Strider

Edmond: Edmond addressed the tablet, and the woman holding it. "I don't have any means with which to enact a large scale escape without immediately being attacked by the hordes outside the gate. . . However, if there are any tasks that need completion before we leave, I'll do my best to assist. Consider me another one of your couriers if need be for the present." Edmond tapped his foot on the ground, though not out of impatience, as was obvious from his expression. "So, we await the information from the scryers before dividing into teams? Why can't it be done in the meantime while we wait? Their locations will affect who is on what team somehow?" Liliya: Liliya was still standing next to Samantha, watching Dackly depart, when it became apparent that planning was mostly over. "Servants? And their supposed to be famous people? Shit, I can't help with that. . . I suppose I could list out people, but there's no way to confirm any are what we want. . ." She frowned, concerned. "You're from earth, right Sam? Any idea who these. . . Servants are?"

Edmond descended from the wall when he heard that the group from the war room had arrived. As soon as the tablet had finished speaking, and so long as he was interrupting no one else, Edmond posed these questions. "I assume that you four or five will be leading teams? Alright. How do we plan to exit the castle, and what is our time frame?" Really, he was asking about the time frame of the whole mission. How long a scrying would take, when they planned to set out, if they had a hard time limit on killing the servants, etc.

Liliya Liliya glanced at Samantha before answering. "I uh. We were testing out one of Sam's powers, right? So I asked her to surprise me with what she did with it. That would be the 'haps'. . . I don't suppose you would like to tell us what you're doing? Like why you have a pot, and what you poured into that guy's quiver?" Liliya was certainly a bit curious, and a little concerned about this snake woman's doings.

"Your name is Betani? And. . . you attacked someone earlier?" Obviously Shelly had been with most of the group for a while, so it was probably only Radovan and Emmanuel who had been attacked. . . Did they provoke this woman? She was certainly an annoyed woman, but she didn't seem violent. She mentioned another woman. . . Gina? That might be the explanation, Shelly supposed. "I for one would like to hear that story while we walk.

Time to see if I did anything right. SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

[Archer & Kevin] "Alright. So we're going to be meeting her soon? For something?" If Darien could, he would have grimaced. As it was, Kevin would simply feel some dissatisfaction across the link. "So, stay in spirit form for now?" [Alexander/Ciri] "I worry that to anyone watching the leyline locations, and knowing that this is normally a busy lab, would suspect Corwin if he made more than one visit here." In fact, now that Alexander thought about it, someone could have been watching this leyling since before the war had started. "In any case, remember, all plans are subject to change. We have enough food. . . well, sustenance, in here for three days. We will try not to leave here until the canvas is finished. At that point, depending upon how other things turn out, we will either venture out by day ourselves to collect more supplies, have Corwin deliver them directly here, or we will venture out and meet him somewhere else." Corwin would of course need to drop off a form of transportation, but that would be done discretely, several blocks over, without Master and Servant ever meeting the butler. As Alexander said these things, he began to craft a set of perfectly straight parallel lines with a few sharp angles on either side of the door, about five feet from the ground. Anyone remembering their high school physics class would recognize it immediately as resembling an optics diagram, though with some oddities.

Edmond In response to the sudden flurry of arrows, Edmond quickly ducked down below the wall. Not quite quick enough, as one of the projectiles impacted his shoulder. It bounced of though, leaving Edmond unhurt, and with only the echo of the metallic collision in his ears. As soon as the volley of arrows had let up, Edmond peeked over the parapet, and began to zero in on another target. For a few minutes, he followed this pattern: take aim, shoot, duck for cover, repeat. He had little to fear from the arrows though, so his main reason for ducking was to give the enemy some impression that he did fear their medieval weapons. Otherwise, he might be targeted with the magic that he was slightly more anxious about. As he stood back up from his seventh or so shot, Edmond had a thought. Turning toward the chief mage, he called, "Sir! In a siege of this magnitude, what stops them from piling dead or living skeleton warriors in order to ascend the wall? Simply making a hill of the dead to climb?" In other sieges that would not be possible, but in one of this size, with so many expendable soldiers, it seemed like a legitimate fear. ((OOC: Do the skeletons crumble into dust when they die, or remain a pile of bones? If the former, Edmond would probably know from the earlier battle, and I'll probably edit this post.)) Liliya "Still useful. i know it only lasts a bit, but how many people can you get at once?" Liliya was still smiling at this incredibly odd thing she had just experienced. "If you still want to, you can try out something else? Not sure what. . . how about you surprise me?"

