(ranun)The lightbend half works, your semi invisible and you know that in the heat of battle its almost as good as full

(Rabtorian i refuse to try to spell your chars name ) As you would expect the assassin has no identification of any kind but her goal was simple, capture or kill your client

(Did my Unsanctify spell has any affect at all?)

Me?

Take any weapons, etc she has.

(Iliad, yeah it did but the clerics are still powerful enough to resist alot of what your priests can do even without the holy ground)

(nocturne) i posted for you

(Rab) Only a knife

I take my client back to the Inn.

the inkeeper gracioucly grants you anouther room while the repairs are being made to the window

Dumping the clinet on the bed I ask around, hoping to garner some information as to where the woman came from, or if anyone knew her.
( The name is easy. Say it out loud Spo-po-po-lo-po-vich. Simple. [And my nickname in school])

(rab) (sigh still ill just use rab i think) the women appears to have been new to the establishment and noone had so much as heard her name, however one guy who sat by the door said he saw her talking with an older man wearing white robes before entering the establishment

I check up on my client.

slowly groggily waking, looks like hes been knocked unconcious with some kind of specail technique, it certainly hasnt left any mark on his body

gh, i guess i have too do this! get my brethren to pick up the deamon hunter guy and drag him back up the hill with the rest of us following

I ask him about what happened.

the group escapes the town and the daemon who seems intent on totally anihilating the town

your brothers turn to you, "What next brother? our supplies are not endless"

(rab) he sheepishly and quickly explains the evening and the start of the time in the room and then he sais that he was getting up of a chair and felt her hand on his neck then everything went black, apart from that there was nothing of consequense, clearly she intended to question him furthur wherever she was going

I sit beside his bed and guard him without rest.

you find your vigil uninterupted until the wee hours of the dawn, when only then does a room cleaning service knock

Let the service in whilst pointing javelin at them.

the terrifyed looking service dwarfwomen comes in and cleans quickly before leaving

Name: Edon Garaklore
Age: 496
Class: Mage
Race: High Elf
Weapons: Magic Staff with a Blue Jewel on the End
Armour: Enchanted Cloth Robes
Skin: Pale
Hair: Light Brown
Eyes: Deep Blue
Height: 215cm
Gender: Male
Mount: A young, white, elven horse.
Alignment: Good

good man,
will post your skills in a sec

I try to rush to the group that is fighting in the mit of the war. I make sure that i cant be recognised and use my supreme reflexes and agility to make an path of destruction to the group.

For Edon Garaklore

Bio: Edon was born into a wealthy family of elven traders who had made their fortune trading in jewels and precious metals. He lived a happy childhood and did well at school he had never shown an aptitude for anything special and intended to follow his father into trading. His family were happy and his future looked bright. However, his life changed for ever when, the day after his 15th birthday, his parents were killed by bandits in the mountains near his home. They had been visiting a mine to purchase a shipment of gold when they were attacked. When he was told about the tragedy by the local governor, who was a friend of the family, he disappeared and everyone thought he had been killed. He had really gone into hiding and no one saw him until, almost ten years later, he emerged from the same forest in the same mountains where his parents had been killed carrying a Jewelled staff high above his head. His eyes sparkled with magical energy. No one knew, or has ever found out, where he learnt this power but he was surely the most powerful wizard his town, or even his province, had ever seen. He has devoted his life to perfecting the magical arts and continually searches for knowledge and artefacts in order to further his power.

Tyranic Marta wrote:(ranun)The lightbend half works, your semi invisible and you know that in the heat of battle its almost as good as full

Sweet!, I have lightbend XDXDXD

Jks

(ranun omg sorry, that was for nocturne, i ill do yours now)

(Ranun) The undead almost seem to part before you as you smite them down, none can stand in the path of your Righteous fury. At the rear of the undead force there are great warriors clad in golden armour guarding what appears to be the leader of the undead, or at least a general.

(Nocturne) Your weapons quickly cut through the undead as your natural abilities are enhanced by the chants of the holy orders and the spells of the clerics.

(Iliad) The daemons hit your line like thunder but instead of rampaging through your forces they simply bound over most of them, seemingly intent on getting to the walls. Meanwhile the tide is slowly turning against the holy orders, their clerics are to occupied keping the knights alive to stop your priests any longer, the ones who arnt immobilised and disabled begin ressurecting the dead once more

we need to find a safe town, somewhere where there are no undead or deamons, whats the next town on from here?"

i keep killing the undead (ironically XD) still making me a little lightbended and i rush to the warriors as fast as i can. moving like a ghost and killing them like death himself.

(Yarnek) The next habitation from here is a village called strasbourd, its on the edge of the old kingdom.. many have died who passed the borders of that place, but the village is safe enough, and by any means we will have to travel through the deserts of Kain and the forests of the Old kingdom to get to the Humans capitol

(Nocturne) (which warriors are you going for exactly?? I think i read it somewhere but i still diddnt quite get it, could yu clarify for me please?)

the ones who are fighting with the kanebo dude,

oh right ok, you reach the undead with the golden armour slightly before the Massive Satyr, but you are forced to duck as one of these massive warriors swings a titanic edged weapon made of obsidian into the Satyrs path.

i still lightbend and then i charge them strikeing one of them in the head with my knife,

your knife dents the warriors skull but otherwise does no damage, the warior turns around annoyed trying to find you

I sometimes reveil my cloak to strike fear in him and confuse him and then i strike everytime in a nopenspot in its armour

the undead warrior feels no fear but it realises that it is slowly being taken down as its joints stop working and collapse after sever pounding from your knifes.

Rallying behind the demon, the Golden Army charges into the gap created by the hellbeast, taking deliberate aim at the priests with their arrows.

Then i rush to the general of the enemy after i wishpered in the ear of the satyr "finish him"

(iliad) the army moves forwardsw into the breach and gets to the walls however your personal train gets assaulted by some unseen force which whittles down one of your guard and then takes him down, somehow the guard is unrevivable, and by that time the force is moving closer to you, you can feel it in the air

also th raoring Satyr smashes into your force and one of the ataani goes flying backwards from the stregth of its charge.

Actually that one can be for all three of you guys

As you say boss

ok hold the phone this is a combat between two characters, both pm me what your going to do and ill do the combat form there

and nocturne you need to remove that last post please

Tyranic Marta wrote:(ranun omg sorry, that was for nocturne, i ill do yours now)

No worries man, its a lot of work GM-ing

I think its time for a song…

Ranun crushes the last few skeletons in his way and then walks up to a few meters from the guards.

