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[origamiscienceguy]

You mutter under your breath. "Oh for the love of..." They you run after them, and zip in front of the hoarde. "Hey! Look! I'm a human on a pony! Me! Human on pony!" The Shokan stop in their tracks, and look completely befuddled. "Wait. You're dat guy wid de armsh out of hish butt." One stated. "No. Dat wash de uder guy. Dish one hash da head of a pony and da butt of a human. Dish one musht be a human on a pony." Another one added. This somehow made sense to the entire drunken group, and they all started rushing you, throwing rocks and sticks at you from a distance. You dodge most of the projectiles, but the few that do strike you hurt like the devil. You run back the way you came,fearful for your life. But after you put a good distance between you and the deranged individuals, you hide underneath the crest of a hill. Thinking fast, you cut your palm with one of your stone arrowheads, and quickly smear the blood over your mouth. The Shokan quickly appear over the hill and bear down upon you. "Dere is da humansh. Let'sh eat him." "EAT HIM, EAT HIM, EAT PONY, EAT HIM" A chant echoed to you. "I already ate him," you say, "see! His blood is still on my mouth." The Shokan look crestfallen. They turn around, shoulders hunched, and they slowly march back to camp. Some of them, you notice, start showing signs of sobriety. Perhaps they would start behaving sensibly again.

You go ahead of them and meet back with Clalus. He looked frustrated. "I heard that they were stupid. But I at least expected them to have some sense of self-preservation. They cannot be worked with. They will be as much of a danger to our own men as they are to the humans." You defend them. "They were roaring drunk when I found them. They are starting to get better. They will be sensible enough in a few hours. What is your plan for the assult?" Clalus looks down at his scrolls, then back at you. "I was going to have the Shokan carry battering rams while The Satyrs and us provided as much covering fire as possible. But I have doubts about this plan now. Do you have any better ideas?"

[perubean]

The front gate is the most defended part. That would cause too many casualties. How about we use the griffons to stealthilly airdrop some satyrs and centaurs into the gatehouse and open it from the inside, then we rush in.

[origamiscienceguy]

"We have Griffons at our disposal! We can use them!" You exclaim. Clalus looks taken aback. "I... don't think they would like to hear that."
"Can they carry a satyr? Or even a Centaur? They could drop them right inside the gatehouse so we can open it from the inside!" You see signs of horror from Clalus. "Centaur?! In the air?! If you want to, go ahead, but I am staying on the ground." Clalus hated the idea, but the Satyr leaders liked it quite a bit, or at least, they liked it more than the previous plans. After a quick consultation with the few Griffons, they agreed to the idea. All parties told the plan to their respective species. The Shokan had sobered up, and once they realized the situation they were in, they were delighted to fight some more humans (although verbally annoyed at whoever it was that brought them here. They hadn't figured out it was you.) Night fell, and it was time to strike.

You were the only Centaur who was willing to be carried off of the ground, two Griffons held you in a large cloth. The remaining Griffons were each carrying two willing Satyrs, one riding on the back, and the other clutched in their massive claws. There were clouds covering the Crescent moon, so your attacking group was completely concealed by the night. You hovered silently over the fortress, and just as planned, the grounded Satyrs and Centaurs unleashed many volleys of flaming arrows. This served two purposes, it distracted the defenders from your attack, but it also ruined any night vision the defenders had. This would give your aerial assault all the more chance of succeeding. Without warning, the Griffons carrying you started a decent, sending your stomach upwards in a rather nauseating way. The Satyr commandos landed first, silently killing nearly a dozen humans near the gatehouse before they were noticed, and the alarm was raised.

Immediately, humans taking cover from the flaming arrows turned inside their own fortress, and saw a dozen goat-men approaching the gate's crossbar/ Only a few humans stood in their way, but they were quickly being swarmed by humans from deeper within the compound. Some archers started shooting at the Griffons carrying you, and one of them was shot in the flank, which caused them to drop you. You fell quite a distance, but managed to land on some rather unfortunate soldiers, who cushioned your fall with their lives. You dropped behind the humans who were attacking the satyrs. The wounded Griffon landed clumsily next to you. It was unable to fly, but it could still fight. Between the gate and the Satyrs were about a dozen humans, but between you and the Satyrs was two dozen humans, the measly force of Satyrs had lost their element of surprise, and were quickly becoming overwhelmed.

