted onto the side, just large enough for one person to go down at a time. The chattering and laugher of kobolds echoed out from below along with the stench of rotting flesh. As soon as expressions made it obvious that his recruits had caught a wiff, the middle-aged man let out a laugh.

"Here's hopin' you maggots do better than the last group! In ya go! ...Unless ya want to run home to mommy. There's still time for that..."

[Overcast]

Anor stood there, slightly taller than the gentleman attempting to discourage him from being here. Years of servitude had still not deprogrammed that unfortunate fact that it was extremely difficult to take anyone seriously who wasn't horrifying or taller than you. So staring down at the man seemed to make most of his words feel like sunshine and happiness. It wasn't fear at all. Just opportunity knocking.

He was itching to get down there and meet up with whatever waited for him, after all he hadn't gotten much battle experience in his life, most of his childhood had been learning languages and fighting captured prey for practice or the milk raids. The slave owners were much the same, giving captives to him for the amusement they got of watching their enemies horror as the skin was ripped off their face. The best he had gotten were the trials and tribulations (plus one oddly fast angry mob) that had plagued him on the way to this opportunity. His long fingers twitched as he watched the hatch being opened, neurotically straightening the pleats on his suit for distraction.

There was one ladder, and Anorak wasn't in much of a waiting mood, the man finished with a few more discouraging remarks to the cowardly about how they could still run back to their mothers and he couldn't help but giggle, begining his drawl in common, the words softly infiltrated by the essence of the giant,

"Ran outa time a long time ago old human. Nah ain't no path but the one ahead now. An I don't plan ta wait."

He squeezed himself inside the hatch descending down the ladder with shakes of anticipation. This was it. The true beginnings of a whole new life. If Big Momma could see him now.

He hadn't actually gotten all the way down when he felt the pings against his back. Now that was rather unfair, he figured if anyone else had come down first they'd be toast, though that wasn't saying that wasn't what Suicide Kings wanted. He stared at his back with the careful flexibility of a troll...crossbow bolts, signature Kobold for sure. He snarled in annoyance at the little freaks but in his excitement made an unfortunate error realizing that he had missed his last rung and with a look of unfortunate shock he fell. All seven feet 200 pounds of well dressed green ugly bore down hard on three unfortunate Kobolds a bit too eager to get the hell out when the hatch opened. The bolts already in his back had either snapped or dug deeper now, and he could feel tiny bones poking him here and there from below. A few of the little lizard bastards seemed just a bit shocked, stunned for a moment while Anor pulled the deeply embedded bolts from his back. With the feeling of flesh slowly regenerating back he found the time to fianlly stare down at the broken beings he had landed on and in response itched his head in amusement,

"Unlucky."

He heard the next bolt coming and impressively enough was able to slap it off its trajectory. Once more there was that stunned look, but this one was much shorter. In that period he caught a good view of the scene, many little reptiles, armed with the typical of Kobold fame, daggers, crossbows, and lots of picks, and scattered about ominously were a few slightly chewed up corpses of earlier initiates. A bit gruesome, but hell after living in the old caves it was not enough to shock him. Of course soon they snapped out of it and they unloaded on Anorak. He was doing his best at deflecting the coming projectiles but he could only do so much as the only target in the room. He stared as his growing failures began to fill his hands with bolts, it was rather distressing really, but one got close enough that he thought he might be able to give him a good whallop. To his dismay the bastard slipped away when he swung down, giving his comrades a few more shots in Anor's back while he was hunched over,

"Damn short little vermin!"

So far this was not going well for him, but soon enough another meat target would come down to give him some leeway to work with, he couldn't be the only brave one right?


((Note, I am thinking through this and I may have been just a bit too eager to start this, but I really wanted to get a post out. So if this infringes on any plans I am more than willing to do a quick delete.))

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

Sylva realised today was not a good day for buckles or leather, or any of those two combined in any fashion whatsoever. The moment the stench of decaying matter wafted to her nose, the young woman had blanched - not out of complete terror, no, but at the concept that after this, she'll most likely be forced to clean her outfit of gore.

Sylva was going through one of them fads where she thought black leather was the way to go in combat and in style. The day of her 'inauguration' had to be the day when she wore her carefully-sewn and woven leather outfit, a set of clothing that had way too many leather belts and buckles everywhere. They were firmly tightened around her body so as to prevent anything from snagging, but it made her look a bit crazy.

