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Fractured Moonlight Captain
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 Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 1:50 pm
Another look to Malik, raising an eyebrow at him. Oh so he expected her to not help him start war but to play war with him. "So then...you want me by you in this little fight...looking to get us both killed?" Yes, she was a pessimistic one when she came to battle and though she denied it...her heart told her that even if Malik felt like rushing into battle, she would be covering him with bow fire. Piper sighed, leaning back in her chair as she looked to Moonstone and opened her mouth to answer his question but didn't get to.
"Taking her off the plane may in itself be dangerous. Who knows how she would react to that and as I've gathered that could be quite the bad thing. But you have the point of her being anywhere close to here would be a bad thing. Serino or Nerian could indeed take her out of harms way and cloak her just as well." He was standing in the doorway, hands clasped behind his back. Kieran needless to say wasn't too enthusiastic with Malik's choice of playtime either...especially when it concerned his daughter. And a pointed look to Malik though also calm and non criticizing. "If you are intending this...I hope that you have thought over every angle there can possibly be...you can't keep your eyes on everything at once."
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Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 2:32 pm
"The angles are simply. the captian wants the sea for himself, for his drow empire. dimitri wants rulership of teh whole place, as far as I can tell. lostagrace and the purian penninsula are peices in the puzzle. Dimitri already wants me and piper gone. the captian will give him the location of my home, and he'll send the fleet. he'll send it all, becuase he has to worry about fiery pillars taking out ships."
Malik was rather calm, himself, commader mode setting in.
"The captian will be watching, I'm sure of that. he'll want to guage our strength and he'll be hoping we can do like I bragged and get rid of the fleet. he thinks I'm weak and pathetic. and maybe to the drow here, I am. But that's also a big judgement, and leads someone to doing stupid things. If I'm correct, the Oracles dragon will be coming to help us, becuase the oracle doesn't wnat her balance upset either by myself or piper's death, or me bringing in allies from extra planar sources. the dragon can replace my intention for Bode, which was using the pillars to take out fleet ships."
Then he started to pace a bit.
"Onyx and Moonstone have arial ability in combat, a few well placed spears can leave ships in chaos and thus lowering thier effectivness. Any ships that make it to shore will have to face a unhill climb, as the only safe dockings that don't go through the penninsula are downhill from teh fortress. which means they'll have to fight uphill, and with my breakers and ogres thier numbed will take heavy loss. Piper and her bow, and I'll have several of the better human archers with her, can rain thier arrows down as they come in closer, provided they do. by the time any of them get within a position to actually assault the fortress, thier numbers shoudl be maybe a thrid if that of what they bring. easy work for me and you, Keiran...as well as onyx, moonstone and the oracles dragon...adn of course piper's bow."
Onyx just looked at Moonstone.
"you get the feeling he's done this before?"
Before a nod to Keiran.
"I woudl liek her as far away or cloaked as we can get her, sir...I don't want her harmed. she's our little sister and I promised not to let anything happen to her. and I keep my promises."
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Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 2:46 pm
Moonstone rubbed a claw against his chin. "I'll do what I can. Do you think the dragon will be here on time? It didn't sound to me like we would have a lot of time to prepare for this assult." Provided that the dragon even came to begin with.
"I don't want people to die, Gaurdian Onyx. Do they have too?" She looked up at her brother with big pleading eyes. People could live right? he wasn't gonna kill anybody...right?
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Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 3:00 pm
Kieran simply nodded. Malik was thinking stratigically...but that hadn't been what Kieran meant. After all, Malik was a drow who showed far more outward emotion than any drow Kieran had come across and it was easy enough to see if you were looking that Malik had few weak spots. Namely Piper and whatever she pretty much showed concern for. "A true strategist, I will give you that Malik." Walking over to Piper he dropped his hands to her shoulders in a form of comfort, she didn't look too thrilled about this all. "However confident you may be Malik and not to doubt you, you still have to take your preparations in such a short time. You're counting on what...six of us mainly to do this." Which was pretty much it. Sure...they could use lessers as he suggested but it was really the six of them that he was placing security on. And then a look to Onyx. "Nerian will make sure nothing does happen to her. You can't get what you can't see or feel."
