"Well, that's disappointing," Kali says to herself. She closes the door and spends her time trying to make the rags cover up more of her until she could find some way of getting some clothes.
She gives the big man a small smile and a word of thanks for the sweet potato. It was better than many of the meals she'd had of late, and it helped take her mind off the clothing situation for a moment.
"I don't think we've met," Kali says to the newcomers after finishing the sweet potato, "I am Kalisuel, and it seems that you know the others. How'd this come about? Why is this Maggory after you?"
And why did he have us stripped naked? What was I going to hide under my underwear? A needle? a part of her thinks as she imagines various embarrassing fates for the man.
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"This is Thomias, Maggory's son," Otho explains while feasting on his sweet potato, "After I knocked out his father, the kid lead us to Bjorn here. You know the rest of the story."
"So what's in the bundle?"
He glossed over Bjorn's admittance of smuggling. Who was he to judge? Actually, he would have been a little disappointed if the cook hadn't been involved in something shady.
Jix happily scarfed down the sweet potato with reckless abandon. Being imprisoned really made a girl get quite the appetite.
Afterwards she leaned back and listened to the others speak for a time casting a glance to Kali, having noticed how she was attempting to cover herself more fully and grew a wicked grin. "Oi Kali, shoin' a lot a skin there . . .I mean there's pro'lly easier ways to get more sweet potatoes but to each their own I suppose." She snickered cruelly.
Owl winks at Desoran and heads downstairs. As he takes the steps, his mind is rattling off a mental check list of thing they'd need:
Food (cook can make it taste better)
Maps (detailed with detours)
Gear for the other
Coin on hand for bribes
He really wished he could get some new clothes but he'd spent a lot on this one mission. It was almost becoming more than it was worth. But this new financier might play out well. If nothing else, he could sell the carriage and go very far away. He was sure that thing was worth a small fortune. Must have some means of tracking if he as lending it so easy. So, what was down stairs that would help with gearing up?
Kali's face flushes at Jix's comment, and the already embarrassed tiefling feels humiliated.
"C-can't you tease someone else," she mutters just under her breath as she tries to make the rags stretch as far as they will go without ripping. She was a small woman, but she also didn't have a lot to work with.
As Owl arrives back down where he parked the carriage, he sees what appears to be a guard who has much too many bundles in his care, trying to reach for the door with his foot to somehow unlock it. Then he catches sight of you.
"Ah, good." he says as he drops everything onto the ground with relief. You recognize him as one of the guards who carried out the arrest on you all. He wasn't particularly rough or anything, in fact, he does pretty well to stay in the background.
"Tell Desoran we're square." And he hurries away, presumably back to his post.
Upon further inspection, it seems everyone's personal belonging have been hastily stuffed in large sacks and brought to you all. You seem to get the idea that this is what Desoran was talking about when he said things had been arranged. Crafty man indeed.
Otho looks inside the bag to find more sweet potatoes.
Jix smirks at her flustered companion and shakes her head. "Oh don't be such a sad sack. I were only tryin' to get yer goat. We're all in these naff rags, practically letting our nethers blow 'bout in the breeze. So don't be so sensitive."
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"I already let mine waft."
It was a joke, probably the first one anyone might have heard from him in a while. And he laughed, a hoarse cracking thing that he wasn't used to. The only thing that damped his spirit any while he sat in this carriage and picked up another sweet potato was the thought of Scoot. How the hell was he going to save his ox?
Kali's face turned redder, though if out of anger or embarrassment is hard to tell.
"Sorry," is all she mutters before trying to find something to cover herself up with.
Rolling her eyes at the cook's frankly insulting look, Laetitia dismisses the man's unspoken concerns with a cavalier wave of her hand. Back in Absalom, her noble parents may not have laid a hand to her as Thomias' father had to the boy, but their willingness to barter her future for their ambitions was, in her mind, just as abusive. She could sympathize with the boy, and even if she couldn't, she was not so heartless as to add to the boy's misery. Hoping to prove to Bjorn wrong--as well as any others who doubted her ability to spare a bit of genuine sympathy--Tish runs her fingers through Thomias' hair in what she's always found to be a soothing manner.
However, the back and forth between Kali and Jix interrupts the calming atmosphere Laetitia is working to create. Dear Gods, please don't let this be what I have to look forward to for the next few weeks.
