Scouting The Arena

Viktor and Tomas are pleased to see them all and come over to greet them, shaking Winnacer firmly by the hand. Winnacer introduces Tomas Kopetzky, the Dragons #2 in Dvur, to Bennett, Yaz, Jihan and Will, as they have not met him before.

Once the introductions have been made, talk soon turns to the plans in order to scout out the arena. Boris starts off by giving a summary of the conversations that they had the previous evening regarding how they intend to assault the arena, taking out not only the arena itself but also as many Nyemetz nobles as they can too. Viktor nods as he listens:

"Sounds like the basis of a reasonable plan to me," comments Viktor, "but we need to get a great deal more information than that before we can finalize everything. First thing that we need to do is case the joint, and that might not be such an easy exercise considering that our scouts disappeared last time we tried it."

Boris grins in response:

"Shouldn't be as much of a problem this time. Yaz 'as got an 'elper that means that we don't 'ave to get too close," he says pointing to Heathcliff, who is still perched on Yaz' shoulder.

"Excellent," Viktor replies. "How far away can you guide him from?"

"I still have to get in fairly close, unfortunately," says Yaz.

"Very well," responds Viktor. "What I think that we should do is that Tomas should stay here with all of our men plus Corrow, plus your squires and your dwarven friend. I seem to remember that stealth is not his specialty from the mess that he made of much of the town square in Dvur."

"Boris, myself and the rest of you should go to check out the place."

They all agree and so the nine of them set off towards the arena. Dusk is falling as they make their way towards the arena, riding through the woods so as to take the most direct route and also so as not to be seen approaching the place. Halfway to their destination, it starts snowing and wet snowflakes start to fall slowly from the skies:

"First snowfall of the winter," grumbles Boris. "It ain't the time of year to be messin' about out o' doors."

Yaz, conversely is delighted to see the snowfall:

"If only this keeps up for most of tomorrow as well," he smiles, "then I should be able to unleash some more of Prirodna's gifts to add to Flint's."

They carry on traveling for another 15 minutes and then Viktor brings them to a stop:

"We're very close now," he whispers. "We should leave the horses here and make the rest of our way on foot."

They tie up their mounts and then, as quietly as they can, they carry on towards the arena. As they reach the brow of a hill, they can just see a wooden fence through the trees that obscure their view.

"I don't think that we should approach any closer than this," suggests Viktor. "They're bound to have sentries posted around the place and we don't want to run into them."

"I still need to get a little closer in order to see through Heathcliff's eyes," says Yaz.

"Perhaps you and I should creep a little closer to the arena," suggests Jihan. "The others can stay here and provide back up if we get into any difficulties."

Yaz nods his head in agreement and so the two of them very carefully make their way forwards towards the arena itself, moving from tree to tree and making the best us of the poor visibility provided by the darkness and the gently falling snow.

"OK, I think that this should be close enough," says Yaz, kneeling down before a tree.

He then takes Heathcliff from his shoulder so that the owl rests upon his open hand. He then starts hooting and screeching at the owl, giving him instructions as to what information he needs to obtain. With that accomplished, he starts to cast upon the owl and then sets Heathcliff into the air.

He gives Jihan a running commentary as he looks through Heathcliff's eyes:

"OK, he's above the complex now. It's circular in shape, the whole place having a diameter of about 120 yards. The whole place is surrounded by a wall made from logs. It is about seven-foot tall with spikes at the top. There's no walkway on it or watchtowers, however."

"Let's have a look at what security they have. There are a couple of guards at the gate and I can see one walking around inside. There's another two on sentry duty patrolling the circumference just outside the walls."

"As for the layout of the place, it's pretty simple. Half of the complex is taken up by the fighting pit, which is surrounded by three wooden buildings. The pit's pretty massive, about forty by eighty yards by the look of it. It looks to be about 10' deep and has wooden stakes around the outside angled inwards to make sure that the animals don't get out."

"Most of the rest of the complex is taken up by seating, arranged in a semi-circle so as to best take advantage of the natural amphitheater. There are a couple of buildings at the back of the seating. They are open to the front, so I guess that it must be special facilities for the V.I.P's. There's just a couple of small structures at the entrance to the complex at the south. One looks like a guardroom, while the other one must be a ticket office, I guess."

"I need to find out where the animals are kept. I'm taking Heathcliff down lower in order to take a look."

"That must be where they keep them. The building at the back is divided into small pens. That's gotta be it. They're empty at the moment, so I guess that they're…"

"F*ck! There's an eagle heading straight for Heathcliff. Ouch! The eagle's given Heathcliff a nasty peck! Shit, I've got to try and help him."

