Ambrosia Software Web Board: The Ruffian Encampment (TS) - Ambrosia Software Web Board

When the harpies had attacked I could feel my consciousness slipping away, all my thoughts replaced with an echoing animal instinct: to run. I had to flee, to move away. It was an urge, a need. There were obviously ways to defend your mind from such things, something I had not been taught. I imagined a wall of water surrounding my mind, tried despairingly to call some greater power to deafen my soul, but ultimately my efforts were futile.
I found myself standing in the woods, my legs aching and my body bearing a number of scratches, presumably from where I ran panicked through the brush. I could hear the chirp of the swamp and the chortling of a distant water fall. I ran first towards the mountains, knowing that our destination lay towards the west. When that direction provided only more scrub, I ran back towards the township we had left, then turning north, and finally running south. When I stopped, panting, I was thoroughly lost.
I sat glumly on a rock and put my head in my hands. Just as I let out a soft sob, knowing that I would be recalled at any moment and punished for being so weak-minded, I heard voices. Wizard, Medoc and Retsy burst from the bushes. Their staves lowered when they saw it was me, and Medoc moved to support me.
“Come on.” He said “We’ve been split up from the others, but if we continue towards the encampment, we should join them again before the attack.”
After walking for hours we finally came to a clearing, where Wizard suggested we stay the night. Retsy looked exhausted, and sat heavily, massaging her feet. I busied myself pitching the hide tent and within a short time we were settled in for the night. I lay wearily on a fur provided by Medoc and slept uneasily.
My dreams were unsettling, and revolved around the upcoming battle. At first I thought it was nervousness, but the dreams persisted. I woke gasping and covered in sweat. Retsy, too, had been woken; Medoc had his eyes open and only Wizard remained asleep. I looked questioningly at Medoc.
“It is the work of a mage.” He explained. “The dreams you both are having are a side affect of strong magic. Wizard sleeps because he is trained to block those thoughts, and I am awake only because I felt your fear. We have known that the ruffians new leader was a mage for a few days now, but we still don’t know how strong, or who he is.” Medoc closed his eyes and rolled over.
I grimaced. Retsy whimpered slightly.?“I don’t like mages.” She declared “But not as much as I hate ruffians.”
I hesitated for a moment, then hugged her briefly. “Don’t worry,” I said “Wizard and Medoc seem more than able to protect us.”
Retsy nodded and closed her eyes.
I spied from my tent the two moons of the land, their strange visage undiminished by roughly clouded skies. The next day, I mused, could well spell the end of my task, and a return to West.

The ruffian guard opened the cell door, "Get up, the leader wants to speak with you." Talryn got to his knees and then stood up and walked to the door. If only these chains were a bit shorter that guard would be laying on the ground and i could get out of here, yet i don't even know how i got here. This is probably the best thing to do, assuming i can survive my encounter with this ruffian leader. The guard led Talryn out of the 'dungeon' and up into fresh air. Talryn inhaled deeply, and continued to follow the guard.

After climbing some stairs, going down various hallways, and taking seemingly random turns; Talryn arrived at the leader's chamber. The guard opened the door shoved Talryn in and quickly closed the door. Talryn stood back up and glanced around, there was a desk full of papers, a dresser, a quite large bed, and a table. Upon further inspection of the papers, there appeared to be runes written in specific ways. The floor was stone and the room was somewhat circular, with a big rug in the center. The person sitting at the table eating, glanced over and got up. "What is your name prisoner?"

"A better question is, why should I answer, when I don't know who you are?"
"I am of course the leader of this Ruffian Encampment. You will answer my questions one way or the other..."
"I highly doubt that you are the leader and I highly doubt I will answer your questions, because of what talk I got from 'your' ruffians, the leader is a mage or a wizard of sorts. You lack the mana for pretty much any casting. Let me speak to the really leader and i will contemplate giving my name."
A figure step out from behind a doorway, one Talryn overlooked. The figure spoke rather queitly, "You can leave now," the bandit at the table got up and left the room. Talryn turned to face the figure, just as the figure stepped out of the shadows...

[Edit : reworded certain parts]

This post has been edited by Dark Jet: 11 November 2006 - 11:26 PM

Retsy decided no one knew the meaning of the word "miserable" except for her that night. She also decided that no one else was as worried about the other group as she was, because at least no one else was related to someone in the other group.

After the incident in Kosha, and then those crazy glowing things, Retsy realized things were scarier than she initially thought. And the scariest part was her fellow wanderers; all of whom seemed to be mages or else some kind of dark supernatural creature. Any of them could kill her if they wanted. But she already trusted Wizard because he saved her life in Kosha, and Medoc was nice because he gave her some water during a break earlier when she complained of being thirsty, and she liked Phaedrus because it was due to him that they took so many breaks.

But Rapierian and Satori were two really scary people, and Retsy only wondered if her brother was still alive.

Retsy got next to no sleep and woke up with red eyes and a heavy skull.

When a fairly large group of ruffians sprang out around them, Rapierian was at first irritated. Enough time had passed since the group had been split up for Rapierian and his group to be less than six hours from the Encampment. They'd been making good time. Now, they'd be delayed.

His second thought was one of puzzlement: how had so many ruffians managed to sneak up on them?

His third thought was one of slight worry: he couldn't cast any magic. He tried several times and nothing worked.

His fourth thought was one of realization: the ruffians had somehow managed to expand the magic dampening effects of Kesh into a magic dampening field. He noticed that two or three of the ruffians were carrying small grey crystals about the size of the Crolna. Those must be the source of the dampening field, he realized.

However, before he could communicate his realization to the two others with him, something hit him on the back of his head and knocked him unconscious.


Several hours later, Rapierian opened his eyes and managed to sit up. He looked around and saw that he was in some kind of cell. The bars were made of metal and the cell was quite solidly constructed. It was about the size of an average room that one might find at an inn, except the ceiling was much higher. Looking up, Rapierian noticed that near the ceiling—quite out of his reach—was one of the small grey crystals that he'd noticed earlier. A quick test proved that it was nullifying his magic spells. Obviously, the ruffians had taken him to the Encampment. He wondered whether anyone else in his group had been taken or if the other group had been attacked.

