Save for the fire in the middle, there's little moving in the village. From his high vantage point he can make out just the tops of some heads huddled low inside the walls of the two burned-out houses nearest the Hut.
He also notes there are some arrow-slit-type-things in the metal wagon, which he can occasionally see some eyes looking out through.
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After surmising what he can, Fin climbs down from the tree…
…and reports to Quasit.
”Little movement other than the fire…can make out the top of some heads in the first two burnt out buildings…might be soldiers, might be peasants…arrow slits in the metal cannon wagon…saw some eyes looking out…think they were focused on the hut…not much else…”
"Trying to disarm and incapacitate could be considered an attack and incite a counterattack. It's an aggressive action. We should seek a parlay instead." Selena remarked, less than enthused with Quasit's suggestion.
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"So your suggestion is to walk up to them with a white flag and ask to talk? They're soldiers-- they'll take you prisoner, tie you up and disarm you, most likely."
"They also might just attack you. We don't know the rules of war on this world, or how nasty this war has been. And we don't know much about these weapons of theirs, We can't make good predictions because we lack information."
"Look, of COURSE taking them prisoner is aggressive, and sure, it might hurt their feelings, but I'm not proposing to kill anyone. Right now we have an advantage because they apparently haven't spotted us. We should use it to get what we need, then get out of here,"
"Well if Selena walked out to party we'd find out if they were enemies or friends real quick." Maka added.
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Fin shakes his head. "Gals, Q's right; how many friends would be pointing a giant gun at our hut? Skelly-dude told us Baba Yaga is here...these folk seem to know it and they most likely want to keep it that way; they know whose hut this is and they're aiming a frikkin' monster gun at it...
"It appears they don't know we've left the hut; if we try to parlay, they'll know and we lose any chance of surprise...we should see what we can find out about this place before revealing ourselves..."
"If you want to know if they're friends or foe just ask me...lemme see, we land, there's a war-torn village with lots of blood and burning funeral pyres, they have a gun pointed at our hut, and they're looking suspiciously for any movement from the hut from cover...I'm gonna take a wild ass guess and say, they're not friendly!"
Looking to Quasit, Fin sighs. "Your call as always, Q. I think we should stay in the trees for now, see if we can see any pattern of movement, patrols and such, before we move...if so, we might be able to find a way to infiltrate more easily..."
"You're making a lot of assumptions. Imagine you are in a war and some strange unknown hut appears out of nowhere and you have no idea what it is. Are you really going to just open arms and go 'hello friends?' No. You are going to he cautious."
"You're making a lot of assumptions!" Maka growled out, clearly irritated.
"Selena's not wrong about that part. Having been in a war I know that any time something unexpected appeared, it was safest to assume that it was hostile and treat it accordingly.
"I mean, how many times have things suddenly appeared around you that didn't immediately get a bow, sword, flaming fist, or spell aimed at it?
"But that also makes the counterpoint to her argument. If there is a war going on here, then both sides are going to assume we're working for the other side until we prove differently. Remember when you came to my world? We would at least have taken you prisoner if you hadn't proven to be the enemy of our enemies.
"So, at some point, we're either going to have to pick a side and try to ally with them by proving our worth against the other side or try to figure out a way to avoid or fight both sides while trying to get our mission accomplished.
"If we don't have any other evidence of which side to choose, the one with the big gun wagon sounds more powerful to me. But I'd like to learn more about both before we make that decision," Kalchine finally chimes in to the conversation.
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"You're making a lot of assumptions. Imagine you are in a war and some strange unknown hut appears out of nowhere and you have no idea what it is. Are you really going to just open arms and go 'hello friends?' No. You are going to he cautious."
"Here's an assumption I'm making -- we have magic that allows us to understand another language, but not that lets us talk in another language. So unless you are one heck of a charades player, wandering out to parley with a bunch of 'cautious' soldiers is just not going to be the best move."
"The only way we even have a chance to make ourselves understood to these people is if we have time and a safe place to work through a process with them."
"So, at some point, we're either going to have to pick a side and try to ally with them by proving our worth against the other side or try to figure out a way to avoid or fight both sides while trying to get our mission accomplished.
