[IC] Plague-Hunters

[NanoFreakV2]

Sapphire thanked Alexander for informing her about Joshuas note and mentally chuckled at the initial nervousness in his way of expressing himself. Soon enough though the atmosphere turned into a tense one, mainly only for Sapphire as she considered his next words carefully. Usually preferring to do things alone she felt rather cornered especially as only on very rare occasion did people ever offer to help her. But she reminded herself that he’s a teammate, so it’s to be expected to some degree.

“I wouldn’t mind help tracking down a particular type of creature, seeing as you’ve already acquired yours."

As she said this she carefully extended her hand towards the curious ironback wanting to feel the scaly skin of the familiar. It was quite an intimidating sight and certainly felt the same way on touch. This creature could survive a serious beating Sapphire thought. Resilient and impressive indeed. But soon enough her attention was focused on Alexander once more and she continued.

“My only tracking skill is my heightened sense of hearing. Unfortunately, my target as a familiar is flying creature.” She let out faint sigh accompanied by faint smile as she continued.

“I’m sure you can see the irony in that. Flying creatures don’t make a lot of noise when flying, or rather when gliding. It makes it hard to tell where exactly they are.”

[LHG100]

The day continued, events blurring into the next in everyones' minds. Imgor got tired of simply waiting in place and hunted down his own Familiar: A Tunneler Mole, a roughly person sized creature that can rapidly make tunnels, while Sapphire nabbed herself a younger Grand-Eagle, even at its' age it should be able to grab her and lift off.

It was an interesting event to say the least. The eagle was first; it flew overhead, and Amaryllis got the clever idea... "If I can't make the eagle come to me, I'll make the rune go to it!". She found a large rock to write on, lightened it some with her Kris, then used her remaining reserves of magical energy to just throw it at the Eagle with her Airburst spell.

Surprisingly, it worked without a hitch, but the Eagle is mad, to say the least. It obviously hurt quite a lot. Alexander helped her by using his Flare to blind it, making it an easier target.

Imgor enlisted the help of the others to track down something. He got the idea he should look for a Tunneler Mole, larger digging animals, able to make tunnels very efficiently. He read a book sometime about these once, and used the knowledge he gained (Mostly where they usually live) to find one, then rouse it out from its' nest.

The main thing the Quartet used was Alexanders' flare spell to light a branch on fire and throw it down in there. Schulze restrained it while Imgor drew the rune, after Amaryllis mustered up one last Airburst to push it out of its' home.

Schulze, sadly, didn't find anything that interested him, yet the quartet of Aspiring Hunters packed their things, after having a nice dinner and dessert; Joshua left the cake with another note saying 'Dig in'. A bit paternal, isn't he? They then used the cover of night to get out of the Silent Forest, go from Oakstown (The guards Imgor met notified him, "You may be a hunter but, we aren't your slaves."), then to the road to Coalstrike! Sadly, no one could afford a carriage ride which would make the trip go much smoother, They'll have to hoof it themselves. Well... Amaryllis could just fly over there herself with her new-found Eagle familiar, but that'd be most rude to her team-mates.

The Quartet would find themselves with Oakstown to their backs on the horizon, and a fire in the distance on the road. Who else would be on the path, and why camp out on it when there's a town right there?

[Eklispe]

Alexander tossed yet another slab of meat into the air and Larion caught it with ease gobbling it down. He really did never stop eating, luckily for the most part he could find food for himself easily. Both Imgor and Sapphire had managed to get themselves impressive pets as well, though of course with a little help from each other. Alexander felt a bit of pride that he had managed to capture his own familiar on his own, but naturally he kept silent. Of the four surprisingly Nick was the only one that came out with a familiar.

Of course given his attitude it was more likely he hadn't found something he deemed worthy rather than the question of finding something at all. His eyes locked onto the fire in the distance, his first thought was of threat analysis. Bandits? No, what bandits would be stupid enough to camp out on the road? One rouge patrol or well armed caravan and they would be finished. But who else would camp out so close to town? "It seems that if we continue on the road we may have company, would it best to pass through or do you think we should avoid them?" Alexander asked to anyone who felt like answering. Avoiding them would be safest but it would also probably be excessively cautious, perhaps one of the others would have a more definite answer.

