Grey Knights IC

[qube]

Firefly

As firefly failed to see the wolf, he'll rest until his compagnions decide to continue ...

[The_Snark]

Miss Murder

"Oh, we know where we can find her: at the keep. And she probably knows it, too." Miss Murder relaxes slightly from her combat-ready stance. "The question is, how well does she have it defended?"

[Toliudar]

Mercy

That we can find out in the morning - at least to an extent - if Smokey is so kind as to speak with our dead cub over there.

The obvious outer defenses can be picked up by Smokey, using my ring. I have no particular suggestions for picking up magical defenses, but by leading with one of Firefly's pets, or Smokey's summoned creatures, we may save ourselves considerable grief.

[qube]

Firefly

he thinks for a second pets? and the answers

"sure, but ... most of mine don't last that long. only a minute or so ..."

[wadledo]

Smokey

"She means cannon balling, Firefly."
Smokey punches his right hand into his left, describing the common summoner tactic of sending in a few heavy bruisers to smash through the defenses, then sending in a knot of smaller summons as "shrapnel".

[Toliudar]

Mercy

She nodded solemnly.

They flush out the ambushes and the blasty traps as we enter. Assuming, of course, that she doesn't have the firepower to maintain a regular defense.

[Greyen]

Morning follows the end of the rains...see above...The keep is visible on the edge of the plateau above you, just a couiple of short hours ride to the base of the track leading up the side of the plateau.

All of you can easily see that the hill side would be a perfect place for an ambush. Some of the areas the track slides alonf the side of nearly sheer cliffs others along nice rock strewn hills. You can reach the top of the hill, and the fort by night fall if you are unimpeded.

[Toliudar]

Mercy

Gazing up at the hillside, and the sun sliding towards the horizon, Mercy looks at the others.

I don't relish fighting werewolves by moonlight. Why not camp at the base here? Might be able to do some scouting by remote control. Set out first thing in the morning.

[qube]

Firefly

nods in agreement

"if we want to storm the caslte, I'll first need an HQ and information about the surroundings. Smokey, Prowl, I'm looking at you guys. I can also send Fir out to fly around if needed ... " he adds

[MrScary]

The old construct places his metal hand to his chin, stroking it as if he had a beard.

"Reminds me of the siege of Daern's Fortress." he says. Then he looks around, realizing that the fellow Grey's he is with weren't actually in the Grey's at that time, some fifteen years ago.

"Rook and I were fairly fresh recruits, and our commander was Old Tom. Smart, smart man..." he muses. "Pretty similar situation to what we face now. I recall Old Tom telling us that the one who first occupies the battlefield awaiting the enemy is at ease, the one who comes later and is off center. But, if you're smart about it, move the enemy, just don't get moved yourself. Get them to approach on their own, by showing them an advantage. If they’re holed up and well fed, starve ‘em. If they’re dug in, be able to move ‘em. Strike where they will rush to defend, and rush to places where they least expect.”

He casts his red 'eyes' up toward the keep.

"So what we need is a diversion...or two..."

[Toliudar]

Mercy

Mercy listened carefully. Sometimes she forgot how many dents must have been hammered out of War Machine's plates, how many times his metal arms had risen and fallen in battle.

Diversions? Well, easy enough for us to set up a few explosions, or a small invasion, on the other side of the keep, when the time is right. They'll have spotted us coming from the hilltop, which means that they've got to stay up and prepped through the night.

She slides back into her academy training so easily. What else might she slide back into, if she wasn't careful?

While we've still got the light, Smokey, how would you feel about an aerial recon? Nice and high. If Kitrick's a caster, don't want you getting tagged with nasties. Take my ring, if you like.

[GimliFett]

Prowl

The lizardman's tail swishes back and forth. "I'm good fer a recon. Need ta stretch out an'way, hm?"

Spoiler

Show

Sorry I've been AWOL. RLs been really busy. PLUS I've still not had a chance to redo my skills and gear! I know what a lot of it should be, but I'm drawing some blanks on others...

[The_Snark]

Miss Murder

"Ring's a good idea for scouting," Miss Murder remarks, staring upwards at the keep. Whoever built that knew what they were doing. It'll make a fine prize, once we get these wolves cleared out of it.

"Werewolves by moonlight might not be the best of plans, but I like the idea of trying to make that ascent in full daylight even less. There's twenty places I can see from here where they might hit us from above and pin us down." She scowls at the hill. "If we do end up going that way, we ought to start a couple hours before dawn, try to make it before it's light and they can see us."

"Once we're up there, I doubt there'll be much cover; not if the keep's builders did their work right. Smokey," she says thoughtfully, "maybe you can take your scouting trip as an opportunity to drop a few elementals on them. Keep them on their toes, wear them out a little and make it so they're not sure when we'll come. If we repeat it a couple times throughout the night—well, you won't get much sleep, but neither will they."