"If we don't have any other evidence of which side to choose, the one with the big gun wagon sounds more powerful to me. But I'd like to learn more about both before we make that decision,"
"Well it takes two armies to make a war, but the likelihood that both armies are in this vicinity only applies if this is the front line. If the Hut went for Rasputin's location, it seems unlikely he'd have his Baba Yaga prison up close to enemy lines -- most likely we're well behind the lines and there's only one army around. An army allied with Rasputin."
"No offense Kal, but when we took out Yrax, it was just us. Your people gave us a base, plus rides in and out of the general area, but that was all. The overall plan is going to be similar here -- we find Rasputin, infiltrate wherever he is, and take him down, then turn off the prison machine. It's going to be tough, but we're a small team that can avoid detection, and we have magic to aid us."
"Your call as always, Q. I think we should stay in the trees for now, see if we can see any pattern of movement, patrols and such, before we move...if so, we might be able to find a way to infiltrate more easily..."
"Hmm. Well, I'm not crazy about just sitting here for hours, but it makes sense they'd send patrols around periodically, and that might be easier for us to catch and take prisoner. OK Fin, we'll try it your way, but only until sunset. If they send a patrol past us in that time, we'll catch it and interrogate a prisoner or two. If not, then at sunset we'll move into one of those buildings instead, and hopefully only have a sentry or two to deal with. Fair enough?"
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"So there are people in the hut and there are people in that big metal building thing? And we don't know what kind of people? I could make someone invisible and you could sneak over there and see what you see."
Sakitu looks through the trees and across the snow. "I think you'd leave footprints and that might draw suspicion. So maybe you'd have to fly too. Who wants to be a flying, invisible spy?"
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”OK Fin, we'll try it your way, but only until sunset. If they send a patrol past us in that time, we'll catch it and interrogate a prisoner or two. If not, then at sunset we'll move into one of those buildings instead, and hopefully only have a sentry or two to deal with. Fair enough?"
”Aye, Q, fair enough…”
Sakitu looks through the trees and across the snow. "I think you'd leave footprints and that might draw suspicion. So maybe you'd have to fly too. Who wants to be a flying, invisible spy?"
While Fin starts to settle in till sunset and wait to see if there are any patrols, hearing Saki’s idea, he arches an eyebrow, saying, ”Sounds like a good idea, Hlao-roo, and might expedite things,” he says looking back to Quasit. ”Should probably be me, as even invisible and flying, still need to be quiet…”
"It'll probably take a bit to find someone with a language one of us can speak. I doubt we'll find anyone speaking Taldane but something like Draconic, Ignan or Sylvan we might find a few more speakers of. Normally I'd rather avoid run ins with Fey creatures but if anyone spots one let me know, we could get a wealth of knowledge about this place for easily enough."
Bulvi licks his lips before adding. "If fancy guns are being used by both sides. It seems likely we'll run afoul of a few people carrying them working for this Rasputin fellow. If that happen we could likely sell them for a pretty penny back home." He turns to Selena anticipating a certain response. "If we end up fighting them. If we get through this without bloodshed I will be almost as happy as I will be surprised."
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”Should probably be me, as even invisible and flying, still need to be quiet…”
Quasit considers this then nods, a little reluctantly. "Ok. Ok sure." she says. Then she digs into her pack and puts out a vial.
"This is Oil of Taggit. It puts people to sleep. If they happen to be making soup or coffee or something, feel free to toss some of this into it. But remember you only have a window of a few minutes, so don't wait around for a chance. Just...if the opportunity is there, take it."
"I've been carrying that around since I left Cassomir. Left over from the Admiral job."
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Fin nods, taking the taggit and attaching it to his bandolier. After Sakitu casts makes him invisible (greater invisibility, right?) and flying capable, he quietly takes off, flying as quietly as he can, over the burnt outbuildings and the gun wagon, keeping his eyes alert for details on any folk he sees or signs of potential danger…
Fin sees a couple dozen humans in dark green clothes huddled in the two ruined cottages nearest the Hut. They're not moving much, simply sitting and clutching more tubes (guns?), some larger than others. One in each hut seems to be looking in some sort of contraption that just barely pokes up above the wall.