“Long ago, the great Forest Lord said ‘The earth is rich and the forest mighty, but who will protect this great treasure?’”

Ranun lunges at the closest guard and swings the mace down onto his skull.

While combating the guards Ranun chanted a song:

“Head of a man, horns of a beast
Hooves of a horse, legs fleeced

Might of a lion, iron will
Rich laugh, and unmatched skill

This is the satyr, protector of the forest
Perish, all who dare stand in his path”

(Wait, am I involved in this?)

Very well let the beast have the town for now, no living claim it's streets anymore, but I will return for his head. How far is this next town, and how simple will it be to get there?

we head off

(iliad) you are between you and nocturne, sorry coudnt avoid it

(ranun) the guards fall piecemeal to your powerful blows, eventually you see the general on his golden chariot
(if you want to get into the combat youll have to pm me what your doing and Iliad youll have to account for him turning up

(you other two, Yarnek etc) its a fairly simple path to tread, there are reports of strong levels of sorcery in the area however

The group moves of, several Ataani nursing wounds and looking curiously at the warrior

(in atani tounge) "dont worry brothers if he gives us any trouble we can leave him tied to a tree"

If any of you want a lift I can carry a couple of ya for a spell.
So where's your supplies Katman? Surely you have a camp somewhere you can restock for the trip...

Mordoskul wrote:(Wait, am I involved in this?)

Yes, we are on both sides of the same fight.

sending a pm.

Well did i kill him XD

(Silentsong, Iliad, Ranun, Just waiting for one more PM thn Ill do the Event)

(Yarnek, Eckeon) One of the Ataani turns to the warrior and replys in Human, "We have only just reached this place ourselfs, we come from our homeland of the coast. We are heading towards your capitol city" he looks around blithley, "So no, no camp"

(Tallon) As the first of the undead begin to scale the walls the archers are pushed aside by a high elf i flowing robes carrying a great staff, inset with a blue gem, he stands on the walls and raises the staff high, from its point come waves of lightning that grow and spread out from the point of the crystal. The lighning flows unhindered over allies without harming them but attatches to the undead and frys them to a crisp, no revival there. The mage looks out over the fortress walls into the sea of undead and spots a necromancer, reaching out with his staff he points it at the undead thing's chest and speaks a word of power, the undead's chest rips apart as a dark cloud flies out of its body towards the staff and enters the gem, which flashes brieflly before dying away. The soul strip worked on the necromancer which colloapses to the ground.

I start to request the money from the client that the agreed to pay every 24 hours and threaten to leave.

Edon turns and continues to scan the battle field for necromancers, he is determined to protect this city from the undead. It isn't his own but he defends it as if it was. I detest these undead things he thought to him self. As he thought this this he caught a glimpse of one, hidden deep in the ranks of the undead. He focused his mind and cast soul strip again, attempting to rench the life out of the foul death-lord the gem in his staff glowed with power and a bolt of pure energy lept forth towards the necromancer...

NOOOOO why do i need to wait so long for my kill XD oh btw its my kill i want to kill him up close and no kill steal because then you ARE MY B******CH XD

(rab) The Client hastily pays up, a bag of gold clinking as he sets it down

(Edon) Your spell tears the necromancers soul from his chest, the black cloud flying towards your staff before being absorbed into the gem, which again flares brightly, you hear the sound of chattering and you look down, dozens of undead are again climbing the walls, using the bodies of thier brethren as a climbing aid to reach higher up the walls.

(Silentsong) you are incredibly bloodthirsty to kill this guy jeez, hes anouther player i might just say he has the upper hand.....

i will have to consult the dice gods

not too heavily mind i pretty much know whats going to happen already

so i guess we keep travelling

yeah sorry been absent minded, after a couple of days of travelling you reach the twon, and here everything seems to be as normal, a gentle spiral of smoke comes from each chimney and there is the sound of a dog barking

"i'll go first brothers, keep an eye on the human, i'll signal you if theres a fight"i head into town

ok combat

for this i take into account the realtime stats of each character and i roll them against each other as if this was the table top version of stone. I do this for three rounds, the team with the most total max Hp left wins

i have rolled the results taking into account skills etc.

the formal results happen as follows

First round

Iliad loses 17% of his HP
Passes his Nothing Edge roll
Hits Ranun, wounds for 25% total HP, Ranun makes his armour save

Silentsong Loses 0% of his HP
Passes his Lightbend roll
Fails His silentrun roll
Fails his speartongue roll
Hits Iliad, wounds for 5% total HP, Iliad makes his armour save

Ranun Loses 0% of his HP
Hits Iliad, Wounds for 13% total HP, Iliad Makes his armour save
Hits Iliad, wounds for 17% total HP, Iliad Fails his armour save

Round two
Iliad Loses 0% of his Hp for a total of 17% lost
Hits Ranun, wounds for 37% total HP, Ranun Fails his armour save

Silentsong Loses 0% of his HP for a totla of 0% lost
Fails his lightbend roll
Hits Iliad, Wounds for 50% total Hp, Iliad makes his armour save

Ranun Loses 37% total hp for a total of 37% lost
Hits Iliad, Wounds for 17% total hp, Iliad makes his armour save
Misses Iliad

Round three
Iliad loses 20% of his HP, for a total of 37% lost
Hits Silentsong, Wounds for 77% total HP (-20% for Distraction for a total of 57%), Silentsong Fails his armour

Silentsong loses 57% of his total HP for a total of 57% lost
Makes his Lightbend roll
Fails his silentrun roll
Makes his speartongue roll, fails to inflict terror (undead), inflicts distraction
Hits Iliad, Wounds for 13% total HP, Iliad fails his armour save

Ranun Loses 0% of his HP for a total of 37% lost
Hits Iliad, Wounds for 7% total HP, Iliad fails his armour save
Hits Iliad, Wounds for 13% total Hp, Iliad makes his armour save.

