Morthral'Tor, Walls
Looking left and right atop the walls of the frigged fortress, the heir to the throne of the Empire was stepping about the wall. Her blade was unsheathed, both hands tightly gripping the handle. Around her the wall was deserted to make room for training, the unforgiving mountainous wind assaulted her skin and caused her to shudder. Pressing her arms against her body to try and warm herself, her eyes follow the aged man in front of her. Just shy of his fifties, yet, he seemed completely unhindered by the cold winds howling past him. "Quintin, why did we have to train atop a wall?" She asks with agitation as she pants. They had been dueling for nearly half an hour, she had tried time and time again to take him down only to watch him flee here, or there. The older man smiled slyly. "Getting exhausted kiddo?"
"You win again Quintin." Rolnye mutters under her breath, frost passing from her lips in a manner that made Quintin's smile grow a little. "The youth never learn to hold back." Blinking with confusion as she's brought to her feet, the heir couldn't help but rub her wrist gingerly. "Why should I? I'm stronger than you, I'm faster." Quintin taps her head. "You're not faster where it counts. You exhausted yourself in your zealous pursuit." Looking down into the courtyard that was slowly massing with troops of various races, she couldn't help but remain confused. Her eyes narrow. Something was going on. "Most battles don't last for thirty minutes. Zealotry seems to work for some of Father's men." Quintin sighs and grasps her shoulder, causing her to flinch momentarily and take a step back, glaring at him. He was trying to be friendly, she didn't like people touching her like that. Not most, anyway. "You're right. Most battles last for days, strategically moving forces left and right and skirmishing without committing. You only commit when you corner or exhaust the opponent." He sheathes his blade and follows her gaze back to the Courtyard. He was also suspicious, and showed it in how his shoulders grew instinctively tense. "As for the zealots... Their job is to listen and die as ordered. Your job is to ensure that as few of them die as possible in the process, as the heir to this... Planned empire."
Rolnye seems to mull the thought over, watching as Quintin turned to go to the nearest set of stairs down into the courtyard. Her grip tightened on the handle of her blade as she stared at his back. Still... Her grip loosened as she took a deep breath.
He has his uses, father would not approve. She hesitantly sheathes her blade and follows Quintin.
Morthral'Tor, Courtyard
As Quintin and Rolnye descend into the courtyard, they see Skooza making his way through the crowd of zealots that barely noticed him. Growling in annoyance, the heir looked down at the rat and looked around at the crowd. "Care to tell me what's going on, Skooza?" She says with a soft tone of voice as Quintin looks to Rolnye. She hid her true emotions well. Skooza nods excitedly as he looks back toward the crowd of soldiers. "Was coming to tell you! Yes! Caravan of shinies passing through, forgot to pay their dues, in lue of permission, we borrow with the BOOMS!" His snout twitches as he looks up at Quintin. "You were desired by Turios! You come now, yes?" Quintin nods, and the trio quickly make their way to the front of the crowd. While the zealots paid no mind to Skooza, they quickly made way for the heir, many bowing their heads in respect of the bloodline. Reaching the front of the unit, there stood the large, decrepit form of a once handsome man, whose armour shined as bright as the snow. He looks around at his men and nods appreciatively to Quintin, then smiles to his daughter, who bows her head in respect to her father.
Turios.
"Men! Start moving out of the castle, we will march towards the ambush site within the hour!" The raspy voice commanded telepathically. As the men begin to mobilize he quietly steps towards Quintin and Rolnye. His chest moved with breath, yet, he didn't particularly have a need to breath. "Quintin, you will remain here and in charge of the castle. Rolnye, you will accompany me." Quintin nods and salutes. "Yes sir." Rolnye beams happily and quickly descends down the steps towards the exit to the castle. This was her chance to prove herself, she would not mess up. Turios watches her leave, then turns back to Quintin as the aged commander asked a question. "How many are you taking?" Turios motions to the troops as they continue to leave the courtyard. "Four hundred Skaven Tunnelers, two hundred Skaven Clan-Rats, four hundred Human fanatics, two hundred Human archers, and two hundred Nightmare Black Horsemen. I'm also taking Skooza, Droshaka, Mist & Fog, and of course, my daughter." Quintin quirks an eyebrow. "Bit large for a raiding party, isn't it?" Turios nods. "We're hitting a tax caravan heading to the Wall. There are only a hundred fifty guardsmen. They must be well trained, so we must overwhelm them with power and numbers quickly to reduce casualties." The aged commander scratches his chin, but ultimately nods once more. "...You really can't think of any other action but to nod, can you." Turios says with a whimsical tone to his voice. Quintin chuckles. "Old habits die hard. The life of a militiaman is not particularly flexible if you take it seriously." Turios nods, and the both of them laugh as Turios waves his friend goodbye, leaving the fortress to join his men. Quintin watches him pass and stares after him, resting his hand on his blade. "Keep an eye on your daughter, old friend." He mutters out of earshot before leaving to attend his duties.