Yaz immediately breaks the spell and starts to rush towards the arena in order to try and assist his feathered friend. As Yaz and Jihan rush towards the arena, they watch the aerial combat happening overhead.

Heathcliff wheels and brings his talons forth in order to try and retaliate against the eagle, but the eagle moves too fast for him and so avoids any damage. Before Heathcliff realizes, the eagle is coming for him again and rips out one of Heathcliff's eyes with its claws.

Heathcliff is obviously doing badly, but bravely wheels round again to make another attack as Yaz and Jihan carry on towards the combat. Heathcliff manages to get some revenge for his missing eye and both pecks and slashes at the eagle. The eagle strikes back and Yaz looks up in alarm to see the eagle ripping one of Heathcliff's wings off with its talons, sending the unfortunate owl plummeting to the ground:

"Pull up, pull up, damn you!" shouts Yaz as he watches Heathcliff's lifeless form spiraling downwards before crashing into the ground.

Yaz looks sadly at Jihan:

"Heathcliff's bought it," he says to the elf before turning to the eagle flying above the arena.

"BASTARD!" he shouts. "YOU KILLED HEATHCLIFF!"

Wary of the fact that there is a great danger of being spotted by the sentries, Jihan drags Yaz backwards so as to meet up with the rest of the party.

"I've never known an eagle attack an owl before," says Jihan on the journey back.

"Me neither," says Yaz. "I have a feeling that I'm not the only one with animal allies."

After five minutes, they are back with the others and recount the sorry tale to them. They commiserate with Yaz over Heathcliff's fate. The druid is silent for a moment and then realizes that it serves only to harden his resolve to destroy the arena and everything to do with it. He tells the others about the layout of the arena.

"Looks as if it is the same as last time," says Viktor as he hears Yaz describing the place. "Let me draw you a map."

Viktor proceeds to scratch out a map in the soft, damp earth, creating a good representation of what Yaz saw through Heathcliff's eyes.

"So the plan is that we 'it the bookies durin' the games at the same time that yer blows up the spectators?" asks Boris.

"Sounds damn fine to me," responds Bennett, "even better than what I thought, plus it would serve the purpose of distracting the guards even better, as the bookies' office is on the premises."

"No," says Yaz, shaking his head, "I ain't watching no animals fight to the death -- not for people's entertainment. If we do this, we do it during the first fight. Maybe we can set the powder so it doesn't blow up the bookie's office... but even if it does, it'll just take a little scrounging to gather up your money. And scrounging around on the nobles' dead bodies is bound to bring you more than anything else."

"We gotta find out how well-guarded the pens are," says Bennett, "as the best strategy would be for Yaz to charm some of the nastiest animals, serving the dual purpose of protecting them from killing themselves, and protecting us from getting killed by them, while allowing them to get revenge on those who are paying to watch their deaths. Would that be all right, Yaz?".

Yaz nods his agreement.

"It shouldn't be a problem to make our move during the first bout of the games, or just a minute or so before, as all of the entrance money will be in by that time, plus the lion's share of the bets. Sounds fine to me."

"So what do we do now? Shall we perform more scouting, or wait and see what happens in the morning?"

Yaz then goes to Gertrude and informs her of Heathcliff's death. It is a sad sight for the rest of them to behold as they see Yaz communicating with the owl, who cries out and stretches her wings out wide. Although Yaz had only charmed her mate, the owl seems to find comfort in Yaz's presence and does not fly off. Yaz gives her time to mourn but warns her not to fly too close to the arena.

"Any chance the Lady knows you're here?" Bennett asks Yaz after hearing of Heathcliff's sad demise. "She seemed a cunning sort and might have been able to figure out whether Heathcliff was your familiar. Or do you think she just set the eagle to kill all the aerial intruders? I don't want to set ourselves up to walk into something they're ready for."

"My thoughts exactly," interjects Will before Yaz has a chance to respond. "I think that we would be foolish to assume that she didn't expect Yaz, and the others of us that met her. Hopefully, she doesn't know of our reinforcements, although I wouldn't put it past her. She seemed to be very informed of anything that goes on in the forest here."

"I would like to find her," says Yaz. "She must be here... Jihan, I need to get within 120 yards of the entire compound. I'm going to try to spiritually locate her holy symbol, the golden ankh she wears. Then we'll at least know where she is staying. And if Maire has an invisibility spell she can cast on me, perhaps I can even get close enough for a Charm on her tonight!"

