{All non-player characters and the Guild Wars universe belong to NC Soft and Arena Net. I am just representing my own character through the story. Thank you.}
Chapter 8
"Is that him?"
"Yeah. That's Saberlin's son."
Zleeda shifted in her armor and placed a gloved hand on the dry boulder that was serving as the party's cover, "So what are we waiting for?" she asked in an irritated tone, "Let's go kill some charr!"
"It's not that simple" Signa replied, "If we go in swords held high they might kill the prisoners before we can save them."
"Oh, well, what do we do?" the warrior asked as she shifted from side to side.
Signa cringed at the sound of metal clinking against metal; she muttered heatedly, "Quit that you'll attract the entire Charr army. I don't really know what to do, Q do you have anything for us?"
Q looked up from where he had sat himself. He shoved something in a pouch and looked blankly up at Signa, "Huh? I'm sorry, repeat the question please."
Signa sighed, "Nevermind. Let's see, maybe if we can get to the other side before they can react we can protect the prisoners while fighting…"
Zleeda frowned, "Well there are those sharp rocks on the other side, I don't think we can approach from that side."
"Why do you think we are here?"
"Right."
Kalen butted in between the two ladies and yawned, "Can't you use one of your magic tricks to rip their heads off or something?"
"Spells," Signa corrected, "And I'm an elementalist not a poltergeist." A charr looked near their hiding spot and Signa ducked further behind the boulder.
Kalen grumbled and peeked over the boulder, "I'm getting really bored here and Q isn't done fiddling with his toy-"
"Huh?" Q said looking around him blankly.
"Nothing Q," Kalen whispered, "As I was saying since the brilliant Q is distracted, we seem to be stuck."
"Stuck!" Signa exclaimed before covering her mouth in panic from the loud noise. She whispered, "Stuck! That's it! If I can keep their feet stuck to the ground we could have enough time to get to the other side to protect the prisoners!"
"Better than what I was thinking. We might as well try it" Kalen stated.
"Alright then, run on the count of three," Signa whispered, slowly positioning the head of her staff to point at the ground under the Charr's feet, "One, two, three! Frost touch!" A blue light emerged from the staff and ice covered the ground. The Charr growled and found themselves stuck in place as frost and ice latched onto their furry feet. Zleeda and Kalen charged followed by Signa, however as soon as they got onto the ice they began to slip and fall. Zleeda and Kalen bowled into the two nearest charr. Signa fell on her chest and knocked over one of the three Charr nearest to the prisoners. She attempted to get to her feet and found a rudimentary key in front of her. She snatched it up and spotted the charr she knocked over dash for the cell. Another charr soon blocked her view and kicked her away from the cells. She skidded into a rock and raised her staff once the charr got close. A ball of flame spat into its armor and the charr screamed falling to the ice. Signa slowly pulled herself up and raised her staff to take down the next enemy only to see there was no one left. The rest of the charr all had red-fletched arrows protruding from each of their heads. Signa turned toward the boulder and saw Q sitting upon it with his bow across his lap.
"Q-" Signa started.
"Too loud," he interrupted immediately, "Whose idea was it to use ice anyways?"
Signa laughed nervously and hurried over to the prisoner's cage before anyone could respond. She was careful to step around melting chunks of ice and dead bodies. The key fit into the lock and the Ascalonian soldiers poured out with many a "Thank you," and a "That was awesome!"
Young Deeter Saberlin came out last and bowed to Signa, "Thank you my lady, my squad and I are forever in your debt. Anything you want of us, please just ask."
Signa smiled brightly, "Would you like to help us take back the Northern Wall?"
"Umm actually I think I hear my father calling me. Come on men!" Deeter quickly pranced off leaving Signa in his dust.
Zleeda walked over beside Signa cleaning blood from her sword. She snickered, "Like father like son?"
Signa crossed her arms in irritation, "Yup."