Final Results
Total HP% of Ranun and Silentsong = 200% -57% - 37% =106 divided by 2 = 53% origional HP remaining
Iliad 100% -37% = 63% remaining

through the dice gods will and Iliads insane armour save he wins!!!!
somehow.....

anyhoo will do the RP end of the event soon

UGH HEY YOU GONNA REPLY TOO ME BOSS? sorry didn't mean for that to be in capitals

2 on 1 and we still failed? Iliad's a monster

(yarnek) you sure? riiight, sorry just had to do the combat, anyhoo

You enter into the town confidently, and sure enough the townsfolk seem happy to see you, and especially the bow strapped to your back. One women rushes over tears in her eyes, "Save us good master, the daemons want us for their bloody rituals, they sent an emmisary two days ago, wishing for surrender and a quick death or for us top defy them and get a slow painful death in return."

"easy woman, who is incharge here?" begin tieing a white feather to an arrow too give my brothers the all clear signal

you fire the arrow and your brothers move into the town with the warrior carrying it, they give it back to you and the woman takes you to a slightly larger building than the others, "Master Feildone is in here good master"

"thankyou"
enter the building leaveing my brothers outside
btw im not at school today, think i might have food poisoning from drinking un pasturised milk going to the doctor soon

Ok the Rp stage of the combat

Silentsong runs forwards and leaps onto the chariot, trying to keep his balance as it acelerates forwards he windmills his arms furiously, the jarring impacts nearly throwing him off. He cant concentrate enough to distract the general let alone stay silent but he manages to stay invisible. Wrist crossbow shots ping off the warriors armour and one digs in the general turns around looking for the nuiscance but seems to disregard it, by this time the chariot has smashed into the Satyr who (despite his best efforts) cant avoid its charge.

Seeing the general jolt forwards wth the impact the assassin lunges forwards and Silentsong abandons all stealth as he grapples with the general desperatly trying to stab through the armour plates. The general turns around and grabs the Dark elf of his back and even as his knife pierces the golden clad warriors armour and digs in. Silentsong feels the warriros Khopesh stab into his gut, then he is flying through the air and smashes into the ground. He desperatly tries to stay concious but blacks out as he sees the Satyr charge

Ranun sees the assassin get thrown away and takes the opportunity to charge in smashing his great mace several times into the General staggering him backwards and nearly knocking him off the chariot, hgowever the general regains his balance and swings his khopesh around in a blinding arc, the sword catches Ranun in the chest bowling him backwards, the sword only denting the armour but Ranun can feel one of his ribs crack. Feuled with rage the Satyr smashes his mace into the chest armour of the golden clad undead and dents it soundly, but as he does so the generals Khopesh again strikes true catching ranun in the shoulder and sprawling him in the mud Ranun too tries to stay concious but blacks out as he watches the generals chariot move forwards.

Iliad moves slowly with the damage to his armour but his body is barely damaged as he moves of in his chariot the two broken forms laying in the mud a testament to his mighty strength and power.

Tyranic Marta notices Ranuns prone form and calls his personal guard over who bear Ranun fromt eh field of battle atop a bier, one of the knights also collects Silentsongs body and brings him to the infirmary as well

However the personal battle went the daemons were destroyed by holy magic within a few feet of the wal and without the generals guidance for those few crucial moments the udnead armies could not stand against the holy orders and their forces were broken

(yarnek) (you are a legend man no wonder you were feeling down) The door is only just big enough for you to fit through and you find yourself stooping in the close confines of the house.

The man in question looks up at your entry, "who are you?"

(and yeah Ranun, Iliad has a monster armour save, its like the equivalent of a 2+ with rerolls. and you guys dont have weapons that ignore it yet. Also i had to take his chariot into account which increases his stats. Also Silentsong isnt very good against undead from that point of view, his weapons are better against living enemies)

"my name is yarnek.....i an archer and i think you could use my help"

(Yarnek) "indeed we could, i take it those other warriors are your brothers and allies? the warrior however, he is one of us, how did he come to be with you?"

"we found him in a town not far from here, he helped us when some deamons attacked"

"those will be the same ones who want us as hosts, we need your help"

outside the building screams can be heard, you look to the window and you can see several daemons at the edge of the town surrounding a black robed figure

"we'll talk more later"
walk out and head towards the figure with my brothers

the daemons are shrieking and howling acounting for most of the noise now as the civilians have rushed inside, a small party of sturdy looking men at arms are facing them down but the black robed figure is silent, as you walk forwards and the daemons see the warrior in your midst they strat shrieking and howling even louder and try to rush him but are jerked back as if on leashes

look for a leader in the men at arms and make my way towads him motioning for the archers in my group to form 2 lines one behind the other and have the soliders join the men of arms

you have 10 brethren including yourself, of those 3 are specialist spearmen, 5 swordsmen and 2 archers, then theres the warrior, the men at arms seem to all have chainmail a short sword and shield

okay
s= swordsman
^=spear
A=archer
m@A=B
w= warrior
formation
wBBBBB^^^SSSSS
A ><> ME <> A
just ignore the <><>

mkay

the daemons are suddenlyreleased and they scream forwards, one is impaled on a spear and one is shot down but the other 3 make it into combat with the swordsman/men at arms, one is butchered by the grim massive warrior and one more is set upon by several of the men at arms, the last is stabbed by one of your brethrens massive swords. The daemonologist as he clearly is, begins to raise his hands and chant in a strange tounge, a split second later a nouther 2 dozen daemons are summoned out of a swirling red fog

I tell him that i am just an explorer, i'v shared something about myself and now i repeat my question.

aim at the guy in the black robe fireing everything!

(dave) He still ignores you but now you finally get the answer youve been looking for, he takes a pair of short sicles out of his robes and all around you you can feel the earth spliting, something grabs your ankle and you look down to see a skeletal hand useing you as a prop to drag itself out of the gorund. You look back at the robed figure as it speaks, "You are not welcome here wanderer..."

(yarnek) the black guy in the robe deigns to ignore you as the arrows simply pass THROUGH him as if he were smoke

My bread whips from side to side, its glows an enchanted blue.

I begin chanting mystical words conjured from the begining of time, ancient orders that were once used by the gods.

I cast posses.

the spell flares brightly in your mind before seeming to crumble, you cant speak the words and your tongue dries, the necromancer snaps his fingers and the half formed spell dissapates, "None of that thankyou"

" mmk bro "

With my bread still whiping from side to side i gather up all my chi and start to chuckle to myself whith my head down.

A portal of pure darkness erupts to the rear of my oppenent and the lesser demons start to errupt.

