Dragon War - RP Thread

Welcome to Virkhard Hall, home of the Baron Cadmir, the ruler of all Perion. I'm afraid you've arrived a bit too late to meet the heir-baroness, Kemberon Cadmir. You see, she's run away. And the Baron is dead.

RULES:
Swearing is permitted, but try to keep it relatively mild.
Please no gratuitous blood and guts.
Sex, if it happens, must take place off-scene.
No godmodding.
No powerplaying.
Be kind and courteous to fellow roleplayers, please.

(sign-up and discussion is here.)
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Kemberon had been on her own for...oh, three months now, she figured. Contrary to what she had originally expected about running away, it wasn't actually all that hard to find food and clothes and shelter. Despite her being the only child of the last man in the family that had ruled Perion for the past three hundred years, Kember's face was utterly undistinguished. She had found that with the proper poor folks' clothes, and a little dirt smudged here and there, she no longer looked at all like an heir-baroness but rather like an ordinary farmer's daughter or some such.

That was handy, because Stephan's soldiers continued to comb the country for her, day in and day out. Kember was certain that they didn't mean to kill her, but rather capture her and hold her in Virkhard Hall while Stephan crushed the last dissenters. He wouldn't want to turn her into a martyr.

Kemberon had no idea where any of her friends or supporters were. Those still loyal to her father had tried to flee the night he died, as had Kember, but the ones who actually had managed to escape were scattered all over Perion. He father's captain of the guard, Emkai Terrazzo, had escaped Virkhard; Kember had heard stories about him from the smallfolk she kept company with, yet she had not been able to find him. Kemberon was on her own.

Emkai had a rather hard time of blending in. This worked to his advantage in a palace positioning guards and barking out orders, but now that the supporters of the late baron had been flushed out of the hall, well, the attention he got for his striking appearance was much less welcome.

Seta didn't exactly blend in either with her goatskin clothes, but as she wasn't wanted or even particularly threatening to look at, it was she who got supplies from the villages they passed.

"It really is too bad no one wants to barter," she mused as she looked down at her meager armful of supplies. A coil of rope, some bread, and two apples wasn't much. Ah well, at least they still had some jerky left from her original supply, and goats milk. Yes, that would be enough to get them through to the next-- wait...

She squinted over at one of the other peasants, a girl with dirt smudged on her face. That was strange, very strange indeed.

Doing her best to keep her things clutched to her chest, she trotted over to the peasant girl. "Erm, excuse me, but you look... familiar."

((Can I join? No one has said anything in the sign-up thread yet.))

((Nevermind, someone said it's good.))

Hjor stood in the center of the town and looked around. That man with the striking features. Looked like a dragon soldier. Hjor wondered how much the new king payed his gaurds, and wondered how much he could relieve the man of. He looked for a moment longer, then shook his head. Too much theivery in one place can make people two suspicious. He glanced around and saw a girl in what appeared to be goatskin clothing. She was attempting to speak to one of the peasents. Hjor decided to watch her for a while and moved a bit closer.

Ria carefully smudged her makeup, making sure she didn't look like anything extraordinary before she set out into the street. It wouldn't do to reveal herself after she'd done her research, after all. Her long hair was pulled up in a messy bun, and that had been smudged with tea, making it as non-descript as white blond hair could be. She looked down at the streets below her room and studied the people, her green eyes narrow in thought. It was time to go judge the populace's reactions to her future announcement. Once the Dragon rises, a Gryphon will rise to his side, bringing back what had been lost...

She smirked and left her room.

Kemberon's head spun around, and she saw an older girl who had approached, her arms of a coil of rope and some food to her chest. The girl looked like one of the smallfolk, though Kember rarely ever saw one dressed all in goatskins -- the woman must raise the animals for a living. But Kember didn't recall seeing a pen of goats anywhere around this town when she had first entered it, so why would this girl be here?

"Uh...I don't know," Kember said hesitantly. "Have I seen you somewhere before?"

She was playing the peasant girl, as she had been for months now, because smallfolk were largely unimportant in the eyes of Stephan's armies. If she acted convincingly enough, nobody would find her odd. But why was this woman asking? Was she a spy of Stephan's? Kember always did her best to avoid getting into discussions with people, on principle.

