Knarl watched as the Myrdraal, Krysd, walked over to the edge of the plateau, and watched something unseen. Stupid Myrdraal! Stupid, thieving Myrdraal! It stole his leadership of the band from him, well, it would pay, soon. Knarl smiled as he tore another chunk of tinker from a bone and ate it. yes, very soon.

Pherno scowled as he watched Dovien leave the tent. Arrogant fool! he made Pherno so angry that he sometimes didn't rhyme when he was talking with him! He ALWAYS rhymed! The thought that someone could make him so angry that he sometimes forgot to rhyme made him even more angry! And that initiated more feelings of rage! It was INFURIATING!

Dovien thought that just because he had the True Power he was better than Pherno! No-one was more powerful than Pherno! Well, except for the Dragon Reborn and some of the Chosen, but he was practically Chosen himself, anyway, so it didn't matter. Pherno should just kill Dovien and be done with it. No..... Dovien was right, he was the only thing keeping the shadow even with the light, now. Besides, Pherno might not even be able to kill him, if he tried.

Flicking his shaggy, dark brown hair out of his face, Pherno stalked out of the tent, past a pile of ashes, and headed for Demandred's personal tent. Pherno entered just as the last captive channeler was being turned. Bowing deeply to Demandred, Pherno relayed the events of his and Dovien's meeting to the Chosen, who's grim expression didn't change the whole time. When he was done, Demandred said "Good work, Pherno, and I agree with you; Dovien is a threat to both of our positions. He was sent here by Aran'gar, and i'm sure that shes planning something with him. Especially since he has access to the True Power."

"Great Master, what do you want me to do? My only goal is to listen to you." Pherno said subserviently.Demandred laughed and responded, "Come now, Pherno, don't lie to me. I don't want you to do anything yet, just watch, and wait. Soon, all our plans will have come together, and we will attack the city, Only this time with strategems and tactics, unlike last time."

Knarl roared as he cleaved a fleeing tinker in half with his mighty axe. These weaklings wouldn't even fight! They were hardly even worthy as sport! The great Knarl, chieftain of the Varm'pyre band, needed REAL enemies to fight, not these pathetic excuses for humans. Of course, Knarl thought as he beheaded another tinker and crushed the newborn baby that she dropped under-hoof, all humans are frail and pathetic, but these were even worse.

Glancing around, Knarl saw that his warriors were mopping up the last of the cowardly weaklings and setting their wagons on fire. Wagons, Knarl though with a snarl of contempt, they were a sign of weakness, like all the trappings of civilisation. Better was a hut made from bone, sticks and mud, that could be abandonned or demolished at will. The tinkers had proven this when they had tried to run, but their precious wagons had slown them down, so they had been destroyed.

Demandred smiled as he saw another struggling captive light channeler being turned to the shadow. She began glowing with a black light as the thirteen dreadlords wove complex weaves of all five powers through thirteen mydraal into her. After a few minutes, it was finished, and the ex-light channeler-come-dreadlord slumped to the ground, the negative aspects of her personality brought to the fore, and her positive ones suppressed. Although the process didn't imprint a loyalty to the Great Lord on the victim, they all chose servitude to the shadow over death, as any selfish individual would.

"Start on the next captive." Demandred commanded and two trollocs moved to comply. During the battle, the shadow army had captured several dozen light channelers. Unfortunately, most were fairly weak or unskilled, because they were almost all the new recruits that the light had brought in. The captive soldiers were given a choice; swear the darkfrind oaths, or die by slow torture. Most chose to serve the Great Lord. They would be put in the middle of trolloc-filled siege towers, to belay any thoughts of treachery.

Daerod Faeron crept, with a group of 50 elite trollocs and another two dreadlords, up to the walls of the white tower. Elite trollocs; such a thing seems like a contradictio, but these trollocs were elite. They were born and bred, trained from birth to be skilled, aggressive warriors. They were similar to the Trolloc Black Guard in the fact that tey had intense training and were partially related to the vicous blight mutants, giving them a strange resistance and increased sensitivity to the power. They were nowhere near as resistant as bowers, but weaves weren't as effective against them as they were against ordinary trollocs. A fireball might only badly burn them if struck, instead of completely going through, and flows of air slipped around them, making them hard to lift or hit with air.

Concealed behind Daerod's mirror of mists, which made them appear like part of the night, they were unseen by senturies as a trolloc threw up a grappling hook and they began to climb. Upon reaching the top of the wall, one of the other dreadlords used a minor form of compulsion on a sentry that had been about to call out. The sentry immediately returned to his buisness, as though he hadn't seen fifty trollocs entering one of the towers. Repeating the process with the other sentries and guards, the strike force climbed down the tower steps and exited it on the city side of the wall. Daerod was surprised at how easy it had been to infiltrate tar valon. He had expected more. Well, he supposed, all the light channelers must be exhausted from all that chenneling they had done, and were resting. And an infiltration from a general like Pherno, infamous from his use of blunt force, was the last thing that they would expect.