19 lesser daemons stema through the portal cackling and shrieking, the necromancer turns and breaths out, a cloud of locusts envelop the daemons, 3 of your daemons are disabled by the locusts, the rest charge forwards and assault both the necromancer and the undead, 3 of the undead are close enough to be a threat to you

Okay i cast fraility over the swam of undead and the locusts because they too are "bodies".
'i further more engage into combat.

when one of my lesser deamons is looking on low HP i will send them to the back of the mobs so that lesser deamons with more HP will tank damage leaving me with a few L.D attacking with low life.

MICRO MACRO

mkay, that was an abusal of the spell description lol, no matter your right it works

the necromancer casts parasite on one of your daemons who explodes messily, however the lesser daemons r*** the undead only two are left and the necro takes some damage

additionally the necromancer raises his hands and anouther 13 undead crawl out of da dirt

Okay my curse is still on, i summer lesser deamons again in front of him and command them ALL to attack him straight on whilst i run behind a tree so his necrons dont kill me.

"GOD DAMNIT"
move around the line and make my way towards the dark robed figured

(dave)
hey i take that as an insult my necrons are way better then plain skeletons -_-

(Dave) the undead try to follow you but your curse makes them shambling and slow

your daemons (stupid dice generator) all 42 of them charge forwards the necromancer is quickly overwhelmed by the screaming horde and dies yelling in pain.

(yarnek) your warriors and the men at arms close on the daemons slaughtering them, you and the warrior have the same thoughts and move around the line to engage the daemonologist

i pause for a moment too remove the blade from earlier out of my pack and i advance with the warrior

He nods to you seeing the movement and you spread out either side of him while your brethren are fighting...

charge in swinging

(what else XD)
The warrior does the same and the daemonologist JUSt gets out of the way, and from somewhere a small thin knife comes out of his robes which he brandishes and utters a strange word, suddenly you feel weak and sluggish

growl at him and swing again, at the same time meowing an order at one of my brethren to "aim true!"

(meowing??? XD)

your brethern quickly dispatch the other daemons and they charge in as well, hacking and slashing at the daemonologist, who eventuall is forced to flee

uumm sorry iv been away

ok so i tell her that wecome to houses and then i mumble telling her its complicated

she seems to accept it as way over her head

try to arrow him in the back as he flees

the arrow flits through him like before his laughter is unsettling as he pets down the road fastre than what should be possible

I lightbend to get away from the templars.
I try to heal my own wounds while in the shadows. (I was just kidding btw about the bloodthirsty post before that was Kozac who just couldnt to see some "undead" blood)

Couldnt wait*

*sigh* you find the wouds impossible to heal, something about the undeads blade makes it impossible for you to staunch them, you need assistance

I follow the client as he gets up and wonders around town. A cunning plan in my head I decide to follow my own agenda as he moves towards the market.

the client quickly gets to haggling with a jewel bedecked street vendor over a pair of brass studded gloves

then i go to the librarian (sorry marta but it is that when i get found as an assasin i will be executed because of murdering the high priest dude.)

the-bullet wrote:think i might have food poisoning from drinking un pasturised milk going to the doctor soon

Pah, I drink Raw milk each day, and I'm fine.


I guess I'll remain silent while being carried to the infirmary.

Somehow I think our little friend will be back and with more demons. Good news is we have no losses. But we need to find a way around his "ghosting" spells so something will actually hit him. Got any enchanted blades?

The Golden Army continues to advance in formation.
Iliad also recasts Unsanctify, drawing power from his cadre of necromancers and liche priests

I use soul strip again and again, ripping the life out of the undead. Finaly, I manage to beat them back for long enough to use ice flare on the wall itself, making it much harder for the undead to climb...

(ok lots of posts to do, first things first, Nocturne, your completely right and i was hoping you would do that) The librarian takes you in and locks the doors, then he quickly gets you to lay onto a table, taking of ur armour he lays his hands over the massive wound, a white light comes from his hands which flows over your gut, when he takes his hand away you have what looks like white metal instead of skin over the titanic wound and the pain abruptly ceases. The Librarian steps back suddenly looking exhasted, "Its a good thing you came to me quickly, any longer and you would have died."

(ranun) when there a couple of reverent clerics heal you, once done Marta notices your wakefulness and shakes your shoulder slightly, "Ranun, what happened?"

(Eckeon) the ataani beside you nods, "Indeed, our close comba weapons are enchanted to ignore enchantments such as that, and he knew it, see how he dodged out of the way?"

(Iliad, whats left of the army you mean, you have 75 infantry left and just under thirty priests, and your guard. Then theres the great necromancers army which is comprised of 50 priests and necromancers and just under 50 infantry)

(Tallon) Your spell effectivly forces the undead back from the wall, and you see them falter, there arnt many left, and they still havnt reached the walls

"thnx brother but i didn't know we had metaologists in the guilt. this is new for me if i can do something for you then say it and i will also give you something myself. what would you like some scrolls or gold. (these were in the hidden thingie right?)"

(they were) "I want nothing from you youngin, this is my repayment to the guild for my failure, and no im not a metalurgist, ive simply taken the teachings of phobos to heart, over time yoour body will heal over the wound now that i have cleansed the taint of the undead from it, and the lightscreen will dissapear, it looks and feels like metal but is not nearly as strong, be careful of it."

"What happened? I was beaten by one of their generals, an elf clad in golden armor riding a chariot... there was another who helped me fight him, but even together we were still defeated."

thank you and brother you did this for the guilt and me so let this be a repayment from myself as i cant take everything with me so let it be a reward for you from myself as you did something for me." i walk (not precisely right because i need to have some time adept to the looks like metal thingie.) to the hidden door and open him then i take some of the scrolls which are from phobos and his healing things and some religion scrolls and bring it to the librarian after i locked it again.i hand them over.
"if you won't accept them as a gift then accept them as a way to be helpfull to the guilt by studying them."

The librarians eyes light up, "Thankyou youngin, this will help my cause greatly"

(ranun) "That would be the one they call the golden man, hes been sighted before, he killed a great host of our Ataani allies out on the plains a good days march north of here, the Ataani are sending a contingent to aid us furthur as they are the cause of the sons of plague and wish to help us keep this one safe, however the lead of the 9 the white haired one, was butchered by the golden man and ressurected by him, you wouldnt have been a match, not yet, brute strength is no aid against the undead sometimes, sometimes you need power, we can get you the power you require"

head back too the village

The villagers surround you as they come out of their houses, "Are they gone?" "did you kill them" "are we safe"

I chuckle to myself again, and then quickly scramble over to his corpse to pick up his phat lewt.