[StrawBarrel]

Retrieve a weapon, shield, and/or corpse from the crushed soldiers.
Tell the wounded griffon to charge with you to break the dozen enemy combatants ahead of us.
Smash into the humans and give a war cry.

[origamiscienceguy]

You grab one of the crushed humans, and lift his corpse to your height. You tell your Griffon companion, "This way. To the gate! It is our only chance." He sweeps his heavy tail behind him to clear some space between yourselves and the endless horde of humans. You both charge at the much more manegable group of humans between you and the satyrs. You rear up, kick your front legs, and give a war cry. "CHARGE!" You scream as you run foreward. You charge had a lot of force behind it, and with your human shield blocking all incomming damage, you managed to drive a wedge into the formation, finally meeting up with the Satyrs. The battle was not going well,
four Satyrs had fallen already, while only two of the six humans defending the gate had fallen. You needed to get that gate open, and fast!

[StrawBarrel]

Get a satyr to mount us. Leap towards the gate and have the satyr subsequently jump off from our back and to the gate.

[origamiscienceguy]

You turn towards one of the Satyrs, and get his attention. The Griffon turned to try and keep the army at bay. You notice the Satyr's eyes were filled with utter terror. "Get on my back. I'll give you a boost, get the gate open." You grab his arm and yank him up onto your back before he had a chance to process your command, but the sudden motion seemed to snap him out of it, and you felt his hooves dig painfully into your shoulder as he bounded over the defending humans and into the gate. He landed behind the humans, who were all to busy fighting the Satyr's comrades to notice, and with a heave, he lifted the wooden crossbar, and shoved the gate outwards. Immediately, a roar of triumph erupted from the siegers,
and the army rushed in, led by the Shokan, and followed by everyone else. You leapt out of the way of a charging Minotaur who rushed through nearly a dozen terrified human soldiers. A few recognizable Centaurs also swarmed through the breach, suddenly turning the tide of the battle with the attackers. You had them outnumbered, but you reminded yourself about why you did this siege in the first place... for information. You peer up to the walls, and see the Commander rushing down the stairs, and into the central keep. This fort must have secret escapes, you must catch him before he uses one of them!

[StrawBarrel]

Go after the commander. Use our hunting prowess to determine his intended path of escape.

[origamiscienceguy]

You were safe for the moment, your allies were on the front lines while you and the surviving infiltrators were given a respite. But you could not let rest take precedence over the capture of the fort commander. You look for which entrance he goes in, but you can't find him among the bloodbath that was taking place in front of you. He was surely inside the keep and heading for a passageway. There were too many soldiers in between you and the keep, and they would delay your interception. You would have to find where the escape leads, and cut them off there. You make your way out of the fort through the rush of attackers, like a fish swimming upstream. Once outside, you try to think where a passageway would lead. The human capitol was due North of here, so it would make sense for the exit to be in that direction. You look up at the stars to find north, like you had done a thousand times before. But this time, something was different. Several of the constellations you were familiar with had several stars pulsating strangely. It seemed that some stars from a couple familiar constellations were merging with other stars to form a new shape. You stare closely at the new pattern, and discern the shape of the Commander's plume! Were the stars telling you something!?

The plume was pointing to the North West, and having no better lead, you decide to head in that direction. You were amazed. No centaur as young as yourself had been able to read the stars before. It would be best to keep your ability a secret so that the others don't get jealous. You gallop across the open grassland until you enter a Swamp. This was where the Cyclopses used to live before the Human's nearly eradicated them. You carefully trudge through the thick undergrowth and soft ground until you come up on a wooden shack. This was not a Cyclopes construction. Inside, was a trapdoor. You felt giddy, the stars were right! You could set up a nasty trap here.

[StrawBarrel]

Examine swamp and shack. Check self for all carried items.

[origamiscienceguy]

You had your weapons from before, your two stolen cavalry swords. Apart from that, you carried nothing. Centaurs were not the type to wear clothing or carry tools.

The shack was hastily constructed, and seems to only protect the entrance from rain damage. It was wooden, and held together with nails and a few ropes tied it to the ground. The trapdoor was made of wood, but you smelled pitch on it, meaning it was most likely waterproof. The surrounding swampland was denser than most. With trees surrounding the shack, in order to conceal it. There was lots of mud everywhere, but the tunnel must either be deep enough to avoid water damage, or it must be sealed with pitch similar to the trapdoor.

