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Post by SHADOWMASTER89 on Sept 22, 2015 23:28:33 GMT -5
The sky was dark and heavily overcast, the clouds rapidly moving to the southeast across the night sky. Despite how thick the clouds seemed to be, the light of the two moons still shone through, illuminating the sky as it refracted through them. A faint rumble of thunder could be heard to the north. It had already rained nearly nonstop for the past two weeks, but the autumn rains in the Central Valley would scarcely let up for several months.
“Rylan, hurry up securing those horses,” Cedric whispered loudly as he looked over his shoulder to the treeline.
He again looked down from the high hill he stood, his gaze fixed on the burning town below. Screams could be heard as enforcers in the red and white colors of Delrock were dragging young men and boys from their homes, and throwing them into caged wagons. The women and girls screamed and sobbed, and any men who resisted were quickly beaten into submission. Several enforcers also began setting fire to houses and other town buildings.
“I’m going down there,” Cedric insisted as he began to descend the hill, his boots sliding on the muddy ground. “Don’t try and stop me,” he said as he reached the base of the hill and flipped his hood over his head, covering his short, golden hair and shadowing his face.
Being a wanted man within the borders of Delrock, he did not want to be recognized too quickly, but seeing the horror that his former father was now ordering, he could not simply do nothing. As he neared a side gate of the town wall he drew his sword from his left hip and quietly slipped through the open gate, following the screams he heard ahead of him.
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Post by jaircrawford on Sept 22, 2015 23:50:29 GMT -5
Rylan glanced over at his companion upon his declaration, finishing the tethered ropes rather quickly and roughly, but securely none the less. Rylan's horse brayed with a start at the rumbling of thunder in the distance.
"Woah... easy there, boy." he whispered, gently patting his horse on the side as he got up to catch up with his companion, Cedric, whom he had known for a very long time. He slowed down his gait as he caught up with Cedric, making sure that he wasn't making too much noise and that his helmet was down, so that his face could not be seen. These were enemy lands, after all. "Cedric, when have I ever tried to stop you?" he whispered to his friend with that ever so slight tone of mock-indignation in his voice that only a friend as close as Cedric would instantly recognize as a tease.
"We will be quite outnumbered in there." He added, his tone changing to that of one a bit more serious as he joined Cedric before approaching the side gate that led into the town that was being ravaged. The scent of the burning houses lingered darkly in the air.
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Post by SHADOWMASTER89 on Sept 24, 2015 0:32:55 GMT -5
“Well you’ve never tried to stop me, but you’re always trying to talk me out of things you think are too dangerous,” Cedric whispered as he pulled Rylan into an alley past the gate, just as two enforcers walked past.
“As for us being outnumbered, we’ve always managed to beat the odds before.” He chuckled lightly as he made his way along the alley until the town square was in sight. The bulk of the enforcers appeared to be in the square guarding the caged wagons.
“Move them out!” the captain of the enforcers shouted. The wagon drivers snapped the reins on their horse teams and the wagons began to roll out towards the main gate. Enforcers began rounding up the women and girls from the town, herding them into the town hall.
Men dressed more like mercenaries, and lacking the colors of Delrock, began moving heavy barrels into the town square, a viscous black substance spilling from them. Mercenaries with crossbows then moved up and dipped their loaded bolts in the substance as torch holders walked up next to them.
“Oil,” Cedric whispered, he then looked around and slapped Rylan on the back. “Stay by the base of the stairs,” he said quietly as he ran up them. The stairs led to the outer boardwalk of the second floor of the building they’d been hiding behind. He sheathed his sword as he came up behind the crossbowman stationed on the side of the building, and quickly drew a dagger from his belt. As he wrapped his arm around the unassuming sentry’s face, he stabbed down into his chest from above. There was a muffled scream, and then silence as he dropped dead.
The mercenaries on the ground lit their oiled bolt tips via the flames of their torch bearing comrades.
“Take aim!” the enforcer captain shouted, the men aiming their flaming bolts at the town hall.
Cedric quickly sheathed his dagger and picked up the crossbow from the body at his feet, also taking a torch from a mount on the wall. He looked down at the first pair of men and their oil barrel just below, and whistled. They looked up, puzzled expressions on their faces.
“Catch!” Cedric shouted, as he tossed the torch at the barrel of oil. The men began to recoil as the flames disappeared into the pitch black oil with a splash. Flames suddenly shot up from the barrel just before it exploded in a gust of flames. The ground was set ablaze and the two mercenaries were quickly engulfed.
