The Fall of Princess Artha (Kaybee and Kolath)

[Kaybee]

"Naive fool. My death will make little difference in the long run. For now, the scourging of this land... begins."

Artha shook her head, setting her warhammer aside with a heavy sigh. They had carried the day with ease, crushing the cultist forces and killing the necromancer leading them, Kel'Thuzad. His words had stuck in her head though, true words for the moment. While other breadbaskets of Lordaeron would go untainted by the plague Andorhal was by far the largest of them and unless the infected caravans were stopped, the undead would not just continue to rise but would surge...

She placed one gauntleted hand to her forehead, then thought better of the motion and removed the armor and the gloves beneath before massaging at her temples. Night was falling now, and the pursuit of the grain caravans would have to commence at first light, and while that would give them a long head start towards the nearby cities, such that her warband would be cutting it dangerously close in trying to catch up before the grain was distributed and consumed, they had no choice but to halt. They could not march through the night, the men would be either useless if a battle were to come upon them or they would rebel and refuse to follow her...

Artha's hands moved mechanically, undoing the heavy plates of her armour and placing them on the stand as lingering tiredness from the prolonged battle washed over her. She clenched her fist tightly, trying to resist the urge to punch something in frustration. The longer she thought, the less and less this day seemed like a victory, The necromancer hadn't even been the leader after all but merely a pawn to a greater power! Another mind behind the entire cult of the damned, a 'Dread Lord Mal'Ganis', or perhaps 'Dreadlord' was not a title but the creature itself, for she had heard tales of such things...

Artha, by now changed into her nightclothes, knelt and slid into her bedroll slowly, trying to relax enough to allow sleep to claim her even as her mind still swam with questions and calculations. The grain carts would have several hours head start and traveled through the night while their company would need to rest on occasion. Stratholme was but a few days away, and carts were not fast, but they were persistent, but in turn there should be time before the grain was distributed...

Over and over Artha's thoughts turned, trying to calculate, to discern, ever hoping that in time her physical tiredness would overwhelm her wandering mind and send her into slumber at last...

 

[Kolath]

Mal'Ganis roared throwing a large vase against the wall shattering the ancient object into a thousand pieces of shattered pottery. He panted hard looking though his spell again seeing what was happening now that his plans were being interfered with. Several of his servants were standing off to the side not daring to come closer when the dread lord was clearly pissed and ready to strangle anyone that dared come closer.

Finally after some time he settled down leaning back in his throne as he thought about the new developments. "Fine then if I can't do it with Kal'Thuzad I will just find someone else." He looked back through the magic viewing portal and smirked slightly. "Someone stronger someone corruptible." He laughed as he started to make the magic preparations for when she finally went to sleep. Seeing her laying down he reaching out to her through the tendrils of magic brushing over her mind drawing her to sleep drawing her into his waiting arms.

He sat on a throne facing a large viewing platform where she would appear. He made sure that though she had free will in this dream there was nothing that she could do about this the dream world was his to control. He laid everything out well before he invited her in, forcing her dreams to take her to him and giving her body no choice to wake until he was done this night.

"Greetings Princess Artha." He smiled his large wings spreading out behind him as he sat on a high dias over where she would be standing in large room surrounded on all sides by pillared walls. The only way out behind her through large closed doors. "I am Mal'Ganis, and you have been messing with my plans. I don't like that."

 

[Kaybee]

Wandering a forest, chasing after someone or something, little caravans bearing plagued load scattering in all directions and she chased them on foot between the trees, always a step behind their nimble forms, always just a little bit too slow... Running and running, constantly pumping her legs faster and faster, desperate fear for her people burning in her breast, fear for herself?

Turning, chasing, and now there wasn't the clattering of little wheels ahead of her but heavy footfalls behind her, pursuing her, and even as she reached for her warhammer to face the monster she found herself not in her armour but in her nightclothes, bereft of protection. So she ran, and ran, a chapel ahead, or a cathedral even, huge structure of stone pale white like bleached bone, heavy oaken doors black like the night sky high above. She took the steps two at a time, hearing the roaring, the panting and gnashing of teeth at her heels, feeling for the light, for her powers as a paladin but finding nothing, nothing, but a presence ahead, inside the doors, not warm like the light but inviting, and in desperation she leapt inside the doors, pulling them closed behind her with a crash...

Artha looked, the stark hall, not brilliant white but dusty grey, but no less massive, huge and vaulted, pillars to either side, all leading up to a throne upon which a massive figure sat, nearly twice her height... Approaching warily as he rose from the throne, then stepping back, once again reaching for a weapon that was not there as the shadows became light, and a face that could only belong to a fiend was revealed, fanged and grinning, a horned head atop a bat-winged body. "What Fel-spawned-."