Now that they were all within the city, the group traversed the abandonned streets, and soon they came upon a large, abandonned building that would serve their purposes well. Entering the derelict structure, Daerod, two dreadlords and half-a-century of trollocs, following the example that dozens of other strike forces had and would set throughout that night, hunkered down and awaited the morning.

Oooohhhh..... sounds like a delicously mean thing to do to someone, block off a large portion of the wall and watch uber-pherno bat at it like water onto rocks....  ;) But, like helms deep, it shall fall. But, dont worry, even though, "realistically" Pherno should be able to simply smash the walls and a good deal of the city with a single weave, i wont do that, because, what is the fun if i just kill you all? No, Pherno will be reserved with his powers (well, compared with what he could do)

So, what do you think of my rules? And as for the plan of the siege, i do not plan to win, if you were wondering. Evil always loses. Narrowly. I will nearly win, and then something will happen, something big. The fun part will be figuring out how to nearly win while your characters are thwarting me at every turn.  ;) Dont worry, i like it.  :)

IC: Pherno walked up to the T'sorvran M'hael (i dont know narishmas character's name, hence the constant use of his title) , who was struggling to stand. Just as he was about to end gthe troublesome asha'man, Pherno realised that his control over the shields was beginning to waver.

The other light channelers were beggining to stand, and, since Pherno realised that he couldn't draw from the sa'angreal, he had no way to stop them, because he was using all his power to maintain the shields on over 100 people. Looking at his armies, Pherno realised that he had lost a lot of men. Too many, perhaps. Opening a gateway, a small one, unfortunately, Pherno amplified his voice with the power, and called out to the armies below. "FALL BACK! RETREAT! ALL SHADOW FORCES, AT THE CAMP WE WILL MEET!" With that, and flinging a contemptuous glare at the lights captains, Pherno jumped through his gateway.

.......................................

The shadow army, complying with Pherno's command, had begun a full-on retreat, and many were killed during the withdrawl by vengeful light channelers striking at their rear.

Once they had returned to their massive base camp, the shadows commanders informed Pherno that they now had barely 300'000 warriors. They had lost half their army. Trollocs and darkfriends from all around the continent had been pulled out of their attacks and pillagings to assemble this grand horde, and now it had been halved. If only those dark-cursed lightfool channelers hadn't blown up dragonmount and killed over 100'000 trollocs doing so. Well, they didn't have dragonmount anymore, pherno thought grimly, glancing at the smouldering mound that had been the dreaded dragonmount.

Pherno finally found the person he had been looking for, Alviarhin. Handing her the sa'angreal, he said, "this is vora's sa'angreal, the most powerful one in the tower. Use it and link with me, and we will have ultimate power." She looked at it in shock for a few seconds.

"How... how did you get this!" She replied in surprise. Smilling evilly, he told her, and by the end of his tale, they were both grinning widely, contemplating the destruction that they could cause woth this new weapon.

OOC: Ok, we need to decide on some rules before continuing with the shadow's second assault. I propose the following, please tell me what you think.

- no spirit-slicing or unravelling weaves unless they are directed at one of your characters, in which case you can block it. If you think about it, nothing would really get done with the power, because the thousands of channelers on either side would slice or unravel it before it happens! Lets just assume that all weaves that either sides channelers do happen, no matter how likely it would be that someone would block or unravel it.

- no unbelievable uber-ness. While it seems hypocritical for me to say this, i think that we should not try big, ultra-uber things with our characters unless we are sure that we can accomplish them. I admit that the whole gate-exploding thing was a little far-fetched, and if i do it again, i will have an excuse, now. I think its safe to say that Pherno is now the most powerful channeler on the field, with voras sa'angreal, his sword angreal and a full circle of 72 powerful dreadlords at his back, he IS ultr-uber, now. This may seem unfair, but their are like, three people united against me, and i only have two characters (one doesn't do much, though).

Feel free to suggest more or discuss my ideas.

One more thing, my inventions are kind of shadowspawn, but they aren't artificial creatures like other shadowspawn, which is the reason that other shadowspawn can't go through gateways. But, to be fair, i wint get my mutants to go through gateways anymore. Fair? ;D

Goodbye. (i wonder how the traps Pherno set on the hospital tents are going... Mwa ha ha ha ha!)

OOC: it is...female attuned?  :-[  :o alas! yet another of my schemes foiled because of my patchy knowledge of the finer details of the wheel of time!  :P  Im really sorry, this is like, my first real RP (unless you count rping with grandpa g one-on-one) and i am woefully inexperienced  :'( . Please forgive me if i have ruined it with my inadequacy.  :( I think that i should pull the shadow out and plan another assault tomorrow, its probably gettig late, anyway. I won't write anything yet, because i am waiting for Narishma to get his character to showdown with Pherno. I LOVE showdowns. Once again, i am sorry, i will be more carefull next time.  :-[ Please dont eat me.  :-\

It was kind of funny, though. Im like, "oh yeah, i got a sa'angreal! Go shadow, go shadow!" And then your like, "its a female one, dipcheese" and them im like "far out, wth!"  :) lol.