The young peasent woman seemed startled by the goatskin girl. Why would that be? Hjor moved closer to see if he could eavesdrop on the two. One of the townsfolk ran into him and dropped his pile of clean clothing. The man started yelling a Hjor, who just picked him up by one shoulder and set him off to the side. The man stood there for a second before grabbing up his clothes and taking them away. Hjor took another couple steps towards the girls.

Ria appeared in the street and began to look around, trying to decide who to talk with first.

Aiden parted the foliage the reveal a small camp filled with people wearing old armour and weilding chipped swords, he couldn't beleive how easy this was going to be, he checked his surrounding nor checking behind him into the wall of leaves, no-one seemed to be on the hills.

He strung his old wooden bow, he could feel where he had pulled of the splintered the wood, and the smooth wood he had carved from a small tree in the woods, the had tried to serrate his arrows, it had changed the heads into jagged ruins of arrowheads at least they were hard to pull out. He let the arrow loose and it flew toward the head of giant of a man with fists like boulders, he weilding no weapon his he spikes on his guantlet knuckles, the mans eye was instantly destroyed, he reached for it a ripped it out, letting out a cry of rage and looking towards Aiden, who had leapt out of the bushes and was knocking another another arrow onto his string, letting another off heading towards the giants knee, it sent him to the ground not stopping him in his lumbering advance, Aiden turned tail and ran, heading to the city, turns out that man was the catch to the job.

Seta hesitated, head to one side. Her green eyes narrowed. "Maybe not... I dunno, but it's just so curious, I could have sworn-- OH!"

She jumped, almost dropping her things. Of course, the picture from the wanted notice Emkai had shown her! But how strange it was, to simply run into the very person he'd been looking for. Now how to do this without letting people know what was going on? Er...

Seta licked her lips nervously. "Right. I think it was just... someone I know was talking about someone very like you. Maybe, erm, all right, he couldn't come into town himself due to... circumstances, and he sent me, but he's been looking for you I think." That... sounded altogether too suspicious, but what else could she say? Seta looked nervously at the other people in the street, namely a cloaked figure that was standing nearby. No, no that was paranoid. He probably wasn't listening in.
*
Another very different person was coming down the street as well. He stood out, mainly for his fine clothing and the troubled expression on his washed-out face. But Stephan's adviser Omaron often looked troubled, even if there was no apparent cause for it. A guard stood near his shoulder, apparently in case someone got the idea of picking his pocket. Soon Omaron paused and pulled up beside a stand, running his fingers through his hair. The guard puffed up his chest as though he were about to announce something, but the other cut him off.

"No need for all that excessive pomp and circumstance, I can state my own business. Yes, madam, the king has heard of your skills as a weaver and requests that you send some of your wares up to the palace for him to examine. No, go ahead, take your time looking. We've got time."

He looked around at the street aimlessly as the woman in the stall bustled for something to give him.

Ria noticed the bustle over by the weaver's shop-- good threads, that woman, whoever was causing the fuss had good taste-- and decided to head over that way. She could usually count on being no more than a pretty face to most people. Like any good trickster, she'd learned how to vanish into the crowd quite easily. But she wondered if she ought to as the face of the person causing the bustle came into view. Of course, she was in disguise right now, but the adviser was here.

Omaron didn't notice Ria, not at once at any rate. There were lots of peasants there anyways, and a good many of them were looking curiously over toward the nobleman sent by the king. But then...

Dearest, someone wants to speak with you I think.

He almost jumped at the whisper in the back of his head. Wh-what? Oh... well don't a good many people want to talk with me? I'm an adviser to the king; everyone will be wanting to push their own agendas at--

You misunderstand, dearest. There is an odd... presence here. A slippery, difficult to pin down presence. And I want you to talk to it. Perhaps this could further our own ends.

Er... right. Omaron tried to look as nonchalant as he could as he looked over the faces in the crowd once more.

There! It's the girl, the one... yes, you're looking at her dearest.

Omaron's grey eyes met Ria's, and he cleared his throat. "Can I help you?" he asked in what he hoped was a bored nobleman-ish sort of voice.

