Fantasy Nations RP

[Zapy97]

Location: Verschluss Sea
Characters: Altera
The sound of the steam engine mixed with the sea shanties of the sailors and marines. As Altera sipped her tea, while contemplated at a map of the sea and its complex web of shipping lanes and wind patterns. Her first mates head appeared in the doorway leading to the main deck, speaking quickly he said "Vasan Imperial ships sighted on the horizon!" Altera looked up from the map and tea realizing she spilled when her first mate came in. She started to speak then held her tongue proceeding to stand up. She continued thinking for a moment then promptly said, "Show me."

Walking out onto deck of the ship sailors and marines saluted her as she passed them. She made her way to the ladder up to the crows nest and began to climb to the top. The lookout gave her his hand to help her up which she accepted, pulling herself up onto the small wooden platform. She took out her own spy glass and viewing the Vasan fleet. Altera chuckled slightly to herself as she noticed the ships change course realizing that Alexander's wager that they feared the Oberland's navy seemed true. Finishing her observation observation she began to descend the ladder.

Back on the deck of the ship Altera began giving orders, "Navigator, set our course to get down wind of the fleet. Signal the fleet to follow and make preparations for possible combat. Clean the ship I want it spotless and ready for a parlay, if the situation warrants it. Now move!" The fleet took on battle formation, crew members ran around cleaning and polishing every inch and corner of every ship.
Tags: Easy,Tirin

 

[Zapy97]

Location: Verschluss Sea
Characters: Altera, Oberlandish First Fleet
Altera oversaw the cleaning of the foredeck, looking up from the crew members who were cleaning she saw two of her steam frigates had broken formation and were racing towards the vasan ships. She looked towards the mid deck the Statue began to glow in a dark bloodish hue as the vasan ships had gotten closer. Fear entered her eyes as she realized what it meant.

Running across the deck to a crew member who was flagging in a panic, to him she said "Why have the Schnelle Schiffe broken formation?" To this the crew member replied, "I do not know they are not responding to my attempts to pull them back in formation. "You have ten minutes to pull them back in formation. If it doesn't happen we will sink them." Altera replied to the crew member, she then sprinted down to the front cannon turret. The gun crew was ferociously cleaning the interior of the turret and the cannon. Altera began speaking to the gunner from the doorway at the back of the cannon, "if the two ships a head of us do not turn around in ten minutes I need you to sink them. They may compromise the mission." The gunner being quite surprised by these orders, stopped cleaning the sights of the ship and turned to Altera, "Why would they disobey I wonder?" Altera replied to him "I do not know but our relationship to the Vasan trash heap must remain intact." The Gunner pulled himself up and opened a hatch on the top of the turret, raising himself up through it he looked forwards at the rogue ships. Through the hatch Altera heard him say "They are quite far already, I don't know if i can hit them. Those are some fast ships that have gone rogue." Altera replied to him "do your best the fate of the Oberland could depend on it."

Turning from the turret door way Altera walked to the front of the ship and pulled her spy glass from her naval jacket. Looking through the spyglass she watched as the steam frigates raised a Behodrung flag.
Tags: Easy

 

[Easy]

Location: Verchluss Sea

Slightly to Miranda's discomfort, though assured by the captain that it was only a symbol of negotiation, not deference, in the open seas, a white flag had been hoisted on the Pelican as the ironclad increased speed to match their course, and grew nearer in proximity. Yochanan stood to her left, for protection in the event of hostility, and Lazarus watched from the right. At about a mile out, a bluish glow became visible on the prow of the other ship, the origin of which was left to Miranda to puzzle at, and the frigates that had (initially) been assumed to be envoys suddenly dropped their Oberlandish flags, replacing them with a pair of unfamiliar design, one Miranda had not come across before. "God!" Cried the captain, eyes grown wide with worry, and determined to announce the well-known and obvious. "That's not Oberland's flag! They're pirates! We'll all be-" a sharp look from Miranda silenced him. People of her status didn't need to interrupt.