OOC: no matter how powerful they are, they can die to a sword or a fireball as easy as the next guy, and if a bunch of darkfriends come and start stabbing them, they will die. The tower roof isn't THAT big, and my men would flood it pretty quickly. Even if it took your guys a few seconds to respond, thats a bunch of your guys dead right there, and you wouldn't be able to use your big ultra weaves because the crowded roof is full of your guys too.

Also, the city was warded against the new shadowspawn gates, but Pherno used a skimming gate, and jargets and Bowers (you killed them far too easily, anyway, jargets are lightning-fast and hard to hit, not able to be contemptuously blasted off with lightning) aren't technicaly shadowspawn; they are the result of thousands of years of mutation that has resulted in a stable species. Please treat them with a little more caution than, "Snorting in contempt, she blasted it off with a streak of lightning". even just a little. But still, Silviana, three seconds after a bunch of enemies attack from the last place she would expect, calmly raises a shield separating all the light guys from the dark guys? Shes not superwoman.  :-\

Dont get me wrong, she could do it, but only after several seconds of shock  :o and quick-thinking. And how could she do gales and lightning reliably without the slightest chance of killing her own guys? She wouldn't do it if it risked her mens lives. And dont say the shield protected them(your men) because she couldn't have realistically raised a shield capable of perfectly dissecting the melee in two parts, with the shadow force on one side and the light on the other, it isn't really possible.

IC: Pherno threw another Dedicated off the roof with a blast of air, and beheaded another Aes Sedai with fire. The jarget and bower, after killing several channelers each, were killed almost simultaneously. Oh, well, they had done their job. Pherno saw their killer; a dark-haired aes sedai holding a small, fluted wand. It was Vora's sa'angreal, the same that Demandred had told him about. Suddenly the shadow strike force was torn apart by gales and lightning, Pherno only saved himself by erecting a powerful shield of air. After a few seconds, Pherno realised that he stood alone.

Seeing at least 100 light channelers staring at him angrily, he only had time to say one thing. "Uh oh, spaghetti-o"

Suddenly he was attacked by several dozen weaves. He began suffocating, fire burned towards him, winds tore at him. It was too much to stand against. He was driven to his knees by the brutal onslaught. Even with a full circle and a powerful angreal, Pherno was doomed. Unless he used the Bane.

The Bane was a ter'angreal in the form of a fist-sized skull. Demandred had had it made by the shadows finest ter'angreal crafter during the age of legends. "Activate it by channeling a single flow of fire into each of its eye sockets." Demandred had explained to Pherno before the battle. "Use it only during your hour of greatest need, as it can only be used once. It will save you from any situation. Mostly."

Pherno activated the Bane.

Suddenly Silviana's weaves were torn apart by flows of fire, laced with spirit. Before she could get over the shock, Pherno had sprung up from the ground and shielded them all and knocked them to their knees with air. The Bane tripled whatever amount of power a channeler was holding when they activated it, and since Pherno had a full circle of 72 powerful dreadlords and a powerful angreal behind him, it was enough to overcome silviana and Pherno's weakness in spirit to shield them all. Unfortunately, the effects only lasted a few seconds. But it was enough.

Pherno laughed gaily as the horrified light-channelers gasped and tried to make sense of what had just happened. Ignoring them all, Pherno walked up to the dark-haired woman wielding vora's sa'angreal. Shielded and reeling from the shock of the shielding, Silviana was powerless to stop Pherno from wrenching the towers most powerful sa'angreal from he hands. Laughing maniacaly, Pherno sheathed his now-redundant sword angreal and drew deeply from vora's sa'angreal. With this, he could level mountains! He could dry seas! Wither forests! Burn entire cities! In a single blow!

Regarding the kneeling figures around the tower coldly, Pherno made a decision. "I will spare you now, weakling lightfools. But soon, you will fall to the shadow's tools." Preparing to open a gateway to the army below, and spearhead the attack with vora's sa'angreal, he noticed someone he never thought he'd see again. The T'sorvran M'hael.

OOC: sorry about stealing the sa'angreal, but i needed an edge to give the shadow a chance at victory. With only about 300'00 men left, and the siege going nowhere for the shadow with only a few successful attacks that were soon repulsed (thanks to you  ;) ) , the shadow will need something big to really threaten the city. Or at least break through the outer wall. BTW, the Bane was only an on-the-spot invention to get Pherno out of that tricky spot, i hadn't had it up my sleeve the whole thread, waiting to spring it on you.  :)

OOC: Yes yes! by all means! join! Please! The shadow could use all the help it can get.  ;) No, seriously, im getting my butt kicked.

IC: Pherno stumbled to the ground, as the ground shook violently. After a few seconds, he picked himself up again, but he had no idea what had happened. Pherno had just left the last medical post, his mission accomplished. Of course, it wouldn't really do much, but it would screw around with the lights battle plan a bit.

