Hwa Cha - RPLOG
Participants
Date
1/8/477
Log
Those arriving at Silvervein pass will find themselves in the company of a full military squad. Lots of troopers in heavy armor, some archers in the back line. A mage or two to support the ranks and even a small calvary unit, though Firmament does not have that many horses. Marshal Purpleheart is waiting for the civilian troopers to arrive, at least hoping that he'll have some soulless on his side for the day. He stands next to a pile of mock weaponry. Wooden swords, and spears, and retractable daggers, and arrows with their arrowheads bundled in burlap to make them blunt.
Already traveling through the pass, Savi stumbles upon the training exercise by pure happenstance. Enjoying most things martial, she slows he pace eyeing the large assortment of soldiers. Understanding by the mock weapons there isn't likely a real combat about to happen, the towering plant trots up to the Marshal to see if he requires help.
Calisiel looks a bit out of place in her black dress and white cloak. The crow is carrying her staff, hood up as she heads over to the marshal. Cal stands near him, waits to be told what's going on.
Natska makes her way up the pass in quick, air-assisted leaps. She lands a short distance from the grouped up militia and then runs her gloved fingers along the brim of her hat, making sure it is securely in place. She holds a moment, her wind tugging at her jacket, waiting for Cassidy, then approaches the marshall and gives him a salute. "Private Natska. Lightbringers."
Following shortly after the jaguar, in similar leaps, is Cassidy. She stops just aside her, hat, mask, and all. This time she's got a small black silk pack slung over one shoulder! She doesn't pay it too much mind or importance, though, instead tipping her hat to the marshall. "Greetings. Cassidy Solacious, also of the Lightbringer Unity."
Rainer pulls free of his lips the bone of a small animal, probably a squirkik, and after a quick visual inspection to confirm that it has indeed been picked clean he casts it away into the brush and folds both arms behind his back, closing his eyes and angling his chin towards the sky. The wolf remains so, keeping a casual pace until he's right upon the company set up in the valley, slipping in behind Natska and Cassidy he goes up on his toes to raise over their shoulders, flashing a toothy grin to the marshal and wiggling his fingers in silent greeting.
Bambsi humms happily as she makes her way into the group, clad with her leather and chain jacket, and a good deal of medical supplies on her. "Hello! I was told there was to be exercises around here? I figured you may need some help I'd be willing to provide!" The Gazelle bowing gently to the Marshal as she speaks.
The Marshal spots all the newcomers as his brow furrows a little. He was hoping for people looking a little more...professional. "Hopefully, I don't lose too much face. Marshal Purpleheart." The two Lightbringers identifying themselves helps him to relax a little bit. "Now, go and take armaments if you need practice weapons." The eagle clears his throat for a moment. "I don't want any fatalities at all. Injuries are unavoidable even in mock war. I'll answer any questions you might have about this exercise while you get armed."
"MEN, TAKE POSITIONS!" The avian hollers, soldiers quickly scrambling into formation with shieldbearers in the front and archers at the back.
Without a word Saviante smiles, adn begins poing around through the pile of wooden weapons. Using as much haste as she dares, but with a practiced mannerisms to her movements, she rifles through coming u with not one, but two long sections of wood. Both spears grasped in one large hand, the fern moves towards the lines a few feet, to allow others access to the stockpile, but staying within earshot to listen for rules.
Calisiel is almost disappointed by 'no fatalities.' "I'll just keep my staff, thanks. hard to seriously injure someone with it. So, magic? Can we use that?" As much as the crow would love to set fire to the surrounding area without asking, might not be the best approach. The crow takes a few steps toward the lines, slowly, so as to give time for the marshall to answer her.
"This is an -exercise-," Natska reminds the crow. "Nobody here is your enemy." Her ear flicks and she moves to the stockpile, selecting a few light pieces of different lengths. "What are our orders, Marshal? What role are we playing?"
Cassidy acquires a spear for herself and tests the weight of it, giving a little flourish before smiling. "So, what are we to be doing, exactly?" She nods at Natska's question. "I'm also curious about using of magic. I imagine I'll restrict myself to use of air magic, for safety reasons, yes." She snatches up a sword, as well, and tucks it into her belt in case she needs a back up.
