#action in laying seige to a castle

[herenvibing]

my dad jokingly suggested that there be a ttrpg called castles and moats and now i’m thinking that would be a great low fantasy osr game

[bardic-tales]

OC Interview: Brennan Draig

Thank you so much for the tag, @blind-the-winds. I really enjoyed reading your answers. I also think the interview style for this was brilliant. I've already did this for myself.

Rules: Answer the following questions for an OC of your choice.

I did something like this many years ago for Cyras, the protagonist of Cold as Ice, and I loved it. It helped me really sink into her character.

I decided to do this with Brennan, the love interest of Flight of the Dragon. Brennan is a 1200-year-old silver dragon who is also one of the rulers a city-state in the Olessan Region.

Please be aware of the following triggers: talks of death. Flight of the Dragon is set in a dark fantasy world, so very dark themes apply to it.

Knight-Errant Brennan Draig

1. Are you named after anyone?

In the world, Brennan is not named after anyone. I had debated whether he would be named after a relative or not, but ultimately decided that he wouldn't be.

As Flight of the Dragon was originally wrote to be low fantasy and exist on our planet, Brennan was originally written as King Arthur. I got his name from the Irish name Brennan (sorrow) and Welsh word Draig (dragon).

2. When was the last time you cried?

Brennan never cries. He believes that in order to make changes in the world that action is required. This is why he rushes to the cathedral to protect a newborn Alystin and her mother and agrees to train Alystin in martial and ranged weapons in FOTD.

There was one pivotal moment when he did cry. After he confronts Jhaer and his clutch is completely destroyed, he is running on pure adrenaline. The chief god appears before him and tells him that in exchanged for his freedom Brennan needs to fulfill the promise all silver dragons pledged to Amés. He vows to live his life for Amés and free all of the dragon souls that Jhaer is using to fuel her blood magick.

After the adrenaline wears off and he is far away from his castle / lair, Brennan breaks down and cries. He mourns the mate and children that died in Jhaer's siege.

Interesting that Jhaer was originally Morgana from the legends of King Arthur.

3. Do you have any kids?

Brennan lost his mate, Beatrix, and children in the siege let loose by the Enethian necromancer, Ellarian Jhaer. The only ones that are left are the twins named Aldrien and Palar. He sent them away to learn from the golden dragon: Kalzeruth.

He also has one more child who survived the seige named Kanderth. Kanderth becomes corrupted, raised as a great draconic lich, and works with Jhaer. Brennan is the one who lays Kanderth to rest.

He and Alystin will become the mother and father of Flame. They have two hybrid children together. These children are the ancestors of modern men and drakl. Drakl are dragonmen and are at war with men.

4. Do you use sarcasm?

Although he is considered a wise wyrm, Brennan can't help but use sarcasm on occasion. He tries to lead by sincerity, integrity, and candor, but those sarcastic moments tend to shine through when he is dealing with Jhaer or her cult.

5. What's the first thing you notice about people?

The first thing that Brennan notices about people is their eyes. He is fond of saying that the eyes are windows to the soul.

Brennan has a draconic ability that allows him to see auras and determine if someone is friend or foe. This ability is triggered by looking into the eyes of the target. The world around him becomes ghostly grey hues. The Wraith, the anti-hero protagonist from Cold as Ice, has a similar ability from her draconic ancestry. Some could say that this comes from the father of the modern dragons.

6. What's your eye color?

From my notes in Flight of the Dragon.

Brennan Draig has eyes almost the color of silver. When he uses any magick, they will glow a powder blue. His left eye is clouded a dull grey with a darker silver around the outer edge of the iris. A vertical, thick raised scar darts from right above his left eyebrow, runs down his eyelid, and stops at the beginning of his cheek.

7. Scary movies or happy endings?

During the early Age of Men, civilization told sagas instead of showing movies. That technology doesn't exist until the Age of Steam.

Brennan enjoys stories about the great battles his clutch fought and the dangerous journeys they made. These stories were to record and preserve their culture and things that the Elders thought was important for future generations.

With that in mind, he doesn't care one way or the other about the endings.

8. Any special talents?

Brennan has a knack for languages.

As a dragon, he has most of the talents that you would normally associate with an ancient wyrm. He is immune to cold and can exhale a cone of icy air which freezes most of everything it touches.

