Homebrew tabletop system- playtesters requested

[Norade]

Safrac, slightly shocked at her words says, "Dame Mathilde, those are strong words for one as calm as you've been in all this. If you would rather not carry out such a deed yourself, grant me your goddess's blessings and I will do what must be done."

The knight has never before thought that he might have any way with his words, or any calling to something more than he has. They way he's been speaking makes him think otherwise on both. That and of course the fact that such gifts would surely help him to track down and strike at that marauding army. Little does he realize that his loyalty is slipping from one dutiful organization to another.

(I think I know what my next level will be like now:

Buy down a point of duty to the military and buy up a point of duty to the church.
Buy four points of diplomacy.
Buy a point of nature magic, understanding only for now, ability to cast coming later.
Buy a point of divine magic of the goddess, understanding only for now, ability to cast coming later.
Should I get any points beyond that I'll think hard about buying more diplomacy.)

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

'No,' she says, 'It's much worse than that. For me, anyway. Letting Theresa get even that far was a moment of weakness which...

consider, we, the devotees and acolytes and followers of the goddess, are alive when so many others are not, for reasons which they are more than half minded to blame us for. We failed them, failed to protect them, for reasons which, a high proportion of us blame ourselves.

We'll have to atone for that failure; loyal and devoted service is one thing, some distance, but I have the gut feeling that there's going to have to be blood shed, we must succeed next time regardless of the cost-
which means that a lot of us, especially the senior paladin of the temple, are going to have to die heroic and probably extremely messy deaths.

I don't think Theresa's thought that far ahead.' Mathilde said, smiling. 'I was seriously tempted to let her lead, let her take that particular poisoned chalice; but I don't think I can do it. Apart from anything else, I couldn't trust the fate of my comrades and followers to someone who was half- witted enough not to think through what she's doing. Besides, we might even win.'


A few moments later, as you all approach the house, there is a flare of pastel- hued light from one of the bonfires- Baerne, Valette is right in the middle of this (the area of effect, not the bonfire)- and spots what it is fairly safe to assume are all the elves, because they're glowing. Pink, cream, yellow and beige auras, huge stealth- destroying nimbuses of deeply unflattering light around them- they're not getting to do anything in secret, not tonight.

[Norade]

Safrac listens as Mathilde explains her situation to him, her reasons for shame and feelings of guilt mirror his own, and her logic is exactly what he would have expected from her; he has little more to say except, "My lance and I will stand beside you in this bloody stand then. We're not in this for the exact same reasons, but the end goal is the same rebuild and punish those that forced this upon us."

(The next bit is assuming the auras are something Safrac can see as well.)

Then the flare of light, and the auras he can see the numbers they face clearly now and it doesn't much look to be a fair fight, so he says, "If you have any shared blessings that might make this easier now would be the time. If not, may my hammer and your blade even our odds quickly."

[Lord Relvenous]

Sorry about the wait. Again, finals week.

De Andorra weighs his options. His distaste for Theresa is great, and his contract is with Mathilde, not Theresa. However, to stand against Theresa at this point might lead to his death. In the end, his contract with his employer and his inner sense of duty stand paramount over concerns over personal safety

De Andorra takes a small step away from Theresa and speaks quietly to her. "Oh you silly woman. Mathilde could have easily cut you down where you stood when you challenged her, bit didn't. I wonder why? Have you considered that you might not actually want her position?"

De Andorra raises his voice enough so that the others in the area can hear him. "Dame Theresa obviously has some ambitious inclinations. However, I think said ambition might be bad for our health. When the temple is at its most trying time and needs all its followers working toward a position strength, Dame Theresa here thinks it time to strike out on her own and divide our strength from within. We have enough enemies outside these walls hoping for our downfall and waiting for a sign of weakness. We can ill-afford such a divisive nature from one of our own. Dame Mathilde is still our leader and has kept us together in the aftermath of the tradegy here. Dame Theresa is an impetuous woman who thinks little of her actions and has little in the way of subtlety or tact. I know who I want for a leader, and it is not the woman in front of me, who is likely to kill us all with her ineptitude."

De Andorra moves his hand to his sword, waiting for the inevitable strike from Theresa. He just hopes that his words will have swayed those around him that they will not immediately move to support Theresa.

(Yes I know that this is a pretty ballsy move, but what's the fun is pussyfooting around this? If De Andorra dies, he dies. At least I true to his character concept, and he's not too bad in a fight.)

[Norade]

(The Cavalry will be arriving soon in all their thunderously charging glory!)

