[RPG] The Wings of Hall

[Shion]

The archer stood in a ready stance, bow lowered as she gazed at the target, eyes a neutral shade of blue-grey. She raised her hand to the quiver on her back, selecting an arrow and nocking it to the string, raising the bow. Back muscles rippled beneath the gear harness as she drew back the string, calmly adjusting for the breeze and resulting hair in her eyes. In battle, the enemy does not wait for your vision to clear, she thought. He will take advantage of your blindness and attack. Fiona Geileis am Brina did not need to see the target with her eyes. Instinct honed from constant practice took over, enabling her to make the tiny adjustments necessary. She knew its location, visualizing it in her mind, her imaginary arrow striking true. A small smile spread on her lips as she released the arrow. That smile widened as she found her arrow had indeed impaled the heart of the target, neatly clustered among several others.

Returning to camp, she frowned at several soldiers ogling her naked body, voicing catcalls and whistling at her. The barbarians in their metal armor were idiots obsessed with sex. She longed to strike them down for their impertinence, but prior incidents had taught her not to cause permanent injury unless they actually tried anything. It still grated on her nerves, and she practically vibrated with rage as she stood by her countryman. "Tell me I get to shoot some of these barbarians in the face."

[Soulbourne]

Aidan followed quietly, listening to the camp and those around him.  His eyes carried around, alert to all the foriegners as his body swayed with each step.  Battle would be soon, he could smell the anticipation in the air.  He smirked as Fiona came up, chuckling coarsely.  "Soon yes, we'll hopefully have some fun quite soon.  Please, aim for the enemy lines though.  I'm sure they'll be easy targets given the fact none of these barbarians have ever seen a womens body before."

He kneeled down and picked up two packs, switching his spear to his shield hand and throwing the two over his other shoulder.  "I can take his.  I need a bit of extra weight to carry around anyways."  He grunted, standing as one side held a large heavy shield over a meter in diameter and thick wood, plus a spear, his other weighted by two unevenly held packs he positioned to stay on but to push his endurance a bit more.

[Septe]

Harold looked disappointed that he couldn't take two packs but the look faded just as quickly.  He picked up his pack and adjusted it for proper fit.  He turned to the castle and examined it.  His expert eye spots a possible weakness but he won't know for sure until he got closer.  Listening to Darwin, he winced at the idea as he knew that the exposure would jeopardized the mission.  He considered a few options and puts forth some of his own, "Nicolaos, I don't know about Darwin's idea.  Normally, it'd be a good chance, however, they're going to be looking for intruders from the air.  I did see a possible weakness from here, however, I won't know until I get closer.  I'd also would like to circle the castle for better ways to get in.  My proposal is this:  I will dig under the weakly defended walls with two other people, Jimmy and someone who can sense magic.  I will have to dig slower than I normally do because of the need for silence.  I estimate that it'll take me a day of digging to get us into place."

He turned his head to the side and hawked and spat.  He turned back and said, "Another option is for me to set some explosives and bring a wall down.  That will also get us the opening we need."  He grinned with a little bit of pleasure.

[Listomar]

Ishman followed silently, not giving much thought to plans. Soldiers executed the plans, they didn't plan them. With such a small force they would have to enter the fortress unseen and capture one of the gates, like Nicolaos was just explaining, to let the forces of Commander Haakon inside. But that was the last step in a plan not yet thought up.

But surely any plan would be better than Cathair's. Such an act would just enrage the people in the fortress, and forever taint the Duke Solius's reputation. People might bend the knee but they would never serve him faithfully.

But all these were matters of unimportance to Ishman. He did not care which side of the war he was on. He just wanted to be challenged. And this seemed like a perfect challenge.

Ishman picked up his back and slung it lazily on his back, in a loose fit. It wouldn't fall, but it could be shaken off easily if needed. He didn't want anything restraining his movements in the battle.

[SootShade]

Acan took his own pack, and while listening silently to the ideas others were proposing he settled it on his back. None of them lacked in problems, to be sure, but he couldn't figure out anything amazing himself, considering what they were aiming to do, so he decided to stick to criticizing everything what had yet been suggested.
  "We have quite a bit of ground to cover in order to find the backdoor for a castle of that size. Darwin might be able to cover ground a lot quicker than the rest of us, but I have doubts it'll be really noticeable from air either. If it's indeed covered by an illusion or any other kind of magic, I might be able to break the spell, but I doubt such an amount of power would be used to that kind of magic that I could trace it from very far away."
  Acan gazed quickly along the walls of the fortress before he continued:
  "I also think it'll be quite a lot of work to find an unwatched and reachable corner to dig on, or even place explosives at around there, Harold. If we can actually reach close enough to the wall to start such an operation, I'll leave it to you though, friend", he continued with a slight smile, "So unless Nex has an idea on where to look, or maybe better means on tracing magic than I do, I actually have some doubts about this", he finished and shrugged.
  The man had decided he wouldn't really mind if they'd have to leave this job for someone else. He was never truly negative on his chances in anything, but he wasn't quite eager either this time either.