One of the special talents that he personally teaches his offspring is the ability to use body magick to shift bones, wings, and flesh into a human form or beast. This is a painful process that the dragons tend to either spend their time in human or draconic forms.

Once Alystin becomes his dragon knight, she and Brennan will often share telepathy, pain, and even something simple as hormone changes.

As a dragon, he has impressive flight. He will often tell Alystin to mount him, so they could transverse the world quicker through the skies, but she insists that she would never disrespect him like that as he is not a beast of burden. Brennan loves to soar.

9. Where were you born?

Brennan was born in the northern forests of the Olessa region. These forests are old-growth forests that was inspired by forests in England.

When he was only a young dragon, he was left in these forests and told only to survive. His father thought that this would help him when it was time for him to pass onto the Ven plane. Brennan would take over and rule after that.

10. What are your hobbies?

There are several hobbies that Brennan enjoys. when he was the ruler of Seralia, he enjoyed falconry. He enjoyed teaching the young birds of prey to hunt wild animals for food.

Brennan enjoys reading. There were many times that he could be found in Adwen ferch Afan's library bent over old scrolls and tomes.

With Eternity threatening to end the Planes of Existence, he doesn't have time to practice the hobbies that he enjoyed.

11. Have you any pets?

Outside of his falcons that didn't make it out of Adwen ferch Afan when Jhaer besieged them, he travels with a malamute named Emray.

Emray is Alystin's dog. He stands about 26 inches in height from his shoulder and weighs 95 pounds with a plumed tail that is held over his back. Emray is very loyal to Alystin, even going so far as attacking Brennan after the Huntsman is burned to the ground. However, once he realized that Brennan wasn't going to hurt his master, Emray would become his best friend.

12. What sports do you play/have played?

There were several outdoor games that Brennan would play with his flight. Most of these sports were based on his knights' warrior skills. There were competitions in archery, wrestling, stone throwing, and sword play.

Brennan engaged in running and swimming. They would play a ball game with stick and ball. In other communities, it wasn't uncommon for someone to be hurt or killed, as early Olessans tend to play rough. Women were not allowed to participate in these games, but they would gather and watch their partners.

13. How tall are you?

Human-form

Brennan stands 7 feet 2 inches. He is one of the tallest characters that I have, and his height is inspired by Johann Petursson and André René Roussimoff.

Dragon-form

As an ancient wyrm, Brennan tends to stand 120 feet. He has a 35-foot body and neck length, 50-foot tail, 150-foot max wingspan, and weighs over 640 tons. He is rarely in this form as he knows that it inspires terror in his follows. It actually surprises him when Alystin accepts him.

14. Favorite subject in school?

There are no schools during the early Age of Men. Education was provided through private tutors. Only a handful of early Olessans could afford to educate their sons. This is seen when Brennan sent away the twins to learn beneath the tutelage of Kanderth.

Brennan's favorite thing to learn would be soaring through the heavens.

During Flight of the Dragon, after Alystin asks him about a time he was truly terrified, he recalls to him the first time he spent among the clouds. He was frightened as his wings became slick with dew, sending him plummeting toward the ground. At the last moment, he unfurrowed his massive wings and righted himself at the last moment. He tells her that he could have given up and died, but he pushed forward, as she will have to during the fight with Eternity.

15. Dream job?

Despite railing against his destiny when he was younger, Brennan was always met to follow in his father's footsteps and rule his region. He once wanted to be a poet, a storyteller responsible for keeping the history and tradition of his people alive, but that quickly fell apart when his father was fatally wounded during an assassination attempt.

Now, he wishes to recapture Adwen ferch Afan, unite all of the Olessan region, and have Alystin take her place beside him.

[aryasbadbenergy]

Storm’s End ficlet 3/?

“Stannis Baratheon held Storm’s End under siege for over a year,” Davos says to Gendry. Gendry pauses, considering it. Arya stands with Gendry at the head of the table, and she nods at Davos.

“Ser Davos is correct. They’re better in the sea, so we’d be smarter to force them out of the water to put us under siege and then pick their army off as they arrive. Storm’s End has never fallen, and it won’t fall from a seige of glorified pirates.” Arya turns to Davos, ready to acknowledge her slight. Davos waves his hand.