Rainer makes a half-hearted attempt to stifle his snickering while the marshal's forces prepare, falling into step behind Cassidy and Natska. "Maybe we should give ourselves a handicap, so we don't embarass the troops." He at least makes an effort to keep his voice down enough to avoid being overheard by the eagle. His face lights up, as he plucks a training sword from the bin. "I could fight with one sword! I haven't done that in ... years!" He gives it a few play swings before spotting the daggers and swapping for a pair of them. The mutt's delight is boundless, when he discovers the retraction feature. "Ah-haha-haha! Did you see these?! They're -awesome-! Blade goes in, blade comes out. Blade goes in, blade comes out. Blade goes in, blade comes out. Blade goes in..."
Bambsi nods to the Marshal as she smiles gently. "I can help with any injuries if you wish, or repairs to damaged gear, it's a Journeyman's way after all! But if you do need me to fight, I can do so as well." The Gazelle picking up a practice spear as she nods and holds it happily.
Jera nods to the crew. "Magic, yes. As you no doubt must have noticed, there are a few Academy mages in the...the..." Rainer distracts him much, and even the war hardened Purpleheart veteran finds a snicker cross his beak. "The ranks." He clears his throat again and then straightens up, not wanting to give his troops a bad show. "Magic is permitted, yes. Though please, nothing fanciful. Our soldiers can take a burn or two...not getting struck by lightning in the middle of the marketplace."
He turns to Natska. "We have the numbers advantage. They have high ground, and have fortifications set up. The classic war scenario. The whole purpose of this exercise is to practice our military tactics...and to let the windrunners test out a new weapon that they've designed. Just remember. In this exercise...pretend any hits you get are real. If an arrow strikes your armor in the chest or on your helmet you're out. Nobody is enforcing this but we are Firmament soldiers, men. We fight with honor, and won't be cheating."
A loud war horn echos in the distance. "They're ready. It's time to march." Silvervein pass is incredibly narrow...the troops find themselves breaking formation as soon as they leave through the clearing just to advanced through the narrow route. Rain from last night has made the pass muddy and difficult to traverse as well. It's not long before the troops encounter a large, sturdily constructed barricade. Movements from atop the two sides of the valley give sign that enemy forces are preparing a trap...best to hurry.
Savi pulls up short and holds back a far distance from the wall. Hefting her shield, she moves to the side of the forces and hesitates at the edge of the deep mud. Attention focused on the top of the obsrtuction, the armored plant drives one spear into the ground and absent-mindedly shifts the second around in her hand, growing used to its weight and balance. Feet shifting, shield ready, the plant waits to see what form the mounted defence will take.
Calisiel scoffs at the word 'honor'. "There's nothing honorable about war, marshall. This is just practice, but in a real battle, cheat. Always." The crow most likely will cheat anyway, doesn't like to lose. She then heads up after the soldiers, not far from the barricade. Stands close behind the men, using them as a shield; assume arrows will come over the barricade.
Natska gives her head a shake and makes a note to keep an eye on the crow; she herself ends up falling in near the academy students, although she shoots Cassidy an inquisitive glance. The blowing horns catch her attention and she turns, then begins scratching equations in the mud with her own wooden weapon, preparing a breeze to swirl around her, or surge if needed.
Cassidy smiles behind her mask and gives a nod to Natska, turning to move as the rest of the group did. Though, she lingered back. Considerably back. She knew the kinds of things Windrunners tended to have up their sleeves, and wasn't about to get caught in a hail. No, if they wanted to get her, she'd make sure they'd have to target her specifically. "This will be quite fun, I believe!"
"...blade comes out. Blade goes in, blade comes out. Blade goes in, blade c--ah, hey! Wait for me!" Rainer finally notices that everyone else is leaving, and hurries to form rank. And, once he has... "Blade goes in, blade comes out. Blade goes in, blade comes out. Blade goes in--so what's this new weapon, anyway?" Oh hey, he -was- listening. "Well, it's the Windrunners, didn't he say? So it must be some kinda ... archery thing. Blade comes out, blade goes in~ Oo, I bet it's, like, a bow that can shoot three arrows at once! No, wait, that's dumb. -Five- arrows. Blade comes out."
Bambsi humms gently as she follows after the group, the Gazelle frowning at the expeditions difficulty from the mud, and with a working of her hands, she tries to help the soldiers and freeswords by hardening the mud for them to walk on with greater ease... Hopefully she wasn't rusty!
