Talori is at the entrance to the forest, hefting her two massive swords. "Ready if you are."
Following the new tracker, Alembic will say "So, these guys are trying to kill people? why would someone do something like that? Isn't it bad enough that we're stuck in this game?"
“Just another day through the looking glass. ” Gavin says responding to Argus’s witticisms.
”Sardonis; the Dwarf is with us, go for the sneaky ones”
Responding to directions from Argus and using his own invisibility to round the corner, Gavin leaps at the remaining ambusher; dragging him to the ground with a flying tackle
Disappointed that 2 of them got away, Saardonis goes for the sack the "sneaky one" was holding.
"What would you keep in a sack and not your inventory I wonder?"
Saardonis ask him as he looks inside it
"A guy about this high" jokes Alembic as he puts his hand level with the apparent top of Gavin's head.
Saardonis ponders for a moment after hearing the tail, before a smile creeps onto his face.
"That sounds like a brilliant idea, what say we give it a try?"
Saardonis goes to put the bag on the man Gavin Is struggling with.
"Not a bad idea, but lets use something more secure -- I have some rope around my waist" Gavin grunts as the guy renews his struggles.
Argus shrugs " I doubt hes gonna fight much having just gotten stabbed in the $#/$en' back. " the man states looking in the downed bagmans direction. "you gonna resist or you wanna talk and get a chance to get your story out?"
Argus grunts in the directions of the newcomers while he waits for the bagman to crack
"m' Argus by the way.
Leaning down close enough to whisper into his ear, Alembic tells the man
Reaper forest
Argus nods once making a small noise " alright, ill take point then." with a single powerful leap argus move ahead " lets catch these fools, and keep an eye out for suspicious trees. They just might be reapers."
"Fantastic! I have rope for after he's in the bag. Now we need a lake and some low tree branches...
Saardonis seems to be conversing rather loudly to himself as he gets Gavin's rope and attempts to tie up the man.
the man thinks for a few seconds.
you want me to talk? Take me some place safe. Soon as I say anything I am good as dead, probably already am after I tripped when I went for you. I also want some compensation.
he then stares Alembic in the face.
HA, kill me and you'll be red for a week, then orange until you do that nigh impossible quest. Know what I think? I think you are too much of a goody goody to do it! Give me something worth talking for, and risking my life for, and I'll give ya want ya want. I'm a reasonable guy after all.
Argus-
no sign of reaper trees atm, but you do spot 2 lumbering Golems, both seem to have a green haze about them and are leaving behind a trail of.... bleh. Too far away to see the names and other icons for them.
Jail will be safe enough, and if you're lucky you'll get paid with an extended life. Start talking. Gavin pulls out a dagger and sinks it into the fleshy part of the man's leg. The Bagman's HP bar starts to slowly deplete.
Or maybe it's time for a little ride?
"I bet you think you're pretty clever, eh? Well, I could kill you, then hide out in one of the zones on level 1 for a week. I bet no one there even knows what it means to have a red flag."
----------
Meridian heights
Argus stands to the side watching the partial interrogation take place. were one to be paying attention they would see his eyebrow slowly raise, his mouth drop into an even deeper frown and a small noise like a bolt pottping off a battleship as his eyebrow breaks off his character frame and rises enven higher for a scant moment before returning to its normal state.
"You guys..." Argus grits out obvious anger in his voice trying to decide on what to say (a rarity) "I could cuss you out for being @#$#in' morons on this but just like punishment without a reason it serves no purpose. Malory is your friend Gavin, else I would be putting you in cuffs right now with our Twit-lite butter knife over there."
You are exactly the reason most of these chuckle#@$#s in murder guilds will gladly fight to the death rather than submit. What the @#$# makes you any different then them when your first resort is dehumanizing violence? What kind of #@#$ed up lives did you idiots live before this bull@#$# to think that the first answer? What sort of #$#@ed up joke is that?"
"I mean never mind the fact that this game is designed and built to make it so torture won't #@$#ing work in the first place."
The dwarf states as he stands solidly, glowering at the other players.
The whole #@$#en'point of those murder guilds stand point is that violence is the only answer to this @#$#, might as well give in and massacre everyone. And you treating someone who has given up like a faceless jar with something you want inside is proving them #$@#ing right. It lets them reinforce to their little gangs that once they join the blades there is no going back. That sort of mentality is not the @#$#ing one we need if we want to survive this game long term. If people think that as soon as they make a mistake in the game that the assault guilds and policing groups are going to treat them like subhuman garbage then more @#$#ers like Waru Tokogaru are going to get followings of desperate people fearing US more than they fear them."
