Battle at Harkon Manor

Lora had been making a continous attempt at appearing calm and in control, even as the muscular beast below her started galloping. The horse was very much capable of doing whatever it damn well pleased, which in turn made Lora feel quite powerless. And she hated that feeling with a passion.

However, this was a properly trained and bred animal. The stablehand had told her his name was Tempest - quite fitting for such a beast. Lora eyed Claude and Trinham, but remained silent. The Paladin had skill with horses, that much was apparent, and she was not here to be an expert in everything, only a leader. In that, the girl was glad there was someone like Claude to handle some of the things Lora could not. In fact, as she gave it some thought, most of her "men" were quite capable in one way or another.

Jareth had stayed behind, and Lora did not want to make him come - the mission did not include scouting the enemy camp. Neither did it include the slaying of Hydrae.

When Vance had casually started talking about the monster, Lora could not help but touch the hair clasp she had put on. The Wizardress now remembered the order the younger Valorn brother was a member of, and realized why she had found the trinket on her nightstand. Lora gave the situation some thought, before replying.

"I am more concerned with this so called scouting mission we are on. You are in full plate, and it is morning, the sinlight will give a glare and alert the camp. A group as large as ours cannot hope to sneak past their sentries unnoticed, unless they are completely inept. We should take cover in a glen or other concealing terrain, and definitely cover any steel and iron with cloth."

Lora curled her lips in a rose bud as she regarded Vance - he was brave and hotheaded, but he did not seem as intelligent. Fortunately, the girl was more than willing to give him a piece of her mind. Although, by the looks of him, it wasn't her mind that the young noble coveted.

"As far as the Hydra is concerned, I cannot promise you the aid of my group. Our assigned mission included warning your family of the immediate danger and possibly assisting with the defence of the manor. Assautling the beast may be a good deed on it's own, but it's risking the life of these men, and i will not insist upon it. Whomever would volinteer, would be welcome to join however. I mysefl will give you aid, but only if you hear my thoughts on the matter."

A slight amount of Jareth’s edge falls away. This girl, Tira, his hitherto-unknown half-sister, was completely ignorant of what had happened, what she and her mother had caused. His eyebrow rises slightly as he says, “What’s there to know? Your mother seduced him, he went to her and you were the result. Then he got us kicked out of elven lands and later sent to the Treylor. And there, he was murdered. Now go away,” he finishes, the edge returning to his voice with his final words.

He doesn’t want to talk to her about his father. He fought with the man nigh-constantly, but she was the reason he was dead. He starts to walk past her and open up his door, meaning to go inside and try to get some more sleep.

Myth and Legend said:

"I am more concerned with this so called scouting mission we are on. You are in full plate, and it is morning, the sinlight will give a glare and alert the camp. A group as large as ours cannot hope to sneak past their sentries unnoticed, unless they are completely inept. We should take cover in a glen or other concealing terrain, and definitely cover any steel and iron with cloth."

Click to expand...

"Miss Lora makes a good point, there is also the option of having higher ground that we could explore. The matter of course is in the chosing of Miss Lora and Lord Vance, I will accept the choice that is made." Claude says in a low voice to respond to Lora.

"It wasn't her intention... Tharivol is in trouble," Tira says quickly as Jareth tries to leave her standing in the hall. "He is to be tried and excuted for teaching The Secerts to a human. To you."

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"First we will see these Treylor, and then I think we will go hydra hunting," he says with a wink and a grin. "And the purple rose looks good on you Miss Lora, you should wear it often."

Robert leads the group off the road and Vance orders them to mount up once more. Starting at a light gallop due to rough terrian the group follows a winding way through the lightly forested area.

The trees give way to spans of open grass and hills. And the troting horse eat up the miles as the sun makes it's way towards noon. A thick forest in front of the group seemly Roberts destination.

Suddenly Kase falls from his horse up ahead of you. Robert pulls up his horse and turning cries, "Ambush!"

Arrows coming from the forest ahead and from the tall grass behind fall amongst the group.

[sblock=OOC]

No map yet but the travel orrder would have been:

Kase and Robert
Vance and Lora
Brend and Onesimus
Claude and Trinham

with about 10' in between each group

The forest ahead is about 100yds away

Ok let me know INIT and your horses are at a trot when this happens so take that into account(don't really know how but make a ride check if you do anything fancy). If you wish to locate the ambushers behind you make a spot check DC 17 with a distance modifier of -5 (ok so you know they are 50' away ) Ambushers in the forest are to far way to try and spot (modifier -30)

Once everyone posts what they are doing I will put the map up so details as to who you want to be near or where you gallop to.