"Captain, draw the sails to half-mast," she stated dryly, as if no convincing or protestation was necessary or forthcoming. "Slow down for the moment. Sir Udredge, destroy the first ship to approach. Yochanan, you're in luck. Kill or incapacitate everyone on the other frigate except whoever's giving the most orders while you're at it. Make sure that one's neutralized as a threat, but without serious injury and fit for interrogation. You depart immediately." She traced over his outline swiftly with her hand, uttered a pair of unrecognizable syllables with a wave, and the dark-eyed young man disappeared with a whumph. Those of the Ascendancy who were familiar Yochanan's nature would now, having understood what just happened, likely start listening for the sound of distant screams. On the ironclad in the distance, a flash of teal pulsed over the blue-colored lights as Miranda's spell went through.

TAG: Tirin, Zapy

 

[Zapy97]

Location: Verschluss Sea
Character: Altera
A teal flash on rogue ship and the raising of the Behodrung flag marked the end of hoping the ships would turn around, The cannons and mortars began to boom and crack from through out the fleet. The gun crews having had years of drilling and training to shoot their cannons achieved a sweltering rate of fire. The loud roar of the fleets cannons created a thundering noise which scarcely few people heard. Altera stood on the front deck of the Flagship as the cannons continued to roar behind her she watched as the cannon balls soar into the two frigates and the water surrounding them. The few hundred cannons and mortars hounded away at the two smaller ships with their many different calibers and types of ammunition.
Tags: Easy, Tirin

 

[Easy]

Location: Verchluss Sea

The poor captain had been pushed nigh to the brink of panic by the sudden cannonfire from the obstructive fleet, more unmanned by it even than by the preceding sounds of anesthesia-free vivisection from the distant ship, or the sight of how the wisecracking Lazarus happily transformed the nearer one into an explosion so intense, the heat of it could still be felt on their faces afterward as the shockwave passed them over. Eximian though he was, the career sailor had some prior experience with seeing what an Oberlandish mortar could do to a ship like his, but never before thought to find himself on the receiving end of one, nor seen for himself the sorts of things that the Ascendancy's best mages and enchanters could do. Nor had he ever been in so strange a position as this, to simply be delivering (apparently, from his own secret investigation) perfectly ordinary cargo across the inlet and apparently be stopped and attacked by what looked like most of the East Oberland's historically-unbloodied steam fleet, with the issue of the changing flags only confusing the matter further. He thought himself a dead man from the time the salvo fired to the time, a brief moment later, when the sound of the explosions reached their ears, only daring to hope and doubt once the mortars began splashing well-clear of them (more or less) around the foreign ships in the water.

Miranda simply watched and frowned, for her part, having learned of the weapons and their workings as part of an extensive education, (if not the composition of the mysterious powder that was understood to power them), and understood the fleet to be well out of range to reach them, let alone hit them. She also knew that the Oberlanders, famously lacking in restraint with the consumption of their funds and resources, treated the loading and firing of their weapons at practice targets as a regular pastime, and surely understood the capabilities of their own weapons, and therefore could not be firing with any intention of striking the Vasan ships. Furthermore, even though the Oberland had not likely seen a military leader with any actual battlefield experience in living memory, and may require quite a bit of catching up on matters like supply line maintenance and protection, containing and responding to disease in the ranks, the logistics of transmitting a vital order from the commander to its recipients across the tumultuous field, or any other vital matter not immediately regarding the soldier's proper movement in formation and firing of his weapon, including the importance of avoiding obstruction and collateral damage through improper location or timing of unit deployment, it should be immediately obvious to even a completely inexperience commander, (given that they at least had the brains to achieve the post), that one did not loose projectiles in the general direction of one's own troops. All this she had realized, and more, in less time than it would have taken to even briefly reassure the worried sailors, and so Miranda kept quiet instead, and used the extra seconds to think.

