Episode 1

It seems clear to everyone that Rutcranna is poised and likely to manage communications and verbal interchange with opponent force. Seldom at a loss for words, and she does know the circumstances and players of this scene very well.

Her tactics, if she has them, however are anyone's guess.

Kray's voice echoes out loud in the chamber. After hanging in the air for a short time, and his words seem to take root and strike a nerve.

"Silence! Silence, you Yuoric scum! You are in the chamber of another ruler now! I care not of the cocks of rulers that you suck in the halls of your stone houses. You are not in the land of the ocean port cesspools of your homeland now. This is my stronghold! Your words are meaningless here. My commands hold the life and death of everyone and everything in my domain!"

To the women apparently "You women stand still in your positions as I commanded you! Do not move or you will be punished severely! And you need not worry about this foreigners threats. Though he wants to rape and murder you, he has thrown his lot in with a demon slut whose time will soon come to an end, and he will follow her to doom and ruin! This is our home and these intruders will be struck down and tortured severely before they are drowned in their own BLOOD! Stand fast and remember your duty!"

Despite the tirade from behind the shield circle, several of the women in the lower rows have eyes locked on Kray and are visibly shaken. Some begin to look back and forth at each other questioningly. Some are quaking and sobbing. Others seem to be deep in thought, stressed from the tough position that they find themselves in.

Starting with only one step forward, a voluptuous dark-haired girl steps forward. She is a bit heavy-set but still shapely. She walks down, looking towards Kray with a watchful eye, and then back at her fellow women. "I do not have to be told twice. These men will cut us down girls. Not Maeriks Mac Mahan who steps forward in challenge, but the others will kill us. Not me though. I am no meat shield. I will clear the path." With that she moves to the side and signals the other girls to join her.

First a young girl in her late teens steps over and takes an even younger pre-teen girl by the hand, and then leads her quickly down the stairs and away.

Then there is other movement in the crowd. Faltering of will. One at a time, some more hesitant than others, some quick and some slow - more than half of the crowd of young women walks or dashes away. Most join the busty woman who spoke first, standing out of the way (over to a right angle from the PC group point of view). A couple dart away further into the shadows and distant parts of the large chamber.

After a few seconds, only 3 women remain on the lower stair, standing in front of what seem to be 3 shield bearers who are close surrounding Gorolach, still behind the shield wall unreveiled.

"Stand where you are! Hold position!" Gorolach calls out as the ranks deplete.

"Whores! Slut dog women! You will pay for this with your lives! Once my sons are taken from your traitorous bellies, I will cut you up into pieces and feed you to ravenous beasts!" He yells out.

"It matters not, Yuoric. These women step aside in fear that you will rape and kill them. Though they doubt in the weakness of their womanly fear, it is you who will soon be sodomized and then bled out like a stuck pig. I will hold back a special measure of pain for you when the doom closing in upon you is dealt."

During this tirade, Rutcranna looks slowly over to Kray and nods ones in strong approval. She speaks quietly and slowly, without moving her head, obviously seeking to not reveal their communications to their opponent.

"Well done, sharp tongue." She cracks the briefest of smiles, "Let this fool talk on. The others are moving into position to support."

She continues, "There will be an opening in that shield wall in moments, Kray Mercon. I will promise you that. But my daughter has a poisoned blade to her throat. One scratch from that blade and she will die. If she dies, all of us will likely die somewhere in this gloomy catacomb."

Short pause for the gravity of that downer comment, then "You are a skilled archer. I have seen it. I ask you to shoot with the aim of Nuada Silverhand when that shield wall falters. It will be a fleeting moment, yet it is the moment that has all things in its clutch. Your arrow must halt the hand of Gorolach before his blade strikes Sorcha Rhone. Can you do this, Lord Mercon? Can you save my daughter with an arrow?"If Kray accepts. She says, "Anok il k'ha. Dagan se din alga'hi ruuk.""Are your men ready? Now I will break this degenerate's will. Maerik's challenge cannot be ignored. Gorolach's protection will falter. Rhone can spring out from the jaws of death."

The young woman with the big tits who was the first to depart from the defensive line stands over to the side watching back and forth between the men in the middle of the room and the women still on the stairs. She has still been motioning for the others to step away.

