Episode 3 The Low Road
The Demon Kingdom, although they still follow the Kings Law as any principality, have a very uncertain and unique method of determining their Prince. Each year they host a grand tournament where each of the 7 demon houses compete. The winning team is granted wishes from the other defeated demon lords. The winning demon lord is crowned Demon Prince for the next year, able to rule over the entire Demon kingdom, until the next tournament that is. Thamuze the Prince of Wrath has held the title of Prince for many years now but many think the time of his reign is finally drawing near. This year several of the Demons have come to the frontier town and managed to collect signatures of many Heroic Souls, requiring many of them to participate in the Demon Tournament as their champions. It is assumed this is why the Tournament has been commanded by the Prince to be held in the remote location of the frontier town.
Now, the Abyssal energy is highly present in the frontier town, with creatures being drawn to that town such as Imps, Demons, shadow creatures, and other terrible things that lurk in the darkness of the abyss. Everyone waits for the result of this much anticipated Demon Tournament.
Brackish the crass Imp first mate of Redbeard, came to town to drink alcohol, as usual. The tavern was closed so he helped himself and his crew. This led to an altercation with the town who had been previously warned by Blackwater, the Privateer from Nocut, that he was hunting terrible red beard pirates. Brackish was able to talk his way out of the situation with the mayor and promised to return to pay what he owed in full and more. This time; however, he drunkenly told the Heroic Souls not to follow him as he and his crew were going on a secret mission that no one else was allowed to join.
The pirate crew then gathered with Blackwater and took their ship to follow Brackish. Using special pirate lord magic, Blackbeard submerged the boat and had it almost immediately arrive at Skull Island. Luckily they arrived at the back of the island in a secret cove that allowed them to easily bypass Red Beards pirates who now control the island. They tracked the footprints of Brackish in the sand to a secret stone door and discovered the secret combination of gems to unlock the door. Inside was a vast cavern fortress carved into the stone. They were able to unlock the door to the vault chamber which contains the combined wealth of all of the pirate lords. Only having the pirate key of each pirate lord can open the magical barrier to enter it. Speaking with Mr. Bonsy the dead pirate, they were able to convince him to show them around since they allowed him to look into the pirate treasure cove. They then went into the prison quarters and found, in an icy cave, a man claiming to be the Great Pirate BlueBeard emerged and offered to show them an easy way out. Being chased by many redbeard pirates they managed to make it back to Blackwaters boat, where they encountered Brackish who was standing in their way from escaping.
Brackish and Blue Beard had a long conversation where they explained that they knew each other and talked of the history of the Pirate Lords. That on the day they were to all gather to go and find Heimdall’s buried treasure Red Beard became aware of a plot to betray him. So he decided to make the first move and attacked the pirates at skull island. During the attack, YellowB eard, known as “Blondie” and was the most loved of all the Pirate lords, was killed. Red beard then took over all of the pirate fleets with the help of orange beard and the other pirate lords were exiled. BlueBeard claimed to have loved yellow heard and swore vengeance. Brackish also drunkenly called the Sea Wolves the “Sea Pups” one too many times and the Sea Wolves were ready to have his crew fight Brackish to the death. All of this forced Brackish to change his mind and they decided to Parlay. Brackish gave up Blackwater’s cursed ship and agreed to never call them the sea pups again. Bluebeard and Brackish also decided on a new mission, to track down all of the remaining pirate lords so they could get to the truth of who betrayed the pirates. Was it Redbeard the master of Brackish or was it someone else who was their betrayer. Either way, they decided to start with drunken Orange Beard.
Tavras, the “Dwarven” Elf who claims to be king of the elves, was following a rumor of a legendary metal. In the Tavern he meets a guide being an extremely knowledgeable creature similar to a cat wildkin named, Gilbert. Gilbert reluctantly helps them only because the magical quest board said that he had to. Gilbert explained that this was the will of the Abyss. Tavras was reluctant to trust it but this was the best lead that he had as to where to go. The dwarves who promised to help him followed along.
Gilbert brought them to giant rock creatures that if given rare gems would take them to where they needed to go. These giant rock creatures took them underground for many miles before resurfacing at a hidden dojo in an unknown location. This dojo revealed that this was the training place of many legendary fighters, including the prince to the previous King of Mordavia. Upon arriving at the training mat, the dojo spoke to the dwarves, telling them they had to pass the test to see if they were worthy of being there.
The metamorphic metal is actually known as the Source Metal. This is the first metal created by Gebilises in an attempt to make a mailable material to act as his idea of what he wanted metal to be, a tool of creation. This metal was the first metal ever made and with it any metal or metal item could be produced. Understanding that this tool could be used as a tool of destruction as well as creation, the item was hidden in a dojo and would serve only the wisest and most skilled of weapon masters.