[Master_Baerne]

Apologies again for the delays; I've been swamped.

This situation is rapidly spinning out of any frame of reference Valette might have; the combination of insanity and extreme danger is giving her brain convulsions trying to figure out what's what. The plant/screaming thing/whatever it is seems important; let's start with that. It belongs to the druid, who just ruined the elves' attack plan. The druid is clearly involved in this whole mess somehow, which makes any screaming plant of his potentially useful. She'll go find someone with a smattering of magic to find out what it is, assuming the druid doesn't pop back up.

Meanwhile, however, there's angry elves running about. Valette is no warrior, so she'll probably just stay hidden. The exception to this would be if there was an obvious opportunity for her to help out; the conveniently-turned back of an enemy, for example, in to which she could slip a sword.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Right. Two players to do things to, unfortunately literally in at least one case...

Relvenous, there's no way she can back down from a challenge like that. Wouldn't, and doesn't want to. What de Andorra says does have some effect, though; Mathilde isn't perfectly popular, but a lot of the reason for that until recently was basically jealousy.

She and Theresa must have been able to put up with each other before the crisis only on the basis of complementary opposites. They're hardly alike- and do cover different parts of the spectrum. Mathilde's more of the stage magician in style; she'll trick you, but she'll do it in plain view, with an audience, with flash and glitter, and leave you wondering how the hell she pulled it off and wanting to see more. Theresa's a sourer, darker personality altogether.

Her longsword leaps out of it's sheath, she does intend to settle this with the blade- and fortunately, fortunately for de Andorra, she makes things difficult for herself with an iaijutsu lightning strike to the heart-exactly on the line his blade takes as it comes up into guard position. Barely, barely parried.

(Rules terms; called shot to the heart, -8 target size, on a modified 20 she got a 6. De Andorra, on an effective 19, gets a 4. One further under. Crap that was close.)

Instantly a circle forms around the two of you, and it is de Andorra's move. No-one is moving in to help her, but no-one's immediately likely to turn against her either. Probably.


Baerne, there was a reason the druid handed Valette that pot plant. Not to get her into trouble, but actually because the thing has a very idiosyncratic thaumaturgical signature, and it's very hard to sneak up on a bunch of thaumaturgically alert people while holding something that screams 'I am interesting, look at me'.

There's too much confusion for most of the elves to pay attention to it, or notice it through the auras- and they are having words with each other, some of them clearly along the lines of 'Why is yours pink and mine chartreuse?' but mostly 'This is not going to plan, what's going to work now?'

One of them, apparently their leader, speaks- and this is really odd, because even though Valette can understand parts of it anyway (and "elvish" is closer to being a language family than a language as such,) she seems to hear it in Kuquani. He says, and everybody within two hundred yards hears, 'We'll have to do this fast and dirty. They're only humans, there'll be another batch of them in fifteen years or so. Kill them all.'
Then he realises that he has just broadcast his intent to a very large patch of a human city, and adds 'Especially the bastard responsible for that aura of detectability.'


Safrac, Mathilde at al hear that; I'm going to presume you start running in that direction. Mathilde's eyes glaze over at one point and she almost trips over her own feet- someone probably just sent her an impression of what was happening back at the temple. She sends something back in return, then picks herself up and bounces forwards to the head of the pack.


There's only one main gate, and about thirty yards before Mathilde gets to it, something slightly darker than the surrounding night emerges- Arcangelo and about twenty black- cloaks. 'I more than half expected trouble, but not this sort- if there ever was this sort before. You're the paladin,' he says to Mathilde, 'how do you want to do this?'

'We hit first and break them up, your hunting packs nail down the strays.'

'Agreed.' he says.

[Lord Relvenous]

De Andorra smiles and unlimbers his flail. "Well then, let's have some fun."

He stays light on his feet, moving around the circle. He can tell that Theresa is an anger driven individual and hopes that he might be able to goad her into a costly mistake.

"So tell me Theresa, what would you like on your tombstone? How 'bout 'Just couldn't cut it, had to be let go'?"

De Andorra springs forward, stabbing forward toward her gut, with the flail swinging and ready to follow up into her ungaurded flank when she parries.

Assuming no major damages are done to either party, he steps back. "I've never fired anyone before. Is it always this heated, or is that just because you're a bitch?"

(Hey, might as well have some fun while I'm going to my grave.)

[Kheitain]

Seeing these auras erupt all around the massive funeral pyres the gholem can assume only one thing; these abominations are wearing fire.