After looting the body i take all 42 of my lesser daemons and start to pathraze towards the city.

mkay you get a small bag of gold, the two necromantic sickles and if you really want them, his robes

SHWEET! i continue to travel to the nearby village with my lesser deamons in tow.

The village is close and many of the towns folk are already rushing in doors screaming, a small group of men at arms and milita rush to the gates and get into a loosly militaristic formation, "Halt foul daemon bringer, and then turn to begone, you are not welcome here"

I chuckle with an evil laugh,

"Me, and my current 42 deamons, will give you 2 options, Option a: you surrender and i shall assimilate you into my colllective, or option B: i will killl you pathetic foe"

And now i start to chant my summoning spell for lesser deamons and a rift opens before my opponents.

"Sounds like we arnt getting much of a chance", the men at arms go down on one knee and pull crossbows up to their shoulders, the volley of bolts cuts down 2 daemons, then they snap a metal lever next to thier weapons which slots a new bolt in, they raise their crossbows to shoulder once more,

meanwhile your summoning brings up... anouther 11 daemons for a total of 53 daemons

SHWEET!

With an almight chuckle! I chant Curse of iron and reduce their armor weapons and shields to rubble and relentlessly strike with my lesserdaemons .

ok not quite rubble, their attack class and armour class is cut

the lesser daemons charge forwards and anouther 9 are cut down by the next volley, and the militia kill anouther 6, the remaining daemons kill 3 of the militia,

totals,

Man at arms: 10
Militia: 12
Daemons: 38

Okay i now chant Fraility.

(nice avatar Marta)

"For now I must rest, but when I have my strength back, let us talk of what must be done."

ok the curse goes off, the daemons kill the remaining militia and the marines draw weapons for close combat and charge in after firing a final volley which kills 11, their cc kills 2 of the daemons
totals
Men at arms: 10
daemons: 25

open another rift lesser daemons directly behind them.

(ranun, chrs man, tis the Skullscreamers screaming skull) "this sounds apt my friend, i will see you later we must rout these undead"

mkay
summons....
14 daemons behind the marines

these charge in and along with the daemons infront kill

one of the marines and one looks severly hurt

the marines kill 2 of the daemons and one is so close to dead he can no longer move

totals
marines: 9.1
daemons: 37.000001

okay cast possess on the marine with the most hp. and tell him to attack

*sleeps*

the man at arms does he resist the possession???

............

the Man at arms explodes gorily and two of the remainder damage, (killing one of them)

the daemons attack dealing enough damage to kill 4 of the men at arms

the men at arms kill 3 daemons

well just say the marines cark it,

and you can possess one more, he... survives the possession, ok so, he has deamonic possession regeneration, and unholy might, he is also under your control

(ranun and nocturne im going to say both of you have to sleep till after the combat cause of your wounds and loss of blood/battle exhastion, iliad your still ok, and mage boy sorry i cant remeber ur name, your able to keep fighting)

Okay now i run into the town and tell all my deamons to restrain the people in their homes whilst i possess everyone in the town, and steal all their gold and jewls, i then direct them all to start growing crops saying it "is for the greater good" and appoint my body guard head of the town.

wow um ok

unexpected much

alrighty, well say there are .... 80 peoples in the town, minus the 25 you killed, dats 55 remaining mkay, well average this, 27 of the villagers survive the possession, the rest pop

so you have one man at arms, 27 villagers, and well say a nice round number of 60 daemons, have fun controlling them all

oh and loot

you get 400 gold coins total, and well call your total of 450 gold

Shweet, okay i then gather all the people in the town and tell them to do this:

Gather up all the seeds and harvest the current crops and then replant everything, then i instruct them to start mining for ore in the nearest mountian reagion.

hmmm, nerest mountain is about a days walk away, prospecting would take about a week

it takes about 3 days to harvest and replant the crops

(which they do, then they set of for the mountains unless you have other plans?

No that is fine, im heading towards the nearest village which apparently was one day away.

yeah it was, take it the daemons are going with you?
ill assume they are,

ok how many of the daemons decorporealise during the travel??? two ticks

Yea i left 5 at the camp taking 35 with me

ok 8 of them loose substance so you end up at the outskirts of the town with an unnatural darkness breweing, which is nudging at the edge of your mind

Okay im standing about 1k out from the town with my 28 lesser Deamons and open 3-4 rifts before marching into the town.

ok you summon anouther 38 daemons, however the darkness enchraoches forwards a visible shape now, several ssquat looking apes move forwards, enlarged craniums and powerful looking arms holding up stumpy legs. Three of these strange creatures lope forwards and begin to head towards your daemons who seem unsure about these strange things

Okay I really cant be bothered dealing with these people seriously so im not going to waste my time here, i start casting frality on the ape like creatures and send my lesser deamons, all 66 of them to attack them.

The spell skitters of some kind of mental shielding, and the apes turn to you angrly pounding their hands on the ground, massive tremors rock the area and you are thrown to the ground with the rest of your forces

Okay i get really F'ing angry and open another rift pushing my mind to the edge and command my lesser deamons to go without relent against the apes.

the apes mentally block your summons but they cant cope with the daemons as well who sweep into them and cut them down, you feel a massive psyckik prescence enter your mind, debased and treacherous, but you push it out and possess the apes, they stand slowly, now their considerable mental prowess is muted slightly but they are still a strong mental body guard for you

Okay after possessing the apes I walk with a stride of confidence up to the town gate.

i then explain the two options, they surrender, or I will forcably possess them which may result in their lives being destroyed.

" resistance is futile "

MY bad double post.

The warriors of the town rush forwards into the breach, this time a standard force meets you, 15 spearmen, 15 Men at arms warriors, and 2 dozen crossbowmen which line the walls, also a crackling energy field surrounds the entire group emanating from a blue robed man at the back of the group, you instantly realise you wont be able to summon a rift into the town

Okay i am opening another rift next to gate and then i command my lesser daemons to diasy chain themselves ot the top of the wall and engage in combat with the crossbow men, but i also tell them to secure the stairs that lead up to the wall so that instead of fighting all my deamons against their whole army it is 1v1 or 2v2 on the stair cases.

ok your daemons are cut down by sustained crossbow fire from the men on the walls, a couple of daemons reach the walls but they get skewered by spearmen, the daemons you sent forwards get killed and you call the second wave back before they get slughtered as well

oh and your rift summons 6 more daemons next to the walls but they get pushed backwards to your force

the rest of your daemons hit the walls sos, just realised you said all

okay after IRL DM'ing looks like i am retreating behind my daemons and i set up camp along one of the main trade routes, then i keep a watchful eye out along with my shadow apes to spot for traveling merchants.

ok after a couple of days you notice some slow moving carriages traveling along the road

okay I i move alittle closer to examine them and open a rift out of the carriages sight.

the rift summons 12 lesser daemons that scatter into the treeline, the lead carriages front doors open and a young man in white robes steps up onto the drivers seat and has a short talk with the driver, who nods and speeds up

okay i charge my lesser deamons infront and behind the carriages, the front 5 lesser deamons shoulder barge the front and bring it to a halt.

