<@Dreol> [Power Sliders! Session 19!] <@Dreol> [Last time on Power Sliders: After quickly convincing the orcs that you weren't, in fact, betraying them and would help them in their fight against the humans, you headed towards the orc capital and stopped at a cliff overlooking the plain below.] <@Dreol> [In the distance you can see the large fortress-looking capital city and between you and the city is a sea of tiny camp fires where your enemies, presumably, are camping. Lex has just been having a chat with Gralk about your numbers versus theirs, and everyone is pretty tired and ready for bed.] <@Dreol> [Begin.] * Lex walks back over to the others and sits down at the edge of the cliff. * Kyler walks over to Lex and sets down beside her. "Productive talk?" * Henry stands and manages to not shield his eyes as he looks down and over the camps. "That's a lotta army." Good news and bad news. Good news is, Gralk says we can help out however we want, which means we can go straight for Xelion if we want to. Bad news is, they outnumber us by a lot. * Lex nods at Henry. Uh, I don't suppose there's some sort of big "Boss is here" sign thing in this world so we can find him in all that? * Lex shakes her head. "There hasn't been in any of the others, so I don't think there would be here." Oh. * Kyler looks out at the sea of campfires. "Well...I'm assuming he's doing *something* in all of that other'n just blending in with your everyday joe." Army's going where the action is. Probably where Xelion'll be. Until then, we have lots of beefy green friends. * Kyler scratches the back of his head. "Wish we had a better idea of what this world's item could be. That'd be a huge help." Xelion might not be where the action is, actually. He might head straight for the item. * Lex stares off into space, thinking. Yes, but you forget that, by the laws of dramatic necessity, the item must necessarily be where the action is. * Henry stifles a yawn and nods. * Cassiopeia leans back on the log she's sitting on. "I mean, what's the point of having a big war if you're gonna say 'Hey, look, a big exciting war! That's happening over there. You're going to this quiet section of the forest filled with deer and rabbits and antelope and emus and orangutans...'" Well, the big important relics are always buried in lost temples in the middle of nowhere, right? Might not be a relic, though. I guess so. So far we've had one relic from the middle of nowhere and ro~oocket launcher in a basement. * Henry doesn't bother to cover his mouth when he yawns in the middle of a sentance. * Lex re-focuses and looks at everyone else. "It might be in the city. Probably is, since there isn't anything else around here. So unless that army gets through the walls very quickly, Xelion'll have to leave them to get it." * Kyler taps a stick against the ground thoughtfully. * Henry stares out at the city. Maybe Xelion have worker go and take to him? * Lex looks upward as if mentally ticking items off a list. "Could be a couple different powerful items. Book of Medivh's a spellbook, Frostmourne's a sword, the Helm of Domination, or the Plate of the Damned." * Kyler wrinkles his brow (and nose) a bit. "...yeah, all of those things sound pretty martial..." * Lex flicks her eyebrows up at Katsuo. "Would you trust someone who isn't even named to retrieve one of these things?" That's kinda a generic evil boss thing to do. Yes, but force you to send escort group instead of one super hero. This guy seems a bit slicker than your usual goatee-stroking, popped-collar, cape-wearing, funny hairdo villain. Yeah, and there's a lot that can go wrong with sending others. * Kyler makes an almost obligatory-seeming face when Cass mentions "popped- collar".... * Kyler continues scratching things in the ground and pondering. PONDERING!! * Lex stares down at the campfires on the plain. "So. Do we go for the object? Do we go for Xelion? Do we try to even the odds?" Well, I--even the odds? How would we go about doin' that? We're supposdta find the thing, but if we could find Xel he'd be going for it, or if we could find it he'd show up... but we dunno if either are even here.... * Lex shrugs and says wryly, "I'm open to ideas. It might help us indirectly. Or maybe we should just go straight for whatever our goal is." Heh. Personally, I'd think it's better just t'go straight for the object. I mean, if you think about it, that's what we'd be doin' if we were goin' after Xelion anyway... Yeah. And if we do it the other way around, we might not get there soon enough. Full speed ahead, damn the torpedoes... do they have torpedoes around here? Magic orc torpedoes? * Lex almost-smiles at Cass. "Magic missiles." Do they swim? I don't think so. * Lex looks around at everyone to see if there's an agreement. "So are we going after the object?" * Katsuo nods, then thinks. "Does Xelion know what object is?" * Henry blinks. "I wonder how he'd know, and if we could do it too. That'd be cool." * Lex shrugs. "Don't know. He seems to have found plenty so far, so he has to have some way of identifying them, same as us." Yeah, I assume