Rogelio the Brave

Okay so our story begins at the Top Secret Slavers Keep operated by Ped the Tuchuck, into which Ped drags a freewoman he captured on the Passage SIM.
A free woman who it turns out later is the Free Companion of the Ubar of Blood Stone Island.

Sweetie Dagger: ((I love that part))

During the capture Ped was assisted by a couple of female outlaws who after helping him get the woman and one of her male guards into the Keep, he told to depart.
So Ped is down in the keep with her, essentially alone, slicing off her clothes and such, stripping her down and preparing her for a life of slavery, before finding out what the woman’s social status is and since during the capture, one of her guardsmen managed to escape he knows an attack will be coming.
I'm OOC Mod, hovering about 80meters off the ground, and explaining SIM rules to people in IM's that are contacting me, so I cant help him.

Sweetie Dagger: ((that is funny too, he can’t help lol))

Frantically, Ped uses the alarm horn to send out a call for the captain of the Sardar Guard, but because of a miscommunication the guy shows up as an OOC Mod. The Captain flies up beside me at 80 meters and asks if I need any help, I respond that no I have everything covered from the side of modd'ing the battle which looks to be a really short one if Ped doesn't get some swords in there to help him out, the Captain of the Guards agrees, so I chase the Captain off and then these people start arriving at the TP point and the Captain doesn’t return IC. Ped is still alone.

Now because of the sudden lurching, and lagging of the sim, and the way the green dots are popping on my mini-map, I figure that I'm seeing defenders landing in the TP zone at the same time as I'm seeing the arrival of the attacking force, and knowing how lots of excited people with weapons and a disagreement tend to get carried away I zoom my camera in on the landing point to watch and make sure that no fighting breaks out in the safe zone area.

Sweetie Dagger ((just loves this story))

After a few more moments of watching people arriving in such vast quantity and high speed that their bodies are actually shoving the first arrivals out of the safe zone, I hover there looking and start checking out the names of the group tags because more, and more, and more, people are piling in, and they are being very well behaved and no fighting is happening in the safe zone, in fact it looks almost like a few of them are reading rules from the rules board and shouting information to other people who are changing weapons, etc.

Midgaard, Midgaard allies, Blood Stone Island, BSI Allies, Rovere… I begin feel a few beads of sweat on my forehead because none of these are groups that ‘we’ have any sort of alliance, peace treaty, or even a truce with at all, in fact among the list of groups in the safe zone are a few that we occasionally have to beat back from raiding us.

Sweetie Dagger: ((poooor Ped))
Allegra Bellic: ((and he is all by himself?))
Sweetie Dagger: ((just Him in the Keep LOL))

Suddenly a city administrator from another SIM IM's me asking if I am the mod flying over the arrival point, and if I have the ability to raise the population limit on the SIM, because some of his warriors can’t get in, the SIM is now at capacity. I ask the CA, “You do realize there is only one single man inside that fortress with this captive woman right?”
He says yes he knows this, but none of the slaves are logged on in his city, the men are bored, and he wanted to get them out of the house for a bit, give them a field trip, give them something to do…

Sweetie Dagger: ((so he did of course.. cause.. well Ped is fucked anyways))
Allegra Bellic: ((he is so screwed))
Sweetie Dagger: ((lol yes))
Sweetie Dagger: ((and we didn’t build the exit for the Keep yet either lol))

Ooooooooookay, so I check how many men he has standing around and I bump the population cap by that much so his men can get involved in the assault on the Keep as well. The total number of people on the sim is now 55, counting me and Ped as the only two residents, minus the two captives in the Keep, there’s 51 men standing around outside discussing creative ways to cut things off Ped’s body.
By now however, an issue is developing at the landing zone. There are so many people on the TP point they are having to break up to marching formations and spread out a little bit so the chat log of all the people talking doesn’t lag everyone out and crash them. And since they are breaking into formations, and they have figured out not everyone can attack the place at once, the commanders of the expedition are having to get creative in occupying their men.

Allegra Bellic: ((omg))

Doing mock assaults on the empty houses, digging latrines, training with our bow targets in the sparring areas, setting up sandwich tables for the next wave of attackers, deciding who has attack tarns and who has transport tarns…

Allegra Bellic: ((for one freakin dude))
Sweetie Dagger: ((its hysterical))

At this point Ped IM's me…

Sweetie Dagger: ((Ped is just, famous))

He asks “How’s it look out there?”
I asked if he had a back door on the Keep, since I really wasn’t that familiar with layout of the place and the specifics of its build. He answered “No.”

Sweetie Dagger: (( lolol))

I took a moment to review the situation with my experienced military knowledge, total number of attackers, total number of defenders, tactical layout and positioning of the men manning the sandwich tables, no back door to the Keep and then gave him my most accurate tactical and strategic assessment of the situation…
“Then it looks a Lot like your fucked dude…”

Sweetie Dagger: ((Ped needed a change of clothes))
Allegra Bellic: ((new panties too))

So a massive green swarm begins…
They have SO many people out there they can’t all participate in the attack…
They can’t all fit on the bridges at once, or go through the gates at once, or stand on the same corner of the SIM at once without tilting the ground, they Just Won’t Fit…
The commanders of the attack pull their people back just a bit and decide the solution to this is have their deadliest, most cunning warriors do the actual assault while the other men stand around smoking cigarettes, shooting at the archery targets at the nearby arena as a reserve force, or begin investigating buildings on the two connected SIMs.
This is an important decision as it turns out, since as their forces move off the Passage SIM freeing up population limit…

Sweetie Dagger: ((lol))

Rogelio the Merchant arrives!

