[Mkguild] First Impressions (9/?) (I think)

[christian okane]

Wow an exciting scene this time!



Chris
The Lurking Fox


-----Original Message-----
From: mkguild-bounces at lists.integral.org
[mailto:mkguild-bounces at lists.integral.org] On Behalf Of Azariah Wolf
Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 1:19 AM
To: MKGuild at lists.integral.org
Subject: [Mkguild] First Impressions (9/?) (I think)

It sure took me a while, but here's my next part, which just happens to 
be the longest of the current story.  I think we're about halfway; 
should be fun!

-LurkingWolf

__________________________

Lois was woken by Alex shaking his shoulder.He had soon taken hold of 
the dagger he kept hidden at his side, but relaxed when he saw who it 
was.Alex motioned for the ermine to get ready for the day, and then went 
about his own preparations.Gerard was still at his patrol post at the 
bottom of a ridge separating the Keepers from the enemy camp, and Lucy 
was off to the side, focusing herself so she would have enough magic for 
the day's activities.

It didn't take long for Lois to finish his preparations; they had not 
taken much out to begin with just in case someone got a look at the camp 
during the night.When everything was ready, they met at Gerard's 
position on the low ridge.

"All right," Alex started once they had all gathered."This is our last 
day to find something unless they are going our way for some reason.We 
head south after this.This basically means that we need to find some 
more information on this particular group before we go.We know their 
name and their general location; while this is good, it would be better 
to know how to anticipate their actions."

"Going to look for orders?" Gerard asked.

"Orders or any other information that might help us.We want to be able 
to give a raiding party the most accurate information that we can.If we 
can give our side the resources to take out this party, it will be 
invaluable to our side."

"So, what's our gameplan?" Gerard asked.

"There's no clear command tent in their camp, so it might be a little 
more difficult to figure out where to look," Alex noted."To start out 
with, we need to figure out who's in charge, because they'll have the 
info we need.Since we don't have too many options at this point, we're 
all going to work on finding the man in charge."

"With all due respect, we've been at this for a good while," Gerard 
noted."We haven't found a commander yet, and we really cannot be certain 
that he is even here.With their strange movement patterns, there may be 
another group of lutins coming, and he could be with them."

"That's a distinct possibility, and one that suggests we take an extra 
layer of caution in our movements.If there are more groups, then they 
could stumble over us on their way in."Alex thought for a moment."We 
should split into pairs for maximum safety, although that could make us 
miss something.Still, being able to take what information we have to our 
allies would be better than taking unnecessary risks and getting 
caught.All right, I'll be pairing up with Gerard and moving around to 
the other side of the camp.Lucy, you and Lois should stay on this side 
and keep an eye out here.The method you use to get your information is 
your decision, just keep quiet and keep your eyes and ears open."

With one last day to find whatever information they could, the group 
wasted little time getting to their positions.Because of her experience, 
Lucy watched the camp while Lois watched for any approaching groups.The 
camp remained strangely quiet for the first few hours.Several guard 
shifts were switched while the groups watched, but the camp showed 
little other sign of activity until well past dawn.Once things started 
moving, however, they moved in earnest.It seemed that every lutin in the 
camp was doing something.After a little while, they began to cook 
something over a fire near the center of the camp.

"I don't know, it seems like they're going to a lot of trouble in their 
food preparation," Lucy commented."I don't think they are close to 
finishing the meal, but I can already smell it.They never did anything 
like this since we started watching them; either they're just incredibly 
overconfident for some reason, or something special is happening today."

"Like a command party coming in?"

Lucy nodded."It's certainly a possibility.Keep your eyes out, we may 
have company before long."

The lutins were indeed just starting their cooking.Before long the smell 
of the food flooded the area.It pretty much assured the party that 
anyone who might have been nearby would be able to find them.Their 
reckless lack of fear was odd, and made the patrol extremely wary.Even 
lutins wouldn't be so reckless without a good reason.

