An Adventure For The Hell Of It

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Sitting rigidly on Shadow Walker's rather expansive back, Dex craned his neck downwards as he tried to look at Emdal. "Yup. That I am. You might have heard of me: Dex, master of portraiture." He laughed, gesturing at himself with an exaggerated flourish. "...Eh. That sounded a lot lamer than it did in my head."

Reaching back to pat the shoddy lump of fabric hanging on his back, he tilted his head invitingly."I've got a few pictures in here, actually. Wanna see?"
 
Tala started to move on, guiding her horse down the road once again. "C'mon we're losing time." She rode in silence at the front of the group for awhile as they chatted, thinking over whether it was a good idea to have let Dex join the team at a time like this. The Adventure group had done it before, she knew that personally, for she herself had been picked up off the road with a completely different set of members on their way to a mission. Members who had moved on or passed away through years, all of them long gone now except for Trist who had joined a bit before she had. Tala knew the confusion and complete and utter bewilderment she had felt when she - as a new member - had suddenly been thrown into a difficult mission with people she had barely met. But they had protected her and helped her when the mission got tough. Later she would find out that the group had used the mission as a sort of test to see if they could trust the young wolf girl with their lives whilst making sure she didn't get herself killed in the process. A harsh introduction to Adventure, but she didn't mind as she knew experiences and adventure was the whole reason she had been on that road instead of home. Not everyone, though, thought like her. So she decided she would let Dex know what he had gotten into, just like the rest of the newer members.

The leader brought Fawn up beside Shadow Walker and looked at the invisible man with a small smile. "I need you to know that we're going to a mission. Pretty dangerous. I wanted to know if you're up for the task, and if not we can drop you off some safe place along the road before we get there...which won't be long now. I assume you have a few tricks up your sleeves when it comes to combat? You know, other than spontaneous combustion and painting." She pursed her lips a bit, hoping she didn't sound too calm about it.

(I think we should arrive at the area the manticore and it's group roams about verrrryyy soon.)
 
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Dex nodded. Emdal had mentioned something about an 'adventure group', so that made sense.
"...Dangerous, huh? I see." He hummed tunelessly as he considered her offer. He could ask them to take him somewhere safe. He liked safe. Years of adolescent tomfoolery had taught him that actively looking for danger was stupid as all hell and usually resulted in all sorts of pain, misery, and suffering.
...On the other hand, maybe he'd been simply extremely unlucky until now. Pain and misery or not, these had been some of the best days in his life. Besides, safe was boring. And lonely.

He was so sick of boring.
"Well, since you say we're almost there, dropping me off would be a waste of your time, yeah? Besides, I owe you one. Y'know, for picking me up. I'd love to help out if I can. " Dex absent-mindedly cracked a knuckle; Yeah, he wasn't some scruffy thief skulking around town anymore. He could do magic now. He had two fistfuls of magic fireballs. He could do this.
"...And if I can't.... Well. I'll stay out of your way. I'm good at that," he added dryly.

"And enough about the spontaneous combustion, please. It was stupid and I would reeeeeeeally like to forget about it."
 
Aois, who'd steered her horse to move onward, couldn't help but giggle a bit at the way the male was talking. His help would be appreciated, though she wasn't too sure how well fire would work on a Manticore. Hopefully Dex knew other forms of magic. Even if he didn't, he'd still be of use. After all, other than her ability of stealth and spirit interaction, her skills would be of limited aid to the group in this latest mission.

The pure white horse came to a stop as they neared their destination. They stood out over a small cliff overlooking some ancient ruins. There were a few tents scattered about the outside, but there was little sign of the manticore's presence there. It was likely that him and some of his underlings were taking up their time in the ruins right now. Perhaps they held treasures that the group sought to take on for themselves. Regardless of the reason, now would be the perfect time for the group to set up.

It was needless to say that preparing an ambush while the group was unaware of their presence was probably the best course of action. The manticore would be restricted to the space of the ruins' entrance, while they'd have all the moving space of the grassy plain before them at their disposal. Her role, however, would be to strike from an unseen location.

