The Royals - Part 2 "Kingdom in Ruin"

==Preface==
The following is a record in a series of events taking King Brunswick and members of his royal guard across time and space to another world, where they would encounter allies and enemies of natures unlike those of his own, where magic is mighty and heroes more so.
The events of this saga are not considered canonical with the events of Thrones of VR or other RPs existing within the same canon. 
==Synopsis==
A battle to defend a keep. Remnants of a once-great kingdom, they fought to the last against an onslaught of what were once their own friends and families. They could barely hold the line. Nearly all of what few men they had fell, but those that lived, fought valiantly. The knights forced back the oncoming storm of the dead and emerged victorious...but only barely, and it only bought them a short time.
Brunswick opened his eyes. After passing through the portal in that strange place, he and his knights found themselves at the base of a large hill, a large stone keep looming at the highest point. Hearing the distant clash of steel, the knights drew their blades, approaching carefully. They were glad to see familiar faces as they approached, however, as a few of the adventurers they'd encountered with Kuri prior became visible near the keep's drawbridge. They told them of the what they had learned: that the people here were known as The Royals: the last of a once-great kingdom. Their people had been beset upon by an army of the undead known as the Crows, and had been cut down one by one, pushed back to this keep. The other adventurers were already within the walls, along with the remnants of the Royals. Brunswick and Kuri shared a brief and joyful reunion, and Brunswick met the warden of the keep: a demigod named Vier.
Word came quickly of a strange figure near the outer wall, and Brunswick, ever the tactician, immediately organized his men to guard the gate leading in. It was clear to the King and his entourage that whatever it was that had been happening to these Royals, they, like the adventurers, would need to aid them in this conflict. At the very least, it may shine some light on the reason for their forced involvement in this quest.
One of the adventurers spotted what they believed to be the unknown figure observing the keep from a distance, so Kuri took the majority of them to try and catch them. Brunswick stayed behind with his soldiers to help the Royals guard the keep. Unfortunately for them, this proved to be exactly what the enemy had intended, for no sooner had the adventurers crossed the drawbridge out of sight, than several Crows descended from the upper walls, flooding into the keep. A brief battle ensued between the Knuckles and Royals, and the Crows. Some few knights on both sides were cut down, and the keep itself was overrun, forcing the survivors to flee into the nearby terrain.
Upon evading their pursuers, Brunswick and his knights slowly made their way back through the brush, eventually making their way up to the main road. They saw the adventurers making their way into the keep, having returned from their scout, clearing out many of the pursuing Crows along the way. Brunswick took this as a sign that the keep was safe once more, and returned to the gate. However, in the chaos of battle, Vier was nowhere to be found. While a few adventurers left to scout for signs of the demigod, Brunswick approached the spellsword, Kuri. Brunswick expressed a concern he had been withholding; wherever Kuri went, it seemed, chaos either existed, or ensued shortly thereafter. Even the spellsword could not argue the truth of his words..
One of the adventurers came running, saying they'd located Vier in battle not too far from the keep with some strange monster. With no Royals remaining within the keep after the last attack, there was no immediate need to station men there, thus Brunswick and his knights accompanied the others to find and assist Vier. Upon arrival, they found the demigod standing victorious over his foe, yet severely wounded. Brunswick began to ponder the rashness of Vier's actions. The demigod was the only member of his kingdom left to survive, save for the subjects present, and this very fact spoke ill of what he did with his manpower. Brunswick had no intention of throwing any lives away, and took a passive stance: should they encounter anything beyond their capabilities, they would leave such foes to Vier and his men, should such an option be available.
Vier and the adventurers approached. The demigod spoke of how the keep was falling and crumbling day by day, and he decided it was time take his surviving men elsewhere. First, however, he would travel to a nearby spring, a place of holy magic where he might heal. In light of this, Brunswick chose to take his men and remain at the keep. Kuri protested, but Brunswick was a tactician: he and his men were mortal. They would not survive long against an enemy attack out in the open. Fortifying and defending the keep not only offered them a high-rise, but should the adventurers run into trouble in their journey, or otherwise complete their mission, they would have somewhere to fall back to. Kuri accepted his reasons, despite his disapproval, and they left.
