Boot Camp - Finished - Soyweiser/Jotunheim wins!

[Soyweiser]

Here is something I wrote a couple of weeks ago when I invaded the cap of Caelum.

"Finally", Hulvid thought as his troops breached through the great wall surrounding the mountain city. "Start the construction of a gate. The bird-men might not need doors, but we do!" Hulvid shouted at his men, as he cautiously guided the remaining troops into the walled city. It all was eerily silent. Walking through the silent, once magnificent city, he started to remember.

It had all looked so very easy at the start. He could still remember the speeches Borme gave. "The winged bird-men are weak!", Borme, would should at the gathered troops "And the prosperous lands of their mountains are our birthright! Loki will oversee and protect us. With his guidance, no weapon can harm us!". At first he was right, the bird-men put up a valiant fight, but it was useless. Their bloodied and broken bodies littered the fields. And Hulvids and his troops where in high spirits, they would be home before winter! How wrong we where. How naive.

It all changed. The winged troops where replaced by mammoths, accursed mammoths. And the ineffective bows made way for destructive lightning. And easy victory changed into bitter struggle. Even now, after a long siege Hulvid dreams where troubled by the screaming face of Borme. Screaming for Loki's protection as the mammoths crushed him into a bloody pulp. While lightning rained down from the heavens, blowing giants to bits. Eventually the mammoths where defeated, and the lightning stopped. But at a high cost. Of the large initial invasion force only Hulvid remained. All his friends, dead. Not even enough of them left to properly perform the burial rites.

A shout from his scouts brought Hulvid's mind back to the gloomy city. They had found it! The fabled heart. The citadel of the frozen Crystal! It was magnificent. A true testament to the majesty of the Caelum people. The once proud people. Now all gone. During the siege there had always been the presence of the birdmen, flying around their capital. Harrying the attackers. But since this morning, they where all gone. Like they where swallowed by the sky itself. Hulvid didn't like it.

There was much he didn't like. The sudden disappearance of the Caelum people. The new humans already colonizing the fields around the mountain city. Them taking over Ravens Vale, a small town next to the imposing gateless walls of the enormous mountain city. Ravens vale, once the homes of the exiled wingless Caelum people, now the home of lowly humans. Bah! Humans, even vaetti had more uses. And the goblins also tasted a lot better.

He also didn't like the new priest his leaders had send them. While Borme was certainly a raving madman, his replacement was worse. There was just something wrong about the Skratti priest. The way he walked, the way he talked, the way he looked at the human settlers. The way he always seemed way to interested in female humans. To interested.

His troops had just discovered the seat of Caelum power. The fabled ice flower gardens. It was magnificent, almost as great as the iron forest back home. Almost. While walking through the silent but beautiful garden he wondered. Was Jotunheim going the correct way? Why was he given this strange axe to replace his sword. Why did his thoughts dwell more and more on violence? Could the axe... ? No! And why an axe, why not a simple rat tails whip, that would have stopped the Mammoths. Saved his friends. Hulvid doubted the Skrattir or the Gygjas even cared. And even the beauty of the frozen crystal gardens could not remove Hulvids unease.