He sighed and looked around. No one else was in his cell or any of the adjacent cells. If anyone else had been take captive, they were not in the same building as he. He'd just have to break out on his own.

Rapierian smiled and rubbed his hands together gleefully. This was going to be fun. The last time that he could recall having such fun was imaging the look on Tavara's face when he discovered Rapierian's betrayal of him.

This post has been edited by Selax: 11 November 2006 - 11:31 PM

The shining light was harsh and the ground was rather cold, where was I?
Let me out! worthless maggots, come crawl in your mud.
The gaol was made from wood and baled flax, it would burn well Satori mused.
A ruffian threw the hut door open and looked towards me, the man seemed to examine every inch
searching for dangers. he grunted obviously satisfiyed, and walked away.
A deep anger seemed to rise from my chest. The mark glowed with a sickly blue light.
A ruffian yelped with pain somwhere outside "Traitor! he tried to stab me."

This post has been edited by Pippin 3: 11 November 2006 - 04:58 AM

“Grr,” Wizard growled in frustration. “Surely this place could not have changed so much since the last time I was here.” He continued to mutter under his breath as he poked his staff in and out of the brush.

“It’s the woods, Wizard,” Medoc said matter-of-factly.

Wizard took a few steps forward and disappeared behind a thick layer of branches. The others followed him through the narrow opening. “Even so, I still want to know where I’m going," he replied.

Retsy looked concerned for a moment before leaning over and whispering behind her hand into Medoc’s ear, “Doesn’t he remember that we’re going to the encampment, or does he have a memory problem?” Meodc stifled a laugh and Wizard glanced back, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes, well. . .” Wizard returned to poking about with the tip of his staff.

* * *
They traveled for several hours, stopping periodically—more often than Wizard would have liked—to suit Phaedrus. It was now clear to everyone that they would not arrive at the encampment at the same time as the others. . . if the others were still alive.

This post has been edited by The Wizard: 06 October 2006 - 12:42 AM

Rapierian carefully examined the room. The crystal was in a basket that was attached to the top of the ceiling; it didn't seem to be fastened to the basket but merely sitting in it. If he could reach it or throw something at it, he could knock it down. However, there was nothing to stand on that would give him sufficient height to reach the ceiling, nor was there anything to throw at the crystal. Whoever had designed this cell had done so fairly well.

However, they had forgotten that just because there was nothing useful in the cell that didn't mean that Rapierian himself wasn't carrying anything useful. Of course, the ruffians had searched him and taken his equipment earlier. It seemed that they'd left him with almost nothing of sufficient weight to throw at the crystal—almost nothing.

He sat down and took off on his black boots. There were much better designed than the average boots that one could buy from the blacksmith, functioning much like alligator boots and being quite light. He raised it over his shoulder, took careful aim at the basket, and threw. It struck the basket with just enough force that it tipped slightly, and the crystal rolled out and fell. The crystal struck the ground and shattered. Rapierian stood for a moment, making sure that no one had heard the sound. When there was no sound from around him, he put his boot back on and tested his magic again.

It worked! he thought, quite pleased. Of course, there were still many magic blank spots around him and he would have to be careful to avoid entering them.

He realized that this meant the mage in charge of the ruffians would soon notice that the magic dampening was no longer working in Rapierian's cell and realize what had happened. He'd have to move quickly.

Rapierian walked over to the cell's lone window. He put his hand on the bars for a moment, and they melted. Quickly, he crawled out and dropped to the ground. Rapierian began to move quickly and as quietly as possible away from the building. The Encampment had apparently been enlarged under its current ruler, and Rapierian couldn't tell whether he was near the edge or center of it. For the moment, it didn't matter.

Rapierian figured that he had several immediate objectives. The first to retrieve the items that the ruffians had taken from him. The second was see who else had been captured and rescue them. However, he suspected that he'd find his lost items in the process of this second goal, so he made it his top priority. The third was to find out where the ruffians were getting their kesh. He was willing to bet that it must be close. The fourth was to meet up with the rest of the group and figure out how to shut this place down.

The Mage leader stood in the light of the room, so Talryn could see. Talryn noticed that the magic damping field was no longer present in the room, of course idiot, why would the leader prevent the use of magic in ones own chamber, when magic is one's greatest strength... Talryn slowly let himself reconnect with the mana surroundings and was able to sense where magic was dampened and where it was free.

Talryn streached and asked, "So are you going to interigate me now? I really would like to get back to my cell, sense it was so comfortable and felt almost like home..." As Talryn was buying time to rregenerate his mana, he noticed a sudden pocket of magic.

It wasn't like someone drank a mana potion or began casting a spell, it was more like the damping effect in holding cell across the courtyard simply disappated. Talryn glanced over at a window and noticed the mage also did so...

crap, if someone with magical abilities just broke out of a cell, this leader just noticed the same thing. That person better hurry up and get out Talryn glanced back to see the mage glance back at him. Oh boy, this is going to be interesting...

This post has been edited by Dark Jet: 11 November 2006 - 11:26 PM

“At last!” Retsy said with relief, “We have reached the edge of these horrible woods.”

“Don’t be too relieved just yet, young one,” Wizard smiled.

Phaedrus walked beside Retsy, “Before us lies the Great Swamp. We cannot travel through there. No, our path is along the border of the trees until we reach a small clearing somewhere to the south. Then, the encampment should lie directly to the west, somewhere between the mountains and the trees.

Wizard suddenly held up his hand, signaling silence, “Someone is coming, several someones. Quickly, back into the trees.”

The four dashed back into the relative cover of the forest and lay in wait. A small force of ruffians, about five, shortly appeared in the open. Wizard could see them all plainly from where he sat.

The five of them stopped for a moment and one spoke: “The others must be somewhere around here, the Boss said so. Look in the trees, but be careful. If they saw us capture the others, then they’ll know we’re out here somewhere and they’ll be ready.”

“Wizard, it’s only five. I say we surprise them while we have the chance,” Medoc whispered in Wizard’s ear. As he did so, he was shocked to see the cuts on the sides of Wizard’s face that he had sustained during their last battle at Pynx had reappeared. “I thought you had used your mental disciplines to get rid of those.”

