Guild's War 4: Operation Popping Daisies

[Lord Hayati]

(ON A BOAT! )

"A polearms user. Interesting. And I don't do magic defense. Its more like hunting. Enough terminology trolling, we need a plan. since we all know whom we are now, it is time to decide how we strike the castle.

.. I don't have any ideas."

He really didn't, but we was willing to do anything at this point. Maybe the castle had some riches he could line his wallet with. A new set of kunai would be handy, and so would a tarot card deck or two.

[Draco]

((Somewhere Over The Rainbow))

Advisor Ravencrest bows his head and smiles softly to himself for a moment.

"Understood my King. I will advise her as much as she allows."

Things were going how he wished them to go. He however had wished the Prince would join them on the front lines, but where he goes may come in handy for him in the long run. He looked at the Prince and gave him a creepy grin.


---

((Ninja Army))

Draco and the army was still some distance from the zombie horde. They were traveling parallel with them, rather then behind them. He had to admit to himself, that they were doing pretty well. It was hard to be stealthy with a army. He knew they couldn't keep it up though, they would have to attack soon. He wanted revenge. The zombie generals annoyed him. So far one by one they've beaten him! He especially wanted a rematch with that man in the armor. A fire burned deep inside him wanting to fight him.

He looked back at the army. It was time. He nodded to the ninjas around him. They nodded back. They raised their arms, which signaled other group leaders further behind to do the same. Within minutes Draco and the ones in the front lines began to run, and wave after wave followed behind. It wouldn't take them long to reach the army and hit them at their side.


---

((Zombie Army))

Dragus wasn't prepared for the hug, but it didn't bother him or stop him for observing the generals. In fact he let out a small laugh, no one but Ellen would probably hear it. If anyone else did, they wouldn't care to much.

"I'm not to worried. Don't forget where we're going. It's where I live. Though I still find it a mystery at where the other knights and the king are, it still means I'll have a advantage. Even if it's only a small one."

He knew others in the army might also know the castle, and might know it better then him, but that didn't concern him at the moment. He also knew if worse came to worse, they could flee back to the mansion using the portal.

"Of course that won't matter if something was to happen. Like we change course, rescued, or even at-"

He's cut short as he can see people charging the zombie army. Ninjas.

"Attacked. Stay low and close. Try not to be stepped on by either side. I'm pretty sure the other side will try to avoid us, seeing as we're not walking dead. But... Things can go wrong."

The Ninjas would collide with the army any moment. He needed to think of a way to get out of here now!

[Pixie]

((En Route to Castle Kestrel))

Ellen broke off the friendly hug and rose from her knees. As he laughed gently, she took on a sheepish grin. She found it was a pleasant type of laugh, not the cruel type that tormented her. Even though she greatly doubted they were safe, her companion seemed less worried. She had stood at the base of the castle only a day or too before, and seen Ms.Jemson in person having taken its control. Ellen had fled...

Before she could have a flashback, she was alerted to a ninja attack. The possibility of this had sneaked up on her, just like ninja's themselves were known to do. Sir Ocard shouted out a warning, and she ducked down as instructed and began to fish in her satchel for her remaining potions. "Speed, agility, pain relief." She identified, as she took very quick swigs of the potions. If she could taste it, it would have been a nasty mixture. She held out the potions and gestured for him to take them . "Prepare yourself, if they attack us. 'least I can do."

Ellen fumbled for her dagger, but then remembered it was no longer in her possession. She exclaimed under her breath "Gah! Brick has my bloody dagger!". Before her songbird dagger was hers, it had been her grandmothers, and now she wanted it back greatly for, reasons both practical and sentimental.

She whispered rather loudly, but not loud enough to be heard over the army's great noise, "Dragus,I want to get out of here. I think we need more chaos before we can pull anything, though." She prepared herself for all her possible fates, knowing she was in unfavorable condition to defend herself. She could be beaten, she could be trampled, or maybe the ninjas would help free them. She didn't know. However, a sudden thought crossed her mind. She vaguely recalled something Sir Ocard had said a few hours earlier.

"Wait, is your cousin attacking now?" Ellen interjected.

