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Post by Neeq Machine on Dec 10, 2011 0:38:48 GMT -5
The brown cruised slowly through the air at a middle altitude, soaring more than flying, as his rider used a spyglass to search the air and land for signs of dragonriders. He was Istan, as the paint on the dragon's hide emblazoned, and he was out for blood. Stealing eggs was more than wrong, is was treason -- towards the Weyrs, towards dragonkind, towards all of Pern. They needed to be stopped, and beyond that, they needed to be punished!
The duo moved towards the island called Keel, keeping a weather eye out for any of the rogue dragonriders showing up. Though there were no other sweep riders in his vicinity, the pair felt confident in their abilities and in their vindictiveness. They were antsy for action and sick of flying empty sweeps. The rogues had gotten better at hiding from them...
>>OOC
Alrighty, so this is how this works. Skirmishes are matches between Northern riders and the coalition riders in the Archipelago. The coalition still claims the majority of the west for their own, and because of relations with the pirates and smugglers -- their main source of food and goods -- they are loathe to leave. Inevitably, this means conflict.
The point of skirmishes is NOT to kill or seriously injure the opponent (at least on the coalition's side) but to drive off the intruder by harassment, much as crows or magpies will drive off hawks. Skirmishes may be done by one, two, or three characters against one, two, or three NPCs, run by the plot team. Skirmishes may be purposeful, or accidental encounters, at your choice.
Dice rolls will be used to determine the effectiveness of moves -- it's up to you to be creative in your plan of attack and try to plan for contingencies. Enjoy!
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Post by Tarra on Jan 26, 2012 11:24:11 GMT -5
Overflying the brownpair from a good height, R'thar felt his blood pulse as he contemplated what he and Lenigrath were about to do. It was a foolhardy move, one that he knew would have set his father yelling or the Weyrlingmaster screeching (if he had still been a weyrling, which he wasn't). After all, didn't bronzeriders prefer to leave the dirty work to the lower ranks? And wasn't it stupid to throw his entire life on the line against a clearly older and more experienced rider - one of those that had already shown they would show no mercy in dealing with them...?
Foolish perhaps, if he had come alone. But he had not.
A second pair of wings drifted from the clouds above him, soaring even higher yet than the bronzepair. A brownriding mercenary, his dragon scarred from turns of the active militant lifestyle they lived. But they were only here to observe and intervene if things went badly for the bronzerider. The show would belong to Lenigrath and R'thar otherwise. Few coalition riders flew alone - after the initial onslaught and slaughter by the North it was widely considered suicide to do so.
The bronze began to pull back his wings, opening the dive towards the Istan brown. R'thar leaned into it.
Let's go!
Lenigrath's flare of assent blazed into his mind; the bronze was fair twitching excitement, but at his rider's prompts he stayed quiet. He folded back his wings completely and plunged towards the brownpair below, talons slowly extending forward as he fell. His rider prepped himself for what was to come.
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Post by Neeq Machine on Jan 26, 2012 13:55:57 GMT -5
Istan brownpair: 22
R'thar & Lenigrath: 0
Mercenary brownpair: 0
The brownrider kept at his work with a diligence born of righteous bitterness. Above him, the clouds parted, and a lucky glance put the mercenary brownrider in his view for just a moment. Got them! Brownpair, in the heights! The clouds had obscured them from view again, but that momentary glimpse was enough. The pair surged forward, the brown bearing heavily to gain altitude while his rider kept his eyes trained on the spot where he had seen the enemy pair.
It would have ended very badly for them, had not the brown caught sight of the diving bronzepair as he turned skyward. The dragon made a choking sound of surprise, calling his rider's attention as he folded his wings and let gravity take hold. The brown tumbled downwards and turned nose-down as the speed of the bronzepair's dive had them overtake him. The brown managed to evade the outstretched talons, but barely, as his rider hung on, leaning into the dive.
The duo caught their bearings as they fell, and suddenly the brown jinked to the left, tucking his body into a roll before flaring them out again, racing for a thermal he'd just passed to try and get some altitude, and get out from under the menacing bronzepair. The sudden surge of altitude would let the brown snap at the bronze, bringing teeth into play against talons.
As his brown moved, the rider readied a javelin. They were deadly thrown from a dive.... and there was still the enemy brownpair to worry about...
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Post by Tarra on Jan 27, 2012 4:20:02 GMT -5
Had Yaa'kov and Remuth, being the wily old fighters they were, deliberately let themselves be seen to provide a distraction? The thought rang in R'thar's mind even as he noted the likely ruse, though successful for a second or so, fell through when the enemy brown spotted them. A side-effect of their inexperience and lack of concealment perhaps, but there was no time to fret as the Istan dragon, recovering remarkably from his evasive manoeuvre, rose sharply on a flaring thermal to snap at Lenigrath.
