Cyclone

The Horde of Evil - Tresspassing through treacherous tribes' territory! (RP closed)

Faeles stopped upon spying Clotho as she darted towards him. "I had thought to save the rabbit, but now it looks as if the fire demon is the one that might need saving," he answered Clotho's sharp inquiry with an amused tone, as if this was some sort of game.

"Do you suggest that we remain hidden and let the reckless fool get himself killed?" Though the strange demon spoke with words blunt as a millstone, almost to the point of sounding sarcastic, his tone and the devious look in his eyes meant that he was considering it. Truth be told, he only cared for keeping up appearances for so long as he stayed in this 'Horde'. The fate of Torrens and D'Artagne was of little concern to him.

"Or do you hope to deescalate this disaster of a scouting foray and negotiate with the orcs? That would interesting, though we would have to move quickly to salvage this situation now." The Arch-Thief cackled at the idea, looking eagerly to Clotho for her response.

Meanwhile, the tumultuous brawl inside of the orcish village stopped as soon as it began. The sudden pyroblast launched by Torrens engulfed one of the tents immediately and immolated several nearby ones purely from the resulting heat and embers. In doing so it incinerated two or three orcs that had the poor fortune of being inside the tent or too close, and it singed a dozen more. Needless to say, a wave of panic swept through what were usually ferocious warriors. Undisciplined as the orcs were, the result was utter havoc. D'Artagne might be able to simple run through the village at this point without anyone caring; the orcs had greater threats to deal with than some sort of little rabbit-man in their village.

Most of the orcs rallied and moved to sally out and meet their attacker, but others were terrified to the point that they fought their way through the surging crowds to retreat deeper into the village. Upon setting sight upon the living inferno that was Torrens, the tide of orcs that were fleeing grew somewhat greater in numbers.

Torrens would find himself soon faced with about a dozen warriors charging at him in an attempt to defend their village, heroic to the point of stupidity. Countless others poured out as well (this was no small settlement, and it seemed that nearly every orc was a warrior of some sort) though they shied back a bit, too timid to approach a fire demon.

Meanwhile, atop a nearby bluff that overlooked the way up to the village, Captain Mog suddenly awakened to a pounding headache. His head throbbed; he looked down to his horn of grog and saw the thing dry as a desert. His fellow 'watchmen' were collapsed on the ground, slumbering for their mid-watch nap. As Mog peered down to see his village on fire, he blinked several times. His rather slow mind took several seconds to process the image shown by his eyes, though in all fairness his vision was glazed and his eyes tired.

With a start, he kicked the others awake. "Bad guys! Shoot them! Shoot them! I go get shaman!" The other guards stumbled to their feet, grabbed their warbows, and arranged themselves into a line to prepare firing on those below. By that time, Mog was already sprinting like a mountain goat down a narrow dirt path that led to Gormlag's hut; the ragtag mob might fall to the burning creature that was attacking the village, but the mighty shaman would not be easily bested. He even had the power to call the king!

It would be about fifteen seconds after the warriors charged at Torrens that the archers would begin to shoot. In that time, if Clotho moved she might too be seen from above and catch the attention of the archers above.

The Horde of Evil - Tresspassing through treacherous tribes' territory! (RP closed)

Sounds good. After that, I'm just wondering if I should wait for @Lugubrious before moving on.

The Horde of Evil - Tresspassing through treacherous tribes' territory! (RP closed)

@Eviledd1984

Not quite sure what you're asking.

Originally everyone was scouting to find out where the orcs were and if they were going to be hostile. Of course, at this point the little scouting mission has turned into something more like a full-blown battle.

The orcs currently don't know that D'Artagne is there. They're just fighting each other. Of course, Torrens threw a fireball into the middle of their town so that will probably get their attention.

The Horde of Evil - Tresspassing through treacherous tribes' territory! (RP closed)

@Kangutso

I'm still up for it, if you were waiting on word from me.

The Horde of Evil - Tresspassing through treacherous tribes' territory! (RP closed)

Faeles silently regarded D'Artagne, the rabbit having unilaterally proclaimed himself leader and then charged off, before stopping to apologize and wait just long enough for them to catch up before he went on again. The two abyssal eyes from within his hood turned towards Clotho, and for a moment his burning gaze locked with hers. Perhaps she sense a small fraction of the disdain and mockery that dwelled within his thoughts, but then the fleeting moment would be over in an instant once Faeles slunk off.

He kept a distance from the others and always hugged the canyon walls where they existed or kept low to the ground where there was no cover, obviously skilled in this sort of stealthy work. His movements were deft and skillful even as he traversed the roughest terrain, his feet both fleet and utterly silent. So it was that he crept along in the shade, always just within sight of the others.