The young spiritualist made her way over towards the young girl who'd made their acquaintance only a short while ago. "I believe you're to come with me," she told Emdal. "Can you climb at all? We'll need to take up a position in one of these trees."
 
The twins sat quietly as the others spoke. When Aois returned they looked up. "You've returned." "What did you see?" They called out to her. The two wanted to devise a strategy before the group arrived, since they always fought as a duo. Their thoughts were broken however when a loud yell broke out from the direction of the ruins. "What was that?" They both said simultaneously.
 
Just as Emdal was about to start bragging about how she was very much capable of climbing and had once scaled a small mountain in two days, the twins began to speak. Thinking that the answer to Nova and Avon's first question would be more interesting to hear than her bragging would be to say, she stayed quiet and waited for her answer. What had she found?

Then there was an interruption -- a shout, and the twins spoke up. "Aois, hey, let's hide before someone sees us!" she said, tugging lightly on the older girl's sleeve. She felt it was important that even if the others were seen, the two of them should hide, so if necessary they could do a sneak-attack in case something went wrong.

@Crono @Chaikit
 
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Aois turned towards the twins when they spoke, trying to ignore the loud bang for a moment. "There's an encampment. It seems to be that of the manticore, judging from the size of one of the tents."

She broke her eye contact with the twins to look over at Aly and Tala. "There are also some ruins near the tents. The enemies seem to be inside at the moment. I suggest an ambush for when they leave, granted that sound we just heard a moment ago wasn't them already doing so."

Her message relayed, she lastly turned her attention towards the small girl at her side. She held a confident, yet easygoing smile that seemed to be an attempt to calm the younger female. "You, me, and my spirit friend will stay up in that tree over there and offer assistance from the shadows. If you can keep a good eye out for any enemies that might attack us, that would be very helpful." After reassuring the young girl, Aois' turned back towards the leaders, waiting for their cue to move out.

@WhiteWolfKC @Rilette @CynderTheDragoness @Crono
 
Tala got off of her horse with a sigh and began to stretch. She gave a big sigh and looked at everyone as they prepared to move out. "We need a plan before we rush in. Due to our numbers, I would prefer to take them by complete surprise and do this as quick as possible" She paused as another yell was heard in the direction of the ruins, "...especially with slaying that manticore. Any ideas?" She crossed her arms. She felt tense, so close to their enemies. She was ready for the fight to come and hoped they'd find Trist and get him to safety soon, but first, they needed to plan thoroughly.
 
Well. That was fast. Tala hadn't been kidding when she said "won't be long now". Dex looked over at the encampment; apparently their opponents weren't very big on stealth. They were making such a ruckus, any idiot could hear them a mile away. Now, he still had no idea what their 'dangerous mission' was, but based on what the others had said it probably included something about beating up those rowdy chaps. Plus something about a manticore.

...Oh.....kay.
He needed to be armed for this stuff. Fireballs won't cut it in a group brawl. He checked his things: Knife? Check. Backup knives? Check. Blackjack? In his bag, as it should be.Tube of foul-tasting paint? Yup. Perfect.
"Well, I could go scout it out, if you'd like. I'm pretty good at that." He held out a hand. "Actually, scratch that. I'm amazing at that stuff." He took a step back, closing his eyes, and focused. Inner peace, that was the key to true stealth-ing. Inner peace and a well-placed curse.
A few seconds later, Dex's ratty form flickered, then vanished completely as the air appeared to swallow him. "Like this, see? I'm not too sure about slaying anything but I can sneak in and blow up stuff if you need me to." Reappearing a few steps away from his original position, he patted imaginary dust off his arms as he shivered slightly. "Uurgh, that still feels weird... Anyway. You're attacking those guys, right? Need me to look for anything? Or burn anything?"
 
Damon got off the horse again and looked around. Planning and forethought weren't his specialty, so the only thing he could think of was following the manticore into the ruins. However, he didn't even know what they were until earlier that day, much less if he could take one, not to mention any reasons to go there in the first place. The only other thing he could think of was sneaking in the camp, and not only had Dex already volunteered for that, he was more suited for the job. "Unless we need someone to go inside the ruins, I got nothing."
 
