The Crammeoron Islands

A tall human man in a red cloak walks confidentially down a thin rope bridge, his steps so powerful that sometimes the planks fall from under his feet, but it never trips him up or slows down his movement. The rope bridge goes is going increasingly upward, and just as the human is reaching the top, a booming voice echoes across the sky. "Halt!" The human stops, a small smile curling over his lips as he turns to look at what awaits him at the top of his hill. A gargantuan steel castle stands before him, only the very top of the marvelous construction peeking out over the iron wall guarding it, the gate past the wall sealed shut in front of the human. There are various nests at some of the higher points of the wall, at in one of the nests is an old dwarf, face covered in soot pointing a rifle at the human. He repeats his phrase. "Halt!"   The human replies, having to yell as equally loud so the dwarf can hear. "I have business with the king, I need to be let in!"   "We were not informed about your arrival, if you are a visitor you will have to pay the visitor's fee!"   The human's smile has begun to dissipate. "How do you know if you were expecting me or not, you don't even know my name!"   The dwarf steadies his trigger finger. "Do not argue! If you wish to enter you must pay the visitor's fee!" The human's eyes begin to wander away from the dwarf and up even further to sky. He scans the horizon and suddenly his eyes lock onto something as the smile returns to his lips.   "Look at that!" He points to a large flock of birds flying across the cloud-laden sky. "Guess they must be migrating, you don't normally see so many!"   The dwarf's eyes dart quickly to the birds but returns to the human after about half a second. "Are you going to pay the fee or not!"   As soon as the dwarf gets the words out of his mouth, the flock of birds, almost as if they were one being or programmed to do the exact same thing at the exact same time, all perch simultaneously on the iron wall. This alerts many other creatures on the different nests of the wall as they all begin looking strangely at the birds lining the wall. The human's smile has fully returned to his face as he looks to the dwarf, though the dwarf's vision is fixated to the birds.   "Should've let me in dwarf!" Suddenly all of the birds on the wall, in one quick movement transform into human forms, which makes a number of loud popping noises echoing across the grounds. Everyone on top of the wall recoils, some make futile grabs for the weapons, as the now fully human creatures begin hurling spells toward the guards, most sending them flying off the wall, but some lucky ones manage to survive the original blast and begin sliding down the ladders and scatter across whatever lies behind the wall. All of the intruders are now beginning to jump and levitate down the other side of the wall, and the sound of more magical blasts sound across the sky, some of the bigger ones illuminating the dark sky. The human lets out a soft chuckle and strides up to the gate.   The human pulls out his hand and holds it about three feet away from the gate. Suddenly a thick blue laser shoots from his hand, making a hissing sound when it hits the iron gate, and he has to put his other hand on his wrist to stabilize the laser. As the human draws a small rectangular outline on the gate, he hears the sound of a bell ringing and suddenly, from the sounds of carnage on the other side of the wall, it seems as though combat has fully broken out. He tries to speed up the laser outline and soon there is a hole big enough for the human to walk through as the end of the outline reaches where he started. the freshly cut grass is littered with blood, and the various small buildings around seem entirely vacant. The attackers seemed to have easily push back the defenders of the island, and have been able to push themselves toward the castle. The dead bodies strewn about the town all have golden armor with a symbol of a hammer branded on them. The human notices out of the corner of his eye, a small half-orc child who is looking blankly at the sea of carnage before him. He stops his prideful stride down the gravel path toward the castle and smiles at the child.   "Fear not! We will get this mess cleaned up the second I'm up there." He points to the top of the castle, waves goodbye to the child, and continues his prideful stride to the castle doors.   The castle is a marvelous sight, held on strong steel pillars, and two golden doors lay on the ground, ripped off their hinges by the attackers. There are no windows on the castle, but various balconies peak out from each level on the castle, most of them are now home to only corpses. The human walks into the castle and with his escorts and he is brought up six stories of lavish rooms, most decorated with red rugs and golden furniture. Once the human gets to the top of the castle he is escorted inside a large room, golden curtains guarding each of the many balconies along the width of the room. At the very back wall, is a golden throne, currently hosting a burnt dwarven corpse. One of the invaders quickly clears the corpse from it's seat and gets into a bowing position, mimicking the other fifty-nine warriors along the walls of the room. The human continues his prideful stride to the throne, and when he gets there he stifles a laugh, takes a deep breath, and lowers himself into the seat.   -Igrodd Hydrashade takes over the Oakgar Refuge