Previously, having been rather preoccupied with her progress on developing a non site-specific recall spell, to chain Yochanan with, that would work without requiring she be able to permanently mark him, Miranda had deferred to the captain's experience in his assessment of the distant ironclad. The appearance of some two score frigates along with it, (why had she not been informed?), more or less ruled out pirates as far as she was concerned, though she supposed they could perhaps be privateering. They were sailing north toward the Ascendancy - was the old Kaiser thinking to send an invasion? Corsan VII had always been something of a reckless fool, from her impression of dealing with him, but surely his council - failing that, his son and his commanders, would know better than to actually try it? Perhaps that would have explained why two frigates broke off to charge them, hoping to snuff out any warning before they reached shore, but not why they didn't begin firing from a much greater distance when they could, and not why they suddenly changed flags in mid-journey. Not to parlay, surely... would the flag then flown not have been white? And why would the main force from Oberland suddenly start shooting at the frigates? As a mortar crashed through the deck of the remaining ship and into what, in retrospect, must have seemed like a rather unwise quantity of gunpowder for such a small and unprotected, wooden ship to be carrying, resulting in a somewhat more lackluster explosion than Lazarus had provided the other one, she decided that they must have been acting against orders. Oberlanders took that sort of thing very seriously unless it was a Corsan doing it, she'd gathered, though it was hard to believe that even they would intentionally destroy two perfectly good ships and all their stores of weaponry and ammunition in the process. Clearly, the flags meant something to them. Was the East Oberland having trouble with dissenters among them, like Galadon? That would be worth investigating.

Spotting the floating torso of Yochanan among the few lucky survivors of the second explosion, happily drowning one of the unluckier ones as his legs floated over to join him, she uttered the word of recall and turned to the captain. A flash of teal from the ironclad again, as she cast the recall - she'd have to find out what that was about.

"Get to the floaters as soon as you can," she said tersely, as the waterlogged bits of Yochanan splattered to the deck behind her. "We'll throw a rope ladder over and let them up. One at a time. At sword point. Then..." a thought. "Tie each of their hands behind them. Use the anchor line."

As the captain, being an old hand at frightening new experiences and having shaken this one off in a heartbeat once the cannonfire was done with, ran about and hollered his orders, Miranda took but a moment to address the newly-formed Yochanan. "Stand down," she said simply. "Don't interfere with the survivors. Your orders from Luscia still apply."

TAG: Zapy, Tirin

 

[Tirin]

Location: Verschluss Sea

While Yochanan had leapt at the chance to dismember all the Oberlanders he pleased (and done so with gusto upon being teleported to the frigate's deck), his enjoyment of the carnage was abruptly cut short by the destruction of the frigate and scattering of pieces of his body. It wasn't so much that it bothered him directly, but instead that it made the killing difficult. Despite the trouble the demon was having, it wasn't long before he had one of the Oberlanders held underwater, thrashing violently enough to churn the blood into foam. It was working out quite beautifully, he thought, before his assorted pieces thudded to the deck. For one who so relished the fear and pain of mortals, being removed from it was frustrating, but as he reformed Yochanan acknowledged Miranda only with a brief smile - though one that would have been less unsettling had it been opened across his face with a knife - and a gentle rattle of, "Of course, First," before taking up a position far enough from the captives as to appear relatively normal. It seemed he intended to behave himself, which begged the question of whether or not he was even capable of a smile that was anything but worrying.

Though Lazarus had utterly annihilated his target ship (and was helped along more than expected by the its vast stores of gunpowder), he couldn't help but be a little disappointed. As dangerous a thought it was, he'd have gladly tested his firepower against that of the fleet before him now that his appetite for destruction had been whet by the small, wooden frigate. Not wanting to say anything to Miranda for fear of saying the wrong thing, nor Yochanan for distaste of the monster, nor the crew to avoid interrupting their work, and knowing it was quite likely his presence would be required, the sorcerer took to relaxing against the bulwark, gently drumming his fingers on the wood, and paying close attention to the Oberlandish fleet while pushing thoughts of burning, melting, or detonating the ships as far from his mind as he could.

