Castle Revenants

"Castle Revenants" is the 9th episode of the 1st season of Time Fractures.

The episode is written by Mr. Garrison, and involves the consequences of an anomaly opening in a Castle Wars match bringing dangerous revenants through.

Plot
The Zamorak Castle at God Wars, a daunting structure high above the battlefield of Castle Wars.

Men are running to and through carrying a variety of melee weapons, some noticeably weaker than others.

Rangers line the walls of the castle, shooting all sorts of arrows in a shower simultaneously. Some mages also join them, but some simply get involved in the battle at ground level, freezing their opponents and allowing their team mates to slam down at them with a godsword or other powerful weapon.

We focus on a young warrior, he's got a dragon longsword clenched in one hand, and the flag itself in the other. Rangers envelope him as he heads to the Castle roof with the Saradominist flag, trying to protect him.

"Get the bugger!" yells a Saradominist, slamming his sword into a Zamorakian in full rune armour with all his strength.

Most of the Saradominists retreat as the Zamorakian forces become thicker, until one Saradominist remains.

He stands there, looking straight at them, his blue team-cape making him stand out like sore thumb.

"I think I'll go back to base," he murmurs to himself as he begins to retreat.

CRUNCH! He is frozen by Ancient Magicks and then faces a barrage of projectiles, all raining down on him; he's unable to move...

Cut to the top of the Castle, where the young warrior heads up the staircase to place the Saradomin flag on their own pole. He proudly marches towards the flagpost when he stops dead, and an anomaly flares into existence.

"This type of magic is forbidden, surely! No teleports allowed in Castle Wars!" he moans.

A shape emerges from the light, that of a hideous revenant ork who faces the warrior with its spectral face.

We freeze for a second as we observe the beast come into full view, utterly terrifying.

And then comes a blast of powerful magic from the beast, leaving only a pile of bones and the flag lying on the floor.

The anomaly and revenant ork then vanish.

"What's going on?" calls a confused ranger, who hurries up the stairs, having heard the confloption.

It then dawns on the ranger what has happened to his team mate, and with a flash the flag sinks into the ground, disappearing, right in front of the ranger's eye.

"What on Gielinor could've done this?" the ranger murmurs to himself as he looks at the bones...

CUT TO title sequence.

"Out of all the places for an anomaly to show..." Drauss begins as they approach the Waiting Room.

Behind him follows Cratus, Kairie and Thyra,

Each is armed with heat ray, a small firearm capable of either burning or disintegrating victims when focused upon.

"Well we have our weapons," Thyra says, testing her one on the grass outside.

We see the grass turning from a fertile green to a circle of dirt and soil as the grass burns away with small flames.

"Don't play with them, they're not toys. They were bloody difficult to get hold of," Drauss grumbles.

"I know, I was there in case you didn't remember; two broken legs after getting out of that primitive spacecraft."

"Well, you are quiet, maybe it didn't hear you creeping up on it."

Drauss laughs to himself, but Thyra burns his foot with it — and Drauss leaps in pain!

"You IDIOT!" he exclaims, snatching the weapon off her.

"Well you were teasing me!" she replies, agitated.

"That's still no excuse for this kind of behavior."

"Forget it Drauss, it's a minor burn, you're not going to die from it, are you?" Kairie asks, trying to restore the equilibrium.

"Alright, alright," Drauss grumbles as they enter the waiting room.

The shock on their faces, as the room is packed.

"What are all these people doing here? Cratus is confused!" Cratus exclaims, looking around.

"I gave orders to clear everyone out!" Drauss exclaims.

"Clearly you didn't," Thyra says.

"One more smart-ass comment out of you!"

"Drauss, Cratus suggests you order the place to evacuate all those inside," Cratus says.

"Right, I will," Drauss decides, and he heads over to Lanthus, the game's tutor.

"Ah, hello there good sir! Interested in a cape? Or some lovely new armour? Or even a manual!" Lanthus suggests.

"I'm here to deal with the hootenanny earlier, and I ordered this place to be cleared out!"

"Yes, yes, I did tell them to, but unfortunately I had to wait for a game to finish before I could ask them again. These people here are just leaving, I'd believe."