I then begin to cast possess on the white suited man.

the possession spell succeds and the man falls under your command, the daemons smash into the carriage and it rolls over onto its side wheras the rear carriage trys to swerve to avoid it but its wheel gets caught and it gets stuck and rolls as well, the horses are screaming in terror at the daemons

i ask to meet the owner

also i try as i have been taugt mentaly communicating the words the wolf wakes

Okay i then posses all the horses and my deamons kill the driver. i then gather all the information the white robe ma about the trade routes and who he has had dealings with.
And then i stand the carriages and horses up and collect my lewt.

(proto) (and lols taking advice from ur fellow posters, nice) nothing replys to your psionic plea but she nods coyly and takes you upstairs, she knocks on a door and sais "there is a interesting male here dear sister, he wishes to speak to you"

"let him in"

Oh sorry after IRL dm'ing i realized that i forgot about the second carriage.

I slowely approch the door and chuckle to myself loudly, i then present the two options again, tell me and you will have a painfull death, resist and your soul will be incased in a lake of hellfire.

i enter again the wolf wakesing and explain the competetion wilst scanning the room

(dave)a womans voice yells out, "leave me alone daemonkin, you heartless wretch cant you see shes hurt?"

(proto) Nothing replys to your psionics however your explanation of the competition arouses her interest

what about me?

???

I tell them to come out slowely telling them also that i am obviously armed with deamons, if they come out i saw i will let them live. honestly i will.

sorry we posted at the same time

i keep talking while i scan the room

(is he lying????)

She yells back, "you think were dumb? youll kill us anyway you two faced Bar*****"

she seems to enjoy listening to you as much as the other woman did...

did i post your skills to you?

okay i then command my lesser deamons to rip the top off the roof.

the roof is sumarrily ripped of

inside are two women one is laying down clearly with a broken leg the other is coewering in the corner

wait what im confused

okay i command my lesser deamons to back off and take a break, i camly say that i am actually not going to hurt her, but i need to know her name and where she is from.

(proto) let me make this clearer, sorry im tired and sore atm

she listens intently

(dave) the terrified woman, (she looks early 20's) slowly murmurs something, which you ask her to repeat, she sais "Illandra... i come from the human settlement of Lubrick to the east, and this is Cassandra, she is my sister"

okay, i command my deamons to man the first carriage and i will ride with the ladies in the second carriage and we head back to the town i possesed earlier .

(lol)
they still look scared of you but Illandra doesnt seem to want to leave her sister

i tell them they arn't leaving anyone they are both comming back to the village where i can mend their wounds. on the ride over i ask them questions about the local trade route and who are the big dealers.

they dont seem to understand what you mean, "we were travelling with our brothers to the town, they were the merchants"

But we do sew some very nice things, she opens a basket adn shows you some very intricate sewingwork

oh speaking of which you find several chests of loose bronze arrow heads, but also several dozen suits of copepr armour, you grin inwardly, armour

okay we arrive at the town and my body guard greets me, i tell him to fix this lady up on the spot and we then have dinner made by my servent aswell using the food from the town.

okay i tell them that they are going to live here for awhile, they can have anything they like as long as they sew goods for me, my guard will oversee their work.

Then myself and the guy who i possessed earlier, we then go back to the road and pretend like our carriage has broken down, and await someone to come help us.

ok but whats the room like?

(sos proto) room is basic ish with some interesting drapes etc bed in one corner fairly eloborate, you notice however that there appears to be some kind of hidden chamber behind one of the bookcases as it is on small wheels

(dave) they seem happy enough to agree, clearly not seeing you as so bad.

once back on the oad with the wrecked carriage you begin to wait, after a couple of hours a couple of men on horses with a train of people behind them appear on the road from around a bend

I say hmm whats this that could get points in the contest and open the secret door while asking her about it

She gets up and trys to stop you

i open it anyway

you hear a sizzling sound and you dive out of the way as a bolt of sorcerous energy whips past your ear, you think, "they diddnt tell me she was a sorceror"

Alright. I put my cunning plan into action. Using the money payed by the client I go from stall to stall trying a passcode I got whilst assisting an assassain once upon a time. I keep going until I reach the fishmonger, who gives the correct reply. I ask for a contract to kill my client and pay my gold, being specific that it should happen in the clients room and that the assassain should be payed in advance. Once the client tires, we return to the Inn and I prepare an ambush, hiding in the wardrobe, my eye to a slit, waiting patiently.

"thank you brother. i know you are an assasin but do you know anything about anti-undeath enchantments or weapons you have. because we are in an war right now and we could use anything."

OOC: Could someone please tell me who is on which side of the fight for the city, or have we finished?

Back in character: Edon Garaklore scans the battlefield. He is searching for necromancers and uses soul strip on all that he can find.

(i am an evil assasin but i am fully in service of the assasin guilt. and my orders are to infiltrate the order of phobos so i am at your side but because your an high elf and my assasin has an grudge to all high elves even if he is/was an high elf. but became bittered so i will not attack you. but if the assasin order wants your character death then i will do its bidding.)

Once we return to town I ask the "mayor" (since cant remember his name) How long have these attacks been happening and are they always from the same direction? Is the man we saw today the same one who the led the attacks in the past?

ooc Man seems like all the action happens after i log for the night.

Name: Rarora Ironwarrior
Age: 97
Class: Dwarven Engineer (Marine)
Race: Dwarf
Weapons: Rory, the repeater rifle and gus his simple axe
Armour: Thick chestplate, leather trousers and boots, simple full face helm.
Skin: Tanned
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Amber
Height: 105cm
Gender: Male
Mount: Mount!?
Alignment: good/neutral

Will wright a bio when i can.