TAG: Zapy, Easy

 

[Zapy97]

Location: Verschluss Sea
Characters: Altera
"Tod zum Verräter," Altera said quietly as the second ship exploded into flames. She began giving orders to the fleet, "prepare the flagship to parley they will reach the Behodrung before us. When I am parleying with them I want the fleet to form a circular blockade around them. In the case of Väsosich treachery I want snipers in the crows nest of the ship and marines on deck. Now move!" The fleet began to move according to her orders and a parley flag was raised by the Siegreichen Adler.
Tags: Easy, Tirin

 

[Easy]

Location: Verchluss Sea

The Pelican's crew took no chances with bringing on the survivors. As each one found his way to the top of the ladder, the captain's cutlass met them to their face above deck, and two more crewmen held similar blades while leading them over to the growing chain tied up to the anchor line, where a third tied them in and, at Miranda's orders, gagged them. "These vessels have had their voyage blessed by the one true God, and sanctioned by the Emperor Luscar I Vasa, rightful heir to the Eximian Empire and lord of the Vasa Ascendancy, and sail under his own flag," she proclaimed to them all, when assembled. She spotted the ironclad, in the distance, signaling to parlay. "Because you, unlike your commanders, presumed to approach these ships without a white flag raised above your decks, I will have questions for you as well as for them. The first man to give me a satisfactory answer to each question will win the chance to be untied from our anchor and treated decently, with a chance to win back his life and freedom by cooperating... but one way or another, the anchor goes overboard when we reach port tomorrow. Think on that while I'm gone, as I may not have enough questions for all of you. Lazarus, we go. I need you ready to take out the lot of them if they should prove hostile." She nodded to the pyromancer.

Soon after the pair of them disappeared, materializing again on the deck of the ironclad to a near-blinding flash of teal, then blue, from the statue on its prow. The oppressive, blinding deep blue glare persisted, accompanied by a soft whistling noise, until Miranda, squinting, muttered an incantation and surrounded it with water that promptly boiled off and turned to steam, scattering the light and dulling the glare by enclosing it in a persistent cloud of fog. "Who's in charge here?" She demanded, to the surprised-looking sailors aboard their, admittedly, impressively-clean ship. "I demand to speak with the commander of this outfit."

TAG: Tirin, Zapy

 

[Zapy97]

Location: Verschluss Sea
Character: Altera
Altera standing on the balcony outside of the bridge looked down at the ancient creature that had appeared out of the thin blue mist. Altera hid her shock expertly behind her young figure, she began stepping down to the deck of the ship. Altera spoke in a voice which killed all surprise in her sailors and marines leading to them surrounding Miranda, while her translator changed what she said into eximian. "Marines stand down, clearly this old and wizened diplomat is clearly one of the cult of Luscar. No doubt the Archduke must think highly of her to lead his entire fleet to Galadon. Of course I am the ADMIRAL in charge of the finest fleet in all the world. You will of course want answers we will give them to you, in return for the traitorous Behodrung prisoners. Compensation for any damages to your ships will be provided from the deep coffers of the Oberland." The Marines stood down upon hearing their orders quickly forming a perfectly straight corridor to allow Miranda to pass down the deck to Altera.
Tag: Easy

 

[Easy]

Location: Verchluss Sea

"-this venerable diplomat represents His Majesty, Luscar, and has the respect of the Emperor. The Admiral will gladly answer any questions she might have, in exchange only for-" Lady Zasolez cut off the woman's tactfully-interpreted translation of her silly young leader's rash and careless speech with an upraised hand, and answered back fluently in the tongue of the Oberland: "The Emperor and I do not require your answers, Admiral, and the Ascendancy does not simply hand over her prisoners to foreign sailors on request, and certainly not until they've been properly questioned. Has your Council of Ministers sanctioned an act of war against His Majesty? If not, then you had best disperse these ships from our path, for you have no business interfering with Imperial trade. Or if you'd care to explain your actions to the Council yourself, I'll gladly take you to them right now. I would hear for myself what they have to say of this blunder."

TAG: Zapy, Tirin

 

[Tirin]

Location: Verschluss Sea

Upon Miranda's command, Lazarus had prepared himself to incinerate everyone on the deck of the Oberlandish ship unfortunate enough to stand more than five feet away from him, on the off chance that one - or more - of the Oberlanders would take the rash action of moving a little bit too suddenly or aggressively. Quite luckily for all (well, all but two) aboard, this was not the case, and the men didn't take any action that could be mistaken as hostile until their commanding officer spoke. Nonetheless, the pyromancer kept his guard up for the first sign of betrayal by any of the men aboard, quite aware that their sum firepower was almost certainly enough to kill both him and Miranda (though was also a rather dangerous thing to be making use of aboard this powder keg of a ship), trusting Miranda to teleport them out in the event that negotiations went sour. Lazarus could hardly be called fluent in the Oberlandish language, but living in Luscia for enough of his life made it a certainty that he would hear scattered words and phrases from it - "act of war" being one of them. In questioning the Admiral's motives for stopping them, Miranda had put Lazarus still further on edge, and in turn tempted him into being quicker on the draw - knowing that the Oberlanders had little to no expertise in magic, Lazarus started to accumulate his magical might for what he was increasingly seeing as an inevitable consequence of their meeting.