"Jix, darling," Laetitia calls, smiling sweetly as she slides her untouched potato across the table towards the ratfolk. "Put this in your mouth." Turning her dark eyes over towards the blushing planetouched one who seems to be trying to fade into the carriage's paneling, Laetitia tries--and fails--to gently encourage her. "And Kali--it is Kali, isn't it?--I know you're very petite, and clearly the Gods saw fit not to give you much of one to start with, but do try to find a backbone. I imagine it'll be a difficult few weeks for you without one." Poor thing will be the first one to break when I get bored if she doesn't toughen up.
Turning back to pet Thomias' hair, Laetitia takes a centering breath before flashing the others a saccharine smile. "Let's all try to act a little older than the child in the room, hmm?"
"Do you patronize everyone you've just met, or are we just that lucky," Kali shoots back with a glare that would wither steel. Most of the time time, she would have just tried to ignore the comments, but then again, most of the time, she hadn't been humiliated like she had been tonight. She turns away and resumes her search for something larger than a hand towel to cover herself with.
"Stupid noble-born brat," Kali whispers under her breath, "not everyone likes to flaunt what they have like you do."
Jix snickered at Otho's joke and prodded a thumb in his direction whilst addressing the ashen maiden quickly turning crimson before her. "Yeah ol' Othy's got the right idea 'ere love, an' 'e's got a small secret to 'ide, so 'e does. You should jus' strut yer stuff. Ain't nothin' better than bein' a little free from time to time, ya 'ear me love?" The comment may have been a little unfair given that there was more than enough rag to cover Jix securely but Jix continued to jab at the meek girl. If there was one thing she couldn't stand it was someone without a backbone so this was all just a little exercise in getting her new companion of circumstance to grow one.
Kalisuel would thank her in time.
Snatching up the potato as it rolled across the table Jix tossed a firm salute to Tish along with a healthy wink. "Righto darlin'! I suppose we all can't be blessed with good looks AND a nice sense 'a 'umor as meself but ya got balls tellin' me charmin' self what's what so credit where credit's due." She then plopped the warm potato in her mouth with puffy cheeks and a self satisfied grin on her face.
The ratfolk's ears perked as Kali fired back at Tish with venom in her voice. "Ohhhh, always did like me a good cat-fight. But before you two scrap. We should pro'lly figure out what exactly is goin' on 'ere. I mean we got no equipment, no idea where we are, who is 'elpin' us, an' apparently not so much as a single brain among us so what the sam 'ell is going on 'ere?"
Jix convulsed as she tried to hold in the laughter from Kali's words.
Laetitia returns Kali's glare with an arch look of her own, her hand atop Thomias' head momentarily pausing its ministrations. A dozen or so acerbic barbs come to mind, each one more cutting than the last. Just when it looks like she about to let fly a particularly scathing remark, her full lips instead curve into a self-satisfied smirk as she refocuses her attention on her little 'pet'. "See? Was that so hard?" she instead asks, proving she can be the mature one in the room while unwittingly continuing to patronize the girl.
Half expecting some crude rejoinder from Jix in regards to the suggestion she gave the ratgirl, Laetitia isn't sure whether to be pleased or disappointed by the lack of one. "Fighting? Who's fighting?" Laetitia asks innocently enough. "I thought we were bonding." A half-hearted shrug of her bare shoulders is all Jix's suggestion/question garners, but at least Laetitia looks willing to drop the hostilities, if for no other reason than she's already bored of it.
With ears keen enough to rival an elf's, Laetitia picks up the tiefling's disgruntled murmurings, but unlike Jix, she doesn't bother holding back her laughter. Sharing a look with the shaking ratfolk, Laetitia quicky gives into a fit of high, musical--and for Kali, likely obnoxious--giggles. "Oh mercy," she manages to say in-between laughter as she dabs at her eyes, making sure her makeup stays in place. "You really shouldn't worry so about your modesty. No one is taking a second glance at what you're peddling; not with me sitting right here."
The mature one, indeed.
Jix couldn't hold the laughter in anymore at Tish's latest barb and began pounding at the table with her petite fist with tears of mirth watering in her golden eyes. I'm right gobsmacked, I am Lady Tish! That was f&%+in' brutal!" The ratfolk rogue leaned over the table with a hand balled up in front of her wide grin and eyes shut as she shook from laughter.
