Lost and Found (xivvix/Kathy)

[Tassadar]

Re: Lost and Found (xivvix/Kathy)

Spoiler

Eleas Status HP = 51, P = 38, EP = 43

Spoiler

Sables Status: HP = 54, P = 65, EP = 41/45

(You can only lay so many mines at once. 10 is the max.)

The city streets provide few places for Elea to set up traps, though she manages to set up a few minor traps, such as a roadside wooden stall collapsing on an enemy should they set off a trip wire spread across an alley. Sable also quickly comes to the limit of the number of mines she can concentrate on keeping up at once. All things considered, the pair manages to set up 30 traps throughout the immediate area after about an hour of sneaking around. Unfortunately, many of the ones Elea had been able to set up weren't lethal or even particularly painful, especially to the larger demons like the hellhounds or ogres, or even the knights.

They are forced to take cover after an hour as a patrol of demons moves past them, not setting off any of the traps they'd lain but coming close. The pair could try and lure some of the demons into an ambush using the illusions Sable still maintained, and there were a few sites that suited as much if they desired. However, it would take a great deal more if they wished to take on the camp itself all at once.

 

[xivvix]

Re: Lost and Found (xivvix/Kathy)

Ducking low under a pile of debris that barely kept her out of sight as the demon patrol passes, Elea breathes a sigh of relief. 'That was close,' she thinks, making eye contact with Sable. Once the patrol is gone, Elea slowly gets up, then looks around at the trapped area. "The next group through here probably won't avoid all of our surprises," she says. "We may want to set up to take them out before they can alert the camp."

Elea looks around at the nearby sites that might be used to help them lay an ambush. "That building will give us some cover," she says, pointing to a two story building that was missing two walls on the first floor, but had adequate hiding spots on the second, "we can hit them from there." She turns, then points to a spot in the middle of the trapped area that left a large number of her simple traps and a few of Sable's mines between the spot and the building. "We can leave the... bait...," she said, halting over the word, still uncomfortable with the illusions, "here... and take them down as they make their way to us after we reveal ourselves. The traps in the other directions will slow them down if they try to run." With a final look in the direction of the camp, she says, "The more we can kill in smaller patrols away from the camp, the easier it will be to rescue the women." 'But the longer the women will be prisoners to those monsters,' she adds to herself.

 

[Kathy]

Re: Lost and Found (xivvix/Kathy)

(Due to the limitation, Sable either knew of it and prepared one condensed area while helping Elea, or made a small spread around an area if she was less aware of it.)

Sable approached Elea after the patrol passed and gave a nod of approval for the idea. "The problem is, once we start setting a few things off, we're going to alert the entire camp... Our best chance is if they ignore it as stray combat or a slave trying to escape, then we can pick them off slowly bit by bit before they realize what's happening."

The catgirl growled low and made a motion to the illusions, "But if the entire camp takes up arms and comes after us, the plan changes immediately. I'll keep the illusions going, feigning a battle, and lure as many of them away as possible. YOU need to go free the slaves then... if the entire camp comes after us, and we try to take them head on, with these few traps... those illusions you're so timid about... heh... let's just say, we'll wish we only looked like that by the time the demons finish with us. So don't mess up."

With the plan confirmed, Sable and Elea moved into position, waiting only for a final nod of agreement and keeping their dog someplace safe and quiet, away from the action that was soon to erupt.

Then Sable would move the two illusions into view of one of the smaller patrols and lure them into the awaiting trap, by having the illusions seem as if they had just escaped capture, staggering as they ran towards the impending doom of the patrol...

(Sable only begins her plan after we're well in position and ready.)

 

[xivvix]

Re: Lost and Found (xivvix/Kathy)

Elea blushes at Sables accusatory tone. "You're right, of course," she says, "These illusions will help us greatly, despite whatever reservations I have about their appearance." She then turns to look at the two fabrications of the women, smiling and nodding, almost as if apologizing to the two mirages.

Drawing her bow, she nods again, then says, "If the entire camp rouses, I'll try to make my way past them, but you should run. Get the demons to chase your illusions and go another way."

'And don't try to come for me,' she thinks to herself. Trying to rescue the prisoners in the event of the demon army attacking all at once was a risky, and in many ways foolish, move and Elea has no desire to see Sable suffer for her ideals. The catwoman would have a chance to escape by running through the maze-like alleyways, and she could call for Matthias' help should things turn ugly. Elea, however, would be walking straight into the lions' den, with no promise it would be clear, and no reason to expect rescue should things go wrong. The sudden realization of the consequences of failure causes Elea's gut to clench in cold fear, but the two women had committed to the plan, and the prisoners in the square needed help. Taking a deep breath, Elea mentally prepares herself, then nods to Sable that she is ready.