TAG: Zapy, Easy

 

[Zapy97]

Location: Verschluss Sea
Characters: Altera
Taking one second to contemplate her response she began "The prisoners are no doubt members of the Behodrung brotherhood, that was their flag. There are members within their ranks capable of mind control and communicating without giving a physical sign of it happening. Interrogation is futile and pointless, as they are all disillusioned. I willing to pay in currency for the prisoners for your own benefit as well in the name of Oberlandish honor that we are allowed to put the scum to death." As Altera said this almost all of the Oberlandish sailors and the marines especially seemed to be nodding and whispering in agreement.

Meanwhile on the Pelican there were two Behodrung overseers (The ones who mind control) who had come to a mutual consensus that they would die fighting. They reached out with their minds to the helmsmen of the Pelican and began to attempt to manipulate him into driving the ship into one of the others. Meanwhile attempting to grab some of the Vasan sailors and warriors.
Tags: Easy, Tirin

 

[Easy]

Location: Verchluss Sea

The helmsman, who also served as the Pelican's first mate due to the small size of the boat's crew and his relation as the captain's younger brother, had the wheel turned about in no time without really thinking about it, and afterwards could not himself have told anyone why. The merchantman had drawn sails and put out no oars since coming to a stop to pick up her new prisoners, and the angling of the rudder accomplished nothing at all in the way of turning the ship about. "Larydes!" The captain's voice cracked like a whip, and brought his attention back to his duties. "What in God's name are you doing with that wheel?" Sheepishly, he looked back to his instrument, and turned the spokes of it back towards center. What an odd lapse of judgement.

It would have taken a group of truly mighty telepaths to have made Larydes drive the ship into another in any case, of course, even if he'd had the full set of oars at his disposal with which to maneuver the ship around and at the two others with, for the Pelican had no ram on its prow and he, long-experienced helmsman that he was, was in his mind very firmly opposed to the idea of running his ship into anything at all, even the soft side of another ship, without one. The same did not necessarily apply to the sailors with regard to drawing their weapons, though they were not warriors, for any man who sails as part of any crew for a time has occasional, secret thoughts about what life could be like, if only there were a different man as captain. It was these thoughts that came to mind again, secretly, when a few of the men started fingering the cutlasses at their sides, with one or two even going so far as to draw and examine them. This was answered with a string of angry curses from the captain, when he saw them. "Put those ill-kept box openers away, damn you!" He snapped, "and stand to attention, all hands! I want this damn tub ready to spit foam the very instant m'lady of Solez returns. Move!" Buried, secret longing is one thing, but a captain's shouting at sea is another. The sailors snapped back to attention at once, though Abelar "Snakeskin" Abesson sheathed his blade last, and looked very much reproachful for it. Of course, the dark-eyed deckhand always looked reproachful for some reason or the other. It usually had to do with his nickname, which had been invented by the crew as a jape on how, as a fresh recruit, his skin was perpetually sunburnt and peeling. Four years at sea had turned his hide just as dark and resilient as theirs, but the name had stuck and it pained him no less to be reminded of it.

Back on the ironclad, Miranda spent a moment thinking on possible interpretations for the Oberlandish term for "mind control," having acquired her mastery of the language from her many years of study and diplomatic missions, and not having experienced the phrase's actual usage herself before. Even when satisfied that she had understood the message properly, of course, she accepted the news with a lack of reaction only available to master card players, diplomats, and Giland of Aquevis. Naturally, she took the Admiral's words well-salted, putting less faith in a cultist's devotion than in Yochanan's ability to make them talk... but the mission took priority, and whatever else they were, these Behodrung were not her mission.