While the rabbit D'Artagne crept forth, Torrens hung back, and Clotho looked on from far above as an invisible speck in the sky, three orcs sat in the crude tent near D'Artagne, the opening wide open for the scout to peer in. The trio of orcish warrior growled to one another in their characteristic gutteral speak, already in the middle of a conversation. "...elders speak well of Gormlag. Say he already great shaman. Gonna lead tribe to glory! War! Finally sack lowlands!"

During his bellowing, that orc chugged from a horn of grog so strong and foul a medicine that its overpowering odor killed any of the buzzing flies that came too close.

A second one sat nearby, fletching a wicked set of arrows with jagged tips of rusty iron, dipping their heads into a pot of some sort of oily poison before tossing them into a quiver. It was a third one that spoke, however, this one roasting a boar over an open fire. "Strong orc, maybe, but dumb one. Set own hands on fire! Fused them with stone!"

"Smart orc! Good warlord! Better than old shaman," the drunken warrior roared back, seemingly taking personal offense.

"Old shaman better! I go right up to top of hill and tell Gormlag, then smash his face!"

"No, I smash your face for shaman! He reward me for your head!"

"Da king laugh when I give him skull of both you and Gormlag! Gormalg no deserve da powers king gave him!"

The petty argument quickly devolved into a drunken brawl, and the pounding of footsteps heralded the impending arrival of what would most likely be more belligerent orcs. It might be best that D'Artagne find Torrens and the others now, before he get caught in the middle of that fight...

Meanwhile, outside the orcs' settlement Faeles sat near Torrens. Lazily he glanced towards the dying light of what little crack of dusky sky there was to see from where they sat at the bottom of a canyon. At last, his set of sharp eyes spied Clotho far above. Oh, if only she knew how much danger she was in up there. A light chuckle escaped from Faeles, the thought of the orcs' king coming down from its throne atop the mountain to squash the fly that dared trespass through his domain in the clouds.

Awkwardly glancing towards Torrens, Faeles attempted to start a conversation. Laughing ominously to himself would do no good. "I do believe that I heard some peasant farmer mention these orcs having a king, once I held a knife to his throat and started asking questions," he spoke in a low tone so as to not draw the attention of anything that might be near. Upon mentioning his knife, he procured from within his handwraps one of his hidden blades and began to skillfully flick it about with one hand.

He continued, "Yes, there was something unusual about this 'king' though, from the way I recall...I think that their king is a giant bird, one of the windrocs of legend? Or no, perhaps his little tale had their king a great bat, the way he spun it. Oh, if only my memory would serve so reliably as this blade..." The demon chuckled again, his echoing laughter somewhat disconcerting. He actually remembered quite well what their king was, and he eagerly awaited seeing the look on the face of that fool that all these called 'Master' when he learned just what sort of being had managed to terrify these orcs to the point where they served at its whim and worshiped it as a god of war. Oh how they would all cower when they beheld the true lord of these mountains!

Suddenly, the sound of the brawling orcs caught Faeles ears. He looked towards Torrens with what seemed an amusement of amusement and pity, incorrectly assuming that D'Artagne had caught the orcs' attention. Still, he would probably prove to be right in anticipating that the rabbit might soon find himself in dire need of help."Shall we?" he whispered, already skulking towards the village in that effortlessly dexterous manner of his.

The Horde of Evil - Tresspassing through treacherous tribes' territory! (RP closed)

I know I've been taking a while, but I'll try to get a post out either tomorrow or the following day.

Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay (Rebooted)

You've been treading the line between having something of a major plot/lore and a total sandbox. IMO this is about the worst place to be. Like I said, having Fate and Invictus so vague and mysterious was the main reason I didn't find them appealing. As I remember it, the two also did little to actually create a major plot or foster interaction, which are the two things that sandboxes lack and which make them slow down and die once people don't know what to post.

Some introspection leads me to agree with you that a total sandbox is bad, but I still think it might behoove you to not use Fate and Invictus as such and either give them a more active role or opt for something else. Well, there's my two cents. See you guys come summer!

Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay (Rebooted)

@Hael

A valid point. I never really experienced a lack of direction because I had a demigod and naturally Ialu was concerned about just grabbing as much power as he could in a bid for divinity.

But it's not like overthrowing Fate/Invictus is the only sort of plot that's feasible. There was that whole thing with Escre for example.

Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay (Rebooted)

@Kho

Not really. We could just as easily say that our pantheon of gods synthesized themselves into existence and then created the Universe as we could say that they were created by other beings. And this idea of rebellion was equally pointless due to the level of mystery that you bestowed upon them. Rebel against them to take their position as guardians against what? I found myself utterly uncaring for that whole potential plot.

Granted the matter of their inclusion os a comparatively minor thing in my opinion, but I'm just stating my honest thoughts regarding their supposed necessity. I'm interested in hearing what the others think.

Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay (Rebooted)

To be clear, my stance is the same as Hael's.