trans_9 | Under Siege Part 2

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Under Siege Part 2

The previous night, the team had learned the details of the situation. King Demetrius Fenley had once been a fair but strict ruler. Three years ago, he had acquired a new advisor, a beautiful woman named Diana Wynnthrope, who came from a small nation on the other side of the mountains. The changes were subtle at first, with the king becoming more suspicious of others’ intentions and enacting harsher laws.

Baron Archand had noticed these changes, and had spoken up about the new laws. He had always respected his king. What had happened?

Nasat was located near a mine that produced precious gems and metals for the kingdom. King Demetrius had become convinced somehow that the town was not paying its fair share of taxes, and accused the baron of hoarding said gems and metals to fund an army and take the crown. Archand had done everything in his power to refute the false claims, but to no avail. So, with word that the king was sending an army to seize the rebellious town, he had sent for aid from his friend Baron Raleigh in Pertus. Raleigh had readily agreed, also being uncomfortable with the new laws, and was further seeking the help of the bronze dragons (bronze dragons that looked exactly like Crucible) in the nearby mountains he had his own alliance with. Unfortunately, Raleigh’s troops would not reach Nasat before King Demetrius’s.

It was impossible to find a person in Nasat that wasn't helping to prepare for battle in some way. Even the children were busy, packing food and clothing for evacuation and carrying supplies to and from for the adults.

There was an entire section of the town dedicated to the creation of weapons and armor: women making arrows, blacksmiths forging blades and breastplates, and engineers building siege engines. Oil was being gathered, along with firewood, and a fire brigade was sent out to place buckets of water in strategic locations throughout the town. Mages gathered and shared their spell components with each other.

Nasat was clearly a town where everyone was used to helping their neighbors, and happy to do so.

Baron Archand was not adverse to getting a little dirty and helping out himself, either. While making his rounds, he worked the bellows for the master blacksmith for a few minutes, chatted with a group of older ladies while fletching arrows, and dug one of the holes for a wooden spike with a shovel.

Sentries had reported that King Demetrius's forces would arrive the next day, and there was much more work to be done.

[OOC: Backtagging in the previous post is definitely okay and encouraged! The next post will be going up on November 26th.

Feel free to NPC the townspeople in the first subthread! You can be creative with how your characters help with preparations, too, so have fun with it!

All subthreads are open!]

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Whatever your skills may be, there is a place and a use for them! The townspeople have done a good job preparing so far, but need more help, whether it be weapon-making or gathering supplies.

Late in the afternoon, Baron Archand called the team and all his officers in to discuss their battle plans. His officers were hand-picked, intelligent, and most had mundane jobs outside of combat such as field work or smithing; there were even a couple of women present, as the head of the mine and the captain of the night watch.

Ronnae was still a bit apprehensive of being in a town full of humans and the scene being somewhat familiar. But that was to be expected considering that if she was in a location like this back home, it was either during a fight, or being carried off as a POW.

However, the fact that everyone was so busy and hadn't bothered her due to her looks had come as a pleasant surprise and allowed her to enjoy getting acquainted with the place, exploring the areas and taking notes of the layout with considerable detail.

This wasn't just sight seeing however. She already had a pad of paper and was planning out what the best locations for siege weapons would be and how she could take advantage of the environment and the type of siege weaponry they had. She of course would make minor adjustments to make the best out of them without adding any additional tech to the world's own.

After getting the intel she needed, Ronnae could be found down with the engineers, setting out her plans with the ones in charge and working rather cheerily with the building of such devices.

Hiccup was helping do the same, though he was focusing most on working with the blacksmiths to improve the mechanical integrity of the components that were going into the siege weapons. Daja's training in the forge was definitely coming in handy here.

Still, he found himself splitting his time between the forges and the engineers, running back and forth with his soot-covered hands carrying a number of papers that had plans and scribbled-down instructions on them.

"Ronnae, did you look over my plans for the replacement for the torsion springs for the ballistas? Do you think they'll hold up?"

Ruffnut was not a clever person.

She was getting smarter by the day, and that was dangerous, but as it stood she was not anywhere near the higher levels of intelligence. There was one thing she knew how to do really well though.

"Alright runts listen up!" She had gathered together some of the children of the town and was walking in front of them like a general. "I know you all want to help defend your home from the invaders, but you're too small to be any good in a fight."

