Pitiful Bandits - RPLOG

Participants

• Akasha
• Rogna
• Selena
• Walden

Date

6/2/476

Log

Rogna stands waiting with two burly looking stallions, all three clad in heavy armor and carrying an assortment of swords and heavy weaponry. The hippo speaks to them and gestures over to the horizon, saying something that the two nod in agreement with before he adjusts his cape and points out the edge of the mountains and a treeline. They seem to be planning an attack.

An armadillo in a spiny suit of scale mail shows up, responding to the call for able-bodied warriors. The bladed battle-gloves he has at his sides suggest he's no stranger to action. And to top it off, he's got that tough shell. "Haa... I made it!" he pants, waving a hand to Rogna and a couple of stallions. "Whew! It's- it's good to get out of the lab."

says Walden.

Rogna turns to greet the newcomer and laughs. "My it's been a while, good to see you." he says before noticing the panting. "Are you feeling alright? I'd hate to see you put out of commission due to poor health, are you sure you're up for this?" he asks politely, looking Walden over witih a smile.

Akasha walking up toward Rogna and Walden, gives a curtsey, "Good day My Lord," she says to Rogna, "And, whom do I have the pleasure of meeting this fine day?" she says over to Walden. She is clad in her work leathers, hair tied up, staff in hand and ready for what may come. She looks to Walden, "Are you alright? Need some assistance?" She offers, quickly thinking though math and medicane for what might give something as simple as a pick me up or something more serious if needed. While she waits for Walden's answer though she looks to Rogna, "What are we expecting My Lord? Do we have anything for info? Numbers, terrain?"

Walden hmmphs and shrugs his shoulders with a big grin. "Nah, nothin' a big guy like me can't handle," he says cheerfully. "There's a lot of muscle in this body too, y'know. I just haven't been out and about like this in... in a while. But I'll be fine. And Rogna, been a while! Good to see you too," he says with a little chuckle.

Rogna smiles and greets Akasha. "Hello there, it's always nice to have the aid of a mage. I trust you are both well enough to take on this challenge? There are reported dozens of bandits, perhaps more than fourty, they promised the poor and starving refuge in exchange for their hands in their crimes. I must say that while this is saddening, it cannot be allowed to go on. They have an encampment being set up beyond the treelines, in a sheltered area enclosed by mountains. It will be difficult to assault head on, we must play it smart. We will need a brief distraction or a bit of stealth to get behind their lines before we eliminate who we can. As their numbers dwindle it will be safer to fight more openly."

Akasha thinks a moment, "Well, a distraction is easy enough to create distractions, My Lord, but I must admit stealth isn't one of my stronger suits." And she thinks for a moment, "Awful that anyone would do such a thing." She knew these were trying times, and she wondered at what crimes, either way, they would need stopping. "Oh? If you are sure Walden." She says then looks back to Rogna, "So, what is your plan My Lord? Given all that?"

Walden scratches his head nervously as he hears about the size of the crowd, and then about the general plan. "...Ahhh. Stealth. That's... that's sort of the opposite of what I can do," the heavy armadillo claims. He looks at Akasha and says, "You're a mage? Good at distractions? Then that might be our best bet. I'm, hmmm... I punch bad guys and apply first aid to good guys."

The hippo points to the mountains again. "We'll never be able to climb down any closer than we are wearing all this heavy armor, so that severely limits our options. I would like you, as a mage to make your way up there, and create a fire, or cause a rockslide, that would force them to divert their attention so that we can safely make our way in. From there we'll swiftly swoon whoever notices us and make our way carefully to a better position in the encampment, where we will regroup and lay into them."

Akasha looks to Walden then back over to Rogna, "Ok, easy enough my Lord." And she sets out up toward the mountain pointed out by Rogna. As she goes she thinks of the best way to make the distraction as grand as she can. Once up at the top she does some quick math, moving about the rocks, then, sending them all sliding down toward the bandit's encampment.

Walden merely remains quiet and ready, waiting for signals and further instructions from their fearless leader. The corner of his mouth turns up in a smirk, though. He seems to like earth powers. He slips on his cesti in anticipation.

Surprisingly the Hippo and one of the guards have the best luck masking their presence, Akasha barely making it away from prying eyes after her fit of earth magic and the armadillo and second soldier being noticed immediately, the two guards who remained at what looks to be a soon front gate raising their crossbows. The arrows don't scratch the two's armor, but as they reload the party is soon upon them. Rogna and the more stealthy guard have no problems engaging and quickly silencing one of the two, leaving the other guard to rather sloppily swing, his mace being ducked under by the remaining guard, who drops his crossbow and begins to pull a knife.

Akasha after concealing herself is quick to make a crouched run back over toward Rogna. Along the way, making sure to add a bit more to her distraction to keep them occupied.