She was cut off as the creature introduced himself, and her hands clenched. "A Dreadlord..." She gasped, recognition of what he was. The man... Demon behind the cult of the Damned, the mind behind Kel'Thuzad's schemes. If only I had a weapon! She looked back and forth, to advance or run? This must be a dream... A nightmare...

 

[Kolath]

The being stood there looking down on the little human. How was it that someone so small and bereft of ability had caused him such heartache. He could sense the power of light and good flowing through her but at the same time Mal'Ganis wasn't worried since he knew that she posed no threat to him as she was. He saw her standing there in nothing but her nightgown reaching for something that wasn't there, he smirked as he waved his hand and her warhammer appeared. "Was that what you were looking for?"

He moved down off the dais walking toward her slowly. He had really made her warhammer drawn from her memories with all the power that it had. The warhammer didn't worry him he could stop it before it touched his body and only if it touched him could it even do the barest of harm. Walking around her he sized her up like a butcher looking over a rack of meat that hung in his window. She was clearly a desirable woman and Mal'Ganis decided that he was going to want her not just break her but make her his.

Stepping closer he looked into her face his own a leering smirk. "Did you really think that after you interfered with a Dreadlord's plan he wouldn't take an interest in you. How is it that you think that you can stop my plan from going forward." He looked down the front of her nightgown smirking, "In your night gown no less and a very revealing one if I do say so." It didn't matter if it was modest or not he was doing everything to make her uncomfortable and blush always ready and waiting for that warhammer to strike.

 

[Kaybee]

Ordinarily Artha didn't question her dreams, but the wisdom of taking something offered by a demon -especially when she was fairly certain the demon was manipulating said dream from within- did not seem terribly apparent to her. She hurled the hammer away in shock a mere instant after it touched her fingers, as though it had burned her.

While she'd shrunk back before, she held her ground now as Mal'Ganis descended the steps of the dias. She didn't trust the facsimile of her weapon the demon had spawned for her, but she knew that as long as she didn't make any bargains or accept any gifts from him she ought to be safe within the confines of this dream. He could not really hurt her in here, only tempt her, mess with her mind, and eventually she would wake up.

"I had no knowledge until today..." She replied evenly, feeling herself tense uncomfortably as the demon moves closer, moving around her. "...But that changes none of my actions. You won't get your scourge monster. I won't let you." She flushed as he 'complimented' her into the bargain but forced the fury down once more. She didn't want to let him win. It was only a dream, he couldn't do anything to her as long as she were in here.

On the battlefield I will fight you, but in here I need not hold any fear for you. She told herself, a mantra in her mind, trying to restrain herself. Losing her temper here would afford her nothing for all that her paladin's instincts and her protective instincts screamed at her to attack, to wipe out the threat to both the light an her people.

 

[Kolath]

The dread lord walked around her again smirking as she was so defiant. He could see that she was holding herself back and knew that it would just take a little pressure for the warrior of the light before he could push her past her breaking. He was confident sure that she would soon work for him soon make her into his whimpering little bitch to do what he wanted too and to make her do his will. He was a little relieved when she threw the hammer away willingly disarming herself. She needed to learn that symbolism in dreams was very important.

"You will do everything that you can to stop me I'm sure." He walked back in front of her pulling a long flaming sword from mid air he brushed it close along her arm not cutting her or burning her just letting her feel the heat. "I was hoping that you would keep that hammer and that we could have this test of wills out of the way. You needn't have feared it I recreated it from your memory making it just the way it was. It would respond to your power as you wanted it too."

He flicked his wrist aiming his sword alone her shoulder cutting the shoulder of her nightgown aiming to expose her skin more to him. "But without it you have left yourself exposed and open to whatever I decide to do with you." He waved his hand and a dark cloud spread in front of her eyes showing the carts well on their way to her home. Her city was shown with undead raging through the streets killing those that stood against them and bringing her home to ruin. "That is the fate that awaits your home and there is nothing that you can do about it."

 

[Kaybee]

She did her continued best to ignore his words, still relying on that mantra. Demons and dreams were things she'd been taught were tricksome and in the presence of both she did not trust anything, even that which was supposedly produced by her mind and hers alone. For all her mental fortitude though, Artha couldn't keep herself from reacting as the Dreadlord summoned a great blade of fire, twitching away for a brief moment, as if to try and get into a combat stance. But she held herself there, still standing teeth grit, steeling herself against an expected assault.