I'm assuming that his duty to Nature would overrule his phobia of fire at this point otherwise i can make a different post.

the gholem breaks into a lumbering run and leaps, clearing the black cloaked figures as they meet Mathilde. He continues his run and leaps again, straight at the gatehouse and veritably cartwheels up it to the top for a good vantage point to survey the layout of the city around the fire.

He's looking for buildings strong enough to support his weight so he can use his normal hit and run tactics.

[Norade]

They slow just long enough to get an outline of a plan out, everybody here will be skilled so he has little doubt that such a simple plan will work. The gholem leaps in as they start to open the gate. Safrac shakes his head, the gholem will need support.

He heals his horse and rides through while calling to Parol, "You and the lance support the gholem, no need to be careful with arrows and the like near him as I doubt he'd notice a sharp lance of a grazing sword blow through all that rock and vine. I'm going to see if I can't finish Theresa before Mathilde can."

With that he wheels off and sees de Andorra and the senior paladin fighting each moving and circling hopefully to focused on each other to notice him as he rides in and, in passing, makes a hard downward swing at his target from horseback. Should he miss he will try to slow his mount and fight on foot, if he hits he'll wheel and head into the larger fray. Either way he intends to fight hard and standout in this battle.

[Lord Relvenous]

With that he wheels off and sees de Andorra and the senior paladin fighting each moving and circling hopefully to focused on each other to notice him as he rides in and, in passing, makes a hard downward swing at his target from horseback. Should he miss he will try to slow his mount and fight on foot, if he hits he'll wheel and head into the larger fray. Either way he intends to fight hard and standout in this battle.

(As far as I know, you're not close to Theresa and I. You and Mathilde have gone to the house with the bonfire, so you're probably a far ways off. Thanks for the effort though. )

[Norade]

With that he wheels off and sees de Andorra and the senior paladin fighting each moving and circling hopefully to focused on each other to notice him as he rides in and, in passing, makes a hard downward swing at his target from horseback. Should he miss he will try to slow his mount and fight on foot, if he hits he'll wheel and head into the larger fray. Either way he intends to fight hard and standout in this battle.

(As far as I know, you're not close to Theresa and I. You and Mathilde have gone to the house with the bonfire, so you're probably a far ways off. Thanks for the effort though. )

(Yeah, I somehow misread it as you were somewhere near where we went and she was making arrangements to have the lot capture us.)

(That said ignore my last post.)

They slow just long enough to get an outline of a plan out, everybody here will be skilled so he has little doubt that such a simple plan will work. The gholem leaps in as they start to open the gate. Safrac shakes his head, the gholem will need support.

He heals his horse and rides through while calling to Parol, "You and the lance support the gholem, no need to be careful with arrows and the like near him as I doubt he'd notice a sharp lance of a grazing sword blow through all that rock and vine. I'm going to see if I can't herd some of them to you."

Charging towards the edge of the group he rides by an elf and aims a swing hard for its back. He'll continue to ride around the outside taking pot shots and hopefully driving people towards the construct and his own men at arms until the group is fairly well packed. Or he is put into a situation where he has to stop.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Right, AVG crash (?!) just ate a story post so this will come out in bits.

Kheitain, the gholem- there's not enough of a gatehouse really, not to climb- it's more of a stone shed. The roof of the main building is probably the best option, unless you want the gholem to disengage from the scene entirely and find a tower.

Assuming not, the problem wiht that is that some one, some many somethings actually, seem to have already thought of it. There are two foxes, four cats, three squirrels, six pigeons and an owl, all ranked round the edge of the roof (not that you can see all of them, but that's how many)- and their eyes all flash a deep green when they turn to look at the gholem.

Somebody, overwhelmingly likely somebody elvish, is seeing through their eyes, and they seem to have decided the gholem is actually more interesting than what's happening down below.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Relvenous; the first couple of moves- she missed the quick kill and now appears to be taking de Andorra more seriously. She wouldn't be where she is if she wasn't at least some good. As de Andorra readies his flail, she takes advantage of that to manifest a secondary weapon of her own- a silver-blue glow forming around her left hand that spreads itself out into an oval shield- shape.

Both try to take advantage of that, de Andorra swingling low trying to get under the forming shield before it's fully ready, Theresa trying to slice de Andorra while he's overextending himself; managing the magic distracts her, and de Andorra does get a touch, but it's not a firm one- metal scraping on metal, the points on the head of the flail sliding off her partial plate armour; she manages to land a touch on him, but it's at too shallow an angle to bite through the chainmail on his arm.

