Narza listens with surprising focus as Athinar gives his orders. Typically she would be goofing off in the background, staying invisible so no one could chide her for insubordination, but after the incident just before the crew had left, Narza was considerably more wary of Athinar now. She nods carefully at Athinar as she receives her orders, watching his soul anxiously for any sign of a change. The presence he had briefly shown earlier felt instinctively more dangerous than anything else she'd felt before, save probably the Master himself. Athinar continues speaking without so much as a slight perturbation and Narza relaxes.

She keeps pace behind Athinar easily as they move toward the one of the gates, floating silently and invisibly over the grass. She leaves a few wisps of fog around her body to let the others know where she was roughly. It would be easy enough to spot up close, but impossible to make out from a distance.

From the web that was the Master's Dungeon, Twich waited while the skills of his co-workers were put to use.

While Ekusha went out into the world and did whatever it was that she was going to do and That Which Consumes Peace hopefully remembered what he had been asked to do and didn't just ignore it to do his own thing out of pure spite, Twich moved to join Clotho in her 'Command Center' in order to try and get an idea of what they were going into.

The whole 'Dragonfly Eye' effect of the Chamber of Eyes was as unnerving as it was interesting, but Twich attempted to rally himself as much as possible in order to gleam as much information as he could for himself instead of having to relay completely on Clotho for a translation of the raw data that was flooding in. "Good call on sending some of your more... warlike little friends into ambush positions but I don't want them moving in unless we are completely out of options and we decide to abandon all pretense that the humans were responsible for this raid. If the dwarves that scout the place out afterwards find strange, inhuman tunnels leading into their own and find their kin slain by inhuman monsters its going to be hard to blame humans for it..."

"Try to locate as many ventilation shafts as possible while you are at it... I'm sure that I've got a couple of concoctions that dwarves wouldn't be able to breath in but your bugs should handle just fine... I might just get started on that now."

In fact, Twich had already returned to his quarters and was getting to work putting together a lovely little persant for the dwarves in the lower tunnels of the mine which needed those ventilation shafts when That Which Consumes Peace returned with prize and information. Twich listened and inspected what the demon had recovered with glee. "How good are you at forging an official looking document? It just needs to be written in a fancy manner and get across the point that-" the Kobold actually tried to make his voice sound as prim and pompous as possible as he dictated "His royal holiness the Emperor has deemed this land to be part of his sovereign soil and thus to be used for the benefit of humanity alone. He has ruled that all other races found here are merely squatters to be dealt with in whatever manner his honored and humble servant -whomever the local managing noble is- deems fit. Consider this your official eviction notice. "

Coughing a little as he took the chance to catch his breath and return his voice to normal, Twich added "The plan is when everything is wrapping up to nail that to the front entrance of the mine, maybe hang some tasteful banners from the local managing noble as well to add a tasteful dab of color to the horrible defiled and mutilated bodies of the dwarves at the mine; Really drive home the message of what a human 'eviction' means."

The Kitsune planted a sudden, unexpected kiss on Emily's cheek, and then floated away, giggling to itself. They where always mischivious buggers, and the more tails, the more mischief.
"Well, I think I know what you want me for, but, I want you for something as well" She exclaimed, gliding around on some unseen seat, so Emily had to turn to keep her in her vision a lot.
"What do you require? Other than a whole village, and my Empyrean?" Emily asked, rather snappishly, but not to disrespectful.
"Ohh, that was just to get my attention, and you know it. I, want something fun. Kitsunes are physical, unlike most spirits, but we can't stay long in this world, again unlike spirits. But I am young, and adventerious, and can't pass up a new realm for mystery and exploration. So-" The kitsune was cut off by Emily, who had clocked where she was going.
"You want to be hosted. Well, I am not sure I can help. I already have three spirits, and I don't know how much more my body could take before folding in on itself". The Kitsune pouted from being interupted, but it was a playful pout.
"Ohh, I can handle that dear. I'll not take up much room, and keep a lock on my door" She teased. "Or, I could just go back, and give you you little riddle to chew on, either way". Emily thought for a few moments, and then sighed.