Kalen scoffed, "And they call themselves men. Let's just get going we've got work to do." The rest of the party quickly agreed, and after looting the bodies of the charr they made their way onward through the canyons of the charr territory. Charr lined the edges of the cliffs watching the path below and so the party took the high route, taking down Charr that stood in their way and making use of Q's archery skills and Signa's spells to dispatch any Charr on the other side. It did not take them long to arrive at their destination. Q had once again taken the lead for now and walked ahead of the party using his keen eye sight to search for the trebuchets and any surviving engineers.
Zleeda leaned in close to Signa and whispered, "I feel like something's up with Q lately, he's really distracted you know? Keeps toying around with that thing he keeps in his pocket and never really talks about it. Think we should ask?"
Signa contemplated this and replied, "Not now, he's finally paying attention to the mission and I don't know how much longer I can keep making bad decisions. We can ask after the mission is over."
Zleeda nodded in agreement, "Alright if you say so, also you don't make bad decisions they just don't really turn out as planned."
Signa rolled her eyes, "Thanks."
Q halted in front of a path that had steep cliffs on either side. He seemed to listen for a minute before sprinting down the path very suddenly. All they heard was him shout, "A cry for help!"
Kalen quickly followed drawing his sword as he ran. Zleeda went next and Signa took the rear. Turning a corner in the path the party came across Q attempting to protect a young laborer from two charr warriors using twin knives. Zleeda charged and began combating one of the charr while Kalen helped Q with the other. Signa carried the young man to a safe distance for the man could not walk on his own. Signa laid him down on the ground and noticed his ashen skin and the deep red gashes across his chest. "Stay with me sir you'll be alright" Signa lied.
"The siegemaster is still back there! You must assist him, fix the trebuchet, there's still a chance," he began to choke, "My name is Peter…"
Signa looked grimly at the dying man, "Thank you Peter, your sacrifice will not go in vain, you will be remembered." Signa waited until he drew his last breath and then slowly closed his unseeing eyes. She turned to find her team bowing their heads in respect, the two dead charr lying behind them.
Q sheathed his knives and turned to face the path in front of them beyond the charr, "We must keep moving." The rest gravely nodded and followed him down the path. It opened out into the small valley that opened out to the Great Northern Wall. Below them, further down the valley, there was a large camp of charr settled on a bank of the tar river that flowed before the wall. There were at least 30 of them, and even more camped on the other side of the river.
"How do we kill all those charr" Zleeda asked in wonder.
Signa stepped forward and scanned their side of the river, "We find the siegemaster of Peter and we fix his trebuchet." She marched forward sticking to the wall to their right and scanned left and right for the siegemaster. It did not take them long to spot a single, wrecked trebuchet sat upon a flat plateau. The adventurers approached with caution and found a single human man hiding in some bushes near the machine. Signa whispered and approached the bush, "Siegemaster, we've come to help you!"
The man quickly stood from his hiding place. He had a grizzly beard; a shiny bald head; and muscles fit for warrior, however, deep bags under his eyes revealed the worry and fear he was experiencing. "Peter found help so fast!" he exclaimed, "Tell me, where is my boy?"
Signa slowly shook her head.
"I-..I see. He died then, still, you are here.." Signa's heart called out to him as he choked these words out, "My name is Siegemaster Lormar. Peter must have told you then that my trebuchet has broken. Currently it's aimed at that nasty group of charr on our side of the river, but it's missing parts. If I could just get those parts from some of the other broken trebuchets around, then we could take those charr down and move on to the other side of the river.
Q stepped forward, "We will retrieve the parts. Just stay here and stay hidden."
Lormar nodded and quietly retreated to his bush. The party silently moved on and began scouring the area for the trebuchet parts. Kalen retrieved an arming crank that was in the wreckage of a trebuchet not far to the north; Q salvaged a restraining bolt from another wreck to the east, and Zleeda found a release lever on a charr patrolman. The three returned to Lormar along with an empty-handed Signa.