[NanoFreakV2]

As they walked down the road Sapphire looked overhead up into the sky and observed how the eagle majestically glided while scouting out the area ahead. She was quite surprised how quickly it recovered from the injury sustained when captured. She was fascinated by how the mind of the caster and the familiar are intertwined, both knowing of the others intentions without needing words. And she knew it wasn’t all that pleased with the way it was captured. And it probably also knew that she was thinking about this at the moment. No secrets. The perfect teammate, always knowing what your planning. Fascinating indeed. Also she knew what kind of tactical advantage this posed. Sapphire already had exceptional hearing, and having a pair of eyes in the sky would make it a whole lot easier to pinpoint the exact location of an enemy. She also considered the idea of having the eagle carry her if walking became too cumbersome, but she didn’t want to leave her teammates behind.

It was always one of her more hidden dreams, to soar towards the sky, away from the cruel world that would then lay beneath her. But would she have the courage to do so?

She repressed those thoughts for the moment now moving next to alexander as he spoke.

“I’ll have my familiar go ahead and take a look.”

With that she commanded her familiar to go ahead and observe the fire and nearby area. As she did this a thought crossed her mind. She hadn’t named her yet.

“Ruby . . . I shall name her Ruby.”
‘Hello ruby’ she mentally said to her.

[LHG100]

'Ruby' the Grand-Eagle spread her wings and began to fly, going as high as she could before beginning her reconnaissance. Sapphire would be relayed a mental image of the camp: A dead horse still connected to a carriage, and blood slowly seeping out from the carriages' door. A musket rifle would be on the ground, it must've fell from the carriages' barely open door. You can't tell, but it appears to still be 'loaded'. The fire has shards of glass nearby. It appears to be burning a dead body, and is ready to go out.

Ruby can just smell the scents of viscera, yet thankfully, nothing Plague-like. This was quite recent, at most just scant hours before. The carriage's other door is flung open, and Ruby can barely see a man coming out, carrying something slung over his shoulder. He has an interesting blunderbuss in his right hand and has a large curved scabbard on the same side of his waist, alongside a few Molotov cocktails on his belts' left.

He appears to be wearing Elven armor as well: its' scaled, durable design and dragon-like helmet gives that fact away. He flips down his helmets' visage with a single motion of his neck, covering his face before Ruby can get a good look. He kicks the coach's door behind him, before stowing away his gun to grab and light a Molotov using a magic, then throws it behind him to burn the cart.

He grabs his gun again and begins jogging away from the scene of the crime, the large object he's carrying seems to be a person as Ruby gets a better look.

Well, you have a heavily armed and armored individual kidnapping someone important looking before your very eyes. What shall be your course of action?

[M127]

Iṃgor keeps his familiar below his own location in the ground, so he will always have the possibility to create cover and escape underground quickly, in case he requires it.
He sees the individual leaving the scene in front of him, although cannot make out any finer details yet, but his interest is cought regardless, so he attempts to trace it, failing to do so, as he cannot specify the target sufficiently.
"So, Sapphire, what do you see?"

[NanoFreakV2]

“One . . . bandit by the looks of it, Elven armor, scabbard, pistol, Molotovs and assume he can use fire magic of unknown degree.” Sapphire relayed to them as efficiently as possible.

“There might still be people alive inside the carriage. He also appears to be carrying someone. A kidnapping maybe?”

Sapphire recalled Ruby and as the familiar approached she once more felt rather nervous being in the company of all the team members, but nonetheless she hesitantly explained her plan.

“I . . . Ruby could carry me ahead and I’d be able to distract him from the shadows with my air burst. That would allow you . . . to catch up and finish him off? . . . If we’re going to try and rescue that other person in the first place.”

Ruby began circling above them as Sapphire awaited her teammates’ responses.

[M127]

With the new information, Iṃgor successfully uses the tracking spell to constantly monitor the supposed bandit's location.
"Sounds like a plan, although he cannot escape anymore regardless."
For the first time the glow in Iṃgor's eyes caused by the tracking spell catches his teammates' attention; it was hidden by the daylight before.
He signaled his familiar to also follow, Sapphire could hear the earth being moved below.

[NanoFreakV2]

Sapphire stood there staring ahead at the carriage. Without looking back or even any warning Ruby swooped in and Sapphire raised her forearm above her head with perfect timing. Moments later she was nowhere near the rest of the group but instead flying ahead of them.