She tries something strange in response to the verbal barbs de Andorra is firing at her; she manages to parry the lunge, pushing it outwards, and instead of blocking or stepping back, she pivots forward on her right foot, inside the sweep of the flail, basically reversing into de Andorra- for two brawl actions;

she jerks her head back trying to headbutt him and break his nose and maybe shut him up a little, and then pushes off again from him, rolling forwards and under the sweep of his weapons- using a back kick into his testicles as a launch pad. I think she's a bit annoyed.

The first part of that fails, de Andorra flinches back out of the way, and she moves away quickly before he can get his blade up to her throat; but the second part, alas, works perfectly. de Andorra lashes out andf takes a few feathers off her cloak, but the pain hits then (resist injury was rolled- things are not as bad as they could have been. In rules terms she just inflicted a wound penalty, more or less equivalent to a broken bone.)

de Andorra manages to stay upright, just, as she reaches forward with the shield and tries to hook the flail and pull it from his hands- catches it, there's a tug of war for it, she lunges forward while de Andorra's off hand weapon is immobilised- he manages to get his blade to it and break the force of the blow. She still manges to land enough of a hit to leave a scar.

'Yes, I am a bitch,' she says, 'and soon I'm going to be top dog. Now should I kill you cleanly, or break you and make you grovel first?'

There are two other things happening- there's a familiar face peering in through the ring of watching temple guard, it's the jester. She looks horrified, but also resolute. Also- and this is pointed out to Theresa- one of the side altars is glowing slightly.

[Lord Relvenous]

De Andorra grimaces through the pain and blood. Well, it was fun while it lasted. "I wouldn't be much of a acolyte of the goddess of war if I gave up as soon as I took a shot, would I?"

De Andorra sees he jester. He nods in her direction quickly then looks back to Theresa. "I do always love an audience. It makes the fighting so much more... theatrical."

De Andorra begins swinging his flail in tight circles, moving around the circle. He feints with the sword, then brings up the flail and throws it sidearm at Theresa. Maybe that will get her attention. As the flail goes flying, he moves both hands to his sword, following up with a slice to her off hand, hoping her shield will be occupied with the flail.

(As a note, couldn't the flail still do damage even if she blocked it, as it is a chain weapon and could wrap around the shield?)

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Norade; there are only nine elves- at least, nine visible. I was trying to work out how things were likely to go; there are so many magical options for them to exploit, and so many strange things that could happen. Normally, around the table, this would be sketch map time.

Mostly, their actions come first. Two of them shoot at Mathilde; one, she out- reacts and shimmers out of the way of, one she takes on- well, one of the powers of the goddess literally is 'sword and shield'. Her ethereal shield isn't even fully materialised when an arrow comes through it- her armour ripples as it hits, but it doesn't seem to have bitten.

One, by the fire, tries a complex bit of enchantment actually with water magic, holding water in suspension, superheating it with the bonfire and generating a jet of live steam to cook some of the humans now entering by the gate; overly ambitious- it basically works, but the effect's spread so thin over so many people that it's just discomfort rather than actual injury.

One tries to dismount Safrac, by rolling Turstin's mind back to when he was a newborn- before he'd really learned to walk. Horse forgets how his legs work and trips, rider comes off, gets stabbed, simple. Except Turstin's a bit too bloody minded for that to work- he missteps, but recovers and keeps going; the elf dives out of the way, Safrac swings for them but their blades clash- parried.

Another of the elves is about to lob a blast of magic at the acolytes, Parrol and the rest of the lance get to him first; that one's skilled, he turns the blast of lightning he was about to throw into a globe of ball lightning he can use as a shield and is holding them all off briefly, but giving ground and being driven away from his mates to do it.

Mathilde's acolytes are dividing into teams to hunt the elves you can't see directly, in and on the far side of the house, she's going for one of the archers.


Relvenous, the jester can't really get away with more than one intervention; she makes one small joke about the performance of a lifetime, explains her presence away to the rest of them with the comment "I came to see Mr Rat get what he deserves"- but she gives de Andorra the wink at the same time.

His declaring himself an acolyte has some effect, incidentally, more than the previous speech did. Even if most of them would prefer their existing leader, when it's one of their own against an outsider they'll side with their own, as most humans would. Going for acolyte status changes the terms of the fight, and rather fewer of them are willing to side with Theresa under those circumstances.

On the other hand, it's still a challenge between the two of them, so for fair reasons or foul it would have come to this anyway. And she is talented.