"Can't you hurry them out a bit quicker? We really need to get on."

"Well, erm, I suppose, I could try to ask them to perhaps, maybe, gather their belongings and be departing."

"Well go on then, this is a dangerous situation!"

"Right then, okay. Excuse me ladies and gentleman, but i'd like you to-" Lanthus begins, his voice whittering on, not very clear at all.

"Could I perhaps intrude," he continues. "I do need to ask you to be hurrying onwards, as we have a situation here that needs to be dealt with, and it's quite serious. Hello? Please?"

"QUIET!" Drauss yells.

The room is silent.

We pan around, all faces are turned towards him, wondering who the hell he is.

"You heard the man, now clear off!" Drauss orders.

"And who do you think you are? I've played the game - and won. I'm not going until I get my tickets!" a man in adamant armour says.

"This is much more important than two measly tickets, lives are at stake!"

"The whole of Castle wars uses necromancy, anyone killed comes back to life, safe and sound!" a woman in splitbark armour says.

"Well this is overridging that, so I ask of you again, clear off!"

"We came here to play the game! I've wasted my whole morning at the bloody Exchange buying runes if I have to go now!" a man in mithril says.

And the talking and banking starts again, while Drauss stands there, fuming.

"Right then, we'll have to do this the hard way. Luthas, this place has teleports into the Castles, right?" he asks.

"Yes, yes, through the waiting area," Lanthus says.

"Just as I thought. Now, can the teleports be tweaked so that when this lot are sent to the Waiting Area, they remain there, and don't get into the Castles?"

"In theory, yes."

"In theory my back side, Cratus! Over here!"

Cratus walks over to Drauss who is stood beside a portal with Luthas. It is glowing a bright red, representing Zamorak.

"Now, Cratus, use the rewriter to change the coding of the Zamorak and Saradomin teleports so they lock the players in the caverns below, leave the Guthix one, as we'll need to enter the Arena as well," Drauss says.

"Cratus will need co-ordinates for these caverns you speak of," Cratus says.

"Oh, I can give you those. It's C-W-8-4-2-6-minus 7C," Lanthus says.

And Cratus taps these in as Lanthus says them.

Then, with a whirr of the electronics, the portals flash brightly and the destination co-ordinate is registered on Cratus' device with a green reading of:
 * Destination Change Successful!

"There we are! Cratus has programmed it to work," Cratus says.

"Now all we need to do is get the people in there," Lanthus states.

Drauss turns to Lanthus...

"What's that Lanthus? Whichever team wins the next game is going to win 20 tickets?" Drauss asks in a dramatic tone.

"Seriously?" asks a man with a staff of air.

Lanthus then snaps into character, and realizes how to help.

"Yes, so tell all your friends that, um, perhaps getting into the portal as quick as possible is a suitable idea, well there's no time like the present!" Lanthus states.

Upon hearing this, the crowds of people RUSH into whichever portal they can, cheering and already calling out tactics such as 'I'll be bait' and 'You carry the flag, I'll range the opposition' etc.

"Well, that did the trick," Drauss grins as the group survey the empty Waiting Room.

We pan around, revealing it as completely empty. All that lies on the floor are a few vials of water and iron darts.

Cut to the waiting area, beneath ground, the tight cave beneath the Castle.

Suddenly, there are crowds of people all appearing, having entered the portal. It suddenly dawns on them that they aren't going anywhere.

"What's happened?" the splitbark woman.

"Where's the game?!" asks the man with the air staff.

"It was a trick!" exclaims the man in adamant, who slams his sword into the dirt.

They attempt to leave, but the teleports will not work — they're stuck.

"Lanthus! That deceitful old-" begins the man in mithril.

Above, in the waiting room we see a close-up of Cratus' device adjusting the remaining portal; the Guthix one.

"Trust us to get stuck with the random portal," Thyra grumbles.

"Now Lanthus, we need you to think back to when the problems started, okay? Where was the highest level of revenant activity?" Drauss asks.

"The Zamorakian Castle I'd say, I heard that a few people spotted a revenant knight up there," Lanthus replies.

"These people knew all about this but still wanted to go in?"

"They found it exciting, they thought we planned it ourselves, some sort of hidden surprise!"

"If only it was."