"Will this be enough?" Kalen asked as he looked up at the tall trebuchet.
"That will be plenty, thank you" Lormar replied taking the different machine parts from the heroes. He quickly got to work, hammering the different parts into their places and testing their stability. Before long he took a step back and placed a large rock covered in a rag into the trebuchet's holding compartment. "Once I set this on fire, the ammunition will explode in about ten seconds so as soon as I light it you need to pull that lever."
"I understand," Signa said, standing by the lever, "Ready when you are."
Lormar nodded and lit a torch before quickly setting the rag on fire, "Fire!" he shouted.
Signa pulled on the lever with all her strength, finding it surprising hard to pull. Kalen had to help her pull it and all got to watch as the large explosive went sailing through the air. Just as Lormar had said, it landed dead in the center of the charr encampment and exploded upon impact. Zleeda squealed in delight as they had the experience of watching every single charr soldier get blown to bits or burn to death.
"There is another trebuchet on the other side of the river aimed at the second encampment near the staircase. Kill the guards of the wall and then take down the general up top and you'll have the wall. Once there you can light the brazier and expect reinforcements from Ascalon" Lormar said tiredly, "I will stay here and await their arrival, thank you heroes, for all that you have done."
Q placed a hand on the larger man's shoulder and nodded, "It is us who thank you. Stay safe my friend." Q turned and nodded to his friends before sprinting down the valley toward the river. When they arrived, Signa found that it was less of a river of tar, and more of a brook of tar. It was easy to simply hop over the revolting black liquid. Right in front of them there was a small hill with a second trebuchet already loaded. Surrounding it were several dead Ascalonians rotting in the noon day sun. Q turned to Kalen, "Kalen, pull the lever. Signa light the ammo."
Signa only nodded and aimed her staff at the ammo. A simple fire spell lit it aflame and Kalen quickly launched it into the unsuspecting Charr camp. The charr fell in a symphony of roars and curses. Q slowly turned and began to walk towards the wall, "We're not done yet guys. Come on." Signa avoided looking at the dead bodies around them and nodded, feeling sick. The group ran forward with Signa lagging behind and Signa hardly even remembered battling the large white charr that was awaiting their charge. Her mind was a torrent of sickness. All she could remember were the faces of those young men who had died by the trebuchet, and of Peter who had died in an attempt to get help for his father and the battle for the wall. "Signa" Kalen muttered, shaking her shoulder, "Signa, we need you to light the brazier."
Signa was started from her thoughts and wearily nodded, "Ri-right." She aimed her staff at the large brazier in front of them and set it alight, watching the flames reach up to the broken sky. She then walked forward and leaned on the ramparts of the wall. "The charr forces never end Q, what hope do we have. They are so many and we are so little. This fight cannot be a winning one."
Q sighed and walked forward speaking loud enough so that all his friends might hear, "It is not a winning one Signa. This is a battle that cannot be won, and that can be confirmed with the Prince himself. We are fighting the King's war for the King's own pride and nothing else. To reserve his dignity from the Krytans, Adelbern will surely see his own people fall."
Signa turned around and scowled angrily, "But why?! So many young men and women, so many futures, all is lost! For just one man children are losing their mothers and fathers!"
Q nodded, "Prince Rurik has said the same words to me yet the King locks himself in the capital of Ree under siege by the Charr armies. We have not the resources to reach him, yet the Prince is determined. That is enough talk though, look there. They have seen our signal." Q pointed to the south where they could see a small blinking light.
Kalen looked on and tiredly nodded before turning to Signa, "Q is right. Such subject matter can be discussed when we are back in our tent or speaking with Rurik himself. It will take the army about an hour to get here. Get some rest. The dark is enclosing about us, I will take first watch." The rest of the party silently agreed and huddled nearby the crackling brazier before drifting off to sleep, one by one.
{Thank you for reading my story and please review/comment! Feed back is welcomed~}