[♥ Azzie]

((Somewhere secret))

Prince Leroy listened to the meeting, mostly bored but quietly formulating a plan for when they arrived in the kingdom. He knew rather better than to speak up when his opinion wasn't requested. Unfortunately for him, however, he happened to have let his eyes wander in the direction of Advisor Ravencrest, who was giving him a very weird grin.
Leroy raised his eyebrow at the advisor and turned back to the discussion, pretending once more to have a keen interest in everything his family had to say.

((On a boat!))
What are your powers, Azzie?
"Barriers, mostly. Barriers and distraction." Azzie told him. "And I'm afraid I don't know the castle well. I've been there a few times, but mostly my visits were outside. But perhaps we can find one of the displaced knights to help us?"

[Lord Hayati]

((zombie-Ninja army meeting))

with her rotting ears, Krisseh heard something. It sounded similar to the shadow warrior of earlier... but more of them. Perhaps the first one was a scout? If so, they would be-

Her thoughts stopped as they attacked in broad daylight.

"Mages, ATTACK!" She yelled, as she started to channel her magic into a mass dessmute spell. She would need to focus... but If she pulled it off, the ninjas would soon be hers to control.

The hoarde of mages she commands immediately started slinging fire and lightning at the ninjas. Through the fire and flames, they carried on with the battle.

-x-

((On a boat.))

Malleus started to take inventory of his tools. He had 44 of his kunai left... well, 54 if Tiger still had the ones she took from him, the clothes he had on his back, and 56 cards. Normally, he would carry a deck of playing cards to pass the time, but due to the lack of money and mage spells... he didn't even have that.

"... I need a drink."

There was also the fact that he occasionally spent a bit too much on drinks. Rum was an expensive habbit, you know!
Wait. something occured in his head. what if the news of the zombie invasion spread around?

"...guys. what if other kingdoms hear of this. they might just send their troops as well, not only to stop the zombies... but to seize the land for themselves.

even though I'm a solo ninja, I'd hate to work around these new kingdoms. we need to go back to kestrel. NOW. We need to storm the castle, and bring whomever that is doing this down."

[♥ Azzie]

((On a boat!))

Azzie listened to Malleus, shaking her head. "The kingdoms around here are friendly, aren't they? I thought we'd always maintained good terms with them... Maybe it's something to ask the Archmage about, when we see her next."

She looked back over the water, hoping the conversations onshore were going well. "As for going back to Kestrel, I'm afraid we've already done that. Miss Jensen... she's more powerful than we can deal with right now. I'd like to go back, but there's no way we can fight her right now."

She leaned over the edge of the boat, tracing her hand through the water and watching the tiny wake it left. It was absurdly peaceful, for a morning already so torn by destruction and war.

"If we could just talk to her... If we knew why she was doing this, maybe we could all work together to find a solution everyone would be happy with," she said abruptly. "There's got to be a better way than this."

[Pixie]

((On a boat))

"Have you tried diplomacy before?" Ash inquired, "I am uncertain whether we should launch a full-on assault, but this is not the time for that." He pointed a finger skywards as a trace of a frown appeared on his face. "First of all, we need to rescue Eleanor before we try anything else. Whatever they kidnapped her for, she's still a hostage. Second, there were many more of you at the base of the river. We need more than a small party to carry an diplomatic presence or a offensive threat."

He sat very quietly in thought as he conceived a plan. He paddled swiftly through the water as he thought. The oars traced ripples far behind the small boat. His arms were vaguely tired from paddling, but he did not pay any mind to the sensation. He was focused instead on the land beside the river. He concluded there would be only a few more moments of paddling until they would have to dock the boat.

After he finished his pondering, he declared "We need to go about this stealthily. Our traps and illusions will be of more use than our blades. If Ms. Jemson has an army, then we face a great chance of being overwhelmed with her forces. We need to create a diversion out front for anyone who comes outside. Azalea and Tiger, could you cast small illusions? We also need to lay traps behind us for whatever alternate entrance we take. A window, a side door, something out of the way. I can set several snares in an arc to trip up any pursuers. If we are attacked, then by all means, we attack back. That should be our last resort."

[Tiger]

((On a boat))

"We have spoken to Jensen, and she already said reasoning with her was useless, and offered her olive branch - we help her take over the kingdom. I don't know about the three of you, but I don't really care for the idea of being under the rule of the woman who resurrected the dead and destroyed the Manor." She didn't agree with Ash's idea of a full assault being anything but a necessity, but he was right that now wasn't the time to argue about that.

"Azalea and Tiger, could you cast small illusions?"