Walden rushes in with his comrades, simply shrugging off the arrow as if it were a gnat. This is what Shelled Folk do. With those bladed cesti in hand, he's eager to engage the bandits, and it looks like he gets his chance as the guardsman whiffs. With the remaining bandit possibly focused on the guardsman, he lunges in with a fierce hook to the bandit's head.

The punch staggers the Bandit, the blades certainly not helping him retain his fighting spirit. He looks to start calling out for help before Rogna grabs his throat and silences him, pushing him against he wall with enough force to make him pass out. One of the soliders slits his throat, Rogna offering only a grim nod, knowing that if he were to get up their lives would be in even more danger. He waves his comrades onward, behind one of the constructed buildings and allows everyone to regroup. None of the group are directly spotted but one of the guards makes a little too much noise and a few bandits break off to investigate.

Akasha takes a moment to do up some more earth math, this time to get some protection in case things go wrong. She isn't quiet able to extend it to everyone but manages to get herself, Walden, and Rogna with some armor made from the local rock. She then turns to watch carefully what is going to happen next.

Walden looks very appreciative as he feels the familiar, comfortable embrace of the earth fortifying his armor and flesh. He always did like that spell. In the interests of being quiet though, he remains behind the building his group hides at, and he stands ready to try to punch out whoever's coming around that corner.

As the group is buffered by magical might, Rogna lowly says "As they approach us, silence them and drag them back here, we can't have our position given away just yet." The four guards approach slowly, their weapons at half read, looking around every corner.

Akasha nods to Rogna and prepares a quiet a bit of Air Math for when they arrive, but there is something a bit... off about it. A slight taint of something not as wholesome as the Creators. After she is done, she holds it, waiting for them to draw closer. She continues to watch Rogna, and whispers very gently, "By your signal My Lord." then proceedes to draw out as much of the air form each of the four bandits' lungs as she can.

Once the spell has been cast, it's time to strike. Walden springs into action, and the armadillo's bladed fists are punching at his nearest target; he hardly has time to assess them and see just how well they're affected by the rather scary sort of magic.

The three heavy clad warriors follow suit, grabbing hold of the guards and bringing them out of view quickly. Rogna gives a nod to Akasha before readying his sword to see if they were spotted during the effort. With six bandits down so far this is looking more hopeful. The two stallions stand at ready to assist should an alert be given out.

Akasha her spell cast and the four easily taken out, she looks to the stallions and Rogna, keeping herself hidden. "Well, so far so good, My Lord" she says up to the hippo, while still keeping an eye out, but she does relay some information, "There is something off about them all, My Lord, they seem.... either tired or underfed, or some such thing, not at all like well maintained guards and bandits."

Walden breathes a sigh of relief as the patrollers thus far have gone down without -too- much trouble. He does frown slightly at Akasha's words, considering this for a moment. "I suppose that goes in line with the intel we were given, though. They should've made better choices," the armadillo whispers in a hushed tone. He's not so good at the stealth thing though; he keeps an eye on Rogna while watching their backs.

A loud "HEY!" is shouted out, someone has caught sight of the party and rallied about ten of his companions to run over towards the group. Rogna prods the mage and says "We'll distract them, I want you to use your air magic to get out of here, and inform the backup unit waiting at the pass." He draws his sword and prepares to engage them in combat.

Akasha nods quickly and with some fast calculation, takes off in the direction of Firmament. Before leaving however, she does take a moment again, from the air, to get an understanding of the progression of the fight and how well they are doing, so she can make a proper report and ask for aid.

Walden smirks and shakes his head. "Figures they'd figure it out sooner or later. See what I can do while we've still got time," he says, and he starts chanting numbers very much like the earth enchantment that was just recently cast on himself and Rogna.

The hippo greets the incoming attackers with his blades, parrying a dagger before he moves in with his sword, only to shoulder slam the makeshift bandit to the ground, knocking them out. The two stallions have much worse luck with their attacks, and while none of the attackers are terrible at their assaults, the two warriors can barely take down one of the nine remaining bandits. Crossbows leap up and take aim, and daggers that were only half ready are brought to attention. The starved make-shift bandits don't seem like they'll put up much of a fight, but look as though they will try.

Walden isn't quite the mage that their departed ally is, but even one horse-soldier being fortified by earth magic could make a difference. And thus, he turns to what he does a bit better: rushing into the fray with his spiny, scaly armor and his bladed battle-gloves! And he's revealing that while he certainly lacks style and flair, even basic punches can be effective when there's blades attached to the fists. He's up there now with his allies, throwing a jab here, an uppercut there.