Wizard put his hand on his cheek, “I had, but the process is not fully complete yet. Still they shouldn’t be showing. Unless. . .” Wizard quietly gasped. “I can’t hear your thoughts or theirs. Something is subduing my powers.”

“Mine too,” Medoc replied, trying to cast a spell.

“Excuse me, gentlemen,” Phaedrus crawled between Medoc and Wizard, “but might I suggest that we assume that the gray crystal the lead one is carrying has something to do with the problem.”

“Hmm, very well. I think I have an idea,” Wizard spoke after a moment.

* * *

The ruffians were poking around in the bushes, “Sir, let’s give up. We’re not going to find them this way.”

“Then look harder; we know that they’re somewhere along the fringes of the wood. We will find them.”

Wizard stepped out from the trees, “That won’t be necessary. I’m right here.”

“indeed,” the lead ruffian said. “And why would you just give up like that?” He moved closer to the forest, “Unless you’re trying to hide something.”

“I don’t know what you could possibly mean.”

“Look, we know there are more of you, so come on out, before we hurt your little friend.”

Phaedrus and Medoc walked out from under their cover. Wizard took a step closer and began to speak again, “Now, sir, who might you be?”

One ruffian was still looking in the bushes when he shouted, “There’s another one here.” It was Retsy; the plan worked brilliantly. The ruffian’s shout surprised the others and they all glanced to the side for one moment.

Wizard took advantage of the moment and flung his staff at the lead ruffian’s head with as much force as his physical body could muster. The blow successfully knocked it’s target over. Then the three charged their enemies.

Medoc was the first to reach the crystal that lay on the ground. He struck it with the end of his staff shattering it. The cuts down Wizard's face dissipated. After that point, the battle was very brief. Phaedrus tackled one to the ground, and Retsy threw a rock at another. Medoc began to fend the others off with his staff. Wizard, calling his staff to him, lifted his hand and gestured. The lead ruffian disappeared as he was instantly flung into the heart of the swamp.

* * *

There were no further distractions once they had dealt with the small band of ruffians. They traveled for another half-hour before the ruffian stronghold was in sight where stopped for a moment to decide what their next course of action would be

This post has been edited by The Wizard: 08 October 2006 - 12:52 AM

Talryn studied the mage leader closely. He was a tall man, wrapped in a brown cloak. The hood of this cloak covered his face so that Talryn couldn't quite make out its features in the dim light. For a moment, he turned his back to Talryn, calling for the guards.

"One of the prisoners has escaped," he told them when they had arrived. "He was in that cell across the courtyard. It's that wretched dark arts mage. Find him!"

The guards bowed and hurried out to carry out his instructions. The mage started to turn back to Talryn, and Talryn made his move...


Rapierian carefully made his way around the encampment, carefully avoiding the magic-dampening fields generated by the crystals. He knew this was what the ruffians would expect him to do and it would make him easier to find; however, he also knew that if he entered those spots he'd completely defenseless. He had met two or three ruffians during his trek, but they'd been easily and quickly disposed of.

A cursory examination revealed that the ruffians had done much work on the encampment, increasing its size and strength. In its very center, there now stood a large fortress—Rapierian's cell had been in its courtyard. There were a few huts that he guessed functioned as jails and they seemed to be near the center of the camp, and only lightly guarded. (He had been in a different kind of cell in a different location, so he guessed that all the group members might be spread out like this.) Rapierian knew that would change soon. He had only a few moments at most to make his move. Uncertain who was in what hut, he decided just to guess and picked one at random. Quickly, he formed his plan.

Turning around, he went back to the bodies of the ruffians that he'd earlier killed and set to work. Within moments, he had two or three skeletons raised. Working swiftly, he managed to arrange the dead ruffian's clothes on one the skeletons so that from a distance it would look like Rapierian. This one he sent to running off in plain sight the other way. He heard yells and running feet signifying that the ruffians had seen him. Now, the patrols hunting him would head the wrong way for at least a few minutes.

Rapierian worked his way around the huts until he was behind one. His ruse seemed to have worked. There were only two or three guards. The magic-dampening field was in place here, but that didn't matter for his plans. He sent his two remaining skeletons charging into the open. The ruffians looked up in shock, and one screamed.

When the skeletons hit the field, Rapierian lost control of them. However, this didn't really matter because when summoned minions gained freedom from their master they almost always went berserk. Such was the case here. The crazed skeletons fell upon the ruffians and tore them to pieces. Then, they ran to meet the ruffians who had been aroused by the commotion.

In this confusion, Rapierian made his way to the door of the hut—stopping to pick up his staff and the keys from one of the dead ruffians—opened the door and motioned to the person inside. Recognizing him, the person got up and followed him out. They quickly escaped the magic-dampening field and fled the area.

This post has been edited by Selax: 10 October 2006 - 09:02 PM

Talryn had really begun to call on the mana surrounding him in the chamber once the guards had entered the room. By the time the leader refocused his attention on Talryn, Talryn was ready to cast. It was a simple spell, that put the leader to sleep. Talryn walked over to the sleeping figure and searched for an amulet or possible control crystal of some sort. He found none. Since he was rushed for time, he stopped searching and went over to the desk examining scrolls.

Talryn heard the noise of bandits yelling that they had found the prisoner. Less than a minute later, he heard the scream of a dying man. Talryn saw a piecie of paper that had to do with the crystal, grabbed it, and went over to the doorway he overlooked. He followed a staircase that led to a room on the bottom floor. Finding nothing of interest, he went back to a window on the stair case and climbed out. The drop was around fifteen feet. After he recovered from his momentary stun. He looked over to see a skeleton to turn towards him. The skeleton picked up the weapon off of the dead bandit and took a step forward...

This post has been edited by Dark Jet: 11 November 2006 - 11:26 PM

Toreon's sleep was disturbed by quite a bit of screaming and running around. With his mind as clear as the haze hovering near the ceiling, Toreon decided whatever chaos was going on outside wasn't his business; and he should try to get some more sleep. It wasn't long, however, before he was disturbed again; this time by someone breaking into his cell.

