Alex LaErian

Angelicus Ostrus
GM
Adam
Game Time
DunDraCon
Characters
TBA

Characteristics

Strength: +20 (Angelic)

Dexterity: +0 (Mid)

Tox: +10 (High)

Perception: +0 (Mid)

Charisma: +10 (High)

Speed: +30 (Super Angelic)

Hit Points: 77/115

Defense: d100 + 10

Initiative: 5d10

Cadeux

Major: 0

Minor: 0

Viae

Major: Corpus, Aquam

Minor:

Viae times per day: □□□□(4)

Combat

Weapon: Gladius (Force)

To hit: d100 + 20

Damage: 4d10

Extraneous

Wings (White, shaped like a Peregrine Falcon's)

Manacle tattoos on wrists

Wears blue robes that can shift to Lorica Segmentata when readying for combat

Alex's Fall

I sat in the cell that had been provided. The cell was spartan, but it was clean. Far away better than what could be found upon Prime. I sat in the corner to have more room for my wings to splay out. It was dark, so very dark inside. To a human, it would be disconcerting to be in here for a few days, but we angels were built somewhat differently. A low chant echoed from outside my cell door, several voices taking part in the impromptu choir. I wasn’t the only one down here.

I was nearly naked, my uniform, glasses and sidearm having been taken from me upon my confinement. My only modesty was being concealed beneath a loose pair of trousers. I wasn’t a large man, but when you have a wingspan of nearly twenty feet, things can be uncomfortable.

The day’s events replayed in my head. The platoon I was attached to was moving through a wooded hill on the field. It was already slick with the black blood of demons and the occasional burst of gold where an angel had fallen in battle. There were no bodies to be seen. The trees were bereft of leaves, only spindly looking things that better belonged in a nightmare. There was an ocean at our backs, where we had been landed from our ship.

3rd Platoon, Lion Company, Dragon Legion crested the hill. Our orders were to take and hold. Strangely, there was no resistance. My sidearm, the Gladius, which was issued to every legionnaire in the Army found it’s way into my hand. Strategically, this wasn’t right. We shouldn’t have been allowed to gain such a valuable vantage and defensive point…

Then I saw what was beyond the hill. The blood drained from my face. Spread across the horizon was the entire demon 13th Legion. Ten full battalions of demons face us, ten-thousand agents of Dust, the Dys deity of destruction. And the only thing that stood against them from gaining this hill was a platoon of forty-five Angels of the Light, along with some token siege equipment (trebuchets, packed up into carts).

The Lieutenant of the detachment immediately gave orders, snapping them out. A squad of engineers cast their spells, erecting defensive barriers to fortify the hilltop in an instant. Siege masters unpacked their precious engines as fast as they were capable. But the demons were already charging.

The riflemen were already at the wall, firing as fast as their weapons would allow them. But the demon wave, like the ocean itself, could not be stopped by chucking a few rocks at it. The wave hit our defenses and broke over them. Angels stepped up to meet the blades of the darkness with their own, longswords and gladius shining in the light. My own Gladius was in my hands and singing as I lunged forward to provide a rock for the wave to break against. My arm swung and swung again, my magics expending themselves to keep our soldiers wounds healed. But they were just too many.

From behind, I heard the CHUNK-SWOOSH of the engines firing, sending a load of hand-bombs into the air to land amongst the tightly packed ranks of the demons where the damage was the most horrific.

The platoon fell back, forming a wall between the demons and the engines. Shields locked together and gladius stabbed over and over again. Black ichor flowed around our ankles and over our armor. Those engines were our lifeline, but we were all thinking the same thing. This would not last forever. The Lieutenant looked at me, his eyes wide. Something had to be done. We were down to twenty-five percent of our original force, eleven men. The rest were severely wounded or dying.

I looked around and saw the ocean we had come from. If I was fast enough, I could save what few we had left. I started to gather what strength I had left in me. I channeled every single emotion I had. The rage and helplessness from the angels who had died while I tried to save them despite my best efforts, the fear of being annihilated at the hands of the enemy and the love I had for the men that were still alive. I poured that into a single act of magic.