Yet for all the experience and skill-at-arms the King and his knights possessed, the undead horde was far more cunning and ruthless than they could have imagined, for when the enemy did descend upon the keep once more, it was in force. The knights fought valiantly, cutting down swaths of the enemy, but against creatures that could not feel pain nor fear, they found themselves in a losing battle. An enemy that could not be truly destroyed was not an enemy a mortal could easily face, and one by one, the knights present began to fall. A robed creature with a runic blade appeared through the fray, and before Brunswick could raise his sword to parry, the tip pierced his armor as easily as cutting through paper, and dealt him a mortal blow. With one knight alive and Brunswick on death's door, the adventurers returned, cutting a path through the undead, and saving the two Knuckles. The wounds upon him were 
severe, and worsened yet by dark magic. Even with their myriad restorative spells at hand, the others struggled greatly to mend his wounds, though eventually, through combined efforts, they managed to preserve Brunswick's life. The wounds, however, would prove impossible to fully heal. He was forced to shed his golden armor to compensate for his weakened state, and borrowed a weapon from the Royal's modest armory. Exiting the keep to join those standing watch, the adventurers were forced to repel another wave of Crows. These ones, however, seemed more organized than before. They were becoming stronger, and more clever, and Brunswick was concerned about what that would mean moving forward.
One of the adventurers approached the group, speaking candidly. , Kuri and his allies would need to make their way up the nearby hills to a low mountaintop. It seemed their path would take them to a nearby graveyard, right into the heart of the enemy. Vier told them they would need to jump off the cliff to the ground below, and understandably, Brunswick called the idea insane. As they stood there pondering the risk, more of the Crows appeared, having easily scaled the mountainside in pursuit, for the dead do not feel pain, and they do not tire. A fight for their lives in close quarters, the heroes quickly became overwhelmed, and against all reason, were forced to jump or die. Brunswick was struck hard, and tumbled off the cliff, surviving the fall thanks to a rather nimble adventurer catching him halfway down. Looking back up, he could see the surviving crows watching them from above, but they did not follow. Safely on solid ground, Brunswick looked forward, focusing his resolve for whatever lay ahead.
Rejoining the group, the made their way to the graveyard, and Brunswick saw clearly the robed one who had slain most of his men. Vier called it a soul-sucker. It turned to them, cackling mad, as more dead raised out of the ground behind it. Brunswick turned to Kuri, and told the spellsword to aid Vier in fighting the robed being. He, in the meantime, led the rest of the adventurers to clash blades with the undead rising up. Pushing them back, Brunswick's tactical expertise came into full view: as he clashed in a duel with an undead captain, he rallied the adventurers into a crude but effective formation, and decisively won the skirmish without any casualties. Behind them, Kuri and Vier were able to strike down their robed adversary, only to realize that it was no more than a shade. The creature's true body must lay elsewhere, they surmised.
They began to discuss the possibilities: many adventurers believed it would likely be in or near the graveyard, but Brunswick was no fool. They had no idea how long the war had been waging, nor how widespread the kingdom of the Royals may have once been. The body could have been in a province lost millennia ago. There was no way they could possibly be certain without aid. Regardless, they began examining the nearby tombstones for clues. Brunswick noticed that the language upon them was similar to the ones from his own world, but the words themselves seemed gibberish. The linguistic devices used seemed entirely alien to him. As they considered the possibilities, Brunswick spotted more soul-suckers approaching. Fleeing back, a barrier was erected around those who'd been injured in the last skirmish. One of them came in from the side, out of sight, and grabbed Brunswick, draining energy from his body, weakening him greatly. The others jumped to his aid, dragging him into the barrier to heal, as they continued to be besieged by the Crows.
As the fighting began to die down, one of the Crows stepped forth with a flag-bearer at their side. Healed by the magic of the barrier, Brunswick approached them, for he knew the sign of parley well. If there was one thing he could say he was more proficient at than the adventurers, it was the art of diplomacy. The Crows threatened Brunswick and the adventurers. Nobody had realized that Vier had disappeared, taken by the enemy. The dark lord who commanded them desired Brunswick, alive, for unknown purpose. They gave him ultimatum: come with them or Vier and the adventurers would be swarmed and slain. Brunswick saw no alternative. He could not, in good conscience, put his life above those he fought alongside. He lamented that he could not even protect the men that had come to this world with them. He left Kuri one message before being taken prisoner: that sometimes a leader must make decisions he does not want to. However, it is because he is a leader that he must make them. Brunswick believed in Kuri's purpose, whatever it would be, for he knew the youth to be a good man. With that, he turned, escorted away by the legion of undead, his head held high in acceptance of his fate.