Now, he needed to cut off the lights command structure at the source. Heading for the ungaurded white tower, Pherno planned the assasination of the lights leaders.

.......................

Lupin leapt out of the gateway made for him by a darkfriend asha'man onto the roof of the white tower. He saw dozens of people all over the structure,  many of them looking like generals. He walked to the nearest one, an asha'man Lupin recognised as the T'sorvran M'hael, and began 'reporting'. "My lord, the Lord Dragon is suffering heavy losses, but he is ready to confront the Dark One, but he needs those Aes Sadai, at least 3 circles of them, now. They have to be the strongest, as well, my lord." Lupin stifled a smirk as the T'sorvran M'hael grappled with the news. He had no choice but to accept, and lose the basis of his defence.

....................

Pherno walked unchallenged through the halls of the tower, killing any of the few maids, servants, messengers or lone channelers he came across. Some put up a bit of a fight, but they died soon, most wothout a sound. Eventually, he got close to the top. Pherno opened an inverted gateway and skimmed to the rear of the shadow army, where there were large amounts of dreadlords and elite darkfriends too important too waste in a mad rush to the walls. Barking a few rhyming orders, Pherno assembled about 2 dozen dreadlords, mostly under-average strength, and 200 elite, fully-armed and -armoured darkfriends. He also found another Bower and a Jarget.

Jargets were tall, but with thin limbs and an elongated neck, and snake-like head. Their hands were tipped with long, thin, curving talons. They weren't resistant to the power like bowers were, and were pretty easy to kill; one good blow from a sword would chop right through one of its weak bones. But They were fast. Very fast. So fast that they could enter a room full of people and be slicing apart someone on the other side befor anyone noticed. They weren't quite a blur, but... They also had deadly, poisoned fangs, talons, and tiny little spines all over their body. All poisoned so that if you got brushed by them ,you would die within a few seconds. It could also, if confronted with great danger, it could shoot some of its spines and pincushion anyone in front of it. It was perfect.

Filing them through the gateway and onto his platform, Pherno closed the gateway and set the platform moving. After a few seconds, it reached the other gateway and they filed out. Soon the room below the roof was filled with darkfriends and dreadlords. Now it was time for some fun.

Pherno gave the signal, and sent a blast of fire up the stairs and out onto the roof. The shadow strike force followed it and they began killing left and right. Pherno was the last one up, and he balefired the nearest Asha'man. The channelers on the roof were fighting back and massacring the darkfriends, but it was too much, soon, the light army would be left leaderless.

OOC: River? What river? The river erinin dried up at the begining of the last battle from the dreadlords and asha'mans' fighting.  ;) Poor Bower.... not even it could resist that.  :) Oh well, their are more.... Arath, please join.... and side with the shadow...  ;D I'm the only shadow-dude, im lonely!  :)

IC: Pherno shielded himself with air just as the massive storm of the power completely eviscerated the shadow forces on the wall. Flung off the wall, Pherno cushoned his fall with air, so he survived only with a few bruises.

Picking himself up, he realised something.... he was on the city side of the wall. Looking around, he saw that no-one was in the area, they were all up on the wall fighting. Smiling evilly, Pherno headed off to make some mischief.

.................

Lupin, having rejoined his full circle, was using his zombie trollocs to shield the living ones from the channelers attacks, so they could reach them. Unfortunately, it didn't work, and the zombies and the trollocs were massacred. This was IMPOSSIBLE! How could they win with all these channelers! Twenty-four circles of 72! TWENTY-FOUR! That was hellish.... he almost pitied the shadowspawn on the wall when they unleashed that attack.

Lupin realised that they couldn't win. There were simply too many light channelers. The dreadlords were falling  like flies, and although they were suffering heavy losses, the light side would win... as things stood, it was inevitable.

Someone had to do something... something big. Something that would get rid of the lights channelers... at least for a while. Suddenly realising what he should do, Lupin passed leadership of the circle to another dreadlord, and hopped through a gateway, to shayol ghul.

...........

Pherno, feigning injury, limped up to the large medical tent that was used by the light as its main hospital area, where the aes sedai skilled in healing worked on the wounded soldiers.

Entering the tent, Pherno saw that their were several dozen soldiers lying on beds, being tended by several women, obviously aes sedai. The soldiers were healed and sent on their way, but asa soon as one left, two more came in. Their were many other tents like this scattered around the city, and Pherno planned to visit them all.

An aes sedai healer came up to him, and tried to usher him onto a bed. Standing tall and abandoning his feint, Pherno wove air and gagged them all. Before they could react, he had sent lightning-fast weaves of fire and slit their throats. Pherno left the tent and set up a fire ward and tied it off. Anyone who went through it would be set on fire. That should kill a few dozen soldiers before anyone realised that something was up.

Setting off for the next medical tent, Pherno smiled; he had a lot of work to do.

