The east is beginning to become gray and the Hylarin, Sicarin, and Khelad armies are stirring. There had been a few reports of action during the night, mostly in the south near the towns, involving escaped enemy troops that had made it into the desert, both of goblinkin, men, as well as the local semi-giants. Barock in particular has been called out for a brief moment to care for some wounded, but somehow, he feels as fresh as if he had been asleep the entire time.

The heralds fetch each one of the company, and bring them to a different tent hidden from the wind; Aimienna and Garo are already there, kneeling next to another low table, Aimienna in form-fitting light-colored robes and Garo in a looser but still robe-like garment. Neither of them seem to be wearing armor, at least that you can tell. Aimienna smiles as the companions enter, but Garo maintains his serious, stoic expression. There are bowls of nuts and dried fruit on the table, and the crunching sound from Aimienna as the first apart from her and Garo enter indicates that she is enjoying an almond.

As the group filters in, Garo sets out a sheet of paper on the table - a map. "This is the ziggurat complex, as best as I could draw it," he says, indicating the rough drawing. "The whole thing north to south is I want to say around three-hundred yards... I'm not sure what is to scale. The complex is situated on the north side of the city, away from the city's gates, and with a particularly high wall on the north side to prevent siege engines from hurling stones into the temple complex. Common people aren't allowed onto the ziggurat, and even priests except for the highest eschalons aren't allowed inside - the priests live in the buildings on the east wall of the complex. The public ceremonies happen in the two buildings down near the entrance in the south, and in the amphitheater in the south center, where sacrifices are performed. There are a few more shrines that I didn't draw on the east wall outside of the complex that people can go to to give personal offerings and sacrifices. The entire complex has guards posted at all times, both on the ziggurat itself and in the common areas, especially around the south entrance, and on the outer wall. The guards on the ziggurat itself are hand-picked by the high priest, but the rest are standard city guards. The outer wall is about twenty feet high. The ziggurat itself is over a hundred feet high, and has three levels. There is a shrine at the top which goes into the pyramid, but I have never been in there, so I do not know how far down into the building it goes - only the devil-spawn giants are permitted to go in there, but I do know there is a statue inside that represents the god, whose name is Tizalk. Some of the giants are sorcerer-priests; they usually use elemental magic in some combination with blood sacrifice. The biggest giants are about fifteen feet tall, I think. I don't know for sure what Tizalk looks like, but he is the essence of the union of fallen angel with mortal rising to the heavens, in their mythology. He could become a much more powerful god than he presently is, but not without many more such temples than he has."

"Tizalk can be defeated," Aimienna says. "We have sensed what is inside of the ziggurat, and there is no supreme presence in there, at least none that mortals cannot, in theory, defeat. Of course, it may still be strong," she qualifies. "My question is how to get into the city in the first place. Perhaps," she glances at her companions, "you could contribute to that," she adds.

"The outer wall of the city is thirty feet high, with buttresses at the gates on the south, east, and west flanks, and sixty feet on the north side to protect the temple complex," Garo resumes. "But the whole thing is on a hill, made from the remains of earlier cities, so it's a steep slope maybe thirty feet up before you even get to the wall," he says. "Once inside, we can blend in, at least until we get to the temple complex. Aimienna and I are dressed in fairly traditional clothing for for the interior, although usually baggier and less form-fitting than what Aimienna is wearing" he says.

"We have many more robes for all of us," Aimienna says with an amused smirk about her preferred style. "And I figure that being able to run quickly will be useful, so closer-to-fitting clothes would be good for sprinting, and not too out-of-the-ordinary, although most of their nobles wear a lot of jewelry."

[This message has been edited by Beren V (edited 03-28-2012 @ 07:23 PM).]

Venser was quick to speak up after the introduction to the mission was completed. "Getting in shouldn't be too difficult. The first thing that comes to mind is teleportation, assuming the area isn't warded in some way and there's a reasonably private place for our entry. I'm sure the city could provide a scroll to that end, if none of us can cast it to begin with."

The elf was reasonably certain that he could manage to cast teleport from a scroll himself with a little bit of care. But the notion was unnecessary, given the magical talents of his companions.

