rolled 2, 3 + 2 = 7

Rolling.

what time of day it it?

Apologies for the delay, I've had some technical difficulties.

726 2A (Second Age), August 16th

It is late at night when you set out for Veridia. You, Shara, and Veshkir travel by night so as to avoid detection, and just after sunset the first night you spot the glow of a fire in the distance. Veshkir scouts ahead and soon returns, informing you that four of the hated Kef in heavy steel armor await there. Kef are stronger than Gerdo by far, and these ones are heavily armored on top of it. You may not wish to risk a confrontation this early on, when a single failure could undo you completely. Ultimately, of course, the choice is yours.

>What do you do?

>>14987368
Is it possible to bait one of the guards?
Both of our people are Koyani, and they are on a kill-on-sight basis against the Kef, right?
How visibly Koyani are they? Can they sound like a Kef?

tldr; Try divide-and-conquer, or at least, divide-and-slaugter.

>>14987368
avoid them for now, our goal is the bishop's rescue so as to save the lives of koyani fortresses in the area

The Kef are very similar to the Koyani. Unlike the Koyani, Kef have a much darker range of hair and skin colors, and their defining trait is their nearly footlong, pointed ears. Passing off your Koyani as Kef on sight will be impossible without some sort of explanation as to why they're pale, white-haired, and with short, round ears, but they sound almost exactly the same.

Shara calls out to the Kef from the darkness "Help! It's the Koyani! Somebody please help!" The Kef glance up from the game of dice they'd been playing, and two of them step cautiously towards the sound of Shara's voice, asking "Who goes there?"

The ambush doesn't go as well as you might hope. You get the drop on them, and your blackened sword cuts through their armor like tissue paper, but they are skilled combatants. Even with Shara and Veshkir supporting you with their bows, the battle goes poorly.

Health: 8/13
Torment: 3/10

>>14987538

Hrm. I apologize, I forgot to refresh before responding and missed your comment.

>>14987538
Can we at least tell a couple of our scouts to bait them in a wild goose chase?
A distraction, and also, to divert them from whatever duties they had in the first place. They might have been reinforcements for attacking our base.

>>14987625
Ninja'ed by OP.

Well, get whatever functional equipments and gears you and your people can get.

You've slain one of the Heavy Kef, and the other, wounded, withdraws. The other two attack with their bows, and with deadly accuracy!

Health: 2/13
Torment: 3/10

I suppose I should add, what do you do?

>>14987742
fall back into cover, quickly!

thats a shitload of health we just lost

>>14987812

As you retreat, the Heavy Kef raise their bows to fire again, but Shara and Veshkir distract them in order to draw their fire. The Kef fire on them, and Shara is hit in the arm, but she and Veshkir are able to escape into the darkness. The Kef don't bother pursuing, but instead retreat to their camp to tend to their wounded comrade.

Now that you have a chance to focus, you can heal yourself for one Torment, and Shara for two.

>What do you do?

>>14987868
heal ourselves, im afraid shara is just going to have to suck it up until we have some torment points to spare

bump for a quest with serious promise

>>14987868
We'll have to heal ourselves, and hopefully find a Gerdo scouting party to Torment to be able to heal Shara.

>>14987933

Very well, Your flesh stitches itself back together and bones snap back into place as you transmute yourself whole once more.

Health: 13/13
Torment: 2/10

>When you are ready, roll 2d6+10 to continue your journey.

Heal ourselves, if nothing else. We're weak, real weak. Made a bad choice, I did.

rolled 1, 5 + 10 = 16

>>14988005
Have Veshkir bandage Shara as best he can to prevent infection.
We will want to have her healed before we enter Veridia to avoid scrutiny.

>>14988026
seconding this

>>14988026

Veshkir bandages Shara. She's still hurt, but she can definitely keep going, and her injuries are light enough that she can pass normally without them.

August 17th, 726 2A

It is again late at night when Veshkir's superior scouting abilities once again lead him to find the enemy before they find you. This time, you are fortunate enough to encounter only a single lightly armored Kef and his Gerdo lackey. It appears the two of them are out hunting, likely on leave as members of the Veridian garrison. This could prove a good chance to restore some Torment, Lord of Shadows.

>>14988163
We'll want to capture the Kef and kill the Gerdo.
Set up an ambush.

>>14988200
seconding this

>>14988200
This.

You prepare another ambush. Shara prepares to set the bait, and you prepare to fall upon whatever's foolish enough to take it, while Veshkir guards the path leading towards Veridia, just in case one of them tries to bolt.