Back at the keep, now overrun with the Crows, Brunswick was left under guard, taunted by the undead knights. He attempted to reason with a few of them, for he understood that they had been forced into servitude by their mysterious lord. It was faint, but he could see their wills fighting against the magic keeping them bound. A figure robed in red and black, regal and evil in appearance, approached Brunswick, and the Crows instinctively stood aside. It was clear: this was the dark lord who commanded them. He knelt down beside Brunswick, taunting his powerlessness, and callously drove his hand straight into the king's body. Brunswick felt as though his very soul had gone cold, and every muscle in his body became painfully tense. At a single command from the dark lord, his body moved, as though puppeteered by dark influence. When it became painfully clear that he was under the control of the dark lord, that his very soul was no longer his, he was released, sent back to reunite with his allies. He would be the eyes and ears of the dark lord among the heroes.
Upon his return, the others were aghast, yet they did not suspect anything amiss, and only showed concern for his well-being. Yet the voice of the dark lord spoke in his mind. Brunswick pulled Kuri aside, and warned him not to stay in these lands. He told the spellsword that, should they remain, everyone here would die. "Unsolved mysteries are called such because not every quest is solvable. Sometimes need to cut your losses, and flee." At the voice's behest, he told Kuri the truth: that the unknowable woman who beckoned them, was Vier's sister. The demigod had been lying to them all since their arrival, manipulating the adventurers. He knew how to find the woman, and yet withheld that information, despite knowing Kuri needed it. Brunswick then pulled Kuri aside to speak privately, still under the control of the dark lord, and when they were out of sight of the others, the king drew his blade on the spellsword, moving to kill. The allies clashed, one driven to murder his friend relentlessly, the other desperately trying to fend off the flurry. Brunswick, unable to act of his own free will, unleashed an onslaught of aggressive attacks on the spellsword. Kuri 
struggled weight of Brunswick's mighty blows. The bound king threw caution to the wind, eschewing any defense in favour of wild, barbaric strength. Any other man would fall to such folly, but Kuri could not bring himself to kill his friend so callously, and found himself creeping closer and closer to death, each blow finding itself closer to purchase than the last. At the peak, with Kuri knocked down, and Brunswick's blade over his head, a cry came out, and Vier appeared, striking Brunswick off a nearby cliff into the waters below. Brunswick, heavily injured, survived, and struggled onto the shoreline. Kuri and Vier gave chase, catching up to him moments later. Kuri begged Brunswick to fight the influence, to overcome it through force of will. Despite their protests, Brunswick struggled far too much to regain his sense of self. With what little strength he could muster, he did the only thing he could think of: a soul is nothing without a body to command, and in that moment, that one singular instance of clarity, Brunswick plunged the sword in his hand through his own body, collapsing onto the shoreline, soaking it with his blood.
Kuri cried out in fear and pain, overwhelmed by the sight of his friend dying in front of him. Vier had another idea, however. The same waters that could heal the demigod, could perhaps save Brunswick. It could kill him, but he was going to die regardless at this rate, and if the waters succeeded, Brunswick could live on without needing his mortal soul. The healers did what they could to slow the loss of blood, and Vier lifted the man. The group raced as fast as they could for the divine spring, sparing not a moment of exertion. Upon arriving, and resting him in the waters, Vier got to work immediately, beckoning those among them with powers of divine origin to aid him. Brunswick's body was wracked with unfathomable pain, claws tearing at the inside of his mind, and he screamed out in agony as the magic worked its way through his body. When at last the screams faded, and the magic receded into the waters, Brunswick breathed deeply, sustained by the magic of a god. He was alive, but would be forever changed.
Vier told all present the truth of the woman who Kuri could hear in his head. She was Vier's sister, created by the gods to be a deity of glory and good, yet for reasons even the demigod could not fathom, was easily turned to darkness and evil. She was not mortal, as Vier was, and she sought to claim Kuri for herself. To what end, even Vier did not know, but the demigod wished only one thing: that Kuri continue his quest, to find her, and free her from that which had corrupter her. This, it seemed, was their purpose, and would continue to be so, for the sake of the Royals, and their entire world.
In the moment that the dark lord had lost control of Brunswick, his hold on many of the undead waned, and several of those nearby had fled into the hills. With the nearby area empty of both Royals and Crows, there was nothing left for the adventurers to fight for in this place. This was not a victory, but they had gained valuable information. With that, they stepped forth from the cavern, hearts heavy, but their purpose finally given form.
Category:Adventure RP Lore