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Dec 19, 2009, 11:56am

Halt's Playground :: Gallica :: The Front :: [The Front] Fear and Death*

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Topic: [The Front] Fear and Death* (Read 221 times)

Brandwyn
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Re: Fear and Death (SWC Only)
« Reply #15 on Oct 10, 2009, 5:22pm »

The supreme commander of the Aslavian army, General Abdulah, wasn't happy with their progress so far. Sure, they were probably only 4 or maybe 5 days from the coast, as his slow army moved, but he had expected to have already engaged with the enemy and wiped them out.

He was bitterly disappointed that the only resistance they had met in Gallica so far was a few minor knights or Barons with a few men that were scattered across the countryside they had passed through. These men had been easily dealt with; most of their heads were on pikes lining their own castle walls and now had the Aslavian flag flying from their turrets. There was no honor in these little battles.

It was hardly the battle he had expected to fight for Gallica. Where were these Gallicans and the remnants of the Toscano army? His scouts had reported seeing no signs of them for the last four days. So far he was just marching across the country, seizing their food and livestock and trampling their crops.

Nor had they found any sign of the woman who had escaped him, or her accomplices. He glared at the slowly moving train of wagons and marching men stretching out in front and behind his personal cavalcade. They were too slow and he seemed to be blind to the movements of his enemies. Even his supposed allies, The Grizzlies were not to be found. His operatives he had sent to deal with that camel dung, Guage, had not returned.

A rider approached on a lathered horse and pulled up to ride beside him. The scout saluted him and Abdulah signaled for him to report.

"Sir, there is a rather large village about a day and a half ahead of us. Dead in our path. The villagers there have tried to create a barrier around the village with wagons and huge spikes they have planted in a circle around the village. Rather than fleeing before us, these fools seem intent on defending their homes."

Abdulah shook his head, "stupid peasants. These Gallicans are the most foolish of people I have ever seen." He nodded to the scout, "get some rest and then a fresh horse and see if you can get to the coast. I want to know if those Araluen's have actually landed yet or not."

The man nodded, "Yes Sir, thank you!" He rode off at a trot on the nearly exhausted horse to swap it out for a fresh one and a bite to eat. An hour later he was back on the trail, heading due west to the coast.

Meanwhile Abdulah issued orders to prepare to assault the village when they got to it. He scowled as he rode, tired of these little villages that stood in his way. He wished someone would bring a decent fight to him. All of these little skirmishes over tiny holdings or villages were tedious and time consuming.

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Tory Waterton (14) Ranger apr.; Brandwyn Elfstone (17) Scout apr.; Shanna Horsetrader (27) Ranger; Rick Greenriver (31) Ranger (Araluen); Katrina de Montgomery (22) Knight; Avaleah Goldsmith (25) Acquisitions Expert (SWC); Ian MacGreggor (38) Royal Scout Master: Meric; Henry Dell (25) Man-at-arms; Antonio de Cortona (Tony the Razor) (31) Merchant; Ashton Lewis Thornbury (20) Priest

Tandar
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Re: Fear and Death (SWC Only)
« Reply #16 on Nov 2, 2009, 10:30am »

"We've got enough material to pollute several water sources. Nothing too fancy, just stuff to make 'em sick."

Killington grinned and waved his men into the column.

"I suppose we should get moving."

The specialist picked up his pack and joined the rest of the soldiers.

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Dougal
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Re: Fear and Death (SWC Only)
« Reply #17 on Nov 5, 2009, 4:39am »

OOC: Sorry for the short/bad post.

It was a shame that Killington didn't have anything potent enough to kill the Aslavians outright, but it definitely wouldn't hurt if they were sick when they faced the Araluen army. Dougal searched his mental map of the area and came up with three relatively major towns, the ones that the Aslavian officers would like to occupy. He gave Bolt their rough location - Dougal wasn't able to keep a completely accurate map in his head - and sent the officer off. Killington would do his job.