After she stares for a while, as if in indecision, she sounds off, "Rutcranna! He has Rhone. A poisoned skin-knife leveled at her. Be careful!"

Rutcranna, talking to Kray, raises a hand and says, calmly but firmly, "Quiet, Boanna. Stay where you are and hold your tongue."

Boanna nods and then looks back at the crowd again.

"Win, Maeriks!" she blurts out in a quick cheer, then immediately falls quiet again. She glances nervously at Rutcranna, then back at Maeriks.

When Maeriks looks over at her, Boanna gives him a nod of strong approval, obviously seeking to bolster his resolve. She balls her hand into a fist and gives a small motion of punching out, as if to say "Get him!". She nods again and sends her support.

As Rutcranna and Kray talk, Gorolach drones on in his venomous declarations. He says that under the partnership that he has struck with the ancient power Glaaki, he will be the emperor of a vast new empire. His lieutenants will be kings. More clans will fall under their rule. Soon the Yuoric kings will pay with their lives. Youric women will become slaves. In time, Gorolach and his squad will be empowered and elevated to the levels of gods among men, getting powers of ancient men. So on, so forth...

Rutcranna begins with a sharp interjection, and passionate oration that follows. "Lord. King. A King of Kings! Emperor. God? These are grand titles that you claim for yourself, son of Daolach, murderer of Onfi the wife of Selger. Those titles would seem elusive to grab for a man of your low stature. A man who is a pretender. A man who is only a thug, lording over slave women in a dark hole, locked away by fish-men, unable to even step foot into the light of day by the order of his captors. The women say that they are ordered to call you Norach. Even that, as we know, is a title that you cannot claim rightfully. You carry the Locust Spear only because it was handed to you by Fingol, an ale brewer. And he was given the spear by fishmen who serve a giant swamp slug. All of us Hannocs in our time past know that Norach Onchu was mutilated and ripped apart by Glaaki and his monstrosity slaves. Norach Onchu was never bested in battle by you or any other man. That spear should have gone back to a proper council. Instead, you took it from your overseers. A gift from master to slave. Now the slave thinks he is a chief? Ha! No one believes that you sad fat foolish man."

"Silence, you whore! I will cut out your tongue! i am EMPEROR. Evan am I YOUR EMPEROR!" Gorolach yells out.

"No. You will not have silence, you degenerate. Words have already been spoken. You have already heard this challenge brought before you. You act as if you did not hear it, but of course you did. Though you are not even the Norach, Maeriks Mac Mahan Mac Hannoc wishes to confront you in combat for the prize of the Locust Spear and leadership of the clan. And yet there you are, standing behind shield held by pregnant women, with a poisoned dagger poised at the heart of little girl. Is this your answer to the challenger? Is this what you have become?"

"Shieldbearers! You must respond as well," Rutcranna continues. "Documa, Fodla, Elva, if this is your Norach, then this challenge before him is a legitimate one. And that means you must stand aside to see if your Champion will step forward! Is that not so?! You are Bat Hannoc women! You know the traditions, and they say that you women should stand down, move aside, let men take care of their own obligations....."

The women in the front row are already looking back and forth to each other as Rutcranna's oration unfolds. When they see Kray slowly take out a smoke, pull his bow from his shoulder, and notch an arrow, all three of the standing women in the lower row duck down and descend the low stairs, moving out to the sides. Now Gorolach is surrounded only by the three holders of the great shields immediately around him. And even those shields seem to be wobbling now.

All the while, Ivor has been stalking closer to the right. He passes Rutcranna, Kray and Thorn, and then passes Maeriks, who had stepped forward a ways and then stopped. Rutcranna notices the continued movement. Quietly she mutters softly, "No. Ivor hold where you are. Wait."

She looks over at Kray with concern.

Ivor continues to approach the raised platform.

Gorolach blares out. "Witch! You send these assassins forward, closing in upon me and my women. You do not seek rightful combat, your black heart is set on murder. Have it your way then! Your little bitch pup dies, then all of your foreigners, then YOU!"

Rutcranna snaps forward, seeing that it is all unraveling. "Goddess..." she says quietly under her breath as she shifts to a forward leaning stance. She tilts her head forward, her teeth clenched and brow crunching in, as if in concentration and then pain. Kray sees a line of blood burst quickly from her nose.