Rune Tactics

Garak: Grey-skinned Arvek Nar wearing Serriel's symbol.

Smythly: Stone faced Goblin. With a big hammer.

Solace: Mulblooded male with pale hair.

Zoob: Bright green gobber with big ears and bigger gun.

Zoob comes out of a gate from a fenced yard carrying a large bucket of ashes and dead coals. The load appears to be just a little too much for him and he strains, holding it with both hands by the handle before putting it down on the road and wiping his brow of sweat. "Bah. That's what I get for trying to be nice, just more work cleaning up afterwards." <repose>

Garak veers midstride towards Zoob, reaching out a hand towards the bucket without coming close enough to grab it. "I'd be happy to help," he offers. "Zoob, isn't it?" He asks. "I'm Garak," he reminds. "I haven't seen you here for some time..."

Hassan has arrived.

Zoob peers upwards at the tall Arvek and steps back from his bucket. "I'd be glad of some help, I need to dispose of this properly as part of cleanup from the feast I tried to throw last night. I am indeed Zoob, I've been really busy flying all over as a Skyguard and helping out Rune and running away from sheep. Please don't ask about the sheep, it wasn't fun. Anyway, you look big and trong so if you'd be willing to carry this thing I can go grab the frame I used for the spit. It's also pretty much junk."

Solace carries a sack over one shoulder as he walks down the road before the gated yard. From the clank and jingle, it's all parts and pieces for artificery things. He pauses as he catches wind of some of the conversation. "Sheep?" Of course he asks about the sheep.

Hassan emerges from one of the ramshackle tenements, a small handcart behind him being pulled by some unseen force. He brushes the dust and grime from his narrow shoulders and frowns, "If they had any sense they'd burn this whole rat's nest to the ground and start fresh." He mutters to himself as he looks around before he checks a pocket watch.

Garak's expression brightens when Zoob mentions he is a Skyguard. He opens his mouth to say something, excitement written all over his face, then he noticeably reigns himself in and settles for a small smile of approval. He reaches down and hefts the bucket experimentally. "Rune?" he grunts a moment later. "You say you've been to Rune? Was it in the last few days? Or earlier...?" He glances briefly at Solace to see if the Mul seems interested in the comment.

Zoob pauses to consider Rune, shooting a glare at Solace over the sheep question. "Rune. Well, I was there earlier this week during one stopover and helped with spotting for artillery, then a few weeks back there was the thing with the mammoths. That was pretty fun actually." He nips back through the gate he came out of and returns with a few lengths of old wood, apparently that frame he mentioned. "The mammoth thing was great, we attached a noisemaker to the tail of a mammoth and they all stampeded. We couldn't stay to watch unfortunately because, y'know, Dran guards trying to kill us, but it made an impressive racket what with the trumpeting."

Solace's eyebrows go up. "That does sound quite impressive. And a much-needed distraction for the Dranish line." He glances, sidelong, at Garak. "I've also been to Rune recently, although not with anything near so impressive as a mission. We fought escaped fire elementals, but as it turns out, that was not an attack by Dran, but rather wizards just being wizards." He shrugs, then looks away, to catch sight of Hassan. "...now that is clothing you do not often see in these environs. At least, before someone liberates the owner of most of their possessions."

Garak's gaze is also drawn to Hassan but only when Solace brings up wizards. "The war in Rune certainly is unique," he begins, even though that's not quite what anyone else said. "The Coming Dawn teaches there are patterns to war, that there is, is...there is a sort of science behind it." Garak casts a quick look at Zoob. "But so far I haven't seen any signs of such." He gestures at Zoob, then at Solace. "Mammoths, routed by guile, we can understand. But then elementals? Which wizards were behind that?" He turns to look at Solace for the last few words.

GAME: Zoob rolls knowledge/military theory: (12)+10: 22

Zoob ponders. "I dunno about this coming dawn thingy, sounds religious right? In any case it's pretty easy to see the patterns in war when you watch it from an airship. The movements of troops, seeing how the different wings of armies obey orders at different speeds, sometimes you can even tell who is in charge of different parts of an army just my seeing how they maneuver if you know the personalities involved." He pauses for a second. "I mean, wait, I'm a Gobber, what would I need to know about patterns? Where do I blow things up is all I should care about." He grins widely.

Solace shakes his head at Garak. "Just some fool who got himself trapped in the plane of Fire a hundred years ago, and chose /now/ to claw his way back to the prime. And did not care what destruction he wreaked on the city in the course of doing so." Disdain puts a notable edge on his tone. Although he does give Zoob a surprised, probably /too/ surprised for politeness, look at the goblin's assessment. "Very insightful. I don't believe we've been introduced." This seems to include Garak as well. "I'm Solace."

Garak smiles knowingly at Zoob. "Yes. 'Just'a Gobber, indeed." He puts a hand on his chest. "I'm Garak, Vanguard of Serriel. Which is our way of saying priest," he adds wryly. "Solace, your encounter with this wizard..it was within the city itself?" Without waiting for confirmation he turns towards Zoob. "Were you in Rune when this happened?" He adds quickly, "Of even above?"

