Client: Captain of the Meadowrod, Defenders of Fornilingoth
Reward: 3,000 Gold / participant
Difficulty: 3
Manpower: 2
Task: Hoards of Orcs like those that are typically found in Avalon are making their way through the forest. Their armor is thick and their numbers are many. The Rangers are too busy defending the Capital, Fornilingoth, from attack to actually head out and assault the Orcs directly. 10 Rangers, along with 2 leaders, have been assigned to scout the forest and find an Orc camp that's said to be along the beach on the Southern borders of the continent. Slaughter the Orcs that are there and wait in the trees until a small reconnaisance party of Orcs comes by, kill them, too. Then return to Fornilingoth to report in. Casualties are expected, but it's a risk that must be taken.

Lymira rested her chin in her hands, and her elbows on the table. "Really, Captain, I appreciate this, but--"

The Captain sighed. "Don't say it. I know you think you're busy, this is important!" In fact, he did look rather desperate, and weary as well, an impression that was heightened by his graying hair. "Someone's got to get the Orc leader before he captures a town, or who-knows-what...and my men have to defend Fornilingoth. You know that."

Yeah, you've already told me three times, Lymira thought. But she kept that to herself. "Oh, I don't doubt that it's very important. But why me? You have, what, ten Rangers lined up already? Why can't one of them lead?"

"Haven't we been through this? They're good men, very convenient to have with you in a tough spot. But none of them are much at thinking for themselves. Beyond that, they're all obsessed with honor. If I appoint any two of them above the others eight, those who weren't appointed will take it as an insult and probably stop working for me altogether."

Lymira raised an eyebrow. "And they won't take your appointing a woman to the command as an insult?"

"They're not competing with you. They are competing with each other." The captain sighed again. "I'm paying you for this...."

"Not very much, by my standards," she said, but smiled. Since she'd walked in the door, she'd known, more or less, that she'd take the job. She usually did. She'd become something of a mercenary, taking all sorts of jobs and always hoping to run into Lars in the meanwhile. But the Captain had been a rare employer; he'd actually become something of a friend. "All right, all right, Captain. But don't you need two leaders?"

------------------------------------------------------


Please note that you're an Elven Beast Tamer. You started in the Outer Rim - a string of islands West of Avalon. Hybernia is a continent North of Avalon. You cannot just 'warp' from one realm to another. You must take the ferryboats first, which will cost money. So this post, and character, is not to be accounted for in this quest if someone else happens to join it. If, for some reason, the next user to post recognizes this character illegally, they will have a drop in their reward.

~Derhlith

Kyo stepped off of the small ferry that had carried him from Avalon to Hybernia. The wind had a chilly bite as he pulled his cloth mask up around his mouth. The Lancer had come here on pure business, a job that requested an adventurer of his merit. Apparently, the Orcs had moved out of the Avalon continent, and into the tranquil forests of Hybernia. He had done his fair share of Orc hunting and killing in his trip to Mineth Burg, that had happened only a few weeks ago. He had confidence in his ability to size up and act accordingly to Orc tactics. As he traveled down a small path that would lead him to his clients office, the great city of Fornilingoth, capital of the elvish population in this area.

As he traveled down the well beaten path, he leaned his face down towards the ground, to counter the blowing wind. It was by mistake that he spotted fresh prints, those that resembled the giant feet of Orcs in comparison with the slimmed Elves. They were fresh indeed, the mud beneath them was still squishy and unhardened by the cold weather. As if on cue, Kyo heard the sound of a snapping branch coming from his left. His sight was blocked by countless trees, but he saw a large shadow appearing between tree-trunks as the creature tried to get closer to the Lancer. Kyo decided to take the upper hand, Jumping to a low branch on the opposite side of the path. From his vantage point, he spotted the ugly Orc. Its greenish skin was hidden by leather padded armor and a long, black traveling cloak. The creature spun its head back and forth as it tried to find Kyo again. It held a broadsword and a medium sized, wooden, round shield. Deciding to take the beast on in honorable combat, Kyo let out a short, high-pitched whistle. The Orc looked directly at the Lancer as he dropped back down to the dirt trail. The Orc rushed at Kyo, its shield outstretched towards his adversary and its sword held high in a purely offensive position.
"Always the same, offensive moves before even thinking about defense." Kyo thought to himself, smiling as he retracted his Wooden Polearm from the holdings on his back. The distance between the combatants closed quickly, the Orc striking first with a sweeping diagnoal slash. Kyo brought his polearm up at the opposite angle, blocking the attack. Countering, Kyo threw the blunt end of his polearm across towards the chest of the Orc. Sensing the attack, the Orc brought his shield up in defense, the wooden shaft simply bounced off with little effect. The Orc pushed the move by dashing out with his shield. The strength of the Orc pushed Kyo back against a trunk of a tree. The Orc brought his broadsword across at Kyo's neck. The Lancer slid down, pushing the knees of the creature with the shaft of his polearm. The Orc stumbled backwards as he regrouped himself from the desperation move of Kyo. Pressing his slight advantage, Kyo brought his polearm out, thrusting at the Orc. The steel edge tore into the lightly defended torso of the Orc. Planting the shaft of the polearm in the dirt, Kyo used it as leverage and kicked hard at the Orc. The Orc reeled backwards under the onslaught. Kyo finished off the beast with a sweeping arc attack from his polearm to the stomach of the Orc. Blood and intestines spilled out of the wound as the Orc fell died to the ground. Wiping off his steel on the cloth of the dead Orc, Kyo continued on.