It was with some difficulty that Jix turned her attention to Lia as she attempted to change the topic of conversation. "Aye, aye. Yer right Snowflake. We'll need to get on fer the road a'ead of us. It's just a light ribbin' between friends, it is. We're just 'avin' a laugh. It's actually right good to see some attitude from Miss Gloomy o'er 'ere. Show us she's got some teeth instead 'a moppin' 'round all day." She glances to what remains of her second potato and sighs with thoughts of better things. "Can ne'er go wrong wit' a nice big ol' juicy steak I say. . . But why do ya pry Snowflake?"[/b]
After the last two barbs from Jix and Laetitia, Kali heads out the door they came through and into the kitchen. Frustrated and tired, she just finds place to curl up, somewhere out of sight of the door to the room she'd just left. "Light ribbing," Jix had called it, but it was too much like what she'd hear from the other guards in the caravan.
Maybe if she hadn't been humiliated earlier that night, or endured ten years of comments too much like Jix's from the men or comments too much like Laetitia's form the women, she might have taken it better. Maybe if she hadn't been born a tiefling. Maybe if she'd been accepted by the clergy of the Iomadaean monastery.
Maybe if Iomedae hadn't abandoned her.
That last thought scared her. Part of her wanted to vehemently deny it, wanted to push the thought aside and never again look at it. A far larger part, however, felt that it was true. Why else would she have been made to leave the monastery that was the closest thing she ever had to a home? Why else would she have been unable to feel even the faintest glimmer of a divine connection despite her devotions and beliefs. Did she even believe Iomedae's teachings anymore? Was she just going through the motions? Did anything she do matter? Did it matter how much good she did? Did it matter how she lived? Was she damned anyway? Was she such an abomination that she could never be accepted? Was she nothing more than a monster with a pretty face?
Interrupting the currently spiraling in despair Kalisuel, Owl pops into the room, his arms laden in what all of you realize are your old belongings. he explains what's going on and also sets the two keys he received from Desoran on the table.
Kali only half-pays attention as she finds her gear and then someplace with a modicum of privacy to change into her clothes. After a minute, she's back in her clothes, which are old, ragged, and obviously too large for her. The biggest difference between them and the rags she'd been wearing is her clothes can still be identified as such. The next biggest difference, and the more important one to the modest tiefling was they showed very little of her off. Anyone watching sees her stop as she picks up the battered holy-symbol of Iomedae on the thin, worn leather thong. She begins to put it around her neck, but changes her mind and puts it in a pouch on her belt instead, a look of guilt mixed with a deep sorrow on her face.
Kali was busy pulling her threadbare blanket from her battered pack when Lia calls her name. It's brief, only there for a fraction of a second, but anyone looking at her sees a flash of something much like fear before it's closed off behind the weary, blank expression she normally wears, at least when her emotions aren't getting the better of her.
"They fit well enough," she replies in that flat, weary voice that seemed to be her normal. "It's not like I had much of a choice when I got them."
She turns back to her blanket and pulls it free. She wraps herself up in it before finding a spot to curl up in away from the table.
Jix took another nibble of the potato and was completely astounded to find the taste of a rare steak imbued within the spud. The ratfolk let out a cheer and devoured what remained of the potato with zeal licking her lips when it was no more. "Now that there's a nice little trick! I knew mage's were good fer somethin' I did." She snickers and gives Lia an approving nod before rushing off to grab her lost gear.
The ratfolk rogue disappeared behind the entryway door briefly to slip back into her, well fitted, leather before rejoining the group, stretching and rolling a shoulder. "Ahh yeah this right 'ere is more like it." She cast her attention back on Lia and smiled wide. "Well it's a right good thing ya like me personality 'cause it seems we're swept up in an adventure that should take us right far together so you'll 'ave to get used to me one way or the other. Let's just see if the rich girl kin keep up wit' me eh?" She offered a wink before returning her attention to Kali and shaking her head forloarnly whiolst making a 'tut tuting' sound.
"You are looking rather drab love. You wanna make a name for yerself you gotta get some nice fashionable armor like me splendid self 'n get outa that naff getup." With a sweeping motion she gestured to her own armor with was tightly fitted to form and, more for fashion that functionality, exposed her scared but well muscled midsection.
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"Beer," Otho answered, "ale, mead... Anything really to wash this down. Hell, I'd even take some wine at this point. Don't think you can magic up any for me though."