Once the Last Siege of Tar Valon thread is finished, i will join this thread, because i think that Pherno will survive the siege. But dont worry, he wont kill you all. He will be changed by the Dark Ones death. Thats all im saying.  :)

Lupin picked himself up and began shaking like a dog to get rid of the worst of the water. DAMN! They were fixing the wall! Lupin was about to turn his circles might against it, but realised that he had lost the power. NO! Now they would have to re-do the circle, and that meant finding the other dreadlords he had been linked with. Without there power, Lupin was weak. Muttering angrily, Lupin stalked back from the wall, into the relative safety of the trolloc masess. They were bringing up scaling ladders, and since there were no channelers on the newly-repaired wall yet, nothing could stop them from swarming onto the battlements. Not that it would accomplish anything.  The light channelers would stop them. There was nothing mopre that he could do.... for now.

................

Pherno grinded his teeth in frustration. Not only had they repaired the damage his weave had inflicted, they had killed thousands of trollocs doing it. Damn damn DAMN! Shadow-cursed lightfools! Well, at least he had caused the deaths of dozens of light channelers and killed hundreds of soldiers. That was something.

Having rested, Pherno headed for the front. He needed to get more trollocs and shadowspawn onto the walls.... but how.... Pherno smiled and laughed as he thought of a good way how.

Once he reached the walls, Pherno found another dreadlord circle-leader. He asked him what the situation was. "Well, lord Pherno, the breach wasd fixed, but the repaired wall section is now flooded with trollocs, we have brought in siege towers and hundreds of scaling ladders, but most are destroyed by the power. Theyhave too many channelers, my lord." The dreadlord paused and deflected a lightning bolt from a nearby aes sedai and flung another back in return. the aes sedai leapt out of the way, but was caught by a fireball Pherno had thrown. She was knocked, screaming, off the wall backwards.

Pherno barked a few rhyming orders, and the dreadlord complied. "So you want me to help you shield that siege tower? Wat is so important about it?"

"It has two-dozen trollocs and a blight-mutant Bower. Those things are tough, and resistant to the power." The dreadlord nodded, and they went, along with the rest of his circle, to the tower. Pherno aided them ,and they formed a large inverted weave of illusion around the tower. It rippled a bit, but because if the large amounts of channeling happening, it went unnoticed until it was right up against the wall.

Several channelers shot weaves at the invisible tower finally realising that something was up, but the dreadlords assigned to cover Pherno blocked them. At the last moment, Pherno dropped the weave, and the tower ramp crashed to the battlements, crushing several light soldiers. Trollocs and the huge, 3-metre tall, musclebound, power-resistant, taloned, spined Bower rampaged onto the wall. Many of the trollocs fell to nearby channelers attacks, but the Bower simply shrugged off weave after weave and threw soldiers and light-channelers out of the way as it powered over the wall.

Scaling ladders rose, and soon the wall section was covered in trollocs, myrdrall and darkfriends. Pherno laughed and went inside the tower, climbing the ladder inside and joining the shadow forces on the wall. Drawing from his angreal, Pherno erected a small wall of air and kept it just in front of the rampaging trollocs, protecting them from the light channelers weaves. This would be the shadows bridgehead, from which they would take the rest of the wall. Pherno would make sure it was so.

OOC: Sorry about the shadowspawn-through-gateways thing, i forgotabout that. And good work narishma for improvising to cover up my screw-up.  :)

OOC: @ arani. i am aware that what Pherno did was massive, but he had a very powerful angreal and a full circle of 72 powerful dreadlords backing him up. Hundreds of other dreadlords were stopping the light channelers from unravelling the weave, plus, he is now exhausted, and will have to rest for a bit before continuing.

IC: Pherno panted as he began descending. He had NEVER done that before..... he hadn't realised that he could!

Suddenly a storm of lightning shot at him. Damn dreadlords, they were supposed to cover him! Flinging up a shield of air, Pherno narrowly escaped death as the lightning bounced off and into the shadow army below. Speeding up his descent, Pherno dropped into the safety of the mass of shadowspawn, just as more lightning arced past him.

Panting, Pherno sat on a rock, and waited. Soon he would rejoin the fight, soon.

      ....................................

Lupin directed more and more of his zombies into the breach, raising more with complex weaves of air, water and spirit. He sent them to join the other shadowspawn cimbing the pile of rubble where the breach had been. It was useless, though. As soon as they got to the top, they would explode or be torn apart or die soundlessly as the channelers below held them back.

Drawing deeply from his circle, and joining the efforts of other dreadlord circles, Lupin hurled lightning at the pile of rubble, and large chunks of masonry flew off. Gathering all the strength he could, Lupin hurled a mass of huge lightning bolts, and the rubble crumbled. Trollocs and Lupins zombies swarmed over the rubble and began fighting the soldiers on the other side. Many fell to the power, but the dreadlords managed to hold the worst of it off the trollocs. Weaker Light channelers were already dying to the dreadlords weaves or trolloc blades.

Smiling as he mounted the rubble and stilled a nearby damane, Lupin knew that with the outer wall breached and trollocs pouring in, it was only a matter of time before tar valon fell.

