Reiko nods, filing the names away. "They'll learn that their lives are tied to your sister's. If she dies, they die. What is her name?" Reiko retrieves a clean cloth from the wagon's floor and motions Vigny closer, handing her the rag. She regards the man, "I apologize but this is going to hurt." She puts her hand lightly on the katana's hilt, preparing to pull it free in a single quick move. She makes sure that Vigny is ready with the cloth. When the prisoner indicates he's ready, she pulls the blade free, trying to avoid doing more damage.
"Mari, her name is Mari," he answers.
When Reiko goes to pull out her sword, he nods once and grits his teeth. Though he is clearly in pain, he manages to bit back a scream so that only comes out as a grunt. After a moment, he passes out.
Vigny moves closer when Reiko motions for her and takes the cloth. After Reiko has pulled her blade free she looks at her, utterly gobsmacked, and asks "what am I supposed to do? Is this for his leg or his mouth?"
Reiko scrambles out of the wagon and calls to Sandru as she sets about saddling her horse. As soon as the caravan leader arrives, she passes along everything the prisoner said.
"Sorry, Vigny." Reiko says quietly, possibly apologizing more for her cold-blooded behavior than for not clarifying what to do with the rag. Her voice returns to full strength. "That's for his leg. He knows that helping us is his best - maybe only - chance of getting Mari back... and betraying us again would obligate me to make her pay dearly."
Vigny starts moving finally. "Oh, right, of course."
She bandages the man's leg to the best of her ability.
"I'll come with you Reiko, let me grab my things."
Vigny gets dressed and pulls out her chain shirt. She had kept it because she had suddenly found herself with considerable money. She figured there might be times when the breastplate she had bought might be too cumbersome or slow to be practical.
When she's ready she goes to find Reiko.
After saddling the horses, Reiko quickly retrieves her bandolier, rope, bow, and a full quiver of arrows. She stores the larger items in her saddlebags then leaps onto her steed. She uses her legs to wheel her mount about and waits as the others saddle up - assessing the skittishness of their horses and the skill of their riders. Racing through a forest at night wasn't like a trot across an open field.
Clearly happy to be leaving the caravan, Jerukh revives the fallen man with some smelling salts, then enthusiastically grabs his gear for the chase.
He blanches somewhat at the prospect of the horse and awkwardly climbs into a saddle - his familiar melancholy demeanor now restored.
The rain has not let up at all since night came. It soaks you through as you ride north along the road heading to Riddleport. You cover the distance quickly despite the dark. As you approach a bend, you can see the light of a fire and several figures rising at your approach, one of them has the young woman, Mari, and a knife against her throat.
"Well now, this is a bit of a surprise. I guess this means that Lucas spilled his guts to you," Anica says over the rain, "You can blame this on him, then," she adds. The man holding the knife yanks it across Mari's neck, sending glistening drops of blood sailing into the night and mud. The others draw weapons and ready themselves for a fight.
"Oh, and we'll be taking the pretty blonde with us."
Round 1
Dismounted from the horse, Jerukh clearly feels better with feet planted on earth.
His feeling of contentment dissipates as first the villains are encountered, then the young girl's throat is opened with callous ease.
As innocent blood is spilt, the healer reaches for his belt and gulps down a tincture thicker than his usual infusions, all the while protesting at what he has seen;
"No...no...no...NO!"
The effect on the lanky chirurgeon is immediate as his body swells and muscles ripple, and his features become more monstrous...
He lurches toward the foes, drawing his dark wood club as he does
Bellowing in anger the brute healer brings his cudgel to bear on the nearest foe;
:
:
Reiko debates how to handle the situation when Jerukh and Soli decide the matter. Not that she minded their choice, sometimes direct action was best. She slides forward, on a diagonal, leaving enough of a gap between herself and the others to tempt a foolish Sczarni to slide between them.
She says mildly, "Dorin and Zana, drop your weapons and stand aside. you weren't in favor of this stupidity - for that you get one chance to live." She glances at Anica, "Not you." Reiko leaps forward and slashes the nearest Sczarni.
Emi shadows Reiko's movements, using her as a human shield. As Reiko attacks, the beautiful Varisian girl emerges from her shadow and dances a bit further, keeping 5' of space between herself and the Sczarni weapons. She utters a phrase of power and a fan of garish colors assaults the eyes of several Sczarni.
Before either Dorin or Zana get a chance to choose, Emi's blast of color sends them into unconsciousness.
The one that Jerukh attacks barely has a chance to wheeze from broken ribs before Reiko finishes him with a blade through his chest. Soli's attack was lackluster at best, and easily side-stepped by the thug.
"Get the elf," Anica cries as she moves to close with the paladin along with the other two of her group.