Ambush Site: Ravine,
a few hours later...
Having arrived at the ambush site ahead of their targets by hours, Turios quickly set his plans into motion. There was a 30 foot wide ravine, winding its way along the path that the caravan would show up in. So without further adieu he looks to Fog, then to the ravine. "In combination with the tunnelers, I want you to carve out a path between 10-15 feet high on the northern half of the wall, about one hundred feet away from corner. Make it large enough to get two hundred of our clan rats inside, yourself, and your sibling." Skooza snorts as he pulls a small pack off his back and hands a busted, rickety looking explosive to Turios. "Flare! Loud noise! Whooooosh! Distract enemies, tell nightmares to charge!" Turios nods in approval. "Good." Turios grabs the rocket and Skooza jumps back, causing Turios to quirk an eyebrow curiously. "Ahh... Fragile! Not so ah... So good, yes? To just rip away from poor Skooza's claws?" Turios glances at the small explosive. "This wouldn't hurt me." Skooza chuckles nervously, even a little manically. "No, but it would ruin your good looks." He smirks mischievously, his snout twitches as Turios smirks back. "Right." Turning towards Droshaka Novol, he motions towards the nightmares. "You want a glorious battle? This will not likely sate your thirst for it. Is that alright?" The minotaur snorts and grinds one of his hoofs into the dirt below in anticipation. There was an eager look to his eyes. "Battle is an old friend, any battle is good to me." The minotaur looks back at the nightmares. "How will this be relevant to me however?" Turios points down into the valley, at the bend where Fog and the tunnelers had already started digging. "You will position yourself there, with the nightmares, and wait. The moment you hear this noisemaker, charge into the enemy. We're going to be raining arrows from both sides at them, from multiple angles, so your job is purely to clean up whatever it is that remains standing, understood?" Droshaka spits in the dirt at Turios feet. "You're right. Not much of a fight... But I'll take it."
Rolnye watches the others preparing, her eyes moving to her father as she noticed an omission of orders for her. Approaching quietly behind him, she raises her hand and draws in breath only to watch her father turn and look at her with a grave look. "You will stay by my side." Rolnye bites her lip, disappointed, but not intending to argue with her father. "... I will." As the two continue to look at each other, the tension in the air quickly dies, and Turios draws his daughter into gentle embrace. His skin was cold to the touch. "I know you're eager to prove yourself, but one step at a time my daughter. First learn my tactics. When the time is right, you will lead by my order, and others will follow. Trust me." Rolnye nuzzles into her father's chest and rests her hands against his shoulders. "I know that... I am your daughter, you are my father. You know what is best." The two hold each other for a moment longer before Turios lets go, allowing her to step away from him. "Ready yourself. They'll be here soon... And, while you're at it, position the zealots in a defensive line around the archers, then take the archers to the edges of the ravine, but keep them hidden just a few feet away from the edge. When the time is right they'll burst out of cover and fire a volley down."
Ambush Site: Ravine,
It Begins...
(Collaborative: Brovo & Kadaeux.)