"Fine. I don't know how Kits-" Half way through her sentence, Emily was cut off by the Kitsune, probably in revenge, as it dove into her, flesh turning ethereal, and melding with her soul, setting up shop inside her and making some tweeks, by her very nature. One of them tweeks was very obvious, as a pair of foxy ears popped up from her skull. "Ears?!" Emily exclaimed, reaching up to grab them, almost to comfirm their existance. They felt nice, so she let them stay.
'Ohh, before I forget- ' the Kitsune's voice rang in Emily's head, already settled into her room ' - The Smallest sit on His Throne, and use His Blood for their own ends. That's what you came to get in the first place, no?'

Emily knew the riddle was going to be riddly, it wouldn't do for everyone to figure it out so easily, but still, it wasn't making things easy in any shade.

The unhallowed soul worked his was from peasant to farmer. Each death empowered this nightmare to stay manifested and to chill the very air around it. As "cold stare" moved the force of the frost on the ground rose up to meet him then melted as he passed. The look of hopelessness on these fools was quickly replaced by the decay of their flesh. The sword it carried slicing effortlessly into the soul of the next helpless wretch. None of them had time to even pray. They would all feel the abandonment and despair of his *passing. His gift to these worthless souls was a quick death. A few escaped his dark power mostly due from an archer hitting his mark but having the arrow pass through this apparition and strike the poor fool opposite him.

It made little difference where they hid or what they wore his blade sought them out. He would avenge his lost soul. These people were no different then any other, and they would all come to the same end he did. His anger grew and was matched by the aura of cold he was emitting.
These warm, breathing fools, how dare they! They dare to be ignorant! They dare to be complacent! They dare to let him rot on the road! Where was there hope? He would crush it in his despair. "Cold stare" had become frantic, the movement of his sword, no longer quick strikes, but mad swings. Each stroke cut through man, woman, child, and pet(kid holding pet, cold stare doesn't seek out pets. He also dosen't see pets). Each body that fell became putrid and unrecognizable.

* passing can be taken both ways.

By the time they had returned to the village Umbra was no longer in the body of the imp. Deciding shortly before they left that it was much too fragile to take into such a deadly location, and risking a life threatening injury from a host was best avoided.

Once Athinar began barking his orders, the others around him quickly followed, almost enthusiastically. A strange trait to be seen from people such as themselves, then again he wasn’t one to judge. Once he had finally finished though Umbra was left without any hint of orders before Athinar himself began to run off. Being left with little to do, Umbra chose to follow him. Silently shadowing behind and barely keeping up with his speed, a thought that surprised him immensely.

Balothiss destroyed a table with one mighty swing of his sword "Reaver" and then he shouldered his way through a support that held up part of a broken sealing and that fell to the ground he picked up the podium and threw it into a wall he killed multiple peasants and militia men with swipes of "Reaver" and now he began to throw balls of fire into the village hall that he had decimated he closed the door and pulled a large amount of debris in front of the door so no one could get out of the burning building he threw more balls of fire and watched the building burn down and listened to the screams of the people inside suffocating and burning alive.

Balothiss laughed at the pathetic pilgrims as they tried to slow him down by throwing assorted items at him he just picked the pilgrims up one by one and threw them into a building breaking bones and killing them almost instantly.

Death was a beautiful yet terrible thing Balothiss realized.

But he liked seeing those he killed die with dignity if he let them and if he fought an equal to him he repeated his opponent.

Balothiss wondered how everyone else was doing terrorizing this pathetic place wher people expected to live in peace well that was all over for them and their children and their children's other children that are never to be born.

He laughed loudly and watched everything burn around him and all the destruction it made him forget about his past and how much he wanted to kill the people he once lived amongst.

He looked around he wondered if it was time to leave or if they needed to finish this town off so he surveyed for the others and he saw some here and there so he waited to see more leave.

”Duly noted.” Clotho replied to Twitch, shortly before he left her Chamber of Eyes to return to his own quarters. Honestly, Clotho didn't know why the Master had deemed it necessary to employ subterfuge, making it seem as if the humans were responsible for the death and destruction to come. By her estimation, the Horde of Evil was strong enough to withstand the wrath of both neighboring human and dwarf settlements. Even if she was found out, Clotho's bugs constituted only a small part of the Master's forces, and did not directly correlate to the remainder.

Clotho did not, however, in any way wish to defy the Dungeon Keeper. His wish was her command, and if he demanded subterfuge, he would get it.

