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Post by Lord Elyas Dryland on Apr 24, 2014 17:44:05 GMT -5
Ser Elyas slid his helm on quietly and waited to see what Rhaegar had planned. Hopefully it involved them getting out of the Dornish heat in the near future, as he was quite flushed from waiting so long under the sun.
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Post by Lord Jacaerys Velaryon on Apr 24, 2014 19:02:39 GMT -5
Vandaras! Rhaegar leaned back his arm over his eyes. One of the older dragons he knew and belonged to Maegor's daughter. Where she was was anyone's guess. Maybe pursuing him He knew now they would have to try and kill it.
Entering the cave after it would be suicide, but they might be able to set a trap outside the cave and kill it there.
Rhaegar broke cover to move to where Osmund was.
"Our best chance is to trap it as it emerges from the cave." he whispered in a low urgent voice to the Lord. "We have the element of surprise at the moment, but we'll get only one chance. You've seen the size of it, we'll need to deploy the chains and the nets appropriately so its ensnared as it emerges from the cave. We don't want it to fly and we don't want it to get back in the cave. Either will see our chances to kill it gone and our own lives in mortal danger."
He smiled grimly. "Not that they aren't already."
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Maekar
Site Council 
Sam/BlueLion
Posts: 1,437
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Post by Maekar on Apr 24, 2014 19:23:10 GMT -5
Osmund nodded, listening carefully. He moved across the rocks carefully, watching the cave-mouth and scanning the areas around it, until he located to pathways that would allow a few of their men to get on either side of the dragon's lair, as Rhaegar had indicated. The problem would be the chains; they could carry it quietly enough when they were coiled and they were careful, but if they were unfurled to be pulled across the cave's mouth, they could clank loudly across the rocks and alert the dragon to a possible threat outside. The risk had to be taken, and so he ordered a group of five men to start up each pathway, each man holding a length of chain whose other end was held by a man in the opposite group. Osmund had them wrap the chains around their own forearms, so they could keep them taught in the center as the groups moved further apart from each other and unwind the chains as if from a spool.
It was impossible for them to stay silent, but they were significantly quieter than if they just let the chains drag across the rock as they crept upward. Osmund gestured silently to the men who carried the nets, two heavy webbed things made of stout rope and weighted with iron barbs. A pair of men carried each net, following the two original groups up the divergent pathways. The apparent aim was to throw them across the dragon when it emerged from the cave and tangled itself in the chains that would stretch across the cave's mouth.
"I shall move up with the pikemen, my lord Prince, and we shall await your command to draw out the beast," he said, taking a long hooked Bill-axe from one of his men and gesturing for five more men to go up each pathway, each armed with a pole-arm of some kind. When all the men were in position, they were still two dozen yards from the mouth of the cave, and Lord Osmund looked back to Rhaegar for his signal to move up, to a point where the dragon would certainly take notice of them.
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Post by Vhagar on Apr 24, 2014 19:30:51 GMT -5
OOC - just to be clear, I have asked Zack to handle this as I need to sleep and will be away daytime hours tomorrow
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Post by Lord Jacaerys Velaryon on Apr 24, 2014 19:48:36 GMT -5
Rhaegar nodded, took a deep breath and drew his sword. He looked around at the other men who formed the retinues of Lord Fowler and his grandfather and pointed to an area both left and right of the cave entrance that they needed to move to, so when Vanderas came out of the cave he would be outflanked not only by Lord Osmund's men but his own.
"Don't go for the scales. They'll be resistant to our blades." he said in a low voice to all of them. "Go for the soft parts, the underbelly, the eyes. Stab and slay. A hundred gold pieces for the man that finally kills the beast."
He wondered again where Vanderas' rider, Daenya was.
He drew aside his grandfather Lord Yronwood. "If my cousin Daenya is nearby then she needs to be prevented from reaching Vanderas. If you and a couple of men can keep a look out." He clutched his grandfather's arm. "Plus I would not see you end this way. If it goes badly for us, flee as best you can and tell my mother that I love her." When Lord Yronwood nodded, speechless and started to move quietly down the mountainside to conceal himself and a couple of his men to observe proceedings. Rhaegar moved to the left side of the cave entrance with the Yronwood men behind him. The Fowler men went to the right.
He turned to Lord Osmund and gave the signal.
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Maekar
Site Council
Sam/BlueLion
Posts: 1,437
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Post by Maekar on Apr 24, 2014 21:55:48 GMT -5
The Dornishmen began shouting curses and jeers, trying to draw the Dragon into their snare in order to pin its wings and keep it on the ground.