The only other person he sees is a single human man standing near the pyre in the middle of the village. He's standing perfeclty still.
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Invisible Fin still can’t help arching an eyebrow upon seeing the contraption that what he assumes are soldiers with the guns skeleton dude told ‘em about are looking thru. Looking at the hut thru some sort of spyglass?
Upon seeing the solitary figure by the fire, he flies nearer and takes a closer look, but keeps about 20’ or so distance from the man and silently observes…
Fin flies closer to the man standing alone. He seems to be gazing, silent and still, towards the Hut. He wears a sort of gray uniform, similar to what the soldiers were wearing save for being made of finer cloth.
The invisibly flying elf has only a moment to examine him before he turns and looks right up at Fin. "I rather thought one of you would come looking at some point," he says in heavily accented Common. "Now, we can't have you hiding from my troops..."
Fin has just a moment to act before whatever he's planning to do, his reflexes well-trained by the recent months of danger.
"Leaving so soon? But we have not yet started," the man says, casting a spell.
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After floating back to the ground, Fin makes a double move back into the woods on foot…
Breathing a bit heavily, he nods to Quasit. ”Got a bit of a surprise out there. First off, lots of soldiers with strange-looking guns, never seen anything like ‘em before, in the first two burnt-out buildings; like the cannon wagon, both groups were looking towards the Hut…
“Now for the surprise; saw a man by the fire and took a closer look since I was flying and invisible. Bastard saw right thru the spell; spoke of ‘his troops’ not being able to see me and that he’d fix that. Couldn’t take him on alone, so I took off; he knocked out that flying spell and I hit the ground running to you…I figure it had to be Rasputin…”
Gathering himself, he continues. ”I can lead us back to his position; we should approach from the west…we should hurry though, he might alert his troops to search for us in these woods…if he can see thru invisibility, he might’ve seen me going this way…
“What’d you think, Q?”
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Quasit pales when Findurel’s voice describes his adventure.
”Rasputin is here??!?” she says in a suddenly parched voice. She quickly looks around, expecting to see the metal wagon turning toward them, or soldiers surging across the countryside.
”I’m not crazy about rushing back out there into the open if a large number of soldiers with powerful ranged weapons are alerted to our position. He must have come here with his soldiers when he somehow sensed that the Hut was here on this world. Wait… he talked to you? In Common?”
”Ok. We need to move. Now. Let’s circle west of the village like you said, then find some cover in one of those burned out huts. If he sends the troops at us, we’ll fight them off with our own ranged attacks and spells. If they start shooting that… cannon or whatever at us, we run for it.”
”Probably just as well you did your scouting trip. It’s best to know that bastard is here. Maybe we’ll get lucky and we’ll get a decent shot at him here. But more likely he’s just going to go find more troops or go set up some ambushes for us.”
”Or Selena can go talk to him. Maybe her cousin will change his mind and help us if we’re super nice.” she adds with thick sarcasm.
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Fin nods. ”Aye, Q, agreed. As before, follow behind me about 30’. We’ll use the woods for cover, cut south after we’ve cleared the big gun, use the hovels for cover, approaching Rasputin from the west…hopefully,the soldiers’ eyes are still focused on the hut, they won’t be looking to their rear…
“Let’s move!”
He pulls up his hood, draws his bow, and moves stealthily along the prescribed path, constantly looking for any signs of movement from the soldiers or the metal gun-wagon, while also keeping a lookout for Rasputin…
"Wait are we fighting or running?" Maka asked as she followed the others. "Saki, get your fast magic ready."
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Quasit hesitates, grabbing Findurel's arm before he disappears into the shadows, and she listens to Sakitu and Maka. She chews her lip, still scanning the distance to make sure the enemy isn't coming at them. She seems undecided.
"Maka... what could you do to that big cannon thing?"
"If we could neutralize the cannon, and we could use our spells and the scrolls, we might be able to take out those soldiers. Fin... Rasputin talked to you -- did he actually see you, or was he just kind of aware of a presence around him?"
