Heroes Dispersal.

Both women got into the circle to start their combat training, before they began a strange man entered the cathedral, Richard recognized him and walked towards him, “My prince, i greet you, i bare you all message from the emperor, he summons all heroes to the imperial kingdom, immediately, a coach has been provided for your journey, it’ll take you two days to get to the imperial kingdom, the king asks that we leave now.” The party stood amazed, an audience with the Emperor of Khetis was no joke, they halted the ladies before their bout, Gaius laughed hard saying he was really looking forward to Elayne fight, Richard on the other hand was happy the match never held, the party left for Khetis with the messenger from the empire.

One day passed and they stopped at an inn in a fief of one of the nobles in the empire, while they were there, they handled their basic necessities, Gaius and Richard went to check the perimeters of the fief, Toda and the rest stay back resting, day broke again and they moved, by noon they were almost at the empire, along the way they were halted by guards at the gate to the Imperial Kingdom, Richard stepped down to talk to them, as he set a feet out there were arrows coming straight at him, Gaius used his chains to sway them away, they all got down, but before anyone could draw their weapon, Gaius had dealt with them all, they tie them to the coach and continued with their journey, while they were moving on they started contemplating, what would have made them attack heroes knowing they’d be clobbered, but when they thought about it nothing comes to mind, a few moments later and they were at the Empire, they were received warmly and then welcomed into the castle or as it’s called, (the iron fortress).

They got to the throne room and waiting in there was the Emperor, he welcomed them all and asked them individual question, he already met with Toda so pleasantries were limited, before they went into the main business they were called in for Richard pointed out that they were attacked and he presents the perpetrators to the emperor, he called for the royal guards and commanded that they be interrogated, they were taken away and the emperor asked that they rest saying by the evening they would talk, everyone moved out to their given rooms to rest, night fell and they were all summoned, in front of them were the people who attacked them the other day, they looked different from yesterday as though their characters were swapped, Richard walked up to the emperor and asked what happened with them, the emperor clears his throat.

“You see my son; these men have a message to pass to you.” The Emperor said that and pointed over to one of the men who was captured, the man stood and started speaking. “My prince first of all, i want to apologise for i and my men’s behaviour, we weren’t acting on our own.” The prince walked over to them, “are you insinuating that you were being manipulated.” The man knelt, “i don’t know if I’m correct my prince, but it seems like that, we were all out on our normal perimeter patrol to hunt down dangerous monsters and sell their pelts and fur, when we encountered a strange monster just at the border, we chased the monster and then we encountered a miasma, at that point we started losing consciousness and that is what we all remember, we don’t have any memories of attacking you my prince.”

The prince turned his eyes sharply to the Emperor and then coincidentally they both ask, “What monster did you see?!” the man replied, “An ape, my prince.” The emperor summoned his guards, “send words to the holy church, all Knights who have gotten to the level of grand master should head to the border, there has been a perimeter breach, and the familiars have been let loose, also send all the knights in training over.” The guards ran out and then the Emperor asked the party to accompany him to the throne room, when they got there the king sat and then he began to speak, “My dear heroes, there is trouble, we have gotten words of this same incident all over, we have gotten reports from kingdoms all over the world, the Arcane god have started breaching the seal, the monster the man from earlier spoke of was a familiar of one of the prince’s of hell, they can’t all leave so they’re pushing out even the smallest to cause havoc, one of our grand masters has a hunch, he said they’re trying to get hold of your Err stones.” The party turns to themselves and look back to the emperor, some men walked in, young men about the same age as the heroes, they all bowed their heads. “My lord, we were summoned by you.” The emperor turns to them. “You have all arrived, heroes, these men were summoned here on your behalf, you all know you’ll be leaving in six days, these men will accompany you all to you place of interest.”

The emperor paused and then spoke again, “you all will head for your respective guardian tower to acquire your Err stones, this journey is an individual one, so you’ll be splitting up, along the way you’ll encounter troubles and might have to fight that is where these men come in, they are holy knights former hero candidates who didn’t make the cut, but the fact that they were candidates show that they have the potential, you all have four assign to each of you, select the one’s that meet your criteria but rest assured they are our best for now, you all be leaving in six days so you have time to train with them and know them all.” The heroes agreed that they’d take turns selecting, but from were Toda stood he kept on sizing their ability, he then thought to himself, ‘They are all selecting the strongest of them all by asking for their strongest skill, then i guess there’s only one thing to do.’ Toda then worded, “use common skill— Appraisal.” Toda’s eyes glowed green and then numbers start popping up on the heads of each of the knights, he looked to a beast folk, a mystic fox, Toda scanned his kills and then, “oh, i see, he has the best speed here, 700, and the speed second to that 480, my personal speed is 520, I’ll need him.” Toda walked up to the beast folk and selected him, at first the rest couldn’t understand why he chose such a weak looking knight, the knight who brought them smiled.

Another round came and Gaius and the prince selected, it was Toda’s turn everyone turned to see what he’ll do, he looked to all of them and then noticed an ogre, red haired, very fit and had charms that rivalled Gaius, “now this is what I’m looking for, a master swords man, strength 900, and has high affinity for fire, he even mastered the dark flames, I’ll need him too.” Toda walked up to the ogre and selected him leaving everyone still shocked, another round came again, this time a human caught Toda’s eyes, “now that’s what am talking about, she has resistance against all affinities, she’s also a skilled mage, her defence is at 1000, mine’s still 800, and her casting cool down time is 5secs, I’ll need her too ” the last of Toda’s selection, was a dark elf who was well endowed, Toda couldn’t stop looking, “man she’s got it all, even in skills, her accuracy is at 1000, she has mastered the arrow skill and can use magic to substitute her skill, and she has weapon mastery for projectiles, she’s the final piece.”

Toda walked up to his selected team and said aloud. “Thank you your highness, this is my team.”