The shadow army reached the walls, and scaling ladders were brought up. Many were burned or sliced with the power, but some reached the battlements and soon trollocs were on the walls. But it wasn't enough. Trollocs and Darkfriends were falling in the thousands by the power and arrows from the battlements. Suddenly a massive gateway opened behing the shadow army, over 500 metres long and 100 metres high, and trollocs began pouring out of it. Other gateways followed, spread out along the field, and soon over 300'000 more shadowspawn had entered the fight.

For a channeler of either sex, the sky was a mass of coloured, transparent vines. Pale white vines sliced through other vine colours and each other, ending powerful weaves before they had begun. Fire rained from the sky, and all attempts to stop it were beaten off by the dreadlords cutting weaves of spirit.

Seeing the dreadlord circles falling and dissapating into individual channelers, Pherno was furious. There were too many light channelers! He needed to do something about that. weaving fire, small jets of flame shot out of his palms and feet, ands he soared into the air (iron-man style). Immediately light channelers began throwing weaves at him, but the dreadlords supporting him below severed the weaves with flows of spirit (because Pherno was abysmal in spirit, and couldn't for any pure weaves of it, so no shielding or deflecting other weaves for him). Gathering his might, Pherno channeled as he'd never channeled before. Weaving earth and fire, a collossal weave began forming. It was awe-inspiring, and many channelers of both sides, all attempts to beat it deflected, stared in wonder or horror as it coalesced and shot at one of the gates.

The gate exploded. Not just the gate, but the entire wall section simply exploded in pure fire. Dozens of light channelers and hundreds of soldiers were killed instantly, and many more were killed or injured by flying masonry-turned-shrapnel. The battle went through a momentart lull as both sides stared at the 200 metre long gap in the wall where the gate and several hundred people had been. Partially drained from his massive display of power, Pherno lowered himself down as the battle picked up again. Trollocs began swarming through the breach, amidst hails of arrows and fireballs.

...

Demandred smiled as he watched the battle from his command tent on a hill overlooking the battle. He could only see by looking through a pair of binoculars, relics from his home-age. Demandred was impressed as he watched the gate vaporised; he had never seen such a raw display of power in his lifetime. Turning as he sensed a gateway open behind him, Demandred was confronted with a frantic messenger. "My Lord!" The dreadlord messenger cried. "The Dragon has reached Shayol Ghul! Even now he is battling the elite Black Trolloc Gaurd and a horde of those blight-mutants!" Demandred began chuckling to himself, much to the dismay of the messenger. "M-my lord? Are you allright?"

"Yes, fool." Demandred replied, turning away from the messenger and staring into space. "So, it has begun." Once again, the evil laughter of the Over-General of the Shadow Army filled the tent.

Pherno smiled as the 200,00 Trollocs and darkfriends ftook up position around him. Another 110,000, who had been hidden by a collosal illusionory weave made by Pherno and several full circles of dreadlords, were spread out in groups attacking other parts of the city wall, to spread the lights forces thin.

The shadow army wasn't just trollocs, myrdraal, draghkar and darkfriends; it included several hundred of the massive, musclebound mutant shadowspawn that inhabited the blight. They were all different, some had horns and fur, others had scales and spines, or feathers and beaks, some even blew fire, but they were all at least twice the size of a man, bloodthirsty, and very, very hard to kill. They were spread through the shadow army, to be used as shock troops and to clear a path through the lightfool ranks.

It was dawn. Pherno almost bounced in his saddle in anticipation for the laughter ahead. It would be unmatched even by the Camelyn Massacres! Or the Bandar Eban Genocides! Pherno also hoped to meet one person in particular. The man who had found Pherno when he first began channeling and taught him everything he needed to know to survive. Without him, Pherno surely would have destroyed himself by over-drawing the power over 60 years ago. The man who, inadverdently, had unleashed one of the most powerful, evil, and destructive channelers in the history of the world. GrandpaG.

OOC: Mwa ha ha ha!

Alviarhin rode up beside Pherno, looking uncomfortable being in charge of the army but weaker than her second. "Are you ready to take control of the circle of the 70 most powerful dreadlords in the army, Pherno?" She asked, almost nervously. Pherno was a loose cannon who often randomly burned fellow darkfriends and trollocs from boredom, or dissapear for days on end on one of his random slaughterings. He was enough to make a myrdraal nervous.

"I am ready, hold it steady." Pherno took cntrol of the circle, and, drawing from his glowing-black sword angreal, let a flood of power nto him. It was so GLORIUS! His angreal shone until pherno was engulfed in a halo of black light. Letting the power shine, he knew that every male channeler in the city would sense him, and let them! Let them know that doom was coming!

Amplifying his voice with the power, Phern sang.

Do you know the reason i do this?

It is for the feeling of bliss,

that i get when i kill innocents.

So lay aside all your judgments.

Time to burn, scream and die,

i just dont know, why you try

to live, when dying is much more fun.

Youll agree, when im done.

