Into the Darkness (Tiffanian and Hentaispider)

[Tassadar]

Re: Into the Darkness (Sponge, Tiffanian and Hentaispider)

Spoiler

Garrett: HP = 62, PP = 43, EP = 77, Status = Fine
Laena: HP = 67, PP = 56, EP = 46, Status = Pregnant
Lily: HP = 62, PP = 88, EP = 62, Status = Fine

"Some... Sort of artifact huh?" the nymph asked sardonically, but she and the three goat men watched as Lily created an image in the air in front of them. "We do not know of this thing," the satyr said, and one of the gruffs added; "But if what you seek lies within, then it is possible that the demons seek it as well."

At Garrett's supposition about enchanted items, however, the nymph frowned and said; "That isn't generally how magic items work... Though the latter isn't unheard of. An enchanter creates a magic item by pushing a portion of their soul into an object, and shaping it to supply certain enhancements, usually guided by certain reagents. Eventually an item will gain a limited mind of its own, and in the case of particularly powerful items, that mind can be extremely powerful. Sometimes powerful enough to overwhelm the wielder and make of them a slave. I don't know about making one's hair grow, but the unprepared should be wary of powerful magical items."

 

[Sponge]

Re: Into the Darkness (Sponge, Tiffanian, and Hentaispider)

He gave a small chuckle. "I wasn't being serious about the hair growing thing. Just doing my best to think of an example of a small scale enchanted side effect or something."

Chit chat time should be over soon, but he wasn't sure if they wanted to continue.
"Ladies, ask them any more questions on your mind. I'm pretty much done, so I say we camp here for the night and recover our strength again before moving on. I want to be at peak condition before I encounter any demons."

 

[Tiffanian]

Re: Into the Darkness (Sponge, Tiffanian, and Hentaispider)

Laena watched with some interest as Lily produced a small illusion of the artifact they were looking for, having not seen it before then. It was a blurry image, but it was good enough for the harpy to get a decent idea of what the thing was. The fae view of magical items wasn’t reassuring to her, the idea that this thing could possess one of them if they touched it, but she thought that the demon probably would have told them about it if that were truly a risk with the Lotus. "I don’t think I have any questions myself" she replied quietly, "but I wouldn’t mind a rest. I’m worried though, about what we’ll do tomorrow. We should probably have some kind of plan before we rush into anything."

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Into the Darkness (Sponge, Tiffanian and Hentaispider)

Spoiler

Garrett: HP = 62, PP = 43, EP = 77, Status = Fine
Laena: HP = 67, PP = 56, EP = 46, Status = Pregnant
Lily: HP = 62, PP = 88, EP = 62, Status = Fine

"You lot are free to stay here for the night," the nymph said simply, "Even if you didn't have a member of the courts with you, this place was set up for travelers... As a safe haven." She gestured towards Lily as she mentioned the fey courts.

 

[Hentaispider]

Re: Into the Darkness (Sponge, Tiffanian, and Hentaispider)

Lily smiles at the nymph before turning more serious. "We need a plan, then. I've got a couple ideas, though anything will be quite risky. Earlier you mentioned something about patrols. Do the demons send patrols outside the ruins, where one could be ambushed? And how large are these patrols? I think capturing some of the demons and questioning them would be a good starting point. We could also use a map of the ruins, if there is one."

Her wings fold tightly on her back, and she dismisses her illusion with a gesture, her expression suddenly more focused as she sits more upright, her demeanor changing to reflect her noble heritage.

 

[Sponge]

Re: Into the Darkness (Sponge, Tiffanian, and Hentaispider)

Something the nymph said caught him off guard, and now curious.

"Wait what? Member of courts?"
Rising to his feet suddenly, his hand instinctively went for the hilt of his sword, but immediately let go upon realizing what he was doing.

