The Tip.It Times


Issue 15899gp

The Mages' Downfall

Written by and edited by Jaffy1

Click here to read Part 1: The War of Gielnor
Click here to read Part 2: The Fall of Lumbridge

The mages of Asgarnia had a problem. The armies of Misthalin held many of the mysterious ruins that transported adventurers to the runecrafting altars. The massive stockpiles of runes held by the knights would not last forever.

A solution was needed, but the runes could not be bought, so they would have to be taken. Grayzag, who was a powerful mage and traitor to the Tower, planned an attack. Most other important wizards of the Tower remained within it. As always, the Tower held vast stores of runes being used and added to by the wizards of Misthalin. However, a certain party-hat wearing mage would not sit by idly as the Tower was under attack. Being low on runes himself, the Wise Old Man decided to join in on the attack, planning to destroy everyone.

A week after the end of the Battle of the Mines, the Battle of the Tower began. Wizards rushed down the causeway, easy prey for experienced mages within the tower. Many fell before the doors were even reached. Grayzag raised an army of skeletons that began smashing the doors down. Imps suddenly appeared everywhere, attacking heroes and skeletons.

“Hahaha, you foolish mortals,” yelled the WOM, as he skated by. With a wordless spell, he destroyed the side of the tower, allowing much of the army to enter. The imps and the skeletons began battling unheeded as the two sides struggled for dominance. After destroying the tower wall, the WOM decided to sit back and watch.

“Isidor and Sedridor, how kind of you to make it.. We can be very powerful together. I'll share my secrets with you!”

They sent a spell his way, he easily blocked it.

“What about you, Mizgog? You could be even more powerful.”

Again, a spell was sent his way, but he blocked it. Traiborn, once again ran out of the tower.

“Thingygummywhat!!!” he yelled, slamming a staff into the ground.

It was coming. A massive monster appeared, as tall as a five-story building. It began firing earth strikes at the combatants, and three out of five fell. The battle was beginning to turn. The Tower was soon empty and the Thingygummywhat disappeared as quickly as it had come. Now many of the mages, having respawned, wanted nothing to do with the war and went to into the Wilderness.

The next great battle took place almost right afterward. Gunnarsgrunn, having escaped the early fighting, was now under attack. The ferocious barbarians fought like madmen to defend their homes. The knights threw everything they had left into the attack, having lost the previous one. The longhouse was set ablaze, and the town soon followed. The White Knights had adapted total war tactics. The bulk of Misthalin's army was still within Lumbridge, having only taken the heroes to attack the mines. They were moved to the north quickly, and destroyed the Knight's army with the help of the barbarians. Gunnarsgrunn, or what was left of it, remained in the hands of Misthalin.

While attacking Gunnarsgrunn, Falador was nearly undefended. The Black Knights, along with the support of heroes, attacked and fought to very gate of Falador itself. In the north, Misthalin was winning and in the south, not much was happening, that was about to change.

“Sir Varze, we control the largest fleet in Gielnor, we can attack Al-Kharid from the sea and destroy it. The north may be Misthalin's, but we can wreak havoc in the south.”

“How many knights are left?”

“Approximately three hundred.”

Sir Varze shook his head. The Order of the White Knights contained more than two thousand at the beginning of this war, now the numbers were falling quickly.

“Take two hundred, along with all of our remaining heroes and attack Al-Kharid. That should draw forces away from Falador.”

“And what of the secret, if the White City should fall?”

“Speak not of the secret, for it has not happened yet.”

The ships were loaded at Port Sarim and they set off. Sailing for Al-Kharid, they used the strait between the Wizard's Tower and Learner's Isle. Sighted by the Wizards, they alerted the King at once, who moved many men from the attack in Falador to the Desert. Al-Kharid's defences were formidable and could easily be held against the seven hundred men sent to take it. As soon as the the boats hit the desert shore in the south near Shanty Pass, they were attacked. Hundreds of the invaders were killed before they got off the boats. The attack was a dismal failure, with only a handful of the most powerful of fighters reaching land. The ships themselves were captured, and re-provisioned in Al-Kharid, before setting off soon after the battle to attack Port Sarim. The war was closing in around Falador.

Draynor Village was the next to fall. The paltry force of guards left to defend it fell within minutes of the battle, and the town was the next to be torched. The citizens of Port Sarim began to arm themselves with axes, pitchforks, anything they could find. Unlike the Al-Kharid invasion, the attack of the port would come on land. The naval forces captured at Al-Kharid was razing Karamja and Crandor, cutting off gold supplies. Forces defending Rimmington fled the town, and it was burned to the ground.