Phase two of her campaign against the dwarven outpost had begun. This part the swarm queen termed the 'alert phase', when the enemy had discovered the Macula infestation but also realized how pitiful and non-threatening they were. Fortunately, few ever realized that the Macula's enchanted eyes continued to transmit images a few minutes after their death, provided that the eyes themselves hadn't been damaged. One of the organic lens had displayed an image most fascinating to her: the corpse of one Macula had been presenting in a strange chamber to some sort of authority figure. With the Macula in question dead of course, it hadn't gotten a full angle, and the form of this odd being eluded her. Clotho now had an inkling, however, that some other presence was at work within the dwarven outpost. With this just being a hunch, she did not feel the need to share it with Twitch, but all the same made sure that the insectoid forces hidden within the tunnel network were ready to fight. Should a dwarf happen to discover any Myrmidon, Antlion, or Lambent, orders were to kill the dwarf and hide the body. When the proper assault began, the signs of human encroachment could be laid. The various banners and scraps of human paraphernalia were just now, after all, being transported underground to the scene.

The Macula stared on at the door, its eyes seemingly vacant. Lurking in the shadows, the bug was nearly invisible. That was, until a servant paying no heed to her steps almost tripped over the oversized bug. With a scream, she fell backwards onto the cold stone floor of the tunnels and scrabbled away. The food and ale that she had carried on a platter spilled everywhere, though it was not that the insect seemed interested in. Lifelessly as ever, it simply stared.

A guard quickly arrived, and seeing the Macula, dispatched of the bug easily enough. Holding his grip on the dagger that he had plunged into the Macula's carapace, Urist examined the disgusting thing. Foul juices had squirted out of it, he realized with some revulsion. Using the dagger stuck in it as a handle, he opened the door that the servant had headed towards. Through that door was the Guildmaster's office and quarters. Their Guildmaster was many things: he was the one who tracked their profits, maintained the books on their population and wealth, traded with the caravans, and served as liaison to the Mountainhome. Beyond that, he was their employer, their mayor, their godfather of sorts, but most importantly the de facto leader of their little colony.

It was to him that they went to ask what was to be done about the recent state of affairs. Several of the deep-miners had gone missing (though there had been no sound of collapse and a few of those that went to search for them went missing themselves) and an infestation of the strange Macula, to boot.

"Is that you, Urist?" the elderly Guildmaster asked, his vision failing him even in the cheerfully lit office. "You may approach. What is it? Word of the missing miners?"

Urist brandished the Macula skewered on his dagger and brought it closer for the Guildmaster to examine. He tried to no avail to not have the dead bug drip its juices onto the floor. "No, Master. It is these strange..." Urist suddenly stopped at a loss for words, but then found his tongue, "...These strange bugs. These things. We don't know where they came from, but they're everywhere. They don't seem to hurt anything or eat our food, but there's something funny about their eyes. They just stare."

As if to prove his point, the freshly slain Macula continued to gaze with its empty eyes, looking straight at the troubled face of the Guildmaster. There was then a knock on the door before another three of Urist's fellow guards came in, carrying crates full of the dead bugs. One of them spoke, "You found another one on the way, Urist?" Looking at the thing on Urist's dagger with contempt, that guard then turned to the Guildmaster. "Master, these bugs are everywhere. Even more troubling is the geomancer. While he was prospecting, he said that he thought he sensed other tunnels near our mineshafts. Tunnels that we didn't dig."

The Guildmaster scratched his head. "Maybe those bugs burrowed their way inside our home? Or maybe the missing miners made those tunnels? Could just be another cavern." The Guildmaster took off his spectacle and cleaned it as he often did when troubled.

Knowing that the other would have no answer to his questions, he thought the circumstances over for a moment before coming to a decision. At last the Guildmaster said, "I don't know what's going on, but I don't like it. Keep the colony on high alert. Make sure that the tunnels to the surface are thoroughly closed, the traps are set, and the watchers are in place. And no more small search parties; I want three groups of ten good men to go down into the deep mines. Miners and guards, both. Find out if the prospector was right about new tunnels appearing, and if he was, find out what in the stone is going on."

The dwarves scurried out of the room to obey their orders. The Guildmaster turned towards the freshly slain Macula once again, and compared it to the others. All of their eyes now looked glazed over. That was funny, he could have sworn that the first one had been looking at him funny throughout the whole conversation. Perhaps he was just losing his mind along with his vision...