"Very well," said the enchantress, hands in her sleeves. "I believe that here, at sea, traitors are keelhauled? Bring two picked men, if you like. You'll find the appropriate preparations have already been made aboard our ship. However, these Behodrung appear to be a threat to us. If we are not to question them ourselves, then we will require information from you, so as to better prepare ourselves for such an encounter in the future." She looked around at the fleet then, as though the ever-expanding ring of frigates was only an afterthought. "We must also be allowed safe passage, of course. I do not relish telling the emperor that our ships were much delayed... or lost." The not-so-subtle implication, of course, being that no matter what came next, Miranda was certainly going to live to tell about it.

TAG: Zapy, Tirin

 

[Zapy97]

Location: Verschluss Sea
Character: Altera
Altera did her best to have listened intently, often instead imagining putting a bullet between the eyes of that old hag for her audacity. Altera began, "of course preparedness is most important." Turning to her first mate she said, "bring me my book 'Behodrung: The brotherhood of evil.' It is on the top shelf." Turning back Miranda, she continued "everything that is to be known on the Behodrung is contained within its bindings. It is my personal copy however that is my fifth copy, not like I will miss it." Her first mate came back with a many hundred page book including almost everything on the Behodrung except how their magic worked of course. Altera called her two best marines to her side, at the same time she took the book from her first mate. "These two are the finest aboard the ship, are ready." Altera stated.
Tags: Easy, Tirin.

 

[Easy]

Location: Verschluss Sea

Miranda withdrew her hands from her sleeves, one holding a fistful of what appeared to be coins, but hesitated. "If I may, Admiral," she intoned respectfully. "I would recommend bringing your interpreter, that you may be certain I am not playing you false in this."

TAG: Zapy, Tirin

 

[Chlegyr]

Location : ?

The old being which resided within the scape of snow seemed to sigh. At least, that's what Holinus thought the strange, low gust of wind sounded like. Exasperation perhaps, or maybe just a trick of the mind. Regardless, it rumbled a response seemingly intelligible despite the alien nature of the sounds produced.

"The Eximians hasten their demise by locking themselves away. The Old One seeks to liberate the castle archives, and is under orders to raise a banner to antagonize a retaliating army. Whether they wait a week for the stores to run empty or simply attack the walls whilst the garrison is exhausted matters not to them. Your best means of help would likely be encourage them to capitulate, unlikely though it is considering your species seeming bullheaded stubbornness. You have precious little time remaining to glean wisdom, so I suggest you ask quickly."

 

[Zapy97]

Current Location: Verschluss sea
Character: Altera
Altera accepted the more than generous amount of money for the book. She turned and called "Scharlett come." Scharlett who was Altera's interpreter came over taking the place of one of the marines next to Altera. Altera turned to Miranda saying, "When you are ready."
Tags: Tirin Easy

 

[Easy]

Location: ?

"Is the Old One..." Holinus hesitated. Precious little time remaining. "Never mind. Doesn't matter. What is his purpose, and who should I say told me?"

TAG: Stoney


Location: Verschluss Sea

"Your pardons." Miranda withdrew the hands with the coins, as the admiral reached for them. "These are for spellcasting, not currency. I did not mean to misdirect. They will help me guide you back to your ship, when we have concluded." Stepping back a pace, she extended her other hand, palm turned down, with the fingers spread to point at each of the three Oberlanders. "I will now cast. Please do not be alarmed," she warned, loudly, so the rest of the crew might also hear. More softly, she translated more or less the same to Lazarus, elaborating on that they would be returning to the ship for prisoner transfer at this time. Suddenly, and with some effort, she threw the coins up into the air without moving her other hand, whirling the right back around to face Lazarus as they gleamed and scattered into the air, and she vanished, along with the three Oberlanders and the pyromancer, in the midst of a shout. Another flash of teal from the statue up front marked their departure, and the cloud of fog suddenly dispersed from around it to reveal that it had dulled, as before, to a still-bright, but tolerable bluish glow. The coins scattered about the deck afterward, some falling over the rail and into the sea.