Jisanne didn't think it needed to be that complicated. "Surely the people who live in the city are free to go in and out. And add to that the groups of merchants and traders coming in to sell their wares. Wouldn't it be easiest just to slip in with one of the caravans? What kind of security would there be to stop us? It makes sense to use as little magic as possible until we get to the ziggurat so that we don't give ourselves away."

This was how she normally operated, sneaking in and seeming innocuous. But perhaps there were defenses against that sort of thing. If so, Garo would know.

Garo listens to Jisanne. "Given that the city will be besieged in less than a day, I don't know what trade caravans will be going in, but if there are refugees, then security will be fairly lax, I suspect."

Aimienna then adds "We should have enough strength to breach the walls before the defenders run short of food, provided that we can prevent them from summoning too many monsters to aid them. In that case, we could even allow caravans in and out, even while the city is besieged."

"I doubt that will work: the giants will eat any merchants they are suspicious of," Garo says. "And anybody who comes in through an invading army will be suspicious. If we sneak in, we should do it from the west, because the army is coming from the east. The city is not warded against teleportation, but don't think about getting in an army that way: they will notice."

What kind of reaction time will their notice have?" Aimienna asks.

"Minutes, depending on how far from the main garrison in the south gate, the palace in the center, or the temple complex in the north," Garo says.

"I am wondering if we could teleport in, then hide, wait until the guard loses interest or decides we've gone elsewhere, and then move. We might especially be able to fool the guards if they first encounter illusions or some such," Aimienna suggests.

”Oromë has granted me the ability to cast teleport” Barock said ”but I am only able to cast it once per day and I can only take 3 other people with me… but if we can get a teleport scroll and Taya can use it, then we could get us all in in at the same time. There is one important problem though… In order to cast a teleport spell safely, the caster needs to know the location he is teleporting to pretty well… I have never been in the city before and I don’t think Taya has either…
I may have a solution though… If the ziggurat is high enough for its top to be seen from outside the city, we could study it in a spyglass and then teleport right to the shrine at its top. It would then matter little if we are discovered, because we would likely be further in the complex than we could go undiscovered in any other way…”

Barock liked his plan, it was simple and straightforward, and therefore there was little that could go wrong

Taya listened to what the others had to say. "I like the idea of Teleporting in, but Barock is right when he says that the caster would have to be someone who knows the city. Teleporting to the shrine at the top of the ziggurat might be an idea, but it would be a lot easier to keep the ziggurat warded against teleportation than the whole city. I could cast Teleport from a scroll if we could get one, but if we are to teleport to a destination that is not within line of sight, then I would need some way of scrying the city as well. And even with scrying there would be a slight chance of me teleporting us somewhere else.

Another option, would be to fly over the walls while under the cover of invisibility. Doing so would be a bit more work, and sentries with see invisibility could pose a problem. Though in my experience, very few expect the flying invisible dragon".

"Though anyone with sense would know that most dragons both fly and are invisible" Wur added.

"I was about to suggest flight, actually," Aimienna says in response to Taya's suggestion, after chuckling at Wur's comment. "A scroll of invisibility is going to be difficult to acquire. Flight would be a lot less so."

"I would be hesitant about teleporting onto the ziggurat itself, as well," Garo says. "I do not know what all of their defenses are, but they have them. And whether they could see us while invisible or not, they have diviner priests who would know we were coming."

"Even if they could see us," Aimienna adds, "the ordinary guards will not, and will not be able to shoot at us until we land. After that, they will know we are there anyway, if we are to take out their rituals. I am still for flying, unless we can think of a better way."

Venser shrugged at Aimienna. "It's not very subtle, but if they know we're coming anyway, it might not matter," he said. "We just need to be prepared for a fight as soon as we enter, in that case."

Aerial combat was something that he'd never tried before. He might be okay with his bow, if he moved his electricity crystal over to it, he thought. But he couldn't imagine it being very stable, and it would be difficult to benefit from cover. No, he decided, he would rather have his feet on the ground before exchanging blows.

Either way, it sounded like a straight-up fight rather than the kind to which he was accustomed, where he would use his wits and stealth to outposition his foes and win the battle before it began. Perhaps, with sufficient preparation from spellcasting, Barock and Taya could make sure the party was ready for a brawl with the kinds of defensive and offensive enhancements that Venser didn't usually have available.