She seems to read the feint, spot it coming and sidestep out of the way of the flail rather than waste time blocking- into the path of de Andorra's two handed swing, but she moved behind the cover of her own blade, the swords clash, de Andorra manages to smash her blade out of her hand- and she reforms the magical shield she had in her other hand into a blade- shape and stabs for his gut. He barely manages to parry that.

[Master_Baerne]

Valette's just a baffled by the wild variance of colored auras as everyone else - she can see them out of the corner of her eye; a natural affiniity for the unreal that's made itself useful before. However, as the firm underdog here, she has no room for curiosity, and immediately starts looking for a way out of this madhouse. Where'd Rav and company get to? If Valette can see them, she'll try and join up, resoning that there's strength in numbers.

[Lord Relvenous]

(Well then, we're having fun now)

De Andorra recovers from his parry by stepping back slightly. He sets himself into an aggressive posture and starts forward into Theresa, aiming swift blows to the side she was using her shield on, pressing into her. While he is being aggressive, he won't completely forgo his defense. After the quick succession of blows, he'll then come around the other side with a heavier swing, hoping to catch her even slightly off guard. Maybe he can dislodge her weapon again. Or then again, maybe he'll just leave himself open to being skewered. We'll see.

(In simple terms, press the attack for a round with quick strikes, then a heavy strike to the other side)

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Baerne, Valette is lurking in a survivable direction when she spots, outside the walls, a flash of magic- it's the same absurdly detailed, richly textured impression that came off the pot plant.

It's the druid, and you know where Rav got to now- she's on the ground, he's kneeling by her, and you think he's trying to heal her- that's what the magic looks like- but what of, that's the confusing part; she's twitching epileptically, and actually changing colour- (this description obviously makes no sense to the character but- it looks as if she's fading from a photograph to a photographic negative, irregularly- jumps in one direction, stutters, slow fades back.)

'Ah, right, there you are, good. Don't happen to have any classics of svartalfven literature on you, do you?'

Presuming Valette says something along the lines of "why?", he says 'Some brilliantly deviant elvish bastard- not my opposite number, I think he's rather better paid for a start- used the power of Cleanse and of Simplify on her; her body's not certain what species it is right now, if the same thing hit you you'd probably end up a chimpanzee, and undoing that damage elegantly, without making it worse by forcing her into a shape she doesn't fit, is...exactly what he wants me to do, spend time and effort looking after the wounded instead of getting stuck in.

Here,' he says standing up and looking at the D'Cearach house, 'you take care of the existentially damaged, get them to safety- both of them.' Including the pot plant.

(And no, said devious elf does not materialise out of the woodwork two seconds after he's gone. I had intended to, but it would be out of character for him.)


Relvenous; dividing de Andorra's attack as many ways as possible results in an impressive display of flashing blades and sparks flying, but only one gets even close, it's a twisting slash of the blade without much momentum that takes a feather but little else, and when it comes to her move, she uses her gifts to summon the fallen blade to her.

The single heavy blow she tries to catch and pin, pushing de Andorra's sword downwards and outwards, but he manages to roll it in under her blade and up aiming for the side of her ribcage; she twists out of the way and takes the hit in the arm, a moderate wound, but she's already pivoting forward on that and slashes at de Andorra twice with the ethereal blade in her right hand- both called shots, the one for the throat fails to connect but the one for the chest does.

There's a crunching sound, chainmail links and bits of bone everywhere; de Andorra thinks, she didn't hit me that hard...and fade to black.

Fade back in again; stone ceiling, bloody cold, pain, lying on a slab, motley- coloured jester woman by the slab. 'Careful, you're supposed to be dead. Mathilde "sent" to me, she said for me to look after you if I could. I managed to make a wound that nearly killed you look as if it actually had...some of the sisters have figured it out, but Theresa hasn't yet.

Oh yes, "tell him that all I wanted was for him to observe and report, not try to sort the whole bloody buiness out himself; he picked a fine time to start listening to me." ' she adds, mimicking Mathilde.

[Norade]

After his attack was parried and something made Turstin stumble Safrac looks for a new target and tries to ride down the elf next to the fire who used superheated water as a weapon. Leaning out as far as he can down his stead's neck he aims a hammer blow to the the elf while directing the horse to literally run over the elf. He can only hope that something equally overcomplicated as the bit with the water is used in the elf's defense.

