Trooper Darius

"Damn. I hate to say I told you so, but man you guys make it easy,' says Bennett gleefully. "This guy worked hard for you because you were feeding and protecting him. I could tell from his temptation at the Orc Sargeant Skald's offer to worgride that he was just waiting to join back up with his own kind."

Bennett looks at the others with something approaching pity:

"If you want, we can spare him for old time's sake, though I would just as soon massacre the whole subhuman group of them right now. Oh, and before the rose-colored glasses begin to speak, what in the hell does joining up with Nyemetz goblins and orcs have to do with raiding the fur farm, which Darius pretended was so important? This guy is so full of shit, his breath smells!"

Bennett feels utterly justified at last.

"It is possible the fellow could have been forced into a situation where he could not refuse," comments William. "And is awaiting the opportunity to liberate himself. It is only right that he be given the chance to prove his loyalties, whether they be with the Nyemetz, or against."

Jihan cannot respond to Bennett's words, even to look at the man with approval or disapproval. He is momentarily stunned by the possibility of the approaching revelation. Then, shaking his head, he says beneath his breath.

"A plan... he must have a plan... always so overzealous was he, my brother. To learn and gain rank with the enemy, so that he may strike when they are unprepared... so that he may direct us to their weaknesses... A plan..."

Looking anxiously in the direction of the approaching Nyemetz, the elf firms his jaw, putting aside all the doubt that he is able.

"He would not betray us," the elf/dwarf says aloud. "I still have faith in my little brother, as that is the least of things that I owe him. The Nyemetz have nothing to offer him but false glory and guilt. He must have some reason to be doing this. Shall we shadow them and then attempt to approach him personally, invisibly perhaps? Perhaps he has been able, somehow, to convince or otherwise influence these others to strike at the fur farm, spreading propaganda or other such things. We must learn what he is planning to do."

Looking around at the rest of them, there is a look in the elf/dwarf's eyes that brooks no argument:

"I will volunteer for this..."

Winnacer grimaces at the news, then hears Jihan's suggestion and Bennett's accusal. Looking grim he replies:

"Darius has always been a crafty little bugger. Perhaps we should contact him, with the aid of Faewen'il's magic, and see what his story is. Of course there is much risk in this approach."

"But in any case, these Nyemetz are vulnerable and more important than most. It is our duty and obligation to send them to their hell-bound Gods. If we do not contact Darius, we will soon see which side he chooses."

Hearing Winnacer's words, Xavier goes up to him and whispers, not trusting the newcomer yet:

"My lord I have a suggestion, I could join them in my guise as a orc sargeant on leave, and make contact with the little bastard Darius to find out vhat he is up too. Remember ve had not changed our form before he left us. He vill not recognize me, if he has turned betrayer. I warned him once that if he turned against us I would slay the little bastard, and by Rodengast I stick by that vow!!"

Realizing that nighttime would be best to attempt to contact Darius, they decide to follow the goblins at a distance, keeping to the rolling hills to the east of the road to ensure that the goblins do not become aware of their attempts to tail them. As they continue to track the group, they continue to debate the best way of approaching Darius during the night.

From time to time, Jihan scouts ahead to check upon the progress of the goblins, each time seeing that they are continuing upon their journey northwards.

Upon one of these scouting trips, Jihan hears the thundering of hooves coming towards him. He sees that it is a lone horseman riding southwards. The horseman passes the troop of goblins coming from the opposite direction. The silver-coated wolf snaps towards the horse, unnerving it a little, although both riders manage to bring their mounts under control.

As the rider carries on towards Jihan's position, the dwarf/elf realizes that he recognizes the rider. He is one of Viktor's men. He sees that the horse is covered in fine foam, its nostrils wide. Obviously the rider has been riding his mount hard.

As the horsemen is just about to pass by the bush that Jihan is hiding in, the elf sees the troop of goblins turn a corner in the road, passing behind a copse of trees. Seeing that the goblins can no longer see his position, Jihan steps out of the bush and hails the rider.

Somewhat surprised at seeing a strangely dressed dwarf walking out from behind the bush, the rider reins in his mount, bringing the horse to a stop. The rider stares at the curious sight before him and then starts to laugh heartily.

'You're one of them, aren't you?' the rogue says.

'Although I may look like one of them' replies Jihan. 'I assure you that this form is only an illusion.'

'No, not one of "those"!' he says, creasing up with laughter, as he puts his hand on his hip and bends his wrist in an effeminate manner. 'One of THEM! One of them that did over Pavlichek in Hradetz a few days ago.'

