Sneaky indeed.
Grym's brow furrowed and he studied the scaly man intently.
Sense Motive -
and shrugged with doubt.
We're burning daylight. We either use the snake's trail and get the jump on Slate, set up an ambush for when they attack the town or return to town and stand with the civilians. I say we go for Slate now.
"I agree. We should head there now, scout around a bit and then wait until full dark to go in for Slate."
Lights up his cigar and grunts...
"Get busy living or get busy dying! I used to say..."
"After today I think I like the livin' part a heap more... Ah, what the hell lets do it!"
SOUNDTRACK
Sanzu takes care of the prisoners, and uses the wagon to bring them back to town. Whit the fresh horses of Waxton's band, you are able to press foward to the West much faster than before. Pissbucket rides with you, a bit akwardly since he's still tied up. He mumbles incomprehensible things in his native language, but other than that isn't doing anything suspicious.
You ride fast, and by the late afternoon, just before the sun is starting to set, you pass the Jade Mines, headed to the Canyons.
Looking rather frustrated, Embrianna tinkers with her gun as she rides along, wondering if she can get it to work before it is time to take on Slate and his men. Luckily for her, the horse she is riding is content to follow the rest, otherwise she'd have lagged behind the group by now.
Perception:
Thel jumps down from his horse as they close in on their target, scouting ahead and tries not to be seen.
Mumbling to himself under his breath as he checks and rechecks his gear. Talured slowly moves up to the edge of the ridge and peaks over before proceeeding...
Grym had spent the journey mostly quiet and sipping on his Meskal. This doesnt mean he wasnt paying attention though.
Perception -
then again...
Mordechai: Sanzu will take care of that. Before departing he said: I'll go to Castle, and tell him to prepare some sort of defense. If by tomorrow night you're not back, we'll get properly worried. Until then, good luck.
Embrianna: your thinkering with the gun while riding produces no results so far, but perhaps you will be able to make it work once you rest for the evening.
Pretty much anyone sees the mines nearby, but only Mordechai and Thelnyss notice that past the mines, at about half a mile away from the path to the Canyon, there are large birds flying in a circle...
Thel point at the circle of birds hovering far away in the sky.
Vultures - would be my best guess. Then again its hard to see at this distance. he pauses for a moment They seems to be waiting for something - what do you think? We should take care and see what´s up.
Probably a mountain of corpses or something along those lines ...
Mord just grunts and nods affirmative, as he appears to have spotted them too.
Grym put his hand to his brow to shade it from the Great Eye as he looked for what his pals were talking about. Vultures werent rare out here at all but this close to their destination brought about a degree of caution. He turned towards their captive.
Whats over there Scaly Kind?
Ember puts her gun away and pulls out the repeating rifle. "Let's go take a quick look see to make sure no one's in trouble."
Anything unclaimed Grym will keep in his Bag of Holding.
Ember - Masterwork repeating rifle with 4 bullets capacity
Boss - Masterwork earth breaker
Masterwork kusarigama
Two barrelled dragon pistol, loaded with a dragon's breath cartridge
Grym - 2 knives
Grym - 1 potion of invisibility
rations for 6 days
30 ft of rope
256 gold pieces = 36 gp, 5 sp, 7 cp each
and 20 firearm cartridges
As you reach your destination, you can see what appears to be the remains of a wrecked caravan wagon. The thing was set on fire and there are no horses. There are large vultures in the air, and one of them flies away when it sees you coming.
You also see three human figures slowly staggering towards your direction.
Well Pissbucket, if you aint gonna answer my questions then I dont see much reason to keep you breathing. I have half a mind to slit your throat right now....what have we here?
The Meskal and the situation had Grym in a somewhat foul temper so he couldnt really concentrate on the 3 figures approaching.
Perception -
Well it could certainly be worse... Thel gazes at the lumbering figures. Perhaps its bad enough already...
Thel readies his bow, and tries to determine if the shamblers are friend or foe.
Thel can clearly see that the men approaching are most definitely not alive anymore. They creep towards you, slowly and growling.
But Thel also notices something else.
Thel recognizes the vultures foul identity from his folks tales - he have never seen one 'alive' before. Slightly chocked at the sight of living dead, he is lucky to notice the faint cry the wind brought to him along with the stench.