Some of the kids howled in protest and she roared "SHUT UP!" which had them take a few steps back.

"What you can do however is be fast. Running supplies and putting out fires...uh...so to speak." She then drew into a cart and pulled out a stack of buckets. "Everyone take one. Where I come from when the village was attacked, there was always fire. It was my job and now your job, to put out those fires. So as practice here's what you're gonna do!" She climbed up onto the cart and pointed, "You're gonna run to the well and fill your buckets with water, then run back here as fast as you can without spilling. Anyone who spills has to run laps!"

The kids groaned and whined but another roar from the wild and dangerous looking foreign girl sent them scrambling.

Ronnae had been pretty involved in her work, but at the sound of a familiar voice she turned to look over her shoulder. Once recognizing the person, she turned completely, raised her goggles off her face and smiled before tapping her chin thoughtfully.

"Hm, can't say I have, I've been busying myself with the building, but I would really love to go over them. I've heard you're quite the creator yourself so I'm sure it'll be perfect." Not to mention that any help was greatly welcomed, specially by her crew mates.

Eschewing the town, one elf in particular had taken to the skies on the wings of magic. From a lofty vantage, he flew an expanding spiral over the town and its environs, carefully scrutinizing the lay of the land, its pratfalls and strategic points, its natural advantages and disadvantages. Terrain was key to victory, especially when one intended to manipulate it extensively.

Also -- and this, for a wonder, was not something he had learned from his studies -- he was feeling out thermals and prevailing wind currents. Cerilia had not in the history of recorded warfare fielded adequate magical or mythological might to deploy enough flying creatures to dramatically affect a battle, but if dragons were common enough on this world to serve as reinforcements, then conceivably something could attack them in this upcoming battle.

All of this he did in an unusually cheerful mood. He was in his element, here.

Kang easily fell back into his old role as an engineer, going over some of the plans and making a few minor changes of his own. Bridges had been his specialty, but he was quite skilled at siege engines as well. He was speaking with one of the human engineers, discussing his changes to the trebuchet blueprint.

"By doing this, you can move the counterweight just a little closer to the fulcrum, and increase the torque. It also makes it more sturdy, so it won't move around as much and require recalibrating as often. We should only need one or two of them to help take out their siege engines."

The man's eyebrows furrowed for a moment, and then his eyes widened in understanding, "Ah, I see! Very clever, Master Kang. I'll get my men on it immediately."

The bozak smiled to himself. The humans he'd worked with during the War of the Lance had rarely given any praise, let alone simple recognition, of he and his men's skills, and had instead torn into any little error mercilessly. It was certainly a nice change.

He'd noticed that the people in the town gave him quick, curious glances at times, when they thought he wouldn't see, and he was pretty sure of why after Baron Archand had provided a painting of the bronze dragons native to Halatun; they looked exactly like Krynnish bronzes. None had asked him about his scales yet, though, and while the baron had picked up on his discomfort regarding the dragons the night before, he'd politely left it alone.

Cowabunga was helping with construction more directly, applying his considerable Tauren strength into lifting a heavy wooden beam into place.

"Alright, looks like that's good to go. I'll go rustle up another cross-beam." He siad, pulling out his chainsaw, runes deactivated, to go cut another piece of wood. The mangonel wasn't going to be pretty, but it'd work.

Aibghalien wasn't the only one in the air above the town, Celena herself had joined him in the air after she had familiarized herself with the locals and their town. With a natural ease she found thermals and currents in the wind to move near effortlessly through the air.

Along with him she surveyed the terrain below for much similar reasons, as well as to provide an accurate mental map and image should her illusions be required to distract and divert the forces as they closed in on the town.

After having taken stock of the towns capabilities and drawn out as much information on the surrounding area and the forces that were expected to be deployed against during the previous night's discussion the Lord Governor of Sanction had made his way out of the city and a short way to the south of town, not a thousand feet from the walls of town, along the most likely route the invading forces would take to attack the town.

Taking stock of what defenses and fortifications had been put in place he began to weave his magic to make his own additions to the approach into town. Spell after spell he wove, reaching into the earth beneath and ahead of him, causing focused tremors not five hundred feet beneath. Using the tremors to shape and sink the earth beneath, leaving the top ten foot of earth intact, leaving large hollow spaces beneath a near one hundred foot wide by five hundred feet across in front of the defenses. A trap that collapse under the feet of the enemy with but a single spell when required.

