DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Hall of Fame - Latest Top 10 completed games HWD: The Heartwood HWD: Bordertown

Daxia
with the Bekkah, Dean, Kadri, Mikal, Romana, Tashka and Linette in the Temple On The Border West Chapel

Daxia did manage a smile at Linette's humor.

"I don't really know, Lady," she said, shaking her head. "I'm don't think either mate seeking or territory marking can explain it." She looked between the two captives. "Or perhaps it could. It may not be evident to her that your heart has long been promised elsewhere," she said to Linette with a soft smile.

"I know only the smallest, most insignificant measure of the longing a heart feels for the touch of a beloved one's hand..."

She dropped her head again, this time in embarrassment. "Oh! Please forgive me Lady, Verchovai... I had not realized I became a sentimental romantic since last I was at Snowgate Pass. I only wish for you to be free of those chains, for the opportunity to embrace..."

Hesitating a moment, the redhead finally looked up... into the dark, dark eyes of her Priestess... with a look that was both inscrutable and pained.

"...you deserve that," she whispered.

CELI

As it became clear that there were no lizards here at this moment, Celi unfurled the light-- checking with Darian first -- and searched more carefully, though nothing came of it.

"What is our ultimate goal here, Darian? Kill all the lizards? Free the shackled women? Find the Beastmaster? And do we go back, on, or stay? Can we poison them or trap them?"

Kadri

"So, beastmaster sees people not as people, but 'things'."

Turns to the pair.

"Insecure. Not enough to know for herself she can do something, others must too. I tried - but I think she knows nothing of subtle and quiet, of the play of light and shadows - and if she does not learn, it will cause her big trouble and sorrow."

Mikal

He nods at the information, shrugging at the answer about jumping. "True. But a horse jumps better than a cow. Might be good to know if one of these lizards could jump over our heads."

He looks at Linette and chuckles at her question. "More true than you know. She is a she, and at times she is looking for a mate. At other times she seems to be looking for the nearest stake."

Darian

The Hunter stopped and stared at the girl, hard, her brow furrowed in puzzlement.

"Scout," she said simply.

"Shine light, broken wall by stairs. More look."

"Cesare, go up handful stairs."

Daxia
with the Bekkah, Dean, Kadri, Mikal, Romana, Tashka and Linette in the Temple On The Border West Chapel

"More often the latter than the former," Daxia muttered, before turning to Romana.

"You said that what one beast knows, all of them will know. As if..." The Dayalan struggled a moment with the concept. "As if... perhaps... they share the same mind? Or is it more like..." She shook her head. "Is it more like the way Celi says she talks to Stormrunner? One beast talking to another, who talks to another until they all know?"

Daxia sighed, walked over to her friend and sat beside her... close, but very carefully not too close. "Dazidazidazi sorry that Romana must have so much attention on her," she said quietly. "But Romana knows much more than anyone else about Beasts, yes? Even if Romana does not know everything, Romana still knows very, very much compared to us."

She leaned a bit closer, and whispered something close to the hood of Romana's cloak, then leaned back to look at Romana's face, blue eyes ernest.

"Someday."

Celi

Celi nodded, and went straightaway to the wall indicated, moving smoothly and quietly; In passing, she checked the debris and beneath it, making sure there was nothing under any of it.

Then she moved to the wall, and began to check beyond. She was careful not to blind herself by looking directly into the torch's flame; instead she would shine the torch through one place while looking through another. She checked for movement, shapes, and the reflection from their eyes or other elements, as well as the usual direct observation. While she worked the torch, she listened carefully for their sounds: sounds of passage, or actual utterances; and she also sniffed deeply, chcking for any trace of that faint reptilian chife they exuded.

Cesare

"Might be worth assessing if we can block their way in. Could give us another option."

The quiet words were spoken to both young women. Cesare wants to make a point of including Celi.

"Just a thought."

With a quick smile he partially retreats back up the stairs, now paying more attention to the structure that he did earlier.

Darian

"Celi, hold," she said urgently as the girl entered the crevice.