With that out of the way, Dougal was beginning to wonder what his next course of action. If the Aslavian commander was even half-way competent, he would notice when the disease began to spread and would begin to suspect something. Perhaps it would be better to kill the leader now, and let the disease add to the confusion. Yes, that sounded like a very good plan. Only, how would he pull it off? He had to assume that the Aslavian scouts were at least as good as he was, so hiding up a tree wouldn't be a very good plan. He needed to scout out the path that the Aslavians would take and then work things out from there. He already had a plan forming, but it was going to be risky. It depended on his soldier's abilities to hide and their capability to strike so hard and so fast that the Aslavians wouldn't know what hit them.

Turning to his men, and woman, as Dougal's ironic self mentioned, he gave orders.

"We've got a day or so before the Aslavians get here, so I'm thinking that we should set up an ambush for their general. I'm thinking of putting a section or a fragment in concealed pits near the road, just close enough for us to identify the general and take him out. We'll use a couple of siege arbalests to make sure that the job gets done, and cover our retreat with fire starters and grenades."

He turned to face one of his men in particular, a man who was especially good with a siege arbalest.

"Jake, I want you to pick out the best five men with an arbalest. You'll be about four hundred metres in the woods, in a clearing. When you hear the first explosions, you're to lob grenades at the road.

"Everyone else'll be scattered about at the same distance. If you hear use yelling bloody murder, launch at counter attack at our position, okay? It'll just be a quickie..." a couple of soldiers sniggered and Dougal glared at them until they feel silent. "To get us out of trouble. We're not here to take on the whole army. Got that?"

Everyone nodded.

"Alright, move out."

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All soldiers are dead. Some are just deader than others. - Dougal

ivory
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Re: [The Front] Fear and Death*
« Reply #18 on Nov 10, 2009, 5:15pm »

Angel'd been standing too far away to see which towns he'd pointed out on the map, but figured he'd picked those with higher possibilities of harming the Aslavian army. She watched in silence as he relayed his orders to Bolt, studying him into a profile. It'd become a habit of hers: observe, profile, calculate, and she had a tendency to apply it to just about everyone she came into contact with, except for one. Well, in truth, she'd applied it, the results on the other hand weren't up to satsifactory level or anywhere close. She wondered briefly, where Rip was, then decided she was better off not knowing. He didn't necessarily scare her, just had the tendency to put her on edge. It like almost as if he knew, which of course, was ridiculous. Only one other person knew of that.

Tuning her thoughts out, she turned her attention to the conversation between Dougal and Jake, though it was more of an issuing of orders than a conversation. Nevertheless, she used it as a distraction from her previous thoughts and when the time came, she moved with the majority of the other troops, not having nearly enough knowledge about arbalests to make the five-man cut. She did however, have more than enough skill in knowing how to work past the agonizing of her muscles, all in curtesy from Dougal, which at the moment she actually thanked. Some thoughts were better left alone.

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Brandwyn
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Re: [The Front] Fear and Death*
« Reply #19 on Nov 11, 2009, 10:10pm »

Mou’Sayid decided to skirt the edge of the woods on his trek towards the coast. General Abdullah would want to know if there were any of the enemy soldiers in the woods. He cantered his horse through the loosely packed trees, in site of the fields of grass to his right where his army would be following in about a day or so.

Up ahead he heard some footsteps and a man grunted. Mou’Sayid pulled his horse to a stop and listened intently for a full minute. He could make out the sounds of a small group of men through a thicket in front of him. He dismounted and led his horse closer, moving quietly.

He parted the tree branches and saw a small group of men wearing non-descript fighting gear and carrying what looked like huge crossbows through the trees. He always got confused on what all the different types of weapons were called and how they worked. His job was to scout ahead and report back his findings. Usually he never even had to lift a sword. And yet he was one of the General’s trusted aids – within the close circle that Abdullah surrounded himself with, which was unusual given his lack of skill with weapons in general.

The men were setting up in a clearing that lay between them and the open field. The clearing had just enough underbrush along the edge that they would likely not be seen by the army’s outriders. They had just started laying out their ambush site from what he could tell.