The bronze, however, was no slouch when it came to reflexes. He veered away to take his vulnerable chest and belly out of the brown's biting range, aiming a heavy cuff at the other's head with all claws extended as he did so. It was meant more to ward the brown off than to wound, though with his greater heft and weight it would still be substantial if it landed properly.
R'thar, staring at the pair, saw the flash of motion that indicated the Istan rider was preparing his projectiles (whatever they might be), and decided it was time to make his own move first. He wasn't the best with knives, but he had been practising ever since he learnt he was rostered for patrols; and the best thing about the small deadly throwing blades was that they were so easy to carry in relatively larger numbers. His flicked his wrist back, forward, and the silver flash streaked straight at the Istan rider - aimed for his midriff.
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Post by Neeq Machine on Jan 27, 2012 10:18:50 GMT -5
Istan brownpair: 97 - gash on face (small injury, -3)
R'thar & Lenigrath: 0 - wing-strain (small injury, -3)
Yaa'kov & Remuth: 0
The brown's memory was good -- his wings flared out, sending him shooting skyward. His teeth flashed as he snapped at the bronze dragon, aiming for his unprotected underbelly. Though Lenigrath tried to veer away, the bronze was far slower than the brown, and without previous knowledge of the thermals. It was the brown's poor aim that kept Lenigrath from being injured, not the bronze's attempt to evade. The sudden tweak of a pulled muscle would be obvious -- pulling up and away from a steep dive had given Lenigrath slight wing-strain.
But the bronze's second motion, his cuff, connected solidly with the brown dragon. Hind foot met head with an audible crack, leaving the brown momentarily stunned and opening up a slice along his face, just under his eye. The brown went limp for a brief moment, the shock of the hit jolting him into a split second of unconsciousness. The sudden and unexpected motion kept the brown's rider from getting his javelin at the ready, forcing him to hold on to his riding straps.
Perhaps it was the same attack and the unexpected movements, or perhaps it was simple inexperience, but R'thar to completely whiffed his thrown knife. The brownpair didn't even notice the silver blade go tumbling through space, falling out of the sky without coming close to the man and dragon.
Gaining altitude, the brown dragon shook ichor from his face as his rider sought to ready and throw a javelin. He had no care for the rider -- too small a target. Instead, his aim was for the wings of the bronze dragon below him that was causing so much trouble. His brown dragon, too, was full of ire at this foolish rogue bronze managing to best him! He snarled, and dropped down towards the bronze without care for the rider, intending to hit him full-bodied and drop him from the skies. Talons out-stretched, the brownpair dropped towards Lenigrath and R'thar...
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Post by Tarra on Jan 28, 2012 7:18:19 GMT -5
Lenigrath's triumph at having scored a hit was short-lived as pain shot along his left wing in a spasm that all but crumpled it, sending him barreling out of control to the left. Panic flared in him - the young bronze had never had a wing strain before, let alone one in the middle of a life and death fight! He began to fall, other wing outstretched in a desperate attempt to stabilize as R'thar snatched at his mind for an update on what had happened.
Not serious, he responded as a tentative stretch tested the strained wing.
But serious enough, R'thar thought, feeling through his dragon's pain. Attack to drive, not to kill - Kes'lan's instructions rang in his mind. Did anyone really follow them out here? Even as Lenigrath began to level out his drop however, the next course of action flashed through his mind.
Fall!
Lenigrath's confusion screamed back at him.
I said FALL!
Obeying his rider's impulses more than his words, the bronze lurched sideways again on the injured side, finally slipping into an all-out drop shoulder-first as his left wing flailed erratically. All that diving had taken them slightly below middle altitude, and it was remarkable how fast a big dragon like Lenigrath could fall. R'thar fumbled at his straps, grabbed at his dragon's neckspines, and twisted once to glare up at the brownpair coming down onto them - even as his eyes flicked for the barest of seconds to the empty space above the Istan rider.
Lenigrath roared frustration and fear, most of it genuine - but appeared to be recovering his balance just in time to avoid splashing straight into the waters below. R'thar turned back to clutch at his knives as the great expense of blue beneath closed with them. It was a ruse, maybe; but one made more probable by the fact that the panic in the first few seconds of wingstrain had been only too real.
If only the brown would follow in his dive...
The sea rushed up to meet them. Lenigrath began to level out, wings delicately spreading enough to arrest his fall. R'thar braced, then as they hit approximately twenty meters above the sea, he screamed into his bronze's mind the coordinate he'd snatched earlier.
Lenigrath vanished into between, leaving the Istan to crash head first into the sea if he had committed his attack so much as to follow them all the way down. And even if he hadn't, the young bronze's reappearance, higher in the sky would give them space to recover before the next onslaught. Lenigrath leveled his fall completely then, extending his strained wing as much as he dared to glide more than fly even as his rider set to mind his next coordinate for an escape if needed.
