Return of The Emblem Chapter One: The Artifact

[roymbrog]

Synthia healed John, again.

John's HP: 8/12 (healed 3)

[RPG]

Combat:

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2852292/

Jeanne: (1, 4, 3)

Thief: (6, 3, 5)

Jeanne: 3/12

Thief: 2/9

"Fuckin' sunnuva--" Jeanne's followup stab had missed, and she was brutally countered. Need to plan an escape route if things get worse...

[Acacia Sgt]

Looking around, John saw an archer. He ordered Gil to rise before diving at the bowman. The archer didn't noticed until too late, ending impaled before he could react.

(5,5,1) Hit:3+5=8>7 Damage:5+5-1=9 ArcherA HP 0/9

(+5 Points, 75 total)

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika attempted attacking the thief fighting Jeanne, but he dodged. He swung back, but she also dodged.

Veronika (2,1,5)

Thief (1,5,4)

[Snike]

[spoiler=Roll]http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2852286/

Axel attacks!

3,6,2 = 7-7 = Hit! 9-1 = 8 Points of damage!

Archer B Counters!

5,5,3 = Hit! 8-4 = 4 Points of damage!

Archer B 1/9

Axel 3/9

His target having been dispatched by the noble lady mere moments after he had taken the arrow, Axel moved on to another archer that was giving his wagon companion some trouble. After landing a solid blow on the enemy, his right arm was rendered useless once more, by a stray arrow. Undaunted, the soldier switched arms, backing up as he did for the time being.

[roymbrog]

These archers had looked weak, but were turning out toe be a real pain. Synthia watched as Gytha attacked one, missed, and was countered. The wound looked pretty bad, so she ran over to heal her first.

Synthia's mage ability

+4 Mag

-4 Skill

Gytha's HP:8/15

[Mercakete]

It seemed like people were beginning to work together after all. Gytha had been in some bad trouble but a lanceman had attacked the archer, drawing his attention away from her. Carefully, Gytha pulled out the arrow while he distracted him. Before she knew it, a woman had joined them and was applying her staff to the wound, healing it for the mostpart. She took note to thank the two in words later but for now the best she could do to thank them was to help end this battle.

Getting up again, Gytha stared down the archer, taking aim and summoning her strength to its fullest. Charging foreward, the woman's ferocity vocalized in a vengeful battlecry, causing the archer's attention to return to her. That only lasted a moment, however, as her sword came down and cut him clean in half, all the way down through his belly, seeing as he was on his knees from her ally's attack. Standing back up, Gytha looked around the battlefield. It wouldn't be long now.

Gytha attackes Archer B!

(6+4)-7 = 3 = hit! (5+6)-1 = 10 damage! No critical!

Archer B 0/9

Gytha 8/15

+5pts

Edited January 23, 2011 by Mercakete

[RPG]

Seeing Veronika attack the thief as well, and miss, Jeanne felt a little better about her failure. Trying again!

Combat:

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2852342/

Jeanne (1, 5, 4)

Thief (1, 1, 6)

Jeanne: 3/12

Thief: 4/9

Well, fuck my luck. Jeanne had missed again, but thankfully she managed to pull Megaera back enough to avoid a lethal blow. This thief is either extremely lucky, or a god in disguise...he's dodged what, four times?

[Dark Sage]

Aiming a blow at a thief running towards him, Domovoi stabbed near him but missed. The thief struck a slight blow, the Neviskotian gritting his teeth as he took it.

Link to Roll: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2852346/

Domovoi (1,1,2) Miss!

Thief (2,3,6) Hit! 3+2-4= 1 damage! Domovoi 10/12 HP.

Edited January 23, 2011 by Dark Sage

[Acacia Sgt]

The only enemy left was the thief, which, to John's surpirse, was dodging despite being at the last of his strength.

'Such durability.' He thought. 'Well, no matter, time to end this.' He quickly approached the thief as it attemtped to attack the Pegasus Knight. The theif, though he failed, was enough of a distracted for John to quickly approach and strike with his lance.

(6,5,2) Hit:3+9+2=11>8 Damage: 5+5-1=9 Thief HP 0/9

''Finally, it's over.'' He said as the thief dropped dead.

(+5 Points, +5 for victory, 85 total)

Edited January 23, 2011 by Acacia Sgt

[Phoenix]

VICTORY

Point Average: 21

Starting Points: 81

When Amon had received his crippling injury from the fighter, he hastily retreated over to the wagon. Holding onto his badly injured arm he withheld all the noise he wanted to make and tried to fight through the pain with sheer willpower. His red coat hid how much blood was really pouring from his arm, but he knew he was in trouble.