Otho merely pulled on his pants while he continued to eat. He'd dress after the women had finished. It was the least he could do after his display earlier. He wasn't sorry about it though. He was expecting to fight his way out of that cell and didn't want his bits flying all over the place while he did so. On another note, it looked like he might have stumbled on an angle towards picking up Scoot and his wagon.
"Speaking of ale. If we can get to my wagon, I've got two gallons of the good stuff stashed away. Made it myself. Might also help to have that extra wagon too. I know I don't want to be cooped up in this carriage the whole way to our next stop."
"Armor's still in the bag," Kali replies to Jix's comment about her "armor."
The dwarf crafted chain has obviously repaired several times, and the gauntlets are from two different sets of armor. All of it is battered, scratched, and only usable because of the meticulous care someone has given the pieces. The unstrung bow and the two blades, a long hand-and-a-half sword and a much shorter, curved sword, are in similar shape, old, abused, and only usable thanks to someone's care. Taking a close look, the signs of pitting and age are apparent, if thoroughly cleaned. Underneath it all is a battered wooden shield that looks like it only hasn't fallen apart yet because of someone's ministrations.
The rest of the gear is much the same. Frayed, abused, but strangely well-maintained. The only exceptions are a set of brushes, painter's tools, and paint pots; the arrows; a couple of waterskins; and the items of a cooking kit. It's pretty obvious that most of Kali's gear has been scavenged.
Upon hearing about the possibility of a second wagon, Kali looks up at Otho.
"Where is it, and would you need help getting it ready," she asks.
"Ello my duckies. Uncle Owl comes bearing gifts. And maybe a little magic." Owl leaves the gear on a table for them to sort through then makes directly for the carriage, twirling the keys. He couldn't possibly pass up the opportunity to try a magic item like this. He hops in the back, heads for one of the doors and slides in the key. He pauses a moment to weigh the possibility of a trap. The number came up low so he turns the key and opens.
The key slides in the lock with no problem and turns just as easily. As it clicks, there's a faint glow that emenates from the keyhole and the door opens.
Where once had been an empty wooden wall now exists a large stone room. The floor was smooth, made of tiles and with a few quick calculations by owl he estimates the room is about 30 ft by 30 ft. The ceiling is about 10 feet high and the only light comes from faintly glowing lanterns the hang every ten feet or so from the walls.
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"Shouldn't be too hard, long as Scoot's in an agreeable mood."
The offer of help actually surprised him, considering Kali's earlier irritability. He would have pegged her as someone who wanted nothing to do with anyone or anything.
"The real trick is that we're all wanted. Can't exactly pay for my cart and ox back without being pretty conspicuous. I suppose Owl could do the dealing, but if word has gotten around that it's owner was jailed they could be selling both instead of housing them like they ought to. Might have to steal them in the end."
"Thank you again," Kali says as she passes Owl with her gear in her arms.
"And if they are looking for us, I'd just make us more conspicuous,"[smaller] Kali says glumly. [smaller]"I'm not good at sneaking around, but I guess I could cause a diversion if we needed it."
Kali's looks at her knees and hunkers down under the blanket.
"Sorry, I should have thought that through."
"Happy birthday to me," Owl says positively beaming. He closes the door and locks it again. He then places the other key in and turns. After checking to make sure both rooms were real and livable, he leaves the cart and joins the others. He gathers them all together at a table and outs on a business air.
"Right, if you have any business left in this city, please take care of it swiftly and as quietly at possible." He looks around the table and thinks that might have been a pipe dream. Some of them stuck out too much and others appeared not to have developed a filter between brain and mouth. But he should say it anyway. "We need to leave as soon as possible because they eventually going to notice an empty cell. We can work out details on the fly or in a location sufficiently hidden. Did I hear something about another cart?" He asks of Otho. "If we can get it we can certainly use another in case we need to through off a tail. I imagine the good lord Maggotty, pardon, Maggory will be rather upset to she his son gone. Should send some to investigate today or tonight so we should hasten away while we can."
Jix nods her head in agreement with Owl and snickers at their shared insult of Duke Maggory. "Aye, that pansy arsed, dickless, dullard is sure to be after 'is 'precious' son. Matter 'a fact, I'm sure 'e'd be searchin' for 'im right now. As fer tha cart? I say we leave it, I do. The sooner we get outta 'ere the better.