Shit, nothing to get spooked about. Calm down. But still...
"Has there been something important you've forgotten to tell us? You know I don't like hidden intentions."
Slowly he eased back down, sitting with his hands in his lap.

 

[Hentaispider]

Re: Into the Darkness (Sponge, Tiffanian, and Hentaispider)

Lily blinks in surprise at Garrett's sudden reaction, then her expression turns to annoyance at having to explain herself. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you're ignorant about such matters. Very well, then, I shall explain these things to you. As a sidhe and one of the fae, I am the member of the fey courts by the right of birth, like all the fae are. As my parents served Acrasia, I belong to the Autumn court. At the moment I have no current obligations, though, and like I said before, I am here in search of knowledge."

 

[Sponge]

Re: Into the Darkness (Sponge, Tiffanian, and Hentaispider)

A blank look only looked back at Lily as he still failed to understand anything.

"Okaaaaay and that means what? Are you royalty? What are the courts? And if you are royalty, wouldn't it be discouraged for you to leave your.... kingdom court or whatever? And what the hell is the 'Autumn' Courts? Did I miss the memo about the declaration of all the other seasons or something?"

 

[Hentaispider]

Re: Into the Darkness (Sponge, Tiffanian, and Hentaispider)

As Garrett starts speaking again, the look of annoyance on Lily's face grows clearer and clearer, almost approaching anger as he finishes talking. "How can you humans be so..." a dozen candidate words appear on Lily's mind as she seeks to finish her sentence, but she ends up just sighing and shaking her head. "Let me explain. The Courts aren't like your king's court or whatever you have at the moment. The courts are the kingdoms - well, not really, but that's the closest thing you'd understand. When I say that I'm a member of the Autumn Court, it's like a human saying that he's a Badarian, though the courts aren't really tied to locations like your human kingdoms are. There are Courts for all four seasons - Winter, Spring, Summer and my court, Autumn. There's also a Court of Angels. Though each Court is sovereign, they're also united - a member of the Autumn Court can expect a warm reception from members of all the other courts as well as her own, though perhaps not equally warm from each of them. As for me, I'm not royalty, though as a sidhe, I'm expected to achieve knighthood fairly soon, and perhaps higher ranks later."

 

[Sponge]

Re: Into the Darkness (Sponge, Tiffanian, and Hentaispider)

As Lily mentioned the courts by season, he couldn't help but give a little snicker. He wasn't being impolite, he just found that to be hilarious that his lame joke on the courts of seasons actually turned out to be true. The rest of what she said made much more sense though, making it seem a lot less political then what he had been thinking of.

"Ok, thanks for the explanation. I only got one more question. If you get killed, raped, captured, so on and so forth as your tagging along, I'm not going to end up becoming a mortal enemy of the courts just because you were the one who decided to join my little venture? Or will I then have to worry about both demons AND fae violating my ass?"

 

[Hentaispider]

Re: Into the Darkness (Sponge, Tiffanian, and Hentaispider)

Lily gives Garrett a sharp glance. "You can hardly be held responsible for my decisions." the sidhe says with acidic tones before turning to look back at the nymph.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Into the Darkness (Sponge, Tiffanian and Hentaispider)

Spoiler

Garrett: HP = 62, PP = 43, EP = 77, Status = Fine
Laena: HP = 67, PP = 56, EP = 46, Status = Pregnant
Lily: HP = 62, PP = 88, EP = 62, Status = Fine

Their hosts watched the exchange between Garrett and Lily with some concern, particularly when Garrett inexplicably shot up and went for his blade. They didn't interfere, occasionally opening their mouths to speak but never managing to actually get a word out. After their conversation had concluded, the nymph sighed softly and then answered Lily's question; "They do send out small groups to scavenge from the jungle and watch for intruders. They usually number only about six to ten, but they always have a knight and a mage with them at the very least. Ambushing one will be difficult. As for a map, we've never even gone into those ruins. The demons might have one, but I doubt it."