Tiger flexed her fingers and said warningly, "I can create animals and cast illusions on them. Only small ones right now. But I'll do what I can. And...hmm. Perhaps a digging animal of some sort to tunnel underground...or a very large trapdoor spider..." She shook herself from her thoughts. "Erm. Anyhow. I'm even less familiar with the castle than Azalea - we'll have to improvise as best we can."

-------

((Castle Kestrel))

Morris skulks through the hallways, sweeping into doorways anytime she hears even the slightest movement-like sound. She's not entirely sure what manner of creature to expect here, to be honest; it's possible that despite the castle looking like those in the ripped pages of old books, its creators have non-human hands. Or perhaps they've domesticated fearsome monsters that patrol their corridors. Or they might be able to transform into said beasts. Morris is starting to think encountering someone might actually be a bit of a relief.

She eventually winds up in a room with pieces of scrap armor. They seem to conform to a human shape well-enough, but Morris knows better than to assume until she's seen the 'people' in question. More than one of her comrades has bitten the dust because of assumptions - very convincing assumptions, but they still made an a... an example of you and me.

Aside from not knowing what lives here...this is not all that exciting, Morris admits to herself. She's sure she'll regret the wish for more intrigue in due time.

[Draco]

((Zombie/Ninja Army))

Draco and the other ninjas quickly smashed into the zombies like a rogue wave hitting a ship. Many of them managed to dodge the zombie mage attacks, some didn't. They quickly got into action and began to attack any undead they came across. Draco raised a hand and signaled to the others, pointing towards the direction the army was walking. One of the higher ranked ninjas appeared near Draco, fighting off a few soldiers.

"Sir, we have our hand full with this area, how do you expect us to make it to the front?"

Draco grinned as he cut down a walker, kicking it to the ground and away from him.

"The same way we're doing it now, we just fight our way up there. I'm going to try and make my way up to the front, get a few of the faster members and have them catch up when they can."

"Wait stop!"

Draco was all ready gone in the crowd, cutting his way through with his two swords.

---

Closer to the front of the zombies Dragus held his arm out to shield Ellen a bit.

"Wait, is your cousin attacking now?"

"It's possible. I can't be sure until I can ask one of the ninjas or he shows up."

He was still trying to think of the best ways to get out of there. Forward meant the generals, behind meant a all out battle, neither were ready for battle just yet, even with the little rest they had. He thought about using his shadow magic, but he wasn't as skilled as his cousin, finding it hard to carry others with him... So they would need to leave by foot. The ninjas could help, but he would have to wait for them. He struggled to think, before coming up with a good plan, or at least the best they could work on.

"We're getting out of here as soon as possible."

He stood up and looked to the generals.

"Excuse me. Sorry to bring this up so sudden, especially to you Mr. Brick, but we're lea-"

A dark flash shot past him, between him and Ellen, and now standing between them and the generals. Looking behind him was a small path of downed zombies and bewildered ones. He shook his head to clear it, and grabbed Ellen's hand.

"Looks like we have our chance."

---

Draco sliced his way through the horde. Lucky for him they were slower then normal, but they were still able to move quick enough to put up a fight from time to time. He kept moving forward, he wasn't going to stop until he reached the front. With each step, each zombie, he moved closer to his goal. Finally he reached a slightly more empty part of the horde, in fact there were just two people in the gap. He shot passed them, taking a second to note them. Living. One was familiar, but he didn't have time to really look. He skid to a halt, kicking up dust. He pointed one of his swords at the generals, breathing heavily.

"So, who wants a rematch?"

[Tiger]

((Still on a boat BD))

In a world like this one, you could only go so long on one mode of transportation before hitting trouble. The fact that this trouble felt like it took a year to arrive would not be commented on - Tiger, at least, had enough on her mind what with the zombies, the manor’s destruction and its paranormal librarian (she checked her pocket again to make sure the Librarian’s gloves were still there; they were), the situation with Jensen, her depleted magic, and keeping an eye on the ninja with the cards and the strange guy with the walking stick.

But all boat rides have to end eventually, even if it does feel like an age has passed since then. At some point, the boat crossed a border into somewhat dangerous waters. Not the water itself, that was just like any other part of the river. But to the river sprites under the currents? Oh, that boat had gone brazenly across the line of river-rocks they’d arranged at on the river’s sandy bottom, as if its riders didn’t care one drop about the river sprites and their territory, and the terrible danger of their children daring each other to swim up and touch the bottoms of canoes and rowboats and dinghies.