She was watching him pace...good lord he was totally getting into this. Starting to be the brash commanding one, thinking that he knew all there was too this and his confidence, though inspiring, she feared was clouding his judgment over this. Personally she was going to have to do something about her vision if he intended to make use of her...and Piper wasn't sure if she even wanted to be involved in this at all. Really...this was all a little too close for comfort. And as Kieran had pointed out, Malik had to see all the angles. Which in confidence, some forgot. Then a look to Moon. "You've never seen this man prepare...he can take days or a split second..." Perhaps that was said in comfort to them all.
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Fractured Moonlight Captain
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Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 3:29 pm
A look at Keiran, and down at Piper.
"I don't see anything else to do, Keiran. I'm not abandoning my home. the only other option is to fight. if I could, I'd summon the dragoons from Neriak to defend my home, but planar jumping of that magnitude would proably rip this place apart. The Purians can't be counted on, they have no real warriors. thier famers, simple people. trained soldiers woudl rip through them like so much paper."
He rested both his hands on the table.
"The Captian won't help. and without his help, I have no link to the Drow here to call upon for assistance. which leaves just who is here. myself, piper, you, onyx, moonstone and Innoruuk willing, the Oracle's dragon. and then the slaves. most of them aren't made for combat, thier house slaves, servants. they clean, they cook, the bring me things. If you have a better way to handle this then what I suggest, I'm all ears. But I'm not leaving my home. I may be guildless, familess, but I'm not going to be homeless as well."
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Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 3:34 pm
Gently, Moonstone pryed bode off of Onyx. She was quite unwilling, but he eventually got her off and handed the girl the Keiran. "Send her someplace safe. That's all i can ask. She's been through a lot lately, she doesn't need to see anymore death."
He made sure he had his daggers with him and well, he was ready to go. When the fighting started, all of them were going to be on the front line. "all right, I am here then. I will fight."
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Fractured Moonlight Captain
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Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 3:45 pm
He took Bode who was handed off to him with little thought to it, supporting her with one arm. Hm, been some time since he had a child in his hold, but now wasn't the time to ponder on that. "Don't worry, she'll be perfectly fine." Another look to Piper before his attention filtered back to Malik with a nod. "God, House, Guild, Spouse." Said flatly and clearly an opinion without stating that it was such and then a shrug. "I'm not one to plan war games, if I was then there would be no troubles concerning the drow invading my land and wreaking occasional havoc on my people." And his look slid to Piper. "You...we need words." That said he turned, taking Bode from the room...now to convince Nerian that he would be alright and to take care of the child.
It figured...chaos followed them like the plague. And she sighed as father issued his subtle command to her, but stayed where she was for the moment...she already knew what words he wanted with her. Thus she gave a look to the three that she was left with. "Quite a task you're taking on Malik." She wouldn't give him that he had a point because this wasn't their real home. In all actuallity...they didn't really have one since they moved around so much. But that was Piper's view and surely Malik would dispute it...no need for a fight now. "So...we have a war on our hands then..."
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Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 4:10 pm
Malik sighed.
"Your father doesn't approve."
God, House, Guild, Spouse. that was the drow way of things. but he had plans here. things he wanted to have had before, many times maybe but they always left to often to lay anything down. he wanted to stay someplace. let the roots grow. maybe, just maybe, get a family of his own.
"It's not something I'm relishing. I'm going to lose valuable servants. I'm risking your life, and that of your father with this. but it's locked in now thanks to the captian. if we run, they'll take my home, from here they'll take the purians and that other city you found they'll own everything around here. and Cymarron himself will come here nad kill me personally if anything happens to moonstone or onyx. but I don't know what else to do that doesn't put us either as a small group forever running and looking over our shoulders or get us almost certainly killed."
Onyx nodded lightly, rubbing his chin with his fingers.
"I understand your point, Malik. But honestly. it is that bad to run? I mean..your mate is nature knowledgable. so are me and moonstone. her father moreso I'd imagine. between all of us we coudl probably forge a new home that they coudln't tamper with or even find if they wanted to."
Malik looked up.
"For how long? that captian has made bold statements in essence about being able to find me whenever he feels like it. some kind of probing fomr hsi wizards that I don't possess a natural resistance to like drow here. using that he can just feed them information until we're caught. No..I won't live like that. I won't make the rest of you live like that. we can fight, and we can win. and once that victory is had, Dimitri won't dare even set a rowboat in the water looking for us. then they only sea going rat to worry about is the captian."