Raquel stood back minding the wagon and the archers who may have wanted to take a shot at her in the distance. A bit of the worry was eased having Wolfgang so close by since he would have ample time to shield her from an arrow should it come flying in her direction. She knew she didn't have fast reflexes. Just then she saw Amon stumbling over and leaning up against the wagon. A quick gasp was the only indicator Wolfgang would get that she was about to do anything about it. She leaped down from the wagon and helped to prop the man up.

"How bad is it? I can't tell with all this red." she uttered in a bit of a panic.

"J-just need to ... stop the bleeding." he replied holding back the urge to growl from the pain.

[Dark Sage]

"Hmmph. Well, that's over. Mildly impressive, being able to hit a greasy little monkey like that," Domovoi said gruffly to John. He was nicked a bit in the head and arm, a trickle of blood pouring down near his eye.

[EchoingPewter]

"Just get him a healer. It's nothing instantly fatal. He won't pass out for another five minutes or so if a healer doesn't get here in time. Make sure he's taken care of within the hour or else his injury may be permenant or fatal after all." Wolfgang as he looked at the man with complete apathy in his gaze. He was only trying to calm Raquel down, this man's life meant little to him. Especially since he seemed to be after the Fire Emblem. That alone could jeprodize his entire contract. So all he did was offer his advice, then looked up to the sky far the pegasus Hans was riding. When he spotted him, he broke his silence.