I raised my arms to be stretched out from me, my hands cupped as though pushing something great. They moved in to my chest with my elbows still at an angle and I pushed with all the might that I had, my voice thundering to fill the hill and plain surrounding it.

“DECURRENT FLUMINA AQUAE!” I commanded in the sacred language. Silence then reigned around the battlefield. Only a distant roaring could be heard. Everyone turned to look towards the sea. A distant line formed, rushing towards our position. A mile off the coast, it grew in size. A tidal wave of massive proportions to sweep our enemies away. It swallowed the ships that had brought our company to this damned place. It flowed across the plains, licking at our mountaintop with a roar that was so dense that it could almost be touched. The sea swallowed the land and enemy legion, as well as the enemy-held coastal towns and even a single inland city. It effectively denied the land to everyone. I collapsed upon the ground, the effort from the day’s fighting and the monumental spell taking it’s toll upon me.

I awoke, not sure how many days had passed, being dragged into the courtroom. My armor and robes were still stained with blood, although the Praetorians hauling me in did not seem to care. I was hauled to my feet where I discovered that I was bound, shackled by the hands and legs. Alex, the god of war, honor and duty looked down from his bench at me. My namesake had been from him, a reason why I was in the military to begin with.

“You are responsible for the destruction of a company’s worth of angels of the Dragon’s Legion, an entire fleet of Angelic naval vessels and the mass destruction of a valuable region. You are being charged with Treason. How do you plead?”

I was stunned. I had saved what few men I could, destroyed near an entire legion of the Enemy and now I was being charged with the worst crime possible?!

“I… I don’t understand…” I said, looking around the chambers. My eyes fell upon Suth, pleading her for an explanation. Suth was my deity, the goddess who had a part in my creation. She would know me better than anyone else on the Tribunal. She met my gaze and held it. She then turned to the others.

“I move for a twenty-minute recess.” Her tone was hard, like steel that brooked no arguments. It was also light and musical, which made the two sound at odds within her statement. Alex bristled and Tyre looked like he was about to make some sort of legal point. Max however stepped in rather hurriedly. “Seconded and so moved!”

The other two glared daggers at the youngest of the gods, who smiled and shrugged. Suth nodded her thanks and stood up. “Bring the defendant to my office.”

Once inside, having been dragged there once again over my protests that I could walk just fine, I stared at Suth face to face. Well, her avatar anyway.

“You may leave.” She brushed the Praetorians away. They saluted, with their fists banging upon their breastplates and strode away. I was then alone with the very deity that my life had been sworn to for the half-millennia of my existence. She stepped forward towards me. My left leg went down automatically with my head bowed. The chains attached to my ankles wouldn’t permit the graceful way of doing this, so I merely crouched with one fist upon the ground and one over my heart.

“Stand up.” She said, and I did so. Physically, I towered over her. But the sheer presence of who she was made me positively miniscule. She looked into my eyes, her face as hard as tone. “Tell me.”

No words came from me, but she was able to take all the information from my mind as it flashed through my eyes of what happened upon that hill. She looked up and asked me a simple question, yet it was an incredibly difficult one. “Why?”

I looked at her. My mind blurred with questions of my own. “They were dying.” I whispered. Those three words brought the faces of the men and women as I held them in my arms, trying as hard as I could to keep them alive and failing. “We were being pressed in on all sides, there were so many of them! I had to do something!!!”

I don’t know when I had started yelling. “I fought so hard and they still kept coming! I didn’t want them to die!” I slumped down onto my knees. Tears fell freely from my face. “I couldn’t do anything… I didn’t want to die…”

Then my head was being held against her and I grasped onto the robes of my Goddess as I wept. Her hands were gentle against my hair, caressing it and soothing the pain that had erupted from within my soul. Unconsciousness came to me within minutes, blessed unconsciousness.

And I sat in my cell, thinking about what had happened. The guards came in and allowed me to walk to the courtroom, standing before the Tribunal. My uniform was on a table in front of me, as well as my sword.

Alex spoke, with a look at Suth. "Your charges have been changed to gross misconduct the mass destruction of region deemed valuable by High Command. How do you plea?"

The Four looked upon me as I spoke my final word upon the heavenly plane.

“Guilty.”