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Fractured Moonlight Captain
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Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 4:27 pm
"He doesn't approve for the very reasons you're stating, I'd imagine." Though she studied Malik for a moment...he was really in for this fight, wasn't he? Usually he wasn't so...property oriented. Something had apparently changed in his manner of thinking. Seemed Malik was getting tired of running...or more pointedly of wandering. And she gave a sigh, running a hand through her hair. "Alright Malik...you've mdae your point. I'll stand by you on it." Now to convince her father of this all, not that she was doubting he would help, but if he would let her help.
Kieran was letting Bode pet at Nerian, letting her get used to the Zephyr and the Zephyr to her. After all, Nerian was a coward around anyone, but as Kieran believe he would come through for him as he always did. "You understand Nerian? You'll be watching Bode...you need to keep her far away from here and keep her cloaked. As a last means, you can plane jump her back to Andal." Hm, seems Kieran had stepped in the plane at the right time, just as things were going quite down the literal war path. A shake of his head. "No Nerian. You stay with Bode...I an manage without a mount."
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Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 7:24 pm
The tower was not large by Tarathiel's reasoning, but it was still going to take a large portion of his resources to proberly deal with it. He had brought ten members of his crew with him, which in his eyes, was a large opperation. The goal was to eliminate any source of stronge magical aid D'Mitri could aspire to get in a moment of need... In other words, eliminating potential allies... Ones who could probably be bought, but human wizards had a tendancy to see oppertunities for what they were... Tarathiel didn't want to deal with these monkies if they decided that they didn't agree with the drow's vision of the future.
The first objective was to quietly disable the magical and physical defences of the tower. The second was to assassinate all the wizards with as few as possible escaping. The third was to take all of the valuable resources, spell books or items. The fouth and final objective, was to destroy the tower itself.
The first step was easy. The wizards detected the magical auras about the tower, and then cast magical dispelling to remove or disable those wards. The physical defenses were much more readily destroyed, as Tarathiel's crew were skilled lock picks and trap finders. The guards who were pressent, five strong able bodies, discovered that death often came when they least suspected it. They were slack, thinking that only fools would assult a wizard's tower. Then agian, they didn't understand that the political word was about to suffer several major changes.
This assult was the first step towards open rebellion.
With the standing guards dispossed of, several of the Drow assumed the roles to keep the invasion as secret as possible. The guards were spied upon, and their actions mimiced. The wizards on the first three floors knew nothing of the assult.
Within moments of taking the standing guard, the five emaining drow and Tarathiel entered the tower. The wizards their only assumed that the guards were shifty as the appropriate noise was made to indicate as such. The guards in the guard room were cauht off guard by the invaders, and slaughtered.
The drow used specially made devices to penetrate into the rooms on the first floor. The portable holes could create an instant passage between two rooms, or very close corridors. In several minutes, all of the Wizen on the first floor were dead. The next few floors fell just as quickly, each wizen cought totally by surprise. Those wizards who could raise defense found that their spells rolled off the soldiers, who seemed to take minimum damage...
While his soldiers were busy at the task of eliminating the wizen proper, Tarathiel broke away on his own. He was going after what he considered the archmagi, or the most powerful of the wizards, on his own...
"Rydia, are you finished yet with that staff?" Echion asked the fellow mage, who had been crafting the percarious device for the her fellow wizen spellcaster. Of all the wizards taking refuge in the tower, these two stood tall above all the others. They held the most power and the most magic at their desposel. These two allone humbled the rest of the school.
"No Echion, I need more diamonds to finsih the ice enchantments, Apparently, you borrowed my diamond dust to summon shiva the other day... Now why did you summon that perticular monster?" Rydia's eyes raised in perticular interest, Shiva was a more precious summoned monster, one which foolish wizards tended to frolic with... Jealous of a summoned creature?
"No I know that it looks suspicious, but their was a legitamite reason behind that..." Echion lied, "I was waylayed by pirates on the coast, and needed the firepower to take out their ship, as my spells did not have the range on that day." Logical enough, Echion had a preferance for close range explosive spells as opposed to the longer ranged lightning and fireball attacks. Then again, a fireball could only be shot 750' before it exploded on its own. A summoned monster could fly that far, and then unleash its powerful spells upon a vessel.