As the caravan approached, Skooza peered over the edge cautiously. He wasn't spotted, and squirmed with delight at the edge of the ravine as the guards and the wagons started to pass underneath him, and the hidden group of his Skaven brethren in the walls. His pure, unbridled excitement ellicited a roll of the eyes from Rolnye as he looks back at Turios and nods rapidly. Turios smiles, and this makes Skooza screech in joy as he lights the jerryrigged signal flare/noisemaker. It descends down into the ravine, deflecting off of the opposite wall as it sent sparks flying behind it. Turios uses his telepathic command and looks down at the ground, where his men were hidden. "Now." Fog uses her magic to push the rocks out, giving the Skaven clear line of fire. The rocks were intentionally made lighter, to both prevent damage to the wagons and to put less weight on her to succeed. Human archers descend to each side of the ravine and look to fire down into the caravan, all the while less than a hundred feet away at the corner of the ravine, Droshaka howls with rage and charges forth with the nightmare riders, inspiring them with his natural leadership to use their shadow teleportation as part of their charge into the enemy. Having 30 feet wide to work with, there would be plenty of shadows, and plenty of room.
The Ambush itself went off without a hitch the rocks raining down on the column protecting the tax coaches and the archers dropping no less than twenty of the enemy in the first volley. But then a booming voice rang out.
"TURTLE FORMATION. Protect the coaches!" It appeared to be an Ogre in mixed plate and mail wielding a shield as large as a coaches roof as the troops began bunching around the wagons creating a shield wall as those in the centre raised shields over their heads.
"We cannot falter!" The Ogre said bashing in one of the Myrdraal's half-faces with his shield dropping it like a sack of potatoes.
"Fog, use your Earth magic to destabilize the ground beneath them." The Nightmare complies with a giggle as she looks down at the ground and attempts to use her magic to screw up their footing. The Skaven take aim as Droshaka continues to charge forward.
"Attack on all sides save the one the Skaven are firing from!" He yells viciously. Meanwhile, up above, Turios takes a great bow and narrows his eyes at the ogre, taking aim to hit him specifically. Pulling back the bow string with his greater strength, he hoped to pierce the Ogre's armour easily, while Droshaka kept his attention front and center. He was, at this point, gambling on the aura of fear to wane on the human soldiers after their leader was felled.
Fog's enthusiasm was too much and she overcast the spell, the whole ravine quaking and throwing off Turios's aim as the rest of the assault went more smoothly, the Skaven foot-troops joined the Fanatics and Nightmares in the assault, despite their quick reaction the Ogres quick orders weren't enough soon enough and a full half of the guards were slain in battle joined by almost forty of the fanatics being slain in the close melee. But the guards were shaking as the Nightmares pressed deeper into their ranks.
Rolnye watches, eyes wide, as the entire ravine shook. Blood was spilled in the depths below of her own shoulders yet she did not flinch as she grabbed a bow from one of the archers and decided to mimic her father's intuition, aiming for the ogre. This time, both Turios and Rolnye fired at the Ogre as Droshaka down below charges and berserks, seeing the guards slowly fall.
"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!" The minotaur yelled and whooped as a fanatic fell dead beside him. Fog however wasn't content with her failure, and seeing as how she had no other orders, attempted the same Earth magic attack again. As some of the Skaven attack again, Skooza screeched and whooped with glee.
"GO BROTHERS! NIP THEIR HEELS!" It was completely futile for them to hear him, but he screamed nonetheless.
Despite Fog screwing the pooch again with her magic everyone else seemed on the mark though the Ogre stood with two arrows in his chest and looking pissed off the rest of the guards began to simply get slaughtered out of hand and attempt to escape the ravine running for their lives. Turios could hear screaming from the centre coach that was decidedly un-taxmanlike.
Having routed nearly the entire force, Turios quickly issues telepathic commands, telling a handful of his nightmares to secure any surviving prisoners inside the coaches whilst directing the remaining nightmares, fanatics, and skaven, to all attack the ogre at once. Droshaka, seeing the enemy force retreat, grins and attempts to grapple the ogre, or do anything that could keep the ogre pinned and unable to counter attack. Rolnye pulls her bowstring back only to be stopped by Turios.
"Ineffective. More likely to hit our own men." Rolnye pouts, but complies.
As the troops begin to round up the survivors the Ogre spits in contempt and takes his greatsword and snaps it in half over his knee and casts the broken pieces at his feet, a sign of surrender even though the rage in his eyes was still smoldering. As the troops begin securing the coaches one of them drags a young girl, no more than seven years of age from the coach by her hair as she screamed non-stop.
