"How did they find us? We'll need to cover our tracks most likely, both physically and magically if possible. Any suggestions?"
"How did they find us? We'll need to cover our tracks most likely, both physically and magically if possible. Any suggestions?"
"I'm nearly out of magic and I have got to get some sleep. Though I'll be able to summon Owen tomorrow, regardless. Retreat sounds like an excellent plan."
Osslend nods. "It tastes bitter, but yes, retreat seems called for."
Cecil quickly coveres the entrance of the web shelter with branches and sets a small fire in the center allowing it to vent from a small hole in the ceiling.
"Now hopefully they'll think we were foolish enough to stay."
With that Cecil follows Osslend's lead away from camp.
Armen hollers up from the chasm with the dead minotaurs
"Are they gone? What in all the Hells and various other unpleasant places just happened? Are you all still alive up there?"
"This is ridiculous. We need to get out of here. And with invisible attackers, how do we know they won't just follow us?"
"This is ridiculous. We need to get out of here. And with invisible attackers, how do we know they won't just follow us?"
"Do you have a better idea?" Cecil says as he quickly goes about his task
"Well, at least if they follow us we can lead them away from the town and that will be less who can attack it."
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You come upon the city of Ryn just after 1 am. The gate is closed and locked, but two brightly burning torches in sconces at the hinges reveal a lone guradsman sitting in a chair whistling to himself. When he sees you.
"Halt! State your names and what your business is here. Why are you so armed? What cause those wounds? You friends or foes? No funny business! No lies!"
He adjusts the grip on his polearm after brandishing his shield: just in case...
Exhausted, frustrated and tired, Osslend lifts his hands and opens them wide to the man. "Travelers, that's all we are, sir. Tired, weary and road-worn, sir. We simply wish to sleep and feel safe again as we have not felt this day."
Osslend drops his hands and looks the man squarely in the eyes. "If you will not grant us this respite by allowing us in the city, then I believe that I may collapse right here, near the warmth of your torches and you can watch me sleep this very night."
Glancing to his companions quickly, Osslend responds, "We were attacked. Huge beasts, like bulls they were. Harried us at our camp. We were lucky to escape with our lives."
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You see the man trying to make a connection behind his eyes...
"Minotaurs it was!? You'd better come in right away. Commander Frith will want to debrief you first thing in the morning."
The guard opens the gate and ushers you through with many pleas to hurry and to be quiet. He leads you deftly to the guard barracks where he opens a door to an empty bunk house.
"You can stay here tonight, don't worry about setting yer own watch. We've got things well covered here."
With that he leaves.
The room is small but the 8 beds look divine! Soft down matresses with exquisite feather pillows! The sheets are simple cotton, but they are clean and well made. A table stands in one corner with a few rolls of bread, a block of cheese, and a jug of wine.
Osslend waits until the man leaves and the door his shut before he turns to his companions. "Damnit to hells. I hadn't intended for us to be interrogated by some commander. Well, we'd be decide on a story. We can stick to a 'random minotaur attack,'" he says, fingers bending in the air.
He sits roughly on a bed. "I guess we could tell them about the other army but I doubt they could do much and that would reveal ourselves as Pollexian agents."
He sighs and shakes his head. "My apologies, friends. I may have gotten us in some trouble here."
Armen stares at the bed like a parched man stares at water.
"When it comes to you lot, apologizing for finding trouble is like the wind apologizing to the trees for scattering its leaves. It just seems natural... you learn to go with it"
Armen ponders the metaphor for a moment, decides he likes it, and collapses into a bed.
Without discussion Cecil falls face first onto a bed and goes fast to sleep.
"I'm fine with a random attack as we were traveling." Kayla then finds a bed for herself and is shortly asleep as well.
"I'm fine with a random attack as we were traveling." Kayla then finds a bed for herself and is shortly asleep as well.
Cecil puts a thumbs up, face in the pillow, before falling back to sleep.
Shinami stuffs pillows under the blankets in his bed to defend against would be assassins, and then sneaks under his bed to catch some sleep.
Osslend nods, smiling from the agreeable reactions of his companions. "I know it's only because you're tired, but I'll take it." With that, Osslend removes his armor and calls the hounds to share his bed to warm him. Within moments snoring can be heard from man and beast alike.
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Before the first of you even thinks to stir from your warm, soft beds, there is a single rap on the iron-shod door before it is thrown open.
As the sleep falls from your eyes, three shapes come into focus.
The guard from the night before stands awkwardly behind the other two.
Another of the men is obviously a enforcer of some kind. He has a scarred and stubbled face with a perpetual squint. He wears dusty leather armor and carries two maces.
The third, and most impressive, stands a head taller than the others. He is clean shaven and has a noble air about him. He wears a shining breastplate and an elegant but well-used longsword. He speaks to you all.