 

[Tiffanian]

Re: Into the Darkness (Sponge, Tiffanian, and Hentaispider)

Laena sighed inwardly at Garrett’s reaction to the revelation that Lily was a member of the faerie courts. Her mate, she concluded, was sort of dumb. Handsome as fuck, and kind to her, but dumb nonetheless. Of course, the harpy didn’t know much about the fae herself, but she wasn’t terribly worried about it. Certainly not enough to suddenly think their companion was hostile. She listened on to the explanation of the system with some interest, wondering how the various courts were different from one another. She barely knew anything about the humans either, and how their nations were any different, and though she probably should have known more about the fae due to her life in the jungle, she had stayed comfortably above all nations and courts and peoples, as harpies were wont to do. When the conversation between her two companions fizzled out the nymph re-entered it to answer Lily’s earlier question, relating that the demons did indeed send out small patrols, though they were heavily armed and well-trained. That was definite trouble; even their patrols were more numerous and dangerous than the three of them were likely to be able to handle. "So what are we meant to do about these guys? We can’t just sit around, but rushing them sounds like suicide."

 

[Hentaispider]

Re: Into the Darkness (Sponge, Tiffanian, and Hentaispider)

Lily frowns thoughtfully. "Setting up an ambush may be hard, but I think it's the best chance we'll get to find some information about the demons. Do they have regular routes they use on their patrols? That would be ideal for finding a good place for the ambush. Otherwise we may have to use some kind of bait to get them into one." Trying to suppress her annoyance with Garrett, Lily scans her memories for all the stories her parents had told her, finding dishearteningly little in the way of advice for setting up ambushes. "We'll also have to even out the numbers even if we assume our first attack will weaken them, but I think I can take care of that."

 

[Sponge]

Re: Into the Darkness (Sponge, Tiffanian, and Hentaispider)

Lily's plan of setting up an ambush DID seem like the best idea.

"She's right. That's probably the best course of action. If we could find a small group, or wait for a big group to split up and then catch them off guard. We then interrogate them and possibly gather enough info on their numbers, whereabouts, and current plans. We can then come up with a more solid idea of what we are dealing with, instead of just running head on."

"Where was the last group of demons that you saw while patrolling around?" Garrett inquired the nymph and satyrs.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Into the Darkness (Sponge, Tiffanian and Hentaispider)

Spoiler

Garrett: HP = 62, PP = 43, EP = 77, Status = Fine
Laena: HP = 67, PP = 56, EP = 46, Status = Pregnant
Lily: HP = 62, PP = 88, EP = 62, Status = Fine

"They do have fairly regular routes... I don't think they're expecting any intelligent opposition, so we've got a bit of an advantage. They pass by a couple of places that look like decent ambush spots, but a bit of bait couldn't hurt either!" the nymph replied, eying Garrett rather significantly when she said the word "bait." Turning in full to the main, she then said; "The lesser demons won't have much information, but they'll be much easier to question than the stronger ones. I don't know that we could get anything out of one of the knights even if we managed to take them alive, but they might make a good hostage." The satyr interjected, "The demon patrols are usually seen walking a rough circle around the ruins. The last one we saw was about a twenty minute hike from here, near a stream that runs through this very glade. They've long passed and should be on their way back by now, but the patrols come out every six hours or so. We've got plenty of time to set up an ambush, but we could try to catch them before they get back to their camp."

 

[Sponge]

Re: Into the Darkness (Sponge, Tiffanian, and Hentaispider)

Chasing after them didn't seem like a good idea to Garrett.

"No, if we go chasing after them, we might end up running into something else along the way. Just because they are lesser demons doesn't mean we should underestimate them."

The nymph did bring up a good point about making the ambush possibly easier. He narrowed his brow in thought. Screwing this up wasn't an option.

