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Ben Medinets / story2v

Chapter 22: the temple siege begins

While King Leon and the Kingdom of Wembly was gearing up for war, Emperor Malcolm and his magic-using son, Prince William were just about to send the first wave of troops to the temple. The Emperor’s Elite soldiers were mounted on seasoned chargers and looked and acted like nobles themselves. Lined up behind the Imperial Elite were the numerous spear men and archers. Supplies and Instruments of War, especially the siege engines, which were well guarded, took up the rear.

There were few detachments left to guard the Empire. The Emperor’s second in command, the Mayor-of-the-Palace would serve as head of state, while the Emperor was engaged on the battlefield. This would give the viceroy power, but since most of the troops were going to be deployed, the actual power would be held in check.

Boats of the Imperial Navy were lined up in the harbor to transport the soldiers to the temple, which would soon become a battle zone. With extreme difficulty, the Imperial Soldiers were transported after several trips by the naval vessels.

It was a slow march fo the Imperial Troops, despite the relative close proximity from the coast to the temple. A small detachment of scouts were sent ahead to scope out what defences were surrounding the sacred temple. The remaining troops maintained a slow pace.

There were scores of skeletons in the temple compound, some armed with swords, some armed with crossbows, and some with black wands, which were the much-feared skeleton shamans, with their ability to cast curse magic upon their enemies. At all the entrances of the temple, there were several mountain trolls. Around the compound, there were also a few nasty monsters from the nether world, including a vampire prince, who seemed to be able to command the Black Mage’s troops with extreme efficiency and cruelty.

The scouts saw the activity by the Black Mage’s forces, but they did not linger long there. They turned back, largely unseen by the Necromancer’s forces and hurried back to the formation of the Imperial Troops marching their way. The scouts then informed the Emperor and the other leaders of what to expect at the temple.

Most of the troops were quite dismayed, when they found out what the scouts had seen. The Emperor and the Elite Troops were not afraid, and neither was the Red Mage. They didn’t take a lot of time reaching the temple after the scouts had given their reports.

Despite having a large force, the Emperor did not want to deplete his force by attacking just yet, nor did he want to thin the forces yet by encircling the compound. He would wait for his other allies to arrive before completely sieging the temple. So the Emperor had the camp set up out of range of most arrows. The trolls at the entrances were quite upset to see the Emperor’s preparations.

There were some of the Black Mage’s minions who were very anxious to get involved in a conflict. The vampire prince, one of Cletus’ main battle chiefs, and who had a profound taste for blood, wanted also to do some early raids on the still preparing Imperial force.

“Its too early to do any action against these petty humans. They will be expecting some aggression from us now. If we watch and wait, we will be able to catch them unaware and we will maximize their losses.” Claus answered his vampire prince and the fellow leaders in his army.

The vampire prince responded, “Oh how wise you are Oh Great Eternal One. (May You Live Forever in Power).” With that the vampire prince bowed before his master and was granted leave to check out the hideous fiends within his control.

The Black Mage was given was given time to brood in quiet anger and plot his next moves. The vampire prince stood at the door to the temple, forbidding all others to disturb their Lord. Bats were posted in the windows, the ghosts stood on the roof and on the ground surrounding the perimeter of the temple.

Scores and scores also surrounded the temple. Even though the Black Mage was unaware of how many troops were actually going to be sent against him, he had a few tricks up his sleeve, namely a Black Wurm, and the Dragon Dead. Also, a large force of barbarians were summoned to the battle field, which was led by his ally, the Great Witch Celia and her brother, Cedric (the Bull). Between all his own forces (both seen and unseen) and these raiding barbarians, as Claus pondered, it would take all the power of the empire and then some to defeat him.

In Wembly, the forces of King Leon were now almost ready to march out and cross the channel to join the forces at the temple. King Leon knew the chances of returning to Wembly after the war was over would be quite slim. He wanted to see his daughters married off before he and his troops were deployed. So he ordered his chamberlain to take charge of the wedding feast preparations, while the King, himself continued to prepare for war. The chief druid, who had arrived with Soren and Benny had been given authority by the king to perform the wedding ceremonies.

Because the war preparations were going well, Sir Cletus was given leave by the King. He used it to meet up with Benny at the Archangel Inn. It had been quite a while since Benny had done anything with Cletus or had the time to drink any ale. Despite his still wavering health, Soren allowed him to go have a bit of alcohol if he were to dilute it with the holy water. However, mixing the holy water with the ale, would increase the potency of the alcohol, and get Benny intoxicated quicker than usual, and GREATLY decrease the effectiveness of the holy water.

While Sir Cletus was going to the Archangel Inn, he bumped into a strange lady, who he had thought he had met before, but was refusing to look at him directly. Even though she was acting very weird, he let her pass by, while he continued to watch her go on her way. She seemed quite harmless, so he continued on his way to the Inn. Unknown to him, it was actually his mother, who was disguised so no one would recognize her. She was on her way back to the school.

As Sir Cletus put the image of the lady out of his mind, he slowly walked up to the Inn. Benny greeted him from his seat with a hearty yell, which was not normal for him lately because of his sudden and chronic illness.

Benny then rose, and the two friends embraced. Cletus was very concerned with his friend, Benny, especially in regard to Benny’s health. Benny was concerned with Cletus having to go to war and to lead his own regiment of the King’s soldiers.

Cletus just shook it off with a nonchalant shrug and then the barmaid showed up and brought Cletus a large jar of ale, his usual, as he was a regular customer, when he had the chance.

In an hour later, Soren showed up and saw that Benny had still been drinking. Benny was now beyond “buzzed”, and was quickly approaching becoming completely, mind-altering trashed.

Soren and Cletus helped Benny up and helped him exit the bar, and as they stepped out, Soren had Benny drink straight from only the jar of holy water. Thinking it was the mixed drink, Benny gulped it down as quickly as he could. While he gulped it down, a portion of it went down his shirt. He soon realized this, and started to giggle like he was a young child.

The holy water made him feel better but did not immediately make him less affected by the alcohol. They began to walk from the Inn to Benny’s house. Halfway there Benny had to go to the washroom, so they stopped and Benny urinated on the ground. It was past dusk, so there was a very little chance that any one would see them.

The holy water made it possible for Benny to not feel naucious and to reduce his head from continuously spinning. It did not, however, stop Benny from being giddy nor did it stop Benny from being impressionable either. So willing to do the suggestions of his friends, Soren was able to convince Benny that it was time to go to bed. Before going to sleep, Benny was convinced that it was a smart move to drink another glass of the holy water. This second glass of holy water would help Benny from the effects of the hang-over the next day.

Sir Cletus went back to his quarters at the barracks, and there went to sleep. Soren would attend to Benny that evening. The next day would be one of Benny’s biggest days of his life. It was very fortunate, that he had someone who would take good care of him, like Soren.

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