Ruby carried her over the carriage and soon enough the bandit came into her view. Ruby lowered her just behind the bandit but still high enough to not be noticed. Once again with perfect synchronization Ruby let go of her arm she dropped right behind the bandit using an air burst to cushion her fall. The next pressure wave was directed at the bandit which sent him flying. As a result of the impact he dropped the unconscious person and before the bandit could do anything about it Ruby swooped in again and grabbed the unconscious person carrying it in the woods to safety. While this was happening Sapphire also did an air burst assisted dash into the woods and began airbursting rocks and various other objects lying on the ground at the bandit from different locations of the woods surrounding the road. Creating air bursts on the opposite side of the road had the advantage of confusing him which prevented him from locating her, but the distance took its toll on her mana reserves. She hoped her team members would arrive before she ran out of her magical energies. Occasionally she also created air bursts near him to throw him off balance and prevent his escape.

With her free hand she took her Kris and from under her cloak and prepared to air burst it into the enemy’s leg as soon as the team arrived.

As she waited and distracted the bandit further she recalled the events right after she had just arrived at the campsite where Joshua was waiting. She had taken the opportunity to practice the move and she thought she had perfected it. The results had been less than pleasing and she remember how the Kris only grazed the tree sending it flying into another nearby one. Not this time, she thought with determination.

[LHG100]

The Bandit stood roughly where he was, and Sapphire could hear him wonder what the shit happened, then laugh. "You! You don't know what you got yourself into, kid!", she and the others could hear him roar. A 'normal' voice, yet hard to listen too, dripping with bitter annoyance. "What are you, some rookie hunter? You should've just walked away, youngling!". The man then points at her, while something reveals itself in the forest.

On a closer look, this may have been a bad idea. very bad.

"SIC HER!", he commanded to his familiar, an overgrown MOUNTAIN LION with Exicus enhanced plate-mail grafted to its' head, torso, and legs! Its' 'helmet' has a small pike attached as a horn, and the sides of its' jaws are augmented with what look to be daggers. As his Familiar goes towards Sapphire to take care of her, he draws his sword, some sort of curved eastern blade, and reveals it's also lined with Exicus runes. He then flicks it with a motion of his hand, as it bursts into magical flames.

"I, Nawar, will not be denied! Give her back at once, and I will not take your life! Forget she even exists!". The Woman he attempted to capture reveals she regained consciousness during all of this and pleads, "N-No! Please! I'll give you anything, just save me from that madman!". Amaryllis can tell she's someone of massive importance: everything about her from her braided, curled hair, expensive looking clothes, and her accent just screams "Noblewoman". "I counter that offer, I'll give the location of one of my stashes!", this 'Nawar' rebukes.

This is an interesting situation... Trust Nawar to hold up his end of the bargain and forget about this whole incident, or try and save the girl and go against Nawar and his armored mountain lion? In addition, his pet is also relatively close to Sapphire, but is waiting for Nawar to give the final orders it seems. It'll still take it a few seconds to even get close to Sapphire or the others, who have not been detected by the Lion or his owner...

[M127]

While Iṃgor approached the site, his mole arrived underground, unnoticed by most due to the debth of its tunnel.
It started creating a little cave in order to destabilize the ground above. While a heightened hearing would sense the movements, the thousands of echoes within the tiny pores of the soil scattered the sound, making it impossible to locate its source, apart from the fact that it was underground.

[NanoFreakV2]

Sapphire heard noise behind her and suddenly she realized she wasn’t alone and hadn’t take into account the fact that there might be others. She swiftly recalled Ruby and prepared another air burst. The next moment her Kris was flying towards the leg of Nawar. She wanted really badly to look if it would hit or not but she didn’t have the time for that. A grin appeared on her face as she heard Nawar grunt as the Knife grazed his leg leaving a sizeable gash behind it. At the same time she could hear the creature she took note of earlier approach and she immediately used and air burst assist to jump over the cover away from what she perceived as being a mountain lion. She was still facing the direction from where the mountain lion was coming but she now was on the road in full view of Nawar. She promptly turned to him. She was pretty sure he was expecting the sight of terrified person. But all he could see was this blue haired hooded girl of small stature . . . grinning at him. Without much doubt this should have enraged him to some degree. She knew . . . from experience, unfortunately, that a fearful or enraged person is not able to think clearly and she used that to her advantage.

The mountain lion emerged from behind her ready to pounce, but so did Ruby. And she was faster. Just as before, while staring Nawar down, she simply raised her forearm and soon enough she was flying towards Nawar with the assistance of Ruby. In his rage Nawar raised his flaming sword above his shoulder with both hands and charged forwards. As she approached, Sapphire used an air burst to deflect the sword and he smacked into her feet face first, sending him flying on his back. As soon as he stood up she was gone. Hidden in different parts of the wood one once more.