'Yes, that's right' says Jihan, somewhat relieved.

'Well, this is a co-incidence!' replies the rogue.

'These past 24 hours have seen nothing but co-incidence' says Jihan, looking towards the heavens, half expecting to see Prirodna sitting on a cloud grinning down at him.

'Well, I've got some news that I think you're going to be very interested in. I'm just off to Hradetz to tell it to Boris.' The rogue replies.

'Well come and tell it to everyone' responds Jihan. 'They are just over that hill.'

Viktor's man follows Jihan towards where the rest of them are waiting for him, somewhat concerned at his lengthy absence. He spies William amongst their ranks and hails him:

'So, you've found them already have you, minstrel?' the rogue says. 'Well that's a bit of a co-incidence.'

'So what's this news that you've got to tell us?' asks Jihan.

'It's Reinburger. The real one, I mean' the rogue says, grinning. 'He was found murdered in his home this morning. There was a poisoned covered dagger found in his back. The hilt of which had a black diamond imbedded in it. And just to make sure that everyone knows that it was payback time, the assassin gouged out his eye, and stuck another black diamond in its place. Must have been quite a picture!'

All of the party are a little stunned at the news.

'Look, I can't spend long here. I need to get to Boris to give him the news straight away and to get the latest progress report off him to give it to the boss. Are there any messages that you would like me to pass on to either Boris or Viktor?'

The rogue listens to their response and then spurs his horse onwards in an attempt to get to Hradetz before dusk.

They carry on with their journey into the afternoon, with Jihan continuing to check upon the goblins' progress. Late in the afternoon, he returns from another of his scouting expeditions with a black look on his face.

'The goblins have met up with another band of Nyemetz. I counted around 20 orcs and 10 orogs. Now they are continuing northwards as a group.'

William shakes his head as he hears Jihan's words:

"A veteran orc sargeant wolf rider, 10 goblins, 20 orcs and 10 orogs! It seems that direct action would be suicidal now. Mayhaps we should wait for Dazbag's light to retire from the skies and approach Darius stealthily tonight."

"Indeed..." Jihan says, with a nervous glance Xavier's way. "I think some of us less predisposed to distrust him should go and have a talk with him tonight, with some cloaking enchantment, if that would be all right with you, Faewen'il," he says, looking towards her direction for approval.

"If we want to risk waiting, we can try the same trick we used to get out of Hradetz, and have two of us cloaked from the eyes of the troop. Violence now appears to be out of the question, even if we were all mounted lancers with two Faewen'ils to support us. We're no Yiris to go and take on an entire platoon by ourselves... yet."

Faewen'il sighs; Darry's expression one of sadness and a tinge of embarrassment.

"I canna be castin tha invisibility lest I wipe me mind clean o tha power... and then it will take me several hours o rest to prepare me body for tha power again. Ye all be thinkin I be more powerful than I am...."

Winnacer shrugs:

"An error on our part. We should have certainly put them to death while we had the chance. Such a warband would likely end our rebellion in one fell swoop."

"I guess this makes contact with Darius more imperative. We need to know why they are forming such an armada. With some luck, it is the Nyemetz band looking to pay back the recent assassination of Reinberger! Now that would be something! I bet Boris wouldn't complain if our little stunt will cause the Nyemetz wrath to fall on the Diamonds. And maybe the Diamonds would take some of them with them. In any case, we must contact Darius and make sure. Because if the Nyemetz are on such a mission of retribution, my face would only cause real problems and we would be better off staying out of town and tackling the fur farm problem."

"Now that is a bit too strong of a group for us' agrees Bennett. "We should have listened to Winnacer and hit them right away. Where to now? I don't think there is any way we can go back to Hradetz with Winnacer in tow, as Reinburger is supposed to be dead and we certainly don't want to let anyone know there are two of them running around. This war between Diamonds and Dvur Witchfinders is nothing but good for the cause and we could kill it pretty quickly by showing his false face around. Also I imagine that now Reinburger is dead the others involved in the deed are high on the target list, meaning.... those two dwarves are going to be hard to keep hidden for long. These disguises are now quite a liability to us, though Xavier's and mine might still be useful. Darius, Jihan, and Winnacer, though, must be kept from Nyemetz contact until the disguises wear off."

Bennett shakes his head when mention is made again of going to the fur farm:

"Why would we go there now? It seemed to me that the main reason we were going was Darius forced us to, fraudulently by the way. I think that going now would only be something to take up the time until the disguises wear off, and a waste of time besides. Rather follow that big group and see what evil Darius is up to. Besides, if he really is a Nyemetz now, none of you can justifiably stop me from killing him as he so richly deserves, and my vow means as much or more to me than yours does, Xavier."