"Guess that means I need to stay here," Kali says after Owl's pronouncement of taking care business quietly. Things rarely stayed quiet when someone took issue with her, no matter what she tried. Having nothing else to do, she curls up in her corner and tries to get some rest.
Owl closes the simple stone room, and tries the other key, the iron one with a cloth around it. It clicks into place just as the other one has and when the door opens you find a much smaller room, only slightly larger than the common area everyone is in now. Yet, this one is filled with mismatched blankets and pillows. Everything from royal purple sheets to simple cloth covers.
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"Yeah, cart's mine and shouldn't be too far from here," was the answer when Owl rejoined them, "Nothing fancy, deadly, or dangerous. If the caretaker's reasonable then you pay the fee and we get the cart and ox back. If not then a good smack and grab will work, just like I used to back in the day.'
"No," swear to a god he just wanted to shake her when she gets like this, "No diversions. I'd need your help to wrangle Scoot if he does get ornery. We'd toss him in the cart, hitch the cart to the carriage, and take off. 'less you can read minds, how would you know what I'm planning to do?"
"Pansy arsed, dickless, dullard? You are going to have to write some of those down for me. I could use a good list of insults if I decide I to change character," he says to Jix. He then turns to Otho, switching without a beat over to very serious. "If you plan to reacquire this cart I highly suggest not doing it in such a violent and conspicuous manner. We don't want them to realize we are gone for as long as possible. If you can't handle that then leave it behind."
"Coulda used daisy instead of pansy to make it more alluringly alliterative," Kali mumbles sleepily with a slight smile on her face as she curls up a little more. "Personally, I'd prefer 'pansy-pantsed, peabrained pultroon,'" she adds her smile getting just a tiny bit wider.
Otho's comments, and Owl's sudden change in demeanor bring the walls that had fallen just a little back up. She opens her eyes sits up, looking between the two of them and waiting to see what course they'd take.
Jix cocked an eyebrow and shook her head at Kali. "Alliteration, eh? Can't never say I 'eard a that one but yer insults do all start wit' the same letter I'm noticin' so that's pretty neat I suppose. . . could use more references to the fact that my dick is bigger 'n 'is though. Ya know. . . just ta keep 'im in line. But I do think yer on to somethin' there Kali"
The rat-girl stretched back in her seat resting her arms behind her head as she arched her lithe body and kicked her feat up on the table, now balancing on just two chair legs. "Oh aye there Bird-Boy, I got a ton o' 'em you could use. . . I'll even right 'em down for ya later on so ya kin always 'ave a nice affront ta offer yer enemies in any situation guaranteed."
She let out a long sigh and started tapping her foot-paw's claws on the table rhythmically as her tail swayed below her to the beat. "If'n we were to go after this cart o' yers Othy, we could send you out as bait. . . not particularly attractive bait, but bait none the less, fer ol' Maggoty. Draw 'im out in person, in the open, it would just take one shot an' that git will be outa our 'air forever." Jix smirks at the thought and taps her fingers along the limb of her crossbow wistfully. "I won't miss. . . not after what 'e did to me tail."
"Right, because kidnapping isn't bad enough, let's add murder charges to the mix," Laetitia says, wrinkling her nose at Jix's paws on the table. "You do know we'll be eating here for at least the next few weeks, don't you?" Drawing an ornate-looking dark wooden box from her satchel, Laetitia sets it on the table before her and opens it. Inside are a dozen or so brushes of varying shapes and sizes, containers full of highly pigmented powders, and a few unlabeled tonics. "I'm sure you're a creature of many talents, dear, but from what I've seen so far, subtlety isn't one of them," she informs Jix in the most gentle manner she can manage--which is to say, not at all gentle--before looking over to Otho. "If you're so attached to it, I suppose I'll have to go collect the ox myself." Returning her attention to the grooming kit on the table, Tish claps her hands together once, saying to no one in particular, "I'm thinking a disguise is in order. Wouldn't you agree?"
