Scouting Out

"Scouting Out" is a [SEASON NUMBER] thread written on [IRL DATE].
==Summary==
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==Full Text==
From the distance that Akkey, Opie, Chelsesa, Firkugaan and Nala had landed, Castaway Dungeon very much resembled a crumbled ruin. Every few feet, the outer wall was crumbled and cracked; the guard towers looked poorly maintained and everything was covered in dust and what little tough overgrowth could sprout in the arid climate. It was just before dawn, the time Tulli had advised to pull off their heist, as the second night shift had yet to turn over and would be exhausted and sleepy from their late watch. The air was brisk and cold and the light was cool and dim.
The Warden swept over the guards of the nearest tower to ensure they hadn’t been spotted, and then turned her attention to the party, manifesting in her astral form to the three of them. So far, so good, she muttered.
hookedhookless
Firkugaan made a second sweep of the guards, giving them a double check. He trusted his own views most. He formed himself nearby, making himself about the size of a Wolf. So it is. He looked at Nala and bowed his head for a second in greeting. Warden.
akkeyagentofhelheim
Akkey gave a huge yawn, rubbing her eyes, “It is too early for this.” She whined a little before surveying the scenery below them, thumbing the water pouch on her hip, “Okay, so… run over the plan again?”
moe-lazyeye
“I get arrested.” Opie said in a daze. “However you guys want that to happen. Mum will hang back and watch from the outside so she can be utilized as needed. I gather whatever intell I can, slip it to y ou guys, and then wait to be extracted….” he shrugged. “That’s it for us two I think.”
demon-in-the-dungeon
Nala nodded. While that happens, I will be using the guards to create a mental layout of the dungeon, as vivid as possible, for Akkey’s ability to create portals inside. Then we leave. She hummed and flourished a hand, using her own essence to swirl and crash above her hand like a miniature wave. Though I was wondering if perhaps we should test that you are able to do so before we leave. It seems dangerous. But more dangerous would it be if we reached Castaway with the entire team and you were unable to transport the prisoners.
akkeyagentofhelheim
“Sure,” she replied, “I can teleport out one of the prisoners or the guards, someone who wouldn’t be noticed if they were gone. You’d need to find a water source inside, though” she glanced towards Opie, “You remember the Sleipnir Squad code Tulli gave you?”
moe-lazyeye
“Nope.” Opie said so plainly it was almost as if he had nevered card to know it in the first place.
The man was acting as though he were completely indifferent to the risk of being locked away in a Central prison.
demon-in-the-dungeon
The Warden sighed. It’s ‘how many legs does Sleipnir have,’ and if they answer anything other than ‘four too many,’ they are not part of the squad.
moe-lazyeye
“Ah…okay…” Opie said, his eyes still wandering.
hookedhookless
We must know where the water is. As well as the guards and prisoners. He thought for a second. What about a Warden? Will there be one here?
demon-in-the-dungeon
Not that I can sense. Not a demon or fiend or imp in sight. We have only humans and dragons to fear. She looked through the minds of the guards in the tower nearest to them, building the best image she could of the dungeon walls. How must we make the spiderling the best bait for Central, hm?
moe-lazyeye
“Protocol would be to arrest someone. They’d find out I was partial breed later and likely downgrade my cell.” Opie mused as he carefully stood up. “I’ll just walk down, and if they are hesitant to arrest me I’ll show my spines, or tell them I have info about a certain captains best friend…doesn’t really matter all that much if they take the lethal approach though…”
hookedhookless
Might it not seem a tad suspect should you suddenly just happen to appear at a dungeon? He pondered aloud, he didn’t know much about the dungeons themselves, but even he knew that it may be a bit strange.
demon-in-the-dungeon
Possibly. She regarded the other demon, and then the half-breed. But guards tend to ask less questions than they should. The true problem is how to ensure he is imprisoned and not dealt immediate fatal justice.
She had a vague idea forming in her mind that she let Akkey have access to, along with her mental map of the nearby guard tower.
akkeyagentofhelheim
“Heeey, that’s a possibility.” she squinted, grinning to herself. She twiddled her first two fingers, feeling for any water source on that guard tower. Found one. A tendril snaked its way from the dirty mop bucket in the corner of one of the rooms to the ground, where a lone guard stood, adjusting his shirt. He heard an odd, quiet hum, and he swatted at his ear, trying to rid of the sound. 