This particular group of river sprites was not the brightest example of their species, but they made up for that with extreme aggression and by having twice as many sharp, pointed teeth as other river sprites (the fact that most river sprites have zero sharp, pointed teeth, thus making the equation in question two times zero, equaling zero, had never occurred to these river sprites. Then again, there’s very little need for multiplication underwater, and even the curious river sprite would only have access to a waterlogged calculator). They also possessed magic, which was a bit more handy in situations like these, where their twice-as-many sharp teeth couldn’t exactly pierce the hull of the rowboat.

Seeing as the boat was kinda tough on the teeth and none of the people on board looked all that tasty, the river sprites decided to just get these idiots out of their territory as soon as possible. Flicking their fishtails and waving their webbed hands, the river sprite mages cast a spell to make the boat leave their territory with all haste.

“All haste” was apparently translated as “try to approach the speed of light”, because suddenly the boat was flying through the water, forcing everyone on board to cling to the boat for dear life. They passed the other side of the underwater rock-border in about two minutes, but the river sprites figured it would be best if the boat party shouldn’t linger around their territory, either, scaring off the game and whatnot - so the spell remained in effect, shooting the group past the forest, past the castle, and out into the ocean - where they were abruptly scooped up by another current, which the boat cheerily continued to race on.

Eventually, the current spat them into a little bay with a very large, white ship and lot of loose flotsam floating around. Thankfully it was at this time that the river sprites’ enchantment on the boat wore off, and the little craft drifted anticlimactically into the White Weewoo with a very soft thump.

Tiger let out a sigh of relief, releasing her death-grip on the boat’s hull. “Oh thank goodness that’s over.” She flexed her fingers, wincing. “Is everyone okay?”

SPOILER: Click to show

Stealing the post summary idea from Mafia III and Medieval ‘cause they’re handy \ o /

Tiger and her boat compatriots (Pixie, ♥ Azzie, Lord Hayati) run afoul of a group of river sprites, who magic their boat into speeding down the river and eventually gliding into the White Weewoo at its little hidey-hole.

[Nature]

((A NEW PLAYER APPEARS!))

===*===

[Somewhere along an old road...]

The trip was a long and bumpy one. Nature yawned as she stared out the window of the rickety old carriage, resting her chin on one hand while resting the other hand on her lap. Beside her on the coach her trusty snowflake-speckled sitar stood upright - or at least as upright as its owner could manage it; its bulky form leaned slightly against the Zafara, the neck pressing against her left shoulder blade. By her feet piled a couple of suitcases. On Nature's right shoulder a small blue-and-white Elvish dragon curled up and slept, while beneath the shadow of the sitar a slightly smaller, metallic blue Elvish dragon also curled up and slept, though occasionally she yawned and stretched before curling up again. The scenery outside the carriage stretched on forever, and Nature figured if she was going to see another forest she might as well close her eyes and drift off herself.

Sighing, the Zafara adjusted herself into a more upright position, being careful not to disturb Seline napping on her shoulder, and smoothed down the skirt of her dress. She had decided to wear her old blue mage's dress for her return - it became rather frumpy from non-use over the years, but she was able to have it cleaned up before she left her last place of residency. She even learned a little trick to make the blue color pop out more by sparkling the dress up with a bit of snow magic. As such, the dress fabric felt cool upon her furred skin, but thankfully not too cold. (It took several tries before the snow mage got the right amount of magic to get the result, however.)

Nature leaned her back against the carriage seat and sighed again. Six years since I've last seen the others... good grief. It had been so long since she'd last been in the company of the other mages; she'd even almost forgotten what Mage Manor looked like. She wondered if the others would remember who she was, or if they'd forgive her for her sudden disappearance. She did leave a note explaining everything before she left, telling them how she suddenly felt the need to find her old family, get further answers about her ice powers, try out a rare fruit before it went out of stock forever, and otherwise other things tied to her supposedly tragic backstory. After six years of journeying, she hadn't accomplished anything she set out for (except for trying out the rare fruit - as it turned out, it tasted horrible, so it was all for nothing all the same), and soon just decided to come back home.