Moving up into the two story building mentioned before, Elea readies an arrow and ducks behind the broken wall, ready to jump up and attack when the demons appear. A moment later, she turns to the catwoman and says, "Remember, be careful. And call for help if you need it..."

(action: move to ambush position. stealth, ready to go)

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Lost and Found (xivvix/Kathy)

Spoiler

Eleas Status HP = 51, P = 38, EP = 43

Spoiler

Sables Status: HP = 54, P = 65, EP = 41/45

Stealth: Success.

The pair and the dog settle in and prepare to ambush the next patrol, which actually happens to be the patrol that had left earlier returning. The quartet of gray skinned demons creep alertly down the main street, heading back toward the camp. They immediately spot the illusions Sable had hidden, and begin heading straight toward them, dropping into crouches and approaching stealthily from behind. Elea is reminded of the way a pack of wolves hunted preparing to attack a larger prey as the demons approach, heading right into the path of some of the traps.

Things all seem to happen at once, as three of the demons set of traps almost simultaneously. The first sets of the trip wire, causing the rigged stall to collapse on top of it, burying it in a pile of wood and debris. The second is yanked into the air by a snare tied to short tree in a garden growing on the side of the street. The third is unlucky enough to step on one of Sables mines.

Damage: 3 + 10 + 5 == 18 Damage.

The mine, possibly due to so many being concentrated in so small an area, doesn't kill the two creatures it catches in its blast radius. It does, however, severely wound both of the demons who haven't been incapacitated already by other traps. The two demons scramble back, trying to regain some form of order as they search for the source of the sudden disasters.

 

[Kathy]

Re: Lost and Found (xivvix/Kathy)

(Did they set off more than one mine? And if so, shouldn't it do stacked up damage? ... p.s. does Warmth affect the mines too?)

Sable grinned, seeing the injured figures scattering in a panic, and made two swift motions at the same time.

First, she set both of the illusions to leap into action, looking as if they were responsible for the traps and both of them grabbing up their illusion-crafted weapons, and the naked-Sable-illusion took aim with her false rifle, a single shot erupting from it...

Yet even this was a feint, the real Sable keeping hidden away in the upper section of the building as she fired a single shot from her real weapon at the same creature her illusion fired at, the sound created by her real gun hopefully impossible to tell where it came from so she could keep hidden while the monsters flailed around helplessly beneath.

(Actions: Stealth shoot + make the illusions get up and pretend to attack, to trick the monsters into not seeing Sable's real position (thus keeping stealth and hopefully getting a second stealth shot <3 ))

 

[xivvix]

Re: Lost and Found (xivvix/Kathy)

Elea crouches low behind the broken wall of the building, keeping an eye on the unfolding ambush. As the grey skinned stalkers stumble into two of her traps, the ranger smiles and has to stifle a cry of success. 'So far so good," she thinks, nocking an arrow into her bow before popping out of cover just enough to take a shot at the same time Sable uses her illusions for a distraction. She targets the talker that had blundered into her snare trap, wanting to dispatch the creature before it could free itself. As soon as she lets fly her arrow, Elea ducks back behind the wall, to prepare another attack.

(action: attack the snared stalker. stay in stealth, if possible)

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Lost and Found (xivvix/Kathy)

Spoiler

Eleas Status HP = 51, P = 38, EP = 43

Spoiler

Sables Status: HP = 54, P = 65, EP = 41/45

(Just the one, and yes it would. Also, damn you xivvix for shooting that guy, I was gonna have him run off and alert the camp on you if you didn't notice him. )

Stealth: Both Successes.
Damage: Both kills, because I'm lazy.

Elea and Sable rise simultaneously, both scoring quick kills on their respective targets before retreating back to cover. The remaining free demon begins running down the street toward the camp, shouting, and leaps over one of Eleas traps as it does. The demon who'd been buried wasn't having much luck extricating himself, the one on the snare hung dead from Eleas arrow taking the swinging thing in the eye, and one of the two still standing demons lies bleeding to death on the ground from a bullet to the throat while the other one, injured, flees for its life. Their position so far was uncompromised.

 

[xivvix]

Re: Lost and Found (xivvix/Kathy)

(Haha, I was having trouble deciding if I should shoot that one or the one who was still standing that Kathy hadn't shot. Guess I chose right, though the other one is still running ><)

As soon as Elea notices the demon fleeing down the street, she concentrates her spiritual energies upon it. She reaches a hand out toward it in a grasping motion, imagining chains of light snaking up from the ground to entwine the demon. The creatures voice becomes a concern to the ranger. Even if she stops it, the thing can still call for help. Pouring more spiritual energy into her chains, Elea wills the bindings to wrap around the demon's head vertically, to hold it's jaws closed. For a final measure, she wraps a chain to cover it's mouth.