he's got some way of tellin' He sure don't seem to've been doin' as much wandering around as we have. He still hasn't beat us to one yet. All right, then we need to get past those guys and into a city full of people that think we're attacking them. Well, Gralk's people can help us out on that score. * Henry nods. Yeah. I'll ask him in the morning. And he can also help out with tellin' us where to go. Theoretically, this shouldn't be too difficult. * Henry blinks. "I wonder which one of us gets the invisibility spell." * Lex raises her eyebrows. "We're trying to infiltrate a capital city. *glances at Henry* Not me." I mean, it's probably me, but light gets illusions and things... I dunno. We'll figure that out if it comes around. I figure we've got enough on our plates as it is without worryin' about all that at this juncture. It go to right person when get. * Henry nods. "Okay, so sleep, get into city, find thing, keep thing away from Xelion, go someplace else. That's the plan, right?" * Kyler nods. "A-yup." Sounds good t'me. * Lex nods. "Yeah. *rubs eyes* Time to get some sleep." Kaay. Sounds plannish. * Kyler nods and looks over at the orcs. "Even though we've got allies, we should still probably set out watch cycles, though." Just to be on the safe side an' all. * Katsuo nods. Who didn't watch last time? * Kyler shrugs. "I can't remember, myself, to be honest." I'll take first watch...we can just go on from there, I guess. Neither can I... I'm not sure I actually managed to sleep in that closet. There weren't that many zombies, but it was still pretty scary. Yeah, you should get your sleep. There's enough of us to go around that I don't think it'll be a big deal. All right. I'll take last, if that's okay. I need six hours straight this time. Kay. G'night. Yeah, no problem. You've been puttin' in a lot of work for us, anyway. * Henry wanders back to the orc camp at the top of the cliff. * Kyler grins and waves her on. * Cassiopeia salutes Kyler crisply, then goes to find a place to set up and sleep. * Lex nods at Kyler, then walks back over to their camp's fires and finds the comfiest patch of ground she can to lie down on for the night. * Kyler raises an eyebrow at Cass, then grins, shrugs, and gets to watchin'. * Katsuo stretches. "I help with last watch. You be careful." He goes ahead and turns-in. * Kyler nods at Katsuo and waves him goodnight. <@Dreol> [During Cass's watch she hears some heavy wing flapping noises coming from the edge of the cliff. Fortunately, so does Gralk and he heads silently out of his tent and towards the edge of the cliff.] * Cassiopeia nudges Kyler and Katsuo awake. "Something flappy at the end of the cliff. Gralk went to look. Get the others up, I'm gonna go check it out." * Kyler rolls awake. "Gotcha. Thanks." * Cassiopeia jogs after Gralk. WITH STEALTH! * Katsuo stretches as he's awakened, his joints giving small audible pops. He nods to Cass and proceeds to awaken the others. * Kyler wakes people! He's either a cheerful riser, or didn't sleep enough to be all guhhh-like. * Lex rubs her eyes and sits partway up. "What's going on?" Mrrph? Somethin' got Cass and Gralk worried. They're checkin' it out, figured y'all should be awake, just in case. * Katsuo speaks in a hushed tone. "Gralk go to investigate flappy wings at cliff end. Cass going to check out." Especially since not all of us have weapons that work in this universe... * Lex gets all the way up and looks towards the cliff edge. * Henry fumbles around for his sword and then blearily makes his way to the cliff. * Lex blinks. "I think they'll work for us. They did in Zelda." Warcraft have guns and magic. Weapon should work just fine. Oh. Well then, never mind. * Lex readies her crossbow and follows Henry as quietly as she can towards the cliff. <@Dreol> [As Cass and Gralk approach the cliff and look over it they see... nothing! Wait... Gralk looks up and above him are two gryphons with human archers on their back. Gralk turns around and yells "WE'RE BEING ATTACKED!" But at that moment arrows fly from the two archers and Gralk, who had turned around to yell, is hit in the back and falls flat on his face, unmoving.] * Kyler takes his sword to back up Henry and them. * Kyler catches the yell, if not the action, and yells out to the rest of the camp. "INCOMING ATTACK!" * Cassiopeia shakes her scythe up at the gryphons. "Come down here and fight like birds!" * Henry blinks at the flyers and tries to add. "FROM AB~" but his voice cracks and he coughs. * Kyler politely yells at Micah to alert the rest of the camp about the attack and its aerial nature and the fact that it could be a diversion. * Katsuo draws his pistols and gets ready to do some clay gryphon practice. * Kyler then flings his hands up, shooting a ray of bright light at the gryphon riders. <@Dreol> [The rider is hit with the ray and screams as he searches wildly for the source of the blast, but seems unable to see.] * Henry runs towards the riders to get in range and covers the other one with a cloud of smoke, and then skids to a stop just in time to not get hit by an arrow. "Yiek!" <@Dreol> [The