"Hans, get down here immediately and look over Raquel! I'm moving in to secure the fortress and assure that there are no enemies remaining!" He shouted, before drawing his sword and walking past everyone to the fortess with not even a glance at any wounded.

~~~~

"Jeanne, Magaera, are you two okay!? We've got to land and get you guys treated up! I've also got orders to follow." Hans stated quickly. He would've helped Jeanne out, but her constant movements on the pegasus made him try to keep both himself and her on Magaera's back. His hands were even shaking around her waist because he wasn't enjoying the sight he'd watched.

"Come on, please, before you get infected." He pressed on.

[Mercakete]

As Gytha cleaned her blade (an easy couple slide-throughs of her cleaning cloth, since the blood was still wet), she cast an annoyed glance to Wolfgang. He was passing by, having not even shown himself during the fight. To her, he seemed to almost be mocking the combatants by sauntering by like that. "Did yer employer order ye to lead the expedition?" Gytha challenged Wolfgang as she sheathed her freshly-cleaned sword, "Not sure how ye landlubber sellswords do things on land, but on sea we don't just advance as we please."

True enough, most of her jobs had simply been as an escort but she never went off to shore without permission from her employer or captain. To do so was to offhandedly tell your employer that they didn't know what they were doing, after all. When ye sell yer sword, ye obey the employer s'long as it isn'ta scumbag's order. Swallow yer pride, "seasoned mercenary."

[Phoenix]

Amon kept his glance away from Wolfgang as he spoke. The sound in his voice reminded him of the others associated with him. He didn't much care for them either.

"Synthia's probably got her hands full. I can at least treat him with a vulnerary until she's done." Raquel said.

Elsewhere ...

Deep in the forests running up the side of the hills, Hayato led the group of deserting robed figures. They're pace was sluggish at best but they weren't trying to outrun the group per se. Closely behind them one of the surviving bandits had finally caught up after a long trek through the woods. Hayato looked back to spot him and raised his hand signalling the entire group to stop.

"It's only been five minutes. Tell me you're not one of the survivors." Hayato blurted out.

"N-no ... I don't know what's going on down there. I left before the fighting started. Look I'm no fool there's no way we can beat them and you people are crazy to think we can."

"Who says we thought you could? We just wanted a little distraction while we headed out. We really don't want to be followed either ... not by them or by you ... so can ya move along ... like in some other direction?"

"No way! I'm not going back there, and I'm not going alone! They'll interrogate me if they catch me, then they'll either kill me or turn me over to the authorities! Either way I'm dead!" the bandit shouted in protest.

"Either way, huh? Well ... sucks to be you." Hayato said a second before swiftly unsheathing his fire blade and making one cutting motion at the bandit! The blade's flames appeared and quickly cut the man from a short distance away slashing his chest clean open and setting him ablaze! He fell to the ground screaming and then went silent as the smoke began to rise.

"Nice job, Hayato. Screams and a smoke signal." one of the robed men muttered dejectedly.

"Shut up. We'll be long gone by the time they catch up. Half of them are mounted, remember? Anyway, let's just get moving. Once Sardis catches up he can help put some distance between us and them that they'll never make up." the sword master replied while sheathing his blade.

"Sardis can't warp all of us in just one go."

"No dark magic user can, but who says he only has time to warp a few of us?" Hayato explained placing his hands on his hips. "Come on. We'll press on for now. He shouldn't be long."

"Indeed I shan't." said a voice coming from behind them. It was Sardis, with Jethro still floating helplessly behind him wrapped up in a visible series of dark energy tethers.

"Ah. Speak of the warper."

"We should go. Jethro here managed to kill our dear treasurer." he replied while tossing Jethro a disappointed grin. "They won't catch up to us before we depart, but we should still make haste."

"I really don't see why we're running at all. We could take them, just you and me." Hayato muttered a bit in protest.

"We know where the other piece is, and we know how to locate it. There is a saying of the Fallen that I do like to adhere to, and it is partly what motivates what I'm having us do for the time being." Sardis began.

"And what's that?" Hayato replied expecting a disappointing answer.

"Waste not. There is some potential in these men and I don't intend to waste trainees on these people. Not if the situation isn't so desperate that I have to. Tell me, Hayato. What is our rush here? Why must we acquire the other piece this very day? What overwhelming danger awaits us tomorrow?"

"Have you forgotten that after this year, we're pretty much screwed?" Hayato shot back.

"Ah so it's not tomorrow, it's at the close of the year. Previously noted. Now with that in mind, we have time. We'll take the emblem from them when we have a less costly means with which to do it."

"We didn't have the means before and we still went after them?" Hayato asked tilting his head.

Sardis sighed saying "We had the means to overwhelm Jethro here, his daughter, and that curious primate. Then the numbers rose exponentially."

"And that won't happen again?"

"It probably will. All the more reason to come prepared. We have more than enough time, and we have more than enough resources we can pull in order to deal with them effectively, and as I said, waste not. ... speaking of which ..." Sardis looked down at the smoldering corpse nearby. "Was that truly necessary?"

"... eh."

[RPG]

Megaera's landing was a little more rough than usual. Jeanne brushed herself off and winced. "This is no problem Hans, I've had worse." That was a lie; this had been her first real battle, and her slash wounds were stinging severly. She dismounted and leaned on her somewhat bloodied lance, noticing that Megaera had sustained a slash wound as well. No doubt that was what caused her shaky landing. Shit, what have I gotten myself into? The thief was smart enough to aim for the chinks in her armor, and she wasn't one to carry around any type of healing salve. "Do what you need to," she said to the bowman. "I'll wait for Synthia to become available, doesn't look like my wounds are the worst."

[EchoingPewter]

"...Hahahaha." Wolfgang had stopped to laugh at the woman's comment. He turned to her with a grin that was filled with excitement.

"No, she didn't. But you think I'm going to risk us getting ambushed? Would you sit back on a ship just after an attack and not search the ship if someone's stowed away in disguise to make sure they don't try and take your ship down as revenge? It's called being careful. Take the lead if you want, I didn't demand to be the leader. And another thing..." Wolfgang paced a couple of steps forward to her. His grin remained.

"You're probably thinking "Why am I not following my employer's orders?", eh? It's called lifestyle. She's an innocent young girl, a merchant's daughter, that happened to be dragged into a conflict she honestly probably doesn't deserve to be in. I'm a mercenary like you, and everyone else here, seen battle much more than her like all of you most likely. If I let her give me orders every second, she may hesitate, or give a bad order. And cost you, me, everyone's lives. I've given her my consideration all before now, and that's because those situations had nothing extreme occurring. I feel she does not have the experience yet to worry about orders over the lives of her protectors. It's the line of command, common sense. And I am my own commander after my contractor. How do you meriners do it? Sit back and let a stow away attack you before being told to aprihand them? Quit acting like you don't have a warrior's instinct, sea fairer." With that, Wolfgang turned and proceeded back on his route to the fortress.

~~~~

"Shoot, don't lie to me. Orders can wait, we're on the ground now." Hans said, leaping off the pegasus and pulling out his own medicine again. "Let me see where you're hurt, I'll treat it how I can." Hans said with a hand waving toward him.

Edited January 23, 2011 by EchoingPewter

[Acacia Sgt]

''It was nothing.'' John replied to Domovoi. ''I caught him distracted, that's all.''

He was still slightly injured from the battle, but considering the times he got healed mid-battle, he thought at this point the worse had been taken care of. 'I should probably not go that aggresive next time, though.' He thought.

[Mercakete]

"Ye've got that right: yer the next in command for yer mercenaries after yer employer. As for what I'd do, I'd advise me employer and ask t' investigate. If I be barred, I be barred and won't disobey the command. As for her being inexperienced, I agree with ye. However, ye are the one who took the contract. If ye were more conserned with yer life, ye shouldn't have agreed t' it. I'm not worried about yer causn' an ambush. I'm worried about your integrity, sellsword," she replied, "An' as fer sinkn' th' ship, no idiot would do that unless they were despirate. Capture is priority among pirates."