[StrawBarrel]

Remove a rope from the shack. Embed one cavalry sword into the mud and another into a tree. Hide among the trees and wait. When the commander arrives and hopefully investigates the weapons, come out of concealment and lasso him.

[origamiscienceguy]

You remove both your swords, and embedded them in the surrounding wildlife. One in the mud, and one stuck horizontally in a tree. You then work quickly to untie a support rope from the shack, and tie a stopper knot. Your days of hunting allowed you to tie the knot with no trouble. Once you were finished, you held a fine lasso. This would be how you captured the commander. All that was left to do was wait.

After another ten minutes, you started hearing noises from the shack, and a soldier emerged. He took a quick look for any danger, then yelled for his companions to come up. Another two soldiers emerged before the commander himself came out. "What a coward." You think to yourself. "He would abandon his men for his own safety." The commander looks carefully in the moon-illuminated swampland, before he notices the swords you placed. "How did this get here?" He says urgently. The men with him don't give an answer. "Fan out and search. We must not be discovered." The men all go their separate ways, but none of them come close to you. Once the commander was suitably isolated, you strike.

You spin your rope above your head, letting centripetal force open your knot and form a loop. The commander flinches, then searches in the night for the source of the noise, but he was too late. You cast your lasso, and pull the knot tight around the commander's upper chest. The commander lets out a grunt of surprise before you gallop away and he is dragged through the mud behind you. One of the soldiers was in the right position to challenge your escape. He bravely stands in between two trees, blocking your path. You are running full speed by this time, and slowing down would allow the commander to loosen the loop and escape. The soldier was pointing a spear right at you. While your charge would kill him no matter what, you would rather not be stabbed by a spear in the process.

[StrawBarrel]

Jump over the soldier, let go of the lasso mid-air, and send the commander crashing into the soldier.

Release the lasso. Turn around and snatch the muddy commander again.

Continue galloping at the spearman. High jump over soldier and his spear. Let go of the lasso so that the commander can slide barreling towards the soldier.

[origamiscienceguy]

You prepare to jump as high as you can, and leap into the air. You drop the commander behind you, and he tumbles into the soldier, taking out his feet. You land behind the fallen soldier, and grab the lasso once again, dragging the screaming commander through the mud, and back into the clear grassland where the battle was.

Morning was rising on the blood-soaked land, but you could see from a distance that the battle was won. All the flags in the fortress had been torn down, and you were greeted by some heartfelt cheering upon your arrival. "I caught this weasel running away during the fight!" You say, and you are swiftly let in. You found piles of dead human bodies inside, but no signs of allied dead bodies. They must be burying them somewhere. Inside the keep, the injured and wounded were being treated, but in one of the defense towers, the leaders of each species (except the Shokan) were gathered. Clalus saw you, and was overjoyed. "I was furious when we didn't find this guy inside. Good work!" You climb up the stairs, and plop the commander on the table. He was in too much pain from your dragging to even put up a fight.

Clalus began the interrogation immediately. "You're lucky none of the Shokan saw you on your way in. If any of them had lain eyes on you, even we couldn't stop them from ripping your arms and legs off. But frustrate me, and I will gleefully hand you to them. If you answer everything I want, I'll give you a horse and let you go free. Do you understand?" The captain was only semi-conscious, but he certainly understood Clalus' threats. "I understand." He said fearfully. "Alright," Clalus began. "Why has your mad king decided to genocide this valley? There is plenty of land for your species." You all listen closely, as this answer affected all. The commander thought carefully before answering, "I have only caught bits of information, but as far as I know, there is something on Jade Mountain that the King wants, and I think he just wanted all you useless lifeforms rid of... I mean, he thinks you're useless... not me." You all stare south at Jade Peak, but the information meant nothing to all present. The Captain continued. "I think it has something to do with the Dragon Riders. There is rumored to be an ancient dragon rider on Jade Peak, and the King has been obsessed with creating a force of them to project his own power worldwide. I don't know, that is just what I think. Can I please leave?"

The group is 50/50 on letting him live. If you have any more questions for him, you could ask them. Then determine whether he lives or dies afterward.