After listening and analyzing the choices made here, Owl came to a few conclusions about the people he was now stuck with for this transportation mission. And the decision he came to was that they should probably just leave. While entertaining, he was certain Jix or Otho would get captured if left to their own devices. Instinct told him to bug out as soon as possible and he always trusted that instinct. "Revenge is exceedingly costly and, in this case, very dangerous, my fury little friend. I am sure an opportunity will arrive for us to dispense with the justice on Mr. Maggory but you have a dept to pay to Mr. Desoran first. He hired me to see to it you got out of that prison and I imagine it was for a good reason." He then looks about at the people gathered. A lot of different skills he could tell. "I believe all of our skills will be needed at some point or else he would have sent just me and that lovely carriage. So I think it best we instead table all your desires here in favor of swift exodus. I'll grab some maps and meet you back here in a few minutes. We've got heavily enchanted carriage already. I bet there be some real wealth to be earned for this."
He locks gazes with each person around the table, giving them each the same amount of consideration. He wanted them to feel like their troubles were valid but paled in comparison what could be earned here. Maybe that was another reason he was hired. He was sure he needed them and Desoran was sure he could get them to go along. "Please just hop in the carriage and be good. Okay?"
The issue seemingly settled, Kali adjuest her blanket to be more like a cloak as she stands up. Looking to the young boy they were supposed to escort to who knows where, and feels a sense of kinship with him. The young tiefling walks over to the even younger lad and puts a smile on her face
"Thomias," she says softly as she wraps one arm and the blanket, around his shoulders, "come here, it's going to be chilly outside, and we don't want you to catch a cold." She gives him a sisterly grin as she adjusts the makeshift cloak to ward off the night air. "Don't worry, I don't bite," she assures him before leading him to the carriage.
With the majority of the group discouraging the taking of Maggory's life, it seems the plan is Owl to grab some maps while Laetitia and Otho go to secure his wagon and Scoot.
Bjorn gives Thomias one last bear hug goodbye. It's hard to see, but the large man's eyes are watering a bit and he speaks in hushed tones.
"Be good lad....eh?"
Thomias hugs him back just as fiercely and nods.
Bjorn departs and Kali comes to comfort the boy. It seems he's putting on a tough act, quickly wiping his own tears away and putting on a firm face. Still, he accepts the blanket from Kali and is guided into the keyroom adorned with all manner of pillows and sheets. He finds a space nearby her and ducks under the covers to hide his face.
You can hear his quiet sobbing.
It doesn't take long to find what you're looking for. After all, you've already done extensive prepwork for the area before you had even arrived. Still, as you exit, you can swear you hear some muttering behind you.
Turning to look, you see a man trying to behave nonchalantly as he mumbles something to an armed man, an armed man dressed in good quality armor.
This is setting off all the alarms in your head.
You both set out after Laetitia has enough time to try and put a disguise on.
Otho leads you to where he had parked Scoot and the cart earlier. However, there's something immediately amiss.
There stands Scoot. No cart to be found.
The first thing Kali notices as she settles down in the nest of pillows is how sinfully comfortable it is. That thought is quickly chased away by the sobbing she hears from Thomias. She wanted to help him, to make everything better, but she had no idea how to start.
In the end, she falls back on what she always wished someone had done for her when she was sad and lonely. She shifts her posture and wraps her arms around Thomias, bringing his head to lay on her shoulder.
"You're going to miss Beorn when we leave, aren't you," she asks softly.
"It's okay to cry. It's our heart's way of healing. We cry to let out the pain we feel. If we don't the pain never goes away, and pain will keep a heart that's broken from healing," she tells him gently. As she speaks, the walls she'd kept up begin to crack, and the first tears she'd shed in years roll down her face.
"I-it's okay to cry," she whispers as she pulls her arms tighter around Thomias and squeezes her eyes shut to try and stem the swelling tide of grief and sorrow she'd kept locked away for so long.
She had to do something to keep from bawling here and now, if not to keep Jix and Laetitia from having yet something else to joke about at her expense then for Thomias and his sake. Her mind draws blank after blank until an old memory of an ancient lullaby comes to mind.
In the soft lilting tongue of the elves, she sings until both Thomias and she are asleep.
With no objections to her plan, Laetitia begins crafting her disguise. A small square of cloth is dipped into a clear tonic, which she then swipes over her eyes, cheeks and lips, removing the makeup she had so meticulously applied that morning. "The things I do for others." Her face a blank canvas once more, Laetitia collects some of the mauve powder and sweeps it underneath her eyes to simulate an exhausted appearance. Next, she takes a darker powder and sweeps it along the outside of her face, creating sharper angles and a narrower-looking face. The final touch comes when she carefully scoops a handful of ash from the hearth, coats her fingers in it and runs them through her hair at the temples, simulating streaks of grey. After cleaning off her hands, she pins the rest of her hair up into a bun and wraps the rags that she had been wearing around it as a makeshift headscarf. "Oh, Moose, I'll need your shirt," she tells Otho, hoping that his top will be large and loose enough to hide her figure.