Chaos ensued as everyone in the town square reeled from the explosion, shielding their eyes, some closer to it falling down. Cedric fired his crossbow at the enforcer captain, hitting him in the throat. The man collapsed grasping his neck as he quickly bled out. Crossbowmen on the ground and on buildings began to fire in Cedric’s direction as he dropped the crossbow and ran for the stairs again. At the same moment, three mercenaries wielding swords and war axes ran straight towards Rylan, who was still at the base of the stairs, screaming like battle crazed berserkers.
“Kill them!” one mercenary yelled.
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Post by jaircrawford on Sept 29, 2015 0:22:20 GMT -5
Rylan crouched down in the alley, awaiting Cedric's move. "So, what's the plan?", Rylan asked, right before Cedric uttered the word 'oil'. Rylan sighed slightly. "You're not actually going to-" But before he could finish, Cedric had cut him off and told him to stay by the stairs. So he prowled stealthily up to the base of the stairs, and kept his hand ready on his sword hilt. Rylan winced upon hearing a muffled cry from atop the tower, but relaxed a bit once it was evident that nobody in the town had noticed.
"Take aim!", he heard someone shout. "Hurry it along, Cedric...", he muttered to himself as he sat there waiting. As if on cue, he heard his friend yell out and then a gargantuan sound of a fiery explosion followed suit. Rylan really ought not to be shocked at moments like these at this point from having known Cedric as long as he did, but his friend never ceased to be full of such surprises. As the buildings and shadows ahead of him were splashed with an orange hue of ever growing intensity from the raging flames, the figures of three mercenaries became evident as they approached him rapidly, screaming as though they were possessed by something fierce. Rylan sighed as he drew out his sword and readied his shield, standing up in a defensive position. "Well, so much for stealth and subtlety...", he said to himself quietly.
The first mercenary reached him at this point and lunged crazily at him with his war axe. Rylan deftly side-stepped with a bash to the mercenary's head with his shield, and with a swift dexterity, sliced through the mercenary's axe hilt, sending the axe head flying into the air and landing on the ground with a thud. As the mercenary went after the axe head, Rylan downed him with a swift kick to the back of his head, leaving him sprawled on the ground, stunned. However this had given the other two mercenaries some time to catch up. They saw what had become of their mercenary friend, so they decided to play it a bit safer with Rylan. They were now circling slowly.
Rylan studied their movements carefully, keeping his sword brandished defensively at all times. He waited for a break in their movement, and when that break came as one of them started a mad charge, Rylan met him with a swift slice to the legs followed by another shield bash, rendering the attacker howling in pain upon the ground. Rylan swiftly turned around and whipped his sword in a deft diagonal movement, cleanly beheading the last of the attackers. Upon seeing this, the two remaining mercenaries, one of which had just come to in time to see his friend get killed, began to try to desperately crawl away, bawling in a fit of pain and panic. Rylan shook his head, feeling almost sorry for the scalawags as he ran into the town to find Cedric.
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Post by SHADOWMASTER89 on Oct 4, 2015 16:54:08 GMT -5
Cedric slid down the handrail of the stairs he had run up just minutes earlier, and landed on his feet behind Rylan. “Wandering off without me?”
Cedric grabbed an ax from a wood pile next to the stairs and handed it to Rylan. “Break the chains on the town hall doors and get those people out of there, tell them to use the eastern gate and flee to the border.”
At that Cedric drew his sword and ran towards the rest of the mercenaries and their row of oil barrels. As one charged him in a crazed manner he blocked the downward swing of the attacker’s war axe and then swiftly kicked him backwards into one of the barrels. As it toppled and spilled its viscous, black payload across the ground the oozing oil met with the flames of a torch that had earlier been dropped on the ground and suddenly there was another fireball in the town square, but luckily for Cedric, not an explosion.
Cedric then turned and engaged in a brief sword duel with another mercenary. He pulled a maneuver with his sword that sent his opponent's blade flying out of his hand and then kicked the inside of his leg dropping him to one knee before punching him across the face with the guard on his sword hilt. Cedric quickly kicked over the oil barrel that had been behind his last opponent. He turned just as the mercenary was trying to get back up and kicked him in the head as he walked past, leaving him unconscious.
As the last barrel’s payload, oozing across the ground, met with the flames from the earlier explosion to the left and the new flames from the barrel on the right, the flames quickly closed the gap. There was now a wall of flames stretching nearly across the entire town square and there was only one oil barrel left to finish the job.
