The Free Plain

(This post is like a week too late, but I've been waiting on people who probably aren't returning now so I'm going to continue. =) )

Elden beckoned to the three others with their team and moved over to where Faisine had silenced the goblins. "Quick, take their weapons," he ordered as at least one of the three began to disarm the sleeping watchers and kick away their weapons. When the warrior was certain they were safe from a sudden awakening and knife in the back, he crept towards the wooden portcullis and lowered himself into the shadows to avoid being seen by any passing enemies.

Of course, Faisine had caused all those on duty at the gate to collapse into a silent, harmless heap, leaving to one problem.

"What are we going to do now?" Elden whispered, turning towards the spellsong. "The only way to open that thing is to have someone pull the rope system to hold it open and if we hack through it we could wake the entire camp up!"

-

Meanwhile, around to the rear of the camp, it was the mage Line who seemed to be leading the recon team, holding little more than a jewelled sceptre in her right hand as she followed the outside of the make-shift wall and kept herself very much in the dark. It was only when Garo unsheathed his sword that she stopped and cursed under her breath, telling him, "be careful! They could have heard that!"

Still, they were pretty much at the rearmost section of the wall. The only goblin that Line could see was dropped behind three crates as quickly as it took her to cast a bolt of sleeping through a gap in their wooden defences.

"Right, we go in through here," she whispered to the others, the tip of her sceptre lighting with the flicker of a flame. She held the torch out to the wood with one hand, while with the other a light of a different kind was moulded and formed into a circle on the palisade. The fire began to spread within this circle, quietly burning the wood down to ash until there was a hole large enough for them to crawl through.

Line put the fire out, then removed the barrier of protection. "Let's go," she eventually ordered, before taking in a deep breath and crawling through into the camp.

    Meanwhile, with Team Sneaky, Garo saw the first goblin for a fraction of a moment, a dark greenish shadow that sent a chill down his spine. Careful to move quietly, especially following Line's harsh whisper, he moved up quickly to the palisade, leaning his back against it and looking upward for any goblin bodies or weapons. Because he had two animals in tow, he wanted to go in last, and so let the small party crawl through before following with Barao and Cael, infiltrating the camp...

"Summon as much fire as you can. The more you bring, the better the strike. I can reach the top and come from behind. I believe they'll be a small force on the top. The rest will be spread through the forestry between here and the top." Zaltos spoke to Wolfgang.

Zaltos's senses began to flare. He could see movement in the woodlands ahead, but he couldn't tell if it was friend or foe at the time. The dark was definitely a hindrance to Zaltos, but his senses could still function extremely well in the dark, just not as definite. One thing he could feel indefinitely was the web of energy and scent that was being given off.

"Raven, we can't wait till morning, but I do believe now would be prime time to find some cover. They're taking places and formations in the woodlands, possibly surrounding the Greydan inside the woodlands and readying to strike us. The scent and arrow structure reminds of Night Elves and Dark Elves, either of which are obviously equipped for the night time. This is most likely their home and something has disturbed them, obviously they think we're involved." Zaltos spoke to Raven.

PING! PING! PING! Arrows began to bounce off of Zaltos's armor. He was obviously noticeable in his red attire. He would move away from the other two, directing the arrows away as he waved for the other two to go on to the alcove. Once he was a good enough distance away, he would stop and his cape would begin to morph and latch to the armor beneath it.

The armor beneath that began to show was a very deep purple, nearly black. The trimming on the armor was a dark forest green. The armor was less bulky, the armor fitting to his body in a spandex style. This armor resembled that of Scorpion's from MK, from face mask to shoes. His ice blue eyes gazed upon the woodlands, his form now invisible to the enemy, his upper torso blending in with the background of sky and plains.

Zaltos lifted his right hand to mouth in the form a fist. He would speak into his hand and when he was done, he would open it, letting off the message and a baseball sized burst of fire. This message would be for Raven and Wolfgang.

"They've lined the borders. The arrows were coming from multiple points. That fire would be real nice right about now. They've got us separated from your men. Only way we're going to break that line of archers is to burn them back. I'm going to throw my shield to you, set it up as a wall to protect you from the fire. What you summon Wolfgang, i'm going to amplify. When I clear the field and leave the wall on the border, i'll carry you through the fire. Your men will know something is up, and they'll be able to see any enemies behind them. If we can carry this out, the enemy will only have one place to go, back to the top."

In the distance, two hundred or so yards into the woodlands, Zaltos could feel energy being gathered. It was just starting, but whatever it was, it was directed this way. Summoning magic was at play, but Zaltos wouldn't inform the other of what he was noticing. He couldn't give his position away, this next move needed to be a surprise.

