Into the Field

Part 1 of the Valkyrie Six


The Six

Alendria, Gnome Bardess
-- 3'6, 76 lbs
-- Silver Hair, Blue Eyes
-- Gnomish Leather Armor
-- Short Bow : attack ability
-- Mandolin
-- Hodierna's Lilt : A healing song
-- Drums of the Snake : A song that increases survival and sneaky skills

Fierce fighter, singer and musician. Is interested in magic even though she only knows musical enchants.


Aliaga, Human Priestess
-- 5'4, 105 lbs
-- Black Hair, Green Eyes
-- Dreamweave Robes
-- Auchenai Staff : spells only
-- Mind Control : Controls target being for 10 - 20 seconds. Can be resisted by strong enemies.
-- Shadow Word: Pain : DOT spell that inflicts damage as pain
-- Heal : Single target healing spell

Conflicted about her increasing use of Shadow magic. Sensitive and compassionate, but determined to fight back against the dark after the destruction of Lordaeron and all that was lost afterword.


Sophella, Stone / Stone Tanker
-- 6'1", 170 lbs
-- Brown Hair, Brown Eyes
-- Stone Armor that complete covers her making her look like a golem
-- Stone Fist : attacks with armored stone fist
-- Taunt : makes nearby enemies focus their attacks on her instead of their intended targets.
-- Hurl Boulder : flings a boulder at targeted enemy

Regrets having to fight fully covered up in stone armor, and wishes she could show off her awesome costume. Protective and friendly.


Melara, Jedi Shadow
-- 5'3", 130 lbs
-- Black Hair, Yellow-Orange Eyes
-- Jedi Knight's White Robes
-- Green Lightsaber : attack ability
-- Vanish : concealment ability, hides Melara until she attacks or walks to closely in front of someone.
-- Force Push : knock back enemy or object, Distance push depends on resistance strength.


Valeraine, Fire Mage
 -- 5'11", 165 lbs
-- Flame Red Hair, Blue Eyes
-- Chainmail Armor
-- Longsword : attack ability
-- Ruby Pendant : blocks the first attack against Valeraine in combat
-- Fire Shard : Fire projectile attack against enemy
-- Backdraft : Fire/Air hybrid spell causes major knockback against enemy.


Isseria, Gun Mage
-- 5'6", 150 lbs
-- Brown hair, Blue Eyes
-- Unarmored
-- P226 X-Five : attack ability
-- P226 X-Five : attack ability
-- Elemental Ammo : change the pistols to use another type of elemental ammo. Normal / Fire / Ice / Air.



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


The camp had been hastily constructed, but Melara had no idea how she got there, or where the camp site was. A half dozen tents were scattered here and there, and a dwarf was standing at a distance from the tents.

Melara was also disturbed because the force felt ... different. She wasn't able to meditate on the force and calm herself after arriving here. She couldn't lift things with the force either. She was able to give a pebble a good shove with the force, but nothing else. The pebble flew a long long way. She didn't think she had put that much oomph into it. It was like the force was super-concentrated into just force pushing things.

She walked over to the dwarf.

"Good day miss, I am Bodahn Fedic, and this is Sandal. I'm not sure why Sandal and I are here. I sure don't recognize those mountains, miss, but in any case, I'm here to buy and sell, and Sandal is an excellent crafter. However, I see that you don't have any coin on you right now, and I doubt you'd like to part with your precious things. Soon, I'm sure we'll have a thriving trade I am sure."

"I should have some Republic credits, I suppose you wouldn't accept them?" Melara asked.

"No miss, I've never heard of Republic credits," Bodahn said.

Sandal repeated, "Credits!"

"Why come all the way out here to trade with one Jedi knight?" Melara asked.

"I don't know why Sandal and I arrived here, but I know somehow that five more ladies will be showing up soon. They won't have any coin either. You'll have to earn your coin in battle if you want any."

"Is this Camp going to be attacked, or why do you say we'll be battling?" Melara asked quizzically. I mean, combat was common enough, but she didn't see any reason to fight as of yet.

"There's looters and bandits all around. And I heard a lot of the organized armies have been losing soldiers left and right. Everyone wants to become part of the problem. These looters are making a ton of money, and capturing the lowborn and highborn alike. If this continues the five kingdoms will fall."