When Shara calls for help, the Kef immediately shouts to his Gerdo friend to run for help from the guard, while the Kef himself goes to investigate her cries. You drop down from the trees above, wreathed in shadow, but the Kef nimbly dives out of the way. Rolling to his feet, he swings his sword out of you, which you quickly parry aside. You the pommel of your sword into the side of his head hard enough to send him flying a solid three feet before he hits the ground, unconscious.

Veshkir shoots the fleeing Gerdo square in the back, and then pulls out a hunting knife to close in for the kill. The stupid thing never even got a good look at him before it was killed.

Flawless victory.

>>14988348
yay! now torture the shit out of our captive, or, even better, have our two companions do it. i'm sure they'd like something to vent their anger on, being forced out of their homes and lives and all...

>>14988348
Gag the Kef, and drag him to a nice secluded area.
Have Veshkir hide the Gerdo's body.

Once we have the Kef in a safe place, begin skinning him, starting with his legs. Make sure to break the shins, but try to not cause too much internal bleeding; we want him to stay alive as long as possible.
Take him apart, piece by piece.

What is the consensus, Lord of Shadows? Do we skin him ourself, or allow Shara and Veshkir to do it themselves? The former will likely gain more Torment, while the latter is less likely to disturb Ophelia.

>>14988444
Interrogate first, along with prolonged minimal torture. Then when you run out of information or questions, give the Kef to our Koyani to vent some WRATH.

>>14988521

What sort of questions did you have in mind?

>>14988536
I doubt that this one would have known the exact position of our bishop guy, but asking never hurts.
Then positions of other patrols in the area, any passwords, his deepest, darkest memories, his secrets, his SINS...

Delicious, delicious sins...

So long as we're in a lull, I suppose now is a good time for me to mention that Veridia is built on the banks of a river, which provides abundant fish, fertile farmland, and a fast route of travel out to places that are not in the middle of nowhere. It's also home to the same pervasive forests as the country surrounding Nowhereville and your hidden fortress.

The Kef proves very resistant to your tortures. It doesn't help that, your power having only begun to manifest once more, you can't begin to remember the details. Memories of what you're supposed to be doing come close and flit away, and no matter what you try, you can't seem to make them stick. Fortunately, just breaking fingers and pull a few teeth out is enough to exact compliance from the Kef. You gain one Torment, and he informs you that Veridia has been completely cleared of Koyani, and a large population of freed Kef slaves have joined up with the camp followers to provide a meager population for the town. Half the buildings go unused, long since looted to feed the inhabitants, who've now taken up the same farming, fishing, and logging jobs that had once been filled with Koyani.

He also informs you that the garrison is a force to be reckoned with. Dozens of Kef, including several Heavy Kef and at least one Elite Kef, even more powerful, as well as a Paladin of Uriel and half a hundred Gerdo. And that's not counting the smaller forces just a day or two away.

He has no idea where the Bishop Avarius is being held. That's not the sort of information they give out to grunts. But Veridia Castle is a likely candidate.

>>14988809
Stretch the torture out as long as possible. Whether he gives any more information or not doesn't matter. We're going to need all the power we can get if we're going to stand a chance of breaking into this place.

Oh, and what's the opinion of our companions, as far as strategy goes? Barging right into the town is likely to get us killed. Is there a particular route we can take that would help us evade enemy forces? Perhaps there is a sewer or waterways?

>>14988854

It was Veshkir whose keen senses allowed you to get the drop on both Kef forces in the wilderness, and now it is Shara's turn to shine. She is reasonably familiar with the entire city, and she knows the area near the docks and markets in particular like the back of her hand. Since that's also where all the nicest houses are, that's probably where everyone is living. The castle is nestled between the docks, little more than a particularly squat tower a few stories tall, but still the most imposing building in the town. The area surrounding the castle is cleared of buildings on all sides at a distance of thirty feet at least, but Shara can almost certainly get that far without much risk of detection. Most of the Kef were slaves who'd have been kept in the poor parts of town, and those who weren't were soldiers or camp followers who hadn't been here more than a week. Of course, just because she can get herself there doesn't mean she can get YOU there, what with your being the type to draw attention. Under cover of night, you'll be close to invisible, but dawn approaches within just a few hours. Waiting until tomorrow will risk another encounter with patrols.

You've gotten the Kef to admit to having an affair with three separate women even though his wife traveled with him as a camp follower to the army. He describes the affairs in vivid enough detail that you're fairly certain he's telling the truth.