Akkey blinked up at everyone, “I can get one of them here.”
demon-in-the-dungeon
It couldn’t hurt to have a guard or their uniform on our side, the Warden said, a bit of amusement in her words. Perhaps he could escort our local fugitive to his cell.
akkeyagentofhelheim
“Cool!”
Akkey curled her fingers in a swift motion, and the guard fell through the ground with a muffled yelp, landing unceremoniously on his backside right by Fiendal’s feet.The portals on either side zipped with a close, and she sat in the dirt across from the guard, giving him a friendly smile and a wave as their little group stared down at the unfortunate man, “Hiya!”
hookedhookless
The Arbiter let out a low growl. His focus entirely on the man. He was ready should he try to escape. However he wanted to put their thoughts and feelings concisely. You will assist us.
demon-in-the-dungeon
“What! What the Hel!!” The guard was young; he had to still be in his teens, and it disheartened the Warden to see him in such a dismal position. He scrambled backwards away from the four-legged demon, looking around wildly at the little group. “Why would I do that!? You just yoinked me out of my tower!”
I can possess him if need be. The Warden was holding back laughter at this point. We only need him to take Opie in to get arrested.
moe-lazyeye
“Gaurd…” Opie sighed as he motioned to the group. “Meet the Warden, yes that one, Haddock’s, yes also that one, former chief with portal powers, and another original rebel who is now a demon… and me and mum I guess, former wards of the sorcerer Rhenco…that uh…that actually covers introductions and the reason why you should help us if you think about it.”
“Okay guys, you’re scaring him,” she laughed, “Sorry, kid, I had to teleport you out of the dungeon so we could talk to you. I’m Akkey, what’s your name?”
He peered at all of them suspiciously, “Sokka.”
“Okay, Sokka, we need to get that sullen guy over there,” she pointed a thumb towards Opie, “in there because we gotta scout out the place,” she shifted the direction of her hand towards the Castaway, “Can you do us a favour and escort him in? It makes things a lot easier that way, so we don’t have to maim or kill anyone.” she grinned at him like a child.
demon-in-the-dungeon
“You wanna scout out the…” He held out a finger towards the ethereal shape of the Warden, who stood over him. “Now waaaait just a minute. You want to break in! Do you know how much trouble I’m gonna be in!?” 
You do not have to be any part of this, trust me. We only need this boy turned in as a prisoner, and you can act none the wiser.
“Yeah, and if they find out it was me?”
The Warden got to one knee and tilted her head at him, and he crab-walked back a little bit more, still extremely wary. They won’t. Any action we take will have little to do with what you do today. In fact, we may be able to take you away from this place, if you want. Our goal is not to slaughter and destroy, but to help. You can start a new life, away from High Central’s reach.
He twisted his mouth in suspicious thought. “How do I know you’re not just gonna kill me?”
moe-lazyeye
“They don’t really…‘kill’ prisoners.” Opie answered. “Take it from me. I’m one of them, but that’s not important. Consider this me surrendering to you, and take me away.” He offered his wrists.
akkeyagentofhelheim
Sokka glanced at the redhead’s wrists with wary eyes, still unconvinced. Just their word wasn’t very comforting. He had shuffled away and put his back to a tree, trapping himself, but at least he could see everyone at the same time.
Akkey got up to her feet with an amused but understanding sigh, and went up to the nervous boy. She unclipped her dagger from her arm, the Wilderwest emblem and the jewels glinting in the sun, the grey leather worn but well taken care of, and threw it at him, which he caught with an unceremonious yelp. He peered at the weapon, eyes shining bright as he inspected the quality.
“You can have that. Sell it and get you some coin, enough to start you and a new life off comfortably. Bring in Opie and you can get something like this, too.” she smirked and patted her hip, her sword jangling softly, “There’s no benefit to us in killing you, kid. We’ll mind our own business and do our thing, and you get out of this shitty job, with extra cash to boot. We just need one teeny tiny favour from you.”
demon-in-the-dungeon
He looked more convinced, but still doubtful. “How’m I gonna get him in there?” he muttered, inspecting the dagger to confirm its value. 
Is it terribly difficult to lock up prisoners nowadays? the Warden prodded knowingly. He was trespassing on Central territory. The handcuffs should appear soon after. We only ask that you keep him alive; we need our insurgent in a cell, not in Helheim. 