Meanwhile, at the human village

As Cold Stare and Balothiss suddenly descended upon the town, followed shortly after by Athinar and any at his heels, all hell quickly broke loose. Screams rang out as many were taken unaware and slain by Cold Stare, and in the chaos a few oil lamps were dropped. They broke and what started as a few small fires quickly grew into a raging fire, while Balothiss charged straight to the burning buildings and began killing the villagers nearby. The Overlord, back in the Dungeon, watched that with some amount of displeasure. He wanted most of those people alive, but then again, a few dead ones would be fine. It would be interesting to see how Athinar handled this, if he even handled it. His authority and impression were rapidly being eroded while one of those under his command flagrantly disobeyed orders by attacking the civilians.

In any case, the fire and screams quickly caught the attention of those within the center of the city. The fires already in the city and screams coming from numerous directions now, the defenders assumed that their pallisade was already breached. Rather than charge to the walls to fight, their best chance would be to group up in the town's center and then go to where they would be best placed, to save as many lives as possible.

Any guard that wasn't within sight of one of the attackers would begin to run down the dusky roads towards the town square. The sorcerers inside the Temple spilled out as well, in addition to perhaps twenty or thirty of the men at arms that had been stationed in the town's barracks. They all looked to the manor, where the knight that lorded over this village lived. That knight was currently hurriedly searching for his enchanted sword and armor, though once his already awake squire helped him into that, he would be out in a minute and ready to rally the defenders and lead the charge through the streets.

Xallihion will watch from his throne as thirty of the Dwarves begin to descend into the mine tunnels through the orb of energy in his hand, It looks like these insects are having an effect on their pitiful minds. His fingers will close around the orb, shattering the magic as he stands up and walks over to a stone shelf along the right side of the small chamber, where two rolled up scrolls made of paper rest next to a polished thigh bone, the entire length of the bone has been carved with tiny runes and symbols in the language of Xallihion's race and a decent sized purple crystal set into the end of the bone where the hip would attach.

As Xallihion picks up the bone from the shelf, a small part of his power will reach out and touch the center of the crystal, bringing the power stored inside to life. Good, the power is still full. If these dirty Dwarves are going to bother to come all the way down here, then it is the least I can do to welcome them. Xallihion's four tentacles will move quickly as he thinks of the insects that are all over the tunnels and their far away master, The master of those pests will need to be tested, and harshly, for making the Dwarves raise their guard. But now I have the chance of getting better and more slaves.

Xallihion will place the bone wand into a holster he has on his right hip and will pick up the scrolls to place them in a small scroll case on his left hip as his mind reaches out to the five slaves already under his command, Slaves, prepare for guests. With his preparations complete, Xallihion will join the five dwarven slaves and will prepare the tunnel that the Dwarves are coming down with spells and runes to eat away at the minds of any that walk near them. At the farthest point from where the Dwarves are coming from, Xallihion will have his slaves hide in ambush, with Xallihion hiding farher back in a small alcove that would allow him to only be seen when he wants to be seen. Good thing I am very patient.

He did not notice the flames around him. He did not hear the pleas for mercy. He emerged inside the building from the flame engulfed wall. The chill was no match for a wall of fire. The skin of those trapped inside began to rot as he approached. Not sure if the heat which affected his rage or perhapse it was the frantic praying he had encountered by some of the peasants. The blade he wielded slowed its attack. Cold stare lifted his blade and with a single thrust watched the old mans eyes roll upward into his head. Every soul in that inferno died before the fire could reach them.

As the building collapsed from the fire damage out walked the shadow of a knight. Through the flames it moved silently across the street. Oblivious to the archers shooting at his form. He pushed his form through the wall of another building where@Blackmist16 stood. There was no innocence to this form, no compassion to destroy. This form standing in front of "cold stare" was pure.....

When Balothiss felt another presence behind him he turned around to see the "cold stare" standing behind him, Balothiss sneered at him.

@Markofkri

"What are you looking at"

Balothiss said as he pulled arrows out of a nook in his armour as if they were nothing at all, but he looked at the fool who stared at him, who was analysing him as if Balothiss was a bug.

"Shouldn't we focus on the mission and not me?"

He asked with a little defensiveness in his voice.