Liliya just stood there, eyes flicking about the other groups disinterestedly. "So. . . when are you going to start? It's fine if you need to get ready for it or something, but sitting around just watching a bunch of random people milling around eating barbecue." There was barely a flicker of emotion on her face, then she turned back to Samantha. "You already did it, I guess then. Well, that's good. . . and, I guess this was to be expected, but it really is boring. I don't really see how this is going to be applicable in any battles or anything. I guess we can keep going if you want though." She didn't mention it, but she felt a little annoyed by the lack of anything happening, the interminable waiting for their self-appointed and unproved "leaders" to figure something out that had forced her to become Samantha's testing dummy and--suddenly, the simultaneous apathy and annoyance were gone. And that sudden change in mood brought a confused smile to Liliya's face. "Oh wow! That was really. . . weird. And you can do that for pretty much anyone? Even without the other type of mind control, that seems really powerful."

Edmond "Thanks." Edmond knelt down a few meters down the wall from the head of the mage group, and perched the barrel of his rifle in a crenel. He sighted down the scope, searching for a mage. He settled on one, standing near a ballista that was being reloaded. He centered the crosshairs on the center of the chestplate. Some might think it odd but. . . it's a testing shot, to see what their armor can take. A quick pull of the trigger, a report, and Edmond watched through the scope, to see how the enemy would take it. Liliya "Doesn't sound too bad. We'll just make sure to only do a bit." General mind control was certainly a disturbing idea to Liliya, so if Samantha reached out at that moment, she'd definitely detect the twinge of fear. However, Liliya steeled herself, and said, "Don't worry, I'm fine with this. Who knows how long we're gonna be doing this? You probably need the training. Anyway, so you need me to pick an emotion eh? Hmm, do you think that practicing an emotion would strengthen your ability to make that emotion in the first place, or just your ability to create emotions in general? Because," Liliya explained, thinking back to the mist that had been afflicting Dackly, "Paranoia would definitely be useful, along with things that promote complacence. . . like satisfaction? Is that more of an emotion or a feeling. . . Anyway, things like that would be good. But, uh, let's not do paranoia for now. Maybe start out less risky with something like boredom, or confidence? They seem like the type that wouldn't cause me to go crazy and kill people." She was under the assumption that it would wear off fairly quickly, because otherwise, feeling brave or suicidally overconfident would be very bad. "Take your choice of those tww: boredom, or confidence."

Liliya "So he was a Psychic too? Huh. I guess, maybe. . . we might run into someone else like that, but there's no guarantee." Liliya frowned thoughtfully, and shifted her stance slightly. "I don't know if. . . Hmm. If emotions are easy, but you can still get some practice out of them, I think I would be okay with you trying that out on me for practice? You're going to have to get used to it in time, right? Might be really useful if someone's having an emotional breakdown, or if we get a traitor or something. But, I mean, if you don't want to risk reading emotions on allies, I guess we'll just have to try to work it on enemies." She smirked. "Might be a little bland though, all you're going to get is fear and anger." "Not frying people's brains is good! But, uh, if we were to have you try reading emotions, what's the worst that could happen?"

