Brazen Wolfe Tabletop

The monarch

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As Sellis moved through his garden the bright colours almost convinced him that his people were content with the current situation that he had brought to the kingdom. Almost.

His people had lived under the constant threat of invaders for many decades now, the remnants of wars fought on and around their kingdom had left a scattering of the broken and dead to taint their waters and the littering the farms and forests within his borders with their shattered machines of war.

‘Sire!’, he sighed as a bothersome voice rang to him from across the garden, “Sire, I really do insist that you return to the residence at once! It is quite unsafe out here” the nervous shrimp of a man chattered as he practicaly flew across the grounds.

“My people do not have the luxury of my thick walls or clean water. Why should I be one to cower amongst the walls of that palace when my people grow sick and ill with the pollution that dwells amongst us?” He spat, anger close to the surface.

Glancing across the rest of his garden, the different that each contained a different assortment of life that breathed colour into what would otherwise be a dreary landscape The garden went on for some two hundred feet before meeting what remained of the great palace wall, a large section of the last war machines to fall rested upon the south side of it, sending sandstone spilling onto what used to be his favourite patch of grass. Moving to the side of his aide, Illias, he looked over the wall, having climbed a few levels of his garden as he moved amongst the grass and the little animals and invertebrates that lives in his garden.

“Thank you sire, I know I must be tiresome but I promised you father as he succumbed of the sickness that I would look after you” Illias spoke looking upon the young prince in the way an uncle would a nephew.

“I know Illias. I just can’t let my people suffer any more,” he gestured to the the cracking wall as the weight of the rotting wood and metal. “This is just one of many that litter the kingdom and each one of them spreads this sickness that took my father. I will not have them meet the same fate.” He looked upon the houses on the other side of the wall, many crushed by the sheer size of the war machine that landed upon them. Even now a crackle of energy shot out causing the water to bubble and a eerie green tinge to tint the water.

Sighing he turned his back on the coral garden, the fish, sea horses, jellies and crabs that called his garden home. As he swum through the last of the colourful garden he moved through two great doors, the tingle of magic washed over his scaled skin as the efforts of his mages and priests was evident. stepping down onto the marbled floor of his palace the doors to the outside closed shut.

“Sire, your highness!” A sudden shout of urgency rang out from the corridor to his right. Rushing forward he found a young soldier, gripping a spear wound to his side.

“what has happened, get the the healers this man must be tended to at once!” he bellowed, instantly sea elves swam in all directions to complete the order of their prince.

“A healer is on the way sire, but there is no time. The others, they have attacked the land people, the great army of the under king has marched forth from their exile and has begun their great hunt as the priestess foretold” the young soldier, only some three hundred years old, stammered, the corrupted blade having taken its toll on his life force.

“What is your name Soldier” the prince asked, grasping the man and holding him to his chest.

“Mathias Sijern, sire” the soldier looked proud as he carefully pronounced his name.

“Mathias, you have made your family proud. I will need men of your quality soon. Illias, I must warn the surface dwellers. The time has come where we no longer dwell in the deep. Prepare my Leviathan and honour guard. When Mathias is well we will set off.” Prince Sellis Cerlium said as the healers rushed towards the injured soldier and began using their magic to stitch together what remained of his soul and bind it to his body.

“But sire, preparations alone would take days if not weeks, there is just no time to prepare” Illias said as he started analysing the request of his prince.

“I fear you are correct, there is no time. The full force of my fathers hunt will be upon the surface world and with the sickness taking what is left of his sanity and the people he commands in their afterlife,” he paused biting his thumb, a habit he had taken up since he was a child, “There is no time spare to waste if we wish to prevent full our war.”

“But sire, you can’t be serious. It’s their war machines, their war-boats that have left this dark magic that spreads this sickness, this corruption of the mind and soul. Surely you can’t mean to help those who have cursed our people?” One of the mages began nearby before realising what he had said and more-so who he had said it to.

“Yuil, none feels the affect of this corruption more keenly than I. My father has gone mad, his soul and mind ripped apart by those vessels and any attempted to shift them only leads to the corruption spreading faster and a great cost of lives. But the people of that city, the wives, daughters, sons, villagers. None of them deserve what is going to happen to them, that fate is beyond torture.” Sellis began, helping Mathias up off the ground, his colour returning some with the healing magics.

“I desire not war, not further blood shed, I wish to be a bridge between our two peoples where we can work together to write the wrongs of the past and perhaps even find a cure for this sickness.” Sellis spoke with conviction despite a sliver of doubt forming in his mind.

Could he really bring the surface and the deep together to fix the corruption spreading in the waters below. He smiled, ‘well, I guess there is only one way to find out’ he thought to himself as he strode off, Yuil bowing low apologising humbly to a chorus of applause from the subjects in the corridor and adjacent rooms.