Still a potato!

[Geordy]

Lord Parson stood in the centre of the atrium. He was a true Outworlder, an impressive giant, towering above all the other surrounding units. And they were all there: the unnatural croakamancer and her pesky friend, the foolamancer, the dragons and the decrypted, heck, there even was the ever so reliable Duke Antium amongst them, now nothing but staring emptily in front of him.

"Still a potato!", Tramennis assured himself as to both easening the pain the uncroaked Antium caused in him and to supress the fear Lord Parson naturally seemed to instill in his enemies. He managed to do this even over this rather large distance from deep down in the atrium to up to one of the surrounding balconies high above the ground where Tramennis and his stack of knights were watching the scene.

They went up there earlier in order to retrieve the king from his quarters. To finally make him leave this dangerous situation. But they hadnt been able to. Not that they werent capable of the task - usually in a tactical situation like this even the king obeys the orders of his chief warlord. But not this time. Because the more than fashionable warlord hadnt had the chance to order the king to leave - the king simply wasnt there. They found his quarters empty (the translucent logo of Transylvito still hovering above his desk) except for the letter of course and this... thing the Prince was now holding in his hands. He looked down on it again and immediately felt awkward. It felt so... alien.

Down in the atrium Lord Parson extended his arms behind his back bending his body backwards yelling the words with all his might.
"Do you really think these doors will stop me?"

[Geordy]

Tramennis tightened the grip on the balcony before him. The walls were shaking, Hamsters words were still echoing through the hall. The prince wondered which one of the many magic items the Lord was wearing granted him that intimidating signamancy. It was then that Tramennis wished Jetstone had being laying more emphasis on these incredibly useful things. But there always was his father and his irrational grief over the loss of Holly.

The walls were shaking again.
"Open. These. Doors!"
And then, with a brief and loud rumble, the doors opened. Only a little bit but enough to let through a bright beam of light and by striding out of it a strange looking couple. There was this tall and slick man, obviously a servant, with stiff, almost mechanical movements. But what first met the eye was the other man, very tiny, with a full beard, bar any signs of affiliation. But despite the unexpected lack of signs for royalty there was no doubt this was the king of Jetstone. With arrogance in his eyes, hands crossed behind his back and nobility in all his movements he came to face the powerful intruders all by himself. With a deep slam the doors closed behind him.

A brief and somewhat awkward silence fell upon the atrium. The hostile units did not know what to make of this, they certainly never had expected this man to even stick his nose out let alone showing such extreme signs of bravery. Of course, the silence was only brief because soon enough there was a terrified "Father, Noooo!" to be heard from somewhere high above the atrium.

[Geordy]

Parson looked up briefly very well gripping the meaning of this short interlude storing the information for later use. But he let the echoing voice die down and quickly draw his attention back to king Slately. Who himself decided to ignore the disturbance. Parson couldnt believe it but said king even came closer now standing right in front of this large gobwinknobian stack.

The king nodded gracefully then leaned over a bit to his servant. With a "I am here, you Worshipfulness." the tall man bowed way down in order to hear his masters words. Then he returned into upright position and made a step forward.

"The illustrious King Slately bids you welcome... and will gladly oversee your cowardly retreat to whereever you filthy scumbags came from."

"You old fool!", Lord parson replied. "I dont know for what noble reason I suspect you think you have to come here before me...". He stopped for a moment but then quickly shook his head reassuring himself.
"... but this is plain stupid! Half your city is overrun by my forces - why do you think you can make any demands?"

And then, from behind his back, the little man extended an arm before him, holding up some kind of odd green egg-shaped object with a ring at the top. Without even turning around or looking at it, the servant answered not without a certain dignity:

"Because he is holding a thermal detonator."

[Geordy]

Wanda and Jack instantly backed away, as did most of the dragons and decrypted in the hall. Parson stared at the green ball, which began to glow and blink in the kings hand. The room had fallen in a tense hush. Parson looked at the king malevolently until he began to laugh.

"This man is my kind of adversary. Truly fearless and inventive. I have to admit, King, that my intel said otherwise. But now listen carefully, buster. Dont pull this smacktalking on me! For I am the master of smacktalk. And I can say in an instant that you are bluffing.
So why dont you just put down that little toy of yours and surrender?"

The servant tilted his head a little quietly awaiting the rulers response. The king slowly nodded.

"Wrong answer.", the servant said. With his other hand, Slately reached to the ring at the top of the egg. And with a look into the sky in an odd angle and one loud and last
"Now!" -
he pulled the trigger.

High above the atrium the crown Tramennis was holding vanished in his hands. And the prince was Prince no more...

[Geordy]

Jack was thinking about casting one of his instants, a mind-altering spell, one that would make the little man forget what he was going to do. He had this thought immediatly after Slately was reaching for the trigger and usually he would have casted this spell instantly. But today he failed to do so. With his well-trusted leader right next to him he was irritated by the fact that his master was not giving him the order to do so - and not even thinking about it.

Jack would have known if his leader would want him to execute this maneuver, even if he were only thinking it. And now in this second that shaped the future he the allmighty all-knowing perfect warlord didnt even think about something trivial as that? How could he, Jack, that lowly Foolamancer, know something better than his Warlord?

These questions made Jack hesitate for a fraction of a second only. Which is why his juice was only beginning to flow when the world exploded around him in a bright white light
... and his world started to end.

Many hexes away Stanley was lying in his throne. During the last hour he was trying to find new, awesome uses for this wonderful tool, the arkenhammer. He was swaying the hammer through the air, this way and that way, harshly slamming it down, carefully stroking it, even talking to it - but nothing seemed to work. This exhausted him pretty much so that he quickly fell in some easy slumber in his throne. He dreamt of back when he was a soldier. On rare occasions they were granted freetime. He went fishing on an remote island a wondeful quiet place with hours and hours to relax. Except for this pesky guy from his stack that just went with him, uninvited. He was always making jokes which nobody felt the need to laugh about. An ugly fat creature he was. Once he...

Stanley suddenly went up in his chair, his eyes widened in terror. His most precious units, the casters and his chief warlord, were in grave danger. He immediatly sat in a puddle of sweat and gripped onto the hammer very tightly. In his mind he formed the only words he could think of.
"Please, dont let this happen. Dont let this happen!"
A pity he was closing his eyes very tightly, too, because this way he couldnt see how the hammer started to glow, brighter and brighter, until the whole room was bathed in a bright white light.

[Geordy]

"Tramennis, dearest of all my sons.

I am sorry. I was blinded by your natural signamancy but the recent events opened my eyes. Your ways of leading the men, assessing a tactical situation and even of following concepts as strange as modesty are the true ways of nobility, I can see that now.

Let us hope that my making way for you will not be in vain - and that it does not come too late. Take the crown and come to the atrium. Observe!

I love you, my son.

Slately, King of No Hearts

P.S.: Did you know that the Don knows everything about magic items? If youll ever be in any need of advice, go to him."