The goatskin woman started stammering, which made Kember curious, but then she suddenly seemed to realize something, and the conversation took and entirely different tack. Not one that Kemberon trusted.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I've ever met you before," she said bewilderedly, acting the confused peasant girl. The goatskin lady had to be a spy, or some mercenary type looking to curry favor with the new regime. Either way, Kember had to gt out of this conversation as fast as possible, without arousing the attention of the passersby. And wasn't that...

Oh, great stars. That was Stephan's own adviser, over by the threadwoman's stall. Kember started panicking. She had to leave, now.

She shook her head at once, eyes wide and innocent. "No, sir. I jus'..." She let her voice trail off into a nervous squeak, hoping she was playing the part well. Most peasants would be terrified at the thought of someone so powerful speaking to them. But now she'd had a good look at him at least. Later, when she took on the Gryphon, it would be easier to slip into the court.

Hjor noticed the girl in goatskin glance towards him((I'm assuming I'm the cloaked figure you mentioned.)), but he didn't think that she suspected him of eavesdropping. So, someone was looking for the peasent girl, eh? Well, that could be information he could use later. Hjor stayed where he was, waiting for Goatskin and the peasent to move away.

Omaron blinked. That wasn't the response he'd expected.

Are you sure she's it? I don't--

Mm. She doesn't wish to talk with us just now, clever little dear. However-- hello, there's something considerably more to the point.

Omaron let his eyes slide from Ria to a pair having a conversation a ways off. Oddly dressed one of them was, in goatskins.
*

"No, wait!" Seta's voice dropped, and she leaned forward. "Erm... I-I'm with your father's guard. Emkai I mean. He sent me to get supplies, and he's been looking for you. I mean... I know you have no reason to trust me, I'm not stupid, but that's the truth."

Her mind raced as she tried to think of some way to prove that she was in contact with the captain of the guard.

Ria took advantage of Omaron's looking away from her to adjust her posture and stance, playing with a strand of her hair shyly. She took a step back, trying to melt into the crowd once more. Or-- perhaps she didn't want to do that. Maybe she could ask him about the court's knowledge of the Gryphon first. "E-Excuse me, sir?" she squeaked once more, stepping forward.

So, the peasent girl was Kemberon Cadmir, daughter of the late Baron Cadmir. That was some info he could get some money for. And the goatskin clad girl was an allie of Emkai. Well, that would explain the man camping outside the gates, instead of in th Inn. Hjor only then noticed the comotion over near the weavers. Looks like Omaron was here, and he had noticed the peasent who wasn't a peasent as well. But some other peasent was attempting to get his attention, distracting him.

Emkai? The goatskin woman was with Emkai? No, stupid, of course she's not, her rational brain told her. Just because she used his name doesn't mean anything. Lots of people knew that Emkai Terrazzo was Father's captain of the guard. She could be trying to get you to say smething, give yourself away.

Kemberon shook her head. "I'm sorry, I think you must have me confused with someone else." She glanced at the pile of things in the goatskin woman's arms. "Do you need directions to someplace? I can show you a man who does bartering with customers. He won't ask you for coin, if you don't have it." She could, actually. She had scouted it this place yesterday, so if the need came up she could pretend to be a local.

She was trying so hard to be an ordinary farmer's daughter or shepherd's wife, someone who would be easily overlooked. If she played the part well enough, the goatskin lady would realize that she did in fact have the wrong person (even though she did not) and would leave Kember alone.

"No, just... just hang on." Stupid stupid stupid, Emkai had told her Kemberon wouldn't believe her at first. Why would she? Stephan likely had all sorts of spies and the like out looking for her.

Though there was the possibility that this woman really wasn't the baroness, and she was giving herself and her ally away. Agh. Maybe there was an easy way out of this.

Seta dug in her things and, with a little smile of satisfaction, drew out a peculiar knife. It looked almost as though it had been carved from a piece of obsidian, though of course that would have made it too brittle to use properly. Seta hadn't seen anyone other than Emkai with a knife like this.

"Does this mean anything to you?" she asked.
---

Omaron sighed and looked back to the girl. A slippery sort of mind, she'd said? Well there were plenty of pick pockets around here. That didn't mean this peasant girl was stupid enough to try anything on him.

"Yes?"