"We should also do a thorough scan of this area for 'listening' animals. Eladria screwed us last time by finding out about our plans... we don't want that to happen again."

"Amen brother Yaz," Will replies. "She certainly threw the proverbial crowbar in our axle spokes last time."

Meanwhile, Winnacer considers the options, thumping his temples lightly in thought:

"Are you sure it's just Nyemetz nobles who are going to be sitting in those stands? I would hate to kill others not deserving of it."

"That's been worrying me rather, to tell you the truth," says Viktor, looking a little concerned. "I suppose that depends upon how you define 'Nyemetz'. After all, the vast majority of Lord Protektors are actually Bohavians that are sympathetic to the Nyemetz, such as Malek, Strakota, Reinburger and the rest. Many of those who are present are not Lords at all, but will be rich merchants. While it is certainly true that the majority of nobles and merchants have to work with the Nyemetz to a greater or lesser extent, quite a few of them would be sympathetic to a free Bohavia, I'm sure. However, telling them apart is a tricky exercise."

"I'm not sure that we'd be fully in support of your plans if you were to blow up everyone present in the place, as you would be sure to take out quite a few people who are neutral to the cause, if not actively sympathetic. To go around recklessly killing individuals is against our principles, somewhat. Although the Diamonds never think twice about taking a life in order to forward their aims, for us it is very much a last resort and a clumsy way of pursuing our business."

"If I were you, then I would concentrate upon the V.I.P suites, as you can guarantee that the vast majority of them within will be Nyemetz lords. However, I'd appreciate it if you could give us a few minutes warning before you blow the place so that we can insure that anyone who we know who is definitely not with the Nyemetz can be escorted out in time."

As he finishes, they notice Viktor and Boris nervously exchanging glances.

"But anyway, very few of us are needed to set up the charges," continues Winnacer. "Actually just Flint, to be honest. Turning him invisible and setting him loose may be all we need to do to tackle that problem." Winnacer looks over at Flint again and adds, "I hope."

"You do bleeding right to hope," replies Flint in his usual sullen way. "You'll need more than bloody hope if you reckon that I'm going to be able to set off my Holy Powder in this shit," he says holding his hand up and letting the snow settle upon it.

"Every time you want be to bleeding blow something up, you get me to try and do it while it's either pissing with rain, or f*cking snowing. How many times do I need to tell you that my powder ain't worth a rat's arse in this f*cking weather. So you can f*cking forget about me trying to lay charges outside unless it stops snowing and then dries out before it's time."

"Which is highly unlikely," interjects Yaz, looking up at the solid cloudcover.

"So that's that plan bolloxed then," Flint finishes. "I either set up the powder indoors or else we might as well all go home and go and blow something else up instead."

"The rest of the scouting will have to happen on the inside," continues Winnacer. "One bunch of us is perhaps too well known to go poking around, so Yaz, Jihan, Will, and Bennett should probably head straight for the pens to elicit Yaz's particular brand of aid. Xavier, Faewen'il and myself should concern ourselves with finding this Eladria character as well as the husband and neutralizing them before they have a chance to interfere. They do not know us from a hole in the ground. With Xavier and I playing bodyguard to a noble Faewen'il, we should be able to move around unaccosted."

"Finally, the Dragons can concern themselves with the ticket office. I have the feeling this is not the first time they have run such an operation. We should set a time when we should get everything go off, or perhaps a signal of some sort. How long will it take to mine the place, Flint? If we can coordinate our attacks, we will devastate them. Otherwise, we may have some problems."

Flint looks at the map:

"What sort of scale is it to?" the dwarf asks, acting relatively normally for a change, as he puts his warped mind to his favorite challenge, sucking on a now rather soggy cheroot.

"Those V.I.P. areas are about 25 by ten paces each," Viktor says.

"I reckon that it will take about five minutes apiece to set the charges and set the fuses off, and then we'll need another minute or so to get out of the area."

A look of sarcasm then crosses the dwarf's face as he looks at Winnacer.

"In my experience, however, people aren't terribly co-operative when you try and blow them up. Only very rarely do they stand and watch as you sprinkle powder around their feet before setting off the fuses and running away from it as fast as you can. In my experience, they usually try and stop me from finishing the job, which usually involves trying to kill me. As a result, I try to make sure that no one sees me when I'm trying to blow stuff up."

"The dwarf's got a point," nods Viktor. "We've got to find a way for Flint to get in there and set the charges without anyone noticing, and then there's the exercise to set the fuses off."