[tigershark13]

Cathair caught his pack and eyed it, general rations, and not even any whiskey or other spirits, a shame. He strapped the pack to his belt and listened to the plans, one in particular caused him to roll his eyes and sigh in exasperation, Darwin's mention of flight "Oh aye, great idea, the demon bird takes us right inta the range of their bloody bows, we won't all die at all."  he glared slightly at Darwin and shifted his weight on his feet, pulling out a hipflask and taking a long sip, listening to the others speak of backdoors and blowing walls up. "The backway'll be well protected, an' if they see us they'll just seal it off..." Cathair looked at the castle and shook his head "What kinda bloody Lord doesnae have a spy in a castle like this ta throw the gates open for 'im."

He stared into the distance for a few moments eyeing the walls, judging the chances of climbing them or digging under before finally shrugging "But I reckon it's the best bet, we'd never climb those walls without gettin' seen, and diggin' under we'd probably get discovered as well." he shot Nex a slight look and smirked a little "Unless 'is lordship over there is startin' ta loose 'is skills in 'is old age and canae find the entrance."

[InfinityStream]

Setsuna (My plan involves how I saw the fortress in the pic.)

Setsuna couldn't believe the ideas he was hearing. Fly in? Dig under? The group might as well knock on the front door and hope someone lets them in. No, he had a better idea, and it'd take the cover of night.

"Swim."

A few people had heard this and looked at him, bringing their brows up.

"This fort is surrounded by a moat."

"Aye, but what good would that do?" Cathair asked him, the venom in his voice obvious.

"It's clean water."

"Aye, but what good would that do?!" Cathair asked again.

"That fortress needs to get water somewhere. That moat around it is a flowing river. Meaning that we should be able to get in through a pipe of some sort. At least, a few people should be able to get in."

Cathair, and the others, seemed to be in thought, thinking of the propsed plan. It was better than flying in and better than digging under.

And it'd shorted the three day's to one.

Setsuna incredulously waited for a response.

[TheThing]

Nex looked disgruntled by Nicolaos question... Well, if you could see his face anyway. But it was not only the question, but the ideas they came up with. Seems like his plan to stay out of this one might fail, not that he was too unhappy with that. A challenge such as this don't come every day. Who knows, maybe the item he is looking for might be there on the inside.

His thoughts were interrupted when Harold piped up with a suggestion: "Another option is for me to set some explosives and bring a wall down. That will also get us the opening we need." Nex couldn't help but just smile. "I'm afraid that won't work Harold. The walls are reinforced with magic and we don't have the hard explosives we need to break it."

Nex didn't follow what the rest of the group said after that. He didn't care so much to pipe up a correction or ideas and therefore didn't bother to listen in. He was also figuring out what kind of explosives could make a hole on a wall that was reinforced with magic. It wasn't until Acan commented on Nex lack of abilities, that he finally tuned in again.

Acan: "So unless Nex has an idea on where to look, or maybe better means on tracing magic than I do, I actually have some doubts about this"

Nex: "..."

Nex ignored Acan's comment. There is no way they will manage to trick Nex into doing anything. Nex tried not to listen on the rest of the conversation. This did not work well when it came to Cathair.

Cathair: "Unless 'is lordship over there is startin' ta loose 'is skills in 'is old age and canae find the entrance."

Nex: "..."

Lissa: "If only we had a real mage that could detect magic and not an old man that needed to be protected by a group of warriors"

Ok, that was it. Nex had had enough. He knew they were taunting him but it was too late. Nex was already pissed off enough to finally answer back.

"Oh yeah sure. I'm too old and I'm losing skills compared to you young folks here, right? How unfortunate indeed. As you say, I'm too old. You wouldn't wanna follow me, an old man now would you? Well I'm just going this way and into the back entrance if you don't mind," Nex said in a very sarcastic tone and started heading away from the castle. He didn't even look back to see if the group was following him.

