StarDestroyer.Net BBS

(OOC: Eh. I'll figure something out. It was already messed up a bit by misinterpretation of my order to fire a volley rather than just one arrow. Doesn't seem to have changed much, anyway. That just saved me the effort of finding out whether or not that was the main attack force.)

"Skirmishers! Hold your position and do not pursue!" He starts hitting away as they close in.

It's dark- too dark for good shooting, that hit was firing blind.

I don't think you actually designated any skirmishers- you have a few who are good at it simply by virtue of randomness, but there will be quite a lot of 'who, me?' there. At any rate it looks less a matter of pursuit than of not breaking and running. The people in the dark hit fast and hard.

There are a couple of grunts and a scream as collisions and stabbings happen, and most of them sound like they're from your side- advantage seems to be with the attackers. Alfred finds himself facing two of them- both with spears, both wielding them as if they were slightly unfamiliar, they were more used to something else.

Twists out of the way of one, sees a glint of light just in time to bat it away from his gut- swipes for one of them, a big man, who steps into it and is hit with the shaft, not the head- bruises and stuns but not enough.

Sounds like they're winning. One other thing it sounds like- Alfred is really too busy to notice but Larric isn't, Dirt wouldn't anyway; local accents. If this bunch were army or ex- army, what are the odds against all of them being from Auvaine county?

(OOC: Actually, I meant he was saying they were being attacked by skirmishers and to not pursue them if the attackers break off.)

With the man stunned, he makes an upward jab at the man's jaw with the maul.

Have you had that hammer sharpened yet?

As Alfred punches upwards with the maul, his target moves away out of the way of the blow- stumbles like he planned it, you caught him on the arm at first, but he moves as if he expects what's coming and manages to get clear.

Dirt, Larric, Dale?

Larric notices the voices and shouts: "Who are you!?" He readies a reservoir of high-voltage-low-current as a stunner, then goes looking for a target.

I'm going to assume there's a visual flare, some van de graaf syle crackling, some light. Two of them divert towards Larric- he's just become a primary target, put the mage down, now, fast- they have to push past some of the men at arms and one covers the other's back- the first one looks at Larric, big chap, broad across the shoulders, don't remember seeing that face among the deserters- not dressed like them either, greens and browns. Looks more like a greenwoodsman than anything else.

'Since when did they have a wizard?' he shouts at his mate, and says to Larric 'Who the hells are you?'

There are still sounds of hitting.

"Name's Smith! Why are you trying to kill us? What did the villagers do to you?" Larric scrambles back, concentrating flux and getting ready to slug whichever one comes closer.

OOC
Sorry for the delay in replying, RL once again intrudes on my evenings....

IC
Dirt rises to his feet, axe in one hand, shield with Fifi in the other. Bellowing his tribes traditional war
cry in ogre Spoiler he charges into the fray where we're being hardest pressed.

Nothing overtly fancy, just brute mass and strength he barges and slams his way into the combat using his shield and blunt part of the axe, fifi bobbing, hissing and striking as she can. Once amongst our opponents he goes into gardening mode and starts the harvest. Thankfully, our side are wearing identical tunics so Dirt can tell who's who.

And just as you were starting to make sense of it all, Dirt charges in and adds another layer of utter chaos to the night.

[spoiler='I do sort of want you to read this, but don't tell your characters']Doublecross. The deserters managed to convince one of the locals, essentially through the local equivalent of Stockholm syndrome, to go to the men of the greenwood and tell them that things had happened- Captain de Berrey and his men had moved from the rock fortified village down to the richer village and much easier target of Old Eleb- where you are right now- and they were taking hostages, abducting and torturing people and generally needed sorting out- and they were vulnerable right now so... the agent did a very good job of conning them into it. The men of the woods think they're attacking de Berrey's deserters, haven't figured out it's actually you yet. The real ones are probably somewhere nearby in the dark laughing their heads off and waiting to finish the wounded.[/spoiler]

There are a lot of places where you're being hard pressed; Dirt barrels in, pushing the villagers out of the way and starting to hit people. There is a wild flurry that ends with one of them missing an arm which goes flying through the air most impressively, another paralysed, a couple of lumps hacked out of Dirt's shield (missing the plantpot), one of the local villagers who came out to fight reeling from an accidental backswing, and the attackers wondering where de Berrey hired a monster from.

If he catches himself as he makes his jab up with the maul, he tries to transition that into a swing into the man's groin. If it connects, he bellows, "By the honor of the Nordens, you shall not pass!"

And if it doesn't?- which it doesn't, very little in it on the dice but a pod shot adds extra incentive- he leaps back to protect his testicles. Only just a miss- slight clang as pouch bounces off it- but not a solid hit. I suggest bellowing it anyway.

(OOC: Sure, why not.)

He bellows it anyway.

'Norden, who the hells are-' the copper piece drops. There's another attack on Alfred that he barely parries- but one of the archers with Alfred says 'Brachtmer, is that you- what side are you on?'

'Balls. Fall back and set something on fire, we need light, we've-'

'You're attacking us, you idiot.' one of the village women calls out.

The word still has not reached parts of the skirmish, especially the part with Dirt in, but illumination is starting to dawn. It was a set up, the deserters managed to get the greenwoodsmen attacking the villagers- bluffed into blue on blue. The fighting will start to fade out after that, provided someone can stop the carnivorous Ogre.

Who's saying what? First word is probably "oops", but after that?

Larric grits his teeth, raises his palm upward, and concentrates. A shower of sparks crackles off it into the air- harmless but arc-lighting the scene. He looks around- "You're not dragoons, what are you doing working for de Berrey? Some kind of- He looks at over where Dirt is on the rampage- "oh, gods!" trotting over a bit, but staying well out of accidental axe range and trying not to look too hard at the carnage.