Oh and make sure to put the Round # in your posts. Thanks.[/sblock]

Trinham Wood - Round 1

When the arrows start whistling past his ears, Trinham's first thought is to stop sitting six foot above the ground being an obvious target and to find cover fast. However, to date, he has only had to utilised minimal control over his horse, which has simply been following the other horses. Nothing ventured, nothing gained thinks Trinham and surprises himself by managing to bring the horse to a halt simply by pulling back on the reigns. He then gingerly dismounts and starts to look round for the nearest cover.

[sblock=OOC]Trinham is been careful so as not to invoke a ride check. If this means that the above is more than a full round action, then so be it.

Init (modifer = 0 due to reduced DEX) (1d20=10)[/sblock]

Jareth freezes as Tira mentions Tharivol. He slowly turns, his face a mixture of skepticism and surprise. He quickly regains composure, in the process losing most evidence of his anger, now focused on his old teacher. "That's not a trial! If it's already decided to he's to be executed, it's only a public spectacle," the young man frantically says before halting himself. He takes a deep breath to calm himself, puts a hand to his forehead and opens his door. He grates out from behind once-again clenched teeth, "I can't believe I'm about to say this, but you should come in. We should discuss this in private. But, so we're clear, no questions about my father. I only want to talk about Tharivol." He makes a slight motion with his other hand for Tira to come in his room. When she does, he follows and closes the door, for some semblance of privacy.

[sblock=OOC]
HM, should we sblock the talk between Jareth and Tira? I think it would probably clog up the combat going on for everyone else if we don't...
[/sblock]

Claude Francois Grignard/round 1

Claude reacts quickly from the sound of the arrow hitting Kase rather than Robert's cry. Claude quickly scans the area for where the shot could have come from and he notices some movement in the grass. "They are in the grass around us, I suggest retreat and then coming back on an even playing field, Miss Lora." Claude says to lora and then he shifts over to hang on to the side of Tobias meaning to get cover from the arrows but due to the speed at which he attempted to act he was unable to loose his foot properly so much of his body was still in sight.

[sblock]
Intiative: 1d20+3=21
- Spot: 1d20+2=21
- Use mount as cover (Ride check:1d20+8=12)
[/sblock]

Onesimus round 1

"I need to get off this horse!" immediately pops into Onesimus' head as he pulls back on the reigns! His knee jerk reaction is to start a dismount! "Compose yourself, wait for orders." He adjusts himself in his seat and begins looking around for the ambushers in the grass. As he shouts. "Lora, orders!"

He also moves to cover as best he can (if time allows)

[sblock=actions]
stop the horse and a spot check 1d20+2=20
[/sblock]

Loreen Winmer - round 1

"Damn it!" Lora cursed in her mind. She had no luck in spotting the ambushers and right now she had to get everyone out of the attacker's range, and then retreat.

"Onesimus come to me and grab my horse's reigns, lead it off once Kase is on it! EVERYONE, WE RETREAT! DO NOT CHARGE!"

There was little time to waste, but Lora had already given thought to her group's vulnerability against archer fire. Vance was well armoured, but her lot and Lora herself were easily harmed by arrows. Further more, there was nothing to be gained by fighting here - the enemy wanted them to fight, and letting your enemy choose a battlefield advantageous to them already made it a bad idea.

But even if they won, the camp was obviously alert to their presence. However, those probably were Dellex's men, Lora was certain that if there were a chance to slay or capture an enemy noble, the Treylor would most probably chose the latter, and send a larger force in hope to subdue rather than turn in him in to a pin cushion.

All of these thoughts burst in Lora's mind in a second - the rush of danger and fighting always made her intellect work like that. She could see several moves ahead, piece together multiuple channels of information, take decisions, all in an instant. "Sokar!" the Wizardress muttered, and disappeared in a blue flash. In an instant, she found herself amongst the sweet smelling grass, a spot of blood showing where Kase had lied.

[sblock] Initative: 1d20+2=8 , Lora uses Benign Transposition to switch places with the fallen man. BTW I didn't get to tell you but since Lora rested last night, she now has her two Lvl 2 spells at the ready.

AC: 12, HP: 15

0 level: Daze, Resistance, Message, Dancing Lights
1 level: Enlarge Person, Sleep, Benign Transposition
1 level: Glitterdust, Cloud of Bewilderment [/sblock]

End Round 1

Moved to keep everything on same page.