Finally reaching Fornilingoth, Kyo met up with the Captain of the Guard. The Elf explained to Kyo the situation, telling him that this mission would require a slaughtering of an Orc camp and an ambush of an Orc recon party. Kyo agreed to the terms, noticing that there were 10 Rangers waiting under his command. The mission called for two leaders, in case one fell in battle. Kyo decided to wait for a second participant.

OOC: Ah....I paid the ferry thing, now do I need to re-post?? :huh:

------------------------------

((Nope, you're cool. Just continue as normal. ^_^))

~Derhlith

Kyo was facing a tall window overlooking the great forest. He could see small smoke risings, his objective. By simply estimation, Kyo renderded that the Orc encampment was about a day's march away through the thick. "Perhaps the knowledge of the Rangers will quicken our pace through the forest." Kyo thought to himself, watching the small grey smoke whisps reach the azure sky of the new day. Kyo had no actual knowledge of the Orc's strenght there, nobody did. He guessed with a fire that big, to be able to see from the coast, that a couple scores of more Orcs dwelled by the sea. Thoughts filled his head about an attack plan. It will obviously be at night, in the Ranger's prime element. Most of the Orcs would then sleep, but leave a few sentries to rouse them if the peace was disturbed. The utter stealth of the Rangers wouldn't permit that to happen. It seemed pretty simple.

A slamming door knocked Kyo out of his thoughts. He heard the voices of two people, the captain and a female. Turning around, Kyo saw a female Elf, black hair and dark brown eyes. She wore jade cloak around black clothing and had a Hunter's bow strapped to her back. Kyo had never worked with an Elf before, let alone one of the female gender. So he was the only Human in the whole party, thoughts of frustration entered his mind. Hopefully his proficiency in a weapon favored by some elves would help him here.
"This is your other captain on this mission, his name is....." The captain started, being cut short by Kyo's hand.
"Kyo Lionheart, I hail from Rionoliathnu." Kyo said with a low bow out of respect for his fellow leader.
"Well, there is no point in waiting around here, let us be off." Kyo said, starting a slow walk towards the door.
The Rangers were waiting for him outside of the castle walls, all clad in black cloaks and clothing, strong weapons strung at their belts and their backs. They each bowed as they introduced themselves, then Kyo did the same when it was his turn for introduction. Hopefully, this bond of respect would last for the duration of the mission. Kyo and the Rangers walked out of the city boundary, hopefully the other leader was with them.

Lymira was glad to be back out of the city; those places always made her nervous. She took deep breaths of forest air and reveled at the brush of leaves against her skin. For just a moment, it was only her and the forest--all thoughts of a mission were forgotten.

Then, of course, she noticed one of the men giving her a very strange look. It was not normal, for him, to have leaders actually enjoy themselves. And she was supposed to be their leader now. She realized she would have to establish herself as leader now if she ever wanted them to respect her. And if the men didn't respect her, this mission was in trouble.

"Kuru, isn't it?" she said. Barely even waiting for the man to reply, she continued coldly, "Well then, Kuru, you'd be better off keeping your eyes on the woods...there are Orcs and Goblins out here. I want you to go scout ahead. And take..." Her eyes fastened on another man. "Take Rab with you. One of you report back to me if you see anything at all suspicious."

"Yes, ma'am," said Kuru. He and Rab hurried off to the front of the group and soon disappeared into the woodlands ahead of them. Making very little noise, of course; Lymira was not surprised. She couldn't be sure yet if she'd gained their respect, but at least they knew she wasn't just some bump on a log.

Even with scouts, though, one could never be too careful. Lymira checked the position of her bow against her back and surreptitiously pulled an arrow from her quiver. If anything attacked, she planned to be ready.