The metamorphic metal then shapeshifted into several different weapons that the dwarves had to fight. Although Tavras is not very skilled with a weapon and is certainly not the wisest due to his lack of experience, the weapon senses the Will of Gebilises inside of Tavras and wants to becomes an extension of Tavras’s Will. Upon their victory the Source Metal soul binded itself with Tavaras
The dwarves leave the dojo to find a wall of fire blocking their escape and a dragon flying above them. The dragon declared that they were thieves that tricked the Source Metal into leaving with them and that they must be destroyed. The dragon almost defeated the Heroic Souls until Gilbert jumped into the fray and scared off the dragon using martial techniques passed on by the Royal family which the dragon knew and feared. Now that Tavaras has the legendary source metal it seems he still has much to learn for him to be able to master it and then lead the dwarves and worshipers of Gebelises to prosperity.
Over the past episodes the Heroic Souls were informed of a disturbance in the forces of nature. To solve this issue they needed to seek out each elemental avatar to awaken them all to bring balance to nature. They encountered a rare shark wildkin who had accidentally consumed the Water Spirit Akora. They also had to battle Ifram the Ashen Rain who was a fiery Phoenix that left nothing but ash in its wake. As well as the short tempered Cyclonis, the whirling avatar of wind that shattered all that would try to stand to it’s wrath. After much effort the Heroic Souls managed to contain each Avatar within themselves in order to allow the spirits of nature to heal while the Heroic Souls managed nature in their stead. Although, it was normal for spirits of nature to act in a way mortals can’t understand. However, it was still a mystery as to what caused the Spirits of Nature to become so incredibly chaotic and destructive as they did. The only hints pointed to a dark entity claiming to know forbidden nature magic and he was said to live in the entrance to the great sewers of sargon that was located just at the foot of the forest of Eredeti, far from Sargon where the sewage originates but close to eh frontier town.
The Demon Tournament promised to be both entertaining, bloody, and full of political intrigue and as always the tournament was sure to deliver. There was 1 team representing each house of sin. The House of Greed was represented by Amon, Master Sleuth of Team Lust, Slovenia of the House of Gluttony, The one with no name lead team envy, the House of Sloth was barely represented by Lord Sloth, and the self proclaimed Prince of Pride; although, Thamuz of Wrath was sitting as the current champion and Prince of the Demon Kingdom.
Apparently, Master Sleuth and Slovenia have a strange history with Sleuth constantly rejecting Slovenia who seems madly obsessed. This tension needed to be with a fight between these two teams. The champions fought in five 1 on 1 matches to the death and so their matchup was inevitable to end the feud. Sleuth and team Lust barely won and the victory did not seem to do much to deter Slovenia from trying to entice Sleuth with another plan in the future. Lord Sloth was too lazy to assemble a team until moments before he was to fight and dominated the closest Heroic Souls he could find and forced them to fight for him. However, not much thought went into the selections and they were easily defeated by Team Wrath. Team Envy seemed formidable, but Amon apparently had a secret weapon that empowered his team allowing them to easily defeat team envy. In a much anticipated battle of the Reigning champion Thamuz of house Wrath against the House Pride. After an epic series of matches it came down to the two team captains. As Thamuz lay dying on the ground Lord Pride began taunting the Raven the Broodmother, wife of Thamuz, claiming her as his wife. This enraged Thamuz and seemed to bring him back from the dead, after a devastating surprise attack Thamuz was victorious. He then revealed that he was once of house pride and that he had seen how far it had fallen, so he exclaimed that he was taking over the House of Pride instead.
After some debate, the other demons decided that if House Pride had been defeated and now Thamuz was of House Pride then he was defeated, and thus Thamuz disqualified himself and allowed for the final match to take place. In the final fight of Amon of Greed against Master Sleuth of Lust, the fights were epic as they went match for match. However, Amon revealed his secret. He had brokered deals earlier with the Demons in the Abyss and made a deal so he could possess the Demon Tail of the first Demon King. With it he is able to grant wishes but at heavy cost. Still, this did not stop Amon from empowering his gladiators allowing them the upper hand.
As the last match of the entire tournament and the fate of the Demon Kingdom was about to be revealed there was a sudden interruption. Lazarus the Blind Order Elf was accompanied by a group of elves. One of which was an old looking elf with a long beard and concealing most of himself under a flowing white robe. This elf claimed that they had a right to fight in the tournament due to ancient demon law. Apparently the old elf made a deal with the lord of Lies, one of the lost and exiled houses of Sin. According to the ancient laws they still had a right to fight in the tournament even though they were a team of elves. This was unheard of, and the demon lords rushed to read the ancient demonic laws. After some debate they concluded the elf was correct and the ancient law must be allowed to stand. Master Sleuth and Amon realized that this was indeed a clever trap and so they decided to make a deal to extend the tournament and for there not to be a demon prince until the tournament which would take place the next year. Everyone agreed to these terms, with the side effect being no one to rule the Demon kingdom which would certainly fall into chaos. Before the Demons left town, Amon proclaimed his glory and the power of the Demon Tail of Wishes. In doing so he wished for all abyssal portals and gates being forced open allowing the abyss and all of its minions to freely flow into the world of Mordavia. With that command, the shadows, even a normal shadow cast by a light seemed to grow in strength and all of the Demons slowly slipped into darkness to continue their plots for the tournament next year where they would decide the fate of the demons once and for all.