The effort however to create such a vast trap was telling on even one such as he, though he hid it as best he could any who came to him.

Sofia's feet moved around expertly as she spared with some of the younger warriors. Seeing the eighteen year old women had given them more hope, and Sofia herself had been trained by her entire village. She was instructing them on how to properly dodge and parry, keeping them sharp for the invasion.

"Never underestimate your enemies," she warned. "Otherwise they will have already won."

"Wow, you've become Gobber."

Wiping the sweat from her brow with the back of her hand, Astrid greeted Ruff with a mirthful smile. Like the rest of the group, she had been extremely busy with lending support, obviously with repairs and applying some extra touches to their defenses on base, evident by the dirt on her features and the hammer she casually tossed up and caught in her other hand.

"That brings back memories," she said, amusement in her voice as she watched the discontent children take off past them.

During dragon raids of past, there was a time when a group of stubborn viking brats expressed similar disapproval when they were stuck with nothing but buckets of water instead of being permitted to fighting alongside the adults.

"From a purely tactical perspective, it's unfortunate there's so much cover around here," he said, indicating the trees below, which grew denser as they approached the foothills proper. "That strips one of the main advantages of a defensible position by allowing the attacking forces cover and shelter. In ordinary circumstances I'd simply advise taking shelter and treating this as a siege, but I don't think that will be possible."

Thom stayed well away from the wall, the smithery, and the construction. He had no business lifting and carrying, and he highly doubted that was why he came on this mission - not with mages about.

It took some time to find the workroom where Nasat's mages were preparing themselves for the battle ahead. Thom paused outside the door, straightening his robe, brushing dirt off the front of it, and putting his shoulders back before he walked in. He affected the air of nobility he had often left by the wayside on the ship. "I am Master Thom," he said by way of introduction - his noble title was less useful than his magical title in this case. "What kind of magical offense may we expect from the King's army?"

The mages, who had their heads bent over a map of the Keep, looked up. "His Majesty has surely deployed the court mage," one of them said. "And possibly some of the instructors from the academy. Considerable talent."

"I wouldn't worry," Thom said, smirking. Only a handful of the most powerful - encouraging. "I require a cold space to work in and a mirror, and you will not need to deal directly with them."

Nasat, Nehaalista was pleased to learn, had a wide range of precious metals and gems. She had stuffed her gloves in her belt and was perusing the stones before her with a particularly grim scrutiny, her jeweler's monocle refracting the light which shone from her eyes. They faint lines and detris inside the gems made her question the quality they'd given her, but with a noiseless sigh she picked up her tools, and started cutting the gems with delicate precision.

"Ugh, if I ever get that bad kill me." She joked with a smile, Gobber was simultaneously respected, and mocked even among his closest friends let alone his students.

Ruffnut too was remembering when they had been sent bravely to protect as much of the village as they could from the destructive force of the flames the dragons would spew out. It was impossible to save all the houses but the more useable wood they salvaged the less work it was to rebuild after each attack.

Ruffnut had gotten her very first scar as part of the fire fighters group, a burn mark on her arm from an errant burst of fire. She still wore it proudly even to this day.

"But there were only five of us. Six if Hiccup wasn't dumping his water all over himself."

Just as the sentries reported, King Demetrius's forces, 25,000 strong, arrived early the next day, immediately setting up camp south of Nasat and along the banks of the river to the east. There were knights on foot, a small calvary, archers, crossbowmen, and pikemen. His engineers worked feverishly through the afternoon to build siege engines while a group of mages including some of his most powerful and loyal, cast protective spells throughout the camp.

Lady Diana Wynnthrope was present as well, her tent set up next to the king's. It was rumored she was skilled in magic, leaving many wondering if she would be assisting in battle as well.

For such a large force, they dug in quickly, and by early evening, made it clear that they intended to waste no time in attacking. King Demetrius and Lady Diana rode up to within 200 feet of the city, and with a mage giving assistance via a volume-enhancing spell, spoke:

"Baron Archand, you have been remiss in your duties to the kingdom of Tielo, not paying your fair share of taxes. Your intentions to challenge me and take the crown have also been brought to my attention. The people of Nasat have supported you in your cause, and thus, I declare high treason. Surrender yourself now, or this town will be taken by force."