The carriage gave a sudden jolt, throwing Nature off guard. "Whoa!," she cried as she stopped herself from toppling over and crashing into the pointy end of her sitar. The movement almost hurled Seline off the snow mage's shoulder, and Demene started from her nap. However, the carriage ride went on as usual.

"Yow! Hey, what gives?!," Seline grumbled as she adjusted herself up Nature's shoulder again. "I was having a good nap, you know!"

"Calm down, Sel, I think we just came to a bump in the road," Nature chuckled weakly, gently stroking the grumpy Elvish Dragon's head as she spoke. Demene had meanwhile crawled onto Nature's lap, shaking slightly and whimpering softly in surprise. Seline muttered some words under her breath, some of which Nature reacted to with a sharp gasp. "Seline! Those are rude words! Where'd you learn to speak like that?"

"Where else?," Seline deadpanned. "The last few places we've been haven't been as nice as the Manor was."

"Well, don't say stuff like that again! Take an example to Demene here."

Demene only sneezed in response. Nature went to stroking her head too. Seline grumbled and settled down again on Nature's lap.

"Whatever, I'm going back to sleep." She yawned. "And I was having such a nice dream, too..."

"Yeah, you do that," Nature sighed. Once she felt Seline start to snooze she looked down at the other Elvish Dragon on her lap. "Are you gonna go back to sleep too, Dem?"

Demene shook her head. "I don't feel very sleepy anymore," she said in almost a whisper, swishing her tail as she spoke. She crawled down from the snow mage's lap and settled down on the seat beside her, eyes open. "Your dress is nice cold, but I think I like it better here," she mused.

Nature shrugged. "That's alright, I guess." With that, she reached for her sitar and started to tune it.

After a brief moment of silence, Demene spoke again. "Do you think that circus those people in the other town told us about would still be there? I've never seen a circus before."

At the mention of the circus, Nature grinned. "Hey, it just might! That'd be nice, wouldn't it?" The Zafara grew rather pensive as she spoke, idly plucking on the strings of her instrument. "Maybe we can get the others to watch with us, too."

"Maybe," Demene replied queitly. The small blue dragon craned her head downwards. "I miss home," she whispered as Nature strummed a little melody. Specks of tiny snowflakes fell around them as it played.

"Me too, Demene, me too."

===*===

((Note: Neither Nature nor her dragons know about the whole deal with the circus and everything else going around, so they're not aware of the danger ahead. XD;)

[♥ Azzie]

((On a boat!))

The second thought Azalea had when the boat started rocketing out of control was, this isn't flying.

The first thought was, of course, to hold on tightly to the back of the boat, because she hadn't been paying attention when the initial jolt of speed came and she tumbled from near the front to the very back of the boat and barely escaped being bounced off the boat all together.

But this was certainly not flying. In aircraft or by wingpower, the moment you lost control was the moment you stopped flying and started careening, and she could see that nobody on this boat had any kind of control over the situation. This- well, she wasn't sure what was happening (she hadn't actually seen the river nymphs), but she wished it would stop. "Make it stop" was pretty much her only coherent thought until the boat started to slow down.

When it finally bumped to a stop, she allowed herself to let go of the boat. "I think I'm okay," she told Tiger, "but do you know what just happened?"

---

((Along an old road somewhere))

"It is not my day!" Shadow told no one in particular as he ran. He wasn't exactly sure where this road was leading but he judged it to be the general direction of "away from the army of undead creatures that were walking around in broad daylight and had chased him off the grounds when he tried to find his mage friends." He assumed he was headed either to Dunburrow or toward the city, and in either event he would be able to explain what little he knew of what was going on. (Which wasn't much; all the birds had said was "trouble in the Guilds' region")

After a while of running the boy happened to catch sight of a carriage coming along the road. He felt a fresh wave of terror wash over him as it got closer, and he began running toward it even more quickly, veering to the side- but as it got even closer, he saw that there didn't seem to be any visible bones in the carriage's vicinity, and he slowed. But only for a moment; he realized that whoever it belonged to probably had even less idea than he had of what lay ahead. He jumped up and down, waving his arms in the hopes that whoever drove the carriage would notice him.

"Wait! Wait!"

SPOILER: Click to show

Azalea is properly freaked out by the suddenly out-of-control rowboat. Meanwhile Shadow, a young boy from the city, is running from the unexpected fright of being chased off Manor grounds by undead when he happens across Nature's party heading toward where he just fled from.