"We can't let either of them escape," Elea says to Sable.

(action: use Binding (7) on the fleeing demon)

 

[Kathy]

Re: Lost and Found (xivvix/Kathy)

Sable laughed softly at the comment, half hissing under her breath, "You think I don't know that?" The angry hiss more at the demon fleeing than at Elea, as she quickly shoots the elf an apologetic look before her eyes lock on to the demon trying to flee once more, realizing Elea's already trying to stop the thing. Her attention turns to the one still in a trap, and she takes aim.

Even if she wasn't hidden, this seemed almost too cruel, it was captured and this was like shooting fish in a barrel.

Sable turned her aim again and took a single shot at the fleeing creature as she grinned, "Don't hurt the caught one unless he gets free. I have an idea... I'm going to question him."

While the two girls jointly worked to silence and kill the fleeing demon, Sable envisioned the two illusions walking over to the pit, weapons drawn down on the beast. Keeping far enough away that it would clearly see them and know it was in deep trouble if they shot down at the flailing enemy... But at the same time, not close enough it would realize anything was wrong with the two of them.

She made the Sable-Illusion lift a finger to her lips, silently telling the caught demon "Shhhh", and then pointing down, as if ordering it to stay put.

(Actions: Stealth-shoot fleeing demon before it escapes. Then illusions try to scare the trapped demon into staying put instead of still trying to escape.)

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Lost and Found (xivvix/Kathy)

Spoiler

Eleas Status HP = 51, P = 38, EP = 43

Spoiler

Sables Status: HP = 54, P = 65, EP = 41/45

(Whoever rolls initiative first gets their action done first. And the winner is.... Sable.)

Stealth: Success.
To-hit: Death, I'm lazy. :/

Before Elea can get her spell off, Sable fires at the fleeing demon, hitting it in one of its knees. It goes down screaming in agony, clutching its destroyed leg, and both Elea and Sable can tell even from this distance that the poor creature will never walk well again. Meanwhile, the demon under the pile of rubble makes little headway, and doesn't seem to notice Sables illusions gestures as it tries to push some of the wood off of it.

 

[Kathy]

Re: Lost and Found (xivvix/Kathy)

Sable whinces a bit at the downed creature, hoping it dies quickly and in as little pain as possible. Demon or otherwise, although she was a fighter and had to kill, she didn't enjoy pointless suffering.

When the creature finally stopped flailing, clearly dead, Sable turned her attention to searching the street quickly and making sure nothing else was there, but trying her best not to take too long of a delay...

"I'm going for it. Stay here and cover me." She whispered to Elea after a short search of the area, then rushed back down the building and stealthily to the demon trapped in the pit. Gun drawn, and whispering to the thing, "I thought I told you to calm down before you make me kill you."

Although she was the only one actually there, she made it a point to keep her illusions at the ready, hopefully making it more docile since it would feel outnumbered.

(Actions: Check street quickly. Stealth rush to the trapped monster (mostly stealth in case of other monsters around she didn't spot, not against the monster in the pit. She wants to ensure they don't see where she came from.)

If successfully reaching the pit, she wants to question the demon. She stays well out of claw-range, close enough to deal with it, but far enough that if it attacks, Elea can kill it before it reaches her.)

 

[xivvix]

Re: Lost and Found (xivvix/Kathy)

No words are spoken between the two, but Elea shares Sable's wish that the demon die quickly. The elf does not feel this out of sympathy though, but practicality. The sooner the creature dies, the less it will cry out for help. This does not prevent Elea from recognizing the speed and accuracy of Sable's marksmanship, however, and she respectfully whispers, "Nice shot," to the catwoman, before pulling her hand, and spiritual power, back.

"Going for what?" Elea asks, turning back to see Sable heading down the stairs to the first floor. "No, stop!" she says, a bit more loud than she has to. It is too late however, and the catwoman is already out of the building. The ranger readies a new arrow, watching the area around Sable and the demon as a feeling of dread grips her.

Elea and a fellow ranger, Jerod, had ambushed a Badarian patrol. The humans went down without much trouble, but one was still alive, screaming in pain. Jerod had rushed out, not to help the human but end it's suffering. Just as the ranger was about to silence the wounded human with a knife, a Badarian scout that had remained apart from the main group leapt out and attacked the elf. Elea had no time to react, and couldn't fire or risk hitting Jerod. Her hopes that her friend could fight off the scout were short lived, the stronger human quickly finishing his attack with a knife of his own. The human turned at Elea's scream, but her arrow was already there, hitting the man in the throat.

