Veldin

Keeth had been running around screaming for the duration of the very short fight his bandits had put up, but having your head catch fire from a talking magic squirrel is a hard thing to take calmly. When the flames were put out and his ultimatum given, Keeth looked at the group with fear in his eyes, unsure of what exactly they were. What were a group of warriors doing way out here that weren't Perenian? After a moments hesitation, Keeth took off running into the plains, wanting to put as much distance between himself and the band of warriors as possible.

After he was sure he was out of their line of sight, he changed direction towards the camp the Perenians had built recently... They often paid for good information, and Keeth at least wanted to get something out of the humiliation he had just suffered...

-=-

Rayl grinned as the other scouts fell, glad that they had completed their task without spilling blood on the uniforms. Many a spy had been killed because they failed to realize that Perenian soldiers could identify blood spill patterns to deterimine if they blood had been sprayed onto the armor from a foe, or if it was the result of injury from the man wearing the armor. Rayl helped Riley undress the men before stopping, listening in silence in case reinforcements approached, but the only noise he heard came from the plans themselves.

"Good job. Now we just have to meet up with the others and we can get this over with" Rayl said as he began walking in the direction of the caves. the walk would take a few hours, putting their arrival around the time of sunset, which would be perfect for their mission. The less light out, the harder for the Perenians to identify the "scouts" they were sending in. Though something about all this had been bothering Rayl for a while.

"Who do you suppose is pulling all the strings here? Oron said he was just a messenger... I don't like it when politicians get involved in wars... makes things messy" Rayl asked Aiyana and Riley, walking with them this time instead of infront of them, his attempt at being friendlier.

Bor scratched his neck in confusion.
"What should we do with tis' fella?" he asked, pointing at the bandit he hit in the head with his axe.
The man lay totaly still, but frequent breaths told them, that he was still alive... partially at least.
Bor slipped his axe unto his back again, and walked over to the man whom he'd shot.
The bolt wasn't broken. Which was both bad and good.
Good because he didn't have to make a new one then.
Bad, because his enemies would be able to take it out a lot easier than if it was broken in two.

He picked it out, and thudded the dead bandit with his foot.
"Should we loot 'em corpses? Or is that bellow yer standards?"
Bor asked, and turned towards the group.

Ariana shuddered at the dead body, grimacing as Bor retrieved his bolt. What to do with the one that was still breathing? She didn't want to end his life, but would it be any better to leave him here? "Do what you want with them." She muttered, skirting around the bodies and to one of the caves. It was cool, damp and spacious. And dark. She could vaguely make out shapes in the back of the cave, approaching them, she realized it was the bandits' supplies. Feeling around, she found some sort of cloth. Exiting the cave, she wrapped the cloth around a stick. "Would you mind lighting this, Twick?"

Aiyana smiled at how easily they'd gotten the uniforms; but for some reason she expected it to be a bit more difficult, because of how Oron worded it. She blinked, and looked at Rayl and shrugged at his question. "I agree, but I'm not sure who could be running all we're doing. Even though Oron said he was messenger; I wouldn't be surprised if it were actually him. He could just be hiding it for safety purposes. If anyone found out exactly who, everything could be ruined, I suppose." she said, mostly thinking alloud than anything else. She had no idea who it could be.

"Would you mind lighting this, Twick?"
Looking up from the various bits of carnage surrounding the group, Twick scurried past the bodies and made his way over to the weather manipulator.

"Of course, Miss Ember." Closing his eyes a small flame appears at the tip of the end of the makeshift torch where it catches begins to burn brightly. As he opens his eyes he feels a rumble in his stomach, using that much magic so quickly left him quite hungry. Unfortunately due to his new squirrel stomach he could really only eat peanuts etc which meant he had to scavenge for now.

"If you'll excuse me for a moment, I smell some nearby acorns." With that the small mage heads into the forest for a moment to find some food.

