Serendipity Raiders led by Akallas von Aerok (#1)

[akallas]

When he saw one of his mercenaries strike down the second artillery and their men, Akallas had been surprised that there was an ice mage here in Connlaoth. "Must be one of the refugees from the civil war of theirs," he said to himself.

Then he shouted over to the mercenary. "Bring that mage to me alive! You'll be getting extra pay for him!"

[Wave]

Ray was about to drive his spear through the mages hearth.
"Today's your lucky day", he said with a smile.

The mage got over his shock: "I'd rather die!"
It seemed like he was turning himself into ice, but it didn't matter.A purple shimmer appeared around the mage, completely disrupting his magic.
"No need for any if this. You'll die eventually.", Ray teased, and knocked him out with a punch.

He put his spear on his back and threw the mage over his shoulder, carrying him to Akkalas.

[ScalesNDbook]

The second cannon stopped firing.
"Men , we are abandoning this position. We must  find out what happened to the other cannon" - the connlaothian commander shouted.
Valona decided that she can cause more damage by killing the commander. She used a water shadow spell , which created a copy of her dressed in connlaothian clothes.
" Help!!!! Help me. The raiders burned my home" Valona's water shadow screamed.
'' Stand down your weapons. She looks like one of ours""
The water shadow approached the commander.
" they killed my ..........."
" Calm down woman. We don't have the time..." - The water shadow stabbed the commander in the neck with a dagger, before he could finish his sentence, then evaporated.
Valona giggled as she observed the confused defenders.

[akallas]

Akallas was giddy.

This town was a small town, so he hadn't expected much from it. In fact, he chose this town from the few that he could see when they first entered the border exactly because it would provide a good "toe in the water" experience for the raiders he had.

But now? It was proving to be very fruitful. There was a high older population, which meant more Dust and thus more gold.

He thanked the purple mercenary before immediately turning the unconscious mage into Dust. The mage woke up and screamed as his entire body became coal black and crumbled away, leaving only glittering orange-red Dust in Akallas' hands.

[Wave]

Ray watched interested how the mage was turned into dust, but noticed how much energy was lost in the process. A shield flashed purple for a moment as it deflected the wave the conversion send his way. He only had the shield for the case that the mage tried something, but it still proved useful in this way.

Ray stepped back a bit. What Akallas did here reminded him of his past, just that he did it more efficient... and for a completely different reason.

[ScalesNDbook]

Valona was walking through the streets when she smelled someting intriguing. To her suprise the smell was coming from a small burning hovel. She used a spell to flood the hovel and extinguished the flames. From the hovel exited 3 very wet and grumpy mages - a woman in her 40s and two younger men.
'' You are smart, I give you that" - Valona said - " Using a fire invariability spell to hide in a burning rubble "
" You two run. I will kill her " - the female mage commanded. Valona used a watery tentacles spell to constrict the two's mages troats. They both lost consciousness.
The female mage summoned two fire balls and hurled them towards Valona. Valona used a water shield spell to protect herself. The fire mage was very tiered from the fire invariability spell and her attacks were weak. Watery tentacles binded her, she screamed and  tried to cast more spells but failed. Valona gently bited her on the neck. She haved spicy delicious fire mage blood.
" Why are you kissing me on the neck you sick bitch" - the fire mage asked, and then she realise that she is rapidly losing blood and resume screaming.

Valona used watery tentacles spell to drag the other two mages to Akallas.

[akallas]

When he saw Valona approach him with two people being dragged by her, he tilted his empty(literally) head to the side. "Who are they?" he asked. "And ... what's up with the blood on your face?"

Perhaps that was a rude question to ask. After all, she accepted his use of esoteric and odd magic without much question, why should he question her?

Bah, if she answers, then she answers. If not, then so be it.

[ScalesNDbook]

Valona wiped her bloody lips with a handkerchief, cleared her throat and said -
"Fire mages. Do you accept mage hostages ? "
She drooped the mages in front of Akallas.

[akallas]

Akallas shook his head. "No, they are worth more ... converted."

With that, he knelt down and grabbed the nearer fire mage's head. With a internal click, he started the conversion process again.

The mage scream as his entire body rebelled against himself. His reserves of mana crystallizing and condensing while wrecking the body as the crystallized mana made their way to Akallas's hands.

By the end of it, the fire mage was nothing but a black corpse... and Akallas had glittering Dust in his hand.

"Certainly worth more converted than alive. Not like I had a lack of fire mages to experiment upon."