"As for the bait, I'll be the one. If I'm not mistaken, most demons believe that human kind are inferior beings when it comes to power, as not many humans study magic to a certain extent. If we used one of the woman, they might be more cautious. A 'weak lost human in the mountains' is the perfect thing. To make it more convincing, I'll keep all my protective magic off, since possibly one of them would be able to detect magic in use. But doing that, I would like Lily or Laena to be on standby from somewhere close to possibly cast a buff the moment she sees them take aggression. If we have one of satyrs keeping an eye out for an incoming group, one spotting they should return and let us know if the group is too big to handle. That way we can pull out if necessary."
Now for his part.
"Since I'll be the bait, here's what I'm gonna do. I'll do my best to stay passive. If they decide to talk before attacking me for some reason, I want to lure them into a sense of false security, catching a poor helpless human that's cowering. Too scared to run. But if they immediately attack, I want to hold them on my own as long as possible while being provided buffs from you ladies in stealth. This way if I win single highhandedly, it will be even more intimidating for the rest of you to arrive conveniently after their defeat. But if it looks like I'm in trouble, then feel free to jump in. You guys know what kind of powers or tricks they might have that I could be unaware of. So that's your call. Otherwise I'll signal for help. Something simple like me saying "Not good, not good.' If one of you girls are spotted during my conversation with the group, we all attack at once."

"So any questions? If you guys have some more ideas or things that may help, I'm all for it. If there's a flaw in the plan, let me know."

 

[Hentaispider]

Re: Into the Darkness (Sponge, Tiffanian, and Hentaispider)

Lily glances at the sun, noticing that it's only early afternoon. "That plan sounds as good as any to me. I'd rather not start chasing the demons and possibly run into their ambush, either."

A mage and a knight? Those will probably cause some problems if Garrett things he's going to take them all out by himself. I guess I should warn him.

Sighing inwardly, Lily tries to not injure the human's pride. "I doubt everything will go as planned, though, so be prepared for surprises. A battle plan is only good 'til the first blow is dealt, as the saying goes. I'm not an expert on demons, but their knights and mages are formidable opponents."

 

[Sponge]

Re: Into the Darkness (Sponge, Tiffanian, and Hentaispider)

Giving a small grin as he nodded, he tried to reassure her.

"Like I said, don't hesitate to help out if it gets too bad. I just figure interrogation would be better if by the off chance I do somehow overcome them. I won't have a chance without you ladies buffing me with spells though, so I'm counting on both of you. If anything, this also allows you girls to get a better ambush, they'll be too distracted dodging my sword to notice you. If we can, lets try to knock em out, rather than kill them all. Course, that's a giant IF."

 

[Tiffanian]

Re: Into the Darkness (Sponge, Tiffanian, and Hentaispider)

Laena listened only partially to the plan the others were formulating, of ambushes and bait to capture and interrogate powerful demons. It wasn’t that she wasn’t interested in the plan, or that what was discussed wasn’t important; she had just had a thought, one she wasn’t sure she ought to share. Though harpies weren’t much for parenting in general, there was one thing they did pass down to their young without variation; a prohibition against doing something they were all born capable of except in the most dire of emergencies. All harpies could manipulate the wind, both to greater and lesser degrees, and though subtle manipulation was not only allowed, but encouraged, more intense usages of the power were looked down upon quite intensely. If she tried and prepared enough, she could summon up a storm the likes of which was only very rarely seen.

Finally, though, she spoke up. "Hey… I just had a thought. Not for ambushing anyone, but for really dealing with the lot of them. As a harpy, I’m capable of changing the weather in a few different ways, but mostly involving the wind. Now… if I focus quite hard and perform a certain ritual, I could create a storm in the area of the temple that would be incredibly powerful, even more so if Lily could assist me. It’s not something we’re supposed to do except in terrible emergencies, but I’d say the presence of hostile demons counts as that. If I could at least drop trees on a number of them to thin them out, we’d have a much easier time of planning, and would have more options. So, what do you guys think?"