Fanier caught up to the two figures, only to find more. There was a large Nord, a High Elf, a Kajiit, and a tiny Argonian. But the Bosmer girl caught his eye; she resembled his wife, Lathora.

Fanier quickly brushed away those thoughts, and asked, "Hey, sorry to bother you, but I'm a bit lost. Where am I?"

IC: i love this rp story.

As she heard someone rushing toward the group, Fara reflexively huddled close to the nearest wall, seeking cover in case some projectile sailed along. Looking for the source of the noise, letting her ears take care of the other directions. Seeing it was a lone man, clad in the same sort of furs as everyone else, she relaxed. Looks like they've sprinkled their catches all over the place. More widespread fun, and less chances for a dangerous pack to form. The bastards are playing for keeps.

"You're in the middle of nowhere. And probably in the middle of big, steamy, pile of trouble. More accurately, in a deserted town somewhere in southern Skyrim. And if some rumors we've heard before waking up in here are true, about to be 'invited' for a hunt. But neither as hunters nor beaters."

"Are you suggesting that someone kidnapped us, brought us here, and are hunting us down for sport?" Fanier was appalled. "Sheesh." He sighed. "I'm Fanier by the way."

"As for our situation," Fanier began, "I don't think their hunting us just yet. I don't know about you, but I just left the place where I started. A sportsmanlike hunter would give his quarry a decent head start." Fanier looked up at the naked Kajiit in front of him. "Well, you're a free spirit aren't you? Just don't let me see anything I don't want to see."

As the Nord tried to implore the party to follow, Sarth just backed up casually against the wall, glancing at the two on either side of her. "You go on ahead, with whoever wishes to follow," the cat said dismissively to the Nord. "Seeking weapons at this point would give little immediate benefit, because we are the prey right now, and the prey will never win, only delay the inevitible death," Sarth said, trying to explain the issue with everyone trying to run off either to their deaths or immediately take the fight to the hunters.

Then, in her Ta'agran-Bosmeri pidgin, she added as an aside to the bosmer and khajiit nearby additional information. "[The chapel is a snare, to attract the prey with the hope of weapons. It would to our advantage to let the Nord fool and anyone else foolish enough to follow him to act as a bait of our own, to expose the hunters. To survive, we must maintain minimal visibility, such as higher ground, or structural interiors. If we meet a hunter indoors, the close quarters would give me an immediate advantage over our foes,]" she said, though she masked her tone to something that resembled unintellegible complaining to anyone who wasn't fluent in either language. She didn't like the nord much either.

When the indeterminate elf addressed her appearance, she decided to humor him a bit, "Well, it all depends on what you want to see, doesn't it?" Though she shared the conservative Bosmeri view on clothing(ie: totally unneccessary), she knew the effect it had a tendency to have on the more civilized people.

"Oh, please," Fanier said as he walked over to the naked Kajiit. He lowered his voice as soon as she came within audible range. "I wouldn't be caught dead going anywhere with that Nord. You and your bosmer friend that I saw you whispering to, however, look quite capable."

"We don't need to go to the chapel for weapons," Fanier told the group. Along the road, Fanier picked up two rocks. "Look. This rock is soft slate. This one's hard igneous rock." He Then started scraping them against each other, facing them this way and that. A few minutes later, "There you have it," Fanier held the slate for the others to see. "A small knife." It was very crude, but just as good as a shard of glass from the chapel. "But these are just simple weapons," he tossed the makeshift knife aside. "With a little more time, we could make more, better ones."

"I wouldn't rely on these guy's sportsmanship - if they had fair play in mind, they'd left us with some weapons. I wouldn't be surprised if their notion of a start signal is of 'the crossbow bolt in the ribs' sort."

As Sarth growled her comments, Fara understood most of it - with many bosmers and khajits among the legion's scouts, a similar pidgin had emerged as a way to confuse prying ears. Be they dunmer slavers, argonians smugglers or Legion officers. Absent-mindendly looking at the chapel, she commented in her own brand of the pidgin, as if speaking to herself [If the chapel is a leashed goat, we should loook for the blinds with the hunters inside].

She examined the knife, not happy with her findings. "That's soft slate, the edge isn't anything to write home about. Good for one strike and that's about it, glass or flint would give a better edge. Obsidian would be the best. Better than nothing though. Unfortunately, no roof seems to be slated around here. But there's something I can do..."