The three of them spin and roll and weave to avoid Soli's glaive, one of them slips in the mud a little, giving Soli an opening, but then they are on her.
Unfortunately for them, the rain is too heavy and Soli's too wet for them to get a hold on.
Pressing into the enemy formation, Reiko steps over the corpse and tries to turn another Sczarni into one. The Whispering Shrike flashes with remarkable rapidity.
Emi moves with Reiko, her scarf whipping towards the same Sczarni.
A difficult stirrup and a stupid horse that won't stop moving around slows Vigny compared to the others.
By the time she is on the scene, the others are carving handily into the sczarni. Vigny diverts to the girl instead. Dropping to her knees beside her she covers her throat with her hands, which glow with positive energy.
- Buffs/Cond: Mutagen (+4STR; -2INT; +2AC)
Grunting in satisfaction as the thug buckles under the attack of Reiko and himself, the alchemist shifts toward the next foe
Once again he swings his cudgel with a roar;
:
:
With most of her crew down, Anica trips the last man as they both run for it.
"I'll remember this! I'll have your heads," screams as she runs off into the night.
The last thug tries to scramble back to his feet and run.
Thanks to Vigny, Mari will live, and starts coming to with a cough that splatters the ground with some of the blood still in her throat.
"W-who are you," she asks over the rainstorm that continues to pour.
"I'll have your heads"
The ronin watches Anica run. "You won't get that chance." Reiko whistles, summoning her horse at a gallop. "Do what you want with him... but the old woman's life is mine." She vaults into the saddle and runs down the sczarni - sword poised to strike.
The thug surrenders without a fuss.
Anica however, continues to run, She has a head start, but Reiko quickly closes the range. Seeing that she can't outrun the samurai, the sczarni ringleader instead tries to unseat Reiko.
Reiko's blade slashes furiously at the old woman's neck even as she nudges her horse to attack as well.
Kaze folds his ears back and snaps his jaws at the dodgy woman.
Reiko's blade strikes true and sends the Anica's head flying from her shoulders.
Meanwhile, Vigny finds the that the two thugs to go down are quite dead.
Reiko slides from the saddle and splashes down in the mud. For a moment, she considers collecting Anica's head. Instead, she searches the body before riding back to the group.
Breathing heavily and still wearing a bestial scowl, Jerukh taps the bodies of the downed thugs with his foot, then moves quickly toward where Vigny crouches with Mari.
He crouches, his brutish features softening somewhat, but his alchemical bulk, and deeper voice remaining;
"We are friends. From caravan. I heal you more..."
Jerukh tilts her wounded throat, eying the wound, then reaches into his belt and retrieves bandages and a balm from his chirurgeon paraphernalia;
:
Vigny stays with Mari as Jerukh works on her. She figures his new, and rather intimidating, demeanor might require the girl have some reassurance.
"We're from the caravan. Your brother told us where to find you. He's waiting for you there. We'll take you back as soon as we're finished here."
Reiko finds that Anica was wearing a finely made maile shirt and carrying a nice shortsword as well. The others were armed with daggers and shortswords and armored with studded leather. They also had 150 gp between them. Dorin and Zana come to a few moments after the fight and fully recover a moment or two later. They don't put up any resistance and look utterly defeated. The last remaining thug, though continues to spit defiance and grumble as he's bound.
Mari looks from Jerukh to Vigny, almost as if she's not sure whom she should focus on. After a moment she looks down and mutters another question. "It's over then? We– we're not in this nightmare anymore."
The trip back takes nearly thirty minutes between the rain and the mud. The reunion between brother and sister is a tearful one, and the sczarni you've taken prisoner are given a change of dry clothes and tied up in one of the wagons under the watchful eyes of Gkirkhan and Iona. The camp is abuzz with activity as the other members of the caravan check everything to make sure that nothing's gone missing.
It's about ten minutes after you arrive back that things begin to calm down. After you've had a chance to change into something not soaking wet, Sandru and Shalelu approach Reiko.
"We need to talk," the caravan master says in a hard, flat voice, "now."
'Well" Vigny says, crossing her arms while Reiko talks to Sandru and Shalelu. "Soli, any idea who in Riddleport could be just this pissed off at you?"
Back at the caravan, Reiko cleans the mud from Koze's flanks, speaking softly to the horse in her own language.
"We need to talk," the caravan master says in a hard, flat voice, "now."
Reiko glances at both of them, nods politely, and follows them for this private conversation.
When Jerukh arrives back at the camp he continues to watch o'er Mari from afar, torn between his still brutish persona and concern for his patient.
Anyone watching the mutagenically enhanced alchemist see him peer at his own reflection in the puddle strewn road. The half orcs features shift from curious, to angry, to finally forlorn.