"I am Duke Andrae Covington. I am a veteran general of the Pollexian Army and have earned every honor the king can bestow. I am seasoned in war and politics, so I will only ask you this once: and I expect the entire truth."
"What exactly have you been up to? Fighting minotaurs in Pollexia's back country? Explain yourselves."
He folds his arms over his chest to await your reply. The bruiser chuckles while the guard from the gate mouths I'm sorry...
The instant the three enter the room, Brynn rolls over and grabs his warhammer. Upon gauging the would-be threat, he lowers his weapon, drops it on the bed, and begins to rub the sleep out of his eyes. Brynn feigns a hoarse voice in favor of letting a more diplomatic friend answer the query.
I haven't slept like that since I was a child...
Stirring from his bed Cecil looks the man in the breastplate directly in the eyes before looking down at himself. Cecil stands and waves a hand at his own body. A wave of energy flows over Cecil as his clothes clean and press themselves with the colors becoming more vibrant, his skin and hair become clean over the course of a few seconds and his hair grooms itself immaculately.
"That's better." Cecil says in approval of his now more regal appearance. "First, It's a pleasure to meet you Duke. I am Cecil VonSpirito of house VonSpirito mage in good standing with the Arcanum. I assume these are your lands and I will give you the respect your title is due. However, I am also a noble as well as an accomplished arcane practitioner and I will not be spoken to like a common dog by you or anyone else." Cecil say's with a tone that doesn't allow for any discussion on the matter. He pauses a moment. "Now, if you wish to discuss the details of how we got ambushed by Minaturs and ... something else, my group and I are happy to do so. However, you will find answers much more forthcoming with the proper courtesies extended. If you would be so kind as to give my companions and I a moment to wake and prepare ourselves we will debrief you fully about our highly unpleasant evening." Cecil smiles a courtly smile at the Duke and bow's in a highly trained and practiced manner as a sign of respect.
Diplomacy
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Duke Covington bristles at Cecil's words.
"Von Spirito? Cecil Von Spirito?.. Yes, I know you boy. You are the son of the famous trader, the son who never could quite do anything useful. The word is you couldn't get on at home and so your father had to throw you out. How is life on the road? Must be murder for a fop like you. You'll have to excuse me mage, if you really are one, but I do not fear you or your kind. I will speak to anyone anyway I wish in my realm and I will not tolerate disrespect from any man! So you check that ego of yours before you end up a charge of Belco here." He motions to the bruiser man in the leather armor. "His hotel is not nearly so nice as you would hope and his ammenities are severly lacking. Do I make myself clear?"
Covington pauses to let his words sink in.
"You all have 30 minutes to refresh yourselves. I will return then and I will have an unabridged explaination of the events that led you to my gates. If you tell me the truth, and you are what I suspect, we will surely be able to come to some kind of understanding. If not, well, let's hope it doesn't come to that."
The duke sweeps from the room followed by the other two men. "30 minutes! Be ready!"
After he leaves,
"Well isn't he just charming?" Cecil says snidely."Like most nobles any facts he lacks he just invents. *sigh* Well, we are in his land, so we need to oblige. Perhaps now that he's displayed his bravado he'll be a bit more amiable. Dare to dream anyway."
Edit: Summons Owen. Owen forms from the ether his body coalescing out of shadow. As the others get ready Cecil will detect magic and rummage around in Owen's Saddle bags to remove the magic items, but not the bodies. He'll then take a minute per item to examine them to try and determine their function.
Also, Owen looks like hell. He's got a couple of big gashes and bruises. (he's at 20/40 HP)
OUT OF CHARACTER -
This is what I have written down. I think the bracers and ring came from the mage-general and I haven't removed anything from the magus body yet. This one is the real body, not the initial illusion. Do you want me to re-roll spell craft for each item or do you want to use the rolls from previous? Also their bodies include any weapons they may have been carrying.
> "mage like" gneral's body (should be devoid of magic items)
>Bracers - Unidnetified magic
>RIng - Unidentified magic
> Magus-like generals body (should still have some magic on it.)
Armen's grin is offset by bed-head, but it's there nonetheless.
"That went rather well, wouldn't you say? I can't wait to see this debriefing...
He stretches and stands.
"Perhaps we should be honest. He is a Pollexian war hero, and Pollexia finds itself at war. We need his help and he needs to know that the ahem... herd is potentially going to attack here."
Armen's grin is offset by bed-head, but it's there nonetheless.
"That went rather well, wouldn't you say? I can't wait to see this debriefing...
He stretches and stands.
"Perhaps we should be honest. He is a Pollexian war hero, and Pollexia finds itself at war. We need his help and he needs to know that the ahem... herd is potentially going to attack here."
"Works for me. Lets just be sure to include the part where we killed two of the three generals."