Looking to the captive he sighs and continues
I'll be the first to admit you are a sack of @#$# for stooping as low as you have but I know the sort of path you need to walk to get there. You don't sound crazy.
So I'm betting you joined the Twilights out of desperation. Money, power, control, acceptance whatever it was they gave it to you at the low price of helping them bag people."
He reaches into his inventory and lights a cigar, jaw clamped shut over it.
I can say that if you want a good shot at surviving this then giving me any and all information you have on the Twilight blades operations is going to be your best bet. I intend to wreck their @#$# like no tomorrow, you give me the info I need and you wont need to even hide cuz Waru is going to be so distracted by trying to nail me to a @#$#ing post that you wont even enter the picture. As it stands you are a dead man, while me and my mine will still make our raid regardless of your information. Without it we will likely be less successful, less distracting and less likely to annoy your 'leader' enough that a scrub like you falls through the cracks. I don't have the power to offer you long standing protection, and I don't have the funds to make running for you life anything but another death sentence. While your information might be useful it was considered unimportant enough by your whip wielding leader to let you live rather than trying to teleport you out of the safe zone and murder you to ensure your silence."
With a deep exhale argus reaches the end of his speech
"So bearing that in mind, What precisely do you consider your information worth? And know that with each passing second it becomes less valuable as your bosses will know you have been captures and try to change things."
Argus crunches the cigar with a flat palm
"I'll let you think on that, but first unless any of you jokers have something you feel like saying on this we are going to an Inn and i am going to eat some @#$##y soup."
The scarred man to each of the gathered warriors before offering the Twilit mook a hand "Get the hell up, think about what I just said I don't need anyone else getting in on this stupid charade so lets get out of here."
-------------
Reaper forest
Argus sights the golems, pulling to a halt.
"Two golems, too far to read names. Could be either flesh or corpse. they look to be on the path to the fortress so unless we want to risk Reaper tree ambushes I think we gotta take em. You guys want me to try and #$#ing shaft them from here?"
Gavin looks up at Argus's outburst and ducks his head in embarrassment. The hatred returns to his eyes however when he looks back at the "mook."
There's a reason these guys get flagged the same as monsters.
Slowly he retrieves his dagger and steps back, sheathing it before following the group into the Inn.
The game might protect against torture of the body, but there's precious little preventing torture of the mind. I guess we really don't have time for that right now though.
--------
Once inside the Inn he sidles over to Alembic, keeping an eye on the prisoner the whole time.
"So you're looking for a partner in the tourney?" I certainly can't refuse a gentleman who would come to a stranger's aid. I'll let Argus know he's off the hook once we're done here.
Gavin signals a waiter over and orders modest fair with water.
Order something nice, it's on me.
When the waiter departs Gavin offers to share contact information with Alembic.
At some point Gavin asks permission from the Night Raven's guild leader to join their expedition.
After taking a breather post dealing with the PK-ers, Hornfell decides to wander to the job board at Meridian Heights to see if there are any jobs available for a swordsman of his caliber.
"Yes, I was looking for a partner because I've never fought that kind of format before. I'm very used to the "La Verdadera Destreza" style of fighting from the real world, but I've never had a chance to fight with another person yet. I'd like to see how it works."
Before they can wander off, Alembic will say "Let me know if you need a blade for fighting monsters. I look forward to trying that out!"
Sardonis picks up the dropped teleport crystal and follows Argus.
well I don't have anything better to do, and information is always nice.
"What's this about a tournament? how many people can be on a team?
Seeing the message Argus left for him, Hornfell decides to book it and run to catch up to the group before they hit the fortress. They'll need all the swords they can get to take down the player-killing bastards.
After an amount of time spent sprinting, he reaches the meeting place and hopes that the group assembled is Argus' collective.
"Ah yes, well that should help you a little bit against the melee types. The real threat will be if we go up against Argus, or a similar bow wielder; its a lot of ground to cover trying to catch up to them. The largest difference between what you're used to and the game are all the boosts; people with long duration boosts they can use multiple times per day take a lot of skill to dispatch. And sometimes they involves some really serious debuffs if they hit you. Usually it is impossible to out trade them while they have buff time remaining, so typically it's best to kite them around until they tire themselves out, but if they team up with an archer... Well lets just say that the Night Ravens are a favorite to win in the small group stage. Your dueling skills will be best suited for one on one fights, since they'll allow you more strategic options. We should do some sparring later to get into the right mindset for the tournament; right now I'm more interested in this group of PKers though." Gavin's face hardens, and he turns his full attention back to the prisoner.