This man was proving to not be worth her irritation. He was instead showing himself to be just annother man playing captain who didn't know what he was doing.

[RPG]

"Alright," Jeanne responded, glad for the assistance. She held her right arm out to the side, showing a small gash between her neck and shoulder, and a considerably deeper one on her forearm. "Lucky for the wonders of modern medicine, or I'd be out of a job..." she muttered. "Just don't forget Megaera," Jeanne added, noting her wounded yet indifferent pegasus. "Her injury wasn't that bad, thankfully."

[EchoingPewter]

"When she says she has a different idea, I'll listen. I didn't hear her reject my idea. I didn't hear her tell me otherwise. As for sinking the ship, you'd be surprised what options sole survivors will consider. And you say I shouldn't have agreed to this contract if I care about my life? Quite frankly, I couldn't care less about my life. But if Raquel dies because I wasn't careful, no pay day. And if all of you die, her chances of survival dwindle. And I, want, the money. And I'm also curious to the job in its entirety. Simple as that." Wolfgang said to her before he managed out of earshot and entered the fortress doors.

Now, time to work.

Edited January 24, 2011 by EchoingPewter

[roymbrog]

With the last enemy defeated Synthia finally had a chance to survey the damage in its entirety. Almost every single person had at least one injury, she would have to judge the severity and treat the worst off first she decided, and started off to do just that.

However, she soon stopped as she stepped in a rather large puddle of blood. There was no enemy there to cause that, no one in sight was losing that much blood, and after a quick investigation she found that that the trail of red led from there to the wagon. That is how she came to find a very wounded Amon leaning on the opposite side of the wagon by Raquel.

“Hey, wait Raquel, let me heal that first!” she called as she hurried over. “I can’t completely close those wounds with just a heal staff, but it’ll at least be better than only using a vulnerary. Hold still, this might sting a bit…”

[Phoenix]

Amon was surprised to see a healer arrive so soon, but from the looks of things she'd walked along a similar path to him. She must have been following the trail of blood he left behind. I'm bleeding too much ... ugh. he thought to himself before nodding at Synthia acknowledging her warning. Raquel stood back a bit waiting to see the results.

[roymbrog]

Synthia began passing the glowing end of the staff over Amon's wounds. The small cuts and scrapes quickly vanished, but it took a few moments for any larger ones to close. When she was finished the only wound remaining was the cut on his arm. Though most of it had sealed up and the bleeding had stopped, part of the cut was still exposed to infection, and since the heal staff could only do so much to a single area this would have to be treated and wrapped.

"Could you bandage the rest? I'm afraid this is all I can do here, and some of the others need treatment as well. If not, I'll be right back anyway...," she said as she turned to leave. The nearest were the two wyvern riders, so she jogged over and healed them first. "Third time today, eh?" she said to John, then to both of them, "Bring your wyverns by later if they're injured too. Sorry, but my first priority right now is humans, alright?" She then hurried off again to find her next patient.

[Phoenix]

As his wound began to heal, Amon closed his eyes and tried to put himself somewhere else. Somewhere less foreign. He ended up back in the vast city of Sanctuary resting on a rooftop he frequented. While leaning against a tower wall, he looked out over the city and imagined what it would be like once he accomplished his mission. What would happy immortal citizens of Rex-Avaz be like? When the dead were brought back into immortality, how grateful and happy would they be? His version of the answers were a bit too optimistic he felt, but it motivated him enough to open his eyes with new resolve. He couldn't let the possibility of that reality slip away over a mistake in battle like that. "Thank you." he said as Synthia finished. After that Raquel quickly grabbed a vulnerary and some bandages from the attached bags in the forward seats and returned.

"I managed to take some vulneraries from the enemy. We can just use those." Amon said.

"You're going to need those so just hold onto them." she said as she began applying the one she'd gotten.

"You're a merchant, correct? Do I have to pay for that?"

"Ye- ... oh ... I probably should have said something. Sorry."

Amon sighed. "Fine, I'll pay you for it ... one of these days, but for now I can only help in other ways." he explained.

"You're the one that wanted to work for free." she said a bit disappointed.

"I cannot accept payment for doing my sworn duty, Miss Raquel." he said lowering his head to rest up a bit. She sighed herself and then finished bandaging his arm before taking a seat next to him and waiting around for a few minutes. She wanted to check out the fortress too ... somewhat, after all her father may have been held up in there ... but she knew she needed to stay with the wagon at least for now. Thoughts of moving the wagon itself closer to the fortress crept up continuously but it would be better for the group to clear it out first.