It was with a shout that the group suddenly appeared on the deck of the Pelican, where the captain and crew showed a modest amount of surprise at her Oberlandish company. All but Abelar Snakeskin, that is, who dropped what he was doing and put a hand to his blade, unnoticed by the captain, and glared at the girl Altera with hatred in his eyes. "As you were, sailors." Miranda ordered sharply, looking at him in particular, conveying in no uncertain terms that she did not wish to cause offense to their guests. "Captain, there has been a change of plans. We will be ceding the prisoners to their former commanders for sentencing." She waited for the interpreter to finish translating her words for the admiral, then spoke to the Oberlander herself. "They'll be thrown over with the anchor at your command, Admiral. I can have them disposed of more quickly, if you prefer, though I'd sooner not have to scrub their blood from my deck."

TAG: Zapy, Tirin

 

[Zapy97]

Current Location: Verschluss Sea
Characters: Altera, Snakeskin
As Altera realized that she was on the Vasan ship she quickly took note of her surroundings, for a second stopping to look at Snakeskin who seemed to be taking an aggressive position. Altera noted Snakeskin quietly to her guard who nodded in reply. Altera for the most part listened intently to what Miranda was saying and what was being translated. Meanwhile the overseers looked at Altera in extreme hatred and disgust projecting that into Snakeskin which caused him to get into a position for a fast and devastating attack against her. Altera's guard pretended not to notice and continued to stand at attention his Pickelhaube shining brightly in the sunlight. Altera began speaking to Miranda, "I can see no reason why we cannot sentence them hear, they have committed a crime and they are members of the Behodrung Brotherhood." Snakeskin made his final preparations for his attack on Altera as she began speaking to the prisoners for which she pulled out a paper which was traditionally read when sentencing Behodrung. She began "You committed the highest crime of this land, total betrayal of land and Kaiser of people and council. Your sentence is death for reasons such as, the abuse of magic, staining the honor of Draconians, conspiring to destroy that which has been set up by our gods and committing to a godless faction of evil. The Behodrung scourge has destroyed much of our great nation and has proved the necessity of court less trials. Your sentence is laid out at your feet while you face the barrels of your demise. May your deaths be long, slow and painful such that you might learn the suffering which you are entitled to." Altera began to hand the paper to her translator.

Sensing the moment before it happened time slowed for Altera's guard, he watched as Snakeskin leaped towards Altera beggining his strike. He moved with the speed of his training into the of Snakeskin catching his cutlass between his rifles' barrel and the bayonet. The cutlass snapped near the hilt due to the specially designed bayonet. Snakeskin's attack floundered as he went to draw his pocket knife, the iron plated boot of the guard met flush with his chest taking him all the way to the deck of the ship. Snakeskin's ribs cracked loudly upon impact. The guard leveled his rifle at Snakeskin's head, finger on the trigger. This all taking place over the course of a few short seconds before anyone could react.

Altera could hardly react in time to move out of the way let alone witness what happened, she yelled out of instinct, "drop the anchor, drop the anchor, they have taken control!" Her translator panicking yelled in Vasan "drop the anchor, drop the anchor, they control the ship!"
Tags: Easy, Tirin

 

[Easy]

Location: Verschluss Sea

The sailors aboard the Pelican were more focused on the sudden attack by their comrade than the interpreter's orders, but that all changed when Miranda snapped: "Now." A line of thick-armed men bodily heaved the rope and anchor, sending the object and two of the men directly overboard, and leaving the others to be dragged after them. Each in turn tried desperately but futilely to tread water as the man before him disappeared under the surface, but after a few seconds no sign remained of them but the still-trailing anchor line. Miranda thought to have them tie it off after a few seconds for decency's sake, to at least spare the prisoners the agony of being crushed by the depths as they went down, but thought against it. The East Oberland may execute their traitors as they liked; it was not her business.

"You have my sincere apologies for the disturbance, Admiral." She said solemnly, of the sailor whose name she did not know. "Surely, this must have been the work of the mind-control you were telling me of. The captain will see him disciplined appropriately. As a gesture of our honestly and good faith, we will allow you to inspect our cargo, if you wish to see it... for we are not your enemy, truly, and we have nothing to hide." Not that she would be pleased to suffer another delay, of course, but the offer had to be made. Hopefully, the young admiral would have the wisdom not to bother... but somehow, she expected different.

TAG: Zapy, Tirin