The cogs of Maka's mind visibly turned on Maka's face as she tried to think. "Well, based on my experience with fireworks, sending fire down the tube usually makes things explode in a bad way. But if everything is metal I don't know if that will work." Inspiration suddenly struck Maka.
Squeezing her fist as hard as she could, Maka held her breath as she concentrated. After a moment, her fist turned into flame. It was not engulfed in flame, as the party was used to seeing, but her fist seemingly disappeared and was replaced by a small ball of fire. After a moment, Maka released her breath and her fist returned to normal. "I've also been working on this. I can turn into fire and shoot myself along with my blast. I could get inside the wagon and then just take out whoever is using the cannon. It kinda completely throws off my sense of balance and makes me want to throw up, but I've basically got that part figured out."
Maka shrugged. "I should be able to get out the same way I got in, and I can get almost 500 ft in one shot, so I can catch back up to y'all real easy." Maka clanged her adamantine knuckle rings together, leaving a high pitched ringing in the air. "Besides, I've got these, so I can always just punch through the door."
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"OK then, same basic plan, but we'll take the offensive more directly. See that northern building just behind the cannon? We'll move west through this forest, then come out into that building and take cover. Then Maka goes in to see what she can do with the crew inside. While she does that, the rest of us move up to the cannon so it can't aim at us. If the other soldiers open up on us, we can throw up the wall of stone and force them to come to us. How's that?"
"Saki, we need spells that affect a lot of people at once. Your rainbow spell might be helpful. Or any ice storms or firestorms or anything like that. You have anything that meets that bill?"
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Quasit hesitates, grabbing Findurel's arm before he disappears into the shadows, and she listens to Sakitu and Maka. She chews her lip, still scanning the distance to make sure the enemy isn't coming at them. She seems undecided.
Fin jumps when his arm is grabbed, he looks back, startled…
"Fin... Rasputin talked to you -- did he actually see you, or was he just kind of aware of a presence around him?"
”He saw me…looked directly at me…don’t think he could’ve targeted me with that dispel magic had he not seen me try to fly away as I thought I was a safe distance away when it hit…”
"OK then, same basic plan, but we'll take the offensive more directly. See that northern building just behind the cannon? We'll move west through this forest, then come out into that building and take cover. Then Maka goes in to see what she can do with the crew inside. While she does that, the rest of us move up to the cannon so it can't aim at us. If the other soldiers open up on us, we can throw up the wall of stone and force them to come to us. How's that?"
Fin gives an impassive nod. ”It’s your call, Q, and I’ll always back you; but I don’t like Maka going inside that monstrosity alone. There could be seven or eight soldiers in there, probably armed with guns; not much room to maneuver and bullets hit a lot easier than blades. If she can’t take ‘em all out at once, I worry for her safety…
“We might need a contingency for Rasputin…he’ll be on our right flank, about 150’ away…I don’t think he’ll stay put…but I could be wrong. And when we approach the cannon, be wary, as if they have eye slits, they have slits to fire guns as well…”
"OK then, same basic plan, but we'll take the offensive more directly. See that northern building just behind the cannon? We'll move west through this forest, then come out into that building and take cover. Then Maka goes in to see what she can do with the crew inside. While she does that, the rest of us move up to the cannon so it can't aim at us. If the other soldiers open up on us, we can throw up the wall of stone and force them to come to us. How's that?"
"Saki, we need spells that affect a lot of people at once. Your rainbow spell might be helpful. Or any ice storms or firestorms or anything like that. You have anything that meets that bill?"
"I like it!" Maka replied with a toothy grin and a thumbs up.
Fin gives an impassive nod. ”It’s your call, Q, and I’ll always back you; but I don’t like Maka going inside that monstrosity alone. There could be seven or eight soldiers in there, probably armed with guns; not much room to maneuver and bullets hit a lot easier than blades. If she can’t take ‘em all out at once, I worry for her safety…
"Don't worry!" Maka said nonchalantly as she threw an arm around Fin's shoulder. "They'll be trapped in there with me. Anyway there's dozens of soldiers right? So I'll be outnumbered either way."