Making a face, she steeled herself to go forward first - only to be pushed aside by another eager recruit. She was about to turn around with a sharp retort about 'letting ladies go first', before gulping it down as the troll lumbered to the ladder. She watched a bit stunned as the... thing squeezed itself down the ladder, and openly gawked. She'd never seen something like that before, a monster covered in green skin that was puckered with boils and warts and all manners of other strange growths.

Her second curiosity sensor kicked in, then, and overrode her sense of fearful awe at the monstrosity on two legs. She darted to the edge of the ladder and, leaning over, watched as the thing went down it in morbid fascination. Such a big creature! How come she's never even seen one of these things before?

Then she lost her balance, and, through sheer force of will, managed to catch herself on the ladder before half-stumbling and half-sliding down the rungs. Her derrier made contact with the troll's thick skull before he could react, and Sylva made her first deduction of this strange creature: it was like crashing into a brick wall. She bounced off awkwardly, managed to catch herself and kind of collapsed in a splayed, sitting position right next to the big brute, clutching her bum in pain.

"Oooowowwww.... I'msosor--EEEP!" Sylva's hurried apology was interrupted as she snapped her head back just as a kobold hastily shot at her. The bolt grazed her chin and snapped on the wall she was sitting against. She scrabbled to her feet and hid behind the hulking form of the troll.

"SorryaboutlandingonyourheadI'mSylvahowareyou? " she squeaked behind Anor.

[PhoenixFlame]

Keris couldn't help but be mildly intimidated. For while she was no stranger to harsh language or threats, none of her professions to this point had actually included the very real threat of death. That said, she found it rather difficult to actually believe the SK instructor, which may or may not have been folly. The scent and noise from the newly opened dungeon door was most likely an elaborate mess of smoke and mirrors to properly test the group's courage, and nothing more. Her choice of tactic was simple, find some poor sod to stand behind, and set everything that moved on fire. Simple, elegant, effective, and importantly easy to remember in a state of panic.

Keris Handaya was dressed immaculately in her clean, pressed apprentice's robe, so she was similarly repulsed to the thought of entering as Sylvia was. Regardless, the young mage was full of foolhardy confidence, and took only a moment to cast a weak barrier spell on herself to ward ranged weapontry before proceeding. Much to her suprise, in this short span of time, two others had already made their way down the ladder, and sounds of combat had already erupted from below.

"I suppose you pay us too when we come out, nyo?" Keris chuckled sarcastically to the instructor before leaping down the hatch without awaiting any response. Forgoing using the ladder properly, she presses her feet and hands around the edges of the frame and slides down to assist those already engaged. A single tiny crossbow bolt glances off of her spherical personal barrier with a yellow spark and crackle, its deflection aided by the rapidity of her descent.

It was however, this same rapidity that caused the Feles sorceror-apprentice to crash directly into Sylva's upper torso, whom had recently crashed into Anor. With a suprised yelp, she shifted her weight to her left side, sliding off of the mass of bodies to crash down into the muddy floor beside the pair.

"Grgh! Sorrry!"

Supine and suprised, while also in combat, Keris looks "up" to see a rather upside-down kobold with a rather upside-down crossbow aiming at her in a similarly inverted manner. Thrusting her right arm towards it as the little vermin began to take aim, Keris' bracer-weapon's glowing crimson wings slid out with an audible flick, immediately drowned out by a frantic Feles cry of "Ignus!"

With a distinctive "Foom!" sound, followed instantaneously by a reptilian cry of agony, the aiming kobold quickly found himself wishing he knew how to stop, drop, and roll. Arms overhead, crossbow clattering at its feet, the cold blooded creature flailed helplessly into a nearby wall as Keris drew a gasp of relief.

[Overcast]

Four seconds of defense one awkwardly dressed woman in close fitting leather pounded on top of his head awkwardly. Seemed like everyone was falling down that ladder today, he kept his eye on her as she apologized profusely whilst hiding behind him. He noted really only one thing about her, she had a hook, and though he wasn't familiar with the concept of a grappling hook he was familiar with the concept of fishing,

"Oi, hit one of those creeps with your lure, they keep dodging me hands."

As soon as he finished that one another woman descended from above and smacked him on the skull with her form. Okay now it was begining to get annoying,

"Can't anyone use a ladder! You sods stay behind me, I am a bit more difficult to kill."