The result: in ten minutes time, Laetitia looks like a much older, tired version of herself. The disguise isn't flawless; there are telling discrepancies in her appearance if one has a keen enough eye. Still, she's confident that she won't be drawing nearly as much scrutiny as she typically does.
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"Go figure that people can't be trusted in Riddleport, huh?" Laetitia says, assuming that someone must have stolen the man's cart while they were sitting in that cell. That they took the cart and not the ox didn't strike the woman as particularly strange; oxen were known to be stubborn beasts, apparently just like their owners. "Well, are we doing this or what?"
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He found it legitimately hard to believe. If he didn't know it was her, he never would have guessed it was Tish. Pretty impressive for a little bit of face paint.
It was also hard to believe that someone would just leave his ox. Shame to see his ale and cart go to waste, but he was here for Scoot after all. As they closed in on the beast, Otho kept his eyes peeled. Scoot being out in the open made it as ideal a trap as any.
"We're doing this. Get on the other side of him, but stay in sight. I'll need you to help calm him if he gets out of hand."
Otho came forward, clicking his tongue to get Scoot's attention. With one hand he offered a comforting head rub and the other grabbed his rope. If Scoot proved willing, they'd lead him away nice and tidy.
@ Laetitia & Otho
Nothing seems to catch Otho's gaze, but he does notice some blood on the ground near Scoot and some ripped cloth stuck to one of its hooves.
Scoot lazily looks up at you as you try and get his attention. He doesn't outright attack you, but it seems his stubborn nature is showing as you tug on his rope and he refuses to move.
Laetitia does as she's bid, carefully moving around Scoot while keeping an eye on his horns. She does not, however, comply with Otho's request quietly. "Your confidence in me is flattering, but my wiles work exclusively on things with two legs. The best I can do if he starts getting ornery is knock him unconscious for a bit. You're a strapping specimen of a man and all that, but I doubt that dragging a tonne of dead weight back to the carriage is within even your ability."
When Otho's coaxing fails to move the beast, Laetitia can't stop the amused smirk that curves her lips. "Are you sure this one's yours?"
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He knew Tish was joking about dragging the ox back to the carriage. All it reminded Otho of was the times he literally had to drag the animal to make any headway. It wasn't hard to come up with a name like "Scoot" when you're shout the word repeatedly.
"Yeah, he's mine. Put up a fight too when they took the cart. If you can find something for him to chew on, this would probably be easier. I'll keep trying to move him."
Owl pauses and pretends like he is trying to get his bearings. In reality, he is trying to over hear the conversation and wondering who the armed man is.
[dice=K"Local]1d20+7[/dice]
@ Laetitia and Otho
The second try seems successful, as Scoot heeds Otho's guidance and begins to lumber to where he's guided.
You eventually make it back to the carriage without incident.
@ Owl
You know neither of the two men are of importance, or you'd recognize them from your files. However, you can tell by the armed man's rough demeanor that he probably hasn't lived his entire life as a shopkeep's guard, and the size of his potbelly doesn't inspire confidence when his probable salary isn't enough to keep him that well fed.
You catch snippets of their conversation.
"....Ilsuran.....make sure......scout......easy pickings......no witnesses...."
It's easy enough to tell what they're plotting.
Jix, Kari, and Lia find that the room filled the pillows and blankets already has two occupants, who turn out to be Kali and Thomias soundly sleeping where they'd curled up into a makeshift nest, Kali's armws wrapped protectively around Thomias.
Well, Kali was sound asleep until something shifted and wakes her.
"Was th'matter? Di'Maggoty find us," she asks sleepily as she looks Lia and Jix through bleary eyes.
"Is something on fire?"
"Are we being robbed?"
"Did someone start a fight?"
"Is anyone bleeding?"
"Are Honnle and Filipe trying to start a Strip Towers Tourney again?"
After hearing a negative or confused "huh" to each question, Kali settles back down and closes her eyes.
"M'kay. I'm just gonna go back to sleep," she mutters.