Toreon jumped off his bench upon recognizing Rapierian and followed him out. Once out of the building, Toreon could see the chaos that was happening. Ruffians were running in every direction, some were yelling at each other or waving their arms in morse code. Rapierian seemed to know what he was doing and purposfully lead Toreon in a seemingly random direction.

Rapierian stopped along the wall of one of the nameless buildings, waiting for a group of running ruffians to clear. Amongst all the screaming Toreon decided it would be appropriate to whisper. "What was it?" he asked Rapierian. "That sleepy stuff? What did they do to me?"

"What?" Rapierian asked halfmindedly, beginning the brisk pace again.

"What-" Toreon began, but was distracted by more screaming. Across from them now was a building on which this side had no windows or doors. Seven ruffians were pounding on the wall with their fists and screaming as though they wished to be let in.

The two kept on going, Rapierian occasionally stopping to kill a ruffians that had strayed the chaos herd. Toreon stole a sword from one of the dead ruffians and used it to look scary. They both continued onward.

Well under the safety of the trees, Medoc, Phaedrus, Retsy, and Wizard discussed tactics.

“The way I see it, we have two options. One is to wait for the others to show up —” Wizard began before he was interrupted by Medoc.

“The others may not ‘show up,’ Wizard. Remember what that ruffian said about capturing them.” Retsy shuddered after Medoc finished his statement.

Wizard placed his hand on Retsy’s shoulder and continued, “That’s true, and that brings us to the second option. We can, through some method or other, infiltrate the encampment and free the others.”

There was a pause before Phaedrus spoke, “Is there a third?”

Everyone smiled at the remark, even Retsy.

* * *
“I would really like to get back to my cell, since it was so comfortable and felt almost like home. . .” Talryn stalled

A young man sat in the room next to the one that Talryn was in, listening to the conversation he was having with the cloaked figure.

“Guards! One of the prisoners has escaped. . . Find him!” shouted the man from underneath the cloak. He turned back to Talryn just in time to be on the receiving end of spell that induces sleep. Talryn searched him.

The man in the adjoining room did nothing but slap his forehead against his palm and shake his head repeatedly. After Talryn had climbed out a window, the exasperated man slowly walked into the other room. “Fool!” he shouted as he slapped the unconscious form across the face to awaken him.

The man in the cloak awoke with a start, “Wha-, wher-, What did I do wrong?”

The other figure did not respond for a moment with anything other than a displeased look. “He has escaped you, the necromancer has escaped you, and now I feel that another prisoner is being freed as well. Find them all, or I won’t be responsible for what I do.” The man turned to leave, which greatly relieved the other. He stopped on his way out for a moment, “Oh, yes, if you check your desk, you will find that one of the papers on the Kesh crystals is missing. Retrieve it.”

He left the room, his robe trailing behind him.

* * *
“Our best hope is probably number two. If we stay out here too long, then we’ll lose our advantage: we know where they are, but they don’t know where we are,” Medoc explained his view. Wizard nodded, “I agree. What about you two?”

Phaedrus and Retsy glanced at each other. Phaedrus spoke first, “I think I’d rather be attacking them than twiddling my thumbs until we are attacked.”

Retsy was silent. “Retsy, have you no opinion?” Wizard inquired. She sighed and then said abruptly, “I just want to know if my brother is safe and where he is. If he’s still out there and hasn’t been caught, we should wait for him. If not, and he is in captivity, then I want to free him.”

“Maybe there’s something we can do about that. . .” Wizard closed his eyes and his mind began to probe around as much as he could. He sat hushed and still for almost a minute before opening his eyes again. “There are many areas that I cannot see because they are guarded by some kind of magic inhibitors, much like what we encountered when we fought those ruffians. It’s odd though, I can still sense something through it, and it is not what I expected. There’s a universal feeling of fear and, in general, pandemonium. This may be a good time to strike even if the Rapierian, your brother, and Satori haven’t been captured.”

He paused for a moment and took a deep breath. “But somehow, I think that Rapierian is involved in the chaos. It’s never hard to track a necromancer: look for the most chaotic, sadistic, corrupted, and twisted thing you can find and chances are that it was caused by a master of the dark arts.”

“I’ll agree with most of that, but we have a more pressing problem.” Medoc said with concern. “How are we going to get into the encampment? They’ve expanded it; it looks more like a stronghold now than an encampment.”

Wizard’s gaze became grave, “I imagine that’s exactly what it’s supposed to look like.”

“Well, I could try to pick the lock to one of their doors, but it’s not like we can just waltz in,” Phaedrus seemed to think aloud.

“I may have a solution,” Wizard announced. “I have often wondered if telekinesis was not more powerful than telepathy. . .”

“What do you mean?” Retsy asked. Then she suddenly lost her balance. When she looked down to catch herself she was shocked to see that she was standing on nothing, her feet dangling at least a foot off the ground.

“That’s what I mean.”

As soon as they had found a corner of the structure that was virtually hidden by the trees, Wizard stood still for a moment and the four began to levitate. When they had reached the height of the wall, he was ready to send them over and down, but he realized he had made a dire mistake. The magic-dampening fields were in place in this corner.

Oh well, he thought, I don’t know that it won’t work until I try. He focused as much as he could on getting the others safely down. The magic field was very strong.

Retsy came within a mere foot or two of the ground, Phaedrus and Medoc were but a few yards. Wizard was still floating, concealed under the trees, at the height of the wall, when he ventured to close and lost his power. Everybody fell. Wizard had been the highest, and, coincidentally, made the loudest thump when he struck the ground.

They all laid moaning for a few moments, all except Retsy. She was up immediately. They were on the northwest corner of the stronghold, hidden from the rest of the encampment by a solitary structure that looked like a prison cell.

“Maybe some of them are in there,” Retsy said as she helped Wizard to his feet.

Wizard limped a few steps, “Could be, although —” There came a sudden scream. They peered around the cell-like structure and saw a disturbing sight: a skeleton tearing into a ruffian.