Barock nodded and said "Invisibility and flying… yes that is an even better idea than mine. If we have the means to cast the necessary spells, I am all for that idea... I can provide a flying spells for myself but I can’t make myself invisible”
Barock looked at Taya, it was her idea so she could probably provide the necessary invisibility spells

Aimienna laughs suddenly. "Oh, of course we can fly in!" she exclaims, having suddenly remembered something. "And it will be easy in fact: we have a small air force we were going to use in the siege! If we make some of them invisible, and they carry us, then we can even use the attack as a diversion. That attack will happen this afternoon, while the siege engines are being set up. Is that agreeable to all of us? And no, making ourselves invisible, that we can do - although there is the question of timing," she says.

"We will need a few minutes," Garo says.

"If you can cast invisibility yourselves, we may have a longer window in which to get there than three minutes, which is what we will have if we use what resources I know about. I cannot make us invisible myself," Aimienna adds. "As for knowing that we are coming, that they may, but they may not know when, or where, so be ready to improvise," she adds.

[This message has been edited by Beren V (edited 03-31-2012 @ 08:07 PM).]

Jisanne agreed. "I think that is an excellent plan. We will be able to sneak in with the help of the aerial diversion and invisibility without too much trouble, I'd think. Besides, there is a difference between knowing someone is coming and being able to attack and stop them."

She was very stealthy, but she couldn't quite make herself invisible. She'd have to rely on the others for that.

Looking at Aimienna, Taya quickly started calculating how to turn a small air force invisible. She had never really had the need to turn anything but herself, Wur, and a few odd trinkets invisible before. She had tested the limits of her spells a few times though, and an invisible rock could make a fun improvised trap at times. Glancing at Wur she said "Making all of us invisible shouldn't prove too much of a problem, though I never actually tried making an object invisible and hiding within it. I guess it could work, kind of like how an item picked up and stuffed in a pouch disappears if you are invisible, though it might also count against the weight limit when cast upon an object? Anyway, each casting should be sufficient to turn 800-900 lbs. of stuff, or one living creature, invisible for nine minutes or so." Glancing back at Aimienna "I hope that would be sufficient for whatever it is you have in mind?"

Taya was a bit curious about how taxing it would be to turn this air force invisible. Probably a whole lot less than providing all of her companions with both flight and invisibility. And it was good to know that Barock could help with flight, having another one capable could prove valuable if they ever needed to leave in a hurry.

Looking up, Wur asked "Taya, how about short range teleportation? Couldn't you just sneak up to a spot close enough to the city wall, and then just teleport through the wall?"

Glancing back at Wur, Taya answered "Well, yes. I could teleport myself and up to three others almost 800 ft. That should be enough to get us past the wall, and it might just work. Especially if someone else could do so as well, it would be less convenient if I had to teleport back and get the rest of you."

”I can do short range teleportation as well” Barock said ”but I think I like princess Aimienna’s idea better…”
He looked at Aimienna and then asked ”What exactly does the flying force you spoke off consist off?”

OOC: Sorry for not posting earlier today - been busy


IC:

Aimienna looks back and forth at Barock and Taya as well as glances in the direction of Wur. "Getting over the walls itself is not or should not be an issue for some of us; I could just climb over them, for instance. My worry is getting us all to the temple. The air force is mostly a mix of small wind drakes, um," she pauses for a second and then looks at Taya and Wur. "We call them wyverns, but they are not the more standard wyvern you may be familiar with, although they are quite similar in form and closely related. Microdraco aeolus if you know the Drudic name. They will be partially supported by ornithopters, although we have a few larger drakes as well. The ornithopters are light; they weigh about two-hundred and fifty pounds apiece, and have a crew of two, but they are not concealed inside. We would need to conceal both the ornithopters and the aviators, and Barock I am not certain it could fly both you and your armor at once as well as a second person. More practical I think is that we have drop vessels, but we would need two wyverns to carry that, and yes, the weight of the passengers does count toward the weight of the vehicle. The wyverns are intelligent enough to set us down gently and not simply drop us, which is why I do not recommend the winged serpents."

"How much do we all weigh?" Aimienna asks. "There is also the question if two wyverns alone could carry all of us, in which case we might need another container," she adds. "I am about one-hundred and sixty or so, counting everything I will be carrying."