Little changed until Lois noticed some figures moving through the forest 
beyond them.He got Lucy's attention and pointed them out.The rout that 
the figures were taking towards the camp would bypass the two at a safe 
distance, but they weren't content to let them move in.Instead, Lois and 
Lucy anticipated the group's movements, and watched from a safe distance 
as they moved in.

The group was relatively small compared to the others that had gathered 
in the larger camp, but differences were immediately apparent.This group 
was better equipped and much better disciplined than their counterparts, 
and moved with speed and precision though the woods.From their distance, 
Lucy was not able to make out specifics, but passed on piece of 
information to Lois.

"It's a Shaman and his personal guards.He's probably the one they're 
preparing for."

Lois nodded, then followed Lucy as they followed the small group to the 
edge of the camp.As they approached, the shaman's men were hailed by the 
guards at the rim of the camp, and orders were soon being dealt out in 
loud voices throughout the camp.

With a target now firmly in mind, the Keepers moved along the edge of 
the camp, keeping out of sight of their enemies while giving themselves 
as good a look at them as possible.The shaman's regalia was much finer 
than his position usually demanded, and Lucy was quick to point it out.

"Perhaps this guy and our commander are one and the same," Lois 
suggested when she mentioned it."I would not be surprised for lutins to 
put a shaman in a position of power; just like so many humans, they are 
drawn to power, magical and physical.It's not hard for a shaman to 
garner a lot of respect with their magic skills."

Specific words were hard to hear from the forest, but it was certain 
that there was an overly theatrical greeting given by the current leader 
of the patrol to the shaman, which was waved off with something akin to 
distaste.While it was hard to here the lutin greeting the shaman's 
retinue, it was not hard to hear the shaman's angry response.He spoke 
loudly while gesturing at the cooking area.Lois grinned and gave a quiet 
chuckle as he watched the scene.

"He's certainly not very happy that they so thoroughly blew their cover."

The lutin tried to save his skin, but the expression of the shaman made 
it clear that he was unimpressed.Suddenly, what little sound could be 
heard from inside the camp faded, and then became entirely silent.The 
shaman reached forwards and violently grabbed the man that was trying to 
explain his logic.Lois tried to read the lips of the shaman, but found 
himself jumping a bit when the shaman violently took hold of the lutin 
in front of him.The lutin was clearly screaming, and the fact that 
nothing was audible only made it more intimidating.Even Lois flinched 
when he realized that the shaman was magically tearing his subordinate 
apart.It didn't take the shaman long to finish with the lutin, and when 
he did, there was nothing left but a scorched skull held in the shaman's 
hand.

Lois wasn't sure what to think about what had just happened; obviously, 
the shaman was not someone that you wanted to mess with.Also, as he 
handed the skull to another one of the lutins, it seemed that he was 
instating a new interim leader for his men.At any rate, they had 
successfully found the commander they had been looking for; now they had 
to find a way to get information so that they could move on.

He started moving through the brush, following the motion of his target 
as he went back through the camp, but stopped suddenly when the shaman 
froze.He was staring off into the forest on the other side of the camp, 
almost as though he saw something.He turned halfway, saying a few 
silenced words to the lutins at his side, and Lois could see a sickening 
smile on the man's face.He was sure now; the shaman had seen the two on 
the other side.Lois knew he had to do something quickly, and so moved 
without saying anything to Lucy.

He stood, pulling a dagger off of his bandolier and switching to a 
throwing hold in the same motion.By that time, he was already halfway 
through his throwing motion, and the dagger was out before anyone had a 
chance to see it.The blade found its mark, driving through the furs that 
the shaman wore and lodged itself just right of his left shoulder.He 
dropped, his scream of pain killed by the same magic that had kept the 
patrol from hearing the rest of the activity in the camp.The lutins who 
had been moving towards the other side of the camp turned as their 
leader fell, and quickly became confused.The other half of the patrol 
must have seen their situation from the other side, because one of the 
lutins was run through by an arrow in the next second, and watchman on 
the edge dropped, nearly torn in half by the force of the longsword.

