Board Thread:Fun and Games/@comment-58.110.104.164-20150102075203/@comment-67.22.249.68-20150112025149

Oh, I was under the impression that mortars were brought into more widespread use later than the 1700s. In that case, it's just the grenade they were working on. They currently have two versions: firebomb, used in the destruction of buildings, and the cursed grenade, which releases shrapnel instead of fire, and the shrapnel will do basically the same thing that Xalek's gun will do.

Somewhere near a village in the Eastfold of Rohan...

Xalek stood in his full outfit. The Balrog whip was slung by his side, his flintlock hanging on the opposite side, and his staff in his hands. Standing next to him was a human female, wearing black plated armor on her shoulders, chest, and legs, leaving her stomach, feet, arms and head bare. She had a black sickle on one hip, and she held a large barbed and weighted net. This is the woman known as Blight, Xalek's former master, and now his equal.

"Well, Xalek?" She spoke in a voice that to any ears but his was practically honey. Only Xalek knew of the true venom her words carried. She was easily the trickiest, cleverest, merciless, and most loathsome creature in the entire cult. "Are our Wyches in position?"

Xalek, a man of few words, kept his answers brief and to the point. "Mortars there, Wyches along roadway exits, Wyches waiting to follow us, weilding grenades. Ready to cast the anti-light."

"Xalek, you never fail to impress me. Can you really cast the cloak of shadow over all of us?"

"Just those that will enter the village, but yes."

"Then let us get to that."

Xalek drew his magical symbols, scattered his ingredients, and began intoning deep words. Soon, one by one, him Blight and ten Wyches were turned invisible.

The twelve of them made their way stealthily to the center of the Rohirric village. They had already identified the barracks, watchtowers and stables. They split up into three groups of four. One headed to the stables, one headed to the barracks, and one skirted the village going after the watchtowers. Then, in perfect unison with each other, they lit and threw firebomb grenades.

The village erupted in chaos. The totally unprepared soldiers were trapped in seconds, held in by the fire. Then, cursed shrapnel grenades were thrown in one by one, cutting down the enemy in drothes. The few soldiers who weren't in the Barracks, stables or watchtowers began attempting to marshal the panicking citizens, before they were stabbed through the back by an unseen foe. One of the soldiers made his way to the school, hoping to lead the schoolchildren to safety. Unfortunately for him, Blight got there first, and he didn't even live long enough to see the carnage that was once a school.

Quick as a flash, Blight led the 10 Wyches back toward Mirkwood, some carrying nets with one or two villagers inside. Not much of the village was burning, but Xalek was heading to fix that. The Wyches operating the mortars behind a nearby hill watched as their High Necromancer appeared out of nothingness before them.

"Fire."

Explosive shells began to rain down on the unfortunate village, blowing peice after peice out of it. The panicked villagers who had taken refuge in large, sturdy buildings fled the village entirely, running along the roads, hoping to reach a nearby village for refuge, and to find out what was going on. Unfortunately, even more Wyches were waiting along the roadsides, and they killed or captured all those who fled along the roads. Only three people survived and/or weren't captured, and those people desperately made for Edoras. The King must know what had happened here.

A few days later, at Edoras....

The three people who had survived, a man and two children, knelt before the throne of Amroth Anwarunya.

"I honestly don't know what happened, my lord." the man was saying. "We were just sitting in our house, me and my wife and my two sons. Minding our own business, when suddenly, out of absolutely nowhere, explosions started echoing across Captown (the name of the village). Big pillars of smoke and flame rose up from the military buildings. The soldiers who weren't in those areas started trying to figure out what was happening. They-they were murdered. I was watching from my window. They just sprouted wounds and dropped dead. Nothing actually hit them, at least, nothing that I saw. My wife started screaming, and she ran out of the house, saying that we had to flee the village. I tried to tell her that we should stay inside, but it was too late. As she ran, she just vanished out of thin air. I ordered my children to hide in the cellar. I continued watching through my windows. Other villagers encountered the same fate as my wife. They just disappeared. Those that were left started running along the roads like my wife, but they were all cut down. I could see who did it this time. They were a mixture of Humans and Orcs, and they were all really pale. They were also wearing black platemail, but not full suits. And they weer all really spiky. They each weilded hideous weapons, and big barbed nets. They either killed or abducted all of them. And then, shells started knocking down the village, and we couldn't even see the cannons. Might have been mortars, might have been whatever invisible thing killed and abducted all those people. But I hid in the cellar with my sons, and we were able to survive. When we got out, the village was destroyed and on fire. There was just one horse left, and me and my sons rode him here. That's about it, your majesty. The village is gone, and I don't even know who did it."

When the investigative party of Rohirrim soldiers made their way to the village, they found it totally burned down, and all around the outskirts of the village makeshift gallows had been constructed, and the hideously deformed bodies of the dead villagers hung from them. There were even women and children amongst the hanging dead. On each of their foreheads were scrawled in purple lettering:

"THE END IS NIGH"

Meanwhile, in Dol Guldur...

Blight and Xalek stood side by side, staring at the prison cells. They were totally full of Rohirric citizens. Blight had a bone-chilling smile on her face, and though nobody could see through his hideous Balrog skull mask, they suspected that Xalek was smiling too.