"I will tell you that I am a murderer and a thief but I never deserved what punishment that I was bestowed with!"

And Balothiss heaved his sword to his back but did not leave the presence of the person in front of him letting him know that he was not intimidated by him or at the very least afraid of him.

"I find sport in death only because it lets my anger free and I may forget the past and enjoy combat"

Balothiss smiled at "cold stare" and said amusedly.

"Now the death of dwarves I enjoy and the sport of the kill is a thrill I can not give up!"

He left and fast at that weaving in and out of the fray of now apparent guards that began to flow into the village and he cleaved his way through each guard that either got in his way or approached him with readied weapons or intent to kill and those who cowered at his onslaught were trampled or hit to the side.

Taking a moment to review the final piece of work to ensure that it had been worth the bartered price, Twich nodded his approval before looking back at That Which Consumes Peace. "Good. Check in on Clotho to get an update on what's happening with the Dwarves and then use your own judgement when you should be going in. If this goes well we won't even need to sacrifice your two guys; Before you start selecting your new agents through do keep in mind that the Master wanted his share of prisoners and he is already somewhat displeased with you. Consider this a chance to get into the Master's good graces... And if you are successful at that, he won't really care if you take a few extra dwarves for your own proposes... And if you do a really good job, you might be able to talk him into putting you in charge of whatever group Shukra is on next mission he sends us out on..."

It was a large prize to dangle in front of the demon... thing and Twich knew it. The Kobold knew full well that Shukra and That Which Consumes Peace were at odds with each other and the chance for the demon to be able to lord a higher status in the status quo over the tiger and rub that fact in his face would be mighty tempting... the resentment and infighting such a situation would cause would only make the chance to claim it even harder to resist. "Try to keep any prisoners you take in the upper mine. The lower mine is going to have a very bad day..."

Regardless of That Which Consume's Peace decision on what to do, Twich focused his efforts on his brewing. The first cauldron was filled and more or less ready, only needing one more addition before the otherwise harmless liquid inside started to bellow a highly toxic smoke; That would be added once they arrived at the site, since doing so in a closed room was a highly stupid idea. Having the lid of the cauldron clamped tightly shut, some Imps were going to have to be recruited to carry the thing to ensure arrive. Working on the second cauldron, Twich knew that two would have to do. They wouldn't have the time to create a third and the whole point was to render the lower mine shafts highly dangerous to living things.

Hopefully the explosives the Master wanted them to retrieve were stored in the upper shafts... If not, Clotho's bugs seemed disposable.

The keen, verdant eyes of Clotho missed little. She beheld the greater rate by which the Macula lenses were dimmed, the owners of the linked eyes killed. The face of the old guildmaster, hardened in focus and concentration, hinting at some sort of action. By the swarm queen's calculations, the Alert Phase was nearing its end, and the next stage of her invasion would begin: Incursion phase. To be able to continue building up into an unstoppable force, the marauders would need to go on the defensive for a little while. Clotho held up her hands and issued a shrieking cry. All at once, the links connecting the Macula to the Chamber of Eyes severed, and the whole room went dark. In the dwarven outpost, the sentry bugs felt a light sting, and new from their conditioning that it was time to withdraw. En masse, the Macula began to disperse, hiding underground or simply leaving. ”It is time I took the field,” she said, and made a mental note to develop a portable link to the Macula—a sort of organic monocular, linkable to her own systems. Then she left, zooming through the dungeon until she reached the tunnels that now linked it to the dwarven village, and through them she rushed, only stopping at her alchemist's to pick up a prototype serum.

She soon found herself in a cavern beneath the outpost, heavily occupied by her own forces. The already-damp chamber, floored in some places with subterranean lake and lined with various fungus, now played home to several newly-formed Lambent hives and sported the distinctive mess characteristic of Myrmidon dens. A web of passages branched off from this cavern in nearly every direction, burrowed by the Antlions. Already, some of the surviving Macula had made their way here, but from her spying Clotho got the sense that other forces were inbound as well. At her arrival, the entirety of her arthropod swarm ceased their activities to give her their attention.
“Three Antlions. Ten Lambent. Come with me.”