She felt the heat of the blazing sword wash over her for a moment, sucking in a gasp at the sensation, the mental mantra becoming spoken under her breath for a moment. Artha was the last woman anyone would call a coward but she was a fighter, and so she still flinched away from the sword when it moved too close to her, well-honed instincts telling her to dodge the blade to get herself into a position of better readiness than this, stock still and upright, unprepared for even the most basic of assaults to be directed upon her.

If I die in here, I simply wake up, the dream ends, just let him hit me, just end the dream...

Another gasping breath sucked in as the sword darted towards her but as the heat of it's proximity swelled and faded and still no blow came Artha felt cool air against skin where she hadn't felt it before. The shoulder of her nightgown had been neatly parted from the body and the cloth hung free, slipping loosely down the side of her body, dipping low enough that the edges glided past one pink nipple before settling to just cover the underside of her left breast. Between the sudden exposure and the dreadlord's words a flush came to her face then, and she moved to cover herself just before the visions hit her, making her falter mid-motion as horrific scenes flashed before her eyes. Lordaeron overrun with undead, shamblers wandering the streets, the countryside a blighted wasteland, few survivors fleeing south, towards Stormwind, picked off one by one by the monstrosities prowling the roads...

Artha blinked, shaking her head, gasping for breath as though she'd been struck. The tenuous calm she'd managed to hold herself to broken. She was shaken now, glaring up at Mal'Ganis from a half-stance, clutching the ragged edges of her nightgown together to preserve her modesty as she panted. "No..." She managed to muster after a moment, her denial shaky at first, but growing steadier as she found her mental feet again. "I'll stop you monster. Mark this a promise from Lordaeron's princess. I will stop your carts, I will stop your cult, and then I will Hunt. You. Down."

 

[Kolath]

The dreadlord laughed shaking his head at her and standing in front of her looking at the exposed breast smirking. "You will stop me? How?" he moved closer to her his hand coming up and grabbing at her chin hard to hold it in his hand. His breath smelled of fire and sulfur as he laughed into her face. "You can't even do anything to stop me in a dream where you have much the same power I do." The large dreadlord stalked around her slowly again looking over the flesh that he had exposed with his careful cuts.

"You have no power, that piddling little strength you call holy magic is nothing compared to the power that I wield." He smirked before his hand brushed out to leave a trail along her skin up over one of her breasts to palm her whole breast rubbing it and teasing her nipple. "You couldn't even stop me from taking you. I think I just might, would you like that princess?" he smirked as another vision came up again of Lordaeron in flames with undead roaming the streets. "You precious home destroyed, " he walked behind her his arms coming around her to grab both her breasts. "And you," the vision changed to her on her knees in front of him her ass in the air taking his thick cock deep inside her the look on her face clearly one of enjoy meant clearly her mind broken into his slut. "You broken into the perfect bitch that you want to be."

 

[Kaybee]

She was locked in place, whether by fear or by some machination of the Dreadlord's she did not know. Her gaze was baleful defiance and her grit teeth suggested not event he slightest backing down but at the same time her limbs didn't seem to want to respond, frozen by fear, or perhaps some awful fascination. Lying! He's Lying! This is not your dream, your power here is nothing more than temptation! Don't listen to him! That voice in the back of her mind was still screaming but Artha was finding it harder and harder to concentrate on it, harder and harder to hold to her ideals. Even if it was true that this dream was neither hers nor his but a shared one defeating the dreadlord hereshould be meaningless but at the same time she wanted so badly to show him he was wrong. Patience! He mind counseled. He will fall in time, when you find his real self. For now, you cannot give in to taunting!

For a moment, it was almost enough to hold her back, then he caressed her so intimately, tweaked at her nipple sparking some sensation in her that her mind instantly rejected, moved behind her to grasp at her breasts, like a lover. The visions following, sparking rebellion at the sight of Lordaeron burning, anger, sorrow. "No..." It can't happen this way! It won't! But even the rejections of those images that flashed before her eyes did not stop them from coming, and then the one to crown them all, so vivid and real and at the same time so impossibly wrong. The vision of her face, slack with pleasure, eyes rolled up and legs shaking in what could only be a powerful orgasm, armor strew around her, on the ground, on all fours, and above her, his cock driven deep into her the Dreadlord, Mal'Ganis, fucking her like the slut she clearly wa-.

"NO!"

That was what broke it, that was what drove her off her perch at last, and Artha kicked at the Dreadlord. He still had his arms around her though and while she was strong, she was limited in her motions, elbowing, attempting to gouge, heel kicks... "Never!" She screamed again, fighting back but forgetting to so much as call on the light in her fury. "I will never submit to you! And Lordaeron will never fall!"