"Pirates?" Rydia asked, "You could have said something more likely, like a sea monster."
"Pirates were very common not too long ago." Echion said calmly. "They would strike at all the small kingdoms along the coast... Theire was even a perticularly nasty boat full of Elves... They were here only twenty years ago, though, they did not stay long... All they did was muraude a few vessels and restock their supplies... but a nasty lot they were, their skin was black as the darkest hole-"
"Blacker." Tarathiel said from behind the wizards. "And they woare brillient armours and carried the most lethial weapons that were in the realm... We can't claim that this visit, Malik's sword is pretty powerful." The drow smiled.
Echion turned to look at the drow, his jaw dropped. How did this creature get by all the alarms and all the wards cast on the door alone? Let alone the walls of the tower? The guards and all the wizards on the lower levels... "Ha ha, Rydia, thought that you would scare me with this spectral image."
Rydia's eyes were wide with horror, she had not offensive spell prepaired for that day, she spent them all on the staff she was making for Echion. She slowly backed away from the drow warrior.
"Care to test your theory Wizard?" Tarathiel asked with a smirk.
Echion did something that he regreted for the rest of his life, he place his hand on the image's shoulder... It sat there. Hebacked away instantly, and unleashed a wave of fire that rushed across the room, igniting the floor and other combustable materials. He was thankful they were only in his private chambers, and not the study... Then he cursed for not being in the study. That is where he kept all his wands and staves. He looked at the drow, who seemed unharmed by the spell. "How-" Was all he managed to say, as Venorik sliced into his throat. The drow moved right up to the wizard and looked him straight in the eyes.
"Now is the time of your death, foolish wizard. May what ever god claim you as you are." The blade, impeded through the mans neck, easily cut out the side, leaving the wizard nearly headless. Tarathiel turned his head in time to see the female wizard run from the room, shouting at the top of her lungs. "That wont help, there is only me and mine to hear you." The drow said, but she could not hear him.
She entered Echion's study, and rumbled through the desk, looking for anything that she could use to escape the tower. The fire wave that Echion had used on the drow was his most powerful attack spell, which she could not hope to match. She found a figurine in one of the drawers and quickly pulled it out. "Come to my aid, Regis." She placed the statuete on the ground, and a grey mist formed around the object, forming into a solid form. It was a griffin, about seven feet long, and several high. It was Echion's most powerful magic summoning figurine, he had many... SHe told it to protect her, and rumbled through the desk looking for another of the objects.
The drow entered the room sloyly, and locked eyes with the griffin. Regis charged at him, placing the fullness of its wieght behind its' attack. The drow watched it move across the room and timed its leg movements. When Regis made his final jump at Tarathiel, the drow drew out a scimitar, and rolled under its belly as it lept at his shoulders. The scimitar cut a nasty wound across its throat and down its chest, and across its underbelly as the drow rolled with the creature's attack. The creature hit the ground hard, its body falling appart around it. It disappated back into the mist soon after. The drow was unscaved.
Rydia managed to find two more figurine which she hastidly summoned. Wulfgar the Winter Wolf, and Harkle the Hippogriff. Both appeared in the room, crushing the desk and knocking Rydia against the back wall. Wulfgar imidiately lept at the drow, and spewed forth its cold breath, hoping to freeze the creature in place. Harkle turned and went to Rydia's side and nusseled her. When she did not respond, he too turned and attacked the Drow.
Tarathiel watched the two creatures with divided attention. The winter wolf's breath had no effect on Tarathiel's skin, the leap caused the wolf to land directly in front of Tarathiel, Wulfgar hoping to get an nice snap at the drow's throat from beneth. Tarathiels hands reacted before the wolf finished landing from its tremendous leap. The still shieved scimitar cut striaght out,slicing across the wolfs for paws, nearly severing both, the other blade thrust from the side directly into Wulfgar's head and brain, the scimitar impaling itself against the skull of the beast, as the hilt of the weapon was not as sharpe as the blade.