------
<Eira> Hi. I know most of you assault guild types are not fond of information brokers, perhaps rightfully so. I have a bone to pick with the group you're after and am willing to forgive any information costs accrued in their pursuit if you'd let me join your expedition. I'd offer to sweeten the deal, but they've been bad for business the last month or so and I don't have much to offer at the moment. -Gavin
"Well, you, Saardonis, and I could always form a team for the tournament. It could be pretty fun. And I'm always up for sparring. As Master Soto always said that an unused blade is a dull blade."
Gavin turns back to Alembic, his face softens slightly and he smiles. "My blades are yours good sir, do with them as you wish; I just need to know what that is by the time of the tournament." Gavin turns his attention back to the prisoner.
"Sounds like it's settled then. I'll go get us registered. As soon as I figure out how to do that."
Turning his attention to the prisoner, he says "so I guess we're not killing you. You probably do wanna tell us what we want to know, though, or we'll let it be known that you did anyway. What would your piki friends think then?"
Talori turns to the rest of the group. "So, I forgot a piece of basic logic with my tanking set: you won't accumulate Threat unless you actually do some damage, which my set completely cripples. A massive AR
won't do you any good unless the monster actually decides to focus on you. I'll be taking melee DPS, along with some basic debuffing. We need tanks. I'll send another PM to the Knights if any of you guys can't fill that role, although I'd rather not. Our guild needs some fame, after all."
A trade request pops up in front of everybody.
Talori the Dragonne wants to trade a Capture Crystal for 0 gold with you. Do you accept.
"After doing a few favors for the Knights, I got these babies. They can capture up to three blades apiece, and hold them for five hours. Take them, I'll gather we'll need them."
-------
Reaper forest
Argus takes the trade nodding to Talori "I'd picked up some manacles figurin' we might need to keep some of the $#$#ers with us. So we'll have to see how many we end up finding."
Eira accesses her messages and carefully reads. With a swipe she closes the message box and calls Zero over to relay the message she had just received. She thinks for a moment with one hand on her hip and the other playing mindlessly with a strand of hair. Before even really get a response from Zero she shrugs her shoulders and with a determined look announces that the information broker will join. She knows that her husband is suspicious of him and that he will most likely try to talk her out of it so to prevent stalling on any advancement in their plans she pops open her messages and readies to send one in return. With a cheeky grin she looks over at her husband, "I just want you to know I love you...and I'm sorry pumpkin but I know you won't like this!" She wraps an arm around him, "don't be too mad at me ok?"
<Gavin>"The Night ravens will gladly accept your proposal. Perhaps working together we can accomplish much more. I am sure we will be of value to one another. Meet us at the Reaper Forest."
Gavin reads through Eira's message. Excellent he thinks to himself. Gavin stands up and stretches, cracking his knuckles in anticipation before staring hungrily at the prisoner.
<Argus> I've arranged to join the Night Raven assault force on this one. Naturally all fees are waived. Thanks for the head's up.
As a side note my savior from earlier wants me for a 3s team in the tourney; of course I said yes. I'm a little unclear on whether entry is allowed in multiple categories, but as a heads up you might want to secure your guildie's participation. -Gavin
-----
In the Reaper Forest:
Gavin unslings his bow in preparation for the {Golem} encounter, but holds action as he awaits orders.
---------
Meridian heights (after the Mook talks)/ whenever these particular convos happen.
Before they can wander off, Alembic will say "Let me know if you need a blade for fighting monsters. I look forward to trying that out!"
"Stick around if you feel like then."
After an amount of time spent sprinting, he reaches the meeting place and hopes that the group assembled is Argus' collective.
"Fujiro, good to see you again. You get my message? Seems like I got people comin' outta the $#$in' woodwork to help when I say Twilight blades. If only the same could be said when I go lookin' for people to join the guild."
<Argus> I've arranged to join the Night Raven assault force on this one. Naturally all fees are waived. Thanks for the head's up.As a side note my savior from earlier wants me for a 3s team in the tourney; of course I said yes. I'm a little unclear on whether entry is allowed in multiple categories, but as a heads up you might want to secure your guildie's participation. -Gavin
<Gavin> Alright then, thanks for the warning.
Argus looks at the collected warriors, examining each of them. with a flat stare Argus turns to Saardonis "So, you planning on joining my little posse as well or ya just gawkin' like a turkey in the rain?" Argus snorts, still somewhat surprised at the interest "Prefer you join up with us than getting it in your head to try this place solo and die."
<[Guild]-Night Ravens> Alright... So I went hunting for some info and ended up gaining a #@$#in herd of folks interested in coming to help fight the blades. Gavin and Fujiro I know well enough, these other two {Saadonis} and {Alembic} I don't really. They helped Gavin out in a pinch and know enough that they could get themselves screwed if I tell them to get lost. Like if they go to the fortress alone just to @#$#in' spite me and #$%$ up our raid.
