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Lindon’s eyes darted back and forth on the board, eyes skimming information off each piece of paper that had been stuck to it with a pin. Most of it wasn’t worth a second glance, but the odd dread beast or out of control remnant caught his eye.
Missions weren’t the only thing that had been pinned up, there were a handful of schedules, general information about what was going on, and even a fistful of bounties. But still nothing seemed to grab him. Nothing pulled him one way or the other, he was, unsurprisingly, on the fence about this one.
Eithan, however, had already decided which mission they should take before Lindon had even, after much internal debate, approached for his advice. Lindon still couldn’t quite grasp why the man had decided he should choose, but he started accepting that Eithan’s motives were firmly beyond him.
All it was now, was Eithan waiting for Lindon to come to the conclusion that he should just pick whatever one he was looking at so hard and move on. But, a nagging in the back of Lindon’s head had decided that he wasn’t going to let Eithan hand the mission to him on a plate- he had to figure this out himself. Asking for his advice seemed backwards, now that he was so focused on making the decision himself.
“What about that one?” He said, after an uncomfortable silence. It was an old mission, one that the Skysworn had set aside for the moment.
Lindon took Eithan’s silence as an indicator that it was the wrong decision.
He held back a sigh, eyes glancing back at the board, less focused than they had been before. He wasn’t quick to anger, but kicking Eithan every once in a while would be nice. Might wipe that smug smile he wore right off his face… That thought stunned him momentarily, maybe he’d been around Yerin too much (like there was such a thing).
He pointed out another, something about an old research centre lost to something that vaguely resembled a sect but was more like a group of people that had set up a camp and woven a banner.
It had been abandoned for years prior to the sect taking it, but for some reason the Skysworn had suddenly decided that it was worth taking back just before the dreadgods had kicked up a mess again- it was swiftly pushed back to sidelines when more urgent matters came to light.
“Finally! Perfect. Grab the paper, wouldn’t want anyone else intruding on our business, would we?” Eithan’s reaction wasn’t exactly expected, but Lindon took it as a win and moved on. “That’s all you do” Lindon thought, quickly snatching the paper from the board even though it seemed unlikely that anyone else would be taking it any time soon.
He took a closer look as he trudged back to the room that was serving as a temporary meeting/scheming/planning room or as a food hall, depending how you looked at it.
Curiously, the underlord hadn’t followed. He knew better than to question it, he was probably taking some absolutely obscene shortcut.
In simple, neat print, the paper went into more depth about the circumstances surrounding the abandonment of the building, which Lindon promptly ignored. It was followed by a map, some estimates of the sect’s size and their abilities.
Lindon condensed it down to this on a scrap of paper that was strewn over the table:
Objective:
- take back the building and activate any remaining defence scripts
The enemy:
- group of ~30 sacred artists, ranging from lowgold to true gold
- stealth was advised
- weird rhino/elephant looking enforcer technique
- some of them are bonded with what that technique is probably based on
It seemed like it was a standard move, and Lindon left the paper where he’d written it, then taking a seat. Yerin took one glance at it, picked it up and alooked Lindon dead in the eyes. “I can’t read.”
“Uh..right” He said, sheepish, and raised a hand to the back of his neck. He summarised it quickly, and Yerin’s expression didn't change.
“It sounds like an easy ride, but Eithan chose it, didn’t he? Bleed and bury me if he’s giving us a break from his usual antics” Mercy said with a sigh, she had opened one eye to glance at them from her shadowy corner. Lindon noted that some of Yerin’s phrases were rubbing off on them, but he wasn’t complaining.
The Arelius Underlord had been pushing their limits, that much was true, but Lindon knew it was in their best interests. Iff nobody pushed them, monarch would only be a dream. “Speak of the devil.” Yerin added.
In all his fantastically-robed glory, the underlord stood with his usual grin and his hands clasped together. “Exciting, isn’t it?”
“What, the mission? You chose it. Not going to be exciting, Iff anything it’ll probably push us to exhaustion” Yerin bit back the rest of her retorts, she needed to know her limits around the man. He was an underlord after all.
“Well then, we have different definitions of exciting, don’t we?” Lindon and Mercy groaned in unison, the latter of the two had been resting her eyes in the darkest part of their room. However, they were both ignored. “Although complete spiritual exhaustion is both bad and avoidable, in this situation” the underlord continued. Internally, Lindon breathed a sigh of relief.
“But, we’ll stealth to avoid a situation where we don’t have to run away with tails between our legs, won’t we?” Yerin added before Eithan could continue with his thought. She was right, of course, but his path wasn’t exactly built to be quiet. Dragons weren’t quiet, so neither was black flame.
“It’s not ideal, but it will have to do” Eithan said, burrowing his hands into his pockets and producing a small dream tablet and tossing it onto the table. “It’ll show you their techniques. I’m sure you’ve already heard about their flashy little enforcer technique?” The three nodded. Lindon had summarised it, but it had gotten the point across.
It created something that resembled a remnant around them, and it was shaped in a way that made it look like a stretched out version of an elephant. Similarly to a remnant, the more solid looking the elephant, the more advanced the technique. The striker techniques were mostly sweeping arcs that, If you squinted, looked like tusks. There were a few variations of it, and of course they all carried a weapon- this would’ve been suspiciously easy if they hadn’t. Scripted tusks, sharpened, scripted tusks. No doubt chosen because of the abilities of the unlucky beast they had been cut from.
The tusks acted like a funnel, helping them get a more precise aim with their striker technique (which was simply named ‘the sweeping tusk’). It acted almost like a sword to a sword artist, and there was no doubt that a handful of them made their own primitive version of an enforcer technique to go with it. Their ruler techniques shook the ground, and Iff it was well prepared it opens pits in the ground.
Once they were all familiar with their techniques, the scheming began.
The whole thing seemed fairly simple, it was only a matter of getting past what had been described as patrols, which they knew could easily be avoided with a thorough veil. After that, they only had to avoid detection till they could get inside the centre itself, in which remaining scripts would be activated and additional layers of protection added. Once it was secured, they would send a message to the skysworn and it would be taken out of their hands. What happened to it after wasn’t any of their business, really.
The one thing they decided to keep unofficial, was the fact that they’d be absolutely looting the fuck out of it. There wouldn’t be a drawer left un-pilfered, or a cupboard left locked. Without proper maintenance, most weapons of any value would be left unsalvageable, but there was hope for elixers and, Iff they were lucky, a construct or two.
Maybe they would be luckier than they anticipated, and the ‘sect’ would have done some rudimentary repair and maintenance on the place. But the group knew better than to actually let themselves be optimistic, lest they are disappointed. It wasn’t the best outlook on life, but it was what worked and kept them out of trouble that involved sages and heralds, and god forbid monarchs.
But, once plans were drawn up, and tactics discussed, transportation still had to be arranged. Of course, this was left to Eithan and the million favours that were owed to him.
This would be a mission just like any other. They’d go in, take the objective (and hostages, Iff it was required) wait for Skysworn to secure the location, then they’d leave. Simple as that.