Nodding in agreement with Bennett's original sentiment, Jihan can only shake his head at the rest, his faith in their goblin companion recovered well from the initial rush of thoughts in the negative.

"Darius did not force me to call him brother... he did not force me to care about his welfare... he certainly didn't force me to put any stock in his resolve or commitment. We must think before spilling his life out... think beyond whatever fears or dark thoughts we may harbor. He is not 'just another goblin,' to me at least... I cannot stop justice from being carried out, but I can give my opinion on what justice is, and hope..."

Sighing, he looks around at the rest:

"Well, will this do then, as a plan? We shall wait until night falls, then I shall approach Darius and see what I can find out about his situation. If there is trouble, I shall give the call of the screech owl, and flee from the Nyemetz camp. The rest of you should be well back, so that you will have a lead on them if you must run, or at least be far enough away that their suspicion will not lie on you. When I run, I will run opposite to the direction of the party, and try to make some noise for them to follow me, then I'll make my way silently around and back to rendezvous with you. Direct confrontation will in no way be a part of my actions, if I can help it. What say you?"

They all nod in agreement, seeing that it would be useful in order to get more information concerning the activities of the group. Based upon Jihan's findings, it would be possible for Xavier to approach the Nyemetz as an orc the following day.

They carry on tailing the Nyemetz at a distance. Two hours later, the sun begins to set and Jihan discovers that the Nyemetz have decided to stop and make camp for the evening.

They walk some distance away from the Nyemetz camp, into the hills, until they are less than half a mile from the Nyemetz. This you consider to be a reasonably safe distance, but still within hearing distance so that they could hear Jihan's screech owl call piercing the stillness of the night. Here they stop and wait until it is totally dark. While they are waiting, they start to hear quite a din coming from the direction of the Nyemetz camp. Although it is far away, they can hear a lot of shouting, laughing and the sound of raucous singing, the terrible grunts almost bringing pain to Will's ears. Once Jihan sees that darkness is complete, he bids the others farewell and stealthily makes his way towards the Nyemetz camp.

Without the benefit of an invisibility spell from Faewen'il, Jihan takes care to approach the camp as stealthily as he can, not even wanting to consider the consequences should he be captured by them. It takes him ten minutes before he gets close to the camp, the sound of the Nyemetz' merry-making getting louder with each step.

Deciding that he would prefer to view them from as great a distance as possible, he looks around for a suitable vantage point. He sees a hill to the north of the Nyemetz position covered in scrub. He carefully walks around and approaches the hill from the opposite side, crawling on his belly through the scrub until he is able to get a visual on them. As he comes to the edge, he sees that it is possible to see the entire camp from his position. He is still a fair distance away, but is able to make out all that is there.

The elf sees that the Nyemetz seem to be having some sort of party. He sees canteens being passed around and metal mugs being filled and re-filled. From the stupid state that most of the orcs, orogs and goblins are in, he guesses that the canteens contain some form of liquor.

Amongst their numbers he spies Darius. Jihan notices that the goblin does not seem to be joining in with the jokes and the singing. As Jihan observes him, the elf sees that Darius has been nursing the same mug of liquor for the whole evening, not drinking from it once.

Also among the Nyemetz Jihan see the huge form of the huge silver-coated wolf, sprawled out next to his master. The wolf is a simply stunning animal, much larger than the worgs that he has seen in the past, even Sargeant Sklad's dire wolf. The wolf ignores the antics of the Nyemetz around it, keeping one sapphire blue eye open and sniffing at the air.

Jihan decides to wait for several hours in order to see what transpires. The Nyemetz continue to get more and more drunk until many of them start to fall unconscious, sleeping where they fall.

Darius is observing his comrades closely. Jihan sees him deliberately spill his mug over himself, doing nothing as the liquid seeps into his clothing. He then gets up from where he has been sitting throughout the evening and starts to move in a drunken gait.

The little fellow is obviously up to something.

Tharnald's face breaks into a grin as Jihan sees him start to go round the comatose orcs and goblins with his shortsword in hand. Looking around him, he casually starts to nick the bowstrings of the goblins' bows. As well as cutting the bowstrings, the elf sees him craftily take the purses and other valuables that are upon the goblins' sleeping bodies. He has managed to perform this task on six of them, when the seventh stirs and looks up at Darius. Jihan sees Darius smile a silly grin, stumble a little and then apologize to his comrade and walks off. He sees the goblin walking past the sleeping orogs and orcs. As he passes the most inebriated of them, he drops the purses next to them, kicking the purses, including his own, underneath them, then stumbles back to his position on the outside of the group of goblins, takes a swig of moonshine and then falls asleep.