Droshaka stops just short of impaling the ogre as he slowly lowers his weapon and snorts.
"Coward." He looks up at the fanatics and motions to the ogre.
"Shackle him." From above, Turios and Rolnye quickly move into the ravine, taking a small foot path down. When they both get down, Turios moves to the ogre, and Rolnye moves towards the girl. Turios examines the ogre, and quirks an eyebrow.
"Strange. Normally your kind aren't tolerated by humans." The girl's screaming could still be heard before a loud slap of a metallic hand hitting a cheek echoed through the ravine. Rolnye glares down icily at the girl.
"Shut it."
The Ogre sneered at Droshaka.
"Coward? Mercenary. And smart enough to realise when it's suicide to keep fighting." He spits before turning to Turios.
"They tolerate us just fine when they want somebody to guard their precious daughter."
A daughter whose volume doubles after Rolnye slaps her.
Droshaka shakes his head and walks away, having no further interest in the situation at hand, whilst Turios glances at Rolnye. Rolnye looks back at him and blinks, then suddenly smiles warmly and kneels down in front of the little girl, holding her softly.
"Hush, shh, it's okay... We're not going to kill you... I'm sorry, please, calm down..." She glances up at the nightmares, who back away from the little girl. Their aura was probably overwhelming her. Turios kneels in front of the mercenary.
"Daughter of who, ogre?"
"What's in it for me?" The Ogre says bluntly his mercenary nature shining through as the girl begins to quiet a little. Still terrified but calming down.
"Maybe a job, maybe your life." Turios muses idly as he sits across from the ogre, instead of standing above him.
"I can at least have your cuffs taken off." Meanwhile, Rolnye takes off her gloves and slowly runs one of her hands through the girl's hair.
"What's your name?" She asks curiously, her soft tone coming through, trying to soothe the girl.
The Ogre shrugs.
"Well I seriously doubt i'm going to be looking at a repeat contract from my previous employer." He looks pointedly around the clearing.
"She's Tanaya Van Savaven, only child of Lord Governor of the Veritas City, 'blessed be his light' and all that political nonsense. I was sent to bring her, along with the country taxes, to the city from her mother in the country." The Ogre said with a shrug.
"The cuffs off would be handy, I want to light a pipe."
"Tanaya." The girl said cowering away from Rolnye the memory of the slap far too poignant for trust.
"Works for me." Turios shrugs nonchalantly, motioning for a couple of fanatics to take off his cuffs.
"I'm sure one of my men has a pipe if you don't have one of your own." Turios comments in a friendly manner. A strange appearance for a lich, certainly.
"So, have you ever heard of me by any chance?" Turios asked as he leaned back with a bemused look in his eyes.
Rolnye gently caresses the girl's cheek and frowns.
"Tanaya huh? That's a pretty name... I'm sorry about all of this, really, I am."
The Ogre took out a pipe from a pack he wore against his back, it didn't take Turios much to recognise it was carved from a human thigh bone. Packing it with tabacc the Ogre lit it by taking a hot coal from one of the coaches where it had been warming the feet of the taxpayers. Soon he was sending forth billowing clouds of tabacc smoke.
"Runners up for wightwatchers?" The Ogre cracked taking in Turios's appearance.
"Nope, can't say I have." He shrugged honestly.
Tanaya meanwhile flinches back from the contact.
"I don't believe you. You killed all those men."
"Hah, good! Then I've done my job and kept low key." Turios steeples his fingers.
"But that will end, soon, and I've need of people like you..." Droshaka likely wouldn't be impressed, but he could be eased with a few good pit fights.
Rolnye shakes her head and smiles.
"I didn't kill anyone." It was the truth. She wanted to kill of course, but didn't actually get the chance.
"Besides. Those men killed some of our men. We came for... Justice... I didn't know there would be such a pretty little girl like you here. If I had known, I would have made sure to keep you safe first, but as you can see..." She motions around at all the soldiers nearby.
"Nobody here is going to kill you, no, we're going to make sure you get home, safe and sound. War is no place for kids after all, right?"