Venser quickly estimated the weight of his equipment. He weighed about one hundred eighty pounds by himself, having the naturally light frame of an elf but being well-muscled from years of competitive fencing and adventuring. He'd not taken the time to weigh his equipment, but he estimated it was not more than 40 pounds, an extremely light load for an armed and armored adventurer but very suitable to Venser's style.

"I estimate about 220 for myself and my gear," he said. He shuddered to think how much Barock was carrying--even just his suit of armor alone was probably greater than Venser's entire load. He did have an interesting idea about that, though. "The spell reduce person can be dismissed by the caster at will, if I recall correctly." Of course, he didn't have any formal schooling in magic, but that hadn't stopped him from picking up the basics. "I believe it also greatly reduces weight. It might be worth casting such a minor spell to make transportation considerably easier."

That was what Venser liked about magic, he decided. There was a spell for everything. He would continue to study it, he decided, in the way he had been doing, and perhaps eventually he would attend a college to formalize his knowledge. He was still rather young, and had hundreds of years ahead of him.

Despite a very different build, Barock was about the same weight than Venser, but his equipment was far heavier.
”I would account for about 330 pounds” Barock said ”but some of my usual equipment isn’t strictly necessary for this mission, so I could reduce my weight to 300 pounds if need be…”
“As for the idea of using reduce person… that could work, but only if we have a caster that is powerful enough to make to last long enough...”

Jisanne grimaced. No one should ever ask a woman how much she weighs. It's not polite. But she knew it was important in this case, so she spoke up. "With all of my equipment, no more than 150."

Wur and I with equipment, should add up to less than 125 lbs.

OOC: Sorry for the wait, although I notice a lack of activity elsewhere on the forum (are you waiting for me?)...

Photoshop is being a pill. I'm going to try using Maptool for my map-making - it looks like that will work, in which case you should expect an IC post from me in a day or two with maps.

Also, before you respond, I'll be writing an OOC post that you probably should at least know of, even if it does not matter to any of your characters (which I doubt it will, given their personalities, but still you should know it).

IC:

Aimienna looks over the group, nodding, and obviously counting in her head. "We still weigh close to half a ton all totaled, then," she says. "The container that holds us will need to be sturdy. It will need to weigh hundreds of pounds itself. One wyvern will not be able to carry that, and I doubt two will either. We will likely need two pair of wyverns, with two containers. With wands, that will afford us three minutes of invisibility," she adds, doing more math. "They should be able to fly us from out of bowshot and into the city in that time, although anyone watching the north wall will see us doing this, and expect some kind of trick, unless we can find a convenient hill or sand dune to hide behind," she continues.

"There are some of those on the north side, but they're a half mile away," Garo mentions.

"Thank you, Garo," she replies, and then calculates. "A mile in three minutes is twenty miles per hour, and I'm sure the wyverns can fly that even while carrying us, if we do two light loads that is as I suggested with four wyverns. That will get us to the temple," she continues.

"That leaves us with the fact that we should wait to come until the main attack strikes later this afternoon, so we will have as much distraction as possible," Aimienna says. "We all have plenty of time to care for whatever needs to be done first. Have you any concerns, or are you otherwise ready?"

"I'm ready, Princess," Jisanne replied. It looked like they had the rest of the morning free. She didn't have anything particular to do, but perhaps she'd spend some time trying to get to know the others in the group personally and not just professionally.

OOC: As per Lighthawk's request, we'll start off before leaving.


IC:

Hours pass as the Hylarin camp sends out sorties of forces in various directions as engines of destruction from onagers to bombards are assembled and set up, and columns of infantry and cavalry archers move into position to shoot at any defenders on the city walls who try to shoot back at the artillery. Elsewhere, a sortie is made ready of the gifts of the Priestesses: wyvern-like beasts of the air and two huge flying serpents, and other, smaller, kin of the great Dragons, to attack the city from the air. Riders also head away to the south to investigate threats of a religious nature, as well as pursue any fleeing bandit kings who have allied their men to the Dark Prince and the blasphemous priest-kings of the city, just as the priest-kings themselves have done.