As Cedric turned in that direction, however, he quickly realized his plan was to remain incomplete. A hulking, six foot brute of a man was now on the same side of the wall of flames, a small army of ragtag mercenaries at his back.
The brute just stood there, several feet from Cedric, sort of looking at him in the light of the flames, his head slightly cocked to one side. His face was scarred in the manner of one who had taken many punches to the face, like a brawler. His nose appeared as if it had been broken many times and he sported a stiff chin beard and spiky hair down the middle of his head, the hair on the sides being very short. His arms were clad in heavy plate armor from hands to shoulders and he wore a simple breastplate, all strapped on over huge muscles. He wore a plate armor fauld around his waist and high plate greaves over dark hide pants. A large battle axe hung loosely in the grip of his right hand.
He raised his right arm, pointing his battleaxe at Cedric. “You’ve caused quite a bit of trouble here mystery man.” His voice was deep and gruff. “Are you an elf lover like the people of this town? Oh wait, wait...maybe you’re actually an elf, they do like to cause trouble,” the brute said with a grin. “Why don’t you take off that hood and show us them daggers on ya head, eh filth, they might be worth all the trouble you caused!” The band of men behind him seemed to rile excitedly. With the current state of affairs within Delrock, elf ears were worth a handsome sum of gold when handed over to captains of the enforcer guard patrolling the kingdom.
Cedric stood there for a few moments before flipping his hood up off his head, staring down the brute with an unamused look on his face.
The riled band of men standing behind the brute suddenly fell silent and the brute’s expression turned to a puzzled frown before he suddenly let forth a hearty laugh. “the Prince of Delrock, even better!” His face became serious again. “One of you go report this to the Lord Magistrate Enforcer, we’re about to collect a pretty little fortune for this one.”
“Rylan, I do hope you’ve finished vacating the townsfolk over there, it would seem that we’ve overstayed our welcome just a bit,” Cedric said as he began to back away.
The brute chuckled a bit. “Go ahead, run, we’ll see how far you get.”
“Well, you heard the man Rylan, run for it!” Cedric shouted as he sheathed his sword and fled from the flaming, town square, heading back towards the north gate where they had entered. The roar of crazed mercenaries could be heard pursuing them, several of them shouting. “Keep the Prince alive, but ya can kill the other one!”
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Post by jaircrawford on Apr 30, 2016 0:53:58 GMT -5
Without a second thought Rylan grabbed the axe, nodded his head, and took to the granary keeping to the shadows as best as he could. He began to hew away at the chains with the axe which made an unfortunate racket. "I do hope Cedric finds a good way to keep them distracted..." Rylan muttered to himself as he continued to hack at the chains. Once he managed to rip the severed entanglement of chains off of the granary doors, he finished off the lock with one final swipe of his axe, and opened the doors to the sound of shocked and distressed cries among the townsfolk inside.
"Shh... shh...! We're here to rescue you! Go out quickly and quietly and get to the eastern gate. Quickly! Get as far away from this village as you possibly can!" Rylan urged the townsfolk on as he peered around the granary to see if his old friend was having any luck keeping the brutes distracted. He looked back over to the granary to ensure that all the townsfolk had made their way out safely to the gates when he did a double-take back to where the scene was unfolding. Cedric had taken his mask off. "... Cedric ... you fool ..." Rylan muttered under his breath before taking off around the other side of the granary to meet back up with his friend who was making a run for the north gate.
"Well Cedric," Rylan began between panted breaths as they charged towards the gate, "the good news is it looks like all the townspeople made it out. Now I must ask you a rather simple question." Rylan accented each word between panted breaths for emphasis.
"Are. You. MAD?!"
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Post by SHADOWMASTER89 on May 2, 2016 17:28:04 GMT -5
“Mad? Why would I be mad? I thought you did splendidly!” Cedric joked as they fled through the north gate, towards the hill that they’d left their horses atop. In truth, he knew Rylan was referring to him removing his hood and revealing who he was, which admittedly may not have been the smartest move. His pride, however, would never allow him to admit such a thing out loud.
Thunder rumbled closer in the sky than it had been earlier, and Cedric could hear their horses braying wildly up ahead as they struggled to navigate the muddy hillside. He could also hear that the mob of crazed mercenaries from the town was not far behind them, and others were now leaving the town on horseback to pursue them. They would likely only have minutes to get mounted and ride off, or they would be caught.