“This would be a good time, guys . . .” she thought, hoping her teammates would use the commotion to their advantage.

[LHG100]

Nawar would go to grab his blade again, then laughs. "Wow... that was honestly very clever of you! Hehehe... indeed... I need to remember to not get too riled up, don't I?", he speaks, mainly to himself, as he grabs the blunderbuss he just remembered exists after storing away his flaming blade (after 'deactivating' it, of course). He goes to make sure it's loaded, then grabs two of his remaining Molotovs, which he boredly throws into the thick shrubbery of the forest. "You'll come out, sooner or later, I suppose I don't need her alive anyway.", he mumbles. He then tells his pet to forget about her and secure the perimeter with him, making sure nothing would sneak up on them.

That's when he notices the rumbling of Mega's little pet, he stomps the ground hard to finish its' job for him, crashing the ceiling of its' little cave on it and making a large indent. He'll live, but it'll take some time for him to get out. "Ohhh! So there's others with you too huh? Where's he at? Decent choice for a Familiar too, might I add.". He then lets out a short laugh. "Knowing my luck, there's probably four of you isn't there? Probably right surrounded ain't I? I'd hate to be charged at from three sides like this."

It's curious how he detected Mega's little plot... what's he hiding?

[M127]

Being notified of the collapse by his familiar, Iṃgor stops and aims his bow, preparing to fire.
He uses the still active tracking spell to aim, and while he doesn't expect the arrow to hit, he expects it to at least catch Nawar's attention.
After firing Iṃgor runs perpendicular to Nawar's direction, running around him in a large circle, preparing to shoot again once his former location is out of view.
His teammates should have a chance to get closer undetected.

[Eklispe]

Alexander analyzed the situation carefully as he vaulted onto the burning carriage then leapt off it silently his blade silently arcing through the air to cut the man in half. Meanwhile Larion made his way in front of the man hissing and showing his fangs but not attacking, hopefully keeping the man long enough for Alex to land his attack. Alexander had his doubts about attacking this man, it be best to simply distract the man and flee with his would-be prisoner. After he landed, attack successful or not, he would shout, "Sapphire, get that woman back to town!"

[LHG100]

Nawar Side-steps the arrow, and accidentally makes Alexander miss, amusingly. "I knew it!", he would say. He'd bluntly kick Larion away, 'dash' again towards where he thinks Sapphire would be, and fires off a spread from his shotgun at Alexander, the small, flat pellets he's using were mainly meant for stopping power, not outright killing ability. Thus, Alexander would be stunned for a moment as Nawar would get his bearings. "Tasket!", He'd scream for his Familiar, as it stopped looking for Sapphire to commit to Nawar's mental order. Tasket would quickly come up to Nawar as he jumped on his Familiar and began to ride its' back.

While putting some distance between themselves and the Quartet, the attempted kidnapper would prepare his last batch of molotovs to throw everywhere wildly, to snuff them out, as they returned to the forest to dissapear. The Molotovs landed in a very rough circle all around, being thrown far enough for some of them to land behind Sapphire and Imgor, almost a direct hit in the latters' case, by raw chance.

It's fairly evident what he's attempting to do... He's trying to divide and conquer, making sure the Quartet can't support eachother. His cocktails were the main issue: The flames were oddly long-lasting and produced large amounts of smoke. It was hard to see anything in this quickly developing fog. Quite clever, really. His attempted Prisoner would begin coughing and trying to stop herself from doing so, to not give away their position.

However... Schulze was trained for this. Much better then the others... His honed senses could easily see Nawar and Taskets' little outline even through the thick fog, circling the area and plotting a course of further action. He could just tell their guards were down... It'd be risky, but Nickolaus could do a surprise attack, eliminate one of them nearly immediately through a weakpoint in their armor, such as the neck in Nawar's case. But if Schulze made one mistake (which was a possibility), he'd easily be gutted like a fish.

Alexander was in a decent, if not stellar position... Even the now-burning carriage was a good defensive point, and that Musket near his feet would be highly useful. Imgor was in a much safer, yet a less offensively effective position himself, he could provide 'covering fire' for the others but he could barely do anything in this smoke, it'd be likely to accidentally hit one of his allies. Amaryllis got the victim in her grasp, however, she was likely to be found out with her struggled coughing and breathing, it'd be best for her to retreat, it seems. Or go all out, but her little new-found friend would almost surely be 'injured' at the very least.

