Raikonai snorted slightly. Interesting.
Clearly they were either guardians of some sort or close enough. He wondered if they could be parleyed with; it probably couldn't hurt, if they weren't interested in advancing from their location.
"YOU THERE!" he bellowed. "What manner of beings are you?"
Cautiously approach within speaking distance of the shapes. Call out to them.
You shout at the beings, but they do not speak. You approach them, when suddenly they start slowly pulling out massive scythes from nothingness. You run backwards a little, but then notice they aren't chasing, and are in fact now putting the scythes away.
The Dragoness allowed herself a moment of chortling and petty glee. Foolish bandits! How dare they match wits with the great Anthramarux!
She circled down, and landed by Gunstun with a sizable thump and cloud of fine dust-a fashionable entrance, she believed, was necessary. She took in the moment to savor the bandits reactions-aside from the ones who had dulled their wits with some drug to mayhaps fashion themselves a less painful death. Most of them seem shocked-which wasn't surprising. No one ever expects justice to come for them. Many more were angry, ready to toss themselves on a pike rather than surrender. There was a good number who seemed to have given up hope, and were just waiting for the order to cast down their blades. The look she must enjoyed, and probably not as many as she had liked, was the general hatred toward the cigar smoking leader-who had led them on the suicidal path of defying her.
In truth, she was surprised they had not moved the camp. Logical discourse assumed one relocated their habitation if it was proven tactically unsound. They had apparently...just decided to stay.
Anthramarux motioned to the Bandit Leader. He didn't seem so cocky now...still, the Dragoness restrained her usual haughty tone-thought this was extremely difficult. She wanted the Bandit Leader dead, by her own claws (Failing that, watching his hanging would be educational). She would gladly go through the entire bandit horde to do so, but also knew that would cost lives of Isrand soldiers. Insofar as Anthramarux the Dragoness had a conscience (she really didn't), she knew that it would reflect poorly on her to the General if she earned more death than was needed. Thus, her tone was...courteous, and restrained. Sometimes quiet menace worked as well.
She growled, turning to the bandits.
"I present Honored Knight of the realm Gunstun, second-in-command of the knights of Albreac, and second-in-command of the Swordsborn, sovereign defender of our Land and High Commander of the Third Battalion. Isrand Rise!" She boomed, announcing Gunstun better than any banner bearer ever could have.
"Hmm. He will provide the terms of your surrender. I suggest you take them, manlings.." She finished, showing her teeth. Then, Anthramarux inclined her head to Gunstun, in a show of respect.
Pretty much everyone looks at you after booming out like that. An awkward silence follows. The bandit leader stares at you with a stare that looks as if he was literally trying to kill you by looking at you
really hard. So far he's making no progress, but that stare... not exactly something you can easily smile when you think about it. Well, you do still smile at the thought of the stare, but not even nearly as much as you usually do.
Gunstun fakes a few coughs. "Uh, thank you Anthramarux." He says in a low voice. The bandit leader's death stare breaks, and instead he death stares Gunstun. Gunstun pauses for a second, seemingly locking eyes for a split second. Gunstun coughs again.
"I'll start this off nice and simple: All of you can throw down your weapons and give up, and unless you've been convicted with murder, chances are you'll get away with only half your life spent in prison... or you can fight, and you won't have any of your life, and some others may unnecessarily die."
[Gun Cha:4+1][Diff:4]: The bandit leader looks at Gunstun, in defeat... then stares at you. In that moment, you see extreme rage in his eyes. Anyone standing in the way of his stare and you would likely be (not) vaporized. If you were not a dragon, you would fear for your life. Ho ho, good thing you are one, huh?
The bandit leader takes his weapon out, and throws it down on the ground. His men do the same, throwing all their weapons on the ground and marching to the nearest Israndi soldier. The soldiers put their weapons away then nonchalantly tie up the bandits--they seem slightly upset that they marched all this way for no excitement, but are mostly indifferent.
Gunstun turns to you. "Well, that was really easy. I guess Villius was right on more men making it easier to convince them to surrender. You can get... um, whatever you were looking for. I forgot. Something about some divine being?"
Peace,
Tranquility,
Solitude,
Serenity.
Noraiah was in the midst of all these, tucked within her shell, listening with blissful joy to the sounds that came around her. As her head popped up from her egg, she felt pain. Her first thoughts were muddled with fear and confusion. How did this happen?
As her eyelids opened, she was still afraid. Who were these creatures, what was with their harsh noise-holes? Why couldn't they sing the song of peace that so pervaded her life until now?
She stretched her muscles as she tried to make sense of what was around her.
Then, she screeches once more, at the beings.
Where was her mother? Where was her father?
You screech once more, before one off the creatures firmly forces your mouth shut with his hand.
You can tell that was a serious warning. Possibly your only one.
Merysta woke up some hours later with a cute yawn... but there was no one around to see it. Gwairen was probably still in the library. She sighed and made a slight depression in a mound of coins to rest her red jasper in so it wouldn't get lost a second time. Next, she decided to explore... but she had already seen most of the cave. Perhaps there was something interesting outside of it. Merysta trotted out to find the entrance and take a look at the outside world, although she wasn't going to set talon outside just yet.
You stare out of your cave.
The top half of the world is light blue. The other half is a various assortments of green, brown, blue, gray, and white. There are also strange things that have a brown cylinder bottom and a green triangle top. Plenty of other strange short green things with no normalized shapes dot the ground around you.
There are strange high pitch tweets all around.