RuneScape Forum Archive | The Oracle of ScapeRune

WolfLord7777

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"When I was eight I killed someone trying to steal my best knife with my bare hands. By the time I was 18 I had challlenged and killed 15 grown men. I have slaughtered my way through fields of people, either because they tried to stop me or because they got in my way. So long as it isn't my death, death doesn't concern me," Dorn said, asif it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"And another question: who are you? You've made a number of referances to people and places long dead, and Deother hates you more than anythin," Selvaria said.

"Only seven people alive know that information, and other than me they're all fighting for ScapeRune. All the elves know, they know instinctively. Other than that, only the gods know. So what makes you think I would tell you?" Dorn replied, his eyes flashing red.

"Because I'm not moving from this spot until you tell me," Selvaria said, leaning against a nearby boulder.

"Then you condemn Runescape to death. Do you want that on your conscience?" Dorn replied.

"No . . . " Selvaria muttered.

"I didn't think so. Now get moving, we don't have all day!" Dorn yelled.

Selvaria, her reactions honed to perfection over years of following orders immediately and without question, jumped to her feet and gave a quick salute.

Dorn rolled his eyes and stalked past her muttering something unintelligable.

Selvaria thought that was probably for the best

***

Troy dived for cover as yet another building shattered behind him. Chunks of reinforced concrete and steel girders were blasted apart as if they were matchsticks.

Coughing, he got up and staggered on towards the tall wall that marked the barrier between hiim and safety. Ruddy light filtered through the last vestiges of night, casting the city in a red hugh.

Groaning, Troy leaned agains the streets corner, gasping for breath. Countless grazes covered his body and three parallel gashes voered his arm where one of those cursed red-robed men had got him with one of their freakish spells

18-Jan-2011 01:21:30 - Last edited on 21-Mar-2011 07:18:35 by WolfLord7777

WolfLord7777

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Troy started to unbuckle the elbow guard on his right arm, where a bullet had almost turned the moulded steel inside out.

A shout behind him was all the warning he got. A burst of sound came from behind him and a searing line of pain slashed across his back.

Yelling in pain he collapsed to the cracked ashphalt street. He scrabbled in his pistol holster, his fumbling hands unable to grasp the smooth metal. Even though it was only seconds, it seemed hours before he manage to drag the pistol from its holster. He rolled onto his back, wincing in pain as the wound on his back pulled open.

Raising it towards the man in red robes striding down the street he aimed for his head and emptied the entire clip of armour piercing rounds at the man.

Each one hit some invisible barrier shortly before they hit his head, and they bounced off in a shower of white sparks. The man moved his hand through the air in a slicing motion and Troy felt another line of pain slash across his face.

Screaming in agony at the line of white-hot fire splitting his face in two, Troy's vision darkened.

***

A figure in scarlett robes stood on the edge of a large cliff. The wind howled around him, scattering dirt in every direction and almost bending the few small trees that had managed to survive on the barren clifftop in half, but his cloak didn't move.

"Sir, we have intel on a sizable force of infantry heading towards our position. At current speed and bearing they will reach here in two days. They have already eliminated our scouts, although they took heavy losses, and from the few garbles reports we recieved back they have an abnormally large numbr of armoured vehicles," a voice came from behind him.

"General, I want more than a vague report about something I already know to atone for your failure at the current attempt to assault the city," he said, his voice icy.

"But sir, just because we don't have any reports from our forces, it-,"

18-Jan-2011 01:21:40 - Last edited on 21-Mar-2011 07:20:19 by WolfLord7777

WolfLord7777

Posts: 1,881 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

"Enough," he said, cutting off the voice of the general behind him,"his voice getting angry, "I should not have to explain myself to my servants. Now you had better have something to say the next time you report, or you will suffer the same fate as your predecessor.

The other man scuttled away as fast as he could manage.

"How many of their mages do you think there are?" the man asked.

A dark shaped stepped away from the trunk of the nearest tree, gliding through the low grass without making a noise.
The man in reds eyes slipped past him, unable to focus on him, and even he, who was used to it, had to concentrate hard to even see him.

"I always said that trick of yours is more trouble than its worth, Zalotha," the man in red said, his mouth twisting in a sneer.

"And I've always said you just regret that you weren't given the gift as well. Anyway, to answer you're question, you're the mage, not me. In case you've somehow managed to forget, the Great Lord took away the power of life from me after the Betrayal, Zadok," Zalotha replied, his mouth twisting.

"Don't patronize me," Zadok replied, "From this distance it is difficult to tell how many are using what these primitives call "magic". You were there, you saw the entire thing. So, how many were there?"

"Atleast 30, but no more than 50. It was difficult to get precise data, since I spent most of my time masquerading as a soldier, and generally soldiers fight during battles, in case you didn't know, so I spent almost all of my time running away. I estimate three quartes of the force died, and the rest were captured. I doubt that any escaped, there was too many enemies, and primitive as those walls are, they are effective," Zalotha replied.

"How many do you think you can take out by yourself in two days?" Zadok asked.

