Rise For Your Master

    Recently a battle has taken place in this very spot. For this very town, while some of it was standing, more was left to be torn apart. Several of the bone soldiers were dragging people by the ankle and tossing them into cages that didn't manage to get out in time.

There was a knight walking the town, ignoring the cries for help, as he walked with his hands behind his back. His glowing red eyes observing the work that was done.

tA vampire with leather armor walked beside him. "The Adventurers fled with a few of the towns people. We have... Maybe twenty lives we can send back to the castle... Perhaps maybe," The vampire thinks. "Fifteen we can add to our forces."

The dark armored figure pauses before he looks over to the vampire. "Only fifteen?" He turns to face the vampire. "Perhaps we should /ten/ back to the castle and keep the others."

    "But lord Auther you know she is ravenous... The rest of us..."

The knight's eyes glow. "I am /fully/ aware of the situation, but fifteen does not replace the perhaps thirty ghouls we /lost/!" Auther then places his hands on his armored hips, looking up at the sky. As if seeking for something that is not there.

    "Lord Auther? May we go ahead and send the twenty to the castle?" The vampire knight asks taking a step back.

"... Yes." Auther says with frustration. "Yes." He then makes a hand gesture. "Do as we need."

    Merek was bringing in the one known as Goldenblade, to assist in the intel gathering and nods a bit to the woman, while he would offer one of his potions. "To assist in sneaking," he notes, then he drinks the one with him himself, while he would nod a bit. "We can't really fight their leader, they are way too skilled for only us two." There's a nod while he thinks, "I will pay you for the assistance, we need intel on the undead, to assist in protecting people. Also information on the forces"
    When it's time to begin sneaking, the man walks along forward with the woman and begins to... Try to sneak, though it looks like he takes a little bit of a tumble forward along the grasses, which makes a little bit of noise. He chimlinks then to Goldenblade, <<"Keep to task, don't worry about me, if I don't make it from this, you need to bring this back to New World.">> The dark wave of his would shimmer along, sending the darkness away elseplace, covering something that was not him in the pattern.

Goldenblade has been asked to take a look a the aftermath of this battle, to scout out and maybe find out what the enemy is doing. She's also decided it'd be a good thing if she could find a way to get the prisoners back. She quaffs the offered potion, and moves out, wincing as Merek proceeds through the underbrush. She actually seems to be legitimately good at stalking, herself, and adds a bit of distance between them, so any disturbances are more spread out and hard to pinpoint. And if he gets caught, maybe she won't be immediately spotted.

She chimlinks, <<"What am I looking for specifically, then?">> If she's here by herself, she needs a bit more clarification of her marching orders.

    The sound gets Auther's attention. His glowing red eyes look in that direction under the helm. He looks over that way for a long time where Merek slipped up.

Slowly Auther looks away and slowly walks toward where a few vampire knights and bone soldiers are.

Several of the soldiers there give Auther a respectful salute, at this range their conversation seems more difficult. Though as several get ready to lift up the cage, Auther seems to suddenly stop them. He is seen kneeling down in front of the cage and might be talking or examining one of the prisoners.

The two also might spot several more tied up and badly beaten. Laying there on the ground, looking perhaps close to death.

    Merek remains still while he notes that perhaps there is attention upon him, <<"We are looking to learn a little more about how they're creating undead, not to mention what they plan to do with the people.">> He'd heard a bit, but not enough to gain anymore than the fact the Queen probably wanted to have a few of them. They're vampires, of course. That is useful, still it doesn't answer the main question. He begins shimmying along the grass while he tries to keep quiet, keeping his progress a little bit slow to make up for the fact he can't sneak well.

Goldenblade winces as the boss-looking fellow talks to his flunkies. Well, hopefully if they chase off Merek, she might remain unspotted. Better yet if they think themselves safe from surveillance for a while. She marks the position and location of the prisoners, trying to determine if she might be able to sneak off with any. The risk is, if she does, might they kill others to keep them from being rescued? Or are they going to kill them all anyway, and any she could rescue would be good? So many questions, and she watches, hoping for some answers.

