Prisoner, rogue king captive

The doors swung wide as the group entered the castle grounds. What they saw was a magnifiecent world upside down, The land was the sky and the sky was the land, it was nothing short of beautiful

It looked like a fairy tail world, the large lawn was covered with trees of all shapes and sizes and colors, waterfalls seemed to fall from the sky down towards the rushing streams up above, magical statues moved across the lawn, resembling mythical creatures, as if they had a life of their own and dazzling sparks of light shot out spontaneously from thin air at any given point in time

The walls and buildings transformed into crystal silloettes, ranging in all sorts of colors

As they crossed the threshold, their images flipped so they stood right side up on the lanscape, music seemed to play through the air from a invisible instrument

One of the griffins that circled the grounds flew down to meet them, what seemed like a silent conversation with Rourke, the creature gave a large cry as it lifted up off the ground with a few powerful strokes

The Rogue King looked around nodding his approval of what he was. He acted about as impressed as someone who was trying to pick out a prize winning horse. He looked over toward Cole with a grin, "I think your father is compensating for something."

As they walked through the forest, they came to a large hedge maze that reached from wall to wall

Cole snapped his fingers, the whole maze shook, parting down the middle to reveal a crystaline tower that stood on a island in the middle of large expansive lake, connected by a arched stone bridge that jutted out from the mainland to the island, walking up to the tower stood two mage guards in shining armor, opening the door for them to enter "Glad to have you back my lord" said one of the guards

"When did we begin remodeling" said Cole curiosly

"Last week my lord" said the guard as they entered

"Ah! Good to see that The Lord is putting his tax dollars to good use. If you don't mind I'd really like to speed things up a bit I have places to go so I'd like to be out of here by sunset." Despite the sarcasm and nonchalance of his remarks deep inside The Rogue King really did have other things to do but this had to be handled first.

THe guard pulled down a lever in the main room, the tower shook slighlty as if a small tremor but then then out the window the residing landscape below, it was floating upwards

"Taxation is the thing of the past, we can just make gold in alchemy labs now"

The tower kept rising as it passed through the clouds, high in the air floated a massive castle, it was enormous, other collums and parts moving from place to place within the air, griffins flying everywhere around it

The tower rose into place, locking into a side of the castle structure, fusing the walls on contact

They moved down the decorated ancient hallways and the ornate spinning staircases, everything in the castle seemed rich, vibrant, and expensive

The Rogue King rolled his eyes they were obviously stalling which either meant that he wasn't going to meet the Lord or he was working up the nerve to meeting the king face to face. "Look this is all very fascinating, but I'm kinda on a time table here sooo."

...You can almost here the inflation...

"Impatient are we?" "Very well, Rourke, show our guest to the banquet hall while I set the necessary arrangments with his Lordship" He tapped his wand to the wall and a secret door slid away to reveal a errie green corridor from within, as he departed he tapped his wand on the door a second time that slid the magical door closed

THe two moved down the dark passages of the castle without seeing a single soul. A cold presence could be felt throughout the building. After walking for an easily ten minutes they came to a set of double glass doors that rose to stories high. Entering, they came into a enormous domed banquet hall. WIndows circled the walls four stories high and the top was covered with a canvas of ancient paintings of history.

As the double doors opened, creatures of all sizes popped from side passages through the walls, plates, silverware, food flowed from hand to hand onto the ornate dining table. A centaur could be seen holding two plates on each hand and three balanced on his back while a pair of pixies held salt and peper above the table, sweeping it across the meal for seasoning.

A nymph pulled out a chair for the Rogue King to sit on one end of the table while Rourke sat down at the other end. Taking a slow sip of water from his silver gobliet, Rourke's maroon eyes never left their guest.

OOC: I wonder if Randall was one of the writing staff from Lost. Buildin' all this intrigue that probably won't go anywhere...

A few uneasy minutes passed before Lord Hoehn entered the room

This was not the powerfu almightyl wizard that the Rogue King had been expected to his dissapointment but his clumsy, unexperienced, arrogant son, Cole

he walked behind Rourke, wispered something in his ear then cleared his voice

Ahhmm, "His Lordship is" he turned to Rourke for help "Busy" said Rourke

Cole spoke more confident "Yes, engrossed in other matters far more important than you could ever comprehend" waving away any objections

"But I have been enlightened on what has been set on the table", pausing a moment to take a sip of wine

"Dalvock", called Cole, snapping his fingers

A worn goblin heaved open the double glass doors and rushed toward his master holding a large rolled parchment

Snatching the pachment from the bent goblins frame, he moved closer to the Rogue King so that he could inspect it

It was a detailed map of Slyvam

"Our intelligence has reported hearing rumors of a new dynasty about to surface, a king to rule all kings as it were" " which we can only guess is you" taking a look at the Rogue King

Moving his finger up along the map, "And then we have our friendly dictator to the North, Kaiser, who is amassing the largest army ever assembled to expand southward and do the whole world domination gig

"And I can't help but notice but that we are in the middle of this poliical contest"

"Now I can say from my own experience, that I honestly don't like either of you, but....this struggle...puts us in a very important political position to provide leverage to either side"

Pauseing slightly for emphasis Cole grinned, "You need my help"

The Rogue King leaned on the arm of his chair, trying to hide an amused smile and failing horribly. This young man obviously knew nothing about what was going on, but if this is who he had to deal with then so be it.

"It appears that you have me at a disadvantage my young Lord. Yes I do desire your help, the help of some of the greatest wizards in all Syvalm, please tell me what you desire in exchange for your assistance and I will do my best to make it so."

“Is this really the best course of action?” said Rourke in a nonchalant tonality, all the while giving the Rogue King a venomous glare

“I have always found it safer to side with a dullard then a man of a clandestine nature, at least with one you will know if they are going to stab you in the back”

Cole was annoyed, he didn’t like being questioned, “Trust me, when I say I have everything under control”

Rourke chuckled softly, “We shall see”

The young lord turned his attention back to the map, “My demands are simple enough, after I have aided you and this war is over you must hand over Kaiser too me, dead or alive it matters not

The Rogue King pretended to think the demand over, in fact he had decided long before he had pass out in a drunken stupor with his pants around his ankles that he would agree with any demand that the Lord had. "That's a curios request you have young man perhaps I could have him stuffed to keep your trophy longer?"

"Ah... no", laughed Cole soflty putting his hand behind his neck

"Thats not exactly what I had in mind,.. I will ask that Kaiser's body is untampered with though"

Cole snapped his fingers "If we are going to be working together", Dalvock hurriedly rushed to the side wall, nocked twice and from the wall opened a side passage where a large standup mirror was pushed inside the room

Two dwarves pushed the mirror on both sides towards the three at the table, " a little to the left..now tilt it a little to me" said Dalvock as he directed the mirror to be placed infront of the three at the table

Instead of seeing their reflection, a image of a dellusional dark elf stood before them

Cole walked up towards the mirror, pointing his wand at the dark elf's head "What did the creature look like" Red eyes flashed in rage "I will tell you no more wizard, when I get out of this I will.."

The tip of the wand moved through the mirror as easily as water From within,the elf inside screamed as he experienced surges of magical electricity rush through his body

THe picture went dark, after a few seconds light crept back along the image as a blurred image moved into focus

It revealed a lengthy lycamorph looking creature with no eyes, big teeth, and razorsharp jaws

"Is this yours"

"hahaha! I assure you that if something that fearsome belonged to me then you would not know it... this wouldn't by any chance be the creature that stole from you recently would it?"