“We might need a contingency for Rasputin…he’ll be on our right flank, about 150’ away…I don’t think he’ll stay put…but I could be wrong. And when we approach the cannon, be wary, as if they have eye slits, they have slits to fire guns as well…”
"If they have any brains they'll be too busy dealing with me to shoot at y'all. As for Rasputin, I say Selena turns him into a frog!"
Your deliberations are interrupted by an explosion of fire that scorches the trees just to your south. Dried pine needles smolder in the wake of the explosion for a moment, and then a series of bangs and pops start up. Puffs of dust from hits on the ground and showers of splinters from those on trees start creeping toward the group. A dull thump is followed later by a smaller explosion that reduces a tree's trunk to splinters, its top crashing into the branches of other trees before falling to the ground.
As the forest exploded with violence, Maka knelt down pressing her hands to the snowy ground. Taking a deep breath, the world around her slowed as she sharpened her focus. The snow beneath her hands started to melt and sizzle as heat began to build throughout her entire body. In a moment her form began to glow and shift as fire, and in a flash she took to the sky. Not feeling the normal pull of gravity against her fiery form, Maka laughed as she gracefully shifted and sent herself flying towards the metal wagon as a bolt of flame.
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As the ‘cannon’ fires, Fin ducks by reflex, swearing. ”Erastil’s antlers! We should’ve moved when we had the chance. We’ve gotta move west now and get behind that big bloody gun!”
Seeing Maka turn to flame and head towards the metal wagon, too late, Fin yells, ”No!” He heads west staying inside the tree line for cover, drawing his bow as he moves…
There are a couple more dull thumps as the party starts to move. The top of a tree just to the northeast of you explodes into splinters, while another explosion blasts smoldering pine needles into the air to the southwest of you. Quasit and Fin start running to the west, while Maka aims herself into the metal wagon.
Maka explodes into the vehicle right next to a soldier manning one of the side guns, bringing shouts of surprise and pain from him and two other soldiers standing near a hatch of some kind.
Unless something interrupts her, or someone else asks for a buff, Selena will take cover and cast ironskin and mage armor on herself.
Looks like they've made some of our decisions for us," Kalchine says.
He casts a spell on Chest Thumper to more closely link their life forces then the two of them follow Quasit and Fin.
"Ho Lee CRAP! Was that the cannon? Move everyone, move!"
"Let's just hope that was the canon!" Bulvi shouted as he began to run. Noticing that Saki had stopped to cast a spell, Bulvi stopped in front of her, his shield at the ready.
The shouting soldiers inside the metal wagon all pull out small guns and start firing at Maka.
The cannon in the turret fires again, its shell exploding a little to the south of Chest Thumper--apparently someone saw the movement of a giant ape through the trees. The big ape and Quasit are showered with shrapnel.
Some of the soldiers in the nearer of the two ruins poke their heads over the scorced walls... as well as their guns. They fire in the general direction of the explosion, showering the area with bullets.
As Maka exploded into the metal wagon, her stomach felt like it was doing somersaults. As the man next to her fumbled for his weapon, some sort of tube with a handle, Maka reflexively sent out a retaliatory kick. Unfortunately all of her focus was on not throwing up, causing her long leg to got caught in the cramped quarters. The other two began to shout in some language before pulling their tubes and attacking.
For months, she had spent nearly every morning getting shot at. In that time she had learned quite a lot about fighting ranged combatants: The best ways to position herself, keeping track of the best possible trajectories, that you should dodge the shooter and not the shot. She had studied Fin's arrows until she could see them wobble through the air. And so it was no surprise to her what happened next.
Between her training and Saki's magic, the world around Maka seemed to move in slow motion. She had time to think about how odd the handled tube weapons were. Felt a small thrill of excitement as small explosions escaped from the tubes. Small bits of metal, much smaller than an arrowhead, were flung forward at incredible speeds. As she turned her attention back to the man next to her, the world began to return to normal speed.
Like a flash of lighting, Maka struck the mans wrist, sending his shot wildly off course. At the same time, a small explosion from her other hand send her flying forward. Twisting in the air, another series of explosions sent Maka to the ground, up to the ceiling, then hurtling to towards the hatch in an inferno of flame.