Private The invasion of the Damned

[Mini Mongo]

The Barrier was impenetrable, no matter of Magic that any of the group possessed could bypass this mystical wall, it was clear that this magic was made by the Greybeards for protection, and just as Geran began to drift into thoughts Edwyn spoke "Geran, I believe the Graybeards must have used some of their Dragon Magic to pierce the barrier and proceed further up the mountain to guarantee their own safety. If that is true, there is no way we could get through to them. That is, unless one of us is the Dovahkiin. Perhaps we should try to signal them?" Geran smiled at the thought, to imagine one of them being a Dovakiin was somewhat funny for him in this dark time, but Edwyn spoke knowledge, it was just how to signal them that got Geran thinking.
Shouting? No, far to loud and who's to even say the Greybeards will hear. Magic perhaps, it was a reasonable idea, but what magic?

Geran pondered on the thought for some moments until finally a idea reached his head ''Magelight, if anyone knows the spell they can shoot some Magelight towards the peek, perhaps then the Greybeards will notice and we could move on. See if anyone knows such a spell'' Geran would let Edwyn the rest ponder on this thought, and sort it out for themselves. ''I will look for some supplies'' Geran announced to the group before leaving courtyard. He went to the main entrance, Sal-Dus lay there, he looked worse than had previously done, but as soon as Geran can find the Greybeards and find the man they need they will be able to heal Sal-Dus. Geran walked to man, kneeling down and looking at him, in a hushed tone he began to speak to Sal-Dus, unsure whether he could hear him ''You'll be back with us soon brother'' Geran said, before standing back up to fall height.

The room was empty, and apparently, so was all the other room. It was mad to think that such a insane world, death all around, had let High Hrothgar remain untouched. Geran could only hope the same could go for the Witchers H.Q. He then walked to a chair, sitting down and thinking on their next moves, after a few moments he came up with a idea. They should head for Riften. Perhaps that city had remained untouched, or at least the Thieves Guild, nevertheless it was Gerans next move, as soon as they get Sal-Dus healed that is, he would never leave a Witcher behind. Although he had started to think that he was done for, Geran could only hope this was not the case.

 

[Bruynzeel]

Bruynzeel finished with his meditations goes in search of the others. He happens across a group of them standing at the wind barrier.

Bruynzeel without preamble draws up his power and shouts...
"LOK VAH KOOR" the effort does the job but the barrier only moves a few dozen feet up the path. Dismayed Bruynzeel sighs and weakened to the point of exhaustion. He knows he hasn't the energy to continue very far.

He Shouts again. "LOK VAH KOOR" Again the barrier moved a few dozen more feet up the path. Totally exhausted now he passes out with the effort. Falling into the snow.

The Greybeards having heard the shouts come down to see who is bold enough to try to get in and to see if it is the lost Dovahkiin. Finding that it is not, As none of these are any of the Greybeards that Bruynzeel studied with they begin to question the assembled members as to how it was done.

 

[meben15]

Jaygue continued up the path to the throat of the world with the others. On their way up the group encountered a rather large zombie, but it seemed rather slow and dull, and the group managed to sneak up on it and dispatch the beast without Jaygues help. It was for the best, he needed to save his energy for keeping Sal-Dus from the Darkness.

The pressed onwards up the slope until they finally reached High Hrothgar. Jaygue stopped for a second to observe the massive building, as did the others in the group. Jaygue noticed the Khajiit man Geran named Bruynzeel seemed to be hurting. He watched as Geran went over to the man and they spoke briefly to each other before Geran called for them to enter the interior of the great keep. Jaygue lead half of the group through the left, those acompanying him were Thorral carrying Sal-Dus and the Khajiit J'Oran. The burst into the rooms, only to find them empty and completely void of life and unlife. Jaygue felt an odd sort of serenity about the place, as if it had been kept untouched by the ravages of the plague. But there were still no greabeards, and that is what they had come looking for.

Upon exiting the main hall they came to a open courtyard. At the end of the snowy field was a great archway with a dragon carved into it. There was some kind of wind barrier blocking their path up and Jaygue frowned, he had never seen magic like this before, it was likely some kind of Dragon magic. As the group moved towards the barrier Jaygue touched Sal-Dus's arm, sending a jolt of healing through him to keep him alive. They were so close, it would be a shame if he died now.

