Black Legion archive

[Kerr]

Not caring what your partners want is the problem. Philip courageously resisted the urge to insult the Orc further or tell him that jumping to murder at the slightest startlement is less the sign of an experienced warrior and more that of a bloodthirsty brigand. Rather Philip just allowed him to walk off. He was out of his hair, for now at least so Philip focused on the task at hand.

[MARS]

The Dunmer had been grinning at the approval of her mentor, but had left the comment without reply. Then, the others spoke.

Good!" Vila interjected before anyone else could say something that would potentially ignite the situation. "You will no doubt be a valuable asset to us. Do try to stop antagonizing your teammates, though. Ot at least, do it quietly."

[The SheoDovah]

Shulbash

Let them assume I am a vicious monster. Less likely to surprise them when IT is released in combat. "Obviously or I would not be here."

[Velvet LeChance]

Farmhouse group.

The group - Phillip, Sorodil, Arya and Larius - stood at the edge of the treeline, 350 or so metres separating them from the farmhouses. Their position, relative to the village, was at it's four o'clock. From their distance, it was difficult to make out the particulars of the farmhouses. Both were large and had two floors; having, one would imagined, belonged to some of the wealthier tenants on the land. The was some fencing scarcely visible through the shroud of the night, though from what could be made out from their distance it didn’t seem as if it might obstruct them. There was little movement, the night was dead. However, from Sorodil’s earlier scouting, they realised there was gaurds somewhere.

Whenever the group decided they were ready, they could begin to run.

Slope group.

… clunk, clack, clunk, clack, clunk, clack …

The noise had followed the group - Baelfire, Remus, Vila and Shulbash - towards their destination. Orcish plate scraped Orcish plate. On occasion it had let up, to be overwhelmed by the crunch of twigs and fallen leaves. It wasn’t so loud that it might be typically audible, but in the crisp, night air, it was certainly audible to those who cared about the sound of their movement; one could be certain, there would be no getting close to a guard with it following. The clearing neared, and the noise maintained. It was almost certain that the guards wouldn’t hear their approach to the treeline itself, but thereafter it was far from guaranteed.

Hidden:

I'm being ambiguous about the current time for the slope group because I don't want to dictate what time they will address the sound of Shulbash's armor at - if they do at all. If your character doesn't want to address the issue just add that they moved towards the treeline and I will move things along.

Oh, and Aarah, is your character's Night Eye still on?

---

I also consulted a number of places about the sound of armour. It's not very loud, but if you were conscious about how loud you were being it would be sure to bother you.

[Aarah]

Baelfire - Slope Group

Hidden:

Yes, he would have Night Eye activated for their approach to the clearing.

Baelfire had made irritated cursory glances at Shulbash, as the group made their way towards the treeline.
This Orc made too much noise with his clunky armour and big feet, and could far too easily give away their presence to the soldiers on guard.
As the clearing neared, Baelfire widened his eyes and kept his ears sharp.
"Sshh." He whispered to Shulbash.

[MARS]

The request to the Orc to shush up his armour seemed a tad unreasonable to Vila, not to mention counterproductive. Luckily it was her grouped in with the stubborn and rude ones, and not someone who would fly off the handle at nothing.

"Stop!" she called quietly, raising her hand. "We should fan out now. Shulbash can draw the guards' attention; carefully, and give us the time to jump them." She turned to the Orc. "Hold this position until our signal, then show yourself."

[The SheoDovah]

Shulbash

The Orc ignored Baelfire's foolish request to cease causing noise due to the very nature of heavy armour resulting in it making sound when it's wearer moved. Baelfire may as well have asked water to stop being wet and for the ground to stop being solid. "Ambush. Sensible. Must be quick and not allow them to fire off any magic to avoid every [&@%!] knowing our presence." He stated in agreement as he placed his right hand over the hilt of his claymore.

[Velvet LeChance]

Slope group.

