BreathTaker

Four days ago… Bran Mariksen, Paladin of The Tribunal and General of the Banner of the Raven sat on his horse atop the hillside, looking through his spyglass at the city of Menkor. “Huni, go tell the Captain to set up camp in the valley behind us.” He said as he lowered the brass tube. “It is as close to the city as I dare get without alarming the watch. Muni, I want you to go in to the city and find out what you can of the situation there. Your brother and I will meet you there soon.” Bran’s nephew nodded, turned his horse and rode around the hill so that he could approach the city from a direction that did not point directly towards the camp. For the next two hours Bran rode below the ridge line and scouted for patrols from Menkor. Of course, he would have scouts do the job as well but sometimes it was better to see what you could for yourself. Once he got back to his army, after seeing nothing, he found that the camp was mostly set up, a few smokeless cook fires were set up, spaced far apart and using dry firewood to avoid notice. Fortunately it was summer so it was warm during both the day and the night; there would be no camp fires to alert the nearby city of visitors. Meals would be finished before sunset and the fires would be smothered. Bran left his horse with a young soldier at the mouth of the barricade and walked the rest of the way to his command tent in the center of the circular camp. Along the way many men who were either eating or maintaining their weapons stood and saluted their general. He smiled and returned their salute, addressing most of them by name. It was good for a commander to know his troops. Once he reached his tent he found it completely set up. A sleeping mat rolled up and tucked into a corner, his small writing desk sat in the middle of the room and his raven, Odin, sat on a small perch behind his chair. Fen remained outside to enjoy the evening weather and keep watch. His captain, snapped to attention as soon as the Paladin entered the tent but Bran waved at him to stand at ease. The man relaxed and handed Bran a stack of papers, “Camp reports, Lord Mariksen.” “Thank you Anders, what other news do you have for me?” The man stood silent for a brief second, “Nothing out of the ordinary General, food supplies are sustainable and morale is still good among the soldiers.” Bran nodded as he packed his pipe, “That’s good, extend the curfew by half of an hour for tonight only so that the men can see to their equipment. Also, double the guards around the perimeter; we don’t want any patrols surprising us.” Anders saluted and left the tent. Bran sat down, lit his pipe with a small flint and poured himself a drink from the pitcher of Svalding Mead; he gathered the papers and began reading through them. Odin leaped from his perch and alighted on the Paladin’s shoulder, seeming to read the reports as well. Everything seemed in order, just as Anders had said; food stocks were satisfactory, morale was good, horses were healthy and weapons and armor were taken care of. Good. After reading the reports and finishing his mead Bran left his tent to visit with some of the soldiers and generally be seen by his men. They would need that if he was going to be gone for a few days as he had planned. The next morning Bran inspected his troops again in a more formal setting. He also watched as his men practiced fighting in a shield wall and sparred individually. At noon, he ate lunch and changed in to plain clothes before leaving the camp and riding in to the city with his nephew Huni. There he would rent a room at an inn in the dirtier part of the city and wait for his nephews to scout out the city and let him know what was going on. Three days later…

Good point, no one likes people getting eviscerated and having their powers stolen.

As a side note, I recently watched both seasons of Vikings on Hulu. One, because it looked awesome but also because it would help me get a better idea for Bran. He's still pasically all the awesomes from WoT (Garyth, Mat and Perrin) as well as Dalinar but I think he's got a lot in common with Ragnar, he only fought and killed when it was actually necessary and frequently looked for another way out of a situation. Of course, he's still a Svalding so sometimes he just needs to punch someone in the mouth. In the coming battle Bran will roll up in his full plate armor armed to the teeth i.e. Axe and Hammer strapped across his back, sword on his hip and spear and shied in hand. Bran is the kind of man to be in the front lines beating the enemy to a pulp. Leading by example if you will. Also, Bran has trained his men to eschew fighting in a single line formation, instead teaching them to fight like the Svaldings, behind a shield wall. Brute force mixed with a good grasp of tactics (he wouldn't have been made a Banner General without acute tactical knowledge) as well as the shock and awe effect of decent sized army laying complete waste to a larger, entrenched foe. Plus... he's got magic. I'm working on a flashback dating about a week or so before he comes in to the city right now. It should be up on a couple hours. Edit: Se, we need weapon enchantment limits and possibilities please.

Steel Inquisitor: I'd like to spike you....

The Hobbits were good but they tended to drag on. It seemed they somehow managed to make Dwarves boring.

Actually if it's visible for a great distance than yeah that would be perfect for what I'm planning. Edit: "Banner of the Raven" could be the spell name unless you have something more BA planned for the name.

Do you wish for good or bad luck?

My wife is not a huge fan of that answer from me. Everything in this post is accurate except the reading to my kid because I'm childless as of yet.

I t's probably an instant.

Yeah, I don't have a problem with my spell book being posted. If only to show that the Paladin is FAR superior to the Inquisitor. Just kidding, Inquisitor spells are pretty crazy but I like my spells a lot.

Granted. Uh... you have a hair nose now. (The cure was too awesome to destroy)

Granted but you are constantly being force fed aluminum and told to burn it. I wish I could burn pewter.

Granted, time catches up to it and it turns to dust. I wish people would join my Destiny clan.

Granted... but no one has ANYTHING to talk about. I wish for another series to read since I'm done with all Cosmere novels and the WoT.

Eh... I think that'd probably be a good way to wind up actually stumbling in to a dark alley... where there is an Inquisitor waiting... Also, Welcome Fionna.

Gigiddy. Just finished WoT so I can't wait for the companion.

Sorry I've been gone. We are kind of emergency house searching (family drama forcing us to move) and I've been depressed. I finished the Wheel of Time series last weekend and I totally didn't cry or post an unhealthy amount of quotes on facebook.. nope not at all.

Even Gandalf's

When your next three tattoos are going to be: A Steel Inquisitor Skull, a Double Eye of the Almighty and the Wheel of Time.

Granted but you can't control when it happens or where you go. I wish I could channel the Saidin half of the True Source.

I'm pretty sure it's a voidspren arrow.

So I just made a group on Destiny called Mah Allenir. (Perrin's power wrought hammer) I need AT LEAST three people to join in order for it to be considered a clan so if anyone wants to join... I'm on 360 for now but I should be getting a One in the next few weeks. Cheers.

My wife watches it a lot and I dabble. It's pretty cool.

Hey boss, if you get the time could you post Bran meeting with the King. You can take Bran over if you want as to point everything in the right direction. You can PM me and Bran and the king can talk there and you can transcribe it that way you get his tone right. Also, if I wanted to write a short flashback, would I post it in the story or on here? Ok, so I'm going to post a huge wall of text back story/flashback here and a more recent flashback in the RP itself. Holy Storms, I didn't realize I wrote so much.

Finally got a new router and internet upgrade so destiny is working excellently again. Currently lvl 20 with 23 light or some such. TITAN FTW!!! Hand Cannon (Renegade Mk.55) and Sniper combo.