Rumaging through the bits and pieces of clothing Sarth had discarded, Fara selected the rope that had been used as a belt, then used the slate knife to cut a piece of the fur, piercing two small holes in it. Soon the rope was fited through and held with knots, giving her a crude but serviceable sling.

Which she tested on the spot, sending a pebble at the nearest's house wall, producing a visible mark on the wodden beam. "Not what I'd prefer, but its accurate enough to dent a skull at thirty paces. Way better than a punch or kick."

Jak stopped in his tracks, having better hearing than everyone thought, and turned to face the group behind him. He had heard the High/Wood Elf say something derogatory about Jak. He moved very fast and stopped just when he had reached the Elf, getting his face into the elf's face, "I beg your pardon? If you're not careful, I'll have you hung up on a beam in no time flat." Jak gave the elf a good shove, hoping that would be the end of it.

---------

A horn was blown from the Citadel, being heard all over the abandoned city. The noble whose lips had touched the hollowed minotaur horn, turned and faced his "clients".

"Gentlemen! Let the games begin," He shouted down to them. The hunters shouted their battle cries and ran from the Citadel courtyard.

As the nord suddenly backed up and shoved the elf, Fara barely hid a sneer My my... fine-eared and prickly. Nasty mix., and couln't hold a comment when she heard his threat "If you're planning some hanging, don't count on me to join. I haven't signed on your personal enforcer squad." Yuck, really reminds me of the bullfrog. I' might help him live, but only because it's one more target besides me...

Hearing the horn, Fara commented "Sounds like they're a tiny shred more sporting than I expected. We'd better make ourselves scarce until they spread in small packets."

Raz raised her eyebrow at Sarth. ["I like your thinking..."] the half-breed replied. ["But he may yet be useful to us. I suggest we make him follow our terms- or at least prove he's not completely useless...]" She paused. ["Besides, he may make a good shield under fire."] She gave the full-breed a toothy grin.

She was impressed with the Nord's bullying tactics, though- she'd use them herself in the right situations. The problem was, everyone there but the argonian seemed to be a fighter, which didn't bode well for the Nord's intimidation techniques. "Let's fight this all out later..." she drawled casually. "Afterall, we're not the ones responsible for this whole ridiculous mess. We're the prey..." she licked her teeth, revealing her elongated canines. "I suggest we alter the situation, yes?" she grinned wolfishly.

-----

Seer, for her part, was at a complete loss. She hated how everyone was fighting- it was completely unpractical. Her strategy was just to run and hide, and let these warrior-types deal with the hunters. She was no fighter herself- although she could well prove useful to them in the long run, with skills like hers. She didn't really like much of the group, however: the half-breed and the khajiit seemed somehow... cruel. And the two human men seemed foolish and temperamental- the Nord also looked at her like she was some kind of pet. So she moved to stand beside Fara, giving her support to the bosmer and her decisions.

When the Nord pushed him around a bit, Fanier felt the urge to retaliate. Hold on, Fanier, He thought. The last thing we need is someone getting hurt. And so he contained himself.

A horn sounded from the citadel, signaling the start of the hunt, and Fara suggested that we make ourselves scarce. "Right," Fanier agreed. "We can't hope to survive a confrontation with all of them together. We'll find a secluded place, and wait until they separate. And we'll need to find or make some weapons." Fanier paused. "I don't think the chapel is such a good idea. I think there's a good chance the hunters will look there."

"That's a rather obvious landmark, I agree with you, odds are they'll poke their noses at it. I don't know what they're expecting from us, but maybe laying some kind of ambush nearby can leave us with more weapons and less hunters. Viewed from the rooftops, it looks like there's an open plazza in front of it and rather narrow streets on the sides and back.

I'd like to move to rooftop top get a better look at what comes there, and sling them a bit if they're few, just stay hidden and leave if there's more than half a dozen of them. Maybe a few slingshots will make them do the stupid thing and spread to try to surround me - thin enough to let you take some of them."

Looking at the small argonian "If you wan to trail behind me, you'd better be good at sneaking, climbing and jumping. I'm going to do a lot of that, and if I end up with some of the bastards in hot pursuit, I'll be too busy with my skin to think about yours."

Seer grinned toothily at Fara, and nodded enthusiastically. I'm good at that... Seer thought. Probably a helluva lot better than you... Afterall, Seer hadn't wasted her time learning to fight, to spell, or on education. All she had spent any amount of time on was her stealth skills.