Rogna breaks the enemy lines, moving in on the crossbows and sweeping across them with his blade, many of the bandits dropping their weapons and a few manage to fire off shoddy bolts, their gear appears to be second grade at best. The non-disarmed bandits close in around Rogna, trying to pin him in but are knocked around as the two stallions move to engage them, walden joining in the fray with some fighting moves that have them seeing stars.

Walden usually plays it pretty safe, but when it occurs to him that these crossbowmen are just not going to penetrate his defenses- whether magical or mundane- his confidence is bolstered, and he goes after the stragglers that Rogna pushed his way through, assisting the stallions. His punches and grapples continue to be plain yet effective; that's all he needs them to be.

Selena notes a group of bandits approaching as she makes he way to the fortress via flight, briefly pausing to unleash a twisting storm of sharp debris to lash at them, hopefully blinding or demoralising them efore they can cause more trouble. She lands inside with Walden and Rogna before long. "What's the situation?" The wolf calls over the ringing of metal on metal and math.

Once again the bandits retaliate with futility, the last of the group of ten falling to our heros easily. The storm raging, rogna begins to prepare some form of magic, unwilling to charge into the hazard their mage has prepared for the battlefield. Out of the the cloud shamble multiple tattered bandits, all seemingly without the will to fight. Through the would be front gates a group of soldiers arrives, four fine retrieval units, well adapted to combatants. As they arrivie Rogna dismisses his spell, allowing the backup to reach the group before saying "They're all rather weak, they were mostly vagrants and the poor who were coaxed in with the promise of rewards. Keep an eye out for their leader and we should be able to end this problem." as he pushes forward, avoiding the dust storm and waving the others onward. "Come, let us apprehend him and end this foolish organization."

Walden isn't terribly pleased about having to get around such a dusty storm, but he does have that earth magic shielding him if something goes wrong. The scale-armored armadillo heads on through with a nod and a grunt to Rogna. "We've got this, friend," he says with a rather grim look in his eyes. "Admittedly I kinda wish at least some of them had surrendered."

Selena curses under her breath. "Someone's working some stupidly complicated math back there, you two. Keep your heads down." She calls out, voice between chiding and concerned as she tries to figur out what exactly is going on with little success. "I'm going to try and get rid of the clouds. Should be able to precipitate the water out."

Rogna stops as he begins to choke, the other guards kneel as the wind is taken from them, quite literally. Walden isn't having much luck breathing either, and over the course of a few seconds none of them are able to expand their lungs, it's as though they're being vaccumed out. Selena proofs to be resiliant to the effects but needs to keep her focus.

Walden is ill-prepared for such an effect on his lungs! He flails his arms briefly before clutching his chest and neck, and he tries to stagger out of range of- of whatever is causing this!

The hippo and others push up and gasp as Selena works her magic, stabilizing the air around them with expert skill. As soon as she does however someone takes advantage of the situation, casting their dagger out quickly behind the mage and with a mighty upward thrust cutting into the back of her shoulder and grazing her neck, not at all the intended effect. the dagger not doing enough on the mages armor to give them any other edge. With that a blue furred fox quickly takes off running, using the chance to work out an escape.

Walden catches a glimpse of what happens, and his medic instincts kick in! He shoves his cesti down into their places on his weapon belt and grabs at a salve he keeps handy. "Hold still- just a moment- I can fix that," he says, applying it to the shoulder as quickly as he can. It's what he does.

Selena lets out a paine cry as the dagger leaves an obvious wound on her back, giving Walden access to the cut for treatment. "Better I got hit... Than you two." She growls hrough clenched teeth.

Rogna pushes up, not fully recovered from his crippling lung shortage yet, and makes an attempt to tag the fleeing fox with dark magic. He can only manage to slow them down, as they soon are out of the encampment and take flight. He scowls and looks back to see that the others, specifically Selena are okay. "I'm sorry we could not stop them, are you alright?" he asks as he looks over the wound himself. The guards slowly recover themselvese and set out to scout the area, finding no remaining bandits they stand at ready to escort the others back to firmament when the wounded are treated.

Walden shakes his head at Selena and says in disagreement, "No, no, I don't particularly want anyone else geting hurt," he says to her. "I mean- it's easier to... to treat someone else than myself, but- but still..." He frowns, and he looks over to Rogna. "It's okay. We did what we could, right? The immediate threat is gone at the very least."

Selena nods, though there's a quietly displeased growl when she realises the attacke got away. "I'll live. My am still works, I have my neck." She replies tacitly, more likely due to her wound stinging as it's treated than other emotions. "Don't be an idiot. If you were targeted before I finished my spell, you'd have worse than a scratch."

Rogna shakes his head and says "I'm sorry you were injured, we should have been better prepared." as the group sets off to firmament. When they arrive a group is sent to dismantle the would be base.