“Well, we know Rapierian’s free. There’s a good chance he may be with Toreon and Satori. Come, we must find them,” Wizard said almost cheerfully, though he still limped his way toward the skeleton.

This post has been edited by The Wizard: 11 November 2006 - 05:29 PM

Rapierian was in an extremely good mood. His skeletons were far exceeding his expectations; for some reason, the ruffians hadn't banded together and killed them. Most of them had started to run in circles screaming, although Rapierian couldn't imagine why.

One would think that these people have never seen animated skeletons. . .but hasn't everybody? Rapierian thought to himself. He thought of stopping to ask Toreon but decided against it.

Idly, he reached out and grabbed one of the ruffians that had come too close in his frantic running. Rapierian clamped his hand over the man's mouth and proceeded to suck the life out of him as he done earlier when they had found Phaedrus. He dropped the body and continued on his way; he wasn't quite certain what his plan was but decided that he best capitalize on this chaos and try to free someone else.

Abruptly, Rapierian sensed a magic spell at the limit of his senses and stopped, and Toreon almost ran into him.

"What is it?" Toreon whispered.

"I'm not certain," replied Rapierian after a moment. "I think that that crazy, old Wizard has entered the encampment, probably with the others and probably over the walls."

"Do you know where they are?" Toreon asked, relieved at the prospect of seeing his sister again.

"Not quite but probably headed in the same direction as us. If we continue the same way, we should meet."

Rapierian didn't mention that it was not Wizard that had caused him to stop. He had "smelled" something most unusual and had no idea what it was. (Like most other mages, dark mages had the ability to sense magic and spells cast by others, but some of them also had the ability to "smell" magic.) Rapierian continued to ponder this mystery as he and Toreon made their way toward the same corner of the Encampment that Wizard and the rest had just arrived at.


The skeleton charged Talryn. Unarmed and not quite certain what else to do, Talryn jumped to the side. The skeleton struck the wall and, weakened by its previous battles, crumpled into dust. Talryn stared at it a moment, shrugged, grabbed its weapon, and ran off.

This post has been edited by Selax: 11 November 2006 - 11:31 PM

Talryn dropped the weapon, as it stung a bit. From the chaos, Talryn concluded that the skeletons were not from the bandits, but from someone else who is attacking. He saw a figure at the opposite side of the courtyard fall down, but didn't really think anything of it. The courtyard its self, had practically no real damping fields in the center, so Talryn headed for it.

Once in the center, Talryn begun casting a modified druidic spell. Storm clouds begun to form over the encampment and then ground started to vibrate a little, only enough to baerly move a pebble. Some bandits noticed a figure attempting to cast a spell, and tried to make their way over in the chaos. A strange circular symbol glowed on the ground, about the half of the size of the courtyard. Some bandits stopped runing around aimlessly and wondered what was going on.

As Talryn continued to channel his spell, a ruffian drew within 15 feet. The vibrating grew, and rain began to fall. A small breeze expanded out wards from where Talryn was standing. The breeze slowly grew stronger and became like shockwaves. The ruffian was within 7 feet of Talryn when the shockwaves begun to push the ruffian back. After the second one hit him, he lost his balance due to the vibrating ground. Talryn fell to one of his knees as the strain of the spell.

The magic damping fields in the courtyard were limiting the effect of the spell, but the effects could still be felt. Talryn fell to both knees and had to put one of his hands down. By the time the spell was done channeling, Talryn fell over unconscious. The spell last for a couple of more minutes. The ground was completely muddy, making it hard to keep one's balance. The rain continued to fall for that part was not depenedent on mana.

-Dark

This post has been edited by Dark Jet: 11 November 2006 - 11:27 PM

The ruffian leader stared down at his scarred hands, they brought back painful memorys the tranformation had not worked.why did i do it, he listend to his mind and only came up with one answer. For power
he shook his head slowly "I was a fool." We must try again, this time there shall be no mistakes!
"No! not again!" he yelled. His leutenite jumped, he was a loyal man but his lack of courage irritated him.
"Master is there anything i can do for you."
"Yes there is bring me the one the that owned the scythe. take extra percautions she is still dangerous.
take on of the crystals."
"Yes Master." The leutenite strolled out of the room.

***

A ruffian staggered up to the one who had been casting the spell, he tripped a meter or so away from his taget.
crawling forwards through the rain and mud he pulled his knife free of its scabbard and raised it ready to remove the mage....

This post has been edited by Pippin 3: 15 October 2006 - 07:56 PM

Rapierian and Toreon had been walking alongside when suddenly it began to rain and the ground began to shake faintly under them. Rapierian raised his eyebrows; this had the smell of a spell about it, although not a scent that he was familiar with. After a few moments, it stopped. He and Toreon looked at each other, shrugged, and continued on their way.

After a few minutes, Rapierian stopped and smiled. Someone had finally managed to destroy his last skeleton, and he had a pretty good idea who had done it. He motioned to Toreon and stepped around the corner of the building.

"Hello, Wizard, Phaedrus, Medoc, and Retsy. It is I—Lord Rapierian, forty-third in line for leadership of House Strymon and practitioner of a bunch of things that you probably don't want to know about. And how are you today? And my isn't the weather weird? And where's the crater where Wizard landed?"

For a moment, everyone stared at him, except Wizard who curiously had a violent fit of coughing and wheezing and Retsy who ran over to Toreon relieved to see him.

Medoc leaned close to Wizard and whispered, "Is he crazy?"

"That is the opinion of quite a few," Wizard replied before speaking to Rapierian. "Crater indeed! You're just jealous that I actually weigh something. You're so thin that you'd have to hop twice to bend a blade of grass. By the way, where is Satori or Talryn?"

"Talryn, is it? I've heard that name before—involved in that trouble at Pnyx, wasn't he? I'm not actually quite certain where either is," Rapierian responded. "However, I don't think that Satori will be too hard to find—just follow the screams."

He lifted his hand and pointed to the clustered huts back toward the Encampment's center.

"I hazard that she is probably back that way because I have seen no evidence of her anywhere else and because I bet that she is one prisoner that the ruffians want to keep in a more secure location. I suggest that we rescue her first. I speculate that we will find Talryn in that area as well. Then, I have something that I want to investigate. Then, we deal with this ruffian leader and find a way to scatter this group."

