| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The Amazing CoCo flies around. "I am just a normal raven! Ca-CAW! Ca-CAW! Definitely nobody should shoot at me!"
The bow-dropping gent's strike is a powerful one, and Nico - who seems a rather easy target without a magical field of force to protect him - falls to the ground bleeding!
Phinellippa's zipping magic ball evokes a glare of annoyance from the sword-bearing cat-killer.
The man's eyes widen as Verrix' warhammer gets closer and closer, eventually smashing into the side of his head and leaving him reeling. Leaning against the villa with one hand, he drops his bow and holds the other out as if to ward off further attacks. "Nethys' Unmentionables, that hurt," he manages between clenched teeth. "Don't do that again, please..."
With an effort, he raises his voice and calls out to his comrades, "I'm done; one runaway noble isn't worth dying over."
The one behind the rocks yells back, "But I got one of 'em!"
From the house's entryway, the gentleman facing Kleines looks down at his fallen fellow, lowers his bow and yells back, "Yohan's right; it's not worth it. Maybe they'll only kill you..."
Finally, the rock-pile-hiding man throws his sword down and backs away slowly, a fearful look on his face. "Look, the cat was attacking me... surely you wouldn't kill an unarmed man, would you?"
|
“I am happy to share, Nelly,” Damiar says. She’s pronounced Phinellippa’s name four or five different ways so far, and still hasn’t found one that she likes. Damiar pulls out her wand of CLW.
Then she visits the cat.
“Lippa, I have an idea,” she says, trying out yet another nickname for the gnome. “Why don’t you use your wand to mage armor Nico if I keep healing you?”
After Damiar graciously heals the wounds of the unconscious Nico, the great cat opens his eyes slowly, looking around in some confusion, as if wondering how he got from bounding into a fight to taking a nap on the grass. With the feline equivalent of a shrug - a slight flicking of his long, handsome whiskers - he appears to conclude that a nap is better than a fight anyway, and remains at rest on the grass.
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
With the attackers no longer a threat, Garif hurries over to check on the fallen Nico, and is pleased to see that his friends have already begun to tend to the panther. "Oh, I know we've used that armor spell on him before," Garif says, his tone both contrite and concerned as he lays a hand on the sleek, black fur, "and I should have thought to use it again before putting him in danger. I would appreciate anything Damiar or Phinellippa can do to keep him safe, and thank you to both elven sisters for patching him up!"
The surrendered gentleman shrugs. "Don't know who told you that, but doesn't matter, neither."
He pauses. "Look... I've got a wife back home, an'... I know you aristocrats probly want revenge, but... please, just let me go, and I swear I'll never cross you again. Won't even come over the border."
The other two chorus their agreement, adding their own oaths if they're allowed to return home to Galt.
The men's eyes light up at Iovo's words, though their excitement fades a bit at Kleines' continued questioning.
"The girl's inside with the boss. He brought us here, said there was a noble needed tracking down and returning to face the Gardeners. What else is there to know?"
The man raises en eyebrow of his own at Damiar's questions. "Of course I'm referrin' to the Grey Gardeners... what'd you think, some noble forgot to pay her yardkeeper and then ran away because of it?"
He sighs, as if trying to decide the best way to explain a delicate matter. "Look, Lady"—somehow, the honorific manages to convey the opposite of its surface meaning—"everybody's got their own ways of justice, right? Well, we Galtans have ours. When a noble oppresses the rest of us... the Gardeners look out for us. Someday, maybe they won't have to, but that day isn't gonna come if people think they can just run across the border an' not have to answer for their crimes."
Taking a deep breath, he slowly lowers himself to a piece of broken masonry near the house, eying Verrix' warhammer warily. Another of the men mutters something under his breath, and the eloquent answerer shrugs.
|
|
Grey Gardeners? Executioners?
“There must be some mistake. The lady we seek isn’t from Galt. She is the heiress of the local winery. Although that wine is certainly a crime against the senses, it is no cause for an executioner to be called for!”
Shaking her head, she repeats “Something is very wrong here. Who told you she was some escaped noble, Yohan?”
Yohan shrugs. "Like I said, the boss is inside. He's the one what hired us. Swear on my mother's ancestors, that's all I know. What'll it be -- can we go?"
|
|
Looking to Kleines, then Yohan, Iovo says “He agreed to trust me. Please don’t make me a fool.”
With a wave of her hand in a direction away from town, she tells the Galtans “Go. Leave Andoran and make no more trouble for us.”
Getting her bow ready, she then looks towards the entrance. “Let’s go talk to their boss.”
Yohan's eyes widen, as if he can't quite believe they're actually being allowed to leave. He nods once at Iovo and then half-turns, looking behind him as if expecting an arrow in his back at any moment. Glancing back as they go, the three men scuttle away, not even stopping to pick up their dropped weapons.
The front doors remain open where two of the Galtans were hiding (one of whom is still there, lying unconscious in a pool of blood), but no sounds issue from within.
|
|
Verrix grunts. "I am not sure it is wise to allow kidnappers to go free. That is a serious violation of the law, and of the rights and safety of their victim."
"If, as these folks claim, they were dupes fed a false story, and they believed they were following their laws-- as odious as the laws of Galt may be-- