Guild's War 4: Operation Popping Daisies

[Draco]

((Outside Mage Manor, sometime during the timeskip))

Draco walked up to Mage Manor. He stared at it, and had a odd feeling it was staring back at him, judging him... He was about to try using a door, but decided against it. He wasn't sure how it would treat him, at least without a mage guide or permission from the Archmage. He didn't want to take the risk. Instead he hid himself in the garden and rested.

((Inside Mage Manor))

Dragus continued to walk around lost. He was glad the manor let him inside, but not finding anyone for hours wasn't good.

"Come on manor! I'm here to help, I don't plan on hurting you or anyone here, can you help me a little?!"

He continued to walk. He knew entering the manor might have been a bad idea without a mage. He had heard stories of how it could shift around inside, taking someone wherever the manor itself wanted them to go. He should have just waited outside...

"Really starting to get tired here. At this rate if something happens, I won't be able to do anything to help!"

And then he heard it. A voice! He heard a voice! People!

He opened up a door and it led... Outside... He saw the mages he followed earlier, and walked on over.

"Uhh... It may not be a wise choice to raise a weapon towards them. In a all out fight we are out numbered. Not to mention we don't know how these two can fight."

Draco walks out from behind and joins Dragus.

"The one wearing gold. Watch out for his sword and defiantly watch out for his shield... It hurts. The other one, I'm not sure about."

Dragus jumped a little when the ninja appeared, his cousin. He glared at him for a moment for startling him, then looks back at the two generals.

"I'm not sure about the one you spoke of, but the other is Sir Alabaster. I'm unsure on his fighting capabilities, but his mouth is something to be careful about."

Draco let out a small chuckle.

"A silver tongue. I got the idea when we met earlier."

Draco turned his eyes to Krisseh.

"That one, over there. There is something interesting about her. I like it. Kukukukuku."

Draco shakes his head, wishing this voice would leave him alone so he could think properly for a change.

[Celestial]

((Castle Kestrel))

The Archmage took the bubble of air out of her ear once she had heard enough and crushed it in her hand, destroying the link. The air in Amneiger's ear collapsed too. With that done, she turned to Gelquie, looking slightly annoyed.

"That was under a different commander. Besides, would you rather have that power with us or against us?" she hissed. "If they can help, I don't care what they did. Besides, don't forget that I was involved in that incident too."

Celestial frowned as she listened to Zephyr. A spell which could teleport the entire library? It was definitely not her area of expertise. However, the castle library was not a vast one. The majority of their books were military and geneology. It wa doubtful the librarian had sent Zephyr there without a purpose, he liked his privacy but he took the duties of a librarian very seriously. He wouldn't mislead Zephyr.

"We could always sneak back in. The library is on a tower anyway and it won't take long to search. Ideally, we'd want something concerning the four conquerors we're up against and some military tactics for what to do when you're hopelessly outmatched," she said and shapeshifted into a dragon. "So we better get moving. As soon as we find the stuff, we hop back to the Manor."

Celestial took off once the mages who wanted to had climbed onto her back. The library had large windows so finding it was easy enough. As soon as she had put the mages down on a conveniently placed windowsill, she turned back into a human and blew the glass out of the panes, lowering it gently onto the ground before melting a hole in the iron bars and sneaking in. They would pay for the damage later anyway.

They spent the timeskip next few hours searching through the books. For her part, Celestial found a few biographies of Brick and Alabaster, a fanciful account of some of Hellas tactics and a self-help book for winning a hopeless battle (be a main character.)

But she also found something that really should not have been there, a book that by all rights belonged in the Mage Manor library: a book on the Underdeep.

It was time to get moving. Celestial called the other mages back to the main door.

"What did you all find?"

((Mage Manor))

The librarian really did not care about prisoners. That was the Manor's area and he already had a...strained relationship with the Manor. It would let them out when it wanted so. So for now, keeping one eye on Krisseh, he continued reading.

He heard Alabaster. How could anybody not hear them? The Manor echoed their words around. He didn't like it. Conquerors were always very cruel to books in their care. They were a threat to them. However, unless they explicitly made a move to destroy the library, the librarian decided he was not going to budge from his spot.

Until he heard Krisseh speak in the voice of the Underdeep. He looked up, his face darkening.

"Don't. Idiot," he managed to spit out, his voice growing slightly deeper at the last word. The jelly mage was foolish. Only the underdeep decided where it would go and what it would do. Any illusion of control she had was going to just that: an illusion.

He got up. No matter what happened, he could not let the underdeep go insane and he could not the conquerors destroy his books. The librarian cooly wandered out of the library and the Manor immediately took him outside, dropping him as unceremoniously as you would drop a slug you wanted to get rid of.

The librarian saw that some of the other mages, plus a few others had gathered to meet the generals. He did not say anything to them. He merely regarded the crowd with a cool gaze before meeting the eyes of the two generals, who he both recognised immediately as the Hellas and Sir Alabaster of legend. However, he was not intimidated The librarian peered at them over his glasses, wondering what they would do next. And on the side, he kept an eye on Krisseh.

[♥ Azzie]

((Mage Manor, or rather, in the yard))

Azalea was woken by a foul smell.

She noticed it slowly, so that at first it seemed to be part of her dream, but slowly drew her into the waking world. When she realized the smell wasn't from her imagination, she squeezed her eyes shut and put her hands over her nose. "Go on," she said loudly through her hands. "There's no food here."

At that point she realized that the smell didn't belong to a skunk, and sat up quickly. Her hammock swung and threatened to dump her off, but she held to the sides and looked around. She could see the undead across the field, on the other side of the Manor, and sincerely hoped they hadn't heard her comment mistaking them for skunks. The wind seemed to be blowing toward her, so she figured she was safe, but it was still rather embarrassing.

She maneuvered her way out of the hammock and decided that even if Miss Jensen seemed quite reasonable in her communications with them, undead were not well-known for being so. With this decided, she ran to the back door and slipped, as quietly as she could, inside.

[Amneiger]

((Timeskip))
((In the air above Dunburrow))

There hadn't been a whole lot to say after Miss Jensen's last answer. Amneiger hadn't thought of any other questions that could be important, and she wasn't going to give him any more of an answer.

So after a few minutes of going nowhere, he'd called the shuttle back down and was now sitting in the back of it typing up his initial impressions.

First: Miss Jensen was bad news. This was already fairly obvious since she had decided to invade a country instead of doing something a little more peaceful, but Amneiger also didn't trust her to not get greedy and set her sights on Spacefleet. She hadn't taken back what she'd said about a challenge and how she objected to the Guilds, and attacking Spacefleet would definitely be a challenge.

Second: They needed to be prepared to defend themselves. Miss Jensen had mentioned that she would use mages for any retaliatory action. In the absence of further detail Amneiger had been free to come up with lots of unpleasant ideas for what that could mean. The most sensible course of action would be to consult experts in magic who would want to help them; in this case, that meant the Mages.

Amneiger sent the report to Commander Fraze. He would wait for a while for further orders.

[Bacon]

((Space, nearish))

"Unidentified vessel, you are entering Spacefleet space. Please identify."

"Unidentified?"

"I might have forgotten to log you in the computers before we left." The pilot shrugged as he switched over to the radio. "Spacefleet Control, this is Captain Dane Lewis of the Excalibur III, requesting docking clearence."

"Hang on. Bacon?"

"That's what they call me, yeah." Bacon smiled at the recognition in the other man's voice. It was good to be home. "Do I have clearance?"

There was a long pause. "Actually, there's some sort of situation brewing on the planet's surface, you may want to check it out."

Bacon frowned at the radio. Sounds like he arrived just in time for another lovely commotion. "What kind of situation?"

"I don't know, they never tell me anything. Ironic, given that I'm a Comm Officer. I do know that Amneiger is on the planet trying to get a sense of things, though, I'll forward the coordinates and you can ask him."

Bacon nodded. "Cal, take us down."

"Right away."

And with that the ship veered onto a new course, diving into the atmosphere.

((Dunburrow))

As Bacon neared the coordinates, he found a Spacefleet shuttle resting on the ground. It wasn't a model he was familiar with, but it had the old familiar logo painted on it. He set the Excalibur III down near the shuttle.

Gambling that his friend still had his old comm channel open, Bacon said "Hey Amnei, you there? What's going on?"

[icon]

(The Streets of Brassport)

Clemmens always liked the early mornings in Brassport. If you sat still and watched just right, you could see the sunrise glinting off the intricate metalwork which adorned the buildings as the lampposts dimmed and the general bustle of the city started to emerge from the silence like ants silently circling towards an old picnic site.

It was only a bit after sunrise; Clemmens usually found that most of the stores were closed this early in the morning. Casting his eyes back and forth along the street, he saw none present except for a few birds bobbing on the street... and a ninja along the rooftops.

Eli knew about the ninjas; there were rumors spread around the city of a band of mysterious assassins, stealthy mercenaries who could fly across the rooftops like crows in a moonless night. The reality was much less interesting- sure, they were stealthy, and not many saw them, but then again that was because not many people bothered to look up, unless perhaps it was to yell at the pigeon which soiled their nice outergarment.

But the ninjas were here, and this one was now climbing down the roof into a back alley. Clemmens glanced around; there was nobody else in sight. He racked his brain, trying to consider the options; the ninjas are well-versed in this world, he thought, they might know about this thing.

With the machine in his hands and his cleaning case on his back, he surreptitiously crossed the street. Or rather, he tried to surreptitiously cross the street but the giant clanking machine on his back prevented it from happening, so he just settled for heading towards the back alley at a jogging pace, yelling after him. "Hey!"

The masked ninja turned around, not saying anything.

"Hey, you're one of those ninja folk, aren't you. What are you doing skulking around at a time like this? And would you happen to know any tinkerers around here?"

The ninja looked back and forth. "'Ve got a message from Dunburrow. I've got to relay it to the other ninjas, it's very important, if you'll excuse me," he said.

"Ooh, news!" Eli grinned. "I'm int'rested in current events m'self, you know. What's going on in Dunburrow? Hey wait, where are you going?" he said, jogging after him. "Come on, lemme come with you to find out the news."

The NNPC rolled his eyes. It was going to be a long morning.

[Transcriber]

Selected excerpts from Charles Brick: The Complete Biography, Dunburrow Military History, The Court Bloodhound, Tactical Geniuses and You, and How to Defeat Any Opponent Believably.

Charles Brick: Born 362 years ago, died at age 72.
(Transcriber's note: This book gives birth date as "number of years ago" rather than the calendar year, because something something magic something. It has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the transcriber not wanting to make a scale of years for the Guildverse.)
Charles Brick was born to a peasant family in a small farming village in eastern Dunburrow. He tended his family's farm during his early life and childhood, and joined the Dunburrow army at age 18. Brick quickly rose to the rank of Sergeant; however, he never attained any rank beyond this, passing up many promotions during his years of service. His preferred role was as an instructor, training the soldiers directly rather than overseeing.

While Brick saw battle a number of times, his most notable achievements were not direct military victories; rather, his greatest contributions were theoretical. Brick's methods of training soldiers was revolutionary, and is still in use today. Furthermore, he pioneered a completely new method of magical combat, using explosive magical spells to enhance physical attacks, such as punches or kicks. He was said to have the ability to break through brick walls and shatter boulders, among other similar feats. It is a matter of significant scholarly debate whether these reports are simple exaggerations, some form of trickery (eg, hidden explosives), or something else.

After 50 years of military service, Brick retired, stating that he had "done his duty to his country." He lived his final years in a small cottage with his wife, with whom he had raised three children. Despite being in good health overall, he died only four years after retiring, presumably due to the long-term damage done to him over numerous battles.

Brick's enduring nickname, given to him by his troops and popularized over time, was "Chuckabrick." Unlike the other legends entombed in the Dunburrow Crypt, Brick was put there by popular demand. After his death, it was revealed that nearly all of the army's officers, and the majority of its troops, had at one point trained under him.



Sir Alabaster Bode Pilkington-Emmett: Born 149 years ago, died at age 87.
Sir Alabaster was born into the nobility. From an early age, he was trained in the arts of courtly conduct. However, he chose to join the military when he came of age, despite the impropriety of a nobleman doing such a thing. He served briefly as a soldier, but it was soon discovered that his skills lay outside the battlefield.
Alabaster quickly rose to prominence as a strategist, diplomat, and negotiator. It was frequently quipped that he could win a war without firing a single shot ^{[Citation needed]}. While known for being charming and quite benevolent to his countrymen and allies, he became infamous for his political battles. He became known as "The Court Bloodhound" by friends and enemies alike, for the stoic, unflinching determination with which he pursued an objective.
He was also a scholar, studying both military and non-military history with great interest. In his private life, Sir Alabaster married, but had no children.

[Huntress]

((Castle Kestrel, skipping time))

It was pretty obvious that sleep wasn't going to happen any more, so Hunty passed an executive decision that while an undead army may not need to march on its stomach, its living supporters kind of need to and it was just the right hour for coffee. So they headed back to the castle, more specifically its kitchen.

They also brought the horse, because you never know. It didn't seem to mind. It especially didn't mind when it found the bread basket and started munching away at it. Hunty made herself a large pot of coffee and warmed up some pies.

"Lots of action down here tonight," she said. "I'd say that we should stuff our faces while we can, you never know when your next meal might come in a zombie war."

At that point, the private communicator on her belt buzzed to life.

"Hey, Hunty, are you there? There are big things happening in Dunburrow. Something something zombies. You might want to stay out of there for a while, it looks like there's going to be a confrontation."

"I am staying out of it," Hunty replied somewhat incoherently, her mouth full of pie. "We're babysitting the zombie leader's winged horse at Castle Kestrel. Perfectly quiet and safe undertaking as far as war effort goes."

"He's trying to eat a milk bottle," said Bloody Mary.

"Means he probably wants some sort of minerals from it, let it be," the captain said easily. She contemplated the situation a bit. "You know, since we're conveniently here, we should go dig through the library. They don't usually let civilians up there and now that the castle is all zombiefied, the place should be empty. If we're lucky, the place has a safe or something."

Getting the horse up the spiral staircase to the library tower proved to be an undertaking, but thankfully it was an intelligent sort of beast. The next few hours proved a bit fruitless - unbeknownst to the pirates, the mages had already come and gone with the relevant books - and not having met the four generals, they didn't really know what to look for anyway.

Hunty put the tenth skimmed book down with a sigh and cast a look around at the small circular library, its moonlit floor and the valkyrie horse gnawing throughtfully on the curtains.

"Do we actually want to do something here?" she asked. "I mean, we can just hang back, wait until one side or other wins and reap benefits inbetween."

"In order to reap benefits inbetween, we really need to know more about the situation," said Bloody Mary.

"I'd rather not go out in search of info and get shot by one side or other," Hunty grumbled. "We're now sort of at odds with the knights and mages, and if we get too close to the zombie side, we might get recruited to fight, and who needs that?"

She cast a pensive glance at the belt communicator again, decided against it - the Spacefleet would get her overall info on locations and whatnot no problem, but wouldn't help with actually getting inside information on the situation - and resumed the shuffling through bookcases.

"Hello, what's this?" She pulled out a tome. "The Necronomnomicon - Black Magic with the Help of Common Foodstuffs. Isn't this mage business? What's this doing here?"

"Confiscated, I'd guess," said Bloody Mary, craning his neck. "Wait, wait, turn back, what was this?"

Hunty bowed over the indicated page. When she looked up again, there was a glint in her eye.

"We're gonna need a raw egg."

[Pixie]

After collapsing onto her knees in the library, Ellen only lasted a quarter of a minute before loosing consciousness entirely. The last thing she had heard was Krisseh telling... a librarian, that Tiger was still locked in the cell. Oh, that's her name... I'm awful with names...

The safeguard was a spell designed to pacify prisoners, not knock them out. If the prisoners were needed for questioning, it was best to always have them conscious. The magical discharge was still meant for larger creatures, however, and the intensity was enough to devastate a tiny bluebird trying to pick the lock. The manor guided the weak and dizzy girl to the librarian to be dealt with.

When she returned to consciousness, the sun was beginning to rise. She didn't wake peacefully; aching sharply all over, she cries out. Ellen had no time to admire the sunrise. She hears a shout that sends chills through her body and drains the color from her face. It was Alabaster, the silver tongued man who she encountered when she was on Celestial. She forces herself onto her feet, shaking unsteadily, and tails the librarian out.

She sees a great army of undead and the two generals standing outside. Her jaw drops and she is flooded with a a sense of peril.Against her better judgment, Ellen shambles forward and straightens herself up, to get a better look at the generals. Her face shows great distress which she fails to conceal.

I can't just do nothing. I could maybe try to drug them with the persuasion potion, the one I thought of using earlier on Ms.Jemson. Maybe I could slip it into some tea. First, I would need tea. Let's see what they have to say. I think talking to them would be very dangerous in my current vulnerable form, but if it comes to it...

[Fraze]

((Mage Manor--Front door))

Alabaster watched as several different people came out of the Manor. They didn't look very organized, and in fact seemed to be there just to see what was going on.

"Here's your audience, now what do you want?"
Alabaster turned to Tiger, noting that she had been riding on Celestial's back. "We are here to take over the Manor. If you surrender now, then we will not harm the Manor, its inhabitants, or its contents; other than this, we offer no terms. If you refuse this offer, then we are prepared to take the Manor by force."

--------

((Spacefleet))
Fraze received Amneiger's message and sighed. Zombies. Zombies. Just when he thought this planet couldn't surprise him anymore.
"Head to the Manor and meet with the mages. I'll let them know that I'm sending you. We need to know exactly what we're dealing with, so get as much information from them as you can. Do not, I repeat, do not take direct action without consulting with me first. Fraze out."
Apparently the Mages were requesting assistance directly. That at least meant less of a diplomatic nightmare than marching in and asking if they wanted help.

Before he could do anything about it, the comm crackled to life as Hunty responded. "I am staying out of it. We're babysitting the zombie leader's winged horse at Castle Kestrel. Perfectly quiet and safe undertaking as far as war effort goes."
Fraze held his head in one hand and massaged his temples. "Is there even the slightest chance that this won't end with wacky hijinks for you and a massive pile of incident reports for me?"

He set the communicator to record whatever answer Hunty gave. He would get back to it later. He was about to speak to Mage Manor, when yet another message arrived, this one from Communications. "Sir, an AWOL captain just showed up. He said he was going to investigate the zombie situation. We thought you should know."
When it rains, it pours. Fraze's mind immediately went to Strife, but he wasn't a captain. "Who?"
"Captain Dane Lewis."
Fraze paused. "Wait, Bacon?"
"Yes, Sir."
A slew of questions passed through Fraze's head, loyalty being high on the list. "All right, thanks for letting me know. Patch me through to him."
"Aye, sir."
There was a click, and Fraze's communicator indicated that the recipient had changed. "Bacon, this is Commander Fraze." He stopped and realized something. "The Commander bit happened several years ago. I've got a lot of questions about where you've been, but they can wait. I know you're heading to the surface to take a look at the situation in Dunburrow. Find Amnei, if you haven't already, and follow his lead. However, do not make yourself known to the Mages. We've been in a delicate political situation since you left." Amneiger was a slightly more familiar face to the Mages, and Fraze still wasn't sure of Bacon's intentions, so keeping him out of the way for the moment seemed the best idea.

He once again set the comm to record any response, and finally sent a message to the Manor. "This is Spacefleet Commander Fraze," he began. "I have a message for Archmage Celestial. Professor Amneiger told me that you asked for help with a zombie uprising." He felt silly using that phrase, but continued on regardless. "We're willing to offer help, but we need to know exactly what's going on. I've sent Amneiger to the Manor to meet with you, he should be there shortly."
He didn't get all of the diplomatic pleasantries quite right in that message, but hopefully it wouldn't matter. It was going to be a long day.

[Amneiger]

"Yes Commander." Amneiger switched the communicator to Bacon's channel. "Bacon, haven't seen you in a while. Follow me to the Manor. I'll go in first. Stay back, and after I go in head up into the sky and watch for anything happening."

* * *

As Amneiger's shuttle approached the Manor, he saw that someone else had gotten there before him.

"Circle around," he said to the pilot. "I'll go through the back door. Stay far enough back from the Manor that the crowd out front won't see us."

"Okay sir." The pilot brought the shuttle almost to the ground, staying behind some convenient hills and forests until the Manor was between themselves and the zombie army, then left the hills and skimmed over the ground to the back of the Manor.

As the shuttle flew, Amneiger sent a quick report to Commander Fraze. "I'm approaching Mage Manor. There's another zombie army out front. I'm going to go in through the back and see if any of the mages can still talk to me."

Amneiger stepped out of the shuttle with his two minitanks and turned back to the pilot. "Go back behind the hills. Stay there until I contact you." With that, Amneiger went into the Manor. Hopefully the Mages wouldn't be too distracted to meet him.

[Lord Hayati]

Mage manor:

Krisseh's eyes opened as she heard alablaster speak about taking over the manor. so much, that her eyes turned back to their regular yellow sheen. Screw trying to be a double agent; She had to defend, right now!

"NO. I won't let you take my home!"

She immediately threw a dessmute spell at the zombie army, hoping that It would buy the other mages time to fend off the place.

[Tiger]

Tiger twisted an ear to listen to the Dargus and Draco's assessments of the generals. At least she had a name for one of them. Alabaster, the silver tongue...the other a warrior.

She listened to their proposal, carefully trying to keep her face void of emotion, probably failing to concel all her anger. Her tail flicked crossly, and with no a small amount of fear. There were a lot of zombies, and the mages weren't exactly an army strong. Hell, a good chunk of their current members were back at the Castle.

The Games were a clever ruse, she thought. Get everyone away from their bases, so when the attack comes, we're not at full strength.

A gust of wind washed the zombies' stench over the Manor grounds. Tiger wrinkled her nose; the scent of death was even stronger on these than on the generals. A tang of fresh blood came from them, too, and looking more closely, Tiger realized some of these men and women hadn't been dead long. Too many bore battle wounds and young bodies to be the spoils of graveyards.

There are villages on the road between here and the Castle... Tiger's blood went cold. No chance. They can't have the Manor - I don't think it'd let them in, but if they found a way....there're powerful things in there.

But their ragtag team wasn't going to be enough - she'd have to stall, hope they could buy time for the mages at Kestrel, at least, to return -

"NO. I won't let you take my home!"

...Or they could tell diplomacy and tactics to jump off Castle Kestrel and just lunge into battle.

Tiger hefted her sword into a defensive position. The ox charged forward, aiming for Hallas and Alabaster - the chance of it taking them down was miniscule, but it couldn't hurt to try.

[Pixie]

Ellen was rendered speechless at Alabaster's proposal. Her mind swam. The ominous wind carried the smell of death. It was appropriate for such a foreboding situation. What a horrible choice- submit or die! I better get the tea and drug it. I don't want to fight, but I don't want these people to loose their house. Those men have no right to take it over! Frankly, it's not my decision to make, since this is not my home. I will have to join my friends whatever they decide. But... I don't want to fight.

She was interrupted in her thoughts by Krisseh lashing out at the army. She froze a moment in terror. Ellen came back to her senses when Tiger launched the bull. She was glad to see Tiger was able to get out on her own, but there was no time to be relieved. They were so outnumbered, she wasn't sure actively fighting would end well. Her body still screaming from the magic shock earlier, but she forced herself to move forward, parallel to the the magic bull. She pleaded, her hands clasped, her knees quaking, but mentally ready to spring into a cheetah if she needed to. "Sir...LET US TALK PEACE BEFORE WE FIGHT! I apologize for my rash companions, I do. Can we talk this over... like the civilized folks? I'll bring out some tea!"

[♥ Azzie]

Azzie arrived in the main hall just in time to hear Alabaster explaining why they had come. She winced; Celestial certainly wouldn't like that. She studied his face, decided he looked reasonable enough (for a zombie) and decided to speak.

"Why do you want the Manor, though?" Azzie asked. "Maybe we can help you find whatever it is you need without the need for a takeover."