Remus, Baelfire and Vila could make out the figures of two guards standing, in their view, behind a fire-pit. The distance between them and the guards was about ten to fifteen meters. The firepit emanated a warm light, the glow highlighting the features of their faces that might be seen through the cavity in their helmet. One was a young man; he was a very young man, in fact, younger than Vila, probably. The other man looked somewhat older, middle-aged; a hearty smile lit up his face with greater significance than the fire, as he concluded in a joke about an Elf, an Orc and a Goblin walking into a bar. Luckily, it was just out of Shulbash's earshot, for he would not have been impressed.

The younger boomed with, what to Vila, appeared to be polite laughter; he seemed somewhat uncomfortable with the racist direction the joke had taken.

Neither of the pair had a bow. There also was no third man to be seen; though Remus was certain he had spied one earlier. Nevertheless, two men in an operation such as there's was enough. It wouldn't take much time - nor magical skill - for either to draw the attention of the rest of the guard to their position.

[MARS]

"Alright," Vila whispered. She had a hunch that there was more to be gained from the situation than just a chance to incapacitate the guards.

"If possible, leave the one the left, the younger one, alive. I might be able to convince him to help us. No risks, though. Fan out. Baelfire, take the left flank with me, Remus, take the right. Once we're in position Shulbash can charge to draw their attention. Focus on the old one."

[The SheoDovah]

Shulbash:Time to Bash?

Shulbash remained where he was as agreed by Vila and welcomed the chance to kill more Thalmor. He had killed a lot and always enjoyed it. They were scum. They were villians, they were an insult to the Nine Divines and they punished the innocent who dared to be human or follow the Nine. They killed and pillaged. They would meet their doom at the hands of the beast within Shulbash. The beast knew no mercy. The beast thrived on inflicting pain. It was driven by greed, pain and fun. It found it fun to torture people. It would happily burn down an entire village as a message. It would be aimed at the Thalmor and they would regret the day they failed to kill him. He would not be worthy of the Nine but sometimes, monsters had to be used to defeat evil. It will feel good to kill the [&@%!] again. Avenging people that suffered. Avenging my companions and the order that turned me from a mindless beast to someone that served the nine. Now, I must use the beast to combat the Aldmeri Dominion. Ironic or Fate? If there are two, aim for the experienced one. Usually the elder elf. Quick, vicious. The younger elf may be cocky. Use it against it. If it is more then two and they are experienced. Use fear as a tatic. Skullbash is back from the dead.

Hidden:

Yeah, I just wanted to post a semi-insight into Shulbash.

[Aarah]

Baelfire eyed the two laughing soldiers like a wolf stalking its prey.
Holding onto his iron longsword, he began to move to the left to flank their position.

[MARS]

Vila followed behind Baelfire, at a bit of a distance. If one of them were to be discovered, the other would still have a reasonable chance to stay concealed. Hopefully things would go off without a hitch.

The missing guard was still itching like a dreadful premonition in the back of her head, however. "Keep your eyes open," she murmured to Baelfire while he was still in earshot. "There may be more."

[Aarah]

Baelfire was already alert and ready for any surprise visitors.
He came to a halt when he felt that he was in a good position.

[Kerr]

Philip scanned his comrades before addressing them. "You know to do. We run to the farmhouse, get a lay of the land and make our way to the barns. Once we're there we'll take some goodies if we can but what's most important is we light them up." said Philip. He nodded at the pair of mages "If you have any spells you want to use, now's the time to do it."

[BetaB17]

"R..ready when you are" Arya said, swallowing down her very obvious fright. She awkwardly hugged her staff to her chest, uncertain to the very odds they faced

[Rook]

Remus obeyed Vila with a jerk of his head, drawing his crossbow, and sneaking around the right side of the slope.

[Velvet LeChance]

Slope group.

The three found their positions without alerting the pair of guards. Both of which had, after a brief quiet, resumed discussion. This time it was about the quality of rations or the seeming lack thereof.

