hi im new to these forums and am in the middle of writing a story. The setting is a fictional fantasy world of my creation that mimics traditional fantasy settings...swords, magic, medieval feeling... In my story I have a group of amateur thieves attempting to steal a lord's treasure... the lord is throwing a large party at his estate for his son's wedding. The group plans on attacking a guest noble from a foreign land and stealing HER clothes and invitation....to impersonate her at the party hoping no one points out she is an impostor. The guest to be attacked will have only two armed guards and can either be in a stage coach...in a tavern...or any other reasonable place for the attack... I just don't want the classic....charge the stage coach...kill the guards (who are better trained at fighting them the attackers) and take the girl's clothes and invitation...id like a little something...well not so cliche. the group of thieves are: A young woman with a rough upbringing...knows basic sword fighting. A young man who grew up as a pickpocket ...knows basic knife fighting and very agile. an older man who has a few screws loose...has a crossbow but doesn't know how to aim very well with it. a middle aged man who is common street mugger...has been in many sword fights...and is rather formidable. id like to brainstorm some ideas with you people if you could. thanks in advance Omen
lol i guess i presented it that way didnt i? how about i say it this way. what would be more interesting? A. setup a trap of some sort....like maybe a traveling merchant getup...where the group tries to sell some jewelry or something and the jewelry is jinxed and it paralyze..or puts the lady to sleep....maybe convince a guard to touch the jinxed item. B. Im over thinking this scene....have the group rush the carriage head on...and with a a little luck they manage to subdue the guards and just rob the nobel. C. One person taunts the guards by rushing the carriage just to be chased into the woods by the guards while the rest of the group get the nobel. D. ?
The correct spelling of "nobel" is actually "noble." I'm not trying to be a spelling Nazi about it; I just think you should know before writing the scene and using the word dozens of times. Now, to answer your question, this is really something you should decide for yourself, as Cogito's hypothetical question implies. As a recommendation, I'd steer away from anything that's too relient on convenient luck. But I have no idea which scene would be best, because the deciding factor should be which one you can write in the most engaging, exciting manner. Welcome to the forums by the way.
It might be interesting for you to write as though your characters are having this dilema, rather than you the writer. For example, they might try it the first time by just storming the stagecoach, and getting beat so they have to flee and think of another way to go about it. Just a suggestion
Fly them in on party balloons tied around their waists, make copious use of bull whips and fill their pants with snakes.
Why not just... you know have them killed? I mean its used alot because you know its the most realistic method. Two well placed arrows/bolts should put a easy end to your noble's escorts.
1)Interesting fact about your computer-you can type in a special sort of letter format if you press the "Caps Lock" or hold the "Shift" key. It's called capital letters. Like, "a" becomes "A". Cool, eh? On a serious note, I'm a Capital Letter Nazi. 2)What the-you decide your story! I wholeheartedly choose D. 3)As a sidenote, foreign guests would not be travelling with two guards. They would be travelling with a carriages stuffed full of highly trained royal soldiers armed to the teeth and ready to use whatever weapons they have. 4)How about using an unconventional method? Like a feint, maybe. Sam Carver knows it worked once. He staged an obvious attack, then when everyone felt like they had caught the assassin and were relaxed, the real attack came.
wow lots of feedback, quite a community here.... sorry for all the grammar mistakes, I'll try and present myself better in the future. I kinda like the feint idea and the dilemma idea (could be comical) .... I'll have to throw those into my list.
Good point....this gave me this idea D. The group attacks the unguarded carriage driver before he picks up the noble and her escorts and one of them impersonates the driver. (The beginning of the story has two of the characters encounter a rather large beast by accident in a portion of the forest and came to the conclusion the monster was attracted to Mirri's (the young female character) new perfume.) So the driver purposely takes the carriage near where they found the monster and use the perfume to lure the beast out to attack. The guards fight off the monster and lose a good number of men leaving the few that survive the attack tired and weakened. The group then ambushes the remaining guards and become victorious. Thoughts?
They would risk their lives to a monster based on a chance to hopefully impersonate a foreign person in the hope of stealing an object? Must be a very valuable object, then. Also, if they could fend it off, how come the guards couldn't? And why didn't they just run like hell? They've got a vehicle, after all.
Their first encounter with the creature, they didn't fight it...they managed to escape. and yes the object is very valuable.... as for why they don't run and the guards defend the carriage.... you strike a good point. Hmmmm....