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Post by Lord Elyas Dryland on Apr 24, 2014 21:58:21 GMT -5
Elyas rose from his hiding spot as the men began their preparations. It would be unseemly for a knight to hide behind rocks and watch the fight, even if he was only an observer. He watched the men advance from a moderate distance away, close enough to join the combat should he deem it necessary or advantageous. He looked around to see if Aurane was in attendance or with the horses below.
As the men approached the cave he removed the shield from his back and placed his hand on the hilt of his blade.
(Skills: Expert- Long Blades, Noteworthy-Land Battle, Apprentice- Athletics, Novice- Dragon Handling)
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Post by Vhagar on Apr 25, 2014 3:04:18 GMT -5
Elyas realised that Ser Aurane was nearby, looking grim as he watched Rhaegar and listened to his instructions.
At first the jeers and cries seemed to make no difference to the dragon. He didn't emerge from his cave. But after a short while, they heard him begin to stir.
OOC - sorry for such a terrible post, hopefully we can sort this later today
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Post by Vhagar on Apr 25, 2014 19:31:46 GMT -5
An ear-splitting roar issued from inside the cave, causing the men at the cave's mouth to falter for a moment, and then a flare of golden flame arced out of the blackness, illuminating a cave whose floor was completely coated with bones and charred bits of meat, with a half-eaten carcass of the sheep in the back. The black and red dragon roared again, spraying its flames at the men who were disturbing its meal, catching two Fowler men and instantly setting them alight. They dropped their weapons and ran screaming until they fell, the smell of charred flesh and burnt hair filling the nostrils of their comrades. Rhaegar shouted commands and, to their credit, the Dornishmen reformed their formation just in time for the Dragon to come barreling out of the cave. A dragon on the ground is an awkward thing, and if Vandaras had been able to take to the air, it is likely that it would have slaughtered every one of them in seconds.
However, Rhaegar's plan to pen it at the mouth of the cave worked… partially. The massive beast crashed into the chains that stretched across the mouth of its cave, pulling several men off their feet and flinging across the rocks with bone-shattering force. The men with the nets tried to toss them over Vandaras' wings to entangle them; they succeeded halfway, as the group on the dragon's right managed to get their net over its wing, the group on the left had worse luck. Vandaras released another blast of flame directly into the faces of two more men, and savagely bit a third man in half.
It was only Rhaegar's presence that kept the Dornishmen from breaking under the dragon's ferocious attacks, and they jabbed at the beast's face with their pole arms trying to blind it or at least force it upwards, to expose the softer scales on its belly and throat. Lord Fowler dashed in with a spear and stabbed it upward at Vandaras' throat, the leaf-shaped steel blade sinking into the flesh under the beast's chin and drawing a spray of molten blood, which caused the ground to smoke where it hit. The dragon roared deafeningly, and the men continued their assault against it, continuing to fight despite their casualties.
[Rhaegar loses 15 of 76 men]
[Vandaras takes a Light Wound]
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Post by Lord Elyas Dryland on Apr 25, 2014 22:47:09 GMT -5
Ser Elyas flinched at the deaths of the Fowler men at arms, who he suspected he may have fought alongside in the war against the Targaryens. Now they had been ordered to their deaths in service of an enemy of Dorne. Elyas seethed at the injustice, and remained on the flank of the conflict, unable to reconcile himself with the aims of the Marcher lords.
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Post by Lord Jacaerys Velaryon on Apr 26, 2014 0:31:25 GMT -5
Rhaegar saw that the dragon was blind in its left eye, remembering that Hector the Dragonbane had stabbed Vanderas at the Battle of Oldtown. If only we could blind it and stop it from flying as well he thought grimly. He roared orders for the men to go for any soft spots including the membranes of the wings and the remaining right eye, as well as keeping out of the way of the flame-belching mouth. Remembering from his learning how dragons typically reacted when they were under threat, Rhaegar used that knowledge to dart forward, evading the dragon's gaze and avoiding its mouth. He kept his sword low, stabbing as hard as he could at the dragon's soft underbelly. [Expert: Dragon Handling] [Expert: Land Battle Command] [Expert: Long Blades] and whatever else I've got that may give some help.  |
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Maekar
Site Council
Sam/BlueLion
Posts: 1,437
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Post by Maekar on Apr 26, 2014 1:28:34 GMT -5
The dragon roared again, spraying flame across three of Lord Mertyne's men, setting their padded armor aflame and sending them screaming to the ground, trying in vain to extinguish themselves. The dragon was partially entangled in the chains and nets, though its left wing was still free and the dragon stretched it out and beat it heavily, knocking two men aside like flies who tumbled like rag-dolls down the mountainside. Rhaegar's knowledge of dragons' habits proved true, and when Vandaras reared up to avoid the pikes that were jabbing at his one good eye, the young Prince's sword pierced the slightly softer scales on the dragon's underside, carving a long gash across the dragon's chest. A spray of burning blood erupted from the wound, sizzling on the armor that protected Rhaegar's arm, and warping the steel from its heat.