Wulfgar's form fell to the ground, and disapated into mist. The hippogriff semi flew at the drow, who continued the movement of the imbedint scimitar, releasing the weapon to enable him to turn, the other scimitar whipped out across Harkle's face, severing the beak from the skull. The creature's body expected to hit the drow dead on, as it was impossible for a creature to move as fast as the drow was. The hippogriffs claws scratched the air, and he fell forward through the door, and ramed into the wall across the hall. The next thing Harkle knew, he was dissapating back into mist, as a scimitar had flown from the room after him, imbeding itself into his head.
Tarathiel had spun to dodge the hippogrrff and toss the scimitar into its head. That smae roll enabled him to snatch his first scimitar from the ground. He allowed the momentum of is spin to roll him a few feet across the floor, where he stood to square off against the only wizen wizard left in the building, who was unconsious on the floor in front of him. He looked at Rydia with some pity, he would have to kill her...
One hour, all of wizen tower was cleared and the treasures plundered. With simple magic detections and low level search spells, all of the hidden area's where plundered. The building was emptied with the same unnatural speed in which the building was captured. The tower lay bare for a brief time, until Warhammer cast a powerful earthquake spell to dissloge its foundations.
The drow crew was happy, they were paid with the riches of the tower. This is why the did all the crazy things Tarathiel ordered. Potent magical items and many jewels... Wizards were perticular fond of precious jems as often they were required to build the powerful items they used to make their lives easier. The wizards were happy with the tomes collect from the library, more spell to increase the invintory, but in back water kingdoms like this one, they rarely found anything useful.
Tarathiel laughed as his crew enjoyed the spoils of a good old fasion drow raid.
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Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 7:38 pm
Bode pette the horse, but couldn't help feel strange. She was so used to lizars. There was a littel catch in her throat...she knew people were gonna die, she knew Onyx was gonna kill them. She was afraid to elave and be on her own. She looked up at the nice man that had brought her out. "I don't wanna go, MR. Piper's Daddy. I'm scared."
Moonstone sighed. "A home is a home." He stretched a wing. He hadn't beena ble to get any rest since the lsat fight, even though all he had had to do was stay airborn. "When do you think we can expect our...guests?"
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Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 8:58 pm
Now Kieran petted at Bode's hair, his fatherly instincts coming to light at the little distressed child. "I know you're scared. I would be scared to...in fact I'm sure more people here than just you are scared. Battle isn't fun for anyone." A pet to Nerian who made a soft noise at Bode and nudged her elbow with his snout. "Nerian will take care of you though. The others just want to make sure you're safe. And you can't be safe around us adults right now. Understand?"
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Fractured Moonlight Captain
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Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 8:58 pm
"If the Captain alerts them right away...I'd say three days before fleet sets sail, maybe another two or three before they get here. depending on winds and how they sail. But this of course again, is reliant on this captian. Dimitri doesn't know where we are. which means until the captian tells him, he won't be able to do much of anything. but if I know this captian even a tenth as well as I guess form his appearance, he's probably already got the note sent so he cna watch the fireworks as soon as possible for sport."
Onyx looked at Moonstone, and patted him on the shoulder.
"You know. I'm beginging to think you might have been right and we should have went home. As much as I love a good fight..I don't want to be comign home as one of the ancestors."
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Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 9:03 pm
"Finally you see the sense in my words, brother. And I would go hme, right now, if it wasn't for our sister. When we go home, she can't come with us. If we left now, she'd be in danger. Especially since her Father hasn't yet found her. Unitl then though."
Bode sniffed. "All right, Mr. Pipers Daddy." She patted the horses nose, as he'd seemed to have at elast accepted her. "Where will you go? Are you gonna fight too?"
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Fractured Moonlight Captain
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Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 9:11 pm
"War games..." That was all she said to that effect before she got up and walked out of the room from them all...couldn't tell if she was pissed or if it was something else. Most likely pissed though and she made her way outside to 'have words' with her father.
A nod and smile to Bode. "Yes, I'm staying here and fighting too. After all, have to look out for my daughter now don't I?"
"With you and Malik watching me, I don't see how I'm allowed to do anything." She walked over to the trio, giving a pat to Bode's head and then a pat to Nerian as well. And she was quiet a moment stalling really.
And he knew she was stalling...she always did when he wanted a talk with her. Well that's how it was before she left. "I'm sure you know what I'm going to say..."
"Quite so, but why don't you enlighten me."
Kieran shook his head. First things first. "Are you ready to go with Nerian, Bode?"
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