They are all living dead! Harbingers of misfortune, vile scum of the skies. he pauses for a moment Smoke and ashes, there is someone left alive ! We need to hurry before it's too late!
Thel fires his arrow towards the closest walker, then advances cautiously towards the caravan, trying to keep some obstacles between him and the undead.
I hope the dead can still bleed!
Initiative -
Hearing Thels warning; the half elf slid one of his new knives from his belt and readied an attack if one of them got close. He mostly kept an eye on Pissbucket.
Ember moves her horse over to where Grym and Pissbucket are and then fires her rifle at one of the walking dead. Lizards got no weapons anymore and I have no idea how effective knives are against these things si I had best keep an eye on 'em.
"How close are we to slate's camp, 'Bucket?"
Close, we are. In deep of the night we be there says Pissbucket, that seems to be riding at your speed despite the tied hands.
There are no obstacles of any kind between you and the undeads, but two of them instantly fall to the ground and cease to move due to your arrows and bullets. The third one keeps going, and as you close up you can see his lifeless eyes glancing at you. You can also hear the cries for help more distinctively. Help! Come on, dammit! Get me out of here!
"I ain't wastin' bullets on zombies..." Mord rushes forward, and kicks the zombie in the head...
Mord's kick bashes the undead's skull, and the thing drops to the ground without a sound. There isn't anything else moving, and the vultures are high in the sky, but still circling around the place.
As you get closer to the ruins of the cart, you can see something in the sand right in the middle of it. It's an human head, and he's addressing you: Took you long enuff'! Now get me the hell out o' here!. The man has a dark tanned skin and he's covered in dust: he has been buried shoulder deep in the ground, and left there.
After the last zombie is downed, Thel makes his way towards the caravan. He makes sure that there are no other undead walking around anywhere and throws nervous glances at the sky with regular intervals, in case the vultures decides to come closer. When he is finally satisfied that there are no nasty surprises in store for them, he addresses the buried man.
Keep your acid and complaints for yourself - you are lucky they didn't start chewing on you already!
Thel snarls at the man, slightly more vicious then he wanted, but the vultures soaring above are really getting on his nerves. He throws another quick glance at the skies, and upon seeing no aggressive actions he calms down a little.
We will try and dig you as soon as we are sure nothing starts swooping down on us. How come you are buried there anyway?
Hatred obvious in her voice, Embrianna stares at the man's head as she disagrees with Theyl. "No, I don't think we should dig him out. We'll go on to the camp as planned. After we have our bounty we can swing back by here and take him to the jail with us to stand trial for his crimes if he is still alive. If he isn't still alive...well, no loss there."
Catching the tone in her voice; Grym couldnt help but be curious.
Why should we leave him? He could help us; athough I doubt it. Sounds like a coward but I dont like the idea of leaving anyone behind that could give us away to Slate.
Ember glances over towards Gym. "It doesn't look like he'll be going anywhere or warning anyone any time soon and we aren't going to drag this murderer around with us while we go after Slate. If ya'll are worried about someone else finding him before we get back, then I'll just take care right now and save the trouble of a trial."
Ember walks up beside the head and places the barrel of the rifle against the man's head, clearly willing to pull the trigger. "Got anything to say Jerras? Like maybe telling me where your knife-throwing friend is?"
murderer?
...There is more to this story than meets the eye...
At the mention of another knife thrower; the half elf started realyl paying attention. He had a reputation with his blades and he'd jump at the chance to take down a competitor. Especially if the man was pals with this Jerras. He trusted Ember's judgement so that put this low life waay down on his 'let live' list.
Mord shrugs, clearly indifferent on what to do with this man.
"Harsh judgement to give someone"
Thel exclaims, but he sees in Embers eyes that it might be deserved. Still, he cannot help to wonder what the man has done - the mention of knifes draws his memory to the scars he saw that night when they saw the band preform. He turns to the buried man once again.
"Maybe you should start talking about why you are buried here, and what wrong you did Ember - otherwise I think her plan will be heeded. Pick your words carefully.."
The man looks at all of you with a very stern gaze. S@*!. Bounty hunters, aren't you? Trust my wrinky ass to be saved by a bunch of marshall wannabes. He then replies to your questions.