As he tended to Sal-Dus, Bruynzeel moved towards the barrier. He braced himself and gave a great bellowing Shout. Jaygue stood and gripped his sword, he guessed the Khajiit was trying to shout the clouds aside but he didn't seem to be having much luck. Indeed after his second shout the man fell face forward into the snow and Jaygue moved quickly forward to revive him. The shouts of the man had, however, gotten them what they wished; an audience with the greybeards. As Bruynzeel passed out, a miriad of stormy sounding voices rumbled down the mountain and the barrier was swept aside. Jaygue sent a jolt of healing energy through the Khajiit to revive him before pulling him to his feet and muttered to him, "come, only a little ways left to go. Good job." With that he looked to Geran and said, "Shall we continue?"

 

[Bruynzeel]

Bruynzeel a little fuzzy hears "come, only a little ways left to go. Good job." as he is being lifted to his feet mumbles his "Thanks." to the breton lifting him up.

"I have got this" and feeling a bit better stands on his own. Using his sheathed sword as a crutch he limps over to where the Greybeards and the pack of Witchers stand to listen in on the conversation.
Standing near but behind Geran he is curious and is hopeful of a more complete picture of what is going on.

 

[lbrasz44]

Upon waking the seven thousand steps, the witchers encountered an infected, however, this one was dull and stupid, resulting in a easy death. Thorral would have loved to go and kill the monster, but his duty remains with keeping watch on Sal-Dus, carrying him and making sure he survives, at least until everyone reaches the Greybeards.

Time continued to pass as the wind only got stronger and the snow colder, but finally the group had reached High Hrothgar. It was an impressive sight, much like the tales Thorral had heard growing up. Its architecture could only be matched by the headquarters, but that is a biased opinion. But admiring th ework is not what the witchers came here for; it was time to go inside.

Bursting through the left doors with Jaygue and J'Oran, and the others bursting through the right, Thorral had only found nothing but empty space. "Dammit. Guess we gotta go to the courtyard." Muttered Thorral, moving to the other end of the building. The inside of High Hrothgar didn't have much, for the Greybeards simply lived to study, but it had an appeal to it. The rooms are just screaming with a kind of allure that indicates years of wisdom are present within. Given with all that is happening, it seemed... pure. The courtyard was just as appealing as well. Meditation gardens and alters littered the place, gathering coats of snow as time went on.

Looking at Sal-Dus, the healing spells that were applied earlier seemed to be weakening. Motioning Jaygue, the Breton did his work. The Witchers did not come all this way for the fallen brother to die now, but it is a race against time since the spells were only a temporary deterrence. It would be an accomplishment for Sal-Dus to survive, but if he were to turn... then there would be no choice but to kill him.

Bruynzeel stepped forward to a gate. The passage following it was clouded with violent winds and weather, making it impossible to travel through. The Khajiit then proceeded to shout. This was the first time that Thorral had heard this, affirming the tales that he had heard. It was powerful and that had caught him by surprise, nearing dropping Sal-Dus and all 6'5, 240 lbs of him almost tripped over, but he quickly regained himself. Before he knew it, the Cat was lying down, most likely knocked out by the exceptional force.

More voices came, but from up high at the peak of the mountain. The barrier was removed, and the guild turned to Geran...

 

[death raider]

J'Oran had been helping Jaygue and the other Witchers look around High Hrothgar for any sign of the Greybeards, but there was no sign of them, or anything to suggest where they had gone. J'Oran loloked around many rooms, but to no prevail.
" No sign of Greybeard, no good!" J'Oarn said placing himself down on the ground in one of the rooms. J'Oran had heard of the Greybeards, but he had never seen them, to be honest not many people had seen them, but J'Oran had travelled all over Tamriel, but not up 7,000 steps looking for a group of Bearded men who could shout people death, at the same time finding a man who had a music box and then a group of perfessional undead slayer, with a scaly man who was in coma, and at the same time the whole of Tamriel was plagued with zombies!

This was the first real chance he had got to proparly get his thoughts sorted. J'Oran decided to rejoin the others in the main hall. When he got there it looked like he missed a bit. There was a small portally thingy and the Guild master and two others were standing near it. Then the new person, the other Khajiit, then shouted at the portally thingy, which was then followed by voices. J'Oran looked at the Khajiit as he fell to the floor.
" Oh dear he is hurt." J'Oran thought to himself not partically caring that the Khajiit was in pain.

