Tson
It's almost like a vivid dream.
Vermont Cade of the royal bloodline finds himself surrounded by the rubble of what was once the sovereign manor belonging to the one known as Halesworth Cade. The finest of keeps now but stone and detritus, the garrison slaughtered by dark magics. Around him he hears the sounds of magical spells and the roaring of daemons - the Grendower rebels, the magic-users that were put under immoral amounts of scrutiny and racism under the noble houses that they turned against them, under one necromancer who had influenced the revolution.
The skilled jester-swordsman was heavily injured, his right leg burned to a crisp and his shoulder festering with some sort of dark blight. He was scraping himself away from one of the dark knights, an aura of terror and deadly violet electricity surrounding the right furious man. The reason in the knight's eyes seemed lost, replaced with a bloodlust for those who enslaved his kin and the intent to kill - and never stop until every single House member has been wiped from the planet.
"Nay!" Cade shouted, in pure disbelief and terror, "I cannot wend liketh this! Not again!"
Antares attempts to assist Capella as the scout struggles backward against his will. The Stealth field is already up - Arcturus, the mer-children and the outpost are all relatively safe so long as whoever this is focuses only on them. But this may be a moot point now - with Centauri MIA and Capella malfunctioning, Psionic warfare is out of the question, and Antares is pretty sure someone of this power - whoever they are - will wipe the floor with him and Arcturus in physical confrontation regardless...
He places a hand on the scared Scout, "Capella! Respond!"
Capella's voice... changed. He now sounds monotone and emotionless. "Primary Cortex functions compromised, Backup AI activated. WARNING: Critical systems rapidly losing stability..." He... It... draws the Crossbow and aims it at the lady nearing the group, "Cease advancement or prepare for combat--"
"Stand down, Capella! That's an order!" Rhick finally detects and realizes what is behind the terror and dread of the woman approaching them, in fact, he has encountered people like her before. People like her have given Rhick second chances - his jaded nature obtained from living and retaining experience from multiple lifetimes has pretty much replaced his fear response with that of a confrontational approach, and he is no longer affected by the death and misery that surrounds these people.
He steps infront of Capella, getting between him and the veiled lady. "Our lives - if they can even be called that - are out of your jurisdiction, though we are willing to compromise."
boombox
Heinrich's witcher senses pick up the stumps of a few dead trees and... large footprints that seem uniform, like it was no creature that made these, but some sort of... giant machine? Despite how something so massive could stand out, he does not see it, nor does he see any other outlying traces of whatever could be in those woods.