“I was a smuggler, my Lady,” he says with a smile. Davos had a soft spot for Arya, and Arya used it to tease Gendry as to why Davos left the North.

“If we let them lay seige long enough to weaken them, we can survive without losing our men. They will have to leave their ships sometime.”

“Winter depleted our food stores, my Lady.” Arya looks up at the Lord who cut in. “We don’t have enough to survive a seige.”

Gendry looks between the Lord, Ser Davos, and Arya. Arya knew that his head had to be spinning trying to pick their best route of action. He rubs the bridge of his nose.

“Aye, winter depleted our food stores, but if we kill their men as they try to breech the castle, we can deplete their army,” Arya says to the Lord. “They are a small army, My Lord. It shouldn’t take too long.”

He furrows his eyebrows at Gendry, waiting for his Leige Lord to speak, probably expecting a command to keep his wife from speaking up during a talk of war strategy. Gendry remains quiet.

“What if they don’t send their men onto land,” the Lord asks.

“Then I will lead our best men to the ships and pick them off in the night,” she argues. The Lord nearly laughs at her proposal.

“You? Mayhaps you’re better suited to nurse your babes, my Lady,” he spews.

Gendry opens his mouth but Arya sets a hand on his arm and reaches for her dagger with the other. Before anyone in the room can blink, Arya aims the dagger for the wooden post just above the smug Lord’s head. It settles in the wood and he jumps out of the way, knocking over his ale and chair in the process. Arya raises her eyebrows at the Lord. “Mayhaps you’re better suited to keep quiet, my Lord. Now as I was saying...”

[thepolyrebellion]

Straight for the Castle| Closed

@spookyrebeltrolls

Oh, all these minutes passing, sick of feeling used If you wanna break these walls down, you’re gonna get bruised And now my neck is open wide, begging for a fist around it Already choking on my pride, so there's no use crying about it

( Halsey - Castle)

Time, they say, waits for no one. Like it or not, one is dragged kicking and screaming through the march of seconds, minutes, and hours. And it was time. Yuumei studied the walls of her hive one last time, hair smoothed back and twin saws polished. There was something a bit stuffy and large about her ornate military outfit, as if she was going to be swallowed up by expectation. Never in her life had she ever felt so small, so powerless. Even the mightiest seadweller, the Empress herself, had to bend her will to time. It would seem almost ironic, someone who is nearly functionally and concretely immortal still had to bow to something whose concept, at best, was abstract.

           But now was not the time to dally over memories or philosophy. Now was the time to board her vessel, take up her rank and fulfill a destiny she wasn't sure was quite her own. She stood shiny like an ornament, gleaming under the Empress's banner to denounce and even cull the traitor. Her heart stirred something fierce, a volcanic explosion seeping over her soul and melting her resolve just a bit. She had watched the passion on the stranger's lips and the determination in her eyes. She watched the necklace yank from her neck and it was as surreal as it was...inspiring.

           Yuumei could remember watching the woman's fist ball as she clutched her own symbol and break it free. In that moment, it was almost as if her own chains to her path was broken. It was almost as if she could choose...her own freedom. Her remembered how hard she swallowed, how tightly her hands gripped the banned book she managed to get in secret. She remembered in that moment how time, for all its power, stood absolutely still.

But her heart hadn't.

It beat with the furiosity of drums and pounded like a beast's paws to a forest.

How could she go against everything she ever had? Yuumei, and this stranger, this Vereni, were seadwellers. It was their natural right to eventually lead, to control, to empower each other. And yet, Vereni turned rogue. Yuumei had gone over her case file several times. One was for information and the other was...to gauge her. Not from a fighter's stance but from a purely curious one. It didn't make sense. Naturally lowbloods had  to be prone to revolution, rebellion and breaking oppression. Not a seadweller.

Yuumei's mind strayed back to Vereni's face on the tv even as she stared at her own reflection in the window. It still felt strange to see herself decorated and commanding a legion of troops. This is what she is suppose to do. Hunt the rogues and the rebels and bring glory to the crown. She'll receive fame, recognition, and glory. The other party will receive only death.

           Someone tapped her on the shoulder lightly and she turned her eyes toward them. A lower rank solider stood at an uncomfortable attention as he told her they would be approaching the Fleet Station Charon.

