Fall of Impyrra

1

A violent explosion shook the castle walls, taking Impyrra by surprise. The sleeping barracks roared to life when a panicked young trainee named Lionel, came rushing through into the Captains room shouting “Barbarians are attacking the city!”2

“All able hands get to the towers! Fortify the defense!” screamed the Captain of the Guard, Faran Stewart. Dressed in full Imperial Chain armor, and with a sharp silver long sword at his belt, the Captain was an imposing man to look upon, and carried an air of courage and command about him.3

The Wall Guard sprang into action like a well oiled machine, following the Captains orders before he even gave them. The men readied their posts for battle, Wizards readied their spells, and the squires ran to rouse the castle from its drunken New-Years slumber with a message: Impyrra was under siege.4

All at once, massive catapults and trebuchets below flung a slew of flaming boulders over the wall, demolishing homes and cottages on the other side and setting fire to the village. Arrows flew over the wall in waves, dropping soldiers left and right, several narrowly missing a terrified Lionel as he headed to the towers as fast as his spindly legs would carry him. He continued towards his seemingly unreachable goal of the tower entrance, and stayed under the parapets so most of the arrows that might have hit him would only fly over his head or clatter uselessly on the stone. Frightened and confused, the only thing in Lionel’s mind was to reach the tower, and hopefully safety. When the catapults let go with another wave of boulders, Lionel crouched on the stone covering his eyes with his hands, afraid to watch the devastation the fiery boulders caused among the people’s homes. When the crashing noise of stone impacting stone and wood stopped, Lionel opened his eyes to continue to the tower, only to find that the last wave of boulders had stuck the tower, felling it like an axe to a tree trunk, leaving him with nowhere to go but down.5

In Lionel’s terror and panic, the only thought he had was to escape however he could, and he did not notice that the tops of the remaining four towers were glowing blue until the spell was nearly finished. The mages had channeled all their magical energies, and combined all their spells into one monstrous destructive wave meant to destroy the enemy in one massive blow. Lionel had been told what to do if this all-powerful defense was ever used and immediately fell to the stone face down. Not a moment later, a searing shock-wave of pure magical energy sizzled through the air where he once stood. The wave had been released, and everything had fallen silent.6

After a few seconds, when they were sure that no arrows still flew, the Imperial Guard let out a great cheer went up for the glorious victory against the invaders. As Lionel headed for a remaining tower, the full extent of the carnage dawned on him, and his legs buckled underneath him. This was no glorious victory. All the houses had been either knocked to the ground by the flying boulders, or burned to the ground by their fire. Dead bodies of men littered the ground, even women and children lay amongst the dead, with arrows sticking from their bodies. Those still living in the crowd of the dead were either mortally wounded or weeping over the bodies of their loved ones while the Imperial Guard just stood in the Town Square celebrating.7

When Lionel finally worked up to courage to stand back up, tears were steaming down his face. He knew that the memories of this day would forever haunt him, and staying in Impure would only amplify them. Lionel headed back towards the barracks and planned to ready himself for a journey instead of joining the rest of the Imperial Guard in their celebration. But what he found in place of the barracks was a pile of twisted burning rubble.8

Tear stained and dirty, Lionel turned from the remains of the barracks in despair and ran heedlessly towards the gatehouse. Lionel ran in a mixture of fear for his life, and sadness for his friends and family that he was sure laid amongst the dead. As he ran, the scream of a mortally wounded man pierced his curtain of despair. Lionel ran towards the scream, and found the Captain lying on the ground with a dagger in his back.9

Lionel knelt down before the Captain and found him near a guardhouse, barely breathing. Lionel jumped when the Captain began to speak to him. “Lionel… what are you doing away from your post?” he wheezed.10

“My post… it was destroyed sir, I couldn’t do anything to help. I don’t know what to do now… there is so many dead… at least the enemy is defeated.” Lionel replied, with tears still streaming from his face.11

“No! The enemy is not defeated! They hid behind the walls where the magic could not reach them. They are outside the gate right now preparing to rush in. You must arm yourself and tell the Guards to ready themselves for battle.” The captain said through clenched teeth, his face paling with the effort of speaking.12

“What about the wizards? Can’t they make another shock-wave to destroy the enemy when they break the gate?” Lionel questioned.13

“No. The Wizards are dead. That spell is only to be used if the battle cannot be won otherwise because it uses the lives of the Wizards to fuel it. The wizards panicked and set off the spell before the order was given. Here, take my sword and go get some armor from the guardhouse. Then run! Go warn the guards to get ready!” the Captain managed between fits of gasps and bloody coughing. The last sentence had taken all his strength, and he went limp as his last breath whispered from his lips.14

Stifling his tears, Lionel donned the armor of the Imperial Guard, and ran with renewed strength and resolved to follow his Captains orders. But when he neared the Town Center and could hear the guards’ loud celebration, an explosion sounded as the gargantuan castle gate was blown from its hinges with a shriek of twisting metal, and the guards stood in awe. Their victory cheers turned to screams of fear and surprise when they realized what had happened, and the enemy came flooding in from between the stone walls.15

The deafening battle cry of the barbarian army seemed to turn Lionel's legs to jelly. With eyes wide, Lionel watched the first wave of barbarians charge in his direction. Finally, the natural urge to run overcame his fear and surprise, and Lionel found his legs and wasted no time running for an exit.16

Castle Impyrra was built with a system of tunnels running through the outer wall. Secret exits leading outside allowed for the old Imperial Army to encircle enemies laying siege to the castle. Sadly, several years ago, the standing Army within the castle was reduced to a small contingent of Imperial Guards meant only to provide defense from common crime, and to provide a jailer for the castle dungeons. But every Imperial Guardsmen is trained from day one to use these to transport the Imperial Emperor out in the extreme case that the city is doomed to fall.17

It was these passages that Lionel used to escape from the besieged city. Once he was safely away from the city, he sat down under a tree, looked toward the smoking city's walls, and wept.18