 

[Mini Mongo]

The Guild turned to Geran, they looked puzzled and left it down to Geran to do the talking, which, in a sense he liked. He respected that the Guild looked at him for leadership, and that was his job. ''Honoured Greybeards'' Geran said, doing the traditional salute and walking up to one of the Greybeards, Arngeir ''We come here seeking aid, I wish to know of 'his' location'' Geran said rather mysteriously, knowing that the Greybeards would know of who he speaks of. ''My friend, Sal-Dus, is suffering from the plague, this is the second day he has been cursed with this, and he needs medical attention soon, can you reveal his location?'' Geran asked the Greybeard's a second time ''Yes Geran I can reveal 'his' location. He is with us, up upon the Throat of the World with Odaviing, but how do I know you will not betray us? This is hard times we live in, and I can't just support every soul that walks to our doorstep can I now?'' Arngeir replied, a rather stern reply, but Geran suspected none the less, he spoke the truth, this was indeed hard times.

''I know, Arngeir, but we have reasoning, and I have helped you in the past. Why not see this as repaying me? We are honourable warriors, and though some may see our tactics as harsh, I mean only to help the world from the ruthless undead. Help us destroy them, don't let them take another soul, besides Sal-Dus here.......'' Geran said pointing towards Sal-Dus ''......Is a honourable Tsaesci warrior, and he will only help Skyrim, and all of Nirn with this battle. Please Arngeir, trust me....'' Geran finished off, standing as he watched the Speaker of the Greybeards ponder and think for a while. ''Fine then Geran, I will lead you to him, follow me'' Arngeir replied. Geran turned around to face the Guild, giving a small nod and a faint smile off his success. He lead the Guild up the Mountain as the Snow Elf stood in front of them, the Dragon Odaviing sat upon the Ancient Rune.

Geran had first met the Snow Elf during a contract when he was younger with Cyrus, they were surprised by his showing, especially considering all Falmer, or Snow Elves, had been vanquished during the war with the Atmorans, or as they are now known, the Nords. When Geran first met him he pondered to kill him, but Cyrus changed his foolish thoughts, and they later came visiting him again, this time Geran bled heavily, one week later, he awoke with the Falmer in front of him, and Geran was fully healed. After that, The Snow Elf was used as a healer by Geran and Cyrus whenever they needed dire attention, and that is why he wanted the Falmer, the mysterious figure Syuster as he was named. Though this caused him dread, he thought of his friend Cyrus, feeling as if his life was meaningless, but he would carry on the Guild without Cyrus nonetheless, as that is what he would want.

He approached Syuster shaking his hand and saluting ''Hello friend, I have some healing needed to be done.'' Geran said as he turned to Thorral ''Thorral, bring Sal-Dus over'' he said, as Thorral walked over and put him down next to Geran. ''This is Sal-Dus, a Tsaesci, he suffers from the plague, and with your magic, I believe you can save him....'' Geran prolonged his sentence, looking up to Syuster with pure hope. ''Yes, he will be hard, but he can be healed within 24 hours'' Syuster replied, kneeling down he began to mutter words as a powerful source of magic went from his fingertips to Sal-Dus's wounds. ''Thank you Syuster'' Geran said, a smile upon his face. He turned to the Guild once more ''Set camp, we wait until Syuster heals Sal-Dus, I hope you brought some warm clothing, this is going to be a rough night'' Geran said, he turned around to Sal-Dus and Syuster, kneeling down and admiring his work. He truly was a miracle worker.

 

[lbrasz44]

The guild was not denied their access to the healer as the Greybeards had decided to let the Witchers travel to the top of the Throat of the World. Looking from a distance, it was clear that Geran has a history with these people as the Greybeard and the guild master seemed to converse with each other like they had known one another for a lifetime.

It was another cold, hard travel up the mountain, with the snow and wind violently whipping at everyones faces. However, this was rewarded when the Witcher had finally reached the top. Wiping his eyes to clear the snow away, Thorral quickly realized the sight before him: An elf who was of a race that is unknown to him, and a dragon. Its been how long now? A year? Thorral tried to recollect the last time he had seen a dragon while eyeing the bright red scales of the dragon who had mounted upon the ancient rune wall.

Geran proceeded to step forward to talk to the elf and motioned to Thorral. Walking to Geran's side, Thorral proceeded to lower Sal-Dus to the ground, being careful not to further agitate the Tsaesci.

"He's been infected for about two days now, and had reacted to the disease initially, but for the most part he is unresponsive and resisting." Explained Thorral as he was still trying to figure out just exactly who this elf is and where he came from. Looks familiar, but not in a way that I've seen in person before...

Respectfully nodding his head downwards, Thorral walked back to the rest of the guild still suspicious of the elf but hoping that he could help. Besides its not like he is the only strange thing occupying Thorral's mind right now, with all the undead and dragon and whatnot.