Yuumei swallowed hard as she put her hands neatly folded into each other. If this was so natural in the order of things, why did everything feel so wrong? The crown always felt so heavy, the weight of it on her head felt hot and pulsating with a nervous greediness. The crown always wanted more lives and more blood spilled. Though she didn't wear it formally, not until she challenged for it, its monstrous girth felt so suffocating.

           Like it or not, she had a role to play. And so did this Vereni. Yuumei had acted all of her life and for the first time it felt like she had forgotten all of her lines and that if she was not completely ready, the curtains would close and the lights would dim.

Before she left she hid everything banned away. She didn't have the heart to burn it, to really let it all go. Even if she said the right words, did the right actions, she couldn't shake the feeling that it was wrong. So she wanted to look into this Vereni's eyes, just once, before she had to deliver the killing blow. Maybe in that one glance she could finally shed all of her rebellious thoughts. Maybe she needed this win, to prove she was doing the right thing.

           Vereni would fall and Charon would be back in proper hands again and this New Republic will shrivel and crawl back into its horrible depths of obscurity. Then, Yuumei could finally lay to rest everything she secretly harbored. She could finally be at inner peace. Everything would be right just as her lusus said it would, just as her empress commanded it be. She didn't have to think anymore, just do. And maybe, just maybe, the crown would finally fit.

           Yuumei uprooted herself from her seat and walked into the space station. Everything felt so disconnected as she waved her hand up to split the troops to seige the place. This wasn't just a battle for the Empire, but also a battle for her soul.

[fantasyinvader]

Third story, The Stealer of Souls

Honestly, not much to this one. More nods to past adventures that weren’t written at the time, death of one of Elric’s oldest friends, and Stormbringer asserting it’s will to kill someone against Elric’s wishes.

Basically, Elric is hired by some merchants to kill one who is putting them out of business. Elric agrees because he has a score to settle with a sorceror in the employ of the merchant. Elric enlists the help of Melnebonean survivors who aren’t happy to see the Emperor who destroyed their home but also have a bone to pick with the sorceror. The head out, Elric defeats a demon but is captured. Merchant he is sent to kill spares him on the condition Elric doesn’t kill him but confiscates Stormbringer. Moonglum manages to steal Stormbringer back, allowing Elric to summon air elementals to his aid. Seige of the merchant’s castle happens, where Elric’s boyhood friend dies. Sorcerer goes insane out of fear and Elric uses his soul to barter the freedom of his friend. Elric tries to spare the merchant after laying seige to his castle, saying they were almost friends, but Stormbringer kills him and devours his soul. Elric gets angsty, while the merchants who hired him gave Elric a huge payoff not to attack their city (Elric had simply planned on robbing them.).

The biggest take away here is it highlights Elric’s alien mind and incomplete conscious. Because the merchant spared Elric when he could have killed him (and this story establishes that in the five years Elric has been traveling, he has developed one hell of a reputation as a person of mass destruction), Elric would honor his vow. It was enough that Elric considered him an almost friend. Going back to Elric of Melnibone, mercy was an alien concept to his people so the act does leave quite an impression on the albino. It was a kindness that would be unthinkable to someone who was brought up in Melnibone, so it makes some sense why it left an impression on Elric who only took up Stormbringer in self-defense. Meanwhile, Elric was planning to take everything from the merchants who hired him on this task which also highlights how much this affected him.

And we see Elric use sorcery to free the soul of his friend. A nod to Elric having something of a heart. And he does feel regret over the merchant’s death, though is angsty about it bemoaning about his cursed sword.

I love how Melniboneans, despite being a chaotic evil race, don’t go for all black. Instead, they love bright colors. Beautiful colors, that should clash but instead blend together. Usually when we think of decadent dark elves (and this story pointed out that Melniboneans had pointed ears), we think of black and bone designs. Instead, we have these flamboyant colors and designs that are pleasing to the eye tying back to their hedonistic nature. Plus them joining with Elric does fit with what they are, a people who do whatever makes them feel good. They are willing to join the one who destroyed their home in order to kill an enemy that more recently killed one of their own. Elric also provides them with a new castle, but what they lived through during the fall of Immyr shows that there is a deep scar in there.

And of course Stormbringer. So far I have seen how it speaks to Elric and at times guide his actions. But to see it jump out of his hand to drink the soul of another, that’s something else. Can I just say I fucking love this sword?

See ya next time.