The advantage had already changed from the lutins to the Keepers, but 
Lois knew it wouldn't last if they couldn't keep their opponent's 
confused.He moved as quickly and quietly as he could through the forest, 
trying to find another position to throw from.Lucy swore vehemently and 
unleashed a controlled burst of magic at one of the nearby lutins.

Even as it seemed that the lutins were going to help the Keepers with 
their indecision, the shaman rose from the ground, his shouting barely 
audible as he pulled the dagger from the wound.Lois was close enough to 
see the blade, and gawked at the man as he found the dagger was clean, 
as were the furs over the shaman's heart.The lutins were too intimidated 
to disobey anything he said, and they all charge united in the direction 
he had first pointed.They would take many casualties charging so 
recklessly, but it would switch the momentum back to their side as they 
finally decided what was happening.

It helped the Keepers not at all that the shaman had turned his 
attention to the opposite side, eyes boring through the leaves, staring 
straight at Lois.

The assassin let loose his second throwing dagger, but was forced to hit 
the dirt as it turned and spun back in his direction.It buried itself 
hilt deep in a tree behind him, but he was safe.Lucy moved up then, 
announcing her presence by sending a far less controlled burst of energy 
towards the lutin mage.He easily countered the attack, but turned his 
full attention to Lucy, giving Lois an opportunity to get out of trouble.

He stormed through the forest, cutting across the edge of the camp to 
follow the charging lutins into the forest.Gerard and Alex had both 
fallen back into the cover of the trees, and were falling back slowly 
while doing their best to stay out of range of the lutins.A few of the 
monstrosities had gotten wise to their strategy, and now held back with 
bows, spears, and other ranged weapons they could bring to bear.They 
were Lois' targets.

Letting any of them see him would make his job a lot harder, so he went 
in as carefully as possible.This still involved a dead sprint from the 
forest to the first of them, but he took a much more cautious rout to 
them.As he entered the camp area, the sounds that had been previously 
kept from his hearing hit his ears, and he heard the chaos of lutins 
screaming.He wasted no time silencing the first, and the second fell to 
a thrown dagger as he looked over at his fallen compatriot.Another 
followed when he failed to notice his allies' fall, and the rest were 
short work as they very nearly did Lois' job for him in their panic.

With that taken care of, Lois drove through the branches, chasing after 
the group that was attacking Alex and Gerard.

Lucy had her hands full. As soon as the shaman was focused on her, he 
began to drive at her with his own magic.It was more powerful than her 
own, but she held, shielding herself against his attacks carefully.She 
occasionally responded with an attack of her own, but the lutin's rage 
refused to be beaten, and he just kept driving her back.She knew that 
Lois had gone to help Gerard and Alex; she hoped that they all got back 
before her defenses failed.

Alex took another shot from his bow, trying to get it through the 
tangled mess of branches and leaves even as he depended on them for 
cover.Gerard took a more personal approach, picking off lutins on the 
edges of the group as they moved.Alex had seen the beginning of the 
battle, and knew that Lucy was now locked in battle with the lutin 
shaman.He was determined to get back to her, and so led the lutins on a 
chase, through the forest a little while, then back to the camp.He just 
hoped that they could defeat enough of them on the way back to the camp 
to allow them to hold in the open.

Lois finally caught up with the back of the lutin group, and he made 
quick work of the first few that he reached.Once their companions 
realized what had happened, however, a considerable group of them broke 
off and followed after him.Lois was forced to break pursuit of the main 
body in an attempt to shake loose.He couldn't leave the rest of the 
patrol, though.After a few moments of running, Lois stopped and watched 
his enemies approach him.They were scattered enough to give him a 
chance.He just had to keep focused.

He stood still only long enough to come up with a plan of attack, then 
charged back at the lutins.They helped his cause by shying away, 
scattering their group even more than before.He had no such 
reservations, and took no such precautions.He hit them with his full 
force, tearing through the defenses of individual lutins as they hoped 
for aid in vain.Many had already fallen by the time that he reached a 
considerable group, and they were too intimidated to be effective.Lois 
maneuvered through them, taking them out as quickly as possible, until 
the group had dissolved, the survivors running for cover in the trees.