Vandaras roared in fury, and released another blast of fire that broiled a pair of Kingsgrave men before they could even scream. Lord Fowler, seeing Rhaegar's success, tried a similar maneuver, but was not quite so lucky. As he swept in low with his spear, the dragon's jaws came down on his right arm, crunching bone and steel and flesh between teeth the size of daggers. Lord Osmund attacked as well, striking at the beast's left wing, where the membrane was unprotected by hard scales, but Vandaras' increasingly frantic movements made a clean strike difficult. The dragon shook Lord Fowler like a dog shaking a rat, and released the lord who collapsed onto the ground. Five of his men dragged him away from the spot he had fallen, and began to carry their inert Lord down the mountainside; there was no indication if he lived or not, but if he did he would almost certainly lose his arm. To their credit, the rest of the Skyreach men remained in the fight, though their numbers were dwindling quickly.
[Rhaegar loses 13 of 61 men (7 killed, 6 retreated)]
[Vandaras takes a Light Wound]
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Post by Lord Elyas Dryland on Apr 26, 2014 2:20:58 GMT -5
Seeing his foster father fall, Elyas made up his mind. No dragon could be allowed to live after felling The Lord of Skyreach. To stand by idly any longer would be to disgrace himself in the eyes of those he had long called kin.
Drawing his sword in a smooth motion, he raised his shield and charged into the foray, with a cry of "For Skyreach! For Lord Anders!", which he hoped would instill in the remaining Fowler men a strengthened resolve to avenge their fallen Lord. He himself made for the Dragon's flank, aiming his attack at its neck.
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Post by Lord Jacaerys Velaryon on Apr 26, 2014 2:34:23 GMT -5
Rhaegar swore in frustration as he saw Lord Fowler go down.
"Blind the beast!" he roared, urging the remaining men with pikes to concentrate on the dragon's one good eye. He redoubled his efforts to either slash at the dragon's soft underbelly or the wing membranes. If they could just blind it and ground it.
Vandaras was thrashing so wildly that both the dragon's right wing and underbelly came within range of Rhaegar's flashing blade and the young Prince took his opportunity to slash and stab any soft tissue he could reach, moving around to avoid the belches of flame that issued periodically from the dragon's maw.
[Expert: Dragon Handling]
[Expert: Land Battle Command]
[Expert: Long Blades]
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Maekar
Site Council
Sam/BlueLion
Posts: 1,437
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Post by Maekar on Apr 26, 2014 2:55:55 GMT -5
Blood dripped from a score of cuts across Vandaras' underbelly, and lower jaw, but this did not deter the dragon in the slightest as it snatched up one of Lord Yronwood's men and bit him almost completely in half before blasting a wall of golden flame at Elyas who, from his position off to the side of the battle, did not quite see the firestorm he was charging into until it was too late. He was blinded momentarily and fell backward in agony, rolling across the rocks to put out the flames that he had spread across his clothing. He was able to do so, though by the time he rose and blinked the spots from his eyes, he knew that the burns across his chest and arms would need treatment, if any of them survived this encounter.
Lord Osmund and his remaining men continued striking at Vandaras, but the dragon was enraged and flailing so much that it knocked another man clear off the mountainside to his death, and set another on fire. One of the men from from Skyreach stabbed a pike upward at the dragon's face, missing his eye but slashing a bloody gash across the scales protecting its snout. Vandaras bit the offending pike in half, and then bit the head off of the man wielding it, but another Skyreach man stabbed a spear into the shoulder-joint of the dragon's pinned right wing.
Rhaegar was not so lucky, and was caught byVandaras' spasm of pain; the hard scales on the bony edge of the dragon's left wing caught him under the chin, knocking him backwards and leaving him dazed with his head ringing inside his helm.
[Rhaegar takes a Light Wound (-10)]
[Elyas takes a Heavy Wound (-35)]
[Rhaegar loses 4 of 48 men]
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Post by Lord Elyas Dryland on Apr 26, 2014 3:06:26 GMT -5
Having killed the flames that covered his body, Elyas clenched his teeth, and ignoring the searing pain of the raw flesh covering his entire body, threw himself back toward his foe, blade in hand. This time his battle cry was not one of rhetoric, but a primal roar of mixed pain and hatred.
(OOC: how many heavy wounds can we take before death? 2? Regardless, I'm fighting on for IC reasons, so it doesn't really matter.)