[ScalesNDbook]

Valona was curious how exactly Akallas extracket the gold like substance from the mages body's.
Two defenders protected with heavy armor and armed with halebards approached them. Valona quickly used water tentacles spell to lifted them high into the air and the slammed them   in front of Akallas, so that he can convert them to dust.
,, These two have better armor than the average connlaothian" she said.

[akallas]

Akallas agreed with her. "... I agree. They look more like bodyguards for a noble," he commented. "Which means that there is at least one noble around here that we can take hostage of and later ransom."

He turned towards where most of the mercenaries were (in front of the ship), where they were bringing in people to be slaves or to be converted. "You, purple mercenary! Take some of the men with you and look for someone important looking!" he shouted to said mercenary.

[ScalesNDbook]

"What should I do" - Valona asked.

[Wave]

Ray would rather find the noble alone, but looking at the fact that he had already seen a good part of the town and was surprised how many still appeared to be there. If he wanted to find the noble, he'd be better of sending the rest to search for him.

"Alright, whoever thinks he hasn't had enough yet can come with me. Try to find the noble and not kill everything that moves."

[akallas]

Akallas turned to Valona. "Well, you already brought me two mages. Something I hadn't expected," he replied. "You've done more than your fair share of work. If you want, you can go right back in to looting and hostage taking, but even if you don't, you'll be making more money than most of the thugs I brought with me."

He paused. "But I do wonder, how did you take this mage down?"

[ScalesNDbook]

" He and his friend were hiding in a burning hovel. " Valona explained " I used magic to flush them out and subdue them"

Valona decided to look for more loot. She went back to the body of the connlaothian commander she killed earlier. Somebody have already  stolen his armor, sword, helmet and boots. Valona searched his pockets and found a letter . The letter was from a highborn lady who apparently was this man's  mistress. She demanded from the commander to deploy his soldiers near the town so that she can meet him while her husband is hunting in the nearby forest.
" There must be more soldiers and canons in our vicinity. I wonder if this man's  little lover have nice jewelry. Most of her family's guards are probably with her husband.'' Valona thought.

[akallas]

"What kind of magic-" But before he could finish his sentence, she was gone. "...Eh. I can ask later," Akallas muttered before he turned to the rest of the thugs.

"Well, what are you waiting for?! Go make me money!"

-----

On the other side of the city, a group of soldiers and a nobleman entered the city with their weapons raised up. They had seen their city catch fire, so they had rushed back there as fast as possible.

"Raiders!" one of the civilian militia shouted from a top of a roof where he had been shooting his crossbow bolts from when he saw the soldiers and nobleman. "They're raiding us, milor-"

A shot of magic arrow smashed into the militia's temple before crushing the entire cranium into a soup. The militiaman fell forward and landed on the ground, splattering his cranium soup everywhere.

The nobleman growled. "Get them out of my city!" he shouted.

[ScalesNDbook]

Volona found a big stone inn in the outskirts of the town. On the roof top there were several crossbowmen, who  shot at her as soon as she approached. Valona used water shield spell to protect herself. A group of raiders who have been send to find noble hostages have already found the place but there corpses lay  on the ground full with crossbow bolts.
Valona used a whirpool spell which drowned  all the crossbowmen .

[Wave]

Ray managed to position himself well enough for an ambush on the arriving forces. A few of the raiders were smart enough to follow him, the rest already started charging at the noblemans forces. It's their problem if the died because of their own stupidity, but at least they made a good distraction.

"We attack from behind and take the noble. Alive. They'll either have to focus on one side or split their force. Either way, they're screwed", Ray told the group and went to work.

[ScalesNDbook]

Valona heard the approaching  enemy   soldiers.  She decided to go inside the inn  and  try to capture  as many valuable hostages as possible . As soon as she entered several arrows and crossbow bolts were fiered at her.  Valona used water shield to protect herself.
The inn was full with connlaothian soldiers , mercenaries and guards all of them wearing better armor than the average raider. It was a very luxurious inn and the mercs inside were probably paid a lot to protect the people in the upper floor. As the enemy continued to shot at her without effect she giggled at the though of  the money in there pockets  and then used whirpool spell to drawn them all  and cause considerable mayhem in the establishment.

Valona was like a kid in a candy store , the whole lower floor was filed with dead men smelling really nice from the fine wine  that was spilled all over the place and there was loot everywhere.

Then Valona noticed that one man have survived unscratched and ready for combath. A mage using a protection spell to survive her attack.

[akallas]

Akallas had kept his eyes on Valona this time. He continued to watch her even as he converted old men and women into Dust and ordered the thugs to haul the children and young men and women into his ship for later market sales.

When one asked to have his way with one of the younger boys, Akallas shrugged and said "I don't care."