The feeling of deja vu puts Elea on edge as she watches her companion run out towards the wounded enemy. She keeps a watchful eye on the surrounding streets, as well as the demons that have been felled. The first sign of movement would invite an arrow, the elf having long ago decided not to lose another friend.

(action: cover Sable.)

(just thought I'd add a little something after reading Kathy's examples in her adventure game )

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Lost and Found (xivvix/Kathy)

Spoiler

Eleas Status HP = 51, P = 38, EP = 43

Spoiler

Sables Status: HP = 54, P = 65, EP = 41/45

(Lol.)

The wounded demon doesn't seem to keen on the idea of dying, as it keeps up its screams of pain and begins dragging itself slowly along. It makes good time, making Elea think she'll likely have to finish the poor thing. Until it crawls next to one of Sables mines, that is. The explosion silences the foul creature, and once the smoke clears, all that's left is half of a badly burnt corpse. The creatures body is still on fire, though both women can tell that the demon is dead and then some.

Creeping up on the still held demon, Sable has her illusions stand over it as well. It stops struggling as she points her gun at its head, though its expression remains unreadable. Elea keeps alert as Sable quiets the captured demon, and as yet nothing can be seen coming toward them from any of the streets in her view.

"Good thinking." A hoarse, familiar voice says from behind her, startling the elf ranger from her vigil.

(Gain 2 exp each.)

 

[xivvix]

Re: Lost and Found (xivvix/Kathy)

Sneaking up on an armed person is, generally speaking, a mistake. Sneaking up on an armed person with years of experience in weaponry is an even worse mistake. Sneaking up on an elven ranger in hostile territory who is expecting an attack at any moment may be the last mistake a person ever makes. Unless, of course, that person is a millennias old immortal daemon with skin like stone and the ability to incinerate things by thinking about it.

Elea spins at the sound of the voice, immediately loosing her arrow and drawing a new one, before recognizing the figure before her. The elf's eyes shut tight as she mentally chides herself for being too jittery. She lets out a sigh and lowers her weapon, shaking her head before muttering, "Sorry." Turning back to cover Sable, she says, "Trying to interrogate a monster that seems incapable of communication more sophisticated than assault? I must disagree, Matthias."

 

[Kathy]

Re: Lost and Found (xivvix/Kathy)

Sable, unaware of what was going on back at the upstairs hideaway, merely glared down at the demon as it stopped struggling to escape, barely a whisper on her lips. "Demon. If you value your life, start talking now. What is that meeting about? Why are you attacking this town? You will tell me everything, or I swear I will do my best to make your demise as painful and unsatisfying as I can in the few moments I spare for the effort of killing you... and IF I feel as though you are cooperating adequately, I may be moved to merely send you back to where you came."

Sable's teeth bared and her claws unsheathed, she softly growled to herself in an attempt to rile herself up so her fur stood on end and she seemed larger and more vicious than she actually was... This was a matter of intimidation, and just holding a gun to the creature's head didn't seem like it would be enough, so she was pulling out all the stops.

Sable quietly reasoned that if this demon was in a patrol squad with others like himself, they must've been intelligent enough to be given orders and overhear secrets that they may not deserve to know... She just hoped she lucked out and this one would've been the golden goose of knowledge she was seeking.

Despite the danger of the area, the catgirl was reassured that she was safe, between the elf and her own mine-traps still sprawling the area, it was unlikely anything short of the bigger, nastier demons from the meeting could get to her, and even they would think twice once the fireworks began... she hoped, at least.

(Actions: Try to intimidate the captured demon. Question demon.)

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Lost and Found (xivvix/Kathy)

Spoiler

Eleas Status HP = 51, P = 38, EP = 43

Spoiler

Sables Status: HP = 54, P = 65, EP = 41/45

Matthias easily catches the arrow, even couching it and retracting his hand slightly to absorb the momentum to ensure that the shaft does not break. He hands it back to her feather first, undamaged. "Not that, the interrogation is folly. The stalkers, as they are called, do not even possess the ability to speak your language. None that I have killed even understood it in a more than rudimentary manner. I spoke of the ambush. Twas well executed. None of them escaped from it." He says casually, or as casually as he can sound with his voice.

