The Angel Angle (Tassadar) GMed by thetwo

[thetwo]

Re: The Angel Angle (Tassadar) GMed by thetwo

Spoiler

Perception: 31+2 = 33

The angel moved silently back to the entrance of the cavern where she had left the hunters. As she moved, the sounds of the spiders faded behind her. As she approached the cavern, she heard clear signs that the hunters had awoken. They spoke back and forth in their rapid reptillian language, compeltely incomprehensible to Nadia. But just before she stepped into the cavern, one spoke instead in the common tongue, and loudly enough to be heard.

"Even if she were blind, they would tell her. We -" the speaker transitioned smoothly into the tongue of the hunters, and a brief argument ensued. There was a moment of silence, and a voice spoke up in a tongue Nadia could understand once again. "She has proved her power, and we all face death. If our kind is to survive without the Lords, we must do as she says." After a moment, all went silent.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: The Angel Angle (Tassadar) GMed by thetwo

The conversation that she witnessed between the aliens couldn't have surprised her more. It could have been a play to try and fool her, of course, but for the moment Nadia opted to trust it, and after the hunters went silent she (very cautiously) entered into the cave, her glow tipping them off to her presence quite easily. Assuming that nothing leaped out of the darkness to ambush her, Nadia calmly said; "He is right. Cooperate, and I would give you a chance at a life with more opportunity than living in this case and scrounging to survive, attacking travelers in cold blood when you get the chance. I had thought your kind little more than beasts, but if you prove that you are above what your masters have made you seem, you might have a chance at a life in cohesion with civilized life, as opposed to actively working against it."

 

[thetwo]

Re: The Angel Angle (Tassadar) GMed by thetwo

The hunters looked startled at the sudden sight of the faintly glowing angel. The slightly-charred one performed a somewhat awkward bow, a gesture mimicked by several of the others. "Any who have not returned now will not do so, Mistress. What will we do now?"

 

[Tassadar]

Re: The Angel Angle (Tassadar) GMed by thetwo

"We leave," Nadia replied simply. She frowned slightly at the hunters as they knelt, not particularly liking the implications behind the posturing despite their apparent submission to her will, and as she moved over to the women to begin rousing them she said; "Get up. You will exit first, and walk ahead of me and the others as we try to catch up with those I traveled with. But stay within my sight." As she said this, Nadia's aura flared slightly, more for a light source by which to see than for any combative purpose.

(Activate Battle Aura X = 2 for improvised light source.)

 

[thetwo]

Re: The Angel Angle (Tassadar) GMed by thetwo

The women were all still sound asleep when Nadia roused them. Three of them got to their feet easily, blinking and shuffling nervously into full wakefulness as they recalled their situation. The other two were less steady in rising, and one of them even seemed for a moment like she might lose control of her stomach. The reason was obvious, two bellies already noticeably inflated with pregnancy.

The party got moving without much trouble. One of the pregnant women looked worriedly at her belly once in a while, but the other one seemed not to take any notice, and none of her fellows seemed in the mood to tell her. One of the humans - the one Nadia had first rescued - spoke to her as they reached the cave exit. "Mistress? Where are we going? We... I lived in Gods Reach, but..."

The hunters were quiet, their apparent leader lost in thought, and there hadn't been a sign of the spiders on the way out; unsurprising, perhaps, given the size of the party. The glow of Nadia's aura faded to irrelevance in the morning sunlight.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: The Angel Angle (Tassadar) GMed by thetwo

The angel frowned at the sight of the pregnant women. Something would have to be done about that, and Nadia didn't relish knowing that she would have to make the decision. Either she would have more of them to contend with, or she would have to hope that the hunters could stand watching her murder their children. Still, it could wait a while yet, and she marshaled them as best she could and instructed them to keep close to her. The hunters went ahead of them, Nadia keeping a careful eye on them in case any tried to slip away, and thankfully they didn't run into any of the spiders on the way out.

"Gods-Reach was taken by the orcs yesterday," Nadia stated grimly when the one woman spoke up, "I took the population of Petra South, out of the zone around the conflict. We're going to go back to the road and then link up with them, but if we're going to do that we need to hurry."

 

[thetwo]

Re: The Angel Angle (Tassadar) GMed by thetwo

The walk back took considerably longer than the original run from the Petra refugees to the cave, even with the women pushing as hard as they seemed able. It was halfway to noon before the hunters stopped. There was a brief exchange in their native language, then the burned leader spoke to the angel. "The road is a bit ahead. We aren't far from the... former orc camp. How will we approach?"

Beside the leader, one of the hunters suddenly rippled slightly, nearly perfectly fading into the forest just feet away. The burned Hunter hissed, and his fellow returned to his uncamouflaged appearance.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: The Angel Angle (Tassadar) GMed by thetwo

"I probably ought to go first," Nadia said simply following the conversation between the hunters as one attempted to cloak itself. "My companions will likely try to kill you otherwise. That said, I'm leaving them behind you, and if any of you try to sneak off or something similar, all they need to do is shout."