To Thelnyss: Slate, that ol'bastard, put me in this cozy hole, may he rot in hell. We assaulted this g&+&*$ned caravan and I figure out: heck, might as well get rid of those merchants too. But he said no, we don't kill civilians. Civilians! You should have seen him, acting like a g&!%++n general, just because of that blasted sphere of his and all that mambo-jumbo. So he put me here to punish me, and told the others to watch and learn that he don't want his men to kill civilians. That f&%&er left me here to rot, one straight day watchin' the Vultures turn the merchants into bloody walking dead, with nothing to do until they started to crawl here to eat my own face. That's when I saw you comin'.
To Grymblade: I can help you alright, just get me some water, an horse and I'll bring to Slate's camp.
To Embriana: What the f!*@ is your problem, lady. I ain't going to no jail. You might as well let me die here, cause I'm not gonna get myself killed by ropes and lawyers. The only trial I know is the trial by gun, so you either give me one now or bugger off somewhere else. He spits to the ground near him. Dunno why you know my name, but if you're looking for a knife-trowing man, that backstabbing scumbag killed one of my men and disfigured my idiot brother before giving me the courtesy to die. A courtesy I would be happy to receive from you as well.
Grym listened to the man's uncouth reprisal of what happened and wasnt surprised to hear about the betrayals going on in Slate's camp. He spit to the side of his horse and adjusted his seat in the saddle. He was much more comfortable on his own two feet.
Well we already have a guide. Old slimy scales here is leading us to some sort of hidden path to Slate. I reckon you two know each other? Either way Im going to let Ember decide your fate.
He was suspiciosu of the man none the less and split his attention between him and Pissbucket.
Ember gives a snort of disgust as she continues to glare at Jerras. "Have you killed so many people you can't even remember them all? Not even the gunsmith you stole from?"
Responding to the group, "I won't accept any help from this man to get into the camp. The only thing I want from him is to watch him twist in the wind as he hangs for his crimes."
Then lets hang him and be done with it. If you say he's guilty then thats good enough for me. We cant afford to leave him behind especially if he feels he has a vendetta since we did leave him. I can find a tree.
Thel starts looking around for a suitable three when he suddenly realizes something. He quickly turns back to the buried man.
These .... birds - are they Slates doing ? he pauses and turns to address the party One of them flew off as soon as we approached ...
Do Slate have someone practising the blackest of the art for him? Perhaps I'm just paranoid... Sure hope so
Jerras looks at Pissbucket. That smelly thing over there? That's your guide? Good luck with that! 've seen him at the camp once, and I bet he couldn't find his own tail in broad daylight. If ye want to sneak into Slate's tent, I'm your man.
Then he replies to Grymblade and Embrianna. You ain't hanging no body. If you want me dead, then kill me now and be done with it, you bunch of cowards. Because if you bring me behind bars and I escape, something I did before, I'll make sure I pay a nice visit to each and every one of you.
Unless you really want a guide that doesn't alert everyone in miles with that smell. Whaddya say?
Thelnyss: the Undeath Vultures have been roaming this desert for centuries, and the one that flew was just scared of the noises of your horses.
"Fine by me if you want it now."
[ooc]What kind of roll would I need for Ember to put the rifle to the side of his head and pull the trigger?[/ooc?
Thel calms down a little after realizing how absurd his thoughts were. Dead birds spying for a bandit. Heh... but then, they are up for no good those unholy critters.
Embrianna presses the barrel of his rifle to Jarrus'temple. May ye all rot in Hell, cowards, he utters, but you can catch a glimpse of terror in his eyes moments before Embrianna pulls the trigger and splatters his brain on the dust. The vultures are startled by the shot, and bandit's head ceases to move. The puddle of blood is quickly absorbed by the thirsty sand.
The sun is setting on the Salt Flats.
Grymblade watches the man's head explose and the subsequent pool of blood with mild curiosity.
Well, thats that. What's with that mine Pissbucket? Any connection to Slate's camp?
Jade is in mines. Sslate wants Jade too.
Ember has a look of satisfaction on her face as she watches his head explode.
Turning back to the others, "As interesting as the mines may be, I don't want to risk getting delayed by anyone or anything there and miss our chance to get Slate before he sets out for the town in the morning."
"We should probably either press on to the Canyon. Definitely can't stay here those buzzards will be back for sure now."
Gazing at the splattered skull & brain matter, Talured became suddenly silent and reached up to rub his skull.
I agree with Talured - these cursed birds give me the devils chills.