"As for our plans," adds Boris. "What we was planning was for Tomas an' I plus ten o' the boys and p'raps Corrow, if we can talk 'im into it, entering the place disguised as nobles an' then 'it the bookies' office as soon as all 'ell starts to break loose. Meanwhile, Viktor an' the remainin' eight lads'll be waitin' in the forest just outside the main entrance. As soon as the alarm goes off, they'll 'it the ticket office to take out all o' the admission money an' also to keep the exit open for us so that we can scarper as soon as we've got the money from the bookies."

Winnacer nods at the Dragons' plans and then nervously turns to Faewen'il:

"Errm…Faewen'il…errm…we were wondering, if it would be too much trouble for you, if you would do us the honor of making Flint invisible so that he could place the charges. Of course, that's just one possible idea and I'm sure that you have several of your own, so I wouldn't like you to think that I was ordering you to do it. Certainly not. Wouldn't dream of doing anything like that at all. But it would be a way of managing to complete the task with the minimum danger to everyone concerned."

"Errm…and if it wouldn't be too much trouble, then could you please explain to Flint EXACTLY what he should or shouldn't do as he can be a little difficult at times … errm … not that there's anything wrong with people being a bit difficult, I mean, but just so that he understands the situation so he doesn't get into any more difficulties."

Bennett, who is no use for scouting in any case, looks over the map, attempting to keep track of where the guards might possibly be, plus paying particular attention to the VIP boxes, giving priority to killing these fellows.

"We still have to figure out how to get Flinty inside so he can drop the bomb on these fellas, literally," he says.

Bennett spends quite a while scouring the map, looking for entrances, exits, death-traps and attempting to come up with some good strategy.

While Bennett spends time poring over the map, Winnacer walks over to Yaz and Faewen'il before speaking:

"I perhaps am getting ahead of myself, but I have been thinking about the fur farm proper. I know that Yaz wishes it to be erased from the face of Bohavia, but I had a strange thought that I figured I'd put past you both."

"With all this talk of breeding practices and changing the Nature of animals, I was wondering if we could do something to affect the worgs at the farm. If it was possible to implant suggestions or charms into the beasts for the mounts to turn on their masters with a certain signal, perhaps destroying the farm would not be necessary. If we were to take control over the farm, we could continue to sell worgs to the Nyemetz, using the Dragons as a front. It would give us a second stronghold to possibly use, an income that comes straight from the Nyemetz coffers, and an unseen ally in the conflicts to come. Even if we cannot do this task immediately, perhaps those Master Mages can. The powerful fortifications and larger size of the fortress/farm would probably better serve the Mages than the Tower, and if the Dragons were to run the show no one would be the wiser that they were around. Is this possibility even worth further discussion or is it that far-fetched? I would like to attempt to put every fortress we clear out to some good use, and there really is no better hiding place than right under the Nyemetz' noses, especially when they are busy beating each other to death."

Viktor wraps his thick woolen cloak tightly around him, shivering as he stands in the falling snow:

"So are we planning any more scouting activity or anything else this evening?" he asks. "If so, then I think we should do it now. If not, then I suggest that we all make our way back to Dvur so as to get a few hours rest in the warmth. The games start at noon tomorrow, so we've got plenty of time to get back here in the morning. There's no point in standing around here all night getting cold and wet as, if it's just plans that we're making, then we can do that just as easily in the safehouse."

"It's not a stupid idea," Yaz replies to Winnacer's suggestion about taking over the fur farm and charming the worgs, "but I'm not too comfortable sending worgs to live with the Nyemetz. I can only imagine how they're treated. And rebelling against their masters, while it may cause the orcs some damage, would usually result in the animals' death. They are kept in cages, on chains... not a real powerful position. I like the idea... but I wouldn't be willing to sacrifice them... even if they were to agree to do it. Besides, we'd have to be sure that a rebellion like that would be worth more than simply cutting off their supply of wolf mounts entirely. I'm not sure which is better.

"BUT - your suggestion might work in cleansing out the fur farm itself. If we want to keep the place standing, an animal rebellion would be juicy..."

Yaz looks over his shoulder to make sure Flint didn't hear that.

"I think we have done all the scouting we can for now," Jihan replies to Viktor's question. "The only way we'll gain anything further is to make a direct approach and get right in there, which may be dangerous right now without some sort of distraction or magickal concealment... If not for that," he continues quickly, "then we'll just have to wait for the morning and the start of the games to make our move. If anyone wants to do anything else, then speak up now."