Liliya "Professor X? That's. . . weird name." Realizing how it could be taken, Liliya quickly raised her hands in a gesture of apology. "No offense meant, sorry 'bout that." While the woman did have some knowledge of pop culture from her world, it was all quite vague. She had heard of things like Marvel, the Avengers, and vaguely the X-men, but knew almost nothing about anyone inside of them. Living on the streets in Eastern Europe tends to diminish your knowledge of certain things. "Mind reading sounds pretty awesome though. And control? The lack of trining might be a bit of a problem though. Tell, how did this Dr. X train you? Maybe we can do something like that here? You said emotions were easy, so we could work on them? Consistently reading and controlling minds sounds incredibly useful."

[Archer & Kevin] "So this is Shiori? Runs a comic shop? Should I ask you how old she is to have that guy hitting on her?" Though Darien didn't mention it across the telepathic link, Kevin would probably be able to sense a miniscule amount of fear. Paranoia. To Darien, Shiori was an oddity, and one to be watched. She was obviously a better mage than Kevin, seemed much younger, and her rudeness pissed Darien off. Actually though, her belligerence also had a calming effect on Darien, in addition to his annoyance at disrespecting his Master. A young powerful mage who wanted command seals for herself would probably be doing as much as she could to ingratiate herself to both Master and Servant. It still seemed a bit odd though. "This where you live then?" [Alexander/Ciri] Alexander couldn't help but grin at the Servant's request. Just pizza? "Sure, pizza should be fine. I think we'll wait and see whether we get the pizza ourselves or not. Corwin is slightly too valuable to be seen making many odd trips to an abandoned warehouse directly above a leyline. If we went, it would be daytime, and we would be a little too formidable for enemies to fight in the open. Corwin could easily be taken into an alley and killed, or tortured for information. We though, are safe, so long as others fear exposing the War, of course. If someone does notice us, then they will follow, and hopefully become the first victim of your tapestry. I don't expect to make many trips out, but I think the rewards of a few daytime trips might overwhelm the risks." Alexander paused briefly, and stepped briskly over to the door, where he thoughtfully fingered the frame. "Does that make sense? Don't hesitate to object for any reasons. . . Aha! That would be quite fun. . ." The man then pulled up his sleeves preparing to set another trap or ward.

Edmond "I'm not a mage." On that subject though, he really should get some more practice in with the Cantrips. It might even be worthwhile to compare how magic seemed to work here compared with Marisa's book when he went to the library later. "I think I can help however." Edmond patted the rifle slung across his back. "It probably has around twice the effective range of a longbow, unless yours are magically enhanced. I'll try to put pressure on those manning the ballistae, and opposition mages. Is there any significant danger in attacking them?" Edmond was decently well read, and while his knowledge of stories didn't really mesh with what he had seen from his group, it did make him cautious about certain things, such as defensive wards that might reflect small attacks back at the attacker, or otherwise give a mage an easy target. In addition to his question, Edmond watched intently as the mages performed their work, trying to see what methods they used to destroy the seige engines. Fire? Pure force? A single cut to one of the taught ropes?

Darien "Yeah, I got it. Spirit form and all that. Uhh, just so you know, I think the things that we heard were cannons. I didn't want to distract you unless I had too, but I saw a pirate ship out the back. A flying one. Some Servant has a goddamn FLYING PIRATE SHIP! That is really fucking cool, and amazingly bad for us." Darien groaned a bit. "Any idea what Servant type could even do that? Anyway, I'll go to spirit form. Poof." With that, Darien's form and drones quickly dissolved in a small burst of light, leaving nothing behind.