The moment's respite after they left let Lois take stock, and he 
realized that he had not been as flawless as he had perhaps hoped.A few 
injuries were visible, mostly on his extremities, but one blade had made 
it through the leather armor he wore and left a decent gash across his 
chest.It wasn't very painful, not compared to many other things he had 
done in his time, but it was bleeding badly.He had to do something about 
it soon.Right now, he just had to decide whether to help first, or take 
care of his own wound.

Lucy was being quickly worn down, but refused to give in.She grunted as 
the shaman unleashed attack after attack onto her defenses, but she 
gritted her teeth and dug deep into her reserves to keep fighting.Her 
friends would be there to help her soon, and she couldn't just give up now.

As it turned out, her friends were on their way back, and they burst 
into the clearing, followed at a short distance by what remained of the 
lutin camp.Alex wasted no time contributing his help to Lucy's cause as 
he released an arrow at her attacker.The shaman saw it coming somehow, 
and eliminated the threat with a negligent flick of his wrist.Still, he 
seemed to realize that he didn't have much time to waste if he wanted to 
win his engagement.He unleashed an even stronger blow onto her 
defenses.She held, but her shields were too weak to take another, a fact 
she realized as he got ready to throw another attack at her.She took 
what little power she had and used it to save her life.

Her defenses blocked any elemental damage from the attack, but she took 
the force of the blow full on and was thrown back into the forest.Alex 
fired off another arrow, but just received a blast of wind from the mage 
as a reward.He was able to get back up, but Gerard was already between 
him and the shaman, taking his shot at the man.Alex braced as he 
expected the stag to be thrown back by an attack, but his friend blocked 
the blow with his sword, which simply seemed to absorb, then diffuse the 
elemental energy released by the shaman.The lutin was barely able to 
sidestep Gerard's attack, and was forced to use his magic in defense as 
Gerard turned another attack towards his body.

"Alex, get Lucy and get out of here!" Gerard yelled.Alex's first 
instinct was to refuse vehemently, but the situation was desperate.The 
lutins weren't far away any more, and they would be all over them before 
they could set up a defense, even if Gerard could somehow defeat the 
shaman.If any of them were going to be able to get out of there, they 
would have to get out now.

"Disengage as soon as we're away!" Alex yelled as he sprinted towards 
the woods where Lucy had fallen.The lutin, whether he knew what had been 
said or not, still realized that Alex was trying to escape, and tried to 
attack his with his magic.Gerard turned that attack away as well, 
maneuvering to get between the shaman and his commander.Alex still held 
hope that Gerard would be able to get out of there, but he knew 
better.He would have to keep this lutin busy until his teammates were 
well gone.

Alex found Lucy quickly, and she had fortunately made it out with little 
enough damage to struggle back to her feet as Alex arrived."We're 
getting out of here!" Alex yelled, grabbing Lucy's arm.She was too 
winded to reply with words, and simply nodded as he pulled her with 
him.She stumbled after him as quickly as she could, but her magic 
reserves were exhausted, and she couldn't give herself that advantage 
anymore.She only had adrenaline to run on now, and just hoped that would 
be enough.

The shaman yelled something to the lutins as they started arriving, and 
they began forming a disorganized ring around the two fighters as they 
faced off.Either the shaman didn't trust them, wanted to get the kill 
himself, or simply wanted to make sure his target could not escape after 
his friends.At any rate, it looked like the two of his friends would get 
away, as none of the lutins pursued them.At the same time, however, it 
looked grim for him, even if his sword somehow deflected the magic that 
the shaman was bringing to bear.