WELCOME!!

and lou the community grows

Welcome to the world of Stone

I shout out begging them for help.

" please can we get assistance, we were attacked by bandits along this road"

Could i get a better description of what they are.

Rarora Ironwarrior

Once a small (small) dwarf child, rarora was a tinker. He loved to play around with everthing and anything, as ant small child he became curious of the weapons of war that were being used to defend the attackers. Over 20 years of watching was under his belt befre he was allowed his first gun. He still carrys this weapon today, having over 50 years of modification and improvement to make it one of the finest crafted weapons that he could find. Even though having never had a parsonal taste for personal combat, why break a sweat when you dont need to? But still his simply axe was finley balanced and sharpened to a deathly edge. After his villiage was razed by a ncromance and his undead horde his harbours a deep hatred for all undead.

After a string of failed job and work he setteled on the thing he was best at, killing. Soon getting a job as a mercanary he would travel and slay people and beast alike, all for a bag of gold. After a incident in a bar involving a pack of cards and beer, he was once again very very poor. Now today he spends his dwindiling reserves of cash while discreetly advertising his services.


ooc: i wish to remain neutral but will ofer my services to the highest bigger.

I offer you revenge, revenge against the undead who slew your family and destroyed your village

How do you propose i can recive this vengence? for i have not found the taint of the undead anyware near here,

Well... there was this giant horde currently attacking the fortress I'm in... and there will be more in coming days/months...

We should probably charge you some of that gold to fight for us

And where be this fortress?

I have no idea, ask the GM lol

erm sorry eagle ark they havnt developed gunpowder in this yet, i tend to think that introducing gunpowder weapons to this level of development will screw around with balance, you have two options if you want to keep playing, we can either let you have it but it has the same stats as a repeater crossbow, or you can pick a crossbow.... sorry

Im fine with same stats as crossbow,

"we stopped this attack but their could be more, i need to talk to (........)"

ok sounds good eagle,

ill post ur skills in a bit

(rab) you see the client go to bed

(Noccy) The librarian shakes his head sadly, "im sorry i havnt a clue where they are kept"

(Tallon, heres the deal, you bringer and now eagle (i take it thats where you want to spawn? or on yur own? both are good, you can also pick one of the other characters to go into their particular gameline) Iliad is on the other side so is cruor if he ever posts again, Noccy is semi neutral but hes also kind of on ur side cause the undead will kill him just the same as you)

He quickly runs out of targets, the necromancers are fleeing the field, only the small remaining forces of the Golden man remain

(ekeon, yeah sos about that, ive been in rp's like that before, it gets alright after a while) The mayor nods, he is the same one, and he will be back, you can count on it, he opnly came here recently, but every time he has killed a few more of our warriors, we dont have many left

(Dave) The men yell out "hi there well be along in a second", you hear the clanging of chains and the crack of a whip, followed by a yell of pain, "just got to get these wretches moving"

they appear to be slavers

ill post for ranun once the battle is over k mate? sorry about that but yeah

(Eagle) The road your on is cracked and split, but still very much better than anything else youve been on for a long time, if you diddnt know better you would say it was once dwarfen made. But even as you think this you crest the ridge of the rolling hill and you see a sight that takes your breath away, right out of some geat epic the city before you is seemilngly coated in light, but that light is overshadowed by the deep purple and black clouds abouve it, and the undead army seething at its foot, great clouds of arrows fly back and forth from the defenders and attackers and even as you watch the great armies of the holy fortress sally forth to assault the attackers in turn.

oh on that point the fortress is some days inland from the west coast of the planets main continent, and its roughly halfway up the continent as well, some 2 weeks travel from the Human capitol and almost a months travel from your homeland

Rallying back together in a unified position to present a daunting challenge to any foolish attacker, the Golden Army advances in turtle formation, with shields raised on all sides, making for the hole in the fortress's defenses, seeking to slaughter the priests within.

Its fine... its nice being ahead of the game for once

Okay could i get an exact number of how many people are there? like how many are slaves and how many are other guys etc...

I begin to chant summon lesser daemons and open the rift inside the broken down carriage.

i nodd, we'll kill him, bbut it will require something in return

(hole in defenses? lols its a gate, which would now be closed.... sos i know im not posting very clearly lately ill try to improve that.... apologies)

(dave) sos 2 guys on horseback, coupla dozen slaves

mkay, you summon... 16

Okay im going to wait until they are right infront of me and then i am going to start chanting possesion on the right persons horse.

(yarnek) "we can give you supplies for your journey into the old kingdom, we hear that is where you are going, and there are no towns with hospitable folk from here till the capitol

"and shellter and food for as long as our serivces our required of course?"

mkay, they slowly approach when in comfortable talking distance they calmly ask you who you are,

you cast possess on the mans horse which promptly snots and bucks throwing the man off

(yarnek)"of course"

okay i then cast frality on the 2 people and their horse and command my lesser daemons to burst out and mob the guy on the ground and break the horses legs.

Then i also command the guy in thw hite robes to start rounding up the slaves on the horse that inow posess.

"if you'll show me where we'll be staying......i can begin planning for the death of this deamonologist"

(Dave) the two men are quickly kuilled and the slaves are contained, both horses are possessed,

(yarnek) The man takes you to a larger building than most which seems enough to accomodate you

I take all the loot from the horses and the men and then stand my carriage up, i then begin possessing all the people and instruct them to begin constructions for fortifications for my town, buuilding walls etc... i then travel up the road from where they came using my carriage.

"thankyou now if we could have some fooud, drink i'll get you when i have a plan"

(Yarnek) he nods, and leaves, "ill get it too you"

i fire my wrist crossbows into her head!

I wait patiently for the assassain to arrive.

i head in and stand by the door doing a quick head count as my brothers enter

(Proto) The dark elf woman collapses to the floor with a pair of darts in her head but you see the smoking hands of the sister and you realise why you wernt informed of the danger

(rab) the assassin arrives silently in the night creeping through the window around midnight

(yarnek) everyone is present including the warrior

Use ambush, skewering target through bothe legs.

(can only use ambush if she hasnt seen u, look at the description again, skewer does work tho, i think i gave you that??)

The dark elf collapses to the floor howling in pain, you are conciuos of how much noise she is making

(im an idiot ignore me)

The assassin hits the ground screaming in pain

I quickly run up and hold her mouth, knocking her out with a sharp rap to the head. I then recover my money, which was prepaid to her, as I insisted.