Sokka tucked the blade in his armor, sighing loudly. “Oh, the gods hate me…fine. Fine. I’ll take the dumb guy in. Anything else? Should I get you guys some snacks, too?”
hookedhookless
For a brief moment, Firkugaan’s human side caught up in conversation as he decided to give the soldier a taste of his own sarcasm. Actually, if you could bring us some warm milk that would be most welcome.
moe-lazyeye
“Glad we could settle this.” Opie said, and strolled passed Sokka as he began to make his way towards the dungeon.
Akkey, Fiendal and the Warden could have sworn he wanted to get locked up based on how he was behaving.
“You can catch and restrain me as soon as you like.” He called casually over his shoulder.
akkeyagentofhelheim
Akkey snorted softly, and gestured towards the walking man for Sokka, “You heard him.”
The young guard gawked at all of them for a moment, before shaking his head, going after Opie with a pair of cuffs. These people… demons, whatever the Hel they are… are crazy. The cuffs linked around the half breed’s wrists with a snap.
“Alright, here we go,” Akkey brought a hand up, and a portal hummed open beneath the two men, “Don’t forget! Find the squad, gather info, don’t die.” 
“Son of a-!” Sokka and Opie sank through the ground. The unfortunate teen held onto the spider half breed, panicking, and the last thing he saw was Akkey waving him goodbye with a mischievous grin, “See ya!”
I’m definitely going to die.
They came up a little ways away from the entrance, hidden from sight. The portal zipped to a close with a soft hum. Sokka rolled his neck, and sighed, a little defeated, “Okay. Let’s go.”
moe-lazyeye
Opie walked beside him quietly, and took in the sights with genuine interest. “Wow…that’s a neat looking structure…stone…cool.”
He tilted his head around in another direction. “So what happens to the prisoners here? Daily life wise…in general?”
central-is-growing
“You are a terrible prisoner,” Sokka whispered harshly in utter disbelief, as they traveled down the cracked, dusty wall towards the main gate. “Nothing! Do you know what being a prisoner means? You’re imprisoned! You’re lucky if they round a few of you up for punting rocks around when part of the ceiling falls in–again.” Shaking his head, he hefted Opie’s arms closer to him, hoping to look  more in-charge than he felt. They came into view of the cluster of gate guards; two half-breeds on the left standing apart from three other human guards that were huddled around something. They all quickly parted as the two approached.
“What the Hel? You fuckin’ scared me. Who’s that?”
“Weren’t you in the tower?”
Sokka put a thumb to his chest. “Tch, yeah, and I had to get down and save us all from a trespasser. You’re welcome.”
“You didn’t just shoot him?” one of the half-breeds said accusingly.
“He didn’t put him a fight.” Sokka jiggled Opie’s arm slightly, as if to prove his point.
moe-lazyeye
Prisoners are mostly stationary…
Even poor or unstable conditions seldom prompt gaurds to move or interact with them…
Ceiling structure is particularly unsound…
Opie finished his mental check list of information so far, and then kept his eyes downcast so as to remaining looking submissive, and resigned.
central-is-growing
Sokka pulled him through the gates as they creaked open, scraping jerkily on the broken flagstones leading up to the dungeon, and he walked Opie inside, immediately turning right, but giving Opie a view of the long hallway leading down the center of the dungeon to another large gate, through which he could see a courtyard of thick vegetation beginning to be lit by the morning sky as it warmed from cool blue to pink and orange with the sunrise. In the halls, there were more soldiers, mixed in with an occasional half-breed, and these unlikely guards eyed Opie with pity. “I don’t suppose you’d prefer a certain cell block,” Sokka whispered grumpily.
Outside the dungeon, the Warden had a hand covering the lower half of her face studiously as she began to sweep the dungeon using the eyes of the other guards, feeding everything she saw to Akkey. What a ruinous, miserable place, she murmured. The sooner we break it open, the better. Is this a solid enough visualization?
hookedhookless
The Arbiter sat by everyone and kept a look out for anyone approaching, There was not much else he could do, so he kept to doing what he knew he could.
akkeyagentofhelheim
Akkey kept an idle hand on Fiendal as she sat on the ground with her eyes half closed, “This is good. The cells and the meeting point for the squad are the most important for the day of.”
Nala continued her scan of the place, projecting what the guards saw to the half breed’s mind. She swept over one of the guards, when she jolted to a stop.
She saw a familiar figure towering a head above the other prisoners. Black eyes, black hair, and black rabbit ears, freckles spotting her tired face, donning only part of her usual Yrusean armour.
Iona Lindholm.
The Warden froze in her search, her eyes flickering back and forth minutely as she was seized with indecision. She feared that Akkey would immediately try and storm the dungeon if she were to reveal Iona’s location.