Zaltos lowered his form to an arrow stance. The top half of his head is all that remained above the tall grass of the plain as he lowered. His right leg extended fully backwards and his left leg would come to bend, his knee pointed at the woodlands leading to the top of the plateau. His energy was refocusing now as his armor change, preparing to take grasp of the fire that was to be summoned.

"I hope this can get done before whatever the enemy summons can take form. I need that fire for power or I could be in real trouble if what he summons is actually powerful, and Elves of any kind don't summon anything weak. I need a higher ranked being for questioning, and if the bodies are still intact I can drain them of their energy." Zaltos thought to himself as he waited for his chance to strike.

"I don't know if I can," she said, honestly, "This is new to me. I didn't even know I could do that!" So she would follow whomever needed following, wracking her brain for a solution that she didn't seem to have immediately on hand. It was time to kill some goblins.

(Sorry for my long absence. Computer was having some issues. I'm back now.)

Zaltos had more information precious to Wolfgang; the likely attacker and their fighting style. Wolfgang was unaware of fighters in the trees and tall grasses around the plateau--just of those atop it. This threatened to change his strategy, but Zaltos did well working with it.
Wolfgang and presumably Raven moved on towards the plateau. However, arrows began flying through their area from different directions. Archers lie ahead now, indicating a widening spread of the enemy forces, which isolated the men who had reached the base of the plateau.
Fortunately, Wolfgang was very in tune with the arcane, and was also able to sense something was off, a small tug in the area's mana due to some unknown, third party. It was here that Raven had, with outstanding timing and intuition, presented the equalizing force--the source of mana she presented in the form of a gem.
His eyes alit on the mana potentia.
"Ah, Raven... so resourceful." He smiled, and then rose his left arm, glyphic tattoos on its inner side revealing themselves as the thick fabric of his sleeve fell. He held out his right hand, in a gesture to ask Raven to give him the gem.
It was then that blanket of small flames erupted from an invisible ceiling, as if continuously fed by a translucent pane of butane. The phenomenon was triangular in nature, radiating out from where Wolfgang and Raven stood, losing potency the farther it extended it's unknown length through the woods. The powerful spell drew on the reservoir he had built, threatening to drain it quickly. Most importantly, however, it lit up the entire area around, threatening archers in the trees with a fiery hell that Zaltos was now to enhance, and direct its punishing flames towards the attackers..whose positions would instantly become revealed.

(Let's put all further posts in a thread called The Free Plain - Plateau?)

"He's right!" Line suddenly yelled at the top of her voice, so loud that the entire camp and beyond would easily hear her. "We've found the barrels! Get back!"

She turned, motioning quickly for everyone to get back through to the outside of the wall and retreat in preparation for the shortly upcoming explosion. Line was grinning, a flame lighting upon her palm which she cupped like a ball between her heat-resistant fingers. Then, with little warning, she tossed it at the barrels as several Goblins came out of tents and otherwise woke up to try and figure out what was causing the commotion.

The barrel caught fire; which began to spread along the wood. Not long now. "Quick, go!" Line hissed at Garo and the others, as she rushed to make it back through the hole in the wall before the barrels went up.

(I skipped the one turn-cast time if that's alright with everyone. Not only to speed things up a little, but also because it wasn't a PVP situation so I didn't think I really need to. :P)

-

Outside, the warrior almost swore at how stupid his mage comrade was. "Quick, get into the trees!" He hissed at Feruzia and their other companions, as he began to run back into the undergrowth away from the palisade gate. At least they didn't need to fight them personally, right?

Zi othokent...

It was a smart plan indeed. Split their forces and have each assigned to different jobs whilst still focusing on a main objective. Jarkoopi was no master strategist as the only two people he commanded was himself and Joffrey, his lesser undead guard. He watched carefully with interest until he noticed the goblins were alert and the set of barrels were aflame. It appeared as if stealth and silence was no longer an option. Wondering if he should help or leave them to test their might. The dragon took flight from his vantage point to land upon a second, much closer and shorter hill. He had gone within the range someone with normal eyesight could spot him if they searched carefully enough.

Garo rushed through the hole in the palisades, fleeing what was sure to be an imminent explosion. Odd, the amount of activity fire had suddenly become responsible for in affecting the environment, with flammable barrels about to go and the sky lit up by ethereal flames possibly up to a mile away. Garo was unsure of just what was going on in the distance, and being already spooked, he and his wolves were lucky not to have seen the dragon that was now near...

Faisine blinked. That... was... well.. Okay? She followed dutifully behind. Not much else could be said, other than she could be seen pausing long enough to grab the borrowed instrument before walking toward the settlement.