The forces attacking Port Sarim had no walls to contend with, so they first met what few defenders the city had in open battle. The inexperienced men were wiped out in under an hour by the hardened armies of King Roald. The port was spared due to it significance, and the the ships landed there, bringing another army to the gates of the White City. The dwarven multicannons that once guarded Lumbridge now guarded the walls of the city. With less than a hundred knights, Sir Varze had to make a decision to fight or flee with his secret.

“We cannot hold the city against the numbers they possess. It is futile.”

“We never give up. Which side has fewer besiegers?”

“The south, sir.”

“Gather the knights, we march for the Ice Caverns on Mudskipper Point.”

“Do we bring the secret?”

“Of course we bring the secret, do you think I, after all we have been through to keep it, want to reveal it?”

“No, sir. The Knights have guarded this city for generations. We cannot give up on them.”

“We exist for power and influence. Not to guard the values of honour and right. We, at one point, were the most powerful military organization in Gielnor. We wanted power and territory. We helped the first king found Asgarnia. Then we took the throne for ourselves. Do you still think that we're able to say we are honorable and just?”

“No, sir.”

“The Black Knights are those of us who couldn't take that we weren't a force for good in the world. We fight for ourselves. Even on the brink of destruction of our order, we still uphold the power we once held.”

“Now, prepare to fight, my brethren, we fight for our right to power and prestige. We go to our doom, and the kingdom's. The Black Knights have corrupted our once friend King Roald into believing that we are not fit to rule. They are jealous. For years we have held the city, for years we have had profitable trades. This will not end. The order will come back to take what is theirs! But now, we must flee the city of our home. The Ice Caverns will shelter us until the time for revenge has come.”

The gates opened wide and the knights poured through. The Black Knights engaged immediately, and killed many. In the center of the group, protected by the fiercest knights, was a wagon. The Black Knights, aided by the heroes, fought their way to this wagon. As knights of both sides fell in droves, the leaders of the Black Knights forced their way into the wagon, as proof of what they had said for so long. The King, King Vallance II, was within, laid in stasis in a magical chamber created for his father by the WOM. They had been allies for many years and the White Knights hoped he would come to their aid. Having no runes, he did appear in armor trimmed in Saramondian colors. He viciously attacked the Black Knights and fled with the White Knights into the Ice Caverns, where their frozen brothers awaited.

“Surrender the city, your guardians have abandoned you.” a scout shouted to the defenders of Falador.

“Never,” they shouted back. “They fight for us!”

“They've entered the Ice Caverns to hold out there. You cannot win this battle.”

Hails of multi-cannon shot flew through the attackers in the north, while the southerners were having more luck. A lucky explosive bomb hurled by a catapult hit one of the walls directly. The wall was breached. Forces poured into the eastern side of the city. People ran from their homes as the Black Knights set the city aflame.

A force of elite rangers fought their way to the north gates and threw them open, while killing many of the multicannon crews. The last of the outer walls resistance had crumbled, and the defenders barricaded themselves inside the castle. The attackers once more called once their powerful catapults and reduced the causeway into the castle to rubble.

“If you surrender, you will be unharmed.”

“Never, you torched our homes, killed our friends and destroyed our city.”

Fortunately for the defenders, rain had began to put out the fires set by the Black Knights.

“You will starve. You must surrender or die.”

The talk went on for hours before, finally, the castle defenders gave up and surrendered. The White City was theirs, but the war was still not over. Sir Varze and some sixty knights, as well as the WOM, had retreated into the Ice Caverns and allied with the ice knights.

“My good Sir Varze, this is where I leave you. I should hope you get your revenge, but I have live through much and can reveal that, even in self-imposed exile, the losers of a war are never left alone. I bid you farewell.” He clicked his fingers and was off, back home.

“My, that was exciting. I must remember to start wars more often. It really gets your blood pumping.”

As usual, the WOM was right, and the Black Knights and heroes fighting for Misthalin adventured into the cave for the final battle. Around a hundred Black Knights and seventy allies faced about eighty White and Ice Knights. The battle was now joined. Ringing metal echoed through the caverns as the two sides did battle. Soon only six White Knights remained, guarding the casket containing King Vallance. Mages and archers took down these last six one by one. Vyvin, an older knight who could remember the first Falador siege, was nowhere to be found. Varze and the other leadership were all slain. The casket holding the king was brought into Falador. As soon as he entered the city, he awoke, yelling out against the White Knights in curses.

“Do not worry, my liege. The White Knights order has been destroyed. The kingdom of Asgarnia is in ruins, but can be rebuilt. The corrupt knights are destroyed, and the land is free.”

And so ended the first great war between Misthalin and Asgarnia. The outcome was a new order of knights in Falador, the 2nd Order, to maintain peace and justice throughout the land. The Black Knights founded the 2nd Order. As I sit translating this from the language of the first order I realize that the 2nd order is not so unlike the first. Human nature cannot stave off greed and hunger for power for long.

-Pryters
Knight and Librarian of the 2nd Order


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