Once atop the hill Cedric rushed to his horse, quickly untying the animal before another bout of thunder startled it. “Woah girl, easy,” he said soothingly as he patted the horse on the side before quickly hopping up into the saddle.
“Hurry Rylan, we’re out of time!” he exclaimed as the mob began to crest the hill, the column of smoke from the town rising darkly behind them as they did. Cedric turned his horse towards the trees and snapped the reins, bolting off into the woods and cutting through to an obscured trail they had used on their approach. The trail was a long, winding one that they had used to gain access to the kingdom from the east, without much worry of being detected. However, the eastern border was miles away, and they would need to lose any pursuers and rest the horses long before they got that far.
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Post by jaircrawford on Oct 7, 2016 0:03:19 GMT -5
Rylan quickly vaulted up onto his horse and bid it to charge away from the scene at full speed, following Cedric on the trail and quickly catching up with him, the trees zooming past his field of vision as they made their hasty retreat. He kept his focus on the path ahead, daring not to turn his head on such a rough trail while galloping at such high speeds, but Rylan was not finished with Cedric. His friend would be hearing about this latest gaffe for quite a while.
"Well this is a right mess you've got us in!", he exclaimed over the sound of the wind rushing past their ears and the clattering of horse-shoes impacting the worn road. "Did you forget that we are both wanted men in this area? Now there won't be a bounty hunter in all the land that won't be looking for us!" Another lightning bolt flashed across the sky with a thunderous boom as if to clarify Rylan's point in an almost ironic way. "And we are headed straight into a storm! How marvelous indeed!", Rylan scoffed in frustration, before coming to his senses and realizing that this could give them an advantage.
"We should ride into the heart of the rain, and use it for cover. It may well be our best hope of losing the mob", Rylan speculated as he diverted his attention to the skies above them and the darkening clouds. "We can lead the mob into the forest and lose them, and then catch back up with the refugees. This might be our only chance, especially since the entire kingdom will know we've now been here!", he added with a frustrated grunt as his horsed brayed slightly at the prospect of riding headlong into the storm.
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Post by SHADOWMASTER89 on Oct 15, 2016 15:01:47 GMT -5
Cedric rolled his eyes as he listened to Rylan’s fit. He did have a point about riding into the storm to lose their pursuers however, but they would not need to deviate from the trail in order to do that. It was such a rough and winding trail that there were several places where one could easily ride off into the woods without realizing it until they came to a dead end, especially under the current weather conditions. The duo rode down into a dip in the trail which came up into an immediate hard curve to the right approaching what appeared to be a fork in the trail. Cedric already knew the right side of the fork was not the real trail, but lead to a drop off that one could easily ride over in low visibility. He glanced over his shoulder, not seeing their pursuers. He slapped Rylan on the shoulder with the back of his hand and pointed to the left side of the fork as he turned his horse towards it. Glancing back again he still could not see anyone following. With any luck they would ride off in the wrong direction, or at least some of them would.
“We should lose a few of them there!” he shouted over the downpour. Suddenly a crack of lightning flashed and there was a thunderous bang as fire and sparks leapt from a large tree on the side of the trail ahead. The tree cracked and groaned as it fell towards the trail. Cedric’s horse brayed loudly as it slid to a halt, just before the massive piece of wood crashed to the ground. He held on tight as his horse reared and panicked, taking several minutes to calm down as rolling thunder spooked it further.
Luckily the woods were clear enough on one side for them to cut around the fallen tree and return to the trail, but the incident had cost them valuable time. Within a matter of minutes they were no longer alone as a group of mercenary riders began to gain on them from behind. Cedric could hear them whooping and hollering even over the loudness of the rainfall and occasional thunder. He cursed, it would be impossible to lose any of them along the trail so long as they were in sight range.
He looked to Rylan. “It looks like we’ll have to deal with them the old fashioned way, but we need to split them up somehow!”
Thinking ahead, Cedric recalled that there was a sort of branch off from the main trail up ahead, though it was really more of a semi-straight clearing through the woods. It stretched straight along, while the real trail curved off to the left and then met back up with it after a mile or so. He couldn’t guarantee, however, that all of them wouldn’t simply follow him. The current weather was making for rather low visibility though.
When the branch off in question came into view ahead Cedric quickly decided it was worth the risk. He rode as close to Rylan as he could and shouted. “You take the real trail to the left! I’ll ride straight ahead! With any luck they won’t be able to tell who is who and split up after us both! Either way, we’ll meet back up after another mile or so!”