Diana remained silent, watching with cold eyes.

Archand's voice rang out from the walls above the gatehouse, "I regret that it must come to this, but I will not surrender for a crime I did not commit. You have been deceived by those closest to you."

The king's face darkened. "Then so be it." And with that, his small party wheeled their horses around and returned to their encampment.

Not twenty minutes later, the first arrows flew.

[OOC: Go for it! Please NPC for yourselves or each other; you can be creative here as well. Just keep in mind that the battle will be lasting three days with a few lulls here and there, and that it won't be an easy one. Backtagging on the first two threads is also encouraged and welcomed!]

After making sure that the engineers had things taken care of, Kang had decided to take a short break and check in with some of the others. Things seemed to be progressing rather well, from what he could see. He was also very impressed that the baron was helping in so many different ways, and obviously had a good relationship with his people.

He was not surprised to find Nehaa jewelcrafting. She'd enchanted his necklace for him, several months ago, and he'd definitely noticed an increase in his dexterity; if the right enhancements, no matter how small, were given to the right people, it could definitely tip the odds in their favor.

They were alone in the room, so he felt safe talking frankly, "You don't look too impressed with the gems you were given."

"I dabble," Hiccup said to Ronnae, humbly, rooting through all his papers to hand one to a passing courier. "Give that to the master smith, please, thank you."

Edited 2011-11-25 06:19 (UTC)

"I only did that a few times," Hiccup cut in with the slightest of grins. There was a pause, and he added, "At least until I wasn't allowed on the fire brigade anymore."

He had his notebook out.

"What's our water situation anyhow? Do they even have rolling casks like we did in the village?"

That was what he was here to find out.

The door opened so that they weren't alone in the room.

"Kang, are you in here? Oh good."

By now, Hiccup was a mess. His hair was sticking up in every direction because he'd been hanging upside down on the trebuchets trying to work on some of their components, his hands were covered in soot and coal dust and it was smudged on his face where he'd thoughtlessly touched it while concentrating on his work. Since all the blacksmith aprons offered to him by the blacksmiths had been far too big, he'd been working without one, and coal dust was smudged all down his front and his shirt was just slightly singed in places.

He was still carrying around a bundle of papers and his notebook, which was open in his hand, though the paper bundle had diminished some as diagrams and quickly-scribbled notes had been handed off to the other engineers and the blacksmiths.

"I wanted to put an idea by you. I think I figured out a pump system to put out any fires, using the water-carts, but to simplify things a bit, I wanted to see if there was any way we could use magic to make the pumps work--aannnd you're making jewelry right now. Why are you making jewelry?" he finished, turning to Nehaa.

Were they special gems? Were they gems that exploded? Those would be useful. Otherwise, it seemed a waste of time.

Edited 2011-11-23 08:58 (UTC)

[My gems enhance people,] Nehaalista paused for a second before lifting the gem for further inspection. It was starting to look proper, but those impurities... [The gems here are nice, but I don't think they're going to be good enough. I'm glad I thought to bring my own, but I only have about twenty-five.]

Bight had arrived not long after they were called, though he did his best to hide it, it would be easy to see that the Lord Governor was somewhat drained. The efforts of setting up the traps he had as well as in fortifying the defenses had taken their toll, the town however would be all the better prepared for it.

Nevertheless, even tired as he was, Bight was as keen eyed and witted as ever, his gaze sweeping the officers and the team assembled as he attempted to divine their moods and attitudes regarding the coming confrontation, greeting each with a nod. The confident air about him clear as ever even in his exhausted state.

Kang glanced down at the gems, not noticing anything wrong himself. But, he wasn't a jeweler. He didn't know what to look for. "Damn. The mages will be casting spells to help out as well, though, so I think we'll do alright there."

He turned to Hiccup, smiling slightly at the messy sight he was, and sat down at a convenient table, "Are those the plans? I'll take a look and see, but I don't know if there's much help I can give magic-wise. I can at least check the mechanical parts of it, though."

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Under Siege Part 2

Preparations

Strategy Session

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Battle!

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