War of Dragons: The Commune II

    New Tamura - A village built by adventurers in the north of the Ninetales Dominion. The adventurers remember their old world and old stories, and desire a simple but fulfilling life for themselves where they are not constantly faced with being intruders in a world not their own. The point was not to forget their past nor to fight either to return or to advance themselves. Instead they wanted to make do among like-minded individuals. While not closed off to the outside world, they deliberately isolated themselves to minimize the amount of influence the outside world would bring to bear. They do trade and exchange news, but by and large just want to be left to themselves.

    Though New Tamurans wanted to be left alone, the Palace Landers had other ideas. They arrived an unknown time ago, took charge of the village, and are now apparently using it to ferry wagonloads of food to their armies. They have also ensured, somehow, that the adventurers don't call for help. There's no sign of wide-scale combat or bloodshed, but the village seems to be cooperating, though the villagers seen so far haven't been controlled by means of crowns. Some other method, then. Perhaps it involves the wards of Light surrounding the field under investigation: wards that glow when crossed, brighter the larger the creature that crosses, and causing the creature to shed a faint light for a time on everything it touches.

    An army of the Ninetales is on the way now, willing to take on the palace landers here and send them back to where they came from. But what will happen in the meantime to the adventurers here? Might they end up killed as the Ninetales army approaches? Might they face something worse than simple death? It might be worth finding out why they are cooperating, how reluctant that cooperation is, and if there's any way to disrupt the Palace Lander plans before the army arrives!

    (OOC: Are you making preparations for this mission? If you're bringing in anything unusual, what? What further investigation do you want to do, and how do you want to proceed with any further investigation and/or plans to attack? What skills/concepts do you expect to be using? Please discuss amongst yourselves on S-Chatter to decide what the group itself will be doing, but direct questions to me through +OOC or page, as well as to ask me about any rolls you may wish to make as the scene progresses.)

    The Baroness Wake rarely operates alone. Having been made aware of activity in the area by her contacts, she has guided them to carefully investigate the matter to a deeper degree.

    The Unconquered in this area are Cait Sith, Were Fangs, and a few others who splintered from Ninetails society quite some time ago. Among them are many talented in moving quickly and unseen. Urged to be extra wary and not risk too much in gaining information, they went to learn more about the unwanted guests.

    The intel that is considered most important has to do with supply lines and the disposition of the enemy. How many are there? What kinds do they seem to be? Where are goods being transferred to and what weak points are along that path. Where do the Yamato villagers stay and how are they allowed to move.

    The Palace Landers in this area are playing close to base. There are signs in the surrounding area of broader troop movements, but those signs are old. All that's left now are small movements, occasional patrols, and the back-and-forth between the village itself and the outlying farms.

    There are also signs of the wagons. There has been some back-and-forth, as early harvests have been sent away elsewhere. Those trails tend to get lost quickly on the roads, mixed in with signs of travel of other people throughout the region. The village is currently preparing another shipment, and there are signs of wagons being prepared and loaded.

    The actual Palace Lander presence is surprisingly light. They seem to be outnumbered by ordinary villagers, and by reports those villagers are adventurers. Probably considerably lower level than the Palace Lander adventurers, but still not entirely unused to fighting to defend their homes. Even though, it appears, no such fighting has been undertaken. There's no sign of slaughter, not even of violence, though the Palace Landers are armed and the villagers seem not to be. Not an entirely friendly occupation then, but what's truly going on here?

Erufu had a real bad feeling about this, still, she was here. She had to wonder though what the Palace Landers were doing to the Tamurans. They had wanted to be left alone then again? With the Palace Lands? She got how that land was. There would not be peace utill it's leaders were no longer in power, one way or another.

The old elf was going to focus on the here and now. She was not the most sneaky ranger when she thought about it. (She would have to work on that later, to be sure.

She will hang back and scout out the town from afar and is ready to open up if things go bad for the stealth team.

Schneider is operting with Wake as well, so she's not alone. He's a bit miffed that his boss coerced her into promising not to try and uncrown people until they can work on the process. It wasn't -that- bad before. But where she's a Baroness and has minions and influence, he's an Exploder Wizard, and while he's handsome and suave, he doesn't actually have much influence. Apart from being able to blow a lot of things up very hard.

He mentions kind of having an invisibility spell, but it's one spell, and it may not work with their detection magic. Or it might, who can guess? He will plan with Wake and Erufu, though he's not come up with anything clever since last they were here.

Schneider will cast his spell, then, chanting, "Roots of shadow, tendrils of light, smoke over water, fire in the sky, DEEP PURPLE." And the air ripples around him. He's there, he can be heard to talk, but the landscape is just the same as it was before, only without him in it. There's a bit of wobble as he moves, but it's not grossly noticable, and he moves out to the farmstead slowly.

    Schneider fades from view and approaches the wards, careful not to be spotted. It's a good plan. Maybe even a great plan. The only problem is, the ward doesn't *see*. Invisibility isn't changing yourself so light doesn't reflect, it's a mind game. To truly alter a person so they leave no traces requires another power entirely.

    That is to say, well, Schneider crosses the light ward and it lights up. He doesn't particularly glow, being invisible, but the flash of light from the ward itself is plenty bright enough to be noticed. The Palace Lander turns but doesn't spot the intruder. Only the sign indicating *something* is sneaking around out there. His head whips around to count the farmers under his charge, then he begins moving towards the point where the alert was raised.

    As soon as she sees things have gone in a manner that is less than ideal, Wake relies on good, old-fashioned normal stealth. She's not going to try to cross the barrier. That seems unhelpful. For now, she just wants to be close enough to do something when the enemy arrives. What that shall be isn't clearly just yet.