Following his own instructions, Cedric rode straight ahead into the woods. The terrain would be rougher and the ground potentially mushier, but there was little choice. There were too many attackers for them to take all at once, even together. Splitting them up was the only way he could think to even the odds. He glanced back after a few minutes and laughed. His gambit had worked. The group had split, unevenly, but well enough. He had not been able to count the original number, but Cedric himself only had close to five or six left on his tail, but he still needed to thin them out before rejoining Rylan on the main trail.
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Post by jaircrawford on Oct 27, 2016 22:01:06 GMT -5
Rylan followed Cedric's plan without hesitation for there wasn't time to waste. To his relief there were only a handful of mercenaries following him. He quickly drew his bow and quiver that he kept with him for good measure and began to fire back at his enemies behind him. His armor, however, was limiting to his flexibility and combined with the horses fast gallop several arrows flew past the mercenaries and into the stormy skies behind him. "Blast!" he exclaimed as he continued to frantically reach for more arrows in his quiver. As the crowd grew closer he started to have some better success, striking one in the thigh two painfully in the knees. "Huh, well I'll take all the luck I can get right now," he muttered quietly to himself as the last two attackers drew closer.
One of the two remaining mercenaries rushed menacingly towards Rylan, having been slowed down by firing his arrows. Rylan's horse spooked at this attack and before he knew it he was flat on his stomach, having been thrown off by his own horse. The two mercenaries howled in victory as they closed in around their prey. Rylan lay there motionless as the two mercenaries began to circle around him and argue over which of them would claim the prize of his head. "Oi got to 'im first, so oi get to claim 'is head!" "Tha's no what our contrac' said! We get to spli' i' up between us!" Their argument was interrupted by a piercing whistle coming from Rylan on the ground. Following this his horse savagely hind-kicked one of the mercenaries sending him flying backwards to the ground with a broken spine. Simultaneously, Rylan turned himself around whilst drawing his sword and swiftly slashed at the armor of the remaining mercenary right where the sun never reaches, causing him to snarl and double over in pain and in one swift thrust he finished him off with his sword right through the heart. The mercenary fell to the ground dead with a thud as Rylan picked himself back up, dusted himself off, and walked over to his horse.
"Good boy, just like we always trained!" he said with a grin while patting his horse on the back before mounting again to rendezvous with Cedric. He could only hope that his friend was faring as well as he was.
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Post by SHADOWMASTER89 on Mar 1, 2017 21:20:38 GMT -5
As Cedric rode along he occasionally had to duck under a fallen tree, and he tried to keep to where the ground did not appear to pool with water. While his maneuvers kept him ahead of the mercs, he could not seem to lose them in the storm. It was at this point that he recalled the insurance he had packed for just such an occasion. He drew the dagger from his belt and deftly placed the blade between his teeth, clenching it securely until it was needed. Next he flipped open one of his saddle bags and removed a medium sized cloth bag, which immediately became soaked from the rain. The tips of small metal spikes protruded from the cloth, but he was careful to hold it by the top where it was tied shut by a simple string. He took the dagger from his mouth, and with no hands on the reigns he had to kick his horse lightly in the sides to keep him from stopping. He quickly sliced the string from the top of the bag and sheathed the dagger once more. Spotting a low hanging limb he twirled the bag over his head, and flung it hard at the limb just as he rode beneath it. The hole filled bag easily became ensnared upon the limb, spilling the caltrops it had contained all over the wet, leafy ground behind him. In the low visibility it was highly unlikely that his pursuers would realize the trap he had just laid. His belief was confirmed by the sound of hollers and braying horses behind him. He did not bother to look back, and instead continued to ride on into the storm. It was unlikely that any who made it past his trap would catch sight of him again. The remaining ride to join back up with the trail was uneventful other than the ferocity of the storm. Cedric could only hope that Rylan had not encountered any problems. He brought his horse to a stop as he came back upon the trail, and looked to the direction Rylan should appear from. The weather made it impossible to tell whether his companion had already rode past, as the trail was little more than mud. Cedric glanced over his shoulder. If any of his pursuers remained on the hunt, they would likely continue to follow the clearing as best they could, but he doubted they would be coming very quickly. He would wait for a short time to see if Rylan appeared, but if not, he would have little choice other than to ride on in the hope that his friend had already passed. Remaining where he was for too long, or backtracking the trail to find Rylan, would more than likely see him faced with more mercs than he could handle alone. That was a risk he knew Rylan would rather he not take. I dunno how great this post is, but at least it's broken my writer's block, and gets things moving again.
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