The mud is nicely hardened, and though some troops end up stuck inside, already knee deep in mud, they manage to dig themselves out with little trouble. The march progresses smoothly until the unit reaches the barricade, where they're fully walled off. From behind the barricade, there are two winding paths that allow the unit to pave to the high ground.
...Though that probably isn't the greatest concern right now as the opposing forces spring their attack! Archers lining the peaks start raining bundled arrows down as a blitz force charges the rear lines the way the unit came...making use of the hardened terrain! Standard hammer and anvil.
Tower shield already prepped, Savi raises the giant piece of metal over her head as she turns, spear at the ready. Hand low on the weapon and feet squarely planted, Savi attempts to wait out the inital rain of arrows, trusting the spear forward warningly in an attepmt to recover from the sudden lack of physical protection. Accustomed protection currently diverted in an attempt to survive the sudden hail of arrows, practice though they be.
"Pfft. Most obvious trap ever. And, we walked straight into it." As she is near the back of the formation. Calisiel has few between her and the charging blitz force. Doing the exact opposite of the gazelle, the crow tries to use magic to turn the now dried mud between her and the attackers back into actual mud in an effort to slow them down.
Natska finishes her equation and releases a burst of raw air at the incoming arrows on her side, then takes a couple of steps to get herself between the mages and the oncoming blitz force. "And we keep walking, right up the barricade, Cali. Use their fortification against them."
Cassidy turns and steps up next to Natska, lending some of her magic to help the jaguar turn aside arrows. "Yes, keep moving. We will hold the force from the back, but you must continue forward." She flexes her fingers and readies to buffet the advancing force with air magic, should she need to.
"Got your back, ladies!" the wolf declares as everyone springs into action, hastening to the thick of the lines and striking a combat-ready pose that would certainly look proper and menacing if he were weilding swords, but looks a bit... silly, with toy daggers barely larger than his hands. "Oh. Right. Nyhiiiiinnngh!" His fur bristles as the arrows start coming down all around him, and after a few close calls and a half dozen failed attempts to deflect the falling artillery he's left scrambling to get out of the line of fire.
Bambsi eeps as the airs begin to fall down on them, the Gazelle focusing on herself as a large collection of stone and dirty work around her to provide a shell to deflect the projectiles, before she moves to try and help cover Rainer. "We have to keep moving!"
The arrows take down some of the troops! Who put down their arms and then move to the side of the valley so they don't get trempled, slumping and pretending to be dead. The charge is slowed down by the suddenly softening earth, the blitz unit losing their footing and being hindered very badly. Amongst them is...the Marshal! Seems like there will be no more orders for this fight. The unit is starting to lose their composure, climbing, shoving and pushing each other to try to get over the barricades as quickly as they can. All this and the new weapon /still/ hasn't been revealed. The Marshal's troop is running out of options...and running out of time.
Falling Back with the others, Savi keeps her attention focused upon the section of battlefield between the group, judgind distance and doing her best not to hurt anyone. Doing her best just to spook the charge, the towering plant points with her spear, and calmly unleashes a writhing bust of dark math across the ground ahead of the charge. Not wasting time seeing if people bother to stop, she turns and moves in the direction fo the main army as fast as she is able, watching only for soldiers who may need assistance as she is funneled along with everyone else.
Growling out some frustration, Calisiel figures the soldiers can deal with the slowed blitzers. She uses fire magic to set some of the arrows on the ground near her ablaze. But, due to her lack of control, several arrows still in the sky catch fire as well. "Heh". She chuckles before extending her wings and takes flight towards a group of archers. Horrible idea, probably.
Natska glances behind her as she backs away from the charge, to make sure she stays between the more vulnerable back of their group, and the oncoming force, and growls. Her ear flicks. "Hey you!" she yells at the breaking group. "What is this, lunch time at the mess hall? FALL IN!" she shouts, using a push of air magic to make sure her voice carries. "ORDERLY MOVEMENTS!" Another quick glance, and, no, no officers... "Listen to the Corporal!" she adds, turning back to keep an eye on the oncoming group, wooden "sword" held in front of her defensively.
Cassidy gives a curt nod and falls in behind the rest of the advancing group. "Heads down, shields up!" She calls out, "Do not stop advancing! Archers, mages! Try to take out their ranged oppostion." She, herself, try to help with that by creating a strong wind at their backs. Hopefully enough to guide their own arrows while interfering with those of the 'enemy'.