However, Remus had just settled on his location when a bustling emerged from behind him: the movement of leaves, the crackling of twigs; and, as it grew closer, the distinctive jingle of light armoured plate meeting light armoured plate. It wasn't clear whether the subject of the noise was in a rush, or just didn't care about their clamour, but it was closing fast. Remus' estimates placed in and around 15 - 20 metres behind him, but with a good chance of passing to his right, provided he wasn't spotted and engaged.

Shulbash, from his position, viewed the sudden flash of movement through the foliage, some distance to his right; it was about 20 meters from his position. Vila and Baelfire could see Remus' position from their own and would be aware if he made actions. Though, neither of them had direct sight of the incoming subject; nor could either hear it closing the distance between its position and Remus. To them, nothing seemed untoward; at least as of yet.

[The SheoDovah]

Shulbash: The Muscle.

Shulbash spotted a sudden flash of movement and did not trust it but he knew that he would not be able to catch it due to the movement having the advantage of speed over him. He had the advantage of himself and the Thalmor would find out the hard way why Skullbash was once a feared bandit.

[Alarra]

Farmhouse Group

Sorondil considered Phillip's suggestion. "I don't think any spells in my repertoire would be particularly useful at the moment. I could always summon something to use as a distraction, but I say it's better we just use stealth: no need to alert them when we can otherwise get by without it."

[Aarah]

Baelfire - Slope Group

With everyone visibly in position, Baelfire whispered to Vila.

"How about that signal then?"

[Velvet LeChance]

Hidden:

Because I don't think it's necessary to wait on each character to declare they started running, I'm going to move things along for the farmhouse group. However, if anyone would prefer that I did wait, just mention it and I'll delete this post.

Farmhouse group.

The group had approached the farmhouses from the long-side which faced out towards the village's four o'clock - the entrances were on the short-side which faced back out towards the forest. They reached the long-side with no trouble. However, Sorondil and Arya found themselves significantly more out of breath than either of their younger comrades, Phillip or Larius. But as they stopped, voices suddenly rose, warning against any immediate movement into the farmhouses. The voices sounded close, but stationary.

"She's been moved north and I'm sick thinking about it. Gods, I can't wait until we all get home."

"Same. Son'd be two now but I haven't seen him since he was born. Didn't they say it would be over after we captured the Imperial City?"

"And how many of our friend's died fighting for that?"

Any one of them could peak around. Sorodil's earlier reconnaissance had revealed that there was at least a few around, so they had best be careful.

There was a window on the long-side they were pressed up against.

[MARS]

Slope, the band

Vila, after a brief consideration of the situation, sought ought Remus' gaze and gave him a thumbs up; the signal. Afterwards, she crouched down in the bush even more, and prepared herself to shoot a magical attack, if need be. Hopefully the Orc was sharp enough to react quickly to any sort of ruckus.

[Dirty Spaceman]

Farmhouse group

Laurius listened to the words that he heard, taking a moment to consider them. He didn't very often think of the Thalmor soldiers as people with lives and families. But the reminder didn't soften him towards them. If they love their families so much, they should have stayed home, he thought. They came here because they think we deserve no better than to be slaves, and they'd gladly kill me where I stand if they knew I was here.

He held up a hand to signal the others to wait, staying far enough back from the corner that he thought he'd be able to whisper without being heard. Then he concentrated and cast a Detect Life spell as quietly as he could manage, to gauge how many enemies stood out of their sight in the immediate area.

[Velvet LeChance]

Hidden:

@DS: You need to be an illusion major to cast silent spells. Larius can attempt to cast a detect life spell without alerting others but there'll need to be a dice-roll to determine whether he succeeds. I will add that spells aren't too loud; but I just want to confirm if you still want to carry through with casting.

[Dirty Spaceman]

Hidden:

Yeah, I'll have him go ahead with attempting the casting, I'll just edit the post to reflect that he's trying to be as careful as possible.