Imgor's familiar was about to break free, Larion was watching Alexander's back, and Ruby was trying to pinpoint just where the hell this fierce feline and hunter duo was, after having to deposit Sapphire and the other woman.

So, fight or flight?

[NanoFreakV2]

Ruby still circled just above the tree line with Sapphire observing and waiting for another opening to strike. As she saw Larion distracting Nawar she thought this could be her chance but then she heard Alex shout about the unknown woman, and she knew he was right, especially as the molotovs started flying. She knew the prominent figure was in quite some danger and Ruby got hint too. She carried Sapphire to the woman and dropped her neatly on the ground, without making too much noise.

“Are you hurt, can you walk?” Sapphire asked in a low tone.

In the meantime, Sapphires crimson eagle rose up to the sky once more. Through the smoke she could more or less make out the silhouette of the other team members. Most noteworthy was Imgor who was amidst one of the fires. Sapphire took note of this and instructed Ruby to pick him up.

Without warning Imgor was grabbed by his shoulders and the next thing he knew he was above the fires and the treeline. Sapphire was aware of Alexanders optimal position and knew if there was someone else in a tree also ready to fire, dodging a shot would quite hard, especially with his leg wound from before.

Soon enough Ruby saw a fairly sturdy tree on the side of the road. A shot from this position would perfectly intersect at ninety degrees with that from Alexander. She dropped Imgor off on one of the thicker branches of the tree. The added height of the tree should hopefully allow Alex and Imgor to see each other and coordinate. Sapphire hoped they got the hint on what she had planned.

[LHG100]

The Prisoner replies to your inquiry, "I.. I may walk, yes." In between fits of light coughing. "I breathed in something...", she tries to notify you, but can't finish explaining in between more wheezing. Ruby, meanwhile, relayed information that Imgor is mildly spooked from the suddenness, but is now in that perfect position you requested. Indeed, Imgor would get a perfect shot almost immediately with assistance from his tracking spell, he could let out a decently accurate shot, probably hitting the chest. His armor would make it more of an annoyance if anything, but it'd make it more awkward for him to move as well.

Schulze would seemingly be on the sidelines, cooking something up in his mind. Nawar would load up another round of his Blunderbuss while continuing his stalking, distressingly close to disappearing entirely. Imgor would have to take the shot very soon. Fortunately, his Mole is also on the verge of bursting out of his little prison, waiting for Imgor to give the final order. It's still in a good position to surprise Nawar and his 'Tasket', but it could be directly attacked. Should it wait for a better moment or do it now?

[agentmanatee]

Schulze inhaled very slowly, an opportunity had just been presented to him. He had been biding his time to truly jump into the fray, waiting for an opening to attack this "Nawar". And now he had it.

Unlike the others the smoke was of little hindrance to his eyes... Though his wound from the beast was begging to take effect. Though slightly nauseous, Nickolaus had a perfect shot while Nawar reloaded, he was completely unprepared. Very suddenly, without a word the others, no warning at all, Nickolaus took off, charging what would seem to them a random point in the cloud. He drew his knife as he ran, he was only going to get one shot at this.

Vaulting through the smoke, Nickolaus would see the startled look on Nawar's face as he burst through the smoke while Nawar reloaded. Nickolaus lightly stepped on the Lions head to balance, and brought the dagger (hopefully) into Nawar's neck. If he did, Nickolaus would flip of the lion and retreat back to the others as quickly as he had come. If he missed... far harsher fates awaited him.

[NanoFreakV2]

Sapphire ripped off a part of her cloak wrapped it around her hand, putting it over the woman's mouth to filter some of the smoke and at same time she placed an arm around her waist to help her up.

“We have to move.” She said to her.

All the while Ruby was once again in the air keeping Sapphire appraised of the situation. She saw as Nickolaus charged for an attack. She hoped he would attack Nawars familiar which was less risky than attacking the bandit himself and would make taking out Nawar much easier. Of course remembering Nickolaus’ attitude a while back she assumed he’d go for the bandit. Now the best she could was hope that his attack would be successful and that Imgor and Alexander would be ready to attack the familiar instead.

As soon as Sapphire saw Schulze merely stepping on the lion and moving forward she commanded Ruby to fly lower and closer to them. If he’s attack failed maybe Ruby would be able to extract him in time out of the hazardous situation. Sapphire hoped it would not come to that.