Edmond Soldiers manned the walls shooting arrows at will into the horde of dragon warriors pressing all the way up to the wall. With the warriors packed so close together, there was probably little to worry about if a shot missed its intended target. There were also a few small groups of mages on the walls, exercising their arts on unfinished siege engines, probably a more fulfilling task than shooting at random into the horde where every dead skeleton would be immediately replaced. Interested in assisting in this task for a bit, Edmond scanned the parapet for whoever seemed to be highest ranking among the mage groups, and flew over. He gave a small salute. "I'm Edmond Cooper. I see we're we working to take out the siege engines? How can I help?" Edmond hoped to get to know which structure to focus on, for the sake of efficiency, and whether any types of machine had higher priority than others. Liliya "Don't worry about it. But, uh, try to keep it to friends? We wouldn't want anyone accidentally giving plans to an enemy or something. That. . . wouldn't be good. Anyway, maybe you can show me a picture of this person if we visit an earth world. Seems quite possible, with the number of earth or weird earth inhabitants here." Liliya's eyebrows furrowed when Samantha mentioned the brain to everything else thing. Telepathic or something, Liliya guessed, based on what had been mentioned previously, and. . . that was why the prisoner had collapsed. Not entirely sure how to pry into the matter, Liliya chose the simple way. "So, you've got mind powers then?"

Edmond The man with the bus. . . Rich Magnum? He seemed distracted, so Edmond quietly removed himself. A quick glance around the courtyard revealed that people were generally milling about with little purpose. Not certain whether he wanted to engage in conversation, or with whom, Edmond slowly made his way to the stone steps leading up to the battlements. He reasoned that he could probably help out a little there, perhaps take out a few of the enemies, and see what sort of equipment and tactics the soldiers were using. When Edmond reached the top, he looked out over parapet, scanning the hordes as he looked for patterns and made estimates of the numbers of enemies and so on. He kept himself ready to crouch down if there came a storm of projectiles. Liliya It seemed that Dackly had departed to talk to someone else, leaving Liliya and Samantha alone, in silence. ". . . You were saying something about that tv show? Firefly? And whether it was a good thing to look like a 'rule 63 Malcolm Reynolds'?"

Edmond Hmm. Too many questions, definitely. He had hoped that the man's interest in the general assistance that the group was supposed to bring would be enough for him to forgive the barrage of questions, but even so, it seemed that he had gone a bit overboard. He set aside the location of the library for now--no need to bother any one else too much--and grabbed a piece of bread from the incongruous bus in the middle of the courtyard. He didn't think he'd met the man before. Probably would remember if I had. . . Edmond stepped over to the man resting in the folding chair. No need to disturb him if he was resting, but if he seemed to be alert, Edmond introduced himself. "Nice setup. I don't think we've met before? My name's Edmond Cooper." Liliya Liliya had quietly watched Samantha talking with Dackly, and had considered making a comment about her being rather ill-prepared for trying to smoke the weird gas, but thought better of it. Instead, she sighed a little, and said, ". . . Nice mask. I think she's right though. You might wanna prepare yourself to feel paranoid if you're going to try something like that. Since Sam said it might not work, maybe it'd be better to leave it alone for now? Or maybe try it some place without as many people?" Liliya shrugged.

[Archer & Kevin] "Good call. Any clue what that was? And where are we heading? I'm guessing you're not going towards that, right?" Darien rotated around in the seat, contorting himself in an effort to find the source of the explosions. Probably wasn't targeted at them, he thought, since they remained mostly unhurt, and he had seen no damage around. There was the small chance that they were slower projectiles. . . it would be good to be wary. Not that he hadn't been in a state of alertness before, of course. [Alexander/Ciri] Alexander waved his hand. "Money is of no concern. Though. . . don't ask me to buy any restaurants for you. The plants are immobile, you say, so they would be best for ambushes, if at some point we needed to leave the territory." The man wasn't quite done with the ward he was constructing, but he payed attention as the Servant gave an explanation of the plant's capabilities. "We'll stick with seeds for now. I won't force you to make plants out of anyone unless its absolutely necessary, and even then, we can be sure to make do with the fewest casualties we can manage. It would not do to create disappearances that might reveal the Grail War to the city." With a flick o the wrist, Alexander completed the pattern that he had written into the circumference of the room. It would not keep out most Servants or Masters, and wouldn't even hurt the more powerful pairs, but it wasn't really meant to. The small flurry of distracting explosions against an unwanted intruder would serve to allow a few more milliseconds in which Alexander or Ciri would be able to try to take them down. And of course, there would be more wards and traps. "Any preference for food when we do have a chance to get something?"