You'd decided to skip skinning the toes, as they're a bit tricky to work with, and had worked your way halfway from the foot to the knee when he'd finished his confession, pleading with you to stop. Feeling a sense of irony, you castrate him, but the job's a bit sloppy and he expires within minutes from the blood loss. Oh, well. You squeezed another point of Torment out of him. Ophelia is forced to watch the whole thing, but her feelings of revulsion and horror at the torture are muted by a seething hatred for the Kef. Otherwise (or even if she'd just been in a more empathic mood), you'd have gotten extra Torment equal to her Compassion, currently two. Oh, well.

It should be noted that while your purpose is to preserve the Koyani as a species, torturing just one of them isn't going to faze Ashtoreth at all, and will provide a good source of Torment if you need it. It's also much more likely to get a reaction from Ophelia.

Health: 13/13
Torment: 4/10

Compassion: 2
Will: 2

>If you intend to wait out the night, roll another 2d6+10

rolled 3, 3 + 10 = 16

Hopefully...

Now isn't this curious? You've not only stumbled across the same basic encounter, I also rolled the exact same numbers to determine how numerous the enemy were.

Another Kef and Gerdo duo come searching through the forest, calling out names which, most likely, once belonged to the Kef and Gerdo you killed last night.

>What do you do?

>>14989156
Ambush them. This time, we intend to capture them both.

rolled 94 = 94

we suck!

rolled 41 = 41

They will be apprehensive to the same tactic we used before, they know something is wrong

I saw the dinotopia picture and I got excited.

Then I realised it was just another quest thread.

My disappointment knows no limit.

>>14989156
Rinse, repeat.

>>14989201
Answer with one of the scouts who had the similar voice as that Kef. They'd know, they have been listening to his tormented voice while we extract some Torment out of the man.

You are agreed to attempt another ambush, then?

rolled 75 = 75

Use the body of Kef as a bait.
At the same time make a commotion like before to seperate them.
We intent to capture both alive

You quickly grab a bit of spare rope and leave last night's Kef hanging from a tree. When this morning's dynamic duo approaches, Shara begins to call for help again. The Kef pulls out his bow and notches an arrow to it, calling out "Who goes there?" Shara continues calling for help, but the Kef is cautious enough to peer through the brush and see her very much non-footlong ears, white hair, and pale skin.

The Kef fires at Shara, who ducks out of the way as you and Veshkir descend from the trees to attack. Veshkir bats the Gerdo's glaive aside, tackles it to the ground, and quickly knocks it unconscious. The Kef struggles pitifully against you, but you easily disarm him and his fists have little effect on your armor.

Another flawless victory.

rolled 60 = 60

Torture ahoy!

be especially cruel to Gerdo as that would gather sympathy from Ophelia

>>14989228

Something goes wrong with the Gerdo, and you end up killing him too quickly. Something weird about their anatomy. You can't seem to get the Kef to list off any sins in particular, but he does list off several regrets, chief among them being ripped from his younger brother, still just a child and having no parents nor anyone at all to care for him, and not being able to kill the bastard what was responsible for it. He's sputtering out oaths of revenge when his body finally notices that there's a dagger where his lungs should be and he succumbs to death. You find Ophelia sobbing in a corner of your mind, grin wickedly, and turn back to reality.

Health: 13/13
Torment: 7/10

Compassion: 3
Will: 2

rolled 20 = 20

can we, You know?
kidnap a random villager and torture them?
10 torment can earn us permenent boost

>>14989228

You can attempt it. However every action you take and every moment you delay brings you closer to discovery in an incredibly hostile environment.

rolled 32 = 32

Sigh

okay

this whole idea was incredinly retarded.
I say we try to sneak into the castle during the darkest hours, climbing the walls, being as stealthy as possible.
Then find the bishop and depending on the situation either save him or kill him so that he doesnt give away the information.

Hm. Can someone archive the thread? I should be getting to sleep. Things seemed rather slow this time. Not as good as last time's, by a wide measure. Can't quite pin down why, though. And I'm not at all sure if the audience shares that opinion.

Regardless, it is August 18th, 726 2A. We'll pick up here later. Hopefully a stronger group of players will help things. As such, I'll be back at 14:00 server time, which seems to be right around when Part 1 took off.

rolled 92 = 92

Sigh

okay

this whole idea was incredinly retarded.
I say we try to sneak into the castle during the darkest hours, climbing the walls, being as stealthy as possible.
Then find the bishop and depending on the situation either save him or kill him so that he doesnt give away the information.

>http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/14987008/

Archived. Please vote up for posterity and etc.

Oh for fuck balls OP, why?

FINDING DINOTOPIA BOOKS AGAIN.