Eira's got final say though, so lemme know the state of affairs. I'll let them know the plan is to catch the blades, and that if they are joining our raid they follow our rules.
Well I'm certainly not doing anything of importance at the moment. What exactly did you have in mind?"
Saardonis seems quite exited about this new opportunity for adventure.
---------
Meridian, After mook
"My guild came across some information. Blades want something and that means we know where those @#$#ers are hiding for once. We plan to hit em' and cause as much damage to their plans as possible.
Plus new monsters and a boss if you are in it more for killing stuff.
If it isn't your cup of tea you don't tell this to #$@#ing anyone else, yeah?" Argus waits for a moment looking at the man before moving to a private place with the gathered warriors and dishing the dirt.
---------
If the Ravens Ok more folks coming along.
The Twilight Blades, the @#$#in' murder guild is after something in a new dungeon Adamant Fortress Awn which is turning out to be more of a motha#@$#in' pain in the @## then i really needed to take on.
Four new enemy types [blood] [bone] [flesh] and [corspe] {Golems} I'll fill you in on what I know once we get to the reaper forest.
We need to move quick and we want to ensure we capture as many of those #$@#s as we can. Not only because of PKers having bounties and I like getting paid, but death is quick where as jail is boring and painful."
"Hmmm, what could a bunch of killers be after I wonder? Well what ever it is I don't want them to have it, so let's go take it."
"What's a guild?"
dammit.. I don't know much. All I know is that the head guy of our section, oh ya, we work in sections, and each section works independently for the most part, our leader will sometimes bring us together but for the most part the guild is split into smaller guilds, but anyway, he knows someone is on to him, he wanted to know who, and when, or IF they would become a thorn in his side. He probably knows someone will be a thorn, but not who, at least not yet. Now can you just take me to jail so I don't die?
---------------------
after whatever outcome of the above incase I get caught up in school again.
everyone gets in the delor-couch and argus shoves alembic (if he wishes to go) into it as well, it takes off arrives at the edge of the forest, then sadly, falls apart (you are pretty sure you saw a wheel roll out infront of you on the way)
"So, you haven't heard anything relating to whats going on in the fortress or the Golems in there?" Argus sighs in irritation, open palm on his jaw and the side of his face. "Well fat lot of good that #@#$in' does me. Don't suppose your little bull@#$# brotherhood's got a secret decoder ring or some sort of hand sign crap to ID each other then?" Argus says, trying to think of something to salvage out of this dead end lead. "Or I dunno, secret bases or boltholes perhaps? Those'd be good to know about."
-----------
after a moments thought the guy simply points at the tattoo on his arm and shrugs.
I was new, they always blindfolded me and some others, until we got to the place we stayed at.
"Sure, we can go get these guys. They're in a castle in the woods? Neat!"
"Man, @#$# my life today. So you are seriously just a new recruit then?" Argus says examining the mans presented tattoo "Never heard anything interesting when they had you bagged or remember much of where they had you at when you didn't have your head shoved in a sack?"
Argus sighs
"Well if ya ain't got anything for me fine, that sucks. Though I'm not really sure what we can get you arrested for right now. You're still green so unless you care to admit to a PK you committed to one of the local guild enforcers you are not likely to get stuck in a cell for long."
--------
Argus looks flatly at Alembic before turning to Gavin "He's not serious, is he serious?"
after one more pass between the two the patchworked man sighs.
"So you are telling me you kept stride with the front line players and have never heard the term 'Guild' before... O-K then. You sure you want to fight Criminals and {golems}? They are kind of dangerous and you could easily run the risk of death. Perhaps you could go back and live under the #$#@in'rock you've been under for the last five damn months."
Looking over to Gavin again he sighs
"I just don't get this one, but yanno what his level is at the same point as mine so whatever the hell it is works. As of now I'm press ganging you into acting as tour guide Gavin. Figure you're gonna need to do it anyway if you want him ready to run in a tournament with you."
Gavin sighs: If you think that's bad, just look at his combat log. 15,000 training dummy kills. Do you know what it takes to break a training dummy?! 9,999 individual attacks! That's right, not even damage, individual strikes. I think he's been down on floor one since pre-alpha.... I didn't even know those things GAVE exp..
After Argus's exchange:
*sigh, he did save me. Sort of. *grimace sure I'll look after him.
*sighs again quietly to himself, then starts filling Alembic in.
To the mook:
Well I guess if you don't have any information of value we'll just have to take any supplies you have. Starts rummaging through the guy's stuff with an appraising eye.
---
In the forest
So what's the plan?