Aly dismounted Shadow Walker. The black stallion stamped his hoof and shook his head. He knew he was going to be asked to stay on the ridge. Aly sighed. "Shadow Walker, I will not have you and your herd unnecessarily being injured in this battle." She stroked the horse's strong neck. "I promised you I would find your stolen mares." The stallion shorted. -Kill the unnatural thing that drove us out of lush grazing lands.- The male voice was only heard by Aly in her mind. It was Shadow Walker 's voice. Aly nodded. "That was the plan." Aly turned to her human companions. "Dex, great idea. If you can provide a diversion to allow us to slip by undetected our mission will pass that much more smoothly. Divert the attention of the Manticore's underlings long enough for one of us to reach the creature."
 
The twins were distracted by the yell and only just caught Aois's words. They knew that sort of yell. It wasn't a 'hey let's get those adventurers!' sort of yell. It was that sort of yell. "That was the yell of a man being chopped in half." "Someone is already fighting the bandits." "The manticore mustn't be with them." "We would have heard it." Their voices seemed distressed by this, though it was not clear why.
 
Tala's frown just keeping deeper and deeper in thought. "I don't like the idea of only Dex going to scope out the situation, since he's very new to this..." She looked at Dex as he disappeared and reappeared. "Although that could be very useful.." Tala sighed and ran a hand through her hair in thought before looking at everyone once again. "Alright, here's the plan, Emdal and Aois are definitely going to hide in a tree, give us some cover if need be." She gave Emdal a small smile before continuing, "Dex and Damon, you two need to distract the Manticore's underlings as best you can. James, you help them out in case any of them try to stay and guard the way to the Manticore, try to get an opening for Aly, Nova, Avon, and myself. We'll try to lead the Manticore out so we fight him as a group. After that, we have at the Manticore and anyone opposing us."

Tala immediately stopped talking as she heard more yells coming from the camp. "Damn...someone's alrighty fighting them...okay, is everyone read-" She was cut off as an arrow zipped passed her, leaving a gash on her neck though she didn't feel it yet. Her head snapped immediately towards the direction where the arrow came from, and there stood a terrified man with another arrow at the ready. "DONT COME ANY CLOSER! I KNEW SHE WASN'T ALONE! I-I may have ran away but maybe I won't be k-killed for running i-if I kill her backup! N-Now just stay still and I'll just pick you off one by one!"


("She" being Tricnik, cause I believe she's already fighting the bandits, if not tell me so I can edit this quickly. Anywho, This is what I came up with yay!)
@Rilette
@CynderTheDragoness
@Chaikit
@toast
@Crono
@Michael Kokirin
@Rupee
 
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Damon turned to the man as he was speaking, not noticing the wound on Tala's neck, and immediately let impulse take control. He quickly duck low and ran forward. The man, his panic and suprise, launched the arrow at where Damon's head should've been instead of where it was, so he didn't stand any chance as Damon tackled him to the ground and placed his knife at his throat. "Sorry, I always have trouble staying still when someone's aiming an arrow at me. Now who's this person you think we're with?"
 
The entire group was taken by surprise when a male suddenly shot an arrow towards them. It grazed across Tala's neck and barely missed their new companion's head. Damon was quick to follow through on his dodge and tackle the male to the ground.

The spiritualist examined his energies. Frenzied and willing to try just about anything. As expected. They didn't have much time before everything went crazy, and they'd still had no idea where their lost member was.

The shorter female would feel a tug on her sleeve as Aois started making her way towards a tree that was a ways off. "We'll need to go now if we want our stealth approach to still be viable." She turned her head towards the left, away from the enemy. "Are you ready?" she seemed to ask thin air, but a sort of bow quickly materialized in her hand. It wasn't one that could be seen by normal people. It was, after all, still the spirit. He was merely in the shape of a bow now.

"Stay close and low," she told Emdal. "They shouldn't notice us so long as we stay in this tree."