Edmond is here now. Noting the growing annoyance in the man's face, Edmond resolved to finish with his tirade of questions. In fact, he had no more, save for requests for the man to elaborate on things he had said, and the few questions the man had not answered. He would have to go to Lord Belenus or one of the people in the war room for those questions. "I apologize, Rand. It looks like you are tiring of my questions, and you're not the only person who has been annoyed by them before. I won't bother you anymore, save to ask where I might find Lord Belenus. And, I suppose, do you want to eat or get a drink?" Edmond thought that perhaps directing him towards the food and drink might do something to alleviate man's exasperation. Not that Edmond planned to ask more questions once Rand had gotten some sustenance, of course.

[Archer & Kevin] "Alright, kid. I don't mean to pry into too many private affairs anyway. So, what was she gonna do for us again? You might've mentioned it already, but I don't quite recall." Darien was in fact getting a little restless. There wasn't much to occupy his attention in the cramped back of the minivan. Manufacturing the drones wasn't terribly entertaining or difficult, just time consuming, and most of Kevin's plans seemed to be centered around Shiori. So, there was really not much to discuss tactics wise until they got whatever info they were coming to get. In fact, "So, Master Kevin, how far away does this Shiori of yours live?" [Alexander/Ciri] "I don't think we'll be short on mana. The leyline and myself will probably sustain you well enough. Though, if you want to eat, I can get stuff for you. I assume you can still taste? And the same goes for sleep. You probably can if you want to, though I see less reason why a Servant would want it than food." As Alexander spoke, he slowly began to make his way around the edge of the room, setting up a complex weave of glowing lines that disappeared after a few seconds. "Tell me, Ciri, can your plants be used outside of the Canvas? Or are they limited to being used inside your territory?"

Liliya politely shook the man's hand. "Scientist. . . Nice to meet you though. So Lambda? She's a robot then? That's pretty cool." And, in answer to his query, and Samantha's exclamation, she frowned a moment, dredging up some memories. "Firefly. . . that was a short tv show, right? In space? I, uh, didn't watch many shows. So, I guess you'll have to tell me whether it's a good thing to look like this Malcolm Reynolds person?" As she said this, Liliya watched Samantha skeptically. They had met briefly in the castle corridors, and she had seemed a little less rushed and nervous. But then again, who knew how being in a medieval castle surrounded by skeletons might affect someone. "I only asked what was up because you seemed a bit nervous. but if you're fine. . . Wait, so you're from earth? Weird. . I thought maybe with the whole multiverse thing that there wouldn't be many earth people."

Liliya Liliya spun around at being addressed, and was greeted by two rather normal looking people. Both a bit tall though. As seemed appropriate on this journey with such varied compatriots, Liliya began to take a more in depth observation of the pair after she had completed her initial judgement of "reasonably normal" (compared to the likes of Dackly and Gozer). The man seemed human, not really different from the humans she knew well. Clothes were worn, fairly simple, but slightly antiquated in fashion. The vest and cloak seemed to have that effect. If she recalled correctly, this was the man who had electrified her knife, so evidently like most people here he had some talents that could be considered magic. The woman seemed fairly normal too, though her attire was a bit odd. The frilled dress seemed a little unnatural, but the primary thing that Liliya noticed was the gauntlets that ran up to her shoulders--and the fact that she was floating. Huh. After the second or two that it took Liliya to process this, she awkwardly held her hand out. Assuming that he had heard her name when she started to address the other woman--Samantha: the one she had met in the castle halls earlier, now that she thought about it--Liliya said, "Oh, hi. Uh, nice to meet you and all that. Yeah, I'm on the team. Been here only a few hours though. Been to a desert world, a fast food place, a brief stop in some future earth, and now here in those short hours. . . Anyway, your name? And yours too." She addressed this last part to the woman floating next to him