Kyo continued on with the group of now eight rangers and Lymira. They walked at a steady pace for about half a day, the smoke risings of the Orc camp became more and more distinct in the overhead sky, atop the tall trees. The midday sun created a golden path out of the dirt trail that they traveled, the edges were masked in the shadows of the mighty oaks. A small chilly wind bite at the group through the warmth of the sun, even the inconvience was minor, Kyo still brought his black cloth mask up around his mouth and nose. Looking over at his companion, Kyo saw Lymira grasping an arrow with one hand and touching her bow with the other. The somewhat battle hardened Lancer could feel the nervousness of the relatively green soldier, even if she was in a leadership position. He let a little sigh out that went unquestioned by any of his dreary crew. Perhaps all Elves are like this, completely focused and steedfast on one goal that they can't stop and enjoy the scenery! Kyo thought to himself with a little smirk on his covered lips as he looked up at his beautiful surroundings. Just as he was getting comfortable, a wooden shaft flashed past his eyes and dug into a nearby tree.

Reacting, Kyo dropped into a defensive position and took his polearm out of its holdings on his back. A party of ten Orcs stood against them in the road, five of which had large crossbows pointed at Kyo's party, a melee swords strapped to their belts. The others held large two-handed axes. Coming in late, two more Orcs dropped from the low branches of trees, revealing who this bulky party had snuck up on the usually tense group of Elven Rangers. Kyo then noticed that all the Orcs wore light brown and green garbs, obviously they had planned this specific sort of ambush. All the Rangers drew forth their sleek swords and Lymira drew forth her readied bow. The Orcs let fly their crossbow bolts, all of which missing or deflected like the first one. The large beasts then dropped their ranged weapons and drew their melee ones, charging in one big group. Not waiting for the group to come to them, Kyo ordered for the Rangers to counter charge. As he finished his orders, Kyo readied himself and Jumped high into the midday sun-bathed sky. The Orcs lost him quickly and instead turned to the smaller elves. Kyo dropped behind the ranks of the absent-minded Orcs. Spotting the one closest to him, Kyo sent his polearm out in a flash, cutting the monster across its kidneys. The Orc let out a cry of pain as it turned around and swung with its large axe. Kyo decided to avoid the strike instead of parrying it, pushing off his toes and jutting back a few feet. The Lancer came on again with a thrust at the Orc. The steel edge dug deep into the wide open torso of the Orc. The heavy adversary fell on the polearm as it died. Pulling out his weapon, Kyo searched for another target as the battle continued.

When I get my hands on whoever was supposed to be on lookout...

That was the last thought to run through Lymira's head before she was forced to banish thought entirely. She couldn't afford to worry about their guards, not if she wanted to survive.

The Rangers had evidently been taken off-guard, and weren't forming any sort of battle lineup, a problem Lymira would have to talk to them about later. So the fight was everyone for himself (or herself), as she soon discovered. Rangers fought Orcs to both sides of her, yet when a huge Orc--apparently the leader of the party--came straight toward her, swinging his giant battleaxe, no one moved to defend her.

Lymira wasn't exactly expecting that; she was used to fighting alone. But not in close quarters, with only a bow. She let an arrow fly while the Orc was still at a few paces away, but without the time to draw her bow to its fullest extent, the arrow carried little power. It lodged in the Orc's side, causing it to roar with pain, but still it came on. If possible, it seemed more ferocious than before, not less.

She danced backward, not daring to take her eyes off the beast. It lunged, swinging at her with its axe; she dodged, barely. The force of the Orc's blow carried its axe down into the ground, where it apparently got stuck. Lymira was very glad she'd gotten out of the way of that swing; it would have been painful for sure.

Now the Orc seemed to be confused. It tugged at the battleaxe, not quite sure why it wasn't moving. Of course, the beast was strong enough that removing the axe from the ground wouldn't take long...but this was Lymira's chance. She charged forward, swinging her bow like a club. Concentrating on its axe, the Orc didn't have time to dodge. Her blow caught it full on the side of the head, temporarily stunning it.

In the meantime, she pulled out her knife--a practical sort of knife, not something most people would consider a weapon, but well suited for this particular purpose--and cut its throat. No harder than killing a pig, she thought with satisfaction as she stepped away from the bleeding corpse.

Suddenly it occurred to her that the area had gone quiet. Only a few moments ago, the air had been full of screams and shouts and the sounds of metal on metal. Now she looked up and realized the battle was over. Two of the Elven Rangers lay unmoving on the ground, and three more nursed wounds (only one looked serious). All the Orcs were dead. And two more Rangers were missing--the two who were supposed to have been on lookout. Lymira realized that all of them were looking at her.

"Well then," she said, wiping her knife carefully on the ground to clean off the blood. "We'd better start building a funeral pyre. And someone will have to take Kurt back to town. And next time something like this happens--because it's going to happen again, you know--we've got to be more prepared." She stopped; this wasn't the time for long lectures or coming up with battle plans. "Let's get to it!"