Darian returned the arrow to her quiver then slung her bow before drawing the long fighting dagger. She glanced back to check Cesare's position. In the dimness she could only just see his form but it was enough. She stepped carefully to the broken wall.

"Here, light shine, hold up."

The Hunter crouched down and looked carefully at the wall and the ground beyond.

KAdri:

"Romana ... hunting beasts ... they are. . not smart? If they come, and we set. . things in their way, we know where those things are - and they - do not. And if they do not, then they walk into whatever we leave for them, yes? They can be confounded and befuddled as anything else. Led astray."

Daxia
with the Bekkah, Dean, Kadri, Mikal, Romana, Tashka and Linette in the Temple On The Border West Chapel

Daxia sighed and shook her head. "I don't know that would work, Kadri. Romana said earlier that they were smart and cunning, and they don't forget. So whatever tricks we might use on them could likely only be used once."

She looked between the two of them, massaging the back of her neck. "If they are as common as ruffs are here, and used in generally the same way, they would not be the sort of animal to be active only at night. Bright light or the darkest dark would not matter to them, yes?

"Only the Beastmaster knows how many there are," she murmured, then focused her gaze on Romana. "Where would the Beastmaster be? What would happen to the Beasts if the Beastmaster is killed?"

Bekkah

The more she listened the less she liked this. She knew they couldn't leave the people here captive, but waiting was awful.

"Dazi, I know I'm no fighter, but what can I do to help if these beasts return? I feel like now, I'm just in the way."

Celi

Celi froze obediently when Darien spoke, then waited for her to ready her weapon before holding the light where and how Darien directed. She readied herself as well, so that she was on balance, alert, and prepared to react in any direction, with her own big knife now silently drawn.

Kadri:

"Yes, Dazi. But once is one less than what was there before. Every 'once' that can be arranged is one less of them."

The Heartwood
Bordertown
Noonish or maybe later
Rameday, The Twenty-First Day of the Month of Crown of Ice, 2623

In the Temple Ruins

At the least, the painstaking searchers, as they work through the halls of the temple, can very well prove that the structure was abandoned, emptied and empty, the upper floors scoured as if a certain amount of preparations were needed for the massive sacrifice. Looted, a victim of the spoils of war, nothing of use or value appears to have been left in the eastern wake.

As for signs of lizards, that can be found in abundance. Darian can easily spot the telltale signs of their presence. But not at rest, no nest, no lollygagging, no lazy lizards; they enter through the fractures and breaks in the wall, head for the stairs, clamber up the stone treads and risers and then galumf towards the western chapel.

It also seems that they have used every break at one time or another ... after generations, if there is a way into the temple, it appears the lizards have found it.

The only choke point appears to be the wide stairs. The runs can walk four or five abreast, the stairs themselves bound by the solid stone walls on one side and an open collonade upon the other. The center shaft is open, a square almost twice as wide as the walkway itself, with a low stone railing running between the columns to keep the less adroit from falling.

Atop the stairs, down the hall, in the chapel the quiet discussions continue.

Romana could not help but tense a bit, as Daxia settles close to her, unconsciously tugging her cloak tight about herself. She managed small smile and a nod, but it was obvious it was a thing she had to try, had to do consciously.

But she was trying.

"Romanas ... not like attentions. People ... people die when that happens ..."

She then tugged her hood tighter over her head.

"What do they say? In for shilling, in for wheel? You understand, everything Romanas say is betrayals, yes? Betrayals of thousand towers, of families, of peoples, of place where grew up.

"And ...and ... it is not all bad. Mostly. But not all ..."

She looked straight ahead.

"So much hurt here. Nothing Romanas can say can hope for forgiveness, for what was done here.

"So all Romana can do ... is tell what little Romanas know.

"So that maybe it will help.

"So please,understand, when Romanas say ...

She then let her breath out, very slow.

"Dazidazidzi ... Romanas not know. Beastmasters, they star ... like Dayallans ... like Sword God Followers. They have their secrets, they don't tell.

"They only ones talk to hunting beasts, make understand, understand in return. Some ...some think thats what makes them strange."

The eastern refugee then turns to Kadri.