 

[thetwo]

Re: The Angel Angle (Tassadar) GMed by thetwo

The refugees from Petra looked better for a night's sleep, for the most part. There hadn't been any miraculous recoveries from the ailments that had put some of them in the retreat in the first place, and at least a few clearly hadn't slept well. The men and women were all awake, and most were carrying packs of one sort of another, or standing near the same. The wagons left behind by the orcs looked picked over and pulled apart, and where Nadia remembered cages there were only piles of charcoal.

From behind the remains of one wagon came a voice. "That only means she was alive when you fell asleep. Not that she was free to return. And since then..." The unseen speaker continued, "Well, we won't be moving very quickly. If she's coming, she'll catch up quickly. If not... you promised to keep going."

"I... don't..." a young elf stepped out from behind the wagon. Sarah certainly didn't look better for a night's sleep. In fact, it didn't look like she'd slept at all, and she had recently been crying. She turned, saw the returning Angel, and ran to her with a relieved cry, embracing Nadia where she stood. "Oh thank the gods you're back. Are you alright?"

The brown-haired elf didn't seem quite willing to let go of her lover as she waited for a reply.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: The Angel Angle (Tassadar) GMed by thetwo

It was a mild inconvenience, seeing those cages gone, but Nadia knew that there was no sense dwelling on it. Arriving to find Sera arguing with someone else, the angel embraced the brunette elf affectionately and replied; "Of course I am. You needn't have worried, though the reason that it took me so long to return is... Complicated." She glanced back at the hunters and the women who were approaching behind her, and felt the need to add; "Very complicated."

 

[thetwo]

Re: The Angel Angle (Tassadar) GMed by thetwo

Sarah's eyes went wide as she saw something behind Nadia, and a glowing ball appeared in one hand for a moment before she dismissed it, shaking her head. "Um... I see. Complicated."

She closed her eyes for a minute, mouth moving. "Okay. I trust you, but... what did you plan on telling everyone else? And how are you going to deal with those things?" The affectionate moment seemed to be over, at least for the moment, and in the next few seconds the rest of the camp started to notice the incoming hunters. Most of the women just froze in place, one or two men drew weapons, but nobody was doing anything rash. At least not yet.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: The Angel Angle (Tassadar) GMed by thetwo

"The truth," Nadia replied in an altogether cryptic and unhelpful manner, but then frowned at the scene that occurred as the aliens appeared behind her. It was about what she had expected though, and by all accounts she took it fairly well. "Are any of those cages left? And did you find any horses, or similar beasts that the orcs here might have used to draw their wagons? They surrendered to me, and displayed intelligence that led me to believe they ought to be given a chance to prove themselves," she said calmly, holding up a hand for the aliens to stop when they started getting closer to her group. "They are not to be harmed, though I do not expect any of you to be polite given everything that has happened," she continued, speaking now to the group at large, "I don't know whether they can be trusted to keep their word, but for now they are to join with us."

 

[thetwo]

Re: The Angel Angle (Tassadar) GMed by thetwo

"Um... 'someone' may have sort of made a point of burning the cages. We needed firewood, and it was obvious what they'd been used for!" Sarah had to consider the other half of the question more. "Now that you mention it... no. No animals, no feed bags, no sign of grazing or places where they might have kept animals. But they couldn't have pulled these wagons themselves, could they? So where did their animals go?"

As for the rest, Nadia's words at least got the weapons put away, though nobody looked happy about it. The hunters had stopped at the edge of the road, the former slaves hurrying around them and into the camp proper, where several of the healers looked them over, and clothes were quickly found for them. Lidia, the chief healer, stepped forward to speak. "Okay, lets assume that these ones are different, and deserve a chance. Does it have to be with us? Why not leave them to fight the Orcs?"

 

[Tassadar]

Re: The Angel Angle (Tassadar) GMed by thetwo

"That someone being you?" Nadia asked dryly, though her smile ensured that Sarah would find no ill will meant to go with her sardonic query. Regarding the animals, Nadia frowned and added; "I didn't see any with them either, now that I think of it. I can only assume that they pulled them themselves, though I have no way of confirming as much. It doesn't matter now though, they aren't here, so we cannot make use of them."

The subject of the hunters was, unsurprisingly, one that would not be solved by a quick and easy conversation, and it was with a firm tone that Nadia replied to Lidia; "I don't expect anything from any of you regarding their instruction. They are my responsibility, and mine alone. Leaving them here would most likely result in their return to their old ways, purely destructive and without aim. They would not fight the orcs any more or less than they would fight anyone else, leaving them as yet another danger in an already too dangerous world. With my guidance, maybe they can become something more than animals hiding in the woods and attacking travelers."

 

[thetwo]

Re: The Angel Angle (Tassadar) GMed by thetwo

The elf glared at Naida for a minute, muttering under her breath. "Fine, I won't argue. But while I hope this is the end of this conversation, I don't believe it really will be. And I doubt you'll be the one saying 'I told you so'." She moved off, towards one of the rescued slaves who was visibly pregnant.

"So, um... what will you do with them, with the cages burned by an unknown person?" Sarah smiled gently. "Not to mention, um... the ones I assume will be born tonight. If we think the adults can be... rehabilitated... then killing their babies is probably not in the cards? I don't really know much about young hunters, but I know they come out able to run and hide pretty well, at least."