There are skirmishes and small battles everywhere as the Imperial armies catch groups of riders in the south, infiltration groups from the city raid the outskirts of the Imperial camp, and archers on the city walls periodically harass the siege engines as they are set up with their extremely long-range bows, and are counter-attacked in turn. The Imperial army of the Hylar and other tribes is supported by a council of eight priestesses from the Temple, Aimienna being one of them, and they advise and take part in the day's activities extensively, being well aware of when and where and who can easily be resurrected, and risking liberally those men and women who are safe. Whether the followers of Tizalk or of His blasphemous prophet or the bandit kings take lessons directly from the Dark Prince or not, they apply the same tactics, and few doubt that some of the skirmishes fought today will repeat themselves in future days or weeks, right down to containing the same combatants, and the same names on the list of casualties. By early afternoon, two of the priestesses themselves have been killed, but both will be revived; their destinies are to prevail or perish before the Temple of the Wind, not to be shot by an archer on the wall of a city trying to duplicate the Wind Temple's power, nor be stabbed in her tent by an assassin whose master is trying to do the same. The assassin will also be revived, however: his destiny is to perish in his god-king's palace, if he is going to, not in a tent after making a successful assassination.

Like her seven 'sisters', Aimienna seems to be everywhere at once. She is not personally commanding the troops - the generals trained to lead armies do that - she is making sure that the conflicts fought result in the fewest actual losses by arranging the threads of destiny so that the extraneous combat involves people whose real trials are either before them or lie behind them in triumph. Despite being on several of the sorties, she is also available in the camp for any of the companions who need her. She also seems to hope that the infiltration groups from the city get sent after her, since even if they, like she, can be revived, it may still waste their time that they could spend going after somebody who would need to be replaced.

In the early afternoon, the general sounds his horn call, and more horns answer it, followed by the cacophony of the bombards signaling that the first day of the siege has truly begun. They are answered by fire from the walls, as the city's own artillery answers that built by the engineers of Khelad-Mara. Meanwhile, the commando party assigned to the raid on the ziggurat in the city itself is relocated behind a bluff north of the city where several wyverns are congregating, along with several wagons.

Upon arrival, a grizzled elf named Iludin, the captain of the wyvern riders, dismounts from his steed and approaches the companions with a salute. Aimienna salutes him back, and after a moment of not understanding, Garo does the same. "It is time. Do you need any further preparations? Spells? Time to cast them? Or are you ready?"

OOC: The bluff is about where the top of the letter 'F' is in this map

”I will need to magically enhance one of my weapons…” Barock replied ”What do you think will be the most beneficial against the enemies we will be facing, my hammer or my axe?”

Captain Iludin's mouth widens out as he makes an expression indicating that he does not know.

"I am a priest first and only second a warrior, so there may be something I am not thinking of," Garo says, answering as best he can, "if you are thinking of the restless dead, Tizalk's mortal servants do not learn necromancy, only the summoning of devils and demons from the netherworlds. I have never knowingly seen Tizalk himself, but I believe he will have similar powers."

Barock nodded and then said:
”In that case I will just go with the hammer…”
Barock then proceeded with casting a spell that gave his hammer a good magical enchantment for many hours. He also took a magic crystal from his belt pouch and attached it to the hammer.

Then after a bit of consideration he also casted Magic circle against evil on himself as well as Conviction

Barock uses 28 mana to cast the 3 spells
For the next 9 hours Barock’s hammer is a +2 weapon with 1d6 lightning damage (from the crystal)
For the next 90 minutes he and everyone within 10 feet of him is protected from evil and in addition Barock has an additional +3 bonus to saves from Conviction (the bonus is a morale bonus and therefor stack with resistance bonuses) for 90 minutes as well
”That should do it!” Barock said with satisfaction in his voice ”I am ready to go now…”

Barock was quite excited about the coming flight, as he had never tried to fly in such a way before. Unlike most dwarves Barock was not nervous about getting his feet off solid ground, because he had long ago gotten used to flying by using the flying spell that was granted by his travel domain.

Venser quietly watched Barock cast his spells. He himself had a few to get himself out of a tight spot, but preferred to rely on his wits instead of magic.

He turned to the captain. "I am ready when everyone else is." He looked meaningfully at Taya, whom he suspected might have a spell or two she wanted to cast before entering battle as well, as well as possibly Aimienna and Garo.

Barock suddenly remembered that there was a spell he had forgotten to cast. ”Just a moment he” said and casted Longstrider on himself "Now I am ready"
(Barock uses 3 domain mana points)