"So what will you do?"

"We need to track down something inside, an anomaly."

"Anomaly? What's that? Well, some kind of error I take it."

"It's like a wound in time and space, and we're time's physicians — and we're going to heal it."

Drauss, Cratus, Kairie and Thyra then prepare to enter the portal, but Drauss stops and turns to Lanthus.

"And if I don't come back out alive, don't tell anyone I went through the Guthix portal, people at school got bullied for going around praising a silver skull with tentacles."

"Okay-" Lanthus begins.

The group enter the portal, leaving Lanthus mid-sentence.

"-Then," he finishes.

We survey the landscape of the Saradomin Castle, as Drauss, Cratus, Kairie and Thyra appear on the top floor, next to the flagpole.

"Well, at least we didn't end up about the Zammy Castle, that one's probably swarming with revenants now!" Thyra says.

"Any sign of revenant activity from here?" Drauss asks, surveying the landscape.

"Cratus cannot see! Cratus is too small!" Cratus exclaims as he tries to jump up and observe.

"THERE!" Kairie exclaims.

In the distance, we can just about make out the appearance of a revenant vampyre travelling silently near the northern wall.

"We can avoid him, I think," Drauss notes.

"Cratus suggests we inspect the entire castle for revenants," Cratus states.

"Point taken. Kairie, Cratus, go and check the bottom levels; Thyra, me and you are going under the ground," Drauss orders.

"Why me?" Thyra asks.

"Because you can use your ability to better effect in a series of twisted tunnels and caverns. Now come on, before you move on from your abbreviations and start talking full leet."

Cratus and Kairie are in the main room of the Castle, the former picking up bandages and explosive potions.

"We need to take as much as we can carry," Kairie notes.

"Cratus agrees! But can explosive potions harm moving ectoplasm?" Cratus asks.

"They're very strong manifestations, from the God Wars themselves, so I think their undead remains might feel the blast."

"Drauss appears to have left us here."

"Yep, the two weaklings together, while Drauss goes exploring with that bit-"

"You are not weak! You are a prodigy! Cratus is clumsy crate creature, but you, no, you big brave warrior!"

"Maybe it's for my own protection, I dunno."

"You wanted to go with him, Cratus thinks."

"It's nothing personal, Cratus, it's just-"

"Cratus understands, crate creatures also experience the most powerful human emotions."

"That's good to know."

"Now come on, Cratus and Kairie will make Drauss very proud, and anyway, if it was between you and the little madam Thyra I think I know who I'd go with."

The underground tunnels are windy, and in places gloomy. We see some dragon arrowtips lying to the side, which we focus upon for a brief amount of time before panning in on Drauss and Thyra who stand with lanterns.

"That teleport was easily overpowered, it let us walk straight through with all our kit, and without having to wear those stupid blue hoods and capes," Drauss notes.

"Do we have to go to revenant central right now?" Thyra asks.

"Why, something the matter?"

"No," she hurriedly replies.

"You're scared of the revenants. And there was me thinking you were Little Miss Brave-"

"Shut up Drauss-"

"You were fine showing off on the way in with your temper tantrum but when it comes to the task you can't handle it! Some first assignment this is turning out to be for you-"

"I said SHUT IT!"

"I think the whole cavern heard that," Drauss murmurs.

Thyra turns to one side, visibly upset.

"Hey, hey, Thyra? What is it?" Drauss asks.

"It's the revenants," she replies, upset and nervous.

Drauss pulls her into a comforting hug.

"I was only three," she begins.

"Only three when what?" Drauss asks.

"I was on a trip with a friend, exploring the Wilderness, before the ability manifested. I was weak; frightened."

"And what happened?"

"We went in too far, my friend got attacked by a revenant werewolf, and I never saw her again, I had to leave her, to die! And I can never forget their icy chill in the air, it still creeps me out to this day!"

"That was before, and we're not just any old adventurers, we're professionals, and we're capable of dealing with a bunch of ghosts."

"They say each prodigy got their ability based on what they needed most, and ever since my friend died I wanted to shut myself off from the world, not be noticed, I even thought they'd arrest me! I wanted to stay hidden, and that's where I think the ability to sneak and hide came from. That one day."