[Master_Baerne]

I don't suppose Valette knows anything about this spell, or about svartalfven culture that might help? I'm going to assume that the druid wasn't just being insane, and that reminding Rav of who she is from a cultural standpoint would actually work. In any case, this is way outside of Valette's capabilities. She hides Rav and the plant somewhere where there aren't any elves, and dashes of to find Randolph.

That's assuming he still exists; having a sorcerous doctor on hand would just be so useful in this case. If he doesn't, Valette will hide the plant somewhere and try and get Rav to her employer's residence. As I recall, the Lord High Spymaster, or whatever his actual title was, is likely to have a doctor on hand. Lady d'Cearach will be informed of where I'm headed if I can find her quickly.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

General note- the auras are extremely visible, to all intents and purposes the elves are all floodlit. Those who got one, that is there are a couple of greenish- brown shadows nobody there likes the look of.

Safrac heads for the elf by the fire, the elf spots him coming, draws their sword, forms an ice blade in- actually, her- off hand, waits for a heartbeat or two in front of the charging warhorse to see which side the hammer is coming down from, then things vget very complicated and she's behind Safrac, without the ice blade-

she blocked the hammer stroke but was driven down by the momentum, probably got trodden on but not fatally, tried to slash at Turstin's hindquarters at the same time as he lashed out with his rear hooves; one of them made contact with the blade, shattering it- she threw most of the splinters at the acolytes and blackshirts, hitting a few.

One of the others moves to support her, the pair of them are about to attack Safrac. His move.


Vehrec, where are you?


Baerne, trying to find Randolf depends very much on whether the player is about- I've seen him post a couple of times but not in this thread. Basically, the more you do the more the plot bends towars you, and a noncombat character doing diplomatic and thinky stuff is going to result in a thinkier game.
Finding somewhere that counts as safe is the hard part; there's an alley that looks quiet, that should do for the moment. de Novara, the chief spy, is busy in the fight- Lady D'Cearach is having an interesting time at the moment, one of the elves just tried to make good on their threat to kill them all- and one of the others, wearing green rather than grey, stopped him. Quite messily.

[Norade]

Safrac sees the two about to attack and points his mount at whichever of them is blocking his route back to the outer edges of the fight. The other if close enough, is swung at with a sweeping downward attack with the hammer. The plan again is to break out and away from the crowd and then plunge back in to attack people. Turstin should be able to keep up a gallop for the battle and he knows that his mount is tough enough to eat a few attacks before needing to retreat so Safrac is not afraid to run down and attack whatever is in his way.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Surprisingly, that works very well; the target Safrac selects for his hammer, the elf sees it coming and would martial-art his way out of trouble, vaulting up the nearest plant life and doing a fancy aerial move over Safrac's head, but three of the acolytes are coming for him, hemming him in. By the time he looks at the ground he can move to and weighs his options, it's too late for anything fancy.

The elf tries a straightforward sidestep and block, technically succeeds, but there's just too much momentum behind the hammer- the stroke smashes through his parry and into his chest. He drops, seriously wounded; a human might die from that, an elf less likely to, but a brief glance back has the coloured blob of aura around him moving slowly for the wall- out of the fight and trying to disengage.

The problem with trying to keep up a gallop is that this is an urban townhouse- it has some garden space and greenery, but you're only really looking at ten to twenty yards' clearance betwen the house and the wall, some of that is plantlife, bonfires or struggling people.

Turstin runs straight over the other one of the elves who tries to be fancy- merge with the earth and be passed over in safety. There's a 'crunch' sound that signals she didn't make full transition in time, as the weight of an eighteen hand horse comes down on her skull.

The momentum of that run carries the orcish knight and his mount round the far side of the house, where he spots something of potential significance- some of the elves seem to be fighting each other.

If you can call it a fight rather than an execution. There are three of them in urban greys and browns with flaring auras around them, and one who seems to be mainly visible as a shadow in the light cast by their auras, who's probably in green- and the green one is winning very handily. Three fast, flashing passes, and there are three bodies glowing on the ground.

(I'll be away at an event over the weekend- first of the season. I had hoped to get to the end of this and a session break before then, but hey ho. Back on sunday evening.)

[Norade]

His straightforward plan seems to be working leaving three elves injured, and at least one dead for nothing more than close calls to his own well being. However such a simple plan can't work for long, especially not when he sees one very skilled elf down three others he slows his mount and makes ready to defend himself. Urging his stead to turn his shield side to face the unknown warrior he tries to be ready enough to move if he needs to.

Tensely, fear entering him for the first time this battle, he asks, "Need I fear you?"