other rider looks as if he's moving a bit sluggishly now as he moves in towards Henry and fires an arrow at him - which misses as he slows down.] * Lex snaps her crossbow up and fires at one of the gryphon's furiously pumping wings. <@Dreol> [The gryphon is hit and quickly begins to fall out of sight.] * Katsuo takes his energy pistol and blasts both of the gryphons with stun shots, locking them down in place. "Try and take griffons! Knock riders off!" <@Dreol> [Both Gryphons freeze in mid-air.] <@Dreol> [The rider of the first Gryphon shoots aimlessly and misses.] * Cassiopeia throws a barrage of icicles at the other gryphon. "You may have a bow, but you'll have to work harder if you wanna be an arch-villain!" <@Dreol> [They both look pretty confused. Well more so than normal, but, nevertheless, they get pretty angry.] <@Dreol> [Both the riders are frozen in place on the gryphons and also look pretty heavily damaged.] * Kyler flings a laser sword shot at one of the riders. <@Dreol> [That rider slumps dead in the ice.] <@Dreol> [The other suffers a similar fate... seemingly scared to death, he falls back on the Gryphon and is dead.] * Henry looks up at the gryphons. "Man, where're my pokeballs when I need 'em?" ....I'm sure Cass has a rop-- * Kyler then catches sight of Gralk. "Oh, jesus..." * Cassiopeia tries to heal Gralk! Assuming he isn't dead. * Kyler goes over and does first-aidy stuff as soon as the battle is for sure finished! Shit. Is he dead? <@Dreol> [Unfortunately, he is dead.] <@Dreol> [The orcs all gather around Gralk and look at him and then at each other and finally one of the head guards flips him over and turns to the others. "Gather wood and build a fire." They go to do so and one of them returns to him. "Kiltuk... what do we do now?" Kiltuk looks back, shrugs and sighs. "I am no strategist like Gralk. I do not know how to beat the humans..."] * Lex is looking very conflicted. * Kyler sighs and gets up. "We did make a promise..." So, uh, now what? * Lex glances back at Kyler and says a lot more decisively than she looks, "Yes, we did. So how do we want to fulfill it?" That...will likely require a lotta discussion. * Kyler nods at Kiltuk. "Kiltuk...I assume you are the new leader, now?" * Cassiopeia takes a deep breath as she stands up, and looks back at Lex. "I think we need to find someone who understands the strategies of this world to advise the new leader." A small grin. "Know where we can find someone like that?" * Lex still looks conflicted. "But what about Xelion and the item?" <@Dreol> [The orcs stack wood and light a large bonfire... Kiltuk carries Gralk and tosses him onto the fire. All the orcs bow their heads for a moment. Kiltuk looks up. "Gralk! Son of Havuk! You were a fine warrior! This cliff and the mountains shall remember you as we do and you will become part of the mountain and lend your strength to it! I, Kiltuk, take up the command of this tribe!" All the other orcs stamp their feet and look up at the smoke. Then Kiltuk turns around to take notice of Kyler. "Yes. I am."] * Henry bows his head too, more out of nervous confusion than anything else. <@Dreol> [He shakes his head. "But I do not know what to do with the army. I can lead troops into battle, but we need a strategist."] * Kyler bows his head at the appropriate moment as well, then nods curtly at Kiltuk. "We're sorry about his loss. But I'm sure it will be an equal honor to work with you." * Kyler strokes his chin. "We happen to have a few among our party who specialize in strategy, but we are not as familiar with this terrain as you are..." * Lex says quietly from behind Kyler, "I'm a strategist." If we help you formulate a general strategy, will you assist us in our mission, as Gralk did before you? * Katsuo sighs and thinks to himself. .oO(Cutscene death, that's how you get players into a position they're unaccustomed to.) <@Dreol> [He nods. "Gralk trusted you, humans, and I will continue to carry that trust until you prove yourselves undeserving of it. Who among you is the your lead strategist?"] In this situation, yes, Lex is likely our best strategist. * Henry points at Lex. Lex, you lead troops. Most of us are decent at strategy, but Lex has the most experience with large troop numbers and direct confrontation battles. <@Dreol> [Kiltuk nods. "Fine then. Lex. You are the strategist." He heads back to the fire. "You come to the chief's tent. Others can come too."] * Kyler nods. "Thank you." Oookaaay. * Lex follows Kiltuk wordlessly, still looking a little unfocused. They won't know what hit 'em. * Kyler walks next to Lex as they go. "Just wanna tell ya--we're all willing to help you out, and once we come up with a general strategy for the army, we can borrow a couple men and go into the city to look at th' items." Plus, it'll be good for us to know their general battle plan when we go in, anyway. Easier for us ta know if somethin's goin' wrong, and the best ways to avoid direct combat. * Lex shakes herself and suddenly looks *very* focused. "Yes." * Katsuo smirks at the focus. There's a gamer. <@Dreol> [Session End]