Edmond Edmond watched resignedly as Solomon walked off to speak with someone else. ". . . Sorry about him. We've got many types of people in our group. So. . .," Not sure how to continue on that subject, Edmond reverted to his information gathering. "What can you tell me about the lay of the land? How far away was the border between Shienar and Asterlux lands, are there any large cities, what are the locations of the other noble houses, any oceans, rivers, or mountain ranges that I should know of?" Edmond, while he listened to the response from this question, lifted up his helmet to peer at something on the inside screen, checking the local temperature. Once he had noted that, Edmond looked up to the man presumably talking to him. "What season is it currently, and what time of day? I presume night, based on lighting, but how many hours after sunset would it be? And actually, it would probably be good if I could know a bit more about the noble houses and the history of this land in general. That might be useful in defeating them." A brief pause, then a final burst of questions. "Are you aware of the spiritual beings commanding these draconic legions, and have you had any encounters with them. And hopefully my final set of questions, mainly to ensure that I don't accidentally insult someone or accidentally insinuate something based on my lack of familiarity with the land. Is Lord Silef or Lord Belenus the lord of this castle? And, since you mentioned 'Lumabella', I should probably know a bit about the religions of this land, and what I should generally avoid saying or doing in order to not anger people of high rank." And that seemed to be all. Edmond had a few more questions, but none were important enough to warrant the taking of this man's time in the middle of a siege, and he could probably find answers to those if this Lord Belenus would let read in the library a little.

Edmond "Well met, Rand." Edmond started to hold hi hand to shake, but pulled it back after it occurred to him that greetings in this place were probably substantially different from what he knew. "Hmm, I can see how it wouldn't be prudent to share information on troops until. . . Lord Silef? has confirmed that we bear no hostilities towards you. The length you can expect to hold out is important though, but it can wait. Was House Shienar's assault entirely unprovoked? And do you know what prompted it, specifically why it happened at that point, not earlier or later? In case you were concerned. . . I have no intention of stealing Lord Belenus' books. Lord Belenus would be better able to answer my questions, correct? But he's likely busy. In any case, I apologize about the torrent of questions, but some of this information might be vital if we are to help you." Edmond glanced over the mans armor and uniform, attempting to judge his rank. However, that could easily be asked. "You are of House Amyrlin then? Do you command men, and what can you tell me about that house?"

[Archer & Kevin] “Sounds plain enough. . . But what I really meant was: how did you specifically meet the first time? Was it at a gym or something? A restaurant? On the street? Or did a friend tell you about her?” Darien stared out the window as they entered the industrial district. This was an area quite familiar to him; reminding him of his days back in Seattle. The dim streets lined by warehouses lit by flickering streetlights. . . well that brough back some nostalgia. “I'm not saying Shiori is playing you, so don't take this wrong. Just looking out for my Master, since I've had my share of being tricked by the people I thought were friends.” [Alexander/Ciri] “Oh, that's good to know. I'll begin working on that immediately.” This he did, beginning to weave some small glowing designs around the sides of the doors to guard against intruders. He stopped for a moment, as a thought came into his head. “If your territory is as effective as we expect, it would be in the best interests of our opponents to not venture in here. Best would be for them to wait us out after defeating the other servants, perhaps gaining mana from innocents in order to spring when we must eventually to leave. So tomorrow, after you've completed the territory, we'll need to go grocery shopping, and pick up a few other supplies. The goal will be to last as long as possible but to also be prepared in case of an ambush directly outside the territory. I would have prepared some more in advance, but there were limits due to my not know who I would summon.” The man shrugged, then continued. “Can Servants actually eat? I would expect you not to need to, but it would be useful to ward away suspicions by outsiders to the war, would it not? And do you derive any sustenance from food?”