The demon grunts and growls at her a few times after she spoke, its strange face unreadable to Sable. Just as Sable begins to lose patience, it began to stutter in a language that she could understand, though its grasp of it was poor; "You..... Will.... Fall....." Is all it says, and it continuously repeats the short phrase. The demon gains volume and confidence with each iteration, rising from a whisper up to a shout that could be heard even from a good ways away.

 

[xivvix]

Re: Lost and Found (xivvix/Kathy)

Politely accepting the returned arrow, Elea gently places it back in her quiver. The ranger is thankful that Matthias seems unconcerned about her accidental attack, and decides to let the matter drop.

The daemon's words please Elea, the young elf puffing up a little at Matthias' words of admiration. "It was close, actually. I'm not sure we could have stopped them if things hadn't gone so perfectly," she says, before gesturing down to the catwoman. "She's a good shot, and has plenty of good ideas. Interrogating the demon down there isn't one of them."

Although Elea had planned on trying to work out the problem with the prisoners herself, she felt it would be a waste to not tell Matthias now that he was here. "We're trying to draw them off from a camp they have set up in a square nearby, and pick them off in small groups," she explains, looking back and forth over the area before focusing down on the demon as she hears it begin to loudly speak haltingly in their language. "There are many demons in the square. And the have taken many women as prisoners. We hope to rescue them."

 

[Kathy]

Re: Lost and Found (xivvix/Kathy)

Sable hisses as the demon begins to get louder, and the way it was repeating itself said everything she needed to know. It was intelligent, but only enough to be given orders.

She didn't let the beast get loud enough to alert others, with the thing trapped in the hole she chose to end its life as soon as it began getting loud. One clean shot at the helpless, trapped beast to cripple it from screaming and struggling, and a second shot to end the task. "Useless" she muttered softly, almost regretting the way she had to kill the beast, but the feeling passed in an instant as her ears rang with its garbled threat.

Not needing to spend any further time down on the street, she sent her two illusions back into position and moved back into the building to prepare the next step of her trap, unaware of the visitor the pair had upstairs.

(I hope I can assume a trapped demon is like shooting fish in a barrel and I won't need to make a large effort to defeat it. If necessary, Sable takes as many shots as required to put the thing down though.)

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Lost and Found (xivvix/Kathy)

Spoiler

Eleas Status HP = 51, P = 38, EP = 43

Spoiler

Sables Status: HP = 54, P = 65, EP = 41/45

(Shooting live fish in a barrel is actually very hard, especially since a lot of guns seem to jam more often if you point them directly downward. I get what you mean though, and yes, he's not going to offer much resistance.)

"Indeed. I surmised much the same when I encountered her, and it is unfortunate that she is closed-minded about her freedom. She left so easily from her keepers only to search for the one who owned her out of blind devotion, though from what I garnered from her memories, he was not so horrid as slavers go." He replies, his arm lowering slowly as she takes back her arrow.

"I know of this camp, and I respect your reasoning behind not calling for my aid as soon as you saw it, despite the overwhelming numbers. Your cause is noble, if a bit misinformed. I don't always destroy everything within a three mile radius, I'll have you know. I show restraint. Sometimes. Anyway, If the rescue of the captives is your goal, then there are things which you must know."
"Firstly, few of the relevant demons ever leave that square. The stalkers, goblins, clawed, and even the hellhounds quickly replace themselves thanks to their captives. The demons who do not, the knights, the lords, the ogres, and the succubi only rarely venture forth, and then always in limited numbers. As such, much of your opposition will likely be of fairly high power, as opposed to the rabble which crawls across much of the city."
"Secondly, not all of the captives in such places are women. The succubi keep a number of men to feed off of and to aid in the siring of children. Many of the men still alive would be adventurers of one sort or another, and might prove useful to you if they are not too heavily corrupted."
"Thirdly, many of the captives have already had their minds and bodies broken by the demons corruption, and would be more likely to attack you than attempt to escape if freed. Once they have been tainted so much, it is impossible for me to remove it from them, so the only course is to destroy them before they make victims of others. Do not let yourself become a victim of this should you make it into the camp."

Placing her gun barrel almost directly onto the demons head, the end of her rifle mere inches from its forehead, causes the demon to cease its chant. It instead begins to laugh sickeningly, the sound more akin to small stones grinding against chunks of metal than any sound of joy Sable had ever heard. The sound lasts right up until she squeezes the trigger, the bullet splattering the helpless demons brains across the paved road and chunks of wood from the trapped stall beneath it. Glad that it had taken only one bullet, Sable quickly turns and returns to their hiding place.

As she enters, she immediately spots the elf talking to Matthias, and manages to catch a good bit of their conversation. Of particular interest to her is the part about the demons taking male captives, causing her to immediately think of her master.