When the Outliers are a safe distance from the village, Taylar says to his companions in Maldrog, "Fixing this problem might take time. Our biggest concern is that we can't be seen, even to be friendly, for the same reason that we went around Outpost. If anyone tells a story about three of our races causing problems, then our enemies will know it's us. This will put Refuge at risk too. We must find a place nearby where we can make a camp to rest and heal if need be. Whenever we go on mission, we must disguise ourselves so if anyone sees us by accident, they cannot tell our race easily. Whenever we travel to and from camp, we must approach and leave the village by different directions so no one can track us back to our hideout."
"After we have a safe place to sleep and plan, I think we should go after the priest. He is the most dangerous. The soldiers are just pawns. I'm thinking I want to take down that poor soul on the burn pole for a proper burial and replace him with the priest after we kill him. We won't burn the priest, just attach him to the pole. This will frighten the soldiers and cause them to be clumsy. If we are lucky they might think the spirit of the dead man caused this. We must do this so that no one in the village even knows we were here. Let me know your thoughts on this."
Taylar will search the area for a good place for a secret camp, preferably near a good source of water.
... Taylar says... we can't be seen... We must find a place nearby... camp... disguise ourselves... we must approach and leave the village by different directions..."
"... I think we should go after the priest... I want to take down that poor soul on the burn pole... replace him with the priest after we kill him... This will frighten the soldiers..."
Moving north and west of the village, an excellent camp location is established near the river. Further examination does not indicate that the Centrin people specifically travel here. Any occurrence would have to be a fluke.
Adisakti, who is the only one who has the talent to camouflage his skin is able to make it appear gray, giving him the semblance of an Amiradthae, which could be mistaken for a thin Markidian.
"I know that you two have some talent to mask your presence that I do not, but I can accommodate a disguise effort to match a different person instead of blending in with the environment. We still need to not be seen. I like your idea about the priest, but we may inadvertently run across a soldier patrol. If we catch a pair of them, I was thinking that we should take them out and hide the bodies east of town.
Would you want to go ahead and cut that corpse down or do you want to wait until we capture the priest?"
GM:
No peoples in the game setting bury the dead. The customs of the Centrin people with regard to the dead are unknown to the party. The Markidian people and therefore Outpost do burn the dead. It is part of the religion, but this is background on the setting. The intention of the characters to remove the insulting display of the corpse is what is important to actual play.
Taylar says, "As soon as we take out anyone, the rest will be on alert. I want to try for the priest. That way we will limit their leadership. Disguises are good." Taylar will attempt to craft a disguise that will make him look like a primitive tribal. Observe the village and when an opportunity presents, try to sneak in and eliminate the priest.
Not all tribes of peoples are going to be known to the general populace, especially specific clans of those tribes. Taylar is able to quite effectively alter his appearance so as to be unrecognizable as himself.
It takes several days of observation to gather enough data to initiate an idea for a plan. The priest, as it so happens, makes a regular trip to relieve his bowels, early each morning. As this is a private matter, he is not closely accompanied by guards, but two do remain at a distance to keep an eye on the surrounding area. The priest's behavior indicates some sensitivity in this matter, as he prefers complete privacy and takes a bit longer than most others would. He is completely out of view of the guards for this few minutes.
Thinking to have sufficient information, Adisakti offers his thoughts. "I am pretty certain we can capture the priest when he moves his bowels, maybe even without being noticed by his guards, since they are about 20 strides away and out of sight, but I have no idea how to get his body up on that stake."
Taylar nods and says to the Outliers, "Then we take the priest right after his morning dump. We take him down, I drag him away, and then we hide. The soldiers will go into the forest to look for him, thinking he might be lost first. We let them pass, then sneak back into the village and put the priest's body up for display, and get out quick. With our ability to manipulate waylines, this should not be that difficult. The guy that's on the post, we can burn him or bury him, whatever. The important part is that we speed up the decomposition process to allow his body to be reabsorbed back into nature. If we do this right, it will reduce the priest in the eyes of the people to the level of the man that's hanging there now."
Taylar will scout out where the priest relieves himself and find a useful hiding place. He will manipulate waylines to increase his disguise, as well as use whatever brush is at hand to increase his cover. He will remain there the night before, to allow the forest to get used to his presence, not moving around, but staying in a rested state until he spies the priest. He will allow the priest to get settled in to business before he makes his move. He will find a useful ambush spot, wait for priest to finish and then commit a surprise attack with his bludgeons. He will strike to kill.