"DIRT, STOP! BACK UP! THESE NOT BAD MEN! THEY MAKE MISTAKE!"

Dale rolls into the fray very tired and disoriented (he had come off his watch just long enough to be in deep sleep when the melee started).

OOC: Sorry guys. I've been away for several days and only came back last night. I'm still here and I'll be much more prompt at posting and participating in the coming week.

IC: Seeing wounded, Dale makes toward any of the villagers he recognizes and tries to pull them back for healing. (Crude healing perhaps, but I'll do what I can). Dale senses something off about this - the death being dealt is not "right". It will make good sense once the realization dawns that trickery and misdirection were involved in this action, but for now he's looking to react defensively. Anyone coming near me with the intent to attack will get a thrown knife to the torso before they close to melee range. If they move in closer Dale will draw his sword and look to disarm the assailant (mundane sword, not the magic-murder blade).

"DIRT, STOP! BACK UP! THESE NOT BAD MEN! THEY MAKE MISTAKE!"

That mistake would be not to notice the 9' monster with the flesh eating plant before launching their attack right?

Despite starting to enjoy himself carving up breakfast Dirt halts his attack, followed by reaching into his pack for herbs along with various other healing implements before starting to try to repair the damage on the former 'bad men' and any of our own injured. All the while he appears to be in a sour mood muttering to himself in ogre.

Whether this is due to the sudden stop of the fight or the removal of a large breakfast is probably best not dwelt upon.

Kaelan wrote:

"DIRT, STOP! BACK UP! THESE NOT BAD MEN! THEY MAKE MISTAKE!"

That mistake would be not to notice the 9' monster with the flesh eating plant before launching their attack right?

Yep.

Well, that was one of them.

(OOC: If Alfred ever becomes known as "the Great" in the later part of his life, please let him burn some cakes.)

As he realizes what's going on, he bellows out, "Halt! Everybody! Halt! Cease fighting!"

Training tonight was especially strenuous; my arms feel like wobbly string and I think I may be going to bed after finishig this post.

The response Larric gets is 'We thought you were with that bastard-' as the sparks illuminate the scene you can see that the attackers are in fact the independent yeomanry, the ones the villagers were talking about trying to get support from, Catarin's people. They notice the absence of dragoons. Most of the fighting tapers off after that, and after Alfred's order- some late moments, Dirt is just about to cut somebody's leg off when he notices who it is.

For a relatively short fight, it was bloody- one dead, one maimed and four wounded yeomen, two dead and four wounded men at arms, five dead, four seriously and six lightly wounded villagers.

There is a lot of healing and bandaging to be done, and in the process the story comes out- they believed they were answering a call for help, and that this was where de Berrey's men were to be found.

Tend the wounded and lay the dead to rest, by all means- but there is also the question of revenge, or at least retribution- where actually is de Berrey to be found? How's Alfred handling it, what's he- and the party as a whole- saying?

(Alfred burning the cakes was essentially a metaphor for his neglect of the welfare of the kingdom, and a largely unfair one at that- he inherited a fairly desperate situation, he made several mistakes but that wasn't one of them. One of the things he did do wrong was assume that his enemies were honourable enough to keep their word of truce. Yes, there may be cakes.)

Dale has relatively poor knowledge of anatomy, so he'll not be doing much bandaging. Blanket healing, he can handle (his skill is not enough to do anything particularly focused the way I understand it). He'll actually work on the slightly wounded first, remembering that the peasantry seemed to have a priest with them. He doesn't want to muck up anything that might be better handled by a more experienced hand. There will definitely be funeral rights arranged for the dead as well.

As for de Berrey...

"That deserter has a reckoning coming to him. Diplomacy be damned, he needs to pay for this. This butcher's bill is a terrible and needless waste. Death may be a mercy compared to what he deserves." This is muttered to any of the party that are helping with the wounded or dead.

OOC: So very many thoughts occur to me about this situation and what we should do, but few of them are in character given Dale's niche of healing and death rites. When that's done, I dare anybody to ask Dale what he thinks should be done with de Berrey if he can be taken alive. Black thoughts are an understatement. In the meantime I'll defer the strategic and tactical thinking to Larric and Alfred until the wounded are tended to at least.

Larric, for one, is indignant as only the man who wishes his enemies were smart enough to back down without a fight and abide by a negotiated peace can be. He's not just betrayed, he's exasperated.

"If they're too busy trying to wipe out everyone in the valley to see sense, then knocking the lot of them over the head as soon as daylight lets us... sounds right to me."

After apologizing to the guy he tried to hit in the family jewels, he says, "Aye. If this is how they repay an offer of a fair deal, then I have little qualms in showing them no mercy." He makes the rounds to see who is still in fighting condition so he can see about organizing a strike force to hit them back.

(OOC: Execution probably in order for de Berrey. Probably not crucifixion, though, since I don't think that's a thing here. Plus a bit out of character for Alfred.)

What's our roster look like? I assume the yeomen are out for blood, and they'd make much better scouts than most of the men we've got handy.

Larric's in a foul temper and has a full night's sleep. If he were slightly angrier and a lot more powerful he might summon a chlorine elemental over this...

He's also eyeing the yeomen a little warily. Sure, they're of roughly his social class (not counting sudden promotion to 'wizard'). But they're obviously a bit... trigger-happy isn't a word yet in Kuquanese, but it sure expresses the concept.

(OOC: Let's toss in an osmium one, too, while we're at it. )

Larric knows about chlorine because he once tried to take apart a pound of salt to see how it ticked. This proved to be a tactical error. He does NOT know about osmium, because no one was willing to give him a pound of platinum to take apart.