He fought as hard as he could, driving the shaman back a little bit, but 
finding before long that the lutin was far too stubborn to be defeated 
by an untrained Keeper.He kept fighting back until he finally forced 
Gerard out of position.The next second, Gerard was thrown back, horrible 
pain originating at his left leg.His sword was lost, and the lutins in 
the ring quickly retrieved it and kept it from him.Gerard hadn't seen 
what had happened, but he knew that his leg was broken; he could feel 
that without seeing the damage.As a pair of lutins on either side of him 
dragged him forcibly to his hooves, Gerard yelled out from pain.They 
refused to let him keep his broken leg from the ground, and one even 
stepped on it to make sure that the stag was feeling the pain.

The next moment, the lutin shaman had his muzzle held in one strong 
hand, pulled down so Gerard was forced to look at his enemy through his 
tear-blurred vision.

"You fail," the chief said, a cruel grin his only expression.

"What are you waiting for?" Gerard spat through grinding teeth."Kill me!"

"Kill?"The lutin laughed, and Gerard's heart sank."No.I don't kill body, 
I kill mind."

The shaman held up an orb in his hand, barely the size of a marble, but 
no less terrifying for its lack of size.It seemed to suck in all light 
from around it, and appeared in the hand of the mage as almost a hole in 
the fabric of the world.Gerard had seen them before, usually in training 
and seldom in the field, but he had no doubt as to what it was.It was a 
fetish stone, designed to amplify the Curse, tearing from the subject 
their human mind and forcing them to adopt the mind of a docile animal.

Gerard would gladly die for his friends, but his eyes grew wide as he 
saw the sinister item in the lutins hand.He pulled against his captors, 
even going towards his broken leg to try to break their grip, but 
nothing worked.The lutin's dirty lips parted in a sinister smile, and he 
drew closer...

Suddenly, a deep voice yelled from outside of the ring.If Gerard would 
have been able to move, he still would have had no idea where to look 
for the speaker.The voice seemed to reverberate, changing direction with 
every time he heard it.The lutins heard it too, and were obviously 
almost as frightened as Gerard at its sudden appearance.

The voice spoke then, its direction still unclear, but its words now 
clearly coming in the lutin language.Gerard knew a few words in the 
language of the lutins, but he couldn't understand at all what was being 
said.Even the shaman in front of him seemed disconcerted at the voice 
that called from all around him, and he had, for the moment, lowered the 
fetish stone.

The shaman had good reason to be frightened."Your magic and your 
bloodletting is not welcome here," it said."Stand down, or all of you 
will feel my wrath."

If someone had said that to his face, it would have perhaps been a bit 
underwhelming, even laughable.As it was, with an echoing, ethereal voice 
warning him of the death of his entire tribe was simply intimidating.It 
became even more so when several of his men fell, dying with no visible 
reason why.

"I know who you are!" the lutin chief yelled, trying to stay 
calm."You're the mage I just crushed!"

As disturbing as a disembodied voice speaking to him was, that same 
voice bursting out in sinister laughter was worse.If it was the mage, 
she was showing more resourcefulness than he had expected, as well as 
more power than had before been apparent."No," the voice spoke."That 
mage survived your attack, but her part in the bloodletting was 
unforgiveable.I am the one who crushed her."

The fear in the air was palpable, and the lutin chief shifted 
nervously.No, it couldn't be a spirit; he would have sensed it.It had to 
be one of the Keepers, trying to save their friend by intimidating 
him.It wouldn't work!He recovered himself, and began to channel his 
power into the charm he held.Just as it was ready to be used, however, 
he felt a sudden chill.He tried to swallow, but found that his body 
would not respond to what he tried to tell it.His fingers released the 
fetish stone, and he dropped to his knees.His vision began to darken, 
and he yearned to scream in defiance, rage, anything...

Yet he fell onto the ground in the next second, eyes open and 
unblinking, dead on the spot.

Whatever resolve had kept the lutin unit together up to that point 
collapsed with their leader.None of them had the gall to stand up to 
this spirit that could kill their leader, and they spilt and ran in 
every direction, each trying to outpace the others as they escaped the 
clearing.As the guards who had held Gerard on his feet followed their 
companions, the stag collapsed.The pain from his leg pressed in on him, 
and his attempts to crawl away ended quickly as his senses faded and he 
lay unconscious in the middle of the clearing.




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