Before long, the dwarven expedition was incoming. The slaves of Xallihion were not the only thing lying in ambush. When they entered the lower tunnels, they became aware of a near-constant shaking, one that seemed to be near them but never amounted to anything harmful. Determined to discover the source of the Macula infestation and new tunnels, they searched the mines for some time, split into three groups of ten as instructed. One of the parties wandered, while another chanced to head toward where Xallihion and his band lay in wait. Another mined through a thin barrier of rock and breached the tunnels made by the Antlions. Scarcely had that squad entered the unfamiliar terrain when behind them blossomed eruptions of yellow fire. Above their heads whirred a small swarm of giant fireflies, the Lambent. So occupied were the dwarves with the fliers who'd cut off their escape, that they did not notice the increasing rumbling until the ground collapsed beneath their feet, courtesy of the Antlions following them. Those dwarves not buried in the cave-in were incinerated by fire, all save for one.

The sole survivor clambered out of the pit, breathing ragged and covered in lacerations and contusions. With a mighty effort and a pained groan, he rolled onto the solid rock, and only after a few seconds noticed the being standing over him. His first instinct was to yell, but the silent, monstrous woman stood stock-still but for her eyes. The dwarf could not help but feel that he was being examined by those bright green eyes, his every secret laid bare. He panted as he stared at her, defiant. When he went to speak, however, Clotho extended her stinger from her left palm and stuck it in one of his cuts.

Immediately, her prototype toxin went to work. It snaked its way through his bloodstream and into his brain, where it began to coagulate. The chemical cocktail gnawed into the neurons and obstructed the synapses, putting him into an acute trance resembling hypnosis. Clotho spoke to him in a low, soft tone, “In a few moments, you will begin your trip back to your commander. You will tell him nothing about me or the insects you encountered. Instead, tell him that a cave-in killed your friends, which alike the new tunnels are the product of unusual seismic activity. You will do this with your full, normal level of intelligence and language, forgetting anything unusual ever happened.” The alchemist had warned her that this version of the serum was unstable, and would start to collapse within a day, leading to probable brain damage and a comatose state. ”When your mind starts to rot, end yourself quickly and painlessly, leaving behind evidence of depression. Go.”

Clotho watched the wounded dwarf hobble off, feeling small strains of pity for him. She enjoyed having power over others, but not causing them pain. The fate she'd woven for this unfortunate, brave soul was a terrible one. Sighing, she flew through the aperture and into the dwarven tunnels, sneaking cautiously through them to see if there were any other dwarves.

Torrens had been lying in wait patiently when he saw in the sky over the rim of his ditch rising smoke lit by fires from below against the night sky. He scrambled up to see that a fire had already broken out in the town. Getting to his feet, he cursed and said "How dare they start burning things without me!"

Torrens waited for no further signal. The battle had started. Either the signal had gone out long ago and missed him, or someone had jumped the gun and shattered the carefully arranged plan. And looking around at the distinct lack of chaos outside the village, it must have been the latter. Wasting no more time, Torrens burst into the farmhouse he had been assigned and chucked a fireball into the center of the main room. The fire burst and spread across the floor, filling the room with fire instantly, including one man who was sleeping in that room. Burning alive, he woke up instantly, although he failed to stay conscious for long enough to leave the room. It was not long before the screams and crying of a woman and three children could be heard from adjoining rooms, as the mother evidently was evidently trying to gather the children and get them to safety. She at last came into the main room, to discover her husband immolated and a red demonic human figure standing in the middle of the fires. One step towards the woman was all that it took to make her flee.

Grinning devilishly, Torrens followed the family outside. He needed to direct them to the town, to raise a new alarm or something. Considering that they were surrounded by flammable farmlands and orchards, this would be a trivial task. Torrens lobbed a fireball ahead of them, which erupted on impact with the ground and set the surrounding trees on fire, redirecting them. He ran ahead and released from his arm a long tongue of flame, turning a field of corn into a wall of fire, redirecting them again. Satisfied with their direction this time, he let them be and approached Shukra, who, with his army of 50 orcs behind him, was not hard to find.

"Shukra! Someone's got excited and jumped the gun on our plan," he called out, "If we want to have any hope of drawing any useful attention, we're going to have to advance on the town, now. I'll open the way for you."