 

[Tassadar]

Re: The Angel Angle (Tassadar) GMed by thetwo

"Neither of us has said how we believe this will go, so we won't be able to say "I told you so" regardless of how it turns out," Nadia remarked dryly to the healer's back, and then turned to Sarah and frowned. "Their children will be spared, yes.... Though, without the cages this is going to be much more difficult than I had initially thought," the angel would say after pondering her words for a moment, "their own kind will see to them to ensure that they don't just run off as soon as they can. Without the cages I'll simply have to watch over them personally, but we should be past the point where the orcs will be much of a problem. Hopefully. It might be best if we get moving sooner rather than later on that score, however."

 

[thetwo]

Re: The Angel Angle (Tassadar) GMed by thetwo

This seemed to be a satisfactory answer, at least for the moment, and Sarah joined the others in their final preparations. They would be ready to start moving within the minute. Which left one last group to deal with.

The leader of the hunters spoke softly, sounding tired. "So you would have put us in cages, but now will watch over us yourself. All the time? Forever? If we must remain with you, we could help. Scout. Hunt." He glanced over at his fellows. "Some may not find it easy to sit here doing nothing, in plain sight, among so many... humans."

 

[Tassadar]

Re: The Angel Angle (Tassadar) GMed by thetwo

"Yes, I would have, but now I don't exactly have that option do I?" Nadia replied testily to the hunter. It was becoming a day of difficulties that she couldn't actually blame anyone on, which was frustrating, and those difficulties were ones that she simply couldn't solve to her satisfaction with the options she had available to her, which was even more frustrating. Still, she wouldn't gain anything by becoming irate, and with a sigh the angel dropped her anger and quite evenly continue; "Yes, all the time. To as logical an extent as such a policy can be followed while I'm watching over the humans in question as well. Not forever, given that the end goal is to bring you to a state that you can understand how to live with them. I don't know about scouting, but at this point you're going to have to feed yourselves anyway, so you'll be allowed off in pairs to hunt for food. I'd help you cook it of necessary, which is another thing you may have to get used to if you don't know about it yet. I doubt I could have convinced them to give you food anyway, come to think of it.

"Anyway... While it would by nice to trust you, you know very well that I cannot do so. Not fully. Your children will be given to you to raise as you may, but you are yet under my guidance until I can be assured that you are in a place and a state where you will no longer cause harm to the people that I am sworn to protect. My companions think that I will regret this decision, but I hope that you and your kin are not so short-sighted that you will throw away the opportunity that I am giving you. Regardless, choose among yourselves who will go out hunting, picking only two who will surely return. They will not go near any intelligent beings which they encounter, regardless of race, and will not kill creatures of the fae under any circumstances. They must rejoin the group by sunset, but if they do I will permit another to scout ahead of our advance in addition to the two sent out to hunt. The more that you prove to me that I can trust you, the more freedoms you will be given, but one betrayal and it all ends. Water I think we can provide for you, and for your other physical needs only one will be permitted away from the others at any given time, at least for the moment. You will be allowed to spread out to sleep enough such that you will be reasonably comfortable, and no more than that. Have you understood everything that I have said so far?"

 

[thetwo]

Re: The Angel Angle (Tassadar) GMed by thetwo

The hunter looked somewhat relieved. "Yes. Being able to hunt and scout will... help. I will explain to the others." With that he turned and walked back to his group, where he began speaking in the hissing language of the reptilian aliens.

A few minutes later the group started moving. Two of the hunters slipped away after being pointed out by their leader as the ones who would hunt. The group moved slowly, between the sheer number of people and those who were injured or pregnant. They stopped shortly before sunset, when the two hunters returned, carrying a deer between them.

Sarah and the hunter's leader approached Nadia at the same time. Sarah glared at the much taller beast, and spoke first. "The two women who were raped by hunters are near their time."

The hunter's face contorted, though it took a moment for it to be recognized as a smile. "Any of us can care for the young, it is not hard. But... our hunters have both returned, and the sun is setting. I want to be the one to scout. The two who hunted reported... odd things. The..." he said something in the Hunter language "feeling of being watched? They saw nothing, but..."

 

[Tassadar]

Re: The Angel Angle (Tassadar) GMed by thetwo

Nadia was quite glad for the relative peace of their journey, despite the slow pace. The hunters, despite her wariness of them, were well behaved for the duration, and after a time their sick and injured could no longer continue and they moved to set up camp on the side of the road. Then, Sarah and the lead hunter moved to her at about the same time, and the angel couldn't help but find some amusement in their silent exchange before her lover spoke her concerns first.

Once the hunter had spoken in turn, Nadia simply nodded and said; "You are to choose among yourselves who is to do what, so if you wish to take up the offer of scouting then so be it. As for your... Children, send two to care for them after their birth and bring them back to your numbers. Will they require anything that you do not have for their care?" She left the matter of the feeling of being watched untouched for the moment, knowing she could do little on that front at this point without leaving the camp, which was something that she could ill afford to do.