He was beginning to notice a pattern of everyone in this dungeon being significantly overdressed for the situation. Anor had an excuse, in that these were the only kind of clothing he hand, high class and high style. He figured he could blame these two on the fact they were women, and a woman's self concious nature was almost infinite. Still it amused him about till he had a bold go through his cheeks,

"Aughaphugh!"

He had tried to say a few expletives, but the thing was in the way of his tongue and his teeth. He tore it out quickly and let out an awkward sort of scream for the pain he just caused himself and looked at the mage,

"Watch your fire! The shit hurts me bad, can you do anything about their speed, little buggers dodge like flies."

Unpredictable like flies too. Only reason he could hit their bolts was because there really was nowhere else they could go except toward him. Hitting a thinking thing though, you never know which way they would dodge. He smacked at another for him to go left, went forward last time. Random little bastards.

[Teal Mage]

Allyn didn't know what he expected when he joined the Suicide Kings, but somehow, climbing down into a pit that smelled like rotten flesh wasn't it. Face hidden beneath the hood of a cloak so green it was almost black, Allyn had taken to wearing, the blond Feles watched the proceedings with cold detachment.

He shut his eyes and, ignoring the smell, took a deep breath. Putting this off would only make it worse, he knew it, but something about this whole thing was wearing at the walls of indifference that he was normally so good at holding up. It shouldn't have bothered him this much; he'd done worse things before, not that he could think of any right then.

The sound of, what he thought, was combat made him open his eyes again in time to see some of the group vanish into the pit. He shook his head slightly.

Now or never. He reached into one pocket of his leather pants, and drew out a spool of white thread.

Motions by and large hidden by his cloak, he daftly wound the thread around either hand, finishing by adding a pair of simple charms to both to hold them together, while not taking away his grip. It wasn't much, but it would have to do for a weapon. Besides, his nails still poked through, he could always scratch something.

The last thing to do was send some magic into the fibres of his cloak, using his limited arcane power to strengthen the threads making it up. Better to have some protection down there then nothing. With a final hooded glance at the remaining recruits, Allyn moved to the ladder, and swung down into the pit.

He hurried down the ladder; there was nothing attractive about dying before he got to the ground. Luckily, no crossbow bolts managed to hit him, he wasn't even sure if any had been fired at him. Near the bottom of the ladder, he vaulted off, landing lightly in the back of the small group in the pit.

Allyn quickly resettled his dark cloak over himself and glanced around. It looked like the lizard things, Kobolds, were having too much fun shooting at the troll to notice him, yet.

((OoC: The cloak he's wearing obscures his face entirely, so not many of the Suicide Kings would probably know what he looks like without it. Don't worry about the post order too much with me, I probably took a while to get ready, so if you think you could beat him down there, feel free to.))

[Arhra]

"You gonna go in or what? Get in or get lost." the middle aged man guarding the dungeon gate declared, watching one of the last recruits contemptuously.

Said recruit was a boyish young man, well dressed and hunched over a book, scribbling furiously. His staff was obediently standing on its end next to him. With the whorled and gnarled patterns covering it, it almost looked like a giant insect.

Kendell looked up for a second. "Sorry, one moment!"

He was working on minions. With this dangerous, unknown environment, it needed to be armoured to protect it from attacks. Making it spherical would make it tougher too... Since the armour was tough, he could spare some energy by making the insides a lot softer. And since it was pretty amorphous inside, he could give it another trick when it opened its segmented shell. Kendell added a bony lump to its tongue tentacle... thing to club things with. He put spikes on the shell as a finishing touch.

He looked at the open and closed drawings of his creation happily. "Roller Snails (Version 1)!" he declared triumphantly, passing his hand over the sketch, hair and clothes caught in a mystical updraft.

Two round, spiky shells appeared, close to a meter across and segmented into three sections to open like a flower. This was obvious because one was opened, quickly pulling in a lolling tongue tipped with a bony club to close up into its defensive form. He walked to the edge of the pit and called down "Watch out below!" before dropping his staff in, the balls rolling in after. Summoning up his courage and a last breath of clean air, Kendell started climbing down the ladder. "Wish me luck." he said cheerily to the guard, just before his head disappeared down the hatch.

The dungeon gatekeeper spat on the ground. "Wizards." he snorted derisively.