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Post by Vhagar on Apr 26, 2014 5:15:04 GMT -5
OOC - we have a death threshold so you can theoretically continue on until you hit that, even if you end up in the minuses, but as it's not 1 v 1 so you can more easily back down if you need to. Given that your wounds are burns, I'd not recommend going that far.
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Post by Vhagar on Apr 26, 2014 5:26:37 GMT -5
Meanwhile, while the fight was progressing, Daenya and her escort make their way through the mountain passes, finally reaching the foothills of the mountain where Vandaras had made his cave. Up ahead they could see an older man with horses and a small group of men. Beyond him, the track up the mountain and, glimpsed much higher up, a cave, many dark shapes engaged in some of scuffle. The distinctive sight of dragonfire obscured the rest from Daenya's view but now she knew that she had almost reached her goal.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2014 5:40:07 GMT -5
Daenya felt adrenaline pump through her when she heard Vandaras. She knew it was him, had heard the snorting of his flame so many times.
"Give me my sword!" She said, turning to the commander of the guards. "And stay back. If you come too close Vandaras will hurt you."
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Post by Vhagar on Apr 26, 2014 7:42:10 GMT -5
The leader scowled at her. "You be careful. Princess won't be pleased if you get killed. You two, go with her."
He indicated two of the men, who were taller and more muscular of the others, with fairer skin, indicating that they had some lineage from the stony Dornishmen, whereas all the others were salty Dornishmen for certain. But then he looked at Daenya again, though making no effort to hand over her sword. "What in Seven Hells do you want a sword for? Thought you wanted to ride the bloody beast, not kill it! Just go stop it from killing those men, alright?"
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Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2014 8:34:39 GMT -5
"I need a sword in case any of those idiots up there try to attack me!" Daenya spat back, tightening the straps on her leather armour.
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Post by Vhagar on Apr 26, 2014 8:37:43 GMT -5
"They're probably too bloody busy to notice you," the guard snapped.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2014 9:14:38 GMT -5
Daenya just stood there with her hand outstretched.
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Post by Vhagar on Apr 26, 2014 9:23:11 GMT -5
The guard ignored Daenya's outstretched hand. "If you're gong after the beast, just go. You're under our protection, my lady, and I'm not giving you a sword." But he stressed the word protection, making it clear that it was not really about Daenya's protection at all.
Lord Yronwood turned and saw them. "And who in blazes are you?" He demanded, anger and fear for his companions making him anxious.
///////
The Dragon's wounds were beginning to tell on it, and the beast's shrieks reverberated off the rocks of the mountains, causing the smaller pebbles on the ground to vibrate from the sound. Rhaegar's men valiantly pressed forward again and finally managed to succeed in pinning the dragon's left wing with a net and chain, jabbing their pikes upward into its face to keep the fire off them. A few men hacked at the dragon's wing membrane, cutting bloody chunks out of the thin unprotected flesh. Vandaras screamed with rage and continued to let out blasts of flame., striking several nearby men but not so badly as to drive them from the fight. The exception was Lord Martyne who was badly burned across one side of his face and neck, stumbling backward with the aid of one of his men, and Ser Elyas fared even more poorly. It was just the actions of Ser Aurane Dalt that saved his companion's life; a blast of Golden flame caught them both, just as Ser Aurane Dalt shoved Elyas bodily out of the fire's path and took it full on himself. The man was completely engulfed in fire, and did not even have time to scream before his charred corpse dropped to the ground; even through such a sacrifice, Elyas was still not entirely outside of the fire's path, and his left arm was set alight from hand to elbow. The cloth and leather of his armor was seared away, exposing flesh which bubbled and boiled before his eyes; the pain was more excruciating than anything he'd felt in his entire life, and the young Dornishman screamed as he fell away from the battle, clutching his arm to his chest in pain.
Rhaegar fared better, chopping at Vandaras' face while the others worked to snare the dragon's wing. He slashed a line brow, not quite managing to damage the eye, but he did cut through the scales above it enough to draw blood, which would obscure the dragon's vision as it flowed from the wound. Vandaras lashed out violently, and the Dornishmen continued to hack at the dragon with their pole arms, though their damage was superficial at best.
[Elyas takes a Heavy Wound (-70 total); Elyas is Maimed and Out of the Fight]
[Vandaras takes an Average Wound (-20) (-40 total)]
[Ser Aurane Dalt is killed saving Elyas from death]
[Rhaegar loses 4 of 44 men]
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Post by Lord Elyas Dryland on Apr 26, 2014 9:46:29 GMT -5
Ser Elyas writhed on the ground momentarily before passing out from a combination of unbearable pain and shock. (OOC: wow, my rolls must have been awful. Poor Aurane.) |
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all alone and also really bored