    Erufu is crouched in her little blind spot keeping an eye out for threats when SUDDENLY she sees a burst of light! Spinning around to see what just happened, she whacks her head into a tree branch. This may result in a second burst of light, this one behind her eyes.

Schneider winces as the light lights up, but it was as he predicted - he's not particularly visible with the spell's illusion. Unfortunately, in his haste and unfamiliarity with the new spell, he's not as good as it could be, and the terrain grows substantially more jagged and not-fitting-in as he moves. Which he does, rushing the Palace Lander and preparing his next spell.

The words from this one are indistinct, and may contain bits of Alvish, though it ends, "Great White!" The effect of his Great White spell are subtle, though the target will see a white flash in his eyes for a moment.

When the flash clears, he says to the Palace Lander, "I can't keep you free for long, but we can remove that crown from you safely if you come with us." If the Palace Lander wants to be free of his crown, he'll come with us. If he has joined the Collective, well, Schneider's no stranger to fighting.

Erufu is perched in a tree some wayus awya and is keeping an eye on things. Her ears twitch and her eyes dart about as she tries to keep an eye out for just what's going on. She watches the whole show withn Schneider it seems to be going well so far.

    Recognizing what is happening, Wake breaks out of the shadows. The light doesn't matter now. She knows this isn't terribly strategic, but she is compelled to determine the truth.

    "I am Baroness Wake of Eas. We can remove crowns. Would you like to be free again?"

    She closes the distance as she speaks, readying herself to physically restrain-or destroy-the enemy. It's ultimately their choice.

    The Palace Lander guard sobs, clutching at his forehead. "Kill them! KILL THEM ALL!" he cries out. It's not clear if he means you, the Tamurans, or the Palace Landers who enslaved him. He isn't trying to attack you though, instead clutching at whoever is close enough, desperately.

    The farmers hear this all, and they approach warily. They seem quite frightened.

    The overseer drops his grip on the one he's clinging to, reaching up to clutch at his own head. "AaaaAAAAH!" he bellows.... or at least, begins to cry, unless you do something to stop him.

Schneider will continue to channel, to keep the Palace Lander free to make his decision clearly. To the bystanders, he calls out, "Citizens of Yamato, are you loyal to Yamato or the Palace Lands? We're here to rescue you, if you want to be rescued. But greater things are afoot."

    The palace lander's cry cuts off abruptly as Schneider continues drawing on his own power. He shakes his head, looking up, looking.... desperate. "There... there is no freedom! We're all going to die, and die, and die, and die and die die die die die!"

    It's more the sound of madness than a threat. The adventurer seems less than lucid. The farmers are spooked, and more than a little upset. "They'll... they'll kill us and burn our homes. They said they would! Or we could work for them, they'd pay us the worth of the harvest and be on their way, and remember us when they..." he pauses, looks guilty. Is that disloyalty? Just plain selfishness? They didn't particularly want to be here, be trapped in the game... but they just wanted to be left to live their own lives as best they could.

    Wake doesn't need to talk anymore. This is a case that would take her years to work through, if it is even possible. Instead of beating the poor thing to death, she'll just wrestle them down and tie them up. Just a matter of binding hands, ankles, knees and applying a gag.

    "No idea how we'll manage it, but I'd like to see if I might be able to help. If we remove a thousand crowns, I'm like as not to see another hundred just like this. Or worse. I can only hope that real world psychotherapy is effective here."

Schneider will turn to the farmers, and he tells them, "Your liberty ended when these invaders /from the Palace Lands/ tried taking over land that belongs to the lords of /Ninetails/. It's not yours to give or withhold your labor, unfortunately, and soon they're going to ride in here and take back what's theirs. If you come with us and say you were under duress, well, that's a truth, and the Palace Landers didn't give you an opportunity to protest or withdraw. But you're up to your asses in crap right now, and if you sit down, things won't go well for you. But we're not the Palace Landers, and we won't /force/ you to do anything. We could free this one," he points to the sobbing man, "from his crown, but his mind's gone. Is that how /you/ want to wind up? That's what the Palace Lands have in store for players. They hate us, and if you stand aside, they'll kill you when they can get around to it."

Erufu is haning back watching her comrades make their pitches she'll keep watch for more hostile while they talk it out but it's looking good. So she'll sit back and watch.

    The Baroness rises from her unpleasant work. She manages to smooth out her skirt and turn to the nervous farmers. Schneider's words are perfect to force the reality upon them. It helps a great deal that she need not do that part of it.

    "As I said.. I am Baroness Wake. My friend is right. Staying here, sadly, is not an option. I can offer you an honorable alternative. My people are sheltered and their fields stand untended. If you will tend the lands of Eas so they return to productive lands, I will put my resources at your disposal and rebuild you a home here or wherever you wish."

    When she speaks, there's a subtle change in how she stands. At her full height, Wake looks every measure the baroness, and her calm smile is fixed on the frightened adventurers.

    Feudal duties. Though the Japanese adventurers are from a place where such things are no longer practiced, everyone knows the histories. Schneider's point is well-stated, clear, and drives home just how serious their situation is. They may have just wanted to be left alone, but reality rarely gives us what we wish.

    The Yamato adventurers aren't happy at the reality they're presented with, but they are offered some hope, slim as it is. "We didn't want to lose our home." says a woman, either human or humanform dire fang. "Those, even more than our lives... We'd have had nothing left. Just been sent to..." she shudders. An unpleasant memory of urban life perhaps, so different from their old home, or perhaps these farmers have learned something about what things happen to adventurers who die. Their precious memories at risk.

    They look amongst themselves, then one by one turn to look at the village in the distance. There is more that needs doing this day...

Erufu will hook up with the party, when they head out and help anyone who needs it. Should the farmers join them in getting out of here.