Fiction:Eschaton Prologue - Pelagrios

From Riches...To Even More Riches
Mid-Spring 32 NA

In the far western reaches of the world, upon the midwestern coasts, was situated a large domain that belonged to Pelagrios - or, as he was now known, Pelagius Drimios of House Drimios. Pelagrios invested his wealth greatly from the expedition to the Golden Necropolis; although, the rest of the team except for Ndrhthryr were unaware, that after leaving, Pelagrios travelled back into the deep vaults of the tombs, hoarding more wealth for himself. Now, Pelagrios had enough wealth to buy Koldenwelt ten times over, the richest man in the known world. Since the late summer of last year, Pelagrios had established his immense estate that people flocked to for work; eventually becoming a city with a population of over eight thousand. However, Pelagrios' lavish spending had meant that his castle overpowered the size of other greater establishments, and he still had incredulous amounts of wealth to spare.

Pelagrios himself had changed slightly. Whilst he was still a whore-mongering drunkard by nature, he took himself to appear like a high-born. He had shaved his beard and his hair was trimmed and styled to an almost elven degree. Pelagrios himself looked much like an elf under his facial hair, would it not be for an injury he sustained not months ago - his eye was torn from his skull, and now wearing an eye patch over his right eye. Pelagrios' overall appearance however, though cleaner and adorned in quilted clothing, seemed 'stale', in a way. Pelagrios began to look as if he were ill, or worse for wear in comparison to when he did, yet only felt slightly faint on the inside. The influence of the shard he had kept on his person for a number of years had thinned his soul out - whilst he was still able and in his youth, appeared less like himself with each passing season. His hair, which was once golden was fading to silver, and his eyes seemed more dull than his original blue.

In the mid-spring, word had reached Pelagrios' domain from nearly twelve thousand miles across the world, that something was stirring in the south east. And, because of that, panic reached Pelagrios' domain. Pelagrios had almost forgotten of the result of the expedition to the Golden Necropolis; much rather using his wealth to forget that the world was on the verge of ending. One of his closest informants, Themrbau, had sought to calm the population down. It reached the point where Themrbau himself had to convince Pelagrios to act upon it.

Pelagrios had his head set against his desk, carved from mahogany. He was banging it against the surface, moaning to Themrbau as he did;


 * Pelagrios - Gods...dammit, Themrbau. Why do I have to go and do this? I'm a pirate...warrior...thing. Not a guy who goes and calms everyone down.
 * Themrbau - Sir, you need to find someone who can help you. And...I have a feeling that you will have to get right to the middle of this problem and finish it.

Pelagrios' head rose from the desk, looking at Themrbau. The consistent banging of his head on the desk caused a bruise right in the middle of his face.


 * Pelagrios - Do you know what he looked like? He was huge. Black. Like death. And now it's commanding a seven million strong army. Seven million.
 * Themrbau - You will have to find an army of seven million of yourself then.

Pelagrios laughed, before it broke down into whimpering moans.


 * Pelagrios - Where?
 * Themrbau - What about Ndrhthryr?
 * Pelagrios - I haven't seen Ndrhthryr in over a month. He said he was travelling east for some odd reason...not that one can travel any further west or anything.

Themrbau contemplated. Putting his crooked fingers next to his mouth, he then suggested;


 * Themrbau - Riadmanath?
 * Pelagrios - Riadmanath? Heh. I haven't seen him for months either. He said he was going back north. He's probably nice and cosy, with an army of thousands in the north...

Pelagrios continued to make unintelligible groans, before an abrupt stop. Looking at the man twenty years his senior, his face was wide with struck inspiration.


 * Pelagrios - Genius idea.
 * Themrbau - I have my moments, sir.
 * Pelagrios - Right, well, you're in charge until I get back.
 * Themrbau - Where are you going?
 * Pelagrios - Ten thousand miles north-east.

It took Pelagrios some hours to pack provisions - the travel from his estate to the Névari Territories was nearly two hundred days on horseback. Luckily, for Pelagrios, his state of wealth meant that such travel was trivial for him. His estate had a college of mages set up in the outskirts, meaning that he could be transported via the means of magic across the world. However, only going as far as the Dryadali Sovereign, meant that he still had nearly thirty days of travel to the far north east. He and his horse were accordingly transported to the mages' college of the Dryadali Sovereign, and made quick haste for the Névari Territories.

Knocked Out
Mid-Late Spring 32 NA

Pelagrios had travelled nearly two and a half thousand miles north from the Dryadali Sovereign; the woods had soon turned to ice as he circumvented the Frontier Land - for nearly twenty days he had hugged the Great Eastern Walls before diverting towards the west. As the trees began to fade in number, the cold began to become bitingly sharp - not as cold as the Forgotten Lands, but the temperature had lowered to the point where Pelagrios struggled to breathe. The winds had picked up, and snow fell from all directions and obscured his view. There was no longer such thing as 'spring' - winter was perpetual here, and day turned into incessant night. Directly four and a half thousand miles north of Abyssus, Pelagrios wondered at this point whether he was ever going to find Riadmanath out here.

In the middle of the polar deserts, the snow rose high enough for Pelagrios' horse to slow down considerably. It breathed heavily as it was struggling in the cold. It was not long though, did Pelagrios find himself completely lost. It did not occur to him, that, while he knew where the Néva were, he did not know exactly nor which tribe was where.

Out of nowhere, the sound of the air being torn was heard, before a heavy thud was heard right under Pelagrios. The numbness of the cold meant that Pelagrios was disoriented; flung from his steed and hitting the ground straight in front of him. A spear was thrown into the side of his horse as blood sprayed the snow, falling to the ground in an instant. He rose to his feet, albeit inebriated and dazed, holding a sword in his right hand. Only seconds after, an arrow, almost appearing like a darting raven, shattered the blade and rocked Pelagrios to the ground. Rising to the ground for a second time, Pelagrios looked around. The second time round, Pelagrios was far too blurry to even see past the snow, but only seconds after that, was he felled a third time - a rock, perhaps no bigger than his fist, collided with his head. He was unconscious this time, only a faint, wheezing moan passed through his teeth.