You cant win, theres no chance,

The tower will fall, then i will dance

on your graves. Face it, its your final hour,

you'll agree, when you see my POWER!

With the final word, Pherno raised his sword-angreal, and black clouds gathered over Tar valon. And, instead of lightning, massive, house-sized fireballs began raining down. Many of the light channelers tried to stop the fireballs from raining down, but there were too many, and the massive, city-spanning weave was too powerful to counter. The firebals were the signal, and, as one, the shadowarmy swept towards the city, Pherno, a full circle of 72, and over a thousand Dreadlords charged with them.

The assault on Tar Valon has begun.

OOC: Yay!

YAY! You have returned! At long last! ;D I thought that you had died.  :o Where were you?

GrandpaD, do you think that your guy is going to join the siege? Can he, please? I have smething really god planned for him and Pherno.  :D

"You have done well, Pherno." Demandred said to the prostrating Dreadlord. "You are more powerful than me, even, as much as i hate to admit it. And there is one thing that you will need to know." Holding out his hand, the chosen pointed at a nearby Trolloc, and a beam of pure white light shot out. the beast didn't have time to cry out as it was burned out of the pattern. "this, Pherno, is balefire. Use it carefully, and do not use it on more than a few people at once, or it might unravel the pattern itself. prepare, Dreadlord Pherno, for the attack on tar valon, the final attack on tar valon, begins at dawn."

OOC: Ok, guys, this is it, lets take this very slowly.  :) No finishing this in a few posts like last time, please. This should be like the whole lord of the rings minas tirith siege, long and exciting. ;D The final assault on tar valon begins.... mwa ha ha ha!  ;D

OOC: Thats allright. No harm done. :)

IC: Pherno surveyed Tar Valon from an overlooking hill, taking in the body-choked plains outside the walls, and the soldiers patrolling the walls. Pherno wasn't the general, but he had an important job; spearheading the next assault, leading a circle of 13. The shadow army was awaiting reinforcements after the heavy losses they suffered in the last assault. Soon they would begin the assault, soon, the last major city belonging to the light will be obliterated, wiped off the face of the earth. Soon, Tar Valon will fall.

OOC: sorry, but your post is a little confusing, can you use proper grammar, like talking marks, please?  :)

IC: Pherno laughed as he prepared to execute the last prisoner, a pretty woman with blue eyes. Her face was red and tear-stained, and she kept switching from looking at the charred body of a little girl at Phernos feet and Pherno himself. Suddenly the woman gave an anguished scream and threw herself at Pherno, wrenching out of the grasp of her Trolloc gaurd, and sent them both crashing to the ground. Pherno was so shocked that he lost the power, and was defenceless as she broke her badly-tied bonds and began clawing and scratching the Dreadlords face. "Monster!" She shrieked, but it was hard to make her words out because she was crying so much. "Die! Die! you killed my daughter! My daughter!"

The trolloc that had been holding her cried out in shock and tried to pull her off him, but she was fighting with the strength of a grieving mother, and wouldn't be budged. Pherno regained his senses and seized the power, throwing her off him with a weave of air. She spun around and pulled the trollocs sword out of its sheathe and eviscerated the surprised creature with a single swipe. Turning on Pherno, she raised the sword and ran towards him, screaming.

Pherno contemptuously wrapped her in flows of air, leaving only her head free. she continued crying and blubbering wordlessly, the rage flowing out of her. Pherno strode up to her, and began circling her, like a predator closing in for the kill. "So... It was you daughter i burned? I was only teaching a lesson that must be learned. Ha ha ha ha!" She looked up at him, and spat in his face.

"I hate you!" She cried defiantly. "The light will triumph, and your master will be slain!"

Pherno just laughed as he made her head explode in flames.

A Darkfrined captain came up to him. "Lord Pherno, what are your orders?"

"Move out, back to the lake. Tar Valon, i think, we need to take."

The last of the 3000 prisoners, the survivors of the Invasion of Rhuidean, was pushed roughly into line withthe rest of the captives. Pherno smirked as he recalled the glorious slaughter of the Aiel at Rhuidean.....

Pherno watched as the shadow armies smashed into the ranks of Aiel warriors, who held firm, against all belef. Pherno ordered the Dreadlords to direct their attacks at the Aiel soldiers, and leave him to concentrate on his meteor attack. The Dreadlord circles complied and soon lightning bolts and fireballs were raining amongst the aiel, and patches of earth exploded underneath them, sending dozens flying. Some trollocs and Darkfriends were caught in the vicous weaves, but no-one really cared; they were expendable.

Many Aiel Darkfriends revealed their true colours, and began attacking their fellow warriors. Soon half the Aiel army was in turmoil as it broke down into brawling and slaughter, neighbour falling on neighbour as they tried to fight the darkfriends, although they often killed other lightfools by mistake, thinking that they were servants of the dark one.