Mou’Sayid had seen enough. He backed his horse up in order to turn it around and with an unfortunately bad stroke of luck; the horse stepped on a broken stick and snapped it in half with a loud crack! Then it whinnied as it caught the scent of strangers.

Disregarding further attempts at stealth, Mou’Sayid leapt into the saddle and guided his horse through the underbrush and other obstacles that grew thicker the deeper one penetrated the woods.

He made for the open grass where possibly he could outrun his enemies, hoping he could get away to warn the General of the ambush they were planning.

« Last Edit: Nov 22, 2009, 4:42pm by Brandwyn »

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Dougal
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Re: [The Front] Fear and Death*
« Reply #20 on Dec 13, 2009, 4:39am »

OOC: Sorry about the long wait. I'm going to try and get at least one post out a week, so hopefully the pace will pick up.

IC: The pits were cleverly designed. Each man dug an initial hole that was wider than their shoulders by about three feet and six inches deep. A second hole was then place in the centre of the first, u.just wide enough for the digger to rest comfortably on their belly. The floor of the second hole sloped upwards so that the person being concealed could still view the roadway and fire their weapons.

Once dug, the trenches were overlayed with thick branches by other team members, while those who dug the holes stayed in place. Next, small branches and twigs were used to cover fill in any major holes so that, when dirt was placed on top of the digger's position, they weren't buried. Leaf litter was then placed over the dirt, and the entrance to the hole was hidden by light brush, and made to look natural. As a result of all this hard work, most scouts would walk over the hidden SWC member without even realising it. You really had to know where to look in order to find the hide.

Of course, the rider never found out any of this. He had only caught Dougal and the other soldiers digging the initial hole when he ran.decided to get out of there. Later, in hindsight, Dougal would be grateful that he had been discovered by a scout who was did a sloppy job, but at the time he was more than a little bit annoyed. As always, he reacted quickly, seizing his arbalest and charging towards the sound of the horse and rider. However, rather than being out in front, Dougal found himself lagging considerably behind his men. His body ached every time he moved and, despite his determination, he found himself unable to keep up his usual pace.

As a result of this, Dougal arrived at the open, grassy area couple of seconds after his men. They had already opened fire on the rider, and he did the same. The rider was a hundred metres away, and would probably reach the three hundred mark by the time Dougal's bolt hit him - if Dougal could shoot perfectly. Despite the light, long range bolt he was using, he doubted that he would hit the rider.

As the arbalest jumped back into his shoulder, Dougal saw the first projectile begin to arc downwards at the rider. It was a half kilogram iron ball, capable of going straight through a horse, let alone a man. Even if it didn't hit the target, it would still have enough energy to wind the horse or break one of its legs on the second ro third bounces.

The other three projectiles were a combination of heavy and light bolts, all more than capable of killing both horse and rider. Dougal, not usually the sort to pray, did so. If the scout escaped, he would have to scrap his plan and the Aslavian leader would doubtless be more on his guard than ever, making it virtually impossible to kill him.

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Brandwyn
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Re: [The Front] Fear and Death*
« Reply #21 on Dec 15, 2009, 9:55pm »

Mou’Sayid heard a whistling sound behind him and glanced back, over his shoulder. His deeply tanned face turned nearly white as he saw the ammunition flying toward him. He urged the horse faster.

The first bolt hit the ground just to the right of him and his horse jumped sideways, away from it, and then stumbled.

Mou’Sayid yelled as the horse went down and he went flying from the saddle in front of the horse. It rolled over the top of him and for a brief moment, the entire weight of the horse smashed him into the grass, then the horse was up and running away, leaving Mou’Sayid behind.

Mou’Sayid squirmed in agony and tried to get the air back into his lungs. When he succeeded, he screamed in agony, wishing he hadn’t caught his breath as several broken ribs protested each breath.

He heard another whistling sound and saw a big round iron ball flying straight toward him. Despite the pain of a broken leg, he managed to roll out of its path at the last second as the other bolts whistled around him. He gasped, his breath rattling in his lungs and he could feel blood filling his lungs. He lay on his side and covered his head with his arms and prayed that the end would be quick.

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