[wadledo]

Smokey

"What I had for a plan was actually sending three teams of two, each from a different compass point, with a horde of summons coming from the West, Prowl and Firefly coming from the South, Me and Mercy strafing the North, and Missy and Mach taking the East."
He blows a waft of smoke at each of the pairs, leaning back onto a nearby horse.
"Me and Firefly can set up the summons and send them into the fray, then Missy and Mach can do their thing, and Mercy, Prowl, Firefly and Me can then do some damage on their flanks."
Smokey then takes the offered ring and sets off, saying as his wing bursts splash dust over the others feet;
"Come up with something better before I get back, will ya?"

[qube]

Firefly

"I'dd rather think of a plan after I get recon info ...
Other then that, Smokey's Divide and conquer" he grins "is probably doable, but leave us - and with that I mean me - in a dangerous position ... no offence Prowl ."

[The_Snark]

Miss Murder

"Flanking maneuver against a position fortified on all sides sounds like a bad plan, unless one of you has a way to get us all to fly. Really, it all hinges on the keep's defenses, and how we get inside those—or convince them to come out." She shrugs. Now they played the waiting game, and maybe threw around idle ideas. Not how it would work in a normal squad, with one commanding officer, but this wasn't a normal squad; it was more like a very small army. Certainly a keep wouldn't normally be taken by anything less, even if it was undermanned.

That was why they were Greys. That was why they were still alive.

[Toliudar]

Mercy

Mercy nods.

I've got to say that the divide and conquer thing doesn't appeal to me either. Right now, the diversity of tactics we can use as a group is our strength - dividing our forces means that Kitrick can choose her battleground.

She starts to sketch out the hill as she can see it in the dirt, waiting for Smokey to return to fill in details.

Important to remember, also, that according to the kid back there, we nailed a significant portion of the clan already. Maybe half a dozen, dozen left. Maybe the most senior and dangerous, but still - not that many. Unless they also have the ability to create or call up additional forces, we aren't dealing with a group that can defend that entire keep.

She gazes up at what she can see of the walls.

Doesn't look like it's all that intact to begin with.

[Greyen]

As Smokey dissappears as he flies up over the top edge of the plateau.

@Smokey

Spoiler

Show

The plateau is largely an over grown clearing backed by forest and the mountainside, maybe 3 miles across. The South and east sides are cliffs, with the other Greys on the sounth foot at the base of the only access trail that you can see. The Northern, and easten sides are backed by a mile of denst pine forest and then mountains. Up to the edge of the fort/castle from the trees is overgrown scrub. The areas was obviously cleared some time in the past but has been left alone for many years.

The Fort, a large stone built structure is them most dominant thing there. Is is a basic circular wall with 7 towers, including the 2 gate houses, interspersed along its length. The wall is 30 feet tall and 10 feet wide at the base. There are several run down out buildings, forges/stables/etc., and the main keep. The main Keep is a squat rectangle 80x50 about 50ft tall. The whole keep is run down. Missing or fallen stones, rotten doors, etc. The area is littered with fresh bones of many species of animals There is no apparent activity in the keep or surrounding area.

You do notice that there are Roc's (3) in the mountains to the Northwest. You can see then circling off in the distance.

@ The rest of you
The day is clear and a light breeze comes from the east. The area is quiet, except for noraml sounds of animals and whatnot.

[MrScary]

"We probably shouldn't split our forces that much." War Machine says. "That may be spreading ourselves too thin."

He studies the keep. "There is the spot to most likely be least defended." he points his armored finger at the 'rear' of the keep, the spot facing out over the valley. "With the plateau dropping off, attackers would need to be flying, or hellishly fast climbers to effectively launch an offensive on that spot."
He looks toward the 'front', where the path they stood upon eventually led to. "This path leads to the entrance of the keep, it would be the most heavily defended."

"So, if we have some way of flying, or climbing quickly.....we could then send one or two of us, along with some magically summoned help to attack the front. It must be a fair show of force to catch their attention. Then, the rest of us can clamp down on them from behind."

He nods thoughtfully, seemingly in agreement with himself.

"That could work...if we had wings." his metallic mouth grins wide.

[Toliudar]

Mercy

Mercy speaks cautiously.

Well, I can fly for a little while.

As Smokey returns and makes his report, Mercy relaxes:

That puts a different slant on things. They're not defending the perimeter, and we're not sure where in the keep they might hole up. So it becomes less like a seige and more like a mutual hunt.

In that case, I REALLY don't want to split up, risk Katrick being able to deal with subgroups of us separately. In fact, it's probably better for us if she DOES try to ambush us outside, because even if she gets the drop, we're still on neutral ground after that. Whereas, if she's holed up somewhere inside...

Mercy is lost in thought.

[Greyen]

@Prowl

Spoiler

Show

See the above spoiler for Smokey...you can smell all kinds of wolf tracks up here, very few are less than a day old.

Whoops how'd I get a thumbs down!? Misclick on that sorry folks.

[The_Snark]

Miss Murder

"If they're still in the keep at all," Miss Murder comments. "Seems to me wolves like outdoors more than cramped stone corridors. Means we'll have to worry about ambushes more than taking the walls."

"And no splitting up until we're sure we've got them. Probably not even then, if Katrick's got a mage." They'd seen one illusion already the previous night. Waste of effort on Katrick's part, really; they'd already gotten what they needed out of the boy, and she had tipped her hand that she had magic on her side. A single illusion-aided ambush could've been devastating somewhere else, but they would be watching for it now.