"I can probably find and kill . . . 20 or so in two days. Maybe 30. that is, if you only want the mages dead?" Zalotha replied.

18-Jan-2011 01:21:53 - Last edited on 21-Mar-2011 07:22:09 by WolfLord7777

WolfLord7777

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"Very well," Zalotha replied.

Zadok watched him stride back down the hill. As he did so a cloud of black smoke condensed around each fist. After about 30 metres they solidified into a blade of black metal, and he drove them into the nearest tree-trunk. It cracked the thick bark of the tree like an egg-shell before dissipating back into smoke. Black spread out from he gaping wounds in the wood as the tree slowly died.

Then the man disappeared in a cloud of even more black smoke.

"Show off," Zadok muttered, turning back to the cliff edge.

18-Jan-2011 01:22:01 - Last edited on 21-Mar-2011 07:22:52 by WolfLord7777

WolfLord7777

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Chapter 5: The Gathering Storm

Black storm clouds roiled above Ardougne, as they often seemed to do of late. Lightning lanced down from the tormented heavens, splitting the dark clouds like white-hot knives. Thunderous booms shattered the silence every few seconds, and from the orange flames engulfing many of the buildings hit by too accurate lightning strikes, it wasn’t natural.

Morgan grimaced, his weathered and tanned face splitting in what many would call a leer. He couldn’t sense anyone using magic, even though Morgan knew the lightning strikes were too accurate to be natural. In the two days since the killings had started, 20 Zamorakian Priests had been killed, along with more than 50 of their guards. There were no signs of a struggle, and no witnesses. It was as if a shadow had appeared from nowhere and just snatched them away.

~And it doesn’t help that these bloody clouds aren’t breaking~ he thought, grimacing again.

He turned away from the window, striding back into the interrogation room, trying not to think about the unnatural skies.

The interrogation room was a large room on the ground floor of the Ardougne castle, in the east wing, along with all the other dungeons and prisons. Cells lined all four walls, each one barely big enough to stand up in. 30 of those cells were filled with the survivors of the failed ScapeRune assault. Each one was bloodied and wounded, most unable to stand up, even though they ne room to sit down.
In the center of the room, kneeling on the floor before three more Zamorakian Priests was a ScapeRune soldier with four orange lines on his shoulders, several of which had metal badges sewn onto them.

His face was a heavily scarred and broken mess, so damaged that it was almost impossible to determine what he used to look like.

18-Jan-2011 01:22:09 - Last edited on 09-Apr-2011 00:01:12 by WolfLord7777

WolfLord7777

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His cheeks and forehead were covered in small cuts and scrapes, the rewards for years of service. In addition, his nose was completely shattered, covered in congealed blood, still there from the battle three days ago. But the most striking feature of his face was two huge scars crossing his face diagonally, one going from the bottom right corner of his mouth to his brow, cutting across a glaringly empty eye socket. The other crossed from his chin to his forehead, just missing his other eye.

As he strode forward one of the men in red smashed his staff across the man’s face, hitting it with a hard crack as the iron cap on the bottom smashed another of his teeth.

“I ask you again: How many men does the ScapeRune army have?” the Priest asked.

*I don’t know, light damn you! I don’t have clearance to know that! Light take, that’s all I know!” the ScapeRune man yelled, spitting out his broken tooth as he did so.

The man convulsed, muscles spasming as his body shook. Morgan saw fingers of light touch his head, entering from behind his eyes and triggering the pain receptors in his pain. To anyone without the Gift, it would appear that he was perfectly fine. Even with the Gift, most of what the Priest was doing was incomprehensible. The Priest doing the torture, a man named Dernhold, was a master, with years of experience under his belt.

“I will ask one more time,” Dernhold asked the prone figure on the floor, halting the flow of pain into the man’s body, “How many men does your army have?”

18-Jan-2011 01:22:17 - Last edited on 09-Apr-2011 00:03:48 by WolfLord7777

WolfLord7777

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“Light burn you all, I don’t know! My branch of the preliminary assault force was 50 000 strong, and it was one of four main branches. That was merely the main element of the garrison force, which was roughly 350 000 men strong. Since then many hundreds of thousands more have arrived, I don’t know how many. The Lord curse you, you fools, believe me! This city will fall, and so the city, the world. You will all die, you cowardly-“ his voice cut off as his head smashed against the floor with a sharp crack.

“Learn anything?” Morgan asked as he approached Dernhold.
“Same as before. No one knows the exact number, just a few vague guesses and rough estimations, which vary wildly from one to the next. No one knows anything about an attempt to eliminate members of the Priesthood. It is, however, interesting how they curse the light, as if it is something to be afraid of, something more terrifying than anything we could do to them. Nothing of any use,” Dernhold replied, signaling to several nearby guards to take the prone form back to his cell.