"What do you want to investigate?" Wizard asked suspiciously.

"Oh, I think that you'll find it quite worth the time," Rapierian assured him. Seeing that he was telling the truth, Wizard nodded reluctantly, and, after a few moments, the rest of the group also agreed reluctantly.

Quickly, they set out in the direction that Rapierian had indicated, intent on rescuing Satori and, if possible, Talryn.

This post has been edited by Selax: 11 November 2006 - 11:31 PM

Talryn had spontaneously woke back up. He ended up rolling over just as the brigand stabbed with the kinfe. Due to the unexpected role, the ruffian had missed Talryn's heart and struck his side, cracking a rib or two and puncturing a organ. Talryn was barely able to push off the ruffian.

Talryn was greatly drained from his spell and was suprised he wasn't out for longer. In addition to being drained, he was sore all over and now bleeding. Talryn staggered up and pulled out the knife. The disorganization of the ruffains had grown during the spell and was now at its peak. Talryn disappeared around a random crowd and threw the knife at the ruffain who attempted to kill him. The knife struck the bandit in the back of the knee.

Talryn the staggered/limped away into a hut where he could recouperate. Ironic, this was in the opposite direction that Wizard and the others where heading in. The chaos and disorganization slowly began to stop as there were no more shockwaves or skeletons knocking people off their feet and slaying them. The rain continued to fall, transforming puddels into bigger groups of water.

[Edit: fixed grammatical/spelling issues]

-Dark

This post has been edited by Dark Jet: 11 November 2006 - 11:27 PM

Talryn allowed himself to collapse on the floor of the hut, welcoming the restful darkness when he closed his eyes. He breathed deeply, and tried to count the places where it didn't hurt. The list was surprisingly brief.

Even through his lowered eyelids, he sensed the room suddenly become even darker as a figure blocked the light from the open door. His eyes snapped open, and he struggled to get back on his feet.

"You're gonna die!" growled the persistent thug, the blood trickling from his wounded knee leaving a speckled trail as he lurched into the hut. Suddenly, he fell on his face and lay still. Talryn noticed a throwing knife protruding from the man's back.

Bewildered, Talryn stared at the second figure blocking the doorway. The man appeared to be another brigand, although he couldn't see the man's face. Only his eyes were visible through the full-face helmet he wore. The man threw Talryn an informal salute, and abruptly disappeared back out into the daylight.

Twelve days earlier:

Judge Berossus of Cademia hobbled his aged way into his private office, a dimly lit room at the rear of the Judge's Castle.

"That will be all, Perdeus," Berossus told the distinguished, middle-aged man with him. "I know you're eager to learn all there is to know about being a judge, but an old man needs his rest, and the hour is late."

"Of course, sir," Perdeus replied, bowing. He left the room, closing the door behind him.

Berossus leaned heavily on his strong staff, as he eased himself into the chair behind his desk. He sighed deeply.

"So that's your heir apparent, is it?" queried a voice from the shadows.

Berossus smiled. "In earlier days you might have given me a heart attack, Sideline, but I've known you too long."

Sideline stepped forward into the dim lamplight, a warm smile on his face. "I'll try to be more careful, in future. It wouldn't do for you to leave us too soon, I don't think I'd enjoy doing business with your succesor nearly as much." He took the chair opposite Berossus, leaned forward on the edge of the desk and stared intently into the old man's eyes. "I heard you were looking for me."

Berossus leaned back, pausing to gather his thoughts. "You're familiar with Kesh," he stated, rather than asked. Sideline nodded. Berossus continued. "The problem of Kesh abated somewhat, after the Belerophon incident some years ago, but it never entirely went away. That in itself wasn't a great hindrance, since Kesh is a fairly clumsy method of hindering a Judge's perception of truth-telling - once we all knew what to look for, it was obvious who was using Kesh to shield their true throughts from us, and that in itself was sufficient to arouse suspicion."

"Something's changed?"

Berossus stood up and began to pace. "You're perceptive, as always. Yes, something has changed. There have been several cases brought before me of late, in which the town guards have had what, to my mind, constituted absolute proof of guilt. Yet, when the accused denied the charge, my truth-sense told me they were not lying! Frankly, I'm at a loss. I know they must be guilty, yet under Alaric's Law, I cannot convict them."

"So you suspect an improved form of Kesh, which doesn't merely block your ability to match their words with their true thoughts, but makes it seem as if their thoughts truly match their spoken words?"

Berossus nodded, and turned to gaze out the window at the starry sky. "That's where you come in. I have reason to believe there's a connection to that old criminal encampment, Northwest of the great swamp."

Sideline grinned ferally. "Infiltrate, investigate, locate and eliminate. Sounds like my kind of operation."

"Indeed, and I would deeply appreciate your help. Will you do it?"

Silence. A cool breeze caressed Berossus' cheek. When he turned, he noticed the drapes near one window stirring slightly, although the window itself was evidently still (or again?) fastened shut. He smiled, confident in the abilities of the man who could quite possibly, if he so wished, be one of the most dangerous assassins in all Cythera; yet a man he called 'friend'.

This post has been edited by cache22: 22 October 2006 - 01:51 AM

The cloaked man paced the floor of his room waiting for his lieutenant to return with the prisoner that had held the scythe.

He had become a little concerned when the men outside had started to run about confused after a mere earthquake, but he cast Rally in hopes that their stupidity was not so great as to thwart it. "At least they're not killing each other yet," he said to himself more than to anyone else.

Things were not going as he had planned. Several prisoners had already escaped and they had information about the crystals and, possibly, the kesh. But it was no matter. He would bring his last prisoner to his office, the others would try to rescue her, and he, with the aid of the countless ruffians at his beck and call, would overpower them and place them in individual cells under heavy guard with many crystals to control their magic. He could then take back whatever papers they had stolen, interrogate them one-by-one, and then quietly kill them all.