<<"Have you got any eavesdropping magic that they won't spot?">> she chimlinks to Merek. As far as creating undead, she winces, then replies, <<"I'll see if I can get closer, then, and maybe steal one away. That'll stir them up and maybe postpone their plans if they thinnk they've been infiltrated.">>

    Thankfully both remain hidden and both move in closer. What they hear next may be a tad disturbing. "... she reminds me of my wife.." Auther says before standing up.

"Let me out!" The woman cries in the cell, soon followed by others. The vampiric knight looks to Auther. "Sir?"

Auther stood there in long silence, just looking at the woman. His hand clenches on his knee, rolling into a fist, before he rises to his feet. "Move them out!" He roars out, raising his hand up and then walks away.

    The group nods and then with some type of earth magic, they sink /directly/ into the ground, with the cage in tow. It was not long till the ground covers up where they were with only a slight disturbance to the soil.

As for those lined up, Auther walks over to them, looking at the fifteen he had to work with. "... pathetic.." He rumbles lowly.

    Merek looks to the people all lined up, while he nods a bit. Listening upon wind would be a lot easier in that it keeps the man from being in that range. Then he draws on subtle magic in an attempt to discern the new ritual which they are using. <<"Yes, I am using magic like that. I don't think you can free them, that man with them leads the full army, we can't take him on and he's pretty observant. I want to save all of them too. It might not be possible.">>

Goldenblade looks over the remaining prisoners, making a catalogue of names and faces as much as she can. She chims back, <<"Yeah, I don't think I can break anyone loose. It bothers me, but I'm not going to get killed for it. I wouldn't do any good, we'd never get any of them loose, anyhow. We could -maybe- get one, if we were lucky and ran like hell. I think the best we can do is watch and see what they're up to.">>

    Merek would notice that it is a type of earth manipulation spell. Seeming to create a tunnel, however given it opens and closes as it moves it is impossible to track like this.

As for what Auther is up too, he grabs up one of the prisoners by their neck and actually lifts them with no problem. Holding them there with simple ease. The person yells in pain and whispers out a plead, between his chocking breaths.

Auther softly goes "Shh. Shh. My friend. Your suffering will end." Then he goes to place his other hand against the man's forearm and starts to say some words. There is something flicker just slightly under his mix of leather and metal plates.

    Just as the prisoner is about to die, they are hit with some kind of magical spell. That is when Auther drops the person back to the ground, allowing them to land like a rag doll before he moves to the next.

two remaining vampires soldiers, walk ove to the limp man and drag him into the center of the road. For the next, it is done the same, and the next.

    Merek watches on while this ritual takes place, whether it be in Earth or in the street, whatever they are doing he needs to learn about it. He watches, trying the best that he can to keep sane, <<"Indeed, he is powerful. The information we learn will save lives, Adventurer and Lander," he notes. The man would look then to see what would be on the next thing that they do, all the while taking the time to work a way along in the soldier crawl along the grass.

Goldenblade winces as the vampire kills the one prisoner, then moves over to another, with the other vampires clearing the bodies. She curses herself, but there wasn't any chance to do anything to help them. If a party of players couldn't stop this guy, she's not going to be able to. Maybe she can steal a body before it rises as undead? If they just pile them up and forget about them, maybe ....

She looks over to Merek, hopefully he's figuring tactical things out. She can do that, too, marking positions in her head of where camp buildings or tents are laid, where the boss guy's tent is in the overall scheme of things, and various tactical tidbits as she can commit to memory. <<"I sure hope it's worthwhile. Could you tell if those were Landers or players? I think they must be Landers, because players would just respawn, right?">>

    As the two vampires move the fourth body. The three before start to come back to life. Rolling around on the ground, trying to break free from the ropes that bind them.

Soon enough one of them does break free and suddenly seems to charge oddly in a direction. At least oddly to the two vampires and to Auther as well.