Torrens turned towards the town and sprinted up to it, heading through the field he had set alight earlier in order to soak up some of its thermal energy. As he approached the gate, two guardsmen were still watching out, and had seen him coming from ages away so their crossbows were ready. When he came within range, they aimed and fired. Torrens strafed one bolt, but the other struck him in the abdomen. However, rather than piercing, as it would for a form of flesh, it simply bent and bounced off, accompanied by a bright flash of heat from the point of impact. While they were hastily reloading, Torrens pointed out his fingers at one guard like a gun and unleashed a bolt of fire, which struck the guard just below the neck yet above his chestplate, delivering a mortal wound and throwing him backwards. Torrens was about to do the same as the other when he remembered the purpose behind his charge, so he changed at the last moment from a high-velocity fire bolt aimed at the guard to a slower fireball aimed at where the guard was standing. Sensibly, the guard jumped from his post to avoid the flames and fled into the town to search for reinforcements.

With the opposition removed, Torrens approached the wooden gates and palisade. While he could have burned straight through it, that would have been somewhat slow and would only leave a hole large enough for him to get through. So, instead, he climbed over the palisade. While the wood burned and turned to ash almost instantly at his touch, he climbed fast enough to get over the top and inside. Once there, he burned the mechanisms holding the gates shut and with a push the gate swung open. Already, the gate and the adjacent palisades were on fire, but since they were thick it would take a few hours for them to burn through completely, although it should take less than that for the bindings to collapse and fall apart.

With the way open for Shukra's orcs, Torrens went into the town to search out the defenders and join the fray, or maybe even draw some of the defenders away from his allies.

"Maybe Torrens was discovered? I'll go ahead and see what's happening." Narza calls out to Athinar as she slips through the sturdy wooden palisade walls and floats off toward the rising smoke in the midst of the town. Flying high into the sky, she is able to make out columns of smoke rising from a central building in the town, and smaller fires in the vicinity, with small figures streaming out of the center building. If these were the guards that her groups was supposed to assassinate, it wouldn't do to have them spreading out across the city.

The shortest path between two points was a line. Unobstructed by any obstacles, Narza went from street to street and alley to alley, forming thick walls of us to block off the guards. While she seemingly placed the walls at random around the guardhouse, she left the street leading to Athinar's gate clear, with all offshoots sealed off. She hoped that with a street clear, the guards would just flock down that street instead of trying to break down walls.

Athinar's eyes narrowed as he surveyed the city. Smoke and flame from the front gate, screams of terror within. Athinar wouldn't have thought it odd for Torrens or Shukra to have jumped the gun, but they both knew better. Most likely, it was some lesser minion who had found his way in, and had begun the attack early. Still, he didn't mind Narza taking the initiative in this case. The little ghost had proven herself useful, and that would be appreciated. Nodding, Athinar swung aroung, looking back at his group. "Everyone! They know we're here! No need for stealth, now. We can slaughter the guards, but we need to kill the sorcerers first."

Sprinting towards the thick wooden gates, the huge man drew back a fist, and leaping at the portal, punched them apart, knocking them to either side, and shattering the crossbeam, landed amongst unconsious guards and scattered splinters of wood.

Absentmindedly stomping on a guard's windpipe, dispatching the civic defender, Athinar looked down the long street. Narza had blocked off quite a few streets, leading the guards to him in a straight line. Snarling like a wolf in pleasure, he bounded along the path, howling as the first few guards came into his vision. The guards, 15 in number, were taken aback as they saw this... beast of a man, and halted their forward movement, stumbling. He capitalized on this, and slid forward, twisting his right foot up in a high kick, snapping their leader's neck. Stepping back, Athinar, fell into Rock Style, waiting for the smaller group to approach. This should be fun.

Balothiss realized that the onslaught had begun and he had taken out a good amount of guards that surrounded him and he was getting a little hurt until he burnt them all into crisps.

He squinted down the street to see guards walking out of view and then start pushing back slightly for he saw a large beast man taking at least fifteen on in battle and taking almost all of them out one by one.

@Markofkri

Balothiss grunted amusedly at 'Cold stare' and pointed at the guards being mauled by a beast man. He felt a lone guard trying to strike him with his sword, Balothiss just punched the man out instead of killing him.

He motioned 'Cold stare' to follow him and this time Balothiss, taking the patience to also ambush other guards began approaching from alley ways and whatever other routes he could find, until he got an idea.

