Lucian Graves stared grimly towards the western horizon, rolling a lit cigar between his teeth as he did so. The sun was just setting in the east, painting the sky above with shades of purple, red and gold. To the west however, the sky was black and the lands below it were blanketed in an unnatural darkness.
It was only just six months ago when the tower's monsters began appearing above ground, attacking isolated farms and homesteads sporadically before retreating back to the Tower of Ishido.
At the time many thought little of it, speculating that it was perhaps an issue of overpopulation within the tower.
Whatever the truth of the matter, it was declared a private problem better left to the local lords and ministers of the area to deal with. It was only when all of their attempts to pacify the monsters failed and the yearly harvest looked to be in jeopardy that the king was finally forced to intervene.
The farm lands surrounding the Tower of Ishido are the most fertile in the kingdom and they supply much of the kingdom's food. If they were lost... The king's plan was swift and simple: send the royal army to purge the tower of it's current occupants, and return peace to the land.
That was ten days ago. And as if reading their fortune in the tea leaves, the horde rallied and met the finest knights in the kingdom on the open field to do battle. The beasts cut a bloody path across the land to do so, from the cursed tower to the capital city's walls, leaving nothing alive or standing in their wake.
The horde of monsters that assembled that day were bloodthirsty, exceptionally numerous and willing to indiscriminately kill or corrupt all in their path. And by that evening they were victorious.
Since that defeat, a black cloud has slowly spread across the western part of the kingdom, covering the land in darkness whether it be day or night.
The survivers hide themselves behind the city's high walls, praying for a miracle. The kingdom's rulers? They are content to let the monsters recover their strength and risk the beasts expanding their influence to the still untouched lands of the south.
Graves knew however that this couldn't be allowed to happen. He wagered that thanks to their recent victory, the horde would now be at their lowest fighting potential and thus vulnerable to a counterattack. So he quickly sent word far and wide, offering up to 10,000 gold pieces to anyone willing to fight for him.
That was three days ago, and since then mercenaries, adventurers, bounty hunters and everything in between has appeared to answer the call of gold and blood. If he's lucky, there'll soon be enough bodies to field an army with which to engage the horde. If not, there would certainly be enough adventurers with which to slip past the enemy lines and begin attacking the horde's flanks.
Exhaling smoke and fire into the evening air one final time, Graves turned to usher the last of his late arrivals inside before discarding what little remained of his cigar. His self-appointed task as the doorman was done for the evening.
With one final scowl aimed towards the shadowed lands of the west, Graves vowed in his heart that he would find the evil corrupting his adoptive country, and vanquish it.
Immediately upon entering his quaint, little sanctuary, Graves's senses were assaulted by the familiar scents and pleasurable fragrances of his lovely wife, Sessilé.
She was behind the bar as usual, leveraging her unnatural beauty to earn them some extra coins while she dined psychically on the whiffs of vitality from their guests. A fair trade for their drunken leering in his honest opinion. Such was the way of men like him.
Originally from the Caroling empire, Graves was raised on the streets where he quickly learned how to fight and how to steal -- skills that have served him very well over the years.
Tough, strong-willed, and above all, hungry to see the rest of the world, Graves smuggled himself in the bilge of an outgoing cargo ship as a child and said goodbye to his old life forever.
For the next ten years, he stole, lied, and gambled his way from tavern to prison. By the time he was seventeen, Graves was a wanted man in every realm, city-state, and empire he had ever visited, married to a dryad, and in possession of a small fortune.
The newlyweds settled in Ishido a year later, where a string of successes saw them start out as bounty hunters, businessmen, and land owners, before eventually becoming minor lords. Now everything they owned and loved was at risk of becoming ashes.
"
Greetings, Lord Graves! I am most honoured to make your acquaintance,” one of the adventurers sang with a raised glass of dark beer in salute just as Graves reached the bar.
“You can call me Devon. I am a soldier, and as such, I am always eager for tales of valor. So tell me, sir—what sort of beasts did you have to kill in that cursed tower, and just how did you survive them?”
"How? That's a trade secret! But what you can expect, now that I can tell you all about," Graves finished with a hearty laugh as he swung his massive arm around the young man's delicate-looking neck before leading him towards a table.
There was no such thing as a serious conversation if a dryad was nearby. The mere smell of one was enough to set the tongues of inexperienced, young men wagging.
Back at the bar, Sessilé served the goddess-in-disguise and did so silently. In many ways the gods were very much like spoiled children, and any perceived insults were usually punished in the most painful ways imaginable.
"Now let's see," Graves said after gesturing to the young man to step into his office, which was the center table in the middle of the bar. "There are oni, fish creatures, naga, the possessed, kraken spawns, gakis, kirins, mantids, plant monsters, evil spirits... And that's just outside the tower! Inside you have..."
That was when the bard appeared, calling all attention to himself as most bards do.
“A bard," the young man questioned. "And from the Imperial Court no less. Well, well, this is a party after all.”
Graves lead the crowd in a standing ovation, curious to see if this supposed imperial bard would sing and dance too, with a little encouragement.
Sign In
Create Account
Back to top