"How can you know all this if you don't know why or where you are?" she asked.

"It's just part of who I am. Sandal and I are no longer in the world we called home. Now we are in a new world of looting and banditry, and kings that pillage small villages for a few coin. I've been calling it Lootsylvania."

"It looks like another of your group has arrived," Bodahn said.


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

Sophella woke up, inside a tent. She was still in her whole stone armor set. She tried to dispel the armor, nothing. After three attempts she realized it wasn't working.

She had to bend way down to go through the tent opening.

There were a few people gathering in the distance. A man and a boy, and a woman in robes. She stomped towards them, digging trenches of dirt every time she put the weight on one stone foot or the other.

"Hello miss," the man said. "Bodahn Fedic at your service. This is Sandal."

"How did you know she was a she?" the woman asked.

"You all are. This is the campsite of the Valkyrie Six. I know you don't know each other yet, but you will. Sophella, this is Melara, Jedi Shadow. Melara, this is Sophella, Stone Tanker."

Sophella said, "What is a Jedi?" as Melara was saying, "What is a Tanker?"

"You first," Melara said.

"A tanker is someone who protects people and is very durable and has defensive techniques to endure a lot of attacks. A tanker also can taunt her enemies and force them to attack her instead of her friends. I am a stone tanker who also attacks with my stone fists and I can hurl boulders. A Stone / Stone Tanker," Sophella said. "Unfortunately, I can't seem to dispel my armor right now, so I have to stay in this gargoyle suit."

Sophella invisibly gritted her teeth.

"A Jedi is someone who is attuned to the force. As a Jedi Shadow, I am in touch with the force quite a bit, but I also am well versed in the double bladed lightsaber."

Sophella instinctively stepped back as the sword made of green light extended in both directions from her hand.

"I am also having problems. The force is not quite right here. I can only use one of my force techniques at the moment."

"Someone is wrong with this place then," Sophella said.

"I can deflect many types of attacks with my lightsaber, and also use it to attack, and I can Vanish, but not while I'm in front of so many people."

"Can you deflect a boulder?" Sophella asked curiously.

"No, only your common blasters," the 'Jedi' said.

"The third of your six is headed this way," Bodahn said.

"Where is she?" Sophella looked around.

"She is a gnome. But don't underestimate her."

The Jedi saw her first, and turned towards her, and finally Sophella, who was 8 feet tall in her stone armor, saw the 3 foot tall gnome.

"Good Morning, madam. I am Bodahn, and these are two of your fellow Valkyrie Six members."

"I don't know what you're talking about. One moment I was resting underneath the counter, and then I woke up in that darned tent. And I've lost a weapon, three instruments, and a ton of priceless artifacts."

"Ouch, that's more than I lost. I am Sophella, Stone Tanker. That's Melara, Jedi Shadow. And we should wait for all six before we do introductions again."

Bodahn announced each of the rest of six as they approached.

"Aliaga, Human Priestess looked the most familiar to her, being human like she was. Melara was surely some slightly different variant of human. Her skin was slightly more blue than was normal for humans. Valeraine, Fire Mage was human, and so was Isseria, Gun Mage."

Sophella had her work cut out for her, it looked like Melara was a sort of scrapper, but the rest were all somewhere on the blaster / controller / defender spectrum, if she was using her own world's terminology.

They were exchanging minor pleasantries, but not really getting into the details of where they came from yet. Then a man rode in on horseback, with two heavy saddlebags weighing the slow moving horse down.

"Wow, well I'm impressed. It appears most of you are well equipped already, except you miss," the man said, pointing to Isseria, the gun mage. "You might want to buy some armor soon."

"What do I need armor for?" Isseria asked.

"Ahem. I am the Merchant of Reyvadin, and I have a task that I can't find anyone else to do. There's a group of bandits east of your camp that are attacking all the caravans headed to the Kerghit Khanate  and on to the Sarranid Kingdom. These bandits are not the normal sort, as they seem to have some skills unknown to Calradia. Some of them are using these objects that attack anyone that gets close, and others skulk about, while still others in this group have some kind of infernal being that belongs to them. There's only maybe a half dozen members of this bandit group, but they are successfully taking all of the caravan's goods for themselves.