Using the advantage of having previously determined the priest's routine, the Outliers spend the afternoon scouting the area the priest visits each morning. There is no real discernible pattern to his behavior, but he has been increasing his distance from town with each trip. Taylar and Adisakti both take up likely positions for the morning arrival while Raven Elk takes an adjacent hide to be able to interfere with the guards should something go wrong.
The meticulous plan sets into motion without a hitch. At the moment the priest has finished his business and is paying particular attention to redressing himself, Taylar very quickly closes the two steps necessary to club the man in the head. The blow is hard, not hard enough to kill but hard enough to cause physical damage and drive consciousness from the body. Adisakti rushes forward and catches the priests legs as Taylar catches his upper body. Using the same tree behind which the priest took cover to obscure their possible notice from the guards, the two walk carefully toward the river with the body.
Raven Elk is in a position to see this and waits, as planned. The guards make some crude jokes at the faint squeal the priest emitted when clubbed, thinking it nothing more than his usual sounds of strain. After another two minutes pass, they become concerned and begin searching for the now missing priest. Raven Elk manipulates mechanical waylines at that moment to generate the sound of someone walking through the area toward the south. The two guards give instant pursuit, and Raven Elk circles the other way to meet his friends.
After an hour has passed with the guards searching the wrong area, an alarm cry is given to call other to join the search. This is of great benefit to the Outliers. By midday the entire party of soldiers is searching the area west of the village. It takes a matter of minutes for the Outliers to enter town from the north, cut the corpse loose, tie the priest, who is now dead having been stabbed by Adisakti to make sure, in his place, and depart again north.
The Centrin corpse is respectfully returned to the earth. As the men look up from completing their deed, they notice an elderly Centrin woman standing some distance away through the tall grass. Even at the distance, she can be seen to smile and nod at the young men. She quickly turns and leaves, becoming lost from sight in a matter of seconds.
Adisakti speaks quietly. "She may not know us specifically at this time, but I am willing to bet we just made some reputation points with this this village. I am really curious what those soldiers are going to do now. That priest on a stake is going to give the villagers some much needed courage, but the soldiers are better equipped and probably better trained. If they start hurting villagers, I say we get involved. What say you?"
Taylar says in Maldrog, "We should back off and give the soldiers a chance to abandon the town. We can't stay here in this village, so these people will need to stand up for themselves. They can honestly say they knew nothing about the murder. If these guards start a slaughter, then we will step in, but it also means they will have to abandon their village."
As fear is often over compensated with violence, it is only a short time after the priest's body is discovered that the discipline of the Cathedral soldiers falls apart. The townsfolk cannot understand Markidian, though a few words will have been learned. The guards begin to forcibly question everyone, yelling becomes pushing and shoving, becomes striking and kicking. Even if the people would answer, they respond in Centrin, not able to convey thoughts in a language that the soldier's understand. Finally one of the guards stabs a mere boy in the gut with his sword and true chaos erupts.
OOC:
Each character receives 5 DP and improves in Centrin by 2%.
From wherever they were hiding, Taylar leaps out and yells his battlecry, "Du magst also zulfallige Gewalt!"
With his bludgeons he will attack the nearest soldier.
Adisakti smiles has he follows suit about 1/5 of a second behind Taylar. He draws his saber and hunting dart, running alongside his big friend. Raven Elk has become more suited to keeping his distance. He moves toward the ensuing conflict, but slower, intending to manipulate waylines from afar.
Raven Elk takes a deep breath and waits for the combatants to meet. He alternates between causing a soldiers bodily fluids to become toxic, when aiding Taylar, and becoming acidic, when aiding Adi. All things being about equal with the initial assault, all attacks happen almost simultaneously.
Taylar and Adisakti each engage a separate opponent, out of initial necessity. Quickly assessing the field, the soldiers have keyed in on Taylar and Adisakti, and all are making way toward them. Raven Elk has not yet been noticed.
In combination with the mystical assault, Taylar is able to slightly daze his first opponent. The quilted armor protects the other from Adisakti.
OOC:
Each character receives 5 DP and improves in Maldrog by 2%
