From:  "Jason Carnahan" <kazekyrstal@yahoo.com>
Date:  Fri Nov 9, 2001  4:24 am
Subject:  [DL-T] From the Dragon comes the Fire.

[Day 2, Early Morning, Outside a mining complex north of Corry]

(Are we really going to do it.) thought Darel As he belted on his leather chest
plate. Darel and his small group of bandits had been running their operation
around the lands near Telnor. He has centered his attacks to the main road
outside of Corry as it was well traveled, and a good place to hunt rich prey.

But that was before they came. He thought it was a great idea at the time.
Having a couple dragons around with riders who could pop in and out from here
and there. They started fairly few in number, and slowly they trickled in from
several directions, never saying quite where they were from, or why they were
joining the band. And frankly Darel didn't care, all he saw was another hand to
help with the work, and a dragon with limitless possibilities.

Well this changed rather quickly, The one queen that had joined was the first
thing that rocked him back on his heels. It was inconceivable. A queen would
never leave a warren, let alone become a bandit. What were these rider pairs
thinking?

It mattered little in the end, as the queen quickly took charge, as queens and
riders tend to do, And Darel was quickly ousted from his leader spot, and put
into an adviser type position, though he was never asked for advice.

The queen and rider started to make larger and more noticeable attacks on
traders, and merchants. Eventually, when they had a more positive grip on his
troupe, they started to attack just about anyone.

To Darel this was dangerous, and stupid. The strange dragon riders would take no
prisoners. The would kill outright, or sometimes they would give their prisoners
to their reptilian mounts, it was not something that Darel wanted to be a part
of at all.

But, he was still here, as were most of his band. It had grown in ranks as well,
the dragon riders numbered at about fifty, including the queen. They managed to
somehow cover their presence from other dragons, as well as the rest of the
giant troupe, that had gained more than three hundred assorted men and women who
had heard of the bandits prosperity and decided to join up.

With this new power in numbers, the riders had decided to go for bigger prey.
Raisa





[A short while later,]

Saphmine looked about the room as the 'leaders' of this force were assembled.
They were in a small tent in the mountains north of Corry. Assembled about a low
table sitting on small pillows she had called them here to plan for the upcoming
attack.

Three other than herself were from the hand picked lieutenants she had appointed
for her fellow wraiths. The first was Relvi, the human that she took was but an
adolescent. A small thing, even for a human. Short curly blond hair, dark green
eyes, and a look of disgust as she looked at the others in the group. Saphmine
understood the thought. She herself had inhabited this body over ten years ago,
and since then had forgotten the human name, her hatred of humans and their ilk
was sharp in her mind still. Next to Relvi was Nesiu. was the oldest of the
wraith riders, he had taken over the form of a small child who had ventured away
from his warren and stumbled upon a nest of emerging hellspawn. That was over
thirty years ago. Nesiu's host was going bald, with a very distinct beard and
hallow look to his face. The last was Srot. Srot was by far the most dark and
blood thirsty wraith that Saphmine had ever known. This was a major reason why
she liked him so. His host was a large man, with a clean face, and young look to
him. He had that strange double bladed half moon axe that Srot was so fond of
strapped to his back.

She then looked to the true humans in the group. Even as she and her fellow
wraiths had possessed and taken over these humans they had kept it a secret and
realized that working with true humans would help their cause.

The first in line was the leader of the original bandits. Darel was a small man
for a brigand, brown hair and brown eyes made for a rather plain appearance. But
She knew from experience that he was a shrewd tactical leader, and even as she
didn't need his help, she was far from perfect, and his help might be beneficial
in the future.

The next was the women called Gellert. Gellert was what you might call a monk.
She always wore black, and never showed her face unless she was going to kill
the person who saw it. Stories are told that she was hideously marred at birth
by a dragon-wraith encounter, so it was no wonder that she had been fighting the
warrens and assorted land bound most of her life.

Third came Bicon. Bicon was a tinker. Simple as that. The bandits had been using
him as a blacksmith, repairing weapons and armor, shoeing horses, and general
repair work. He was amazingly thin, with a head or red hair, and dark eyes he
seemed very confident at this meeting. The thin man was always snooping into
things, and this was something Saphmine disliked about him from the start, but
knew he was loved by the members of this army she had concocted and would be
hard to get rid of.

And the last in the group was a man named Kopun. Father Kopun as he was called.
A healer known to help any of those with enough gold in their pocket. He was
easy enough to manipulate. Kopun wore a simple green robe everywhere he went,
something about being one with nature he had once told Saphmine. His long raven
colored hair he refused to cut, as he said it was against natures law. Saphmine
wondered why he had joined the group at first, but then began to learn that he
despised normal land bound as much as some of her wraith squad. Kopun wanted
every life to live by the rules of the wild, where the stronger prey on the
weaker, and the weaker deserve what they get. In many ways Kopun would have made
a great wraith. Saphmine admired him that much, but after all, he was still
human.

The last group that would be listening in on this conversation were the
possessed dragons.

The one joined to her was named Yavel. A yellow-silver color the wraith in the
queen dragon was an annoyance to Saphmine. In an unfortunate side affect to the
possessing ability the dragon rider link stayed intact, and therefore the dragon
must be infected as well. Yavel was always in her mind now, and Saphmine
disliked most everything she did there.

Relvi was joined to a possessed blue dragon, whose wraith name was Comnd. Nesiu
was with Helvax, a very small black dragon. And Srot was connected to the copper
colored dragon host of Deutshe.