(sorry about all of that i mixed you and proto up for the first post, well call her a girl anyway, easier.. sigh my bad)

She falls limp in your arms,

I pour some water that I grab from the clients cabinet onto her face and put my hand over her mouth. When she wakes I make sure she won't cry out and question her.

she looks scared and in alot of pain from the javelins in her legs

I begin to ask her questions. Who do you work for? Who are your superiors? Which assassains guild do you work for. Did you know another assassain who died the day before yesterday? If she does not answer, I jiggle the javelins until she does.

(wince)
I work for the order of the weeping eye, our leaders name is not known we only know him as Kiltias, and yes i did, she was a close freind, (of course with more agony and torture inbetween im just not in the tourturous mood atm so forgive me for not describing it.... sos)

(It's fine.) I thank her then remove the javelins and leave her outside the front door. Someone will find her. I wait till morning and then talk to the owner of the inn about this... Kiltias.

morning rolls around and you go to the owner, you ask him some questions but he has no idea

So... do i see anything going down the road?

nope, and the guys have whips and sabres on them, but no armour

Okay, then im just going to keep on with my carriage and horses, until i find something interesting.

In the distance I see a small Dwarf walking alone towards the city, but I can't concentrate on that for now. I look across the battlefield towards the golden man and his forces, unsure what to do. Eventualy I decide to try and contain these warriors by casting blaze in a thick ring around them...

(and slaves davo, dont forget the slaves, what are you going to do with those?)

(Tallon) the ring of fire quickly consumes many of the undead and those remaining huddle together

I said, i sent them back to work on fortifications for my city, build walls and such, they don't need food etc.

*facepalm* Marta does it again

im really sorry guys im super tired at the moment and i just cant seem to concentrate, ill keep persevering tho

(dave) you wait for some time but nothing else comes down the road that day

Well, then I post a notice by the town crier, offering a reward of unknown value for any information regarding this Kiltias.

(hmmm brave)
The town crier asks how much your willing to give as a reward

50 gold and 3 javelins.

he nods, "well now thats generous," he starts his call, out of the corner of his mouth he mutters, ill send word to you if i get something if you will good sir?" his fingers rub together in an obvious request for a tip

I give him ten extra gold.

I add extra power into my flame spell, quickly enveloping the whole group in flame. The smoke rises high into the sky and can surley be seen for miles around. I let the fire burn and increase in insensity before, finaly, casting a huge ice flare on the group, attempting to shatter their armour by the rapid cooling...

Barely containing a bitter rage at the undead spread out before me, i quickly unsling rory. Immediatly i let out a fusilade of pellets towards the horde...

"dont be ashamed brother it was just a question. then i will now return to "the vault" and i will look if i can find something." i walk to the wall and enter "the treasury (the vault sounded awsome XD) and read as much scrolls and descriptions of items in the "vault looking for something anti undead

Seeing the armour of the undead turn brittle and shatter under the hail of pellets from the newly arived dwarf, I begin casting Soul Strip to kill the last of these foes.

Once they are all dead, I leave the wall and walk to the city libary. Once there, I begin searching for spells or incantations in the books...

from behind the wall i hear someone enter the library. i hear him being greated by the librarian and i am still searching in the scrolls. i hear from its voice he is an high elf.
[ milord the high elves are here what do i need to do? ]
(i hope it is ok if i did this marta hope you allow me or else just ignore the first part and the message then i am coninueing my search.)

(Marta, can you post up the whole fortress situation, including troop strength etc?)

ok i throw a knife in her leg but grab her before she can make much noise

Mordoskul wrote:(Marta, can you post up the whole fortress situation, including troop strength etc?)

I know i'm not marta, but, as far as I know, I think me and EagleArk have just finished off or routed the last of the undead troops. Even if we haven't, the remaing troops are incased in an ice flare.

(mkay, for a start Tallon there was a player character in there who happens to be immune to soul strip due to his being a PC, im not going to allow him to trample over eagle either, cause thats just sad, so im going to say that Mordo and his guard break out of the fire wall and retreat, and the rest are butchered, the city has been protected, the undead routed... stupid dice rolls, ah well i wanted cityfight damnit, but to be fair there were no war macines on the undead side so that changed things.)

Anyhoo, iliad retreats back across the plains, the great necromancer is nowhere to be found however, and finally he feels free, no more sniveling spell casters to deal with, Iliad clenches his fists around the chariots reigns, he was free

(tallon) (sos i cant remember your chars name, it happens with everyone, dw) sees the undead retreating and finds his spells unable to hit them, but the dwarf moving towards the gates seems to be unperturbed, and is currentls waiting good naturedly outside the city for an audience, you see a couple of knights including Marta move to the gatehouse to meet him

(ill do yours soon eagle)

(nah sall good noccy, but ill have to gm soon i gots to go atm)

Okay i am just traveling until i reach anybody at all, or a town.

Glaring out over the remains of the once great Golden Army, the deathless host that caused mountains to quake in their roots at their coming, Iliad felt a strange sense of freedom. The mortal arcanists were slain, spitted upon Phobite blades. No more would the servants of a being unworthy of servitude order him on meaningless tasks. But the feeling was false, he was still beholden to the Golden Man, the being who fueled his endless 'life'. Even now, he tugged at his mind, imparting a single message wreathed in purpose.
Raise me an army...

Seeing the knights move to greet him he sheathed his weapons, so as not to make the greeting uneasy.

(eagle) The gates open slowly and the shimmering light field lowers, the two knights walk through, Marta still having not recovered his now healed horse.

He steps forwards, "My name is Tyranic Marta, and i welcome you to this place, we have only just defeated the undead army that you can see broken pon the field of battle. So forgive me for not welcoming you in immediatly, i would first ask your name and your business"

i walk to where there's a big table and have my brothers clean everything off of it

(Eventually after a couple of days you reach anouther twon, you and your "bodyguard" reach the town gates just after dawn

(yarnek mkay) they do this...

(Iliad) The though hits your body almost like a telepathic command, you hand raises as if to summon some more undead but you fight it back, and then stop, you fought back, youve never been able to do that

okay check over my wounded and wait for the guy to return

ok they seem to be ok, and a servant comes in with some food enough for the group, he is followed by the mayor dude (i forgots his name too )

DOUBLE POOOOST

as my brothers eat i ask for a map of the town

I am Rarora Ironwarrior and i be a mercanary, working fot the highest bidder.