"Shoot, we don't even know if they were generals, they could just be lieutenants and we'd never know. The generals could be just sitting at the camp laughing that we slaughtered their doubles." Shinami remarks as he slides out from under the bed.
After awakening, Kayla channels energy to refresh the group.
"Well, we can't be too honest. It can't be known that we are argent of the Crown otherwise problems could occur..."
I Brynn begins his morning ritual, albeit a bit hastily. Smoothing his crazy hair and combing hisbeard with his fingers, he speaks up. "I thought it was back in the other town that we would upset authorities by name dropping 'Pollexian Agents'. Can we not just declare that we're Dragoons sent to help? I'm sure this war hero would understand why we've unofficially been sent so as not to start any wars. I don't really get a lot of these political affairs, so where exactly is our authority?"
Nodding, Osslend says, "Yes, honesty is the best policy. Besides...if it comes back to bite us in the asses later, we can just lie then and declare that we never told this Duke that we were agents."
Osslend winks and begins to suit up.
Kayla shrugs. "Having no military or political experience, I'll just go with the majority on this one." Kayla plaits her long red hair into single braid and tries to make herself look presentable.
"If I recall we're unofficially here because we're officially dead."
Poe flies down from the rafters where he was sleeping and lands on Cecil's shoulder as Cecil casually pets Owen.
Cecil pricks his finger and touches Owen with that hand as he says an arcane phrase.
Rejuvinate Eidolon, Lesser
Owen's wounds seem to close somewhat after.
and again
Rejuvinate Eidolon, Lesser
Owen looks much better, though he's still injured. (35/40 HP)
Alive or dead, you are still the King's Dragoons. I assume you have some sort of mark of office yes? This man needs to be known of this threat. You cannot avoid a war that is already happening. The sooner he knows about this invasion, the more likely we are to stymie it.
30 minutes pass in a blink of an eye and Duke Covington stands in your presence once again.
"So! Let's have it. What in the nine hells is going on here?"
Cecil straightens his clothes and gently pats Owen on the head. Inspecting some dust that may have settled on his clothes Cecil casually says,
"We're officially dead dragoons. So that would mean that we've been sent unofficially prevent an army of minataurs and other things from attacking (insert city name). We dispatched two of their leaders. We believe their to only be one left. Oh, and they speak Necril." Cecil looks up from the dust he was casually inspecting to look in the duke's eyes. "And they're in (or near) your land. I imagine the army will be a very pressing issue for your grace soon enough." After a moment's pause "Is there any other way this fop forced to travel the land with peasants,..." turning to the group to say"...No offense..." in obvious jest before turning back to the duke "...Can be of assistance to you?"
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The duke's eyes go wide.
"I knew it! That princeling bans our armies from intervening then sends a bed-time story like the dragoons against 500 troops?"
His face burns red before he sighs and continues in a calmer tone.
"I love my country and I bring no dishonor to the crown. I would just do things differently. So then, Dragoons, please tell me what your plan is to repell the remaining invaders. I see no harm in telling you that I have had my advisors scying on Narv. I have suspected this attack for sometime."
"Please, tell me your plans. Since I am forbidden to be physically involved, perhaps I can help your strategies?"
Covington spreads a map of Narv and it's surrounding area on a low table for tactical demonstration.
The duke's eyes go wide.
"I knew it! That princeling bans our armies from intervening then sends a bed-time story like the dragoons against 500 troops?"
His face burns red before he sighs and continues in a calmer tone.
"I love my country and I bring no dishonor to the crown. I would just do things differently. So then, Dragoons, please tell me what your plan is to repell the remaining invaders. I see no harm in telling you that I have had my advisors scying on Narv. I have suspected this attack for sometime."
"Please, tell me your plans. Since I am forbidden to be physically involved, perhaps I can help your strategies?"
Covington spreads a map of Narv and it's surrounding area on a low table for tactical demonstration.
"For what it's worth I believe you and we dead dragoons share your sentiment, but i digress. So far the plan has been for Owen here" Cecil strokes Owen's flanks and gives him a good pat. "to swoop in, snatch an enemy leader and drop them to their death's or at least give us a fair shot at them. It's been a surprisingly successful venture for the most part. However, I suspect we'll need a new tactic, since they'll probably have put some sort of contingency into place by now."
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"Killing their commanders will not be enough. The Grand Necromancer of Odalisk will be controlling their actions remotely. That's why they fight to the end. Retreat is not in them for they do not control their own fate. It is cruel: forcing living men to share their minds with that dark being, to watch on helplessly as a malevolent passenger guides your mortal body to unwilling battle and death."
[b]"Nonetheless, we must put them down to save our own country. Do you have a plan to exterminate such a vast number of automotons?"[b]
"Too bad we couldn't just kill their necromancer."