* * *

In the dungeon, a wizardly staff suddenly fell down the ladder shaft and it, balanced on its end. The perceptive might have noticed it momentarily stuck out a spindly leg to steady itself. Tw balls fell down a second later, almost careening into it and then spinning and rolling wildly forwards, veering in opposite directions to circle around the Suicide Kings recruits.

One seemed to spot a kobold slightly out of cover and spun forward, slamming into the little dog-lizard and knocking it down, trying to turn as it sped on and come back and run it over.

Apparently it hated kobolds!

Behind, Kendell picked up his staff and looked around. "Don't worry, the great Kendell Aurifalme is here!" he declared.

[Overcast]

Two more comrades fell down the shaft, one actually succeeding in taking the ladder, the other vaulting down with a pair of offensive little wheels of doom. The first one seemed rather shy, moving quickly to the back and looking about as nonthreatening as one could look compared to the rest of the current denizens. The other, with his strange rolling rocks, came down with a sort of cheeky confidence that was actually a tinge annoying. Still it was no matter.

He stared at the rolling creeps and laid his hand down in one's path and caught it on the run. It impaled his hand a bit, but no worse than it already had been this day. He stared at one of the Kobolds for a moment and brought the rolling thing back and threw the summon with all possible strength at the Kobold like he was playing a game of tossit with his old brethren, and it plowed through that Kobold, traveling with too much real speed to let the little creep get out of the way. He caught the other, that seemed to unhinge itself and try to bludgeon him with something. he smacked it with his fist and yelled roughly,

"Get in there!"

It curled up in defense and he did another mighty toss at the Kobolds. He was having rather good fun,

"These ar' great items here, what you call 'em mista Arifalme?"

He was amused truly trying to see if he couldn't catch one again for another good toss.

[Toastburner B]

For his part, Kesh wasn't particular dressed up...partially because he didn't have very expensive clothes. For him, his simple leather armor seemed the best idea for the day.

To say he wasn't nervous, however, was a lie. It wasn't really the Suicide King trainer that had got him...it was more the cave. Kesh had never had cause to travel underground, so the idea of being enclosed was somewhat daunting. Combined with the fact that he seriously doubted that there would be a lot of room down there, that made his skill with the bow somewhat limited in use. However, he had come this far, so it seemed he had little choice but to follow the others into the cave.

However, unlike the others, he had no inclination of going in blind. Kesh approached the ladder cautiously, the stench alone was almost enough to make him quit. As he approached the ladder, he slunk down, approaching the hole walking on all four limbs. Like a lizard...go figure, being a lizardman...Kesh climbed the ladder headfirst, giving him a good view of what was going on below. Of course, being able to see what was going on and being able to do something about it was two totally different things.

On of the kobolds took its eyes off of the troll long enough to spot Kesh coming down the ladder. Unable to use his longbow, Kesh hastily pulled the handbow from his belt. However, the kobold was quicker. Kesh was forced to slide down the ladder to avoid the bolt from the small critter. He caught himself before he hit the floor, and calmly as he could, lined up his shot and but a bolt into the creature before it had a chance to reload.

Kesh crawled down the ladder, climbing off the bottom and returning to walking on two limbs. Unfortunately, the area at the bottom of the ladder was somewhat crowded. With a stifled hiss, Kesh returned his handbow to its place and unslung his longbow. "Could we spread out a bit?" he asked, "I can't get a clean shot with everyone crowding behind the troll."

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

Sylva had opened her mouth to respond, but then a massive amount of series of actions by other people seemed to have cleared a nice path for Anor the troll. She looked a bit downtrodden, before the lizard... thing decided to say something silly. Sylva shook her head.

"It's better to stay behind Mister Big Person than in in front or elsewhere. Silly lizard person!" she exclaimed. A kobold took hurried aim at the person speaking and fired, only to realise it had forgotten to actually reload. The twang of empty string made Sylva turn around reflexively and her arm wound back and flung her hook forward. The kobold reacted with a squeal of pain as the thing raked into its spindly little legs and tripped him over. With a deft twirl of her hands, the leather-clad young woman twirled several loops of rope around the kobold's feet before tightening them with a pull.

Sylva dragged the thing yelping and cursing towards her and delivered a vicious kick to its head, knocking it out of the fight, before untangling it with another quick flick of her rope.