• Closed • Leading the Camp

[Nightshade Eld]

Vhalar 39th, 717

It was still early Vhalar by all definitions of the long-winded season, but the sun was already starting an early decline from its prestigious place in the sky. Nights were coming soon, days were lasting shorter, it wouldn't be long now before you couldn't see the sun at all beyond a thick layer of clouds. The woman who walked the forest caught in the dying light had trained herself not to hate the leaving of the sunlight. A spite of Fauldrum could teach a person such. But she had to admit, in these last couple moments of dusk the world was a beautiful place. Reds and oranges and even tints of blue and purple danced in the sky carelessly, dancing among the leaves of the trees and summoning the dark. Nightshade allowed herself a moment to indulge the beauty. After all, while the suns belong to Faldrun, their light belonged to Qylios. Warmth quietly danced against her skin, the light giving a unique luster to her ebony mane. And truly, at this point, it was starting to become a mane. It wouldn't be long before she needed to start binding it in a string to keep it out of her face during battle.

The woman was able to turn int for the night, much rather getting home before she could only rely on the light of the moon when a yell in the distance caught her ear. She couldn't really tell if it sounded distressed or not. Perhaps a distressed war cry? Such a thing wasn't outrageous by any means. But why now? In the middle of the woods? It would be easy to turn away from the sounds now. Just forget about them and pretend she'd never heard them. But her heart urged her mind forward. What if there were people who needed help? Needed to be protected? The half-breed quietly growled to herself Of course, of course, she couldn't do that. She wouldn't be Nightshade if she turned her back on someone who might need help. She wouldn't be allowed to say she was blessed by the immortals of honor and leadership respectively. The shield on her hand and the band around her arm almost seemed to burn, as though they were urging her on as well, but truly those had to be figments of her imagination. Right?

Quietly, cautiously, the woman took off into the woods. She walked only where she knew her feet would be able to make no noise. She was hesitant to fly across whatever was going on. Though she'd learned some tricks, her wings were not the most silent. She knew some birds which could fly with total silence, but they often did such using the shape of their wings or certain tricks in how they flapped. Though Night had observed these birds, she wasn't familiar with the tricks. It would be more silent if she approached on foot.

Following the noise, the sounds of distress and battle only seemed to grow louder and louder. Finally, peering around the trunk of the tree, she caught sight of the source. It seemed to be some kind of battle, obviously enough, but she couldn't really identify what the two sides fighting were. Judging by the camp itself and the state it was in, perhaps it was a group of bandits trying to take some travelers by storm? She couldn't be certain. Part of her wanted to jump in immediately and break up the fight. Once both sides were calmed she could get the story out of them! But another part of her said how stupid and life-risking that idea was. It wasn't often that she agreed with the part of her who told her to stay quiet and watch, but for this, she was tempted to view the battle for a moment before throwing herself in.

Of course, she was still careful and did her best to remain aware of everything going on around her.

[Pegasus]

Nightshade made her way forward slowly, carefully. She decided that the thing to do was to stop and watch, to learn, to discern what was going on. So she did that, she held back and she watched. Tactically, that made the most sense and so she held back and used the terrain and environment for cover.

So, she got to watch what was, effectively, slaughter.

Nightshade had good instincts, it did seem to be a group of bandits who were attacking a camp - the camp had been made by what was obviously a number of caravans travelling together. There were maybe a dozen bandits and what she saw in terms of their skill level, they were certainly not bad. The main issue, however, wasn't the skill level of the attackers, it was the fear level of the attacked. The members of the convoy were obviously not warriors, there were dead and dying laying around and those who were trying to fight off the bandits were doing so with little skill.

And a lot of fear.

So, although the convoy were far from outnumbered, there were too many bandits and too spread out for Nightshade to take them all herself without risking being seriously and significantly hurt. She could help them, most certainly, but Nightshade might well be of the opinion that the best thing that they could do at this moment was to get them to help themselves, too. Their reaction, their fear was giving the bandits a very real advantage.

And every bit, another person died. What would Nightshade do?

[Nightshade Eld]

She paused for a moment, trying to take stock of the situation. There were a lot of ways to handle this, but she needed to figure out which one would lead to the least death. Obviously at this point getting rid of the death aspect completely would be impossible. Fear was a good weapon if used properly as well as a good shield. These bandits obviously understood how to use the fear to their advantage, while the caravan knew little of using it to theirs. Fear could be a force of great strength as it could lead to caution or adrenaline. However, it could also leave someone completely stopped in their tracks unsure of which direction to go or what path to take. Night had found herself on both ends of the spectrum, though less so on the negative half with every passing season.

She caught sight of a lone man trying to fend off some of the bandits, he seemed to be protecting one of the caravans. Either he was a money grubber, or there were other people inside. Hopefully, it wasn't the money. It seemed as though most of the bandits were mostly occupied so she took her chance to glide downwards. The advantage of surprise allowed her to get the drop on one of them, descending at an alarming speed and quickly sinking her talon ended feet into his neck. She needed to be as quick as she could, lest everyone die. "You! Are you all that's left who are willing to fight?" She barked out at the man. He seemed to be shaking as the two other bandits took a moment to size up Nightshade. It was only a matter of time before her appearance started to attract more attention. How good or bad that might be had yet to be decided. A couple heads poke out of the caravan slightly but didn't dare leave it. This was going to be a problem.