Despite this, the Aiel held firm, and tens of thousands more warriors and civilians under arms arrived from other parts of the city to reinforce the frontline. The Aiel held, and the battle continued for an hour, each aiel killing three, four, or even five shadowspawn or darkfriends before finally being killed. But for every servant of the shadow that they killed, another took its place, and soon the Aiel were being pushed back into the city. The few channeling wise ones who weren't fighting in the wetlands tried to stop the dreadlords attacks and launch weaves of their own, but their were too many of the shadow-channelers, and the wise ones were killed, shielded or stilled.

The battle degenerated into mindless carnage, as the Aiel army broke into small pockets of resistance, holding out in fortified buildings or helping civilians to escape. The shadow army slaughtered all in their path as they spread like a black stain across Rhuidean, burning and raping and pillaging. Many of the civilians had been left with nowhere to run except the waste, where they would die, so they had retreated to the reconstructed palace close to the centre.

Of course, they had no chance when Pherno drew deep from his angreal, and, weaving earth and fire, caused the foundations of the palace to be torn apart. The entire structure collapsed, and the civilians that weren't killed inside were soon roasted alive by the fire that engulfed it.

Smiling evilly, Pherno wove fire and prepared to execute the prisoners.

OOC: Sorry, i am not joining, (no offense, but i prefer more realistic WoT Rp's) :) i was wondering if anyone would like to join the Last Battle or the Way of the Tinker RP's, bacause i would like to RP with other people that GrandpaG, (no offense intended, G, but, you know, variety is the spice of life :) ) So, what do you say?  :D

I know, i'll make you a deal, if anyone from here joins those Rp's, then i will join this one, sound fair?  ;D

Stepping through his gateway, Pherno realised that he was back in the waste. "How unimaginative..." The Voice said dryly in Phernos' head. Turning around, Pherno jumped in shock; There was a lake! And beyond the lake, was a magnificent city of domes and spires. Abruptly realising where he was, Pherno smiled evilly and laughed loudly. He had found Rhuidean! The shadoweyes had searched long and hard, the Aiel Friends had been unable to specify a location, and since all the channeling ones were fighting at the front, there had been no way to get large amounts of shadowspawn to attack. Until now.

Opening a gateway back to the Shadow HQ in the borderlands, Pherno planned his next move, the invasion and eventual destruction of Rhuidean, one of the last bastions of the Light.

                                          .......

Pherno sat on a black, armoured horse, surveying the perfect vista of Rhuidean from an overlooking hill. As a reward for finding the city, Pherno had been allowed to command the invasion of Rhuidean, but only the invasion; Pherno wasn't a very good commander, but this attack didn't need skill, because without walls, Rhuidean would fall. Raising the powerful sword angreal that Demandred had given him, Pherno drew deeply from it, and it glowed with a black light, until the dreadlord resembled a black sun.

Pherno amplified his voice with the power, and cried, "Aiel! It is time to die! Your fate is sealed, under a burning sky!" As he said this, he caused massive meteors of fire to fall from the sky, and explode amongst the buildings and spires of the city. One fireball crashed into the middle of an unfinished spire, and half the structure crumbled, crushing dozens of people. Over a hundred fists of Trollocs, each led by a Myrrdraal, several full circles of Dreadlords and ladies, and a few dozen platoons (500 men)of fully armed and armoured Darkfriends formed up around Pherno, coming into view of the panicking citizens of Rhuidean. The Shadow has come to Rhuidean! It has come! And all you can do is run, so do not be dumb! Armies of the Shadow, CHAAAARRRRRRGGGGGEEEEE!!!! Do not stop until the piles of bodies are large!"[/size]

As the whole Shadow army swept towards Rhuidean like a black carpet, tens of thousands of Aiel had donned their veils and were forming ranks to stop the oncoming horde. But although the were many, and their spears were sharp, would it be enough? Only time and the next few posts will tell....

OOC: oh, and NARISHMA, please post again, variety is the spice of life, you know. :D

OOC: Sorry, but i am just not into that sort of stuff (but i like soap operas) i dont like writing them... i prefer action and drama and suspense and burning! How about you try pm'ing some other people to join your RP?  :)

Pherno prowled menacingly through the Shadow HQ at Fal Dara, the other Friends and lesser Dreadlords shying away from him as he headed for the Raven Airey, where the Shadoweyes reported to a waiting Myrdraal, who wrote them down and sent it on to the next official along the line.

Entering the large buiding, Pherno overheard the Myrdraal muttering to itself. "A large dome, you say, raven? Well, that IS interesting, but you should tell someone who cares." The Myrdraal loved doing that to the shadoweyes; it confused them horribly and they often spent hours rolling around on the floor, which brightened the Myrdraals otherwise dull day.

"Myrdraal, what was it that the raven said? Something about a dome, or was it in my head?" Pherno said. The Myrdraal scowled. "Yes, Pherno, There is a large dome of snow a few miles south of here. but it dissapeared a few hours ago, is it of any interest to you?" The Myrdraal responded in its rasping, crumbling voice.

Pherno smiled broadly and laughed. He had found them! Promptly opening a gateway, he skimmed to the point, and began tracking G.