King Yargolek has personally asked me to dispatch someone to take care of them. I was told of your appearance here, but I didn't believe you would be useful until you see them. You are likely to face more local dangers on your way to fight these outsiders."

"What's the reward for all of this?" Isseria said.

"Clearing out a menace that doesn't belong to this world is enough," Aliaga said, with surprising fierceness. "I recognize some of the descriptions you gave of those bandits. That could be a warlock at least. They summon demonic beings to do their bidding."

"Wow, they must be super powerful," Isseria said.

"Not necessarily, but definitely unfamiliar for the locals."

"King Yargolek has authorized you to receive a host of Vaegir recruits now, and additional recruits if you succeed. In addition, you will be paid a 1000 ducats if you succeed," the Merchant said.

"How many recruits?" Valeraine said. "I've lead a group of soldiers before. I can help organize the group."

"10 recruits."

"I've gone into battle with a Trandoshan friend all the time," Melara said. "He would say that these foes are 'Much Points'."

"I do my best when working together with 7 other heroes. I have to lead a little bit just to make sure no one takes the enemy's attention off of me."

"I think we've all lead teams into battle in some capacity, but I definitely think Valeraine should be in charge of the recruits. If we can specialize them in different ways, then we can assign some of them to the rest of us. Later on of course," Aliaga said.

"Anyone disagree with moving forward with this plan?" Melara asked.

"OK, I'll bring the recruits in," the Merchant said. "When you've got this done, head to the Tavern in Reyvadin and I'll ask for you."

"Um, where is Reyvadin?" Isseria asked.

"West of here. Follow the peasants, they often head into town in the morning."

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

They had formed a line with the ten recruits, and the other five "Valkyries" were standing back as Valeraine examined the soldiers.

"So you have scythes, hand axes and cudgels for weapons, and all you can use at range is stones."

This was not Sapphiron's finest fighting force. Valeraine doubted it was even Calradia's finest.

"Yes Commander. We've been provisioned with better weapons, but the law says we have to learn to fight better before we can use the better stuff."

"You need some sparring practice, and then a little bit of testing your mettle in a real battle. I don't want you all to die when we face these foes that seem to be from Aliaga's world."

"What should we do?" one of the recruits said.

They were all garbed in worn cloth armor, with a little padding here and there, but much of it had been worn away.

"Two of you will spar with me. Two of you will spar with Melara, and the remaining six, form up in pairs, and spar against each other. One moment while I get Melara."

She walked over to the group of Valkyries. "Melara, can I use you as a sparring partner for the recruits?"

"Of course, but my lightsaber is likely to cut through their weapons," Melara said.

"Let's see what happens with my weapon," Valeraine said, pulling out her sword.

"I don't want to damage your sword either. The etchings on that blade look truly intricate," Melara said.

"En-garde!" Valeraine said, as she charged forwards.

The four other valkyries stepped aside and continued their conversation. "So then, I was swallowed whole by this plant! It was trying to numb my nerves and poison me but I resisted the effects just long enough to shoot my way out," Isseria was saying.

Melara surprised Valeraine by drawing out her color-light saber, and gently deflecting Valeraine's blow.

Melara charged back, pushing one side of the double-sided blade towards Valeraine. Valeraine blocked the light saber with her own sword, shunting it to the side.

"Hmm, so I guess its not damaging your sword even when I attack. Alright, I'll help spar."

The ten recruits were grouped into pairs now, when she walked back to them with Melara.

"Who gets to fight you and your fellow commander?" one of the recruits asked.

"We'll rotate pairs. You two fight Valkyrie Melara. You two will fight me, and the rest pair against each other," Valeraine said, pointing at each group.

Valeraine was not that great at sword fighting, having focused her efforts on magic and leadership. She was facing a hand axe recruit and another with a scythe. She deflected the first recruit's attack, stepping sideways and back, and then swept at the second.
 She got nicked a few times before knocked down the recruits after a few minutes.

"We'd like to help the injured," said Aliaga and Alendria.

"Come over here hurting recruits, and we'll heal you up."