"Think. Think hard, good, sneaky. Think if try to fool Longtooth, yes? If can fool Longtooth, can fool Beasts."

Bekkah's answer, however came from a surprising quarter.

"You ... you ... you k-k-k-k-eep th-ht-th-them up-p-p."

Mikal

He has been looking around the nearby area considering options and listening to the talk. At this point he chimes in.

"If they do not find the lizards, or an easy way to stop them like an open door that can be locked", he grins ruefully, "and these corridors are too wide to block off, what about this..."

He moves to one of the nearby pillars and pats it with a hand. "We go back to town and get some strong rope. Plenty of it. We tie it off on these pillars. We lay out some nooses with slip knots on the ground all along the hallway and have a couple of people around the corner holding the other end of the slip knot. When the lizards come and walk across the nooses we pull them closed. We catch a leg, an arm, a tail, a snout, it doesn't matter. They are not killed, but they are tethered, at least temporarily. While they are hampered we shoot them full of arrows and do some hit and run sword strikes on their flanks."

He walks back to the group. "They may figure out how to bite thru the rope eventually, but we don't need to hamper them for long to kill them."

"Very little equipment needed, easily brought down here and simply constructed. What do you think?"

KAdri:

"Yes - I do think that is the sort of thing we need. Prepare the ground. Can we get. . fat or lard, or something similar - and perhaps grease the stairs? Make them lose footing?"

Mikal

"Given some more time and more rope we could pretty easily create narrow channels to force them to come at us one or two at a time. We weave thick rope in and out between the columns creating a spider web, and effectively completely block the entire middle section of the stairs. They could only come at us along the walls on either side. If we grease those two paths, and lay the nooses there, we'd have a benefit all along any of those routes."

Darian

By feel she withdrew another fashioned torch from her quiver and touched it to the one Celi held, waiting for it to flare to life.

"Hold here."

She returned to the stairs and held the light out to him.

"Cesare, here, go up, tell others what see. Darial and Celi scout more, there."

She pointed back to the crumbled wall where Celi stood.

[This post should be BEFORE the last GM post.]


Daxia
with the Bekkah, Dean, Kadri, Mikal, Romana, Tashka and Linette in the Temple On The Border West Chapel

"All we need, then, are many one-time tricks and traps and ruses and ways of fighting them," she said to Kadri.

And then she looked over at her sister, opened her mouth to speak... but simply sighed and shook her head instead.

"I honestly don't know, Bekkah. I would ask, whatever the rest of us decide to do, that you stay here with Linette and Tashka." Dazi held up a hand to forestall a protest. "It's not because I'm worried about you -- although I am, since I don't think the Beasts care much if their dinner includes Atteran in addition to Dayalan and Covener," she said, not harshly, but almost in a light, teasing way. "I ask that you stay with them because I have vowed that they will live through the night; I will give my life to protect theirs... and yours."

She smiled at her older sister, the brilliant smile that Dazi always reserved just for her Bekkah.

"I know you worry about me, Bekkah. But I'm really very good at what I do, I promise. Kassia and Gilly never would have let me leave the Vale if I wasn't," she said. "And it's ok to worry. I AM going to be doing something considerably more dangerous than I've done before. Well, except for that thing I did with killing the big demon," Dazi said waving her hand and grinning. She looked at Bekkah for a moment longer before winking at her.

But then she was serious again, between one blink of the eyes and the next.

"I also have Mikal and Dean and Darian and Cesare and Kadri and, yes, even Celi at my side... and Romana behind me," she said with a bit of a smile for the tall Easterner. Dazi regarded Bekkah again for a moment before speaking softly. "I hope we will not need your skills tonight, Bekkah. I wish I could say that it would be best for you to spend the night with Lady Kay. But if we do need you, we will need you close by. Knowing that you are in the one place we most want to defend, I will worry less, and fight all the harder to keep this chapel free of Beasts."