Zoob scratches one ear in thought. "For the missions I was on sure, I even had a pretty good view of the bombardment earlier this week seeing as I was one of the spotters. For the elemental thing, no. See, the problem with Dran is they know about airships so they set out lots of extra fires to confuse watchers, and they make sure they are all really smoky so you have to get pretty close to see anything from the air. Way closer than is safe in most airships, so scouting has to be done on the ground mostly against them. I've seen a chunk of their lines from a good vantage point but nothing like what would normally be visible from an airship."

Solace nods to Garak. "It was. One of the towers has permanent portals to each of the elemental planes...and the gods only know where else. Because," he deadpans, "of course that's what you want in the middle of your city." He rubs at his chin as Zoob elaborates on the issues. "Hmm. I wonder if one could exploit that. If one were not overwhelmingly concerned with pinpoint accuracy...a smoke screen can work /both/ ways."

Garak nods thoughtfully as he listens. He looks at Solace curiously at what seems to be a suggestion...but one that Garak doesn't seem to follow. "How would they exploit that...?" he asks.

Zoob bounces eagerly. "Oh, that's easy! Yu can get airships a lot closer to their lines than usual as long as you are quiet, because the smoke covers your approach. Granted you can't see what you are doing, but as long as you don't care about accuracy you can drop all kinds of nasty stuff on them, or I guess cast spells if you are into that sort of thing. Oh, by the way, I'm Zoob, marksman in the Skyguard, pleased to meet you Solace. Anyway it's a thought and as I don't actually know where the bombardment we spotted for came from it may well have been airships. They needed us on the ground, or actually just above it in a Dran guard tower, to know where the troops actually were rather than where their fires were."

Solace grins as Zoob, at least, gets where he was going with that. "A pleasure, Zoob. And yes, were I asked, I would suggest having every available alchemist crafting burst jars. Very, very large burst jars. You would, of course, have to be careful about transportation, but dropping fifty or so very large burst jars would be a wonderful way to ruin a supply train or support camp's day, and if they are obscuring the skies with smoke, it would be difficult for them to muster an effective counter attack," he adds, with a nod to Garak.

Garak chuckles. "Interesting. Very interesting." He turns without realizing to gaze in the direction of the Airship landing station in the mountains above the city. "I wonder what it would take to have an airship assigned to such duty." Then he turns back to Zoob and Solace. "What can Dran do against air attacks. Zoob, did the ship you were on ever come under attack or even threat of attack?"

Zoob shakes his head. "Oh no, I'm mostly on merchant ships, we stay high enough to be mostly safe at least recently. I'm there just in case of griffons or other aerial attack, and I don't think Dran has much of that. It's really not so much their thing, what with dragons just over their border. In any case, what makes you think there aren't airships in Rune specifically for that? I can't comment directly y'know, but it would make sense to have several small ones at least for scouting, and neither Alexandria nor Rune are run byt complete idiots, no matter how it seems sometimes."

Solace chuckles. "I can't say I disagree with that. It's likely already a feature of their strategies." He shrugs. "I'm not much of a military sort, so have not been spending much time out on the front lines." Despite, or perhaps because of, his shiny, shiny armor. He peers at Garak. "I must ask, though - why the keen interest in all things Rune war-ish? Planning to join the front?"

Garak listens carefully as Zoob speaks. He shows just as much attention to Solace, but shakes his head ruefully at the question. "If only I could," he replies. "The temple needs me here for the time." He shakes his head. "Speaking of which, I'd best return. Thanks you both for speaking with me."

Zoob watches Garak move off with the bucket of soggy ashes and then turns to Solace. "So. You won't tell anyone about that will you? Garak, well he's an Arvek, but I can't have outsiders taking me too seriously now, it would totally ruin my image. You willing to keep this under your hat?"

Solace looks down at the goblin, his head tilting to one side. "You...do /not/ wish for people to take you seriously?" The concept seems to baffle the half-Mul entirely. "But, whyever not? You could be a counterargument against those who would consider those of your race to be, on the whole," he pauses, struggling for a polite descriptor, and eventually coming up with, "eccentric."

Zoob looks at the Mul directly. "Why would we want to be taken seriously? The only reason they put up with civilized Gobbers at all is because they thing we're too scattered to actually be effective. There are way too many wild goblins out there giving us a bad name, if bigfolk actually thought we were competent they'd never tolerate us. Plus we'd never be able to get away with half the stuff we pull. Anyway, I have to go take these sticks away and dispose of them, and probably pratfall while I'm at it or get lost or something like a proper Gobber. It's a big world out there and we're really quite small, we have to get by somehow. I'm just too tired to do the schtick right now."

"What a cynical take on it," Solace says. He doesn't actually sound disapproving. More the opposite. "Well, far be it from me to ruin a perfectly good deception. It was a pleasure to meet you, Zoob, and your secret is safe with me." He grins, briefly, before turning to continue...wherever he was going.