So she kept quiet. But she quickly found Opie and hurriedly whispered, Akkey’s niece is here. She impressed Iona’s location vividly on his mind while erasing Iona’s figure from her visual feed to Akkey. See if you are able to communicate our plans to her.
moe-lazyeye
Opie blinked a few times to process what it was like to have a demon chattering in his mind, and glanced over at the half breed. He tilted his head at her, and then looked away. “Alright…” He muttered under his breath.
The floors are also super bad. Not sure if you have whispering deaths at your disposal but there may be areas that could be turned into straight up sink holes if prodded at in the right way…
“Tug me away by force in a second okay?” He murmured to Sokka as they began to pass Iona. 
“What-?” The guard began.
But Opie acted quick and shoved himself over so he was in Iona’s face. “Damn rabbit!” he snarled, and then immediately lowered his voice. “Akkey’s coming soon be ready.”
“Hey what the Hel man!?” Sokka exclaimed, but then it clicked in as to what Opie had instructed only seconds earlier. “Oh…Oh!” He said, and jerked him away, doing what he could to put on his best ‘gruff guard voice.’ “Hands off there…urm…creep! I’m getting you to your cell!” His shoulders hunched as he muttered to himself. “How did this day go so wrong so fast?”
akkeyagentofhelheim
Iona looked up at them in confusion and fear, before the man’s sentence clicked in her mind. She found me!
She scrambled to her feet and clung at the bars of her prison cell, but the stranger was lead away before she could talk to him. She bit her lip, trying to calm herself. But Aria’s not here. 
demon-in-the-dungeon
“Block four’s got some room,” Sokka muttered, pulling up to the bars of a cell right before the hallway turned a corner to the left, and he stopped by a door and one of the guards eyed him up and down and used the keys on his belt to open the door and went with the pair down a shorter hallway running parallel to the cell, where Opie could see several slots in the stone where they gave prisoners meals. 
They emerged into the courtyard and blinked in the brighter light. Looking up, one could see a huge section of sky visible in the ceiling, cris-crossed with several lopsided but sturdy iron bars. But they were far apart enough to let in sunlight and rain, which was apparent from the thick shrubbery that covered the entire area, including trees, huge ferns and thick grass. The two guards brought Opie to a halt, immediately being as quiet as they could, and turned to their immediate left to see the only door leading out of the cell, with a large, weirdly-shaped circular lock mechanism securing the door closed. The second guard grunted through his beard as he pulled out another strange device that could be construed as a key and fitted it to the lock. By the side of the cell, a huge chain was built into the wall, and it snaked through the grass into the bushes without an end in sight.
“Get away from the door,” the guard growled at the prisoners, and they slunk backwards, eyeing Opie. There were four of them, compared to the others, which had several. The door opened, Sokka unlocked the cuffs, and he pushed Opie inside without another word, but made eye contact with him as the cell door closed and patted the place where Akkey’s knife was hidden, nodding once.
moe-lazyeye
Opie gave a brief ‘okay’ symbol with his hand, and then stuffed them into his pockets as he found a nice part of the wall to lean against. He took in the sights around him. It’s not so bad here… He thought. Are you getting all of his demon person thing?
demon-in-the-dungeon
Yes, thank you, Opie. She impressed all of the information she could to Akkey, trying to impart them as memories as strong as something Akkey had actually seen, barring Iona. Try not to get into too much trouble. And remember to contact the Sleipnir Squad, if you can. Tulli says they can keep a secret if they have to.
moe-lazyeye
“Riiiiight…” Opie muttered as he turned a slow circle in his cell, and stepped over to the bars to get a look around. “Remind me again what the main squad members look like?”
He gave the door a brief shake, seeing if it were unsound in anyway. “Also, that overgrown courtyard. There’s no way they open those doors or let people in there. I dont think I’ll be getting much outside time.”
demon-in-the-dungeon
Not unless transferring. But with our plan, no prisoner has to step even one foot outside their cell. As for the squadron… Nala did her best to deliver Tulli’s fractured memories to him. They are imperfect but they are all she had.
moe-lazyeye
Opie tapped the side of his head. “Locked and loaded. I’ll keep you posted on uodates.”
Category:BOTGD 2
Category:Events
Category:Act I
Category:The Warden
Category:Akkey Black
Category:Opie
Category:Iona Lindholm
Category:Sokka
Category:Fiendal Hrothgar Hookless
Category:Firkugaan