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Post by Neeq Machine on Feb 1, 2012 10:10:38 GMT -5
Istan brownpair: 97 - gash on face (small injury, -3)
R'thar & Lenigrath: 42 - wing-strain, javelin hit (serious injury, -5)
Yaa'kov & Remuth: 0
In retrospect, they really should have expected the bronzepair to try and get out of the way by diving or falling. But the Istan brownpair was so full of rage that they didn't think. The brown's talons raked the air where Lenigrath had been just moments ago. He was not as fast as the larger dragon in a drop, and so the brown dipped into a stoop after the bronze, keeping an eye on the ocean below.
His rider readied his javelin, and threw, hurling the flint-tipped projectile through the air with all the force of anger and a plummeting dragon. His brown pulled up and to the side just as Lenigrath leveled off, and the javelin sank deep into Lenigrath's back, narrowly missing his wingsail and near-fatal injury. But it was a bad injury, as the pair would soon learn as they appeared overhead. They would need to end the battle soon, for the injury needed to be tended to, and pulling out the javelin would only cause bleeding.
The brownrider cursed as the pair went between, calling them cowards and worse to his dragon. The brown said nothing, then -- Above us! They were at a clear disadvantage from below, and they braced themselves for attack and evasion, unwilling or unable to between in high air without land coordinates.
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Post by Tarra on Feb 1, 2012 23:09:46 GMT -5
It was almost curious how Lenigrath's shriek of pain was cut short as he betweened to the area above the brown, only to re-surface as strongly when he emerged again into the air with his rider fumbling to turn and asses the damage that had been done. Whatever R'thar might have done or tried to do was lost in the scream of fury that overtook the bronze however. He might have been terrified earlier, but fear had been replaced by fury, and if the cowardly back-biting brownrider had thought that critical strike would suffice to drive them off, he was sadly mistaken. Eyes whirling red, he tipped downwards, wings arched lightly to take some of the stress off them as he dived again - a much more shallow swoop than the dive that had opened this entire confrontation, yet one that would let him make a pass at the enemy brown from his behind, slashing with his deadly talons at his back as he passed.
But Yaa'kov and Remuth were already on the way down - they had been so ever since the bronze's earlier plunge, and like Lenigrath they were angling for a pass rather than a direct hit on the enemy.
Get out of here, go! Remuth's tone was curt as he swung a loop in mid-air to make his pass from the Istan brown's front. The older brown rather doubted he was going to get through to the infuriated bronze, but a dragon wounded as Lenigrath had been was a liability, doubly so given his youth and obvious inexperience.
And his thoughts proved true as his words were met with a furious roar - Lenigrath was without doubt slowed by his injuries, but he had enough left in him to manoeuvre for a decently quick pass at the enemy brown. R'thar, clinging to the bronze's shoulders, looked too stunned at his dragon's abrupt bloodlust to do anything more just yet. If the situation hadn't been so serious Yaa'kov would have introduced his face to his palm there and then. He was going to have a few words with the young rider afterward, but for now he had to find a way to drive the Istan dragon off the field post-haste - and keep that yearling pair alive in the process.
He readied his own throwing spear, one of two he always kept in readiness for use against larger beasts. He had a pair of shorter, lighter javelins too - but those were in his opinion better used for the blue and greens, or smaller browns. Remuth, noting his rider's concerns and the direness of the situation, timed himself to make his pass a second or two after Lenigrath would - in case something else happened and the bronze somehow got tangled up with the Istan...
Summary:
Remuth is coming at the Istan brown from the front and aims to pass on his left while aiming a slash at the wingsails on that side
Lenigrath is coming at said brown from the rear and looks set to pass on his right while aiming to slash...anything XD
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Post by Neeq Machine on Feb 10, 2012 11:39:13 GMT -5
Aww, hell and crackdust! the brownrider cursed under his breath, kicking his brown in the ribs as the bronze's eyes went dark with rage and he caught sight of the plummeting scarred brown he'd seen earlier. He did not like his odds, and they had very little room to dive, so close to the ocean. The pair rolled to the right, towards Lenigrath -- a less frightening pair, given that the brown was battle-marked and probably a mercenary. The dragon snapped at Lenigrath's leg, raking upwards as their bodies collided.
The Lenigrath's talons rent the hide on the brown's side, but the brown got a few good marks in himself, leaving gashes along the bronze's belly before he broke free on the other side.
The moment they were out of contact with the young bronze, the brown flung his wings out again, beating them once before disappearing between, leaving the duo the skies. Two-on-one odds were too much for them, and their injuries were enough that it was no longer worth the fight. Live to kill another day...
Winner: Lenigrath & R'thar, aided by Yaa'kov & Remuth
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