--------

Raz commented wryly, "The little lizard can probably move pretty fast- build like that, and it'd be hard not to." She turned to face the rest of the group. "I'm not in on any sort of 'plan'. I find them too restrictive. My preferred place is the rooftops, but I may be anywhere." She shrugged, and then gave a lopsided grin. "I'm not one much for authority figures, and I'm not one much either for saving people who can't look after themselves. Watch your own backs, and if you're lucky, I might watch them too."

EDIT: Sorry Manu! I was thinking Fara, I only wrote Manu because I am a complete and utter fool. Thanks for correcting me.

Fanier liked Fara's idea. "Alright, let's do that. We need to prepare quickly. There's only a very smal window of opportunity. If we're not ready by the time they get to the chapel, it won't work. They'll be inside the chapel or have already left."

Fanier looked at everyone else. "Who agrees with Fara's plan?

"That's not much of plan - basically, I'll pick a rooftop with a view on the plaza in front of the chapel, and then sling the hunters if there's only a handfull of them. With a bit of luck they'll try to surround me, which will give you a chance to pick them in detail. I've noticed a large statue of Akatosh toward the northwest corner of the town. If I have to run, that's where I'll try to fall back."

"We'll hide in the narrow streets around your rooftop. There we'll ambush them in close quarters, and, if we're lucky, kill them off and take their weapons. But we'll have to run and hide as soon as we're done, the other hunters might wonder what happened to them and come looking."

Fanier looked at the tall, muscular man near him. "Are you with us, Nord?"

Jak looked down at the half elf and said, "I'm in. If we get a sword, give it to me. I've trained in swordplay all my life and I know my way around a blade." He gave a loud and hearty laugh, though it had a tinge of anger hidden within it.

------------------

Time for Jak's brother to come into the equation. :chaos:





Eric awoke, the sun beaming through the stained glass of the chapel. Damn, what happened? My head hurts so bad. I hope I didn't drink myself into a coma again. He sat up, rubbing the back of his head, feeling a large knot.

He clumsily stood up and checked himself for his gear; nothing, not even his bottle of ale. Eric released a heavy loud sigh and began to wobble to the heavy wooden door of the chapel.

So many of them thought as though they were the predators, not the prey. Sarth understood the folly of trying to up ones place in the hunt, and the disaster it could spell to the overconfident. "Hircine favors them for now, not us," the khajiit tried to point out. "If they have any amount of knowledge of their game, we will never outmatch them. They know the territory, and the behavior of their prey. The outcome was decided before we even arrived." Though she seemed pessimistic, she had intentionally omited several important variables from the anolysis.

"If we travel alone, we will be picked off without resistance. If we travel in a large group, we will be massacred. We can only survive if we form small groups. And stay off the roofs, if there are towers for the hunters to use," she then said, shifting close to a wall. She carefully sniffed the air, attempting to find any scent that was out-of-place, so the hunters could not surprise her.

OOC: I am really having problems keeping up with this... damn schedual is out of sync with everyone else's.

"From what I've seen, there are fires running in all of the towers. That hints at guards being there rather than hunters, to prevent the fun from spilling out. And they aren't high enough to have good lines of sight if you don't show above the rooftops. " Looking at the khajit "I know they've the drop on us, my idea is to have a look, and tangle with them only if the number are good. But if we play into their hands, we're just as screwed as if we get cocky and try locking horns without having them spread out."

[OOC : what's the weather like, we know it's cold but is it sunny, foggy, cloudy or the like. It can change a lot of things.]

OOC: The weather right now is sunny, but in a few more posts, snow will begin to fall.

IC: Eric stood outside in the sun, breathing the refreshing chilly air and his memory began to come back, slowly. I was probably in Falkreath, at that damned inn. I should really stay away from those. My thinking is they took me down with darts. He thought. Eric knew something was wrong because there were no citizens about and an eerie feeling of danger.

As he entered the more residential part of the District, he began to hear voices. He heard Jak's voice ringing out amongst the group. Eric creeped closer, trying to hide himself behind a large building. He poked his head around the corner, everyone wearing the same furs as Eric. They were talking about being hunted. The sun was doing Eric no justice as his shadow was clearly seen on the snow covered ground; so he stepped from behind the building.