* * *
The rain continued to fall, even though it was broad daylight. The puddles on the ground were very large now. Wizard, who would normally just levitate over the mud, was having the hardest time as the group passed in and out of magic-dampening fields. His only option was to walk. "Arghh," he grunted after some mud splashed onto his robe, "this was a very nice cloak, too. . ."

Rapierian sighed as he struggled his way across the courtyard.

* * *
The ruffians who had been sent to retrieve Satori and bring her before their master were just arriving outside the hut that held her. They had placed three Kesh-crystals inside the cell and were armed with another four. They were shocked when they opened the door. Even though there were three crystals constraining her power, Satori still managed to unleash a blast of hatred from the fiber of her being that threw a ruffian on his back in the rain.

"Get those crystals around her," the lieutenant shouted as another wave pushed a ruffian against the wall.

"Sir, I don't think four will be enough," one of the men said, his face pale.

"It will be enough. When we get her before Master Altérius, it won't matter."

You fools. Weaklings. I'll kill you all, Satori fought as they unchained her and began to drag her with them.

* * *
"Rapierian," Medoc began, "we've searched all of these buildings. There's no sign of Satori or Talryn. I think we should look elsewhere."

"I think. . . you're right. Old man, any suggestions?" Rapierian queried.

Wizard glared for a moment, "Yes. What about over in that small structure. It looks to contain several rooms, and I'm not sensing any dampened areas."

"Wouldn't they keep someone like Satori in an area with as many of those crystals as possible?" Retsy asked with a puzzled expression.

"Probably, but if they've taken her to talk with the ruffian leader, I'm betting that she's in an area where his magic is not restrained." Wizard's face changed from grim to jovial, "Unfortunately for him, if he doesn't try to restrain her power, she'll tear him apart like paper unless he's more powerful than I've given him credit for." He paused for a moment. "Actually, Medoc, do you sense that? It's a very, very strong field, no surprise, but—"

"It's mobile," Medoc interrupted.

"Right," Rapierian said before heading in the direction of the field. "And it's moving along the route that you suggested, Wizard. Maybe you're not as slow as you look."

The others set off behind him, Wizard mumbling something under his breath.

* * *
The young man in the robe who had earlier chastised the cloaked man, Master Altérius, sat in a small hut on the far side of the encampment, reading a book. The door was barred and the windows covered, his only light was what emanated from the lamp beside his chair. He was completely unconcerned with all the commotion outside. Let Altérius deal with that.

The ruffians were finally starting to rally again. The skeletons, earth tremors, and rain had worked to scare most of them as effectively as any spell could have done.

Rapierian stopped and turned to Wizard.

"Wait a second," he said. "Am I the only one here who dislikes the idea of a group of people—several of whom are mages—trying to rescue someone from a probably large and very alert group of ruffians protected by a magic-dampening field?" Without waiting for an answer, he continued, "Good! I thought not! Since we don't know how large Satori's guard is (although it's likely to be quite large) or how many other ruffians are about, we need a way to draw them away from this area."

Rapierian paused and looked around at the others for a moment before continuing.

"Anyway, by now, there ought to be parties out searching for us, although they may not know that more of us have arrived from outside of the Encampment. They seem to be taking her to the main building, so here's the plan: a couple of us are going to set fire to that and possibly a few other buildings, although we'll need to be careful that we don't accidentally kill Talryn or Satori in this process. That should distract quite a few of them and at least force the leader to change his place of meeting with Satori, giving us time to make a new plan. The rest of you find a good vantage point from which you can watch that group, attack it if necessary, or be able to escape. Any objections?"

"How are you going to get the fire to catch in this rain?" Phaedrus asked.

"I'm not certain, but I'll think of something. At any rate, I don't think any of us want to walk into a possible trap!"

To this, the rest agreed. After a quick discussion, it was decided that Rapierian and Medoc should be the ones to light fire to the buildings.


Rapierian and Medoc worked their way up next to one of the windows to the main building. The magic-dampening field was in effect here, but that didn't affect their goal. They managed to kindle a few torches under the shelter provided by the building; Rapierian produced an odd vial from his cloak (he'd managed to recover this from one of the ruffians) and let a few drops drip onto each torch, giving the flame a green glow. Quickly, they ran along the side of the building, throwing one torch in each window. Then, they bolted to the shelter of one of the Encampment's walls. After making sure that no one had noticed them, they worked their way back to rest of the group, setting fire to three other buildings on their way. By this time, smoke was beginning to rise from the main building. The group began to plan their attack on Satori's captors...


Within minutes, the fire began to spread quickly, despite the rain, because of the special ingredient that Rapierian had added. Soon, several of the buildings in the Encampment were on fire, including the main building.

The green flames continued to spread over the roofs and through the buildings. In some cases the green flames where aided by the rain. Some bandits went to get barrels of water to attempt to put out the flames, slipped and fell into the contiously growing puddels of water. A few ruffians succedded in retriving barrels of which they used the 'ponds' to fill up. To their horror, when the water hit the green flames, they either then leaped from that building to the next or appeared to be uneffected by it.

The hut in which Talryn had begun to recover in, had been one of those instances. The crystal for this hut had been crushed , if by luck, by the ruffian who was going to kill Talryn. When the ruffian fell, his dagger had struck a table near the entrance and the crystal slid off with the table landing on it. Shortly after that bewildering incident, Talryn had begun to regenerate, and he also drank two potions.

Talryn had taken off the dead ruffians armor and put it over his own so that he would draw less supicion when he went wandering around the camp. He heard some shouts outside and glanced up. The celling was on fire, with a strange green tint to it. He quickly limped outside and almost nearly collapsed as he entered a dampining field.

After stumbling around for a bit, Talryn reached a wall and rested against it. Talryn pulled out the paper with the drawing of the crystal on it and begun to examine it. He learned from some nonencrypted text that they hadn't perfect the crystal, and with some instances druidic spells could sometimes be amplified. Talryn glanced up at the growing storm cloud and guessed this was such a instance. He caught a glimpse of two figures running over into cover, one of which looked like Medoc.