As Sandu shares a hard word with Reiko, Jerukh is snapped from his thoughts and looks up with concern.
He lumbers toward them as Vigny makes her comment growling a response as he passes;
"Riddleport is stone that should not be lifted. What nests there should not be pissed off..."
The alchemist approaches Rieko, Shalelu and Sandru, bidding them hold in a rumbling voice;
"Brother. Reign your tone. You speak to one with honour enough for us all..."
Reiko hesitates long enough to give Jerukh and Soli a warm, if grim, smile. "Thank you, I am indebted for your kind words." She follows after Sandru and Shalelu, schooling her features to ambivalence. Her mind races ahead. While the complexities of Varisian culture still tripped her up at times, she had noted a level of idealism and sentimentality applied liberally to their logic. Judging by Vigny's reaction in the wagon, it was likely she'd violated some principle along those lines.
What was more perplexing was Shalelu's involvement. As the caravan master, Sandru was charged with keeping order; it was his place to offer reprimands and punishments. What, then, was Shalelu's role? Did he fear Reiko would cut him down so he needed a bodyguard? Was this some odd gender rule? It was all quite curious.
"Sandru wouldn't be like that about this" Vigny tells Soli after they've walked off.
Shalelu looks less angry than worried. Sandru, on the other hand has to visibly reign in his temper.
"I will keep your words in mind," is all he says before leading Reiko and Shalelu off to a somewhat secluded spot in the camp.
Sandru spends most of a minute making sure that he isn't about to fly into a temper before turning a cold hard gaze to Reiko.
"Did you stab the man that went after Soli after he surrendered," he interrogates you, his anger from moments earlier bubbling away under the surface.
Meanwhile, one of Sandru's caravaneers, Vankor Dalmuvian, approaches the rest of you after Sandru, Shalelu, and Reiko have left.
"Um, Lucas, the guy that tried to, well... He wanted to talk to you. Koya's said he's okay for a bit, but try not to rile him up or nothin'," he tells you awkwardly.
Sandru sighs and runs a hand down his face as he rolls his eyes heavenward.
"Look, all I know is that you said that you had everything under control before I ran off to check on Yulian. When I came back after you had left, I found him lying in a small puddle of his own blood with a stab wound that looks like it came from your sword through his leg. Tell me exactly what happened in that wagon. I want to know everything," Sandru demands in a slightly calmer, if harder, voice.
Shalelu steps a little closer, her voice and expression much softer than the caravan master's.
"Reiko, please. I know that you come from a different culture, but it looks like you tortured someone after he was beaten. We just want to know what happened."
The brother and sister are both being tended to by Koya, who's busy inspecting the remains of the wound that would have killed her if not for your timely aid.
"Ah, you're here," the Harrower says pleasantly, "careful now, it's going to be a bit cramped."
The brother, Lucas, gives all of you a weary, but heartfelt smile.
"Thank you. All of you. I owe you a debt that I can never repay," the young man says once all of you are in.
Vigny tags along with Soli to the siblings. After they're all settled in the wagon, she asks "How did you come to be captives of Anica and her crew? And how do you get your eyes to glow?"
"I will tell you what I did and the 'why'. Then you can better determine my fate. As you know the Sczarni woman lied to us and you felt she was 'up to something'. I know the Sczarni by reputation - devious and sneaky. When the man, Lucas, attacked Soli I thought this might be robbery or rape. Once Vigny and Soli had the man under control, I kept others away. Then Yulian was attacked. It now seemed a coordinated plan of misdirection. The Sczarni had vanished. Was Soli's attack a feint or Yulian's? What was their true target? Where were the Sczarni and what would they do next? I didn't think they would abandon their people so I expected that they would launch an attack on the caravan. We needed to know their target and what their plan was. I could hear that Lucas wasn't giving Vigny the answers we needed immediately to prepare for whatever they might have planned." She pauses long enough to let them consider what they would do in the same situation when the lives of any number of the people in the caravan were held in the balance.
"I jumped in the wagon and stabbed him to convince him that he would die before help could arrive. I told him that he would answer our questions or I would do... worse and fatal things to him. He said that Soli was the target, that he was being forced to capture her, and that the Sczarni had left for a pre-arranged meeting point. He asked us to rescue his sister. At that point, Vigny had a bandage ready to stop the bleeding and Lucas braced himself so I could withdraw the sword. I apologized to him for the pain and did my best not to hurt him more than I already had. He passed out shortly after the blade came out. Vigny made sure his leg was bound and he was in no danger before we left to rescue Mari." Reiko runs through her memory, making sure she had omitted nothing important. "That is what happened."