Yaz has been deep in thought regarding the dangers of blowing up the whole complex and everyone inside it. He looks disappointed that the entire place likely won't go up in cinders, but shrugs:

"Guess you're right, wouldn't wanna blow up some noble's young family or anything."

"I got another option for the Nyemetz though. What it we placed charges inside the VIP box TONIGHT, buried in the floor or hidden in the rafters... then with a blast of lightning tomorrow at noon. I could blow the whole thing to bits without even being close to the place. Y'know, we could even get Gertrude to fly up and drop specially-prepared charges onto the roof of the building. If she does it tonight, we could wrap the stuff in waterproofing -- oiled canvas or something -- and let the snow cover it up. No fuse required!"

"I hate to risk Gertrude on such a mission, but if she flies stealthily, like owls are made to do, she should have no problem. Especially at night."

Yaz looks up at the gently tumbling snow and then reconsiders:

"Actually, scratch that idea of the snow covering up some charges. I don't think that this snowfall is going to be heavy enough to cover anything with snow."

Winnacer furrows his brow while considering this idea:

"Could be feasible. Are you sure that you can be that accurate? Can the lightning bolts do the job on their own? If you can conjure up such power, we may be better served using it on the guards. Faewen'il's sorcerous missiles never seem to miss, so perhaps we would be best served using her powers to set off the mines while using these newfangled lightning powers of yours against tougher targets. That, of course, assumes that Faewen'il's spells can perform like that, and the powder can be detonated like that. But no matter which way we try to mine the buildings, we should attempt to destroy the guard's office as well."

"The lightning would catch the powder for sure, in a 10-foot radius of the strike point," Yaz replies. "We could place the powder so it causes a chain reaction with the other charges, and blows up the whole row of boxes. But if Maire's bolts could trigger it, that'd let me strike the guard's office with lightning instead. Why not try it out right now? Maire', do you have that glowing arrow spell ready? Flint, you wanna lay out a bit of powder and see if it catches?"

"I don't that that would be a very good idea right at this minute," interjects Viktor. "We are only half a mile from the arena here and so the sound of an explosion would have guards running here in an instance."

"The nice thing about Prirodna's lightning," continues Yaz, "is that it lasts for about an hour, and I can bring a bolt down every 10 minutes or so. So if we get into trouble... zot!"

Yaz grins.

"Another thing we could do is have Jihan fire flaming arrows at the powder."

Flint has been listening to the conversation concerning the way to destroy the VIP boxes with great interest. He adds his comments to those of the others:

"I don't think there should be much of a problem in setting off the charges," he says, remarkably helpfully. "Lightning should do it, a flame arrow should do it, although always my favorite way of doing it when I'm in a rush is to give it a good blast from 'Towcester'. That DEFINITELY would do it. Looks like the problem we've got is to get the powder in there. I'm not sure as to whether they would notice it if we dropped a big bag of powder on the roofs of the buildings as they could be spotted quite easily. Under the floor or in the rafters, however, would work just fine. There would be little chance of them discovering that until…"

"BOOOOOOMMMM!!!!" he shouts excitedly.

"Boris, do you think we should scout the Farm tonight?" Yaz asks. "Would that be useful? Let me know, and we'll do it on our way back."

Boris gives a little shrug in response:

"It's up to you whether you wanna scout out the fur farm. Our plans are only to take out the gold from the games. We weren't thinkin' o' takin' out the farm, as I doubt that there'll be much in there for us. As a favor to all o' yers, I might be able to get the boys to give yer a hand, but only if we ain't too beat up after takin' out the guards from the games. We can't afford to lose many men as a result of this operation, not after losin' so many of em in Pardubitze."

Yaz thinks for a second:

"And the best time for charming the animals might be while they're on their way from the Farm to the Arena tomorrow morning. Perhaps we can keep an eye on the road tomorrow so I can get a few spells off?"

"However, before we finalize our plans, there's something that I think I should do, and that's to check that Eladria is nowhere around us this very minute listening to everything that we are planning as that would ruin everything. Bear with me, this might take a little while"

Yaz takes a piece of lodestone in his hands, closes his eyes and then starts to chant, picturing Eladria's golden ankh in his mind as he does so.

The rest of them all wait around watching the druid as he continues chanting for a period of ten minutes. Eventually, he stops his chanting and opens his eyes.

He shakes his head as he speaks:

"Well she's nowhere close to us at this moment, so hopefully we still have the element of surprise."

"That's a good job," replies Boris. "If we lose that, then we might as well give the 'ole thing up."