Balothiss looked around as he reached an alley where he could see that there was a large amount of Orcs on the way with Torrens ready for action marching their way into town and a larger portion of guards being ambushed by the others, he looked around to see if there were any ladders in the vicinity and he found none so he began climbing a building which was not very tall.

Once he appeared over the top on the roof he saw a few archers positioning themselves so they could snipe the intruders.

Before they even had time to exclaim their surprise Balothiss had thrown one archer off the roof and to the ground to his death the other two tried to run, one slipped and fell of the roof into the group of guards and last one shot him in the shoulder.

The arrow punctured his flesh and he howled in pain but Balothiss pushed the arrow out of his shoulder leaving a small wound which bled over him and Balothiss held it as he grabbed the last archer by the neck and stabbed the man with his own arrow in the neck, and then dropped the archer off the building.

Balothiss grabbed a piece of cloth that had been ripped off an archers tunic,it was quite a large piece and he wrapped it around his shoulder from underneath his armpit.

Once he had finished patching up he stood and took a look around seeing that things were progressing and he looked down and now only a couple dozen guards were trying to march towards the action.

Balothiss waited until the first person had walked past him and he began dashing fire balls at guards on the ground and that caused a bit of confusion in the guards ranks they dived off into merchant stands and carts and some unlucky enough to be hit by the fire ball were cooked in their armour or died because someone dropped their sword and he threw some more fire at them as he began to worry when the towns mages or sorcerers would begin to aid in the defence of the village.

This town had done something to incur this munch wrath from so many dark entities. The large figure would lead cold stare to where he was needed. Munch like a virus followed a blood cell to the organ it was familiar with. He followed. All around this figure of retribution people died. Some of the guards dared to show themselves. "Foolish." he thought to himself. His sword took there life and there body heat. A long sword strike appeared out of his chest to no avail. Adjusting his grip the shadow of man thrusted his own sword into his own image. The resulting scream was cut short as the blade found a home in the would be heroes throat. Onward the death of men would follow. This was truly a forsaken town.

Torrens, hearing the clamour and noise of battle in the streets ahead, jogged through the alleyways until he was near, at which point he hauled himself up onto a carefully selected stone roof in order to get a better view. In the streets he could see skirmishes with the Keeper's minions, headed by Athinar, against small clusters of guards. But in the town center the town's garrison assembling, preparing to march as a coherent unit through the attackers, backed by their powerful sorcerer priests. If they were allowed to advance in force, then severe casualties would likely be suffered on their side. Granted, a collection of Rogue Beings this size was a force to be reckoned with, but there was no sense in simply hurling themselves at an armed and ready mesh of spears, shields and magic. They needed to be broken up.

Torrens looked up and saw on another rooftop the half-giant dark knight which he recognised as Balothiss, hurling fireballs into defenders below. Torrens gave him a wave and nod of recognition, and jumped back down into the alleyways.

It was not long before he was in position. He had taken the backstreets to flank the main guard force. He discovered that many of the side streets had been blocked by walls of ice, an obvious effort to control the movements of the guards. Now Torrens was beside the column, near the sorcerer priests, with nothing but a wall of frozen water separating them. Acknowledging the need for speed, he braced himself and stepped bodily into the ice wall, vaporising it, and then spewed forth enough fire to engulf the entire block of sorcerers. Such an attack would have surely taken them by surprise, and may have incapacitated a good portion of them, but these sorcerers of fire and water were perfectly equipped to counter such an attack as well. As such, Torrens was not surprised to see that many of the sorcerer priests had managed to cast appropriate shields before they received any severe injury. In fact, that was part of his plan.

Quick as he came, Torrens darted back into the alleyway and dived around a corner just in time to avoid a barrage of water bolts from the water priests. He clambered to his feet, unharmed from having dived into solid cobblestones, and shot a few fire bolts around the corner at the priests. He did not expect them to hit, for the priests had ample ability to deflect such attacks. Instead, he hoped to splinter the group.

If some of the priests break off to go after him, he'd fall back, providing token resistance, and lead them away from the group. If some of the guards are sent, he would go back far enough to not be under fire from the priests, fight them, then return. If no-one took the bait, he would just keep shooting, either forcing them to deal with him or distracting the spellcasters enough so they can't help the guards. Really, he was hoping a group of priests would break off to deal with him, although it was entirely possible that this main column was too well disciplined to do such a thing.