They established a triage spot away from the fighting, and Alendria pulled out her mandolin from her bag. She started playing a hauntingly beautiful song after a moment. Melara's victims were first to head over there, and then her own.

"Pair up as needed with whoever isn't recovering."

Aliaga was busy healing them up, one at a time, as Alendria's song soothed and healed even Valeraine's small cuts.

No one came to her yet, so Valeraine watched Melara cut through the recruits in pairs. She was holding a lot back to stay safe, and still wrecking them.

"Alright take turns fighting Melara. I want all of you to gang up on her," Valeraine said, grinning.

Melara turned invisible, before any of them could get close to her.

She downed two recruits as she turned visible. Alendria stood up and moved towards Valeraine, bringing the healing effect of her song to the downed recruits that started to pile up. The wounded stayed down as Melara incapacitated them all.

"Ok, that's enough, thank you Melara."

"You're welcome. Thank you for the practice recruits."

The Lilting song Alendria was singing caused the recruits to slowly sit up, and then Aliaga went around and fixed them up completely.

"Did that Merchant give us any money for food. Now that there are eighteen of us, we might need some food and supplies."

Bodahn left his corner perch and walked over to them.

"This Merchant got me resupplied with goods for trade. As a gesture of goodwill, and in payment for your protection, let me cook a nice dinner for you all before you head out in the morning."

They all gathered wood from the surrounding taiga. Four of the recruits had axes and they chopped up some fallen trees into stumps suitable for sitting on and enough firewood.

The wood was piled high, and the six Valkyries, ten recruits and two traders sat down at the fire.

Bodahn was roasting a pig on a big spit, and grilling potatoes over the fire.

Sophella, who had an extra huge log to sit her stone armored self on, started the discussion. "So I know all of our worlds have ways of classifying heroes. In my world, we have blasters, scrappers, tankers, controllers and defenders, masterminds, dominators, brutes, corruptors and stalkers.

I would call Aliaga and Alendria defenders, as defenders have a lot of ways to help their fellow healers and still can pack a punch with ranged attacks.

Isseria, I have heard rumors of pistol scrappers, but I could see you as a blaster also. It depends on how close up you get when fighting.

Melara, stalker seems to fit the most, although I hear you have some ranged attacks, so it might be harder to say for sure. You seem to fight a lot while visible still, so scrapper maybe. I'd say you are the hardest to figure out.

Valeraine, you sorta fit Mastermind, but also don't really fit at all, with both a sword and ranged attacks.

What classifications do you guys use in your worlds?"

Bodahn started carving up the pig and eating commenced. The potatoes, the pig, it was all wonderful.

It was only after they ate their fill that the discussion continued.

Aliaga spoke up, "Sophella, I would guess the closest thing my world has to you would be a shaman with some kind of special ability to turn into a rock elemental. Alendria, I can't say I've ever seen someone use music as a form of magic. We don't have bards in Azeroth.

Melara, The only melee fighters with ranged magical attacks I can think up are Paladins and Death Knights, I'm not sure which you are more like. Neither of them have stealth. Maybe you are a rogue with something different than the normal rogue throwing knives. You don't really fight like a rogue though.

Isseria, You're a ranger with pistols and no familiar. Valeraine, you're kinda off the grid."


Alendria did hers as a song:

"Aliaga's an empath, in a violent sort of way, and Sophella I have no idea what to say,
 Melara's a sneaky warrior mage and Valeraine's a warrior mage too,
and Isseria's a ranger with weapons I've never seen before."

"Its probably a good idea that we get some sleep soon. However, from a battlefield commander's perspective, this is what I think," Valeraine said.

"Melara and Sophella will be our front liners. The recruits will be close supports, helping out where they can, and retreating behind Sophella's taunt technique when they get found out.

Alendria, I want you close behind the front row, so your song can keep the recruits healing up and alive, and helping them out.

"Aliaga, if I understand this, you can heal from a pretty good range?"

"60 yards or so," Aliaga said, "yep."

"OK then, Aliaga, take a back row position. I'll take a middle position next to Alendria, and Isseria, your pistols have a fairly short range?"

"Yep, its up close and personal for me."

"Ok, then Isseria, start in the middle row, and then move to the side and get flanking positions on whatever we are targeting."

"Yep that makes sense."