"Don't suppose we can get up the cliff any other way," she comments. "Well, could always rely on Prowl and Smoky to let us know about an ambush." Prowl's a good scout and an aerial view helped a lot on a slope, but her voice still holds considerable reluctance. Walking into a possible ambush and hoping was never a good idea. In Katrick's place, she'd have set up places on that path where they could force intruders off the cliffs, maybe hit them from above with rocks; with access to illusions, she was sure she could pull off something deadlier.

[Toliudar]

Mercy

Nodding at Miss Murder's instincts in this, Mercy begain to look around their current location.

Prowl, this look like an okay campsite for now? If so, Firefly - you got the juice to do some kind of corral the way you did last night. That might have saved a couple of the horses all on its own.

[qube]

Firefly

"sure, no problem ..."
the little guy closes his eyes and concentrates as stoney walls start to rize from the ground, engulfing the horses ...

((OOC, 98 pp left ... psionic fabricate: a stable with a hidden weak spot in the wall (the normal wall is 5ft stone, at one location, it is only one inch twice - making sure it is sturdy enough, that it doesn't collapse on the horses - and having very small windows on the at the top (about 3 inches high) for the horses to breath ))

[Greyen]

Assuming you guys are camping? Setting up watches etc?

The mid day passes into evening. The arir is eerily still and quiet. There are no small animals about to make noise and the wind is still.

Evening passes uneventfully into night and on into morning.

[Toliudar]

Mercy

Spoiler

Show

Just remember: the longer that you guys let Mercy run things, the more she's going to think she's in charge.

Rising and taking care of her basic toiletries, Mercy has an unusual sense of foreboding about the day - like she had five nights before, when the battle had all gone so terribly, terribly wrong. Her meditation is brief, the bare minimum to refresh her energies.

She pauses for a few minutes to write an update in the Librarian's book - about the ambush, the illusion, Katrick, Smokey's description of the keep. And their plans for the day.

She touched the armband lightly, taking what comfort she could from it.

Same as usual, then? Smokey above, Prowl out front, rest of us spread out a bit on the horses. Smokey, you want my ring till we get to the keep? Won't do me much good while I'm riding a horse.

As camp breaks, she casts a single preparatory spell, and mounts up.

Spoiler

Show

Casting Longstrider.

[Greyen]

As you all begin to climb the side of the mountain ready for ambush and threat from above and all around, there is only the sound of your horses hoof beats climbing the side of the plateau.

Around noontime you all reach the summit unmolested to your right stands the walls of the fort. Clearly a soley military installation there are no decorative aspects about it. The wlls are beginning to sag in a few places and moss and ivy cover a large portion of the rest. The cleared field in front of the small castle is overgrown but still holds the size of a large parade and training field. The trees begin at the foot of the mountain several hundred yards away. Gnawed bones can bee seen rotting in the area around the walls and entrance through the gates. The grass is brown and dead close to the walls and in other patches, dog piss is poison to most grasses in large amounts. The whole place smells of wet dog, dog piss and dog feces. Furr has been rubbed off on the rough cut stone blocks along the lower portions of the wall.

The only movement is the sighting of a Roc in the far distance in the mountains.

@prowl

Spoiler

Show

No new smells beyond those of the group, for at least half a day. No one has been this way since the original attack on the party and the appearance of the lone sniper.

@Anyone with Detect Magic on

Spoiler

Show

The walls have residual magics, fading over time and lack of upkeep for hardness and resliience. These spells are fading most areas of the walls and completely gone in others. Beyond those minor protective magics this place shoes no signs of any magics.

@Anyone Flying

Spoiler

Show

There is no sign of life or movement in the main courtyard

Apparently the fort's occupants have fled, leaving it for the taking.

[Toliudar]

Mercy

Breathing only a small sigh of relief - because it meant that Katrick might still be out there, waiting for an opportunity to stalk them if they left - Mercy turned to the other. She began digging in her pack, and pulled out the book to share their current information with Librarian.

Well, we should search the fort for leftover traps and surprises - or for a lurking ambush. Same configuration, but closer? Standard counterclockwise sweep of the place?

[GimliFett]

Prowl

Wrinkling his snout in distaste, Prowl's tail swished back and forth constantly. He looks at Mercy. "Ain't no'won been heere in a half-day, at leassst. Not sssinsse we were attacked an' that kid wozs killt." The lizardman looks around a bit more, then nods and heads for the wall to start the sweep.

[The_Snark]

Miss Murder

Miss Murder considers getting them off the horses for the way up; they'd be a liability in an ambush, especially with magic involved. Several times, on narrower areas that place them right against a cliff back, she does have everyone get off the horses to cross, just in case. Even a good scout could be fooled with illusions.

She surveys the castle with a hard glare, not that this is terribly unusual. Castle itself isn't as impressive as its positioning. "Keep close from here on, Prowl," she says as she spurs her horse towards the wall. "Up front in an enclosed fight's no place for a scout." She puts no credence to the idea that Katrick would simply give up the fort, unless it were a ploy to lure them into position or take them off guard.