Daxia
with the Bekkah, Dean, Kadri, Mikal, Romana, Tashka and Linette in the Temple On The Border West Chapel

Daxia nodded at Romana's explanation. "Yes, secrets are secrets. I understand," she said. "I just wondered what effect the death of the Beastmaster might have on the Beasts. Do they go mad? Or do they become lost and bewildered like a ruff whose master has died? Do they continue on with what they were doing, or do they try to find their Beastmaster?" She shrugged. "And people die when no attention is paid to Romana, too. Dazidazidazi will die when it is time for Dazidazidazi to die, but Lord Kisa says Dazidazidazi has too much to do, so... Dazidazidazi must stay alive even if she is friends with Romana!" she said, with a bit of a smile.

She listened to Mikal and Kadri's conversation, head tilted, considering.

"The Beasts are swift, though they did not appear to be dainty. It may be possible to snare some, and deal with them more leisurely." She looked at the columns separating the chapel from the corridor. "It would certainly be easier to defend two smaller openings than the entire width of the chapel, if weavings between the columns are tight enough to keep them out."

Daxia turned back to Kadri. "And I do like the idea of greasing the stairs," she said with a grin, before looking towards the small window of the chapel.

"But She has reached Her highest point, and has begun Her journey down to the western horizon." Daxia looked at Mikal. "Is there enough time to get to Bordertown, purchase everything we need for this trap, return, and then set the trap before dusk?"

CELI

Celi remained in place as directed while Darien passed a torch to Cesare, taking note of the location where she kept her spare torches lest that become a point of importance later on, and as she sent Cesare back to report to the others.

Now she just awaited further direction. She assumed they were going through the shattered wall, but she had not drawn any conclusions from the lizard scent she'd detected, except that they weren't nesting here. Idly, she wondered whether they laid eggs in large clutches, or in small numbers -- maybe even one at a time. Perhaps they could be wiped out by attacking their nests: a trap could be set for them, and triggered when they came back to the nest in response to some threat.

She looked up at Darien expectantly, remaining alert and ready, her senses focused where they were going to scout so that she might hear in advance any rustling, hissing, or scraping of claws.

Cesare

He takes the torch, a quick nod and smile to Darian, and he is gone, stealth ignored for speed as he wants to get back quickly just in case.

He arrives back with the main group just in time to hear Daxia's last question.

"Well if we are going for supplies, I would like to add plenty of torches - many beasts do no like fire - and a number of throwing daggers. Arrows for Darian maybe. I can give coin for those."

He grins.

"Now let me tell you what we have found."

As before when they were planning their raid on thw warehouses, he crouches and draws with the tip of one of his daggers into the mess on the floor, explaining as he does so, intent on getting the layout over to those there as well as the emptiness, state of walls and general plundered state of the area below.

"The stairs offer the best choke point as far as I can see. There is the crubling wall where they have entered but there are other points of entry that they could use as alternatives. Do we know that there are more of them? If we find the lair, maybe we can take the fight there?"

He straightens, glancing back the way he came, keen to return.

"Any questions before I head back?"

Mikal



(OOC - Need Wolf to answer that question.)

"I suggest the stairs as it is the only choke point. Once they get past the stairs they can go in any number of directions, and this chapel is too open to channel them."

He pauses, looking at Daxia, frowning. "Daxia, I understand your worry about Lady Bekkah, but I would suggest that her place is closer to the fight. Certainly not in the front lines, but close behind. I'd recommend that she stay a few yards back and that we assign two others who have no real fighting skill with the task of evacuating any wounded from the front lines and dragging them back to where Lady Bekkah can heal them quickly."

"Presuming we are reasonably sure the beasts must come via the stairs, they should not be able to get past us to here so there would be no need for anyone to wait here. Not to mention that if they do manage to get here, Lady Bekkah will be defenseless by herself, so we'd need to weaken our strength at the stairs and assign her a guardian."

"Think on it. I will need to get back to town and gather supplies and bring them back as quick as possible. A few extra hands would be good too."

Darian

Once Cesare had left the Hunter returned to the opening.

To Celi she said, "Hold light high, shine all around."

She brought forth another torch and passed it over.

"Light when first near gone."

Slowly she crept into crevice planning on going forward unless she saw very recent signs of passage such as fresh spore or until they came to an opening to the outside.