After puting away the paper into a safe location, Talryn walked behind a couple of huts to get a better look. The two figures and a couple more moved from one sheltered area to another. He became bewildered as they didn't go in a straight line to the next area. After 'sensing' the area, Talryn noticed that they were avoiding the dampining (sp?) fields as much as possible. Talryn then noticed a fairly large, but moblie dampining field moving around.

This must be the group with Wizard that i saw back at that one town. If it is, I guess i have to buy Wizard a new robe after getting that one muddy... There would only be two reasons on why the group would be getting into a better postion to strike the mobile damp field. Either its that leader person or it could be another party member who is quite strong with magic... Either way its time to make another appearence. Talryn looked around for a staircase up the wall and found one. He quickly climbed up and used magic to find more or less the crystal on the wall.

Once Talryn succedded in destroying the cyrstal, he called out to the rain storm, slowly willing it to grow colder. Rain soon turned into snow, and about 100 feet infront of the mobile field, he begun to make the beginings (sp?) of a ice trap/cage.

-Dark

This post has been edited by Dark Jet: 11 November 2006 - 11:27 PM

"Now back to my original objective," Sideline thought to himself, once the immediate threat to the camp's attackers had been eliminated. He faded into the shadows, taking care to stay out of the line of sight of any of the adventurers. The group evidently included a number of powerful mages, and since he had full confidence in his disguise, he had every intention of not getting himself fried by friendly fireball. He briefly considered abandoning his ruse and linking up with them, but concluded he could do more good alone. There would be time enough for introductions later, if it became useful.

In truth, he was mildly annoyed at the intrusion. He'd spent several days setting up his cover identity before gaining the recognition of whoever was in charge of promotions in this outfit, and getting invited to join the central cadre of this uprising - he no longer thought of this setup as merely a group of ruffians or bandits, they were way too well organised. Someone was pulling the strings, and he very much wanted to know who.

Curiosity aside, he hadn't forgotten the reason he was here. Leads to the source of the new Kesh - Ulkesh, the insurgents were calling it - were scant. He'd already investigated every place in the camp that seemed at all likely, save one. He took advantage of the growing confusion triggered by the adventurer's encroachment - at least one good thing had come of it - to make a furtive approach to the building with no doors.

As the group waited in ambush for the ruffians, Rapierian felt something cold touch his cheek. He frowned and looked around—what he saw quite annoyed him.

"Snow? What next? Sleet?" he muttered to himself.

The position that they had assumed was quite good. From here, they could easily the see the band of ruffians taking Satori to the Encampment's leader. They had taken a number of precautions; for instance, they carried three crystals with them, not just one. It was still a fairly large group, despite the fires raging around the Camp. Of course, the ruffians were quite unsettled by all that had happened, such as the odd weather. Worse for them, at least some of Satori's magic still worked—the group of guards that surrounded her were arguing and yelling at each other.

Rapierian smiled. This could be quite fun. The group prepared its attack...

However, something quite unexpected happened.

The front rank of ruffians walked right into some kind of trap, which somehow despite the crystal's presence functioned. Ice exploded all around the ones who had tripped the trap. Some were frozen instantly; others found themselves caught in some kind of ice cage. The crystal that one of them had been carrying was destroyed.

This was too much for one of the guard bickering around Satori, and he ran one of his own fellows through. Satori took advantage of the opportunity and struggled furiously with her guards. The force of her rage knocked one of his feet and into another one of the crystal carriers. The man stumbled; the crystal slid from his hands and struck the ground.

Well, well, he thought to himself, two out of three, not bad.

Suddenly, one of the group members threw a rock at the ruffians. It struck the last crystal perfectly. Not being especially hard to break, this last one too shattered.

The force of ruffians deteriorated into chaos. In their midst, Satori was busily slaughtering them, and now the rest of the group charged into them. This was, of course, the dangerous part of the plan: it was dangerous to approach Satori at all and especially in the middle of a battle. There was the chance that she might think that the group were enemies. The only plan that they had been able to come up with for this was that she would hopefully recognize them or that she would realize their friendly intent when they helped her escape. Also, everyone was to make it quite clear that they knew Satori, such as by calling her name and other such actions.

The ruffians began to bolt left and right. It had turned into a rout. Within moments, it'd be over and the group would disappear again to plan their next move. That is, they'd get under cover, lose any pursuit, and then make for the place of interest that Rapierian had mentioned earlier. This just happened to be the same building that Sideline was now heading toward.

Three ruffians attempted to run past Rapierian. He calmly gestured at them, and all three stopped. Each of them had the same look on his face, a look of terror. Rapierian smiled a terrible smile; if they were terrified now, just wait until the spell that he had cast hit them full force.

"Don't you know me?" he asked them, his grin broadening. "I am Fear."

With this last, the ruffians broke. They began to scream and writhe on the ground, trying to get away from the terror in their heads. Rapierian howled his mad laughter as the men literally died of fear in the space of a few seconds. It was a spell similar to the Fear spell used by many mages but with a darker purpose and greater strength.

Rapierian looked around; the battle was over. It was time to disappear and head for the next target.

"Come on! Let's go!"

Everybody heard him and immediately headed toward the shelter of a group of huts. The plan was that they'd head through these huts to reach the walls. They'd make sure that they were not being followed or had not been seen. By this time, the flames would probably have been put out and search parties would be out looking for them. However, they were quite certain that they would be able to dodge the patrols and to make it to the building that Rapierian wished to examine.

As the group bolted, Rapierian took a quick look around. He couldn't tell whether Satori had followed, although in the chaos almost anyone could have joined in.

The party of adventures disappeared in the shadow of the huts and kept on going toward the wall...

This post has been edited by Selax: 11 November 2006 - 11:32 PM

Blood fell like rain around her, and the screams of the injured echoed throughout the campsite.
The group was heading away. she strolled quickly to catch them.
As she reached them Wizard turned round to see who was behind him, his expression fell to a look of fright
as he sore the look in Satoris eyes.
"duck!"
Traitors! why do they persist to interfere! they shall die for thier ignorace.
Palms faced forwards Satori threw her hatred and malice and anger, towards the group the air rippled and the bolt tore towards the group.

This post has been edited by Pippin 3: 11 November 2006 - 05:00 AM