The Ogre cocked an eyebrow,
"You need people who get successfully ambushed?" The Ogre chuckled,
"I'm listening, my name is Kaultok the Round." He looked at Turios.
"I'd offer to shake your hand, but you're all bone."
The girl shook her head.
"No, you're evil. I can tell." She shrank back from Rolnye.
"But no less strong." He offers a hand shake to the ogre to prove his point, the unnatural strength given to him by the powerful necromancer from ages past was something most underestimated until they saw it.
"You were ambushed because you were sent into a ravine with a hundred fifty men carrying a large sum of wealth. Your employer was a fool, you were smart enough to know not to die for a worthless cause."
Rolnye scratches the back of her head and chuckles nervously.
"Well that's not a very nice thing to say... Do you want to go home?"
Kaultok shook the Lich's hand.
"I'll be sure to give you my bill." He grinned as he continued to smoke the pipe before piling up a couple of the dead guards to sit on.
Tanaya meanwhile looked at Rolnye.
"Sure I want to go home. So daddy can hang you from the city gates." She said still terrified by recovering some of the fire her father praised her for.
Turios crosses his arms and leans back, motioning for the fanatics to start collecting the rest of the corpses.
"Good, because you're about to find yourself with the utilities of an entire fortress and city." He motions to the nightmares to start moving the wagons home.
"Anything else you can tell me about this little girl?"
Rolnye blinks and stretches, pointing at one of the nightmares as they walk past.
"I could leave you with him if you would prefer."
Kaultok nodded.
"She is something called a 'vegan' she will not eat the product of animals or some nonsense like that. The taxman named Yttihs Nam served as her 'cook' for the trip. It's utterly foul in my opinion, a good haunch of meat puts hair on your chest, and whats a woman without decent chest hair to hold onto." He clapped Turios on the shoulder winking at the Lich.
Tanaya had managed to find her courage and looked ar Rolnye.
"It'd probably smell better."
"Hm. I wouldn't really know, seeing as how I'm kind of dead." Turios says with an amused tone of voice as he hears another loud slap come from Rolnye's direction. Glancing over he blinks.
"Vegan." He mutters as Rolnye glares at the child.
Kaultok grinned.
"So you've got a permanent boner eh." He chuckles aloud.
Tanaya meanwhile begins to singsong.
"Bandit-girl and a cow-pat sitting in a tree. K. I. S. S. I. N. G."
"AHHHGG~" Rolnye pulls her hair and gets up, stomping away from the child.
"FATHER!" She screams at Turios.
"How do you deal with a child?!" Turios rolls his eyes.
"Oh I would have no idea." Rolnye blinks in confusion.
"What?" Turios bursts out laughing.
"Just bring her here." Grumbling, Rolnye complies, and drags the girl over by her hair.
Kaultok had been watching and was rumbling with laughter now.
"Is this a typical day at work for you?" He asked Turios,
"If it is I could really learn to love my job."
Tanaya suddenly pulls a sharp blade from a sheath cleverly concealed as a chopstick holding her hair in place and moved to stab Rolnye in the back of the leg with it, but the girls movement hadn't been subtle enough and Rolnye manages to easily avoid the sudden attack.
As Rolnye evades the attack she also turns and suddenly, violently, moves to slam her knee into the girl's rib cage, to knock the wind out of her and send her sprawling to the ground before pinning her and the weapon to the ground. Turios quickly rises to his feet, getting ready to support in this endeavour of his heir were to somehow fail.
The girl goes down like a sack of bricks, unconscious and having difficulty breathing wounded but not dead. Kaultok looked at Rolnye disapprovingly.
"Let me guess, stealing sweet rolls from infants is on her list of hobbies too. Shall we go?"
Rolnye grins viciously as she grabs the girl by the collar and prepares to hit her one more time, only to get stopped by Turios as he grabs her wrist.
"Yes. We're going. With the girl, alive." He opens the gateway, and the disapproving look from Turios is enough to disarm the sickened rage in Rolnye as she looks down at the ground.
"Of course, father." Without further words, the five of them enter the portal, back to base, leaving Skooza, Mist & Fog, and Droshaka to guide the wagons home.
Operation Success