Having waited long enough to cause some seriousness in the human animals,
Saphmine outlined the attack. "The dragons will go in first," She nodded at the
three in the tent. "Our attack will come from above and behind and those in the
city will be least expecting it." She paused as the group of people in front of
her nodded.

"We will be torching the buildings. Using the dragon fire ability, fueled from
the coal he apprehended from the mines outside." She watched in amusement as a
couple of the human faces brightened as they reasoned out finally why she had
ordered the group to head north instead of southwest. "We are going to attack at
high noon. Normally we would use the advantage of night, but for our purposes we
need to be seen."

"What exactly is the purpose of this attack?" Darel asked, "I know there is
plenty of wealth in the city, but we will be drawing a lot of attention to
ourselves, and as you just said, you want to be seen?"

Saphmine snarled inside her host, upstart human, but outside she calmly
explained that the goal was to topple the current foundation of rule in the
dragon lands.

After that the plan was laid out that the groups of land bound would approach
from each side, enter the city to kill and burn anyone and anything they could
get their hands on. Saphmine also gave allowances that the could plunder as
well, but anyone who stays in the city too long might be caught by the warren
riders who are sure to show up quickly after the alarm is sounded.

And that, is precisely what Saphmine wanted, the more riders she could wound,
and infect with infant hellspawn wraiths, the more power she would have in
further attacks. And the more human blood would spill.





[Day 2, Nearing noon, Raisa]

Lord Etain was having lunch on the balcony outside of his study when the
messenger came. He nearly swallowed the leg of beef whole when he read the scout
report she had brought.

A large force was marching on the city, his first thoughts were to alert his
guard, and start arming the militia. This thought was cut off by a screech in
the sky above him. He looked up into the diving form of a dragon on the attack.

His reflexes being decent, he managed to dive out of the way as the stream of
fire slammed into the balcony, and continued on out over the city below.

He looked back with dismay at the charred corpse that was once the cute
messenger girl he had hand picked from a farm to the east of here.

He had to contact the warren and get some help, surely this attack by wild
dragons was only a- the thought cut out, and all the blood drained from his face
as he looked out over the city.

The sky was filled with dragons, making orderly attacks, in formation. Spewing
fire everywhere causing extreme damage and countless death and destruction. And
the dragons occasionally turned back to get fuel for these fires from the riders
on their necks.

RIDERS! Etain could not believe it. There had to be a mistake. The warren would
never let such a mass of riders live so unlawfully. Then the thought occurred to
him, what if it was the warren in the first place? Could he have done something
to set them against the city? No, he knew the warrenlady would never attack
without warning like this.

He managed another glimpse over the balcony edge to see that there seemed to be
a large group of foot soldiers attacking from the ground with torches and
various weapons. The force that the messenger brought him information about
apparently had arrived.

He ran quickly into the building, calling at the top of his lungs for his
captain of the guard, and hoping without hope, that there would be a way to stop
this attack.





[At the warren med center, soon after.]

Fal'k was awoken from a light slumber by bellowing dragon calls. He couldn't
understand what they meant, but he got the picture that they were upset about
something. Brandy was asleep on a cot not far from his hospital bed.

He managed to stand and move to a window to see what was happening outside.

The view was something he defiantly didn't expect. Dragons all across the green
were landing with agitated grunts, riders and warren folk were rushing back and
forth, most carrying sacks of coal belting them on to the sides of the dragons.
Others preoccupied in their own worlds.

Fal'k's first thought was wraith attack, but managed to overhear a worried
conversation from nearby his window that made his blood run cold.

Brandy had woken up and moved over to where he was standing, "What's wrong? Why
are you out of bed?" She asked taking his distressed look to be from his wound.

"Oh its nothing much," Fal'k joked trying to lighten the intense gut wrenching
that was in his stomach. "Just dragons attacking Raisa, and the warren called
upon to fight dragon with dragons.." He let his statement trail off, as several
dragons in a wing formation took to the air, and after a moment blinked out of
sight.

<Rider, This is serious.> Airsight said in his head.

<Yes, I know,> Fal'k replied, <I know.>



**********

Well theirs your first glimpse at the plot I've been working on, tis not much
more than a teaser, but it gets things started. I'll try to get bios on the
leaders of this army out soon. As you might expect, all the dragon pairs in the
group are wraith possessed. They wont show it, and will be trying to make it
look like they are warren riders. But we all know that's not true :)

the idea is that a wounded person, dragon or human can be infected with a
mutated hellspawn spore. This spore is like an egg in the host. Is dose nothing
for a while as it slowly feeds like a parasite, consciousness comes within about
a week, and after that, it takes only a couple of days for the wraith to take
over.

This should give you something to write about, :) rush to the battle, help out
with wounded, look after your hatchling if your newly joined... :) The idea is
that most of the enemy is gone by the time the warren riders show.. and the
people in the city will not know the difference between warren riders, and
renegade riders, so fun there all around. :) I plan to have a meeting with the
warren leaders set up for sometime later in Day 2, for the warrenlady to discuss
an undercover team to go in and try to join the group.

I also have some plans for an attack on the warren, :) the inn. Possibilities
abound, feel free to add on to the story as we go along, by no means should it
just be me *grin* I thought this all up for us to write while Bridget is gone.
It will look good if we play it out nicely without our leader *grin*.



Sincerely,

Jason Carnahan

aka: Fal'k and Airsight, (and a couple more tonight heh)