Some time had passed till Geran had came back to the Witchers, declaring that Sal-Dus will be healed in a days time. Smiling knowing that all this trouble had at least amounted to something Thorral proceeded to make camp and look at the horizon. Looking back at Whiterun, Thorral could see all the carnage that had occurred in the trade metropolis of Skyrim; looking northeastern though, was just fog. What had become of Windhelm, Thorral could only wonder. But despite his hatred towards his former home, he discretely hoped for the best.

 

[death raider]

J'Oran trudged past the others as they went further through the harsh cold winds which blew onto his body nearly freezing him to death. He pushed on though, never taking a rest to stop and catch his breath, always moving, never stopping. Once they got the camp geran ordered they set camp and that the man who was infected would be better soon, not that J'Oran actually cared if he stayed alive or not as he wasn't a friend of J'Oran hence why he doesn't particularly care.

J'Oran set up a small bed roll and lay it down on the snowy ground where he lay himself on top of it and began to close his eyes. The world had changed so much and it was becoming harder to live. Tamriel was not itself and if this deadly infection continued to proceed the whole of Nirn would be in jeopardy and J'Oran didn't want to die, not quite yet. He began to drift off into a world of dreams where anything was possible, but it was quickly destroyed by the zombies and the infection, it ran itself through and through again in his mind until he was nearly screaming, having to wake himself up incase he never woke up.

 

[meben15]

They moved on up towards the height of the mountain, to were the greybeards voices had come from. It was a relatively short walk as they were almost to the top of the mountain as is. Reaching the top the ragtag group trudged towards the imposing men before them. Jaygue allowed Geran to speak, standing back next to Thorral and Sal-Dus. He instead looked about him at the other two strange people there.

First there was a pale elf man lurking behind the greybeards, then there was a red dragon who seemed not to care much about them at all. As Geran finished whatever he was talking about to the greybeards he moved back towards the elf man, gesturing for Sal-Dus to be brought forward. Jaygue watched with interest as the elf, whom Geran had called Syuster placed his hands upon the blighted mans body, sending healing energy through him. The could only hold their breath and wait for something to happen.

 

[Mini Mongo]

After what felt like an age of waiting, but instead was just hours, Syuster; the elf, had finished.

''How long will it take for him to fully restore from his wounds?'' Geran questioned his old friend, curiosity and care in his voice. ''Not long, perhaps a few hours and he can walk and run like normal, but for him to restore from a minor illness he's caught because of my healing? Say 4-10 days.'' Sysuster replied ''That's a rather long time'' Geran stated ''Indeed it is.''

The conversation was over, and silence was among them all, they all looked down upon their comrade, and then looked at the Snow Elf Syuster, many were somewhat concerned about Sal-Dus, but Geran knew he would be fine. But nevertheless, they remained curious over Syuster, a Snow Elf being alive was rare, but being protected by the Greybeards? It raised many questions, but Geran trusted him because of past acts.

Geran turned back to face his Witchers ''We leave tonight'' he stated to the group in a raised voice. He then walked over to Jaygue ''We cannot stay here, we leave for Riften. Make sure the Witchers are ready, we leave as soon as Sal-Dus can walk'' Geran whispered to Jaygue, the bulky man nodding in acknowledgement.

He then turned back to Syuster ''Thank you'' is all he said to the elf, he then picked up Sal-Dus and begun to walk back to High Hrogthar Sal-Dus needed to be kept warm.

 

[death raider]

J'Oran didn't get a wink of sleep since the nightmares plagued his mind, his sleep was ruined and he didn't know if he were ever able to sleep again after what he had endured the last few days of his life. He enjoyed the action and the enjoyment of striking his blade into the forces of the undead, but he still thought a bit of guilt, knowing the people he slashed to pieces were also men and women, some even children, who would have had a life of their own before this event happened also.

J'Oran watched as Geran and the elf whatever his name was began to talk about htis bloody Sal-Dus who caused J'Oran to be cold and chilly, this man also caused two of the other witchers to lose their lives, was all of this just for one man worth it? He sure hoped so, but then J'Oran looked back to when he first met the guild and he rembered how Sal-Dus had been the one to first acknowledge him.

J'Oran then purked up at the news of leaving, and it was happy to think they might go to find somewhere warm, with a nice fire and warm bed to snuggle up into. J'Oran noticed Geran and the man Sal-Dus, in Gerans arms head off down towards High Hrothgar, J'Oran didn't know why and he was curious, he very sneakily followed Geran from behind as the thought of maybe getting an early chance of warmth would be nice.