@Rilette
 
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An arrow flew last Aly's head and her jet black mound reared a.d screamed. It was not s frightened scream, but more a challenge. In one swift motion, the Wild Mage leapt from the stallion's back and landed lightly on her feet, her blade drawn. She was about to strike her first blow when the archer was thrown off balance. "Nice work Damon." She stepped forward and pressed the tip of her sword in the hollow of the archer's throat. "You were unwise to leave your post."
 
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Dex leaned over to stare at the considerably panicked and possibly suicidal archer. The poor man was now half-crushed under Damon's weight, with two very sharp objects at his throat. A very uncomfortable position.

Well, the more discomfort, the better. After a few well-calculated seconds of unsettling silence, he pulled his lips back to give the terrified man his best disembodied leer. 'Pick you off one by one,' eh? Served him right for being stupid enough to attack them. Why had he been shooting arrows, anyway? Hadn't he realised that arrows were long distance weapons? This guy had been close enough to spit on, and he'd missed. Was this guy even an archer?

Tutting quietly, Dex turned his attention to Tala. "Um, hey.... You alright? I think he scratched ya on the neck a bit...." He shrugged- It probably wasn't anything too serious. She was still standing, right? Definitely not clutching her throat or making those weird bubbly noises. Yeah. it was probably fine. Nobody else seemed too worried, anyways.

He nodded towards the poor archer."This is one of the Manticore's underlings, right? He must be reaaaally scary if this deserter guy was desperate enough to shoot at us instead of legging it like a sensible person."

He grinned at the 'deserter guy' again. "Ooooh, now I'm curious too; What made ya run away in the first place? G'wan, answer the nice man with the knife already!"
 
When the arrow was loosed, Emdal flinched back, though she was nowhere close to the place where it flew by. She quietly followed Aois and scampered silently up the tree when they reached it. Her motions were practiced like a monkey's, and smooth like a cat's. As the older girl asked "Are you ready?" Emdal was about to ask for what, but then saw her hand close around the air... but not quite, as if she were holding something.

After Emdal had responded to Aois's later comment by crouching lower to the woody limb she clung to, she spoke up. "Was that another spirit-related thing?" the observant girl whispered, though there was a chance she spoke too quietly to comprehend. Her dark amber eyes stayed trained on the scene ahead, peeking between gaps in the leaves.

@Chaikit
 
Aois clutched the bow in her hands and peered through the shrubbery before them. It was easy to see the ruins from here. The manticore didn't seem to have shown himself yet, but there was a lone girl fighting some of the manticore's men. Along with them, there were several spirits wandering around. They wouldn't bother anyone, so long as no one messed with whatever treasures they were tied to within the ruins.

The girl broke her gaze when the younger one beside her asked her about what she was holding. "Yes, it's a bow of sorts. Finn transformed into one." She loosened her grip on her weapon a bit. "This one doesn't do any physical damage though. This bow can only harm the soul. Of course, in a way, that's even more dangerous injury than a flesh wound."

It was true. She didn't attack enemies physically, but instead attacked the spirits within them. If damaged enough, the soul would vanish and the being would cease to exist. It took a lot out of her, though, and it took a while to charge up a shot. It was all she could do though. She wasn't as strong and tough as the other members of their company. A one on one, hand to hand combat match would easily be lost in her hands. Being the support was enough though. Especially if she could quickly dispatch enemies, given enough time to prepare her skills.

@Rilette
@toast
 
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Tricnik was very disappointed. She had found this group of psychotic bandits hoping they would prove the master blacksmith a solid challenge, but as they circled around her yelling and screaming with the same old 'I'll eat your flesh' routine she progressively lost faith. "Where do yeh find somebody with a bloody ounce of skill around here? Jesus wept yer not even trying!" She complained as after using her heavy ax as a shield from some arrows she turned two brigands into four half-brigands.

The twins swiftly added to the blades pointed at their assailant. Nova and Avon poked their rapiers into the man's forehead, just hard enough to draw blood. "Answer the question please." "Or you will die." Their words were frighteningly cold despite the smiles on their faces. Every few seconds one of the two's eyes would twitch.

@WhiteWolfKC
 
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