    This catches Auther's attention and he releases the hold on the next victim, allowing the poor lander to catch their breath. His eyes narrow faintly.

One of the knights looks over to Auther, "Feisty isn't it?"

Auther says very calmly. "... It is hunting." Then he goes to follow where the ghoul has run off too. In this case, that ghoul is heading /right/ for Merek!

    Merek would watch while the ghouls come back to life, then he has an answer. Well, what might be a kind of answer, while he takes a moment to lift two fingers, imagining the sigil within the mind while he draws the shapes, then he wraps that into the mind of the ghoul to offer them a mind shock. It perhaps won't be able to assense directly where the man is at if even its mind in primal instinct would not know to want to find him. Then he's beginning to shift a little bit to make little to no sound.

Goldenblade winces as the one fresh vampire breaks and runs for Merek. <<"You're busted,">> she warns him by chimlink, in case her viewing angle is better than his. <<"You'd better haul ass now. Hurry. I'll hang tight in case there's more.">> But there's not much more to see, is there? They've gotten rid of the prisoners, now, and she's under the impression that she's learned all she can.

But he's still magicking rather than running, she prepares, herself. She might be able to blindside them, and then maybe they can all escape in the confusion. Not her best plan, but she's improvising.

    Ghouls are thankfully dumb creatures. Simple zombies with simple minds. So thankfully Merek's little trick does cause the creature to roar in slight pain, before clawing around at nothing.

Who does come up not far behind the ghoul is Auther. That knight with his dark armor, glowing eyes, and hard to tell if he is Binder or Vampire. Unlike the ghoul, he is not to convinced that someone isn't out there.

His sword is drawn as he continues to walk carefully. His eye scanning the area. He might come close to where Merek is, but thankfully does not /find/ Merek.

    Author releases a rumble before he grabs the ghoul with ease and throws it back toward the town, where it hits the ground, rolls, and has trouble getting back. "Take the ghouls to the outpost." He tells the two vampire knights. "I'll drag the rest there myself."

"As you command, Lord Auther!" They both say in unison before picking up the ghouls and then going into the ground. As for Auther he makes a clicking sound and from the ground with a demonic neigh rises his undead horses, with its heavy battle armor. The green flame mane ignites with brilliance, along with on its tail and around its hooves.

Here Auther takes a chain from the side satchel and goes to run the chain to each of the remaining prisoners he had not had a chance to get too.

    Merek knows well that fleeing would bring them to come at him, and with a man with a steed like Auther might use, that seems unlikely to be the best of prospect. The man waits, while he doesn't even move, does not try to keep sneaking, he just watches while he waits. They have what they need, no need to try and keep with that. <<"I think he would find it easy to chase us all. Auther has a full on mount that would be able to keep up. Let's just wait.">>

Goldenblade looks relieved as the pursuit of Merek is called off. <<"You got lucky,">> she chims him. <<"But yeah, it looks like they're all taking off. We ought to search the village before we go. Parents might have hidden away their kids or something.">> She'll watch and wait from her place of concealment as the last of the prisoners is bound up and led ... to wherever they're going.

    After Auther leaves with prisoners in tow, Goldenblade seems to go looking for any survivors, but alas, there is no one. The town is fairly large as well. Not a small place, which means either some folks /did/ get away or many lives were lost.

Either way, they obtained some information, now it was the question of what they would do /with/ that information.

    Merek would look along to the village when standing after all of that sneaking, then nods a bit while Goldenblade would begin to search. He watches along the skies while taking a moment to adjust his scarf, thinking back to the people in the village. They needed to win, to protect the people.

Goldenblade had insisted on a final search for survivors, after the enemy has gone, but it seems like there are none. "Anyone that hid was found," she says sourly. "Human nature, someone -always- hides instead of fleeing from certain doom. They find them all in the closets after floods and earthquakes. Mostly dead. But they, the vampire-whatevers, they must've gathered them all in. They could probably find them with magic," she surmises. "It's always magic, causing problems." She eyes Merek. "Some people are OK," she allows. "But more make trouble than solve problems."