((When at the entrance, Nex said: "It's not like I'm here to show you the entrance or anything like that, baka"))

[Zerpo]

Jimmy walked over to the tent and picked up his backpack. Jimmy carefully slung on his backpack while listening to the plans of the rest of the group.  "Hmm thats two decent plans" Jimmy thought to himself. After a few seconds of deliberation he came to a decision. "Well as much as i don't want to, I'm going to have to side with Nex" Jimmy said. "The swimming plan has its benefits however my katana's will get dirty in the water"

"But that's just my opinion on all of this" he said as he flung himself back down onto the ground. "Better to be comfortable while plans are being made" he thought to himself. While he was waiting to see what the group would decide on his gaze wandered around the group. He saw Cathair looking a bit angry, then again to Jimmy Cathair always looks angry, ans caught the big mans eye. Jimmy gave him a huge smile and said "Déan iarracht gan dul go dtí an am seo thar bord"

[Hollow nyan-chan]

Lissa followed the group to the tent where she saw some packing's. While taking up her backpack, she listened to the plans the group was forging. She caught the plan that Setsuna suggested was that they would swim. One of the things the group didn't know about her, or so she thought, was that dragons dislikes to swim so that their whole body comes into contact with water.

That's why she sided with the others that was tricking and taunting Nex. She said "If only we had a real mage that could detect magic and not an old man that needed to be protected by a group of warriors". After she had said that, she swung her sword and stuck it into the ground to get something to lean against. She watched the castle while she awaited for the order to move out and get into the castle.

[InfinityStream]

Maria

Maria had heard two good plans. Swimming and tricking Nex into showing them the entrance. She sided with tricking Nex, knowing that Setsuna's idea had a small chance at failure.

She picked up her own pack and slung it over her shoulder. She made sure it was tight on her back. She checked over the other three girls in the group; all were doing fine.

She said nothing and followed the group as they continued their attempts to trick Nex into doing as they pleased. It was easier then it seemed.

He was an old man after all.

[SpringHalo]

Estia

Slinging the pack onto her shoulder, Estia listened in on the few conversations taking place. She thought the other ideas were interesting, but impractical. Darwin would just get himself shot out of the air, and as Nex pointed out the wall couldn't be blown down with explosives. It was easier just to let Nex find the back door himself. Soon enough, he was persuaded into doing just that.

[Krozam]

Nicolaos listened to each plan with an attentive look. He was the leader, but that didn't mean he was always the one to come up with the best plan. Far from it.
   "No, Darwin, that wouldn't work." He shook his head at the avian's plan. "You may have a bird's wings, but you don't have a bird's eyes. Flying high enough to avoid attention, you couldn't see anything useful to us. Besides, the passage is most likely hidden with an illusion or a shadow spell."
   At Harold's suggestion he smiled, so faintly that you'd have to pay attention to notice it. "I applaud your enthusiasm, Harold, but it's a long way to dig. We only have three days. Why dig a tunnel when there's one in existence already? We just have to find it." As for the explosives... he simply ignored the silly suggestion.
   He nodded to Setsuna, after hearing his plan. "Good thinking. That's a viable plan. However, I don't fancy getting wet, so yours shall be our plan B. I want to try the back door first."
   Finally Nex put a stop to the discussion. With that faint smile on his lips again - though only for a moment - Nicolaos motioned the band to follow and turned to hurry after the old mage. With only a few long strides he caught up and then held up to walk beside Nex.
   "If you can get us to the general area where the entrance is located, that'll be enough. When we're close enough, Acan can trace the spell that no doubt hides it. I know using magic causes you pain, so I'd rather you don't exert yourself doing something someone else could do. You are my reserve, my ace in the sleeve, and I need you ready for whatever we face inside the fortress." For no apparent reason, he spoke quietly, privately: not exactly whispering, but so quiet that only those who walked right behind them could hear it.

[Irie Naoki]

Despite disliking the idea alot, Darwin had no other choice but to follow the group. It was in his blood to hate going underground. Being free in the air, the feeling of walking underground felt like being imprisoned.

However Darwin had to pull through, and with reluctance, Darwin went with the group silently and stayed in the far back.

[Shion]

Following silently, Fiona's brow furrowed at the idea of sneaking through some cave. Swimming the moat sounded like a much better plan to her, but then, as a sailor, she was more comfortable in the water than beneath the earth. "I think I'd rather take my chances with the winged one," she muttered to no one in particular.