She needed something to at least get some kind of a foothold. Ah! That was it! Pulling on her abilities as a shield bearer she triggered Inspire to active. "Either come out and be brave or get slaughtered like dogs," she barked quickly, hoping that the ability would have the desired effect. At the very least she hoped one of them would speak up and tell her about what had happened. She needed to a grasp on and control of the situation fast before it spiraled into what was essentially something uncontrollable. Worst come to worst she could always use Serpents Hood to try and draw some attention while the caravan tried to gather themselves and get back together. Leading by example and all, she was at a loss for ideas as to what else she could do.

[Pegasus]

Nightshade made her way down to where the slaughter was happening and she tried to pick out the most outlying bandit. As she attacked, she did so with her skill in flying and her unarmed combat skill making her a swift and deadly opponent. The bandit she dug her talons into fell, blood spraying. The man who she barked her question to barely even noticed as he turned and continued to fight the next attacker.

As she flew in she saw, as she had seen previously, there were about a dozen bandits, fourteen in fact before she killed one. They were spread out, they were organised, they were skilled. But there were maybe forty of the caravan members still fighting, probably slightly less than that. Whilst there had originally been fourteen bandits, the one her talons dug into being the first to die, easily twenty of the caravan members lay dead or, more detrimental to the morale of those Night was trying to save, screaming in the throes of death.

The bandits were well spaced out, with the caravan members interspersed among them - so any area effect attacks would not be effective. Thirteen remained, but even as Night landed among them, the caravan members' actions didn't change, even at the use of Night's ability, because all those who could fight, were, more did not come out. They were already fighting when terrified, so they were already acting when terror hit them. However, that was not to say that it had no effect, the lessening of fear was powerful for those around her, but it did not give her more allies as she had hoped.

So, the situation that Nightshade found herself in was in a large area, with thirteen bandits attacking a line of caravans. There were approximately forty (as a generous estimate) of the caravan members and the bandits were killing them. The caravan members were fighting, terrified and without skill ~ although those close to Night now were fighting with just no skill. Ironically, the bandits noticed her much more than the caravan members and a loud whooping whistle went up from one of the bandits, who gestured with his hands as he did. Five of the bandits peeled off from what they were doing and started moving towards her, two of them taking out bows as they moved.

Which meant that Nightshade had a choice. Try and rally the caravan members, try and get them motivated, or deal with the bandits who would, within very short time, be within range to fight.

Off Topic

Hi! Please don't control the NPCs - just Night's actions for this thread. Thanks!

[Nightshade Eld]

The situation was both tense and curious, a sinking sensation entering the pit of her being as she tried to adjust. She tried to try and make a guess at what was going to happen. As soon as they could the bandits with bows were likely to start shooting at her. If she had to she could take the hit as well as use her wings like shields. She could even make them into a target if she needed. There was only a thin strip of flesh making up the wings, most of it being just feathers. If she turned them into targets and the archers shot too low they wouldn’t hit anything, the arrows easily going through the feathers. The question then came down to if she wanted to risk it and how much damage could her wings take without leaving her earthbound.

She quickly came to a decision, deciding the actions were ultimately worth whatever risk was associated with them. “Two or more people attack ever bandit, no one fight alone,” she shouted at the people standing closest to her. She picked up a large rock at her feet, improvising the weapon and chucking it at one of the archers. Her goal was to get close enough to distract him and throw his concentration. If she managed to hit the man, then it would be a lucky side effect. “Pair up! Pair up!” She shouted louder at the top of her lungs, her voice taking on an air of command. She struggled to come with ideas on how to get them to listen.

The half-breed for all her courage was rather inexperienced with the act of leading. So, she floundered for a moment as she tried to decide on a course of action. Right now, the issue was getting people to listen to her. She looked for anything metallic she could slam against something else metallic, a large pot she could smash, honestly anything that would make a lot of noise. If she could get the message to travel far enough, then maybe it would travel the rest of the way on the breath of those who managed to hear it. And so, she shouted with all of her might, all the breath and strength she could possibly force out of her lungs, enough to leave her feeling tired and slightly winded for but a trill.

If they managed to listen to her, then hopefully they would start attacking the men before they got within striking distance of her. Sure, she could take on a group of two or three bandits. Most smaller gangs tended to have exploitable weaknesses like a lack of proper armor or maybe a lack of proper training. These men though, they were more advanced than most who randomly patrolled the wilderness. Her mind graced a couple dark thoughts about who they might have been working for. Or with. But she quickly forced the thought away. She didn’t want to acknowledge that yet. Instead, she brought her focus completely back to the battle at hand.

Her eyes darted around wildly, almost desperate to find a clear answer within the mess. “Attack in groups,” she shouted again. She kept her voice strong and unshaken. There were, at the very least, two people from the caravan for every bandit. It would be harder to fend off two people at once, meaning that the bandits would have to become a bit more defensive, giving the woman time to think as well as act. Her own pulse was racing through her veins, but she knew to keep a level head. If nothing else, she knew a leader with an unlevel head and a flaming heart was prone to crash and burn. Logic, she needed to think about logic and tactics for a trill. Something else she wasn’t very good at.

She wanted to curse her own name. She scanned the immediate area around her trying to see where the largest threat was and hopefully help to deal with it.

OOC: Sincerest apology, force of habit.