“From what I’ve seen, these ScapeRune soldiers are good. I chased that one,” he said, pointing towards the man being dragged back to his cell, “for three hours. I saw him kill eight of the Warriors and atleast ten Ardougne soldiers, without taking a scratch. Even with his leg broken and caught in the open against several mages and ten Warriors, he tried to fight. If all these ScapeRune soldiers are the same or better as him and his men, and there is as many as they say there are, they may be right. Ardougne could be in far worse trouble than we knew.”

“I know,” Dernhold said, frowning, “I just hope Dorn knows what he’s doing.”

18-Jan-2011 01:24:19 - Last edited on 18-Apr-2011 13:15:43 by WolfLord7777

WolfLord7777

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***

Captain Doric of the 1st Armoured Marine Company ducked behind a large boulder as a squad of ScapeRune soldiers burst out of the thick foliage at the head of the ravine.

He signalled to the other three members of his squad, hefting his heavy machine gun in its harness.

He counted down on his fingers, edging around the corner of the boulder to get a better view.

Eight bedraggled ScapeRune soldiers were moving carefully down the ravine, four moving while the other four covered them.

Doric jumped out from behind the boulder, letting rip with an extended burst of armour piercing rounds. The heavy thud of his gun was punctuated by the soft puncture like bang of the other three submachine guns.

Five of the men were killed instantly, ripped to shreds by their merciless fire. The other three managed to duck back behind cover in time.

“-oric-ease-ort” a voice came over his earpiece, almost drowned out by loud gunfire.

Doric ducked back behind his boulder, signalling the other three to keep the ScapeRune soldiers pinned down.

“This is Captain Doric, please repeat,” he said into his helmet mike.

“Doric, this is Raldo. Derk has told me to ask you for a SitRep, we need to know how you’re going,” the voice of Captain Raldo replied.

“Since my last report, we’ve lost about 70 or 80 marines, I’m still waiting for exact figures, and 37 armoured marines. The first marine company was under combat strength, so I’ve combined the first and second companies. We’ve pushed back the ScapeRune forces another three kilometres and killed about 200 hostiles,” Doric replied, checking the ammo for his machinegun while he did so.

“What about Captain Nemyer? Any traces of him or his force?” Raldo asked.

18-Jan-2011 01:24:26 - Last edited on 18-Apr-2011 13:16:46 by WolfLord7777

WolfLord7777

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“Not an empty shell casing or a spot of blood. We havn’t found a single trace of combat before we arrived, and all the ScapeRune forces when we arrived looked like they were on parade not a battlefield, so I doubt they had been in combat. Plus they were all surprised to see us, which doesn’t fit,” Doric replied, hefting his machinegun and turning the safety off.

“Very well. We’re sending in another three companies to back you up, keep on the offensive. Are there any places that you’ve seen that would be good for us to move the forward command position to?”

“There was a large bluff we passed about 15 minutes, it should be big enough to place the command post. I’ll send a squad to secure it in case any ScapeRune forces are still there and they can send you the coordinates. Now I have to go, I have to deal with some hostiles approaching my position,” Doric replied, stepping back into the open.

“Copy that Captain. Raldo, out,” Raldo replied, cutting the transmission just as Doric opened fire.

***

Derk pulled climbed through the small side door in his command Tauros, crouching to avoid banging his head on the low door. Inside, only one of the command consoles was taken.

“Copy that Captain. Raldo, out,” Raldo said, cutting the transmission as Derk sat down at his console.

“Well, anything to report?* Derk asked, plugging his helmet into the console and starting it up.

“Doric has about another 100 casualties and expanded the perimeter another 3 kilometres. About 200 hostiles killed, but there is still no trace of Nemyer or his force. I’ve sent the 3rd, 4th and 5th companies of the 7th marine regiment to back him up,” Raldo replied.

“What about that forward command post? Is there any suitable places under our control?” Derk asked, typing his 18 digit pass<word into the computer.

18-Jan-2011 01:24:34 - Last edited on 18-Apr-2011 13:18:46 by WolfLord7777

WolfLord7777

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“Captain Doric has found a suitable location about 15 minutes from the front line. He’s sending a unit there now to make sure it’s clear and to send us it’s precise location,” Raldo replied, turning to face Derk.

“Still no news on the second wave of reinforcements?” Derk asked.

“The electrical storm is stopping our transmissions, but it doesn’t seem to be dying down, so the fleet can’t get any landing craft close enough to the shore safely. That Zamorakian mage says that as far as he can tell, it isn’t magically generated. So we just have to wait for it to die down,” Raldo replied, grimacing.

“Captain, I need that support NOW. We are running low on supplies, troops and support. If we don’t have those reinforcements soon, we’ll have to pull back to a more manageable position. This force was designed to be a preliminary force, whose main purpose was to gain a foothold and then wait for reinforcements. Now we’re trying to attack the largest army mobilized in recorded history with just over 3000 troops. SO GET THOSE DAMNED REINFORCEMENTS HERE NOW!* Derk yelled.

“Yes sir,” Raldo replied quickly, turning back to his console.

18-Jan-2011 01:24:40 - Last edited on 18-Apr-2011 13:18:14 by WolfLord7777

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The Oracle of ScapeRune