Eric began forward and said, "Brother!!"

OOC: Won't be able to post much, I have a busy weekend.

Raziline bared her teeth at Sarth in a most khajiit-like manner. "I don't expect you to understand, oh high and mighty sister," she said, instantly disliking the khajiit as Sarth put down her intelligence. "I've been hunted many, many times before, and I know what I'm doing. I said it before and I'll say it again: I do what I want, and to hell with anyone who tries to make it otherwise."

Raz was an assassin. She was the perfect killer, and in many different ways. But as the perfect killer, she had also been hunted. Hunted by the legion. Hunted by the Morag Tong. It was only her superior intelligence that kept her still in the game. She knew the score. She knew how this was all going to work. But as far as Raz was concerned, it was only by taking risks that she could come out on top when she was disadvantaged. This is my business... she thought with grim good humour. You have to speculate to accumulate. Gold or bodies, it makes no difference.

"There's another reason why I'd like to have a look and maybe tease them a bit : right now whe don't have any idea of many they are, how good they are, and what they're expecting from this hunt.

Unless whoever picked me up poked his nose far enough into my past to spot I've been a legion scout, what did he get ? A tavern wench and part-time cook, who's putting snares and picking berries and mushrooms in the nearby woods to feed herself on the cheap, picked in a tavern when she was carousing and almost blind drunk. Not exactly much of challenge for a hunter who finds usual game too easy, not dangerous enough to be thrilling. But the perfect game for a sadist, one that would give some challenge to find but not much risk to kill.

Considering they've us penned into a walled enclosure, with what seems a pile of guards around, that hints at the bunch of sadists rather than the experts. Especially with the horn-blowing and warcries I've just heard, that seems designed to put the prey in a fit of panic. Or maybe there's a mixture of both. Without a look at the bunch, no way to tell for sure. Without taking some chances, no way to get that look. I'd rather have this look from a distance first, rather than bumping into one of them at a street corner or inside an house and trying to figure out the hard way how good he might be.

And one thing about what I've in mind to do - my training and experience is focused on ranged combat. I'm good at sneaking, but the 'jump on the guy and slice him' game is something I'm not good at, especially with just my bare hands. I need to open the range and harass from a distance. In a town that means the roofs, street corners, the odd second-storey window. Not lurking at a corner or just behind a door.

And to make things clear : I have don't plan on killing the whole lot - just to grab some weapons and supplies, maybe scare some of them enough that they'll slow their search, stay in hiding until the night, then sneak out and leave." And the gonk who provides the weapons can as well serve as the supplies. I'd prefer dried meat to frozen, but I'll have to make do with what's at hand. And to Oblivion with whoever don't like the Meat Mandate.

Facing the newcomer "Sorry for ignoring you somewhat, but to sum things up - whe've been kidnapped by unknowns peoples, dumped into what looks like an abandonned city, presumably to serve as the game in some affluent bastards's dream hunt. and trying to figure out a way to keep our skins and ruin theirs a bit if we can."

Sarth was about to reply to the assassin's response, when the Bosmer spoke up about her thoughts on the situation. As Sarth listened, she realised she had been making a mistake in her assessment. The khajiit had believed that those who hunted them now were true master hunters, as they had assembled prey that with little exception had been skilled hunters themselves. With Fara's perspective and greater understanding of the subtler aspects of the civilized culture, she saw the error. Many would be pretenders, not the true hunters.

"Very well," she said as the bosmer finished, ignoring the latest prey. "But even a pretender can defeat us if we just stand around here talking," Sarth hissed, with a sense of urgency. Immediately, she darted toward the labyrinthine assortment of houses, keeping her body low to the ground, so that there was no line of sight between her and any of the towers. The only way they would find her would be to track her down in the maze, and by then she would be able to smell or hear them, and find appropriate cover.

"Alright. Fara, i guess you'll go up on the rooftop and get a good look at the hunting party. If you think we can take them, you'll give us a signal, and we'll get into position. You'll, at your discretion, sling a couple rocks at them, hopefully nail one or two of them, and wait for them to try to surround them. At that point we'll ambush them, kill them all, and take their weapons, and, if everything goes well, minimal casualties on our side." Fanier looked around on everyone else.
"Of course, if there's too many, we'll have to retreat, and find a place to hide."

"Okay?" Fanier asked, and without waiting for a response, continued. "Then let's go."