Jihan looks again at the Nyemetz camp. He sees that they have not bothered to post any sentries. The giant silver wolf, however, continues to keep an eye on everyone.

Nervously the others await the return of Jihan, with or without Darius. It seems as if they have to wait for hours, but eventually, just before midnight, the smiling form of the elf/dwarf makes his way stealthily back to the group alone, giving the OK signal of the cooing dove as he approaches:

"It appears as if our little brother has something interesting planned for the troop... The Nyemetz appear to be totally inebriated as a result of some liquor that I saw them drinking. Once most of them were asleep or otherwise incapacitated, I saw Darius, who remained sober throughout, get up and start to cut the bowstrings of his 'comrades'. He also stole their purses. He managed to perform this action on around half a dozen of them before he aroused their attentions and had to cover up his actions. I then saw him take the purses and place them close to the sleeping forms of the orcs and orogs. So it looks like he's trying to set up the orogs as thieves and saboteurs, to get the rest to turn on them. If we have to engage what is left, we must make special note of the wolf the orc was riding... It looked especially formidable. I think we could wait until morning to see how this clever scheme plays out...unless any of you have any better ideas"

His eyes bright, Jihan is careful not to look at anyone directly. He keeps his gaze fixed back towards the Nyemetz camp, afraid that his eyes will speak his mind in saying "I told you so..."

Winnacer receives the news with a half-smile:

"Rather than cut their bowstrings, our friend should have been cutting their throats. Their numbers are still too great to risk an attack, and it is doubtful that the orcs will do much to the orogs despite believing them to be thieves. Were you able to speak with Darius?"

Jihan shakes his head in response to the question:

"I was not able to contact him as he was always amongst the Nyemetz. I waited to see if he would break away from the group, but he did not."

"Perhaps if he knew we were to ambush them, he would take more direct actions" responds Winnacer. "Plus he could have told you why they are forming such a large band."

"If we are planning on attacking them, then we must pay special attention to taking the wolf out first, with sleep or whatever" comments Jihan. "It was very much alert and watchful over the camp while I was there, and would notice and alert those inside of any approach we might make, even stealthily. Another thing to think about is that, although goblins and perhaps orcs cannot do much while they're drunk, I have heard that the battle prowess of orogs is actually augmented by it. Perhaps if they were entangled in a web or some such. This all assuming that Faewen'il has studied specifically these spells also... I don't know... dispatching them all may be possible... but very risky."

At mention of the big wolf, Winnacer shudders:

"I'm really beginning to hate the vile creatures. But Juggernaut and I have a gift for the lupine bastard." Winnacer taps his heavy lance.

"I wonder if we could use a full-sized worg on OUR side," muses Yaz, a gleam in his eye.

"Without bows, the three warriors can engage in the saddle without getting shot out of our saddles" continues Winnacer. "A well-placed web could be used to tie up the mass of orcs and goblins with sleep spells taking out the rest, while the rest of the group arches down the orogs. Unless you have some more interesting spells, Faewen'il."

"I agree that perhaps we should wait and see how this Darius enterprise works out. But knowing the goblin, he's more prone to dig his own grave the longer we leave him on his own. And the death of the orcish commander, coupled with the death of Reinberger and the destruction of the Witchfinder's HQ, would make Dvur extremely vulnerable to our influences. Hmm... this battle would be quite a challenge, but victory may lie within our grasp. Are you ready to take the revolution to the Nyemetz?"

"I think that it is an excellent plan to wait" Bennett adds. "Hopefully, the great wolf will eat Darius when the goblins are massacred by the orcs and orogs and then we can kill them in vengeance. Then a nice funeral and we're back in business."

Bennett has a half-smile:

"Anyway, if the plan does not work, then at least some hostility will brew because of it. I still think it foolish to confront this large group unless we are absolutely prepared to do everything necessary to take them down, and that may not be the case. The least we can do is see what happens. It probably will work, as goblins are even more moronic than orcs typically. Also Xavier's presence would cause quite a stir, I think, since a Nyemetz orc sargeant would be most unlikely to give other Nyemetz orcs grief. That might even help us somewhat, as he could perhaps send some of them off on a fool's errand while we attack the rest. What say you, Xavier?"

"Yar, it vould be a good idea" replies Xavier. "I am willing if der Lord wishes it. Dividing them vill only make our task easier."