Sweetie Dagger ((music begins))

Now Rogelio is a great guy, but not really that observant at times, it isn’t that he doesn’t ‘see’ things, as much as the way he does see things and gets the wrong Impression about what he’s looking at.

Sweetie Dagger: ((~laughs~))
Allegra Bellic: ((I can almost imagine where this is going))
Sweetie Dagger: ((it gets better))

And Rogelio, after standing there in deep ponderation for a bit, from various positions of concealment that he has slipped into while wielding his trusty short sword, that as I recall came from a freebie box someplace and he wore because it looked good with his white and gold tunic, decides that he's looking at an attacking army Outside the Keep, and a group of desperate defenders Inside the keep who are in dire need of support…
And being a brave Gorean man, he knows that he is just the man to support them…

Allegra Bellic: ((lol))
Sweetie Dagger: ((lol))

So most stealthily he creeps through enemy lines, dodging from bush to house, sneaking under the sandwich tables, past the temporary tarn corral, pausing once to give a soldier in need of a light for his cigarette match, before then slipping past the outside line of guys standing around with nothing to do, and makes his way Into the Keep.

Sweetie Dagger: ((LOL))
Sweetie Dagger: ((hey credit him for that !))
Allegra Bellic: ((hehe))

However upon arrival, as he stares at the Backs of these guys talking about slinging flaming oil and chopping down walls to carry off the stone while some of them are already listing off the tortures for Ped and possible retaliations against the populace of the lands....
It is at this point he realizes, “oh shit”…

Sweetie Dagger: ((lol))

These guys are facing the wrong way to be defending the place so that means they must Also be…

Sweetie Dagger: ((roflmao))

And he has just positioned himself Right Smack in the Middle of the entire attack force, and has exactly Doubled the size of available Sardar warriors in this ‘campaign’.

Allegra Bellic: ((hahaha))
Sweetie Dagger: ((Rogelio cracks me up))

So I'm watching all this by Cam at this point, about 120 meters away… I thought about moving closer, so I might could hear what was being said, but just couldn’t because with all the tarns they had in the air flying coverage patrols I kept being run into anytime I approached into their traffic lanes, and the guy on the ground with the direction flags was having issues trying to regulate two way traffic patterns…
So I can only sit here, staring over my keyboard with a horrified expression as he slides to a stop behind these guys, that look like cast of the movie 13th Warrior all dripping with weapons and armor and dangerous looking implements, with a short sword in his hand.

Allegra Bellic: ((haha))
Sweetie Dagger: ((lololol))

And like 20 guys, who could easily be mistaken for serial killers in any other realm, turn around in this hallway and start looking at him…

Sweetie Dagger: ((roflmao))

Now the Prudent thing at this point might have been for him to start screaming something along the lines of "Lets get the bastard slaver and cut his ears off!”, and egging them on in such a manner as to be mistaken as just another member of the Normandy Invasion sized force where no one knew anyone else, and then slipping away till after the dust settled.

Allegra Bellic: ((haha))
Sweetie Dagger: ((lol))


But, from the activity I’m seeing 120 meters away, Rogelio the Brave seems to have a different plan in mind…
Yes, there is typing going on…
Yes, the two opposing ‘sides’ are facing each other…
No, I can’t hear exactly what is being said…
But in the back of my mind, I suddenly have this mental image of a Ford Pinto, facing a loaded freight train, and racing its engine.

Sweetie Dagger: ((LOL))
Allegra Bellic ((smacks her palm to her forehead))
Sweetie Dagger: ((the music begins to quick pace and strengthen))

Apparently whatever attempts at negotiation, deception, or rationalization he has attempted were fruitless. So drawing on his understanding of battlefield tactics;
He was on one side of the 20 attackers;
Ped was on the other side of the 20 attackers;
So that meant they had them surrounded and therefore had the tactical advantage…
As I sat here watching, all I could think of was what they used to call 'sissy fighting' in school where you cover your eyes with one hand and arm, then charge the other person swinging with the single free hand… I guess it was a glitch in the AO he was wearing I suppose…

Allegra Bellic: ((hahahah right))

And OFF to battle Rogelio the Brave charges at a dead run with a screaming war cry on his lips and sword extended…
For about two and a half steps, with sword swinging he did charge at their ranks… maybe three steps. And there was actually a moment where I could ‘see’ of the 20 men glancing at each with a look of “You don’t think he’s actually about to… No way he couldn’t be thinking… Well I’ll be damned I think he IS!”

Thwip-thuck-slash-chunk-thunk-rip-thwip-thwip-chop…

And he slides to a stop on the floor in front of them before he ever got close enough to swing a swing or thrust a thrust…
Then they stood there looking at him for a few minutes arguing amoungst themselves. No one really wanted to touch the guy for fear of whatever it was he had, it might be contagious, and they determined that he didn’t actually ‘belong’ to any of them, and he wasn’t the man that had taken the free companion of the Ubar…

Allegra Bellic: ((shoot first ask later))
Sweetie Dagger: ((this is ~drum roll~))
Sweetie Dagger: ((Rogelio the Brave))

So they kind of moved him to the side of the passage with their boots and spear butts, so that the rest of the attack party coming in wouldn’t trip on him and then went about the business of burning the keep to the ground, because none of them were interested in tying the man up and taking him back to Their city and risk a plague of whatever it was he had.
In his defense though I did over hear one of the attackers say later as they left the flaming building of the Keep, “he needs a fucking medal or a mental exam”

Sweetie Dagger: ((that’s amazing))
Sweetie Dagger: ((he said he told the guys he was after the Slaver too))
Sweetie Dagger: ((when he realized he was screwed lol))
Allegra Bellic: ((hahah was going to ask if he got a medal or some tender slave lovin TLC))