Bor looked at the unconscious man.
He couldn't kill him, he wasn't a murderor, but he couldn't take him with them.
Bor drew forth his map of the region. "Hmmm".
Then he picked up the unconscious man. "Don't worry, there be a fine little road fer ya to sleep at." Bor mumbled, while trotting off with the bandit on his back.
At some point he had to put down the bandit, so that he could rest.
He then noticed that he'd forgotten to remove his weapons.
He quickly gathered up the daggers and random qeapons the bandit was carrying.
But he let the mans purse be, if the man was to at least try to start a normal life, he'd need the money more than Bor.

As he reached the road, a pair of miles down... and on the other side of a stream... Bor put him down.
He could lay here, his life wasn't Bor's responsibility anymore. Bor then turned around, and walked down towards the stream again.
It was going to be a lot faster home, because he didn't have the bandit to carry, but the stream would still be hard to surpass, mostly because of his height.
Luckily none of the others in the group was there to see him...

Ember thanked Twick, and gave him a nod as he scurried off to nearby trees. "Let's see what these bandits have been hiding back here." She murmured to herself, walking back into the cave. The torch's light bounced off the dark walls, momentarily scaring off the dark. Retracing her steps to the back, she moved the torch over all the items. There were several boxes full of varying items, most likely stolen. There was a cache of food, blankets and some canteens of water. "Well, well, well. Looks like we hit the jackpot."

Exiting the cave, she didn't see Bor or Twick. Shrugging, she went back in to sort through the items.

Bor was using a lot of words. Nice words? no.
He was swearing, as if the gods had given him the task to do so.
He was actually quite colorful in his language.
Of course his swearing had a reason.
He'd stepped on a slippery stone at the stream, and had fallen. Now his clothing was wetter than the ocean.
He grumpily walked over the field, towards where the caves where.
Luckily he'd gotten himself up quickly enough as not to get his equipment wet. But it was still quite a bad luck to fall into the water.

Ember was sifting through all the supplies, making piles of food, blankets, as well as going through all the stolen goods. She heard some cursing outside and saw a wet Bor approaching the cave. She couldn't help it - she laughed. She quickly stifled it though and walked up to him. "Inside there"-she used her thumb to indicate the main cave-"is all the bandits' supplies and looted goods." Seeing the water still dripping down his face, she added "I can try and dry you off, with the wind."

((Fast forwarding to when the groups again convene... it has been roughly two hours since what you last posted occured...))

Rayl, Riley and Aiyana arrived back at the caves as darkness began to fall, uniforms in hand and pretty confused about the bandits lying about outside. Rayl merely shrugged and ventured into the caves to find the group sitting around a fire, awaiting their arrival so the next part of the mission could begin. Rayl sat down and held down his hand for Twick to scurry onto, if he hadn't already taken too much of a liking to Ember to be bothered.

"Sorry about the bandits guys. The last time I was here, I was with the Empire" He said solemnly, looking off to the side so as not to look any of the others in the face. He pulled out the map Oron had left them and set it down on the cave floor, sitting rocks on the corners to prevent it from moving, and studied the layout of the camp for a moment, trying to visualize it in his mind again. It had been several years since he left the Empire, and his memories had gotten fuzzy in his absence, though some things had been rammed into his mind too hard to forget... though camp layouts wasn't one of them.

"Alright... The map is divided into four sections. The Generals and the top brass camp in the center" He said pointing to a circle in the middle of the map. It looked pretty small compared to the other sections. "And the rest of the camp is divided into Soldiers, Stratagists, and Servants. Servants, being the smiths and weapon carriers and the like" He said, pointing to the three triangular shapes spread out around the generals, making a sort of fan surrounded by a giant circle, which was the makeshift wall they had to get past to get in...

"The stratagists are here" He said, pointing to the fan between the soldiers and servants, "And the supplies are with the servants, who aren't guarded at all. That's where we need a distraction, to get the attention of the rest of the camp and draw them away from the Stratagists" He said, looking up at the others.

"Oron's fire plan sounds a little weak... So Twick may need some help getting everyone's attention. Riley, you said earlier you could do that, right?" Rayl said, looking over at Riley. The Dwarf nodded and smirked, believing none to have paid him any mind when he made the suggestion. "Alright, so that leaves the actual infiltration. Any ideas on how to do that? I'm not exactly a scout or a thief..." Rayl said with a nervous laugh, looking up at the others, hoping for some ideas.

Aiyana listened quietly, still. When the question was asked on how to move attention away from everything. The plan was to make a fire away from the camp, right? that could be a bit off. But what if they actually set fire to something within the camp? Besides the food stores; something a bit away from the strategists. If something they needed were set fire; they'd care a bit more than a random fire in the middle of nowhere. She wasn't sure if Rayl wanted to move away from the idea of fire completely, but she honestly couldn't think of much else the cause a distraction there; besides using one of their group as a distraction.. but she supposed that a bit risky.

She looked up at Rayl. "Instead of just constructing a fire near their camp, how about we actually set something of theirs on fire? Farthest from the strategest as possible. Would we be able to do that?" she asked. She wasn't ready to just say what she thought and expect to be agreed with; she wasn't even sure if it would work. She didn't know how heavily guarded it would be, whether it be more or less than it seems to her.

Bor nodded, so Ember sent several gusts of winds swirling around him. By the time she was finished, only his clothes were a bit damp. He muttered a thank you, so she left him to return to the cave. She spent the rest of the time sorting through all the items they had stumbled on. In the end, she had three canteens of water, a small pile of varying foods, as well as looted items. This included trinkets, money, cloths, jewelry…etc

After a while, she heard people approach the camp. She jogged to the mouth of the cave, peering out. With a sigh of relief, she realized it was the others. When they settled down, Rayl spread out a map and explained the Perenian camp.

Ember didn’t know exactly what to do – she didn’t have any experience with infiltrating enemy camps. However, listening to what Aiyana had to say, she spoke up. “Yes, we could set fire to some building or something, that’s far away from the strategists. Then I could use wind to feed the flames, so they don’t put it out. The bigger it is the more people will be drawn to it.”

Bor's fingers had itched like crazy when he saw the loot.
It was nice to be dryer than before, but he wwas still damp, and took one of the blankets, making sure that it wasn't too filthy.
As the blanket warmed him a little, he looked through the more valuable loot.
None of it was extra ordinaire, but a golden snake armband caught his eye.
What a beautiful little thing. He picked it up, and looked at it for a little.
"With a pair of emerald eyes this could be sold at a high price." He muttered, the merchant in him surfacing.

As the other group came, he put it back in the bunch of loot, and went to greet them, and joined with them as they laid plans.
"Well, me'd surely be glad to go in and take out a pair o' those strategists. And draucians aren't uncommon as perenian companions.
There is a relationship between Draucia and Perenia. I mean with all the trade.
And surely my crossbow skills can come in handy." He said. Looking at the old crappy map they had displayed.
He looked up at the others.

"Unless any of you are wild after walking into the lions den..."

Aiyana liked Ember's idea; making the flames hard to put out would make more people come along to help. Aiyana was a bit afraid her plan may not work because it being far from the strategists could mean people closer to them may not find it necissary to help. But feeding the flames may get them called over.

But she wasn't sure about how well the eprenian soldiers knew eachother. She could understand dressing as them to not draw suspicion while they sneak around; but Bor being close to them, whether the Dracians were close to them or not, would they realize they'd never seen him before? She wasn't sure if she should mention that outloud, Rayl may know whether that would be alright or not. Speaking of him, he was being rather silent. She looked in his direction.

By the time the scouting party had returned, Twick was happily stuffed and getting quite sleepy. It was quite difficult for the mage, in order for his magic to work efficiently his mind had to be focused and clear. It did not help that his new body became tired after using powers. In order to make sure that he was completely ready for the assault tonight he had to sleep. As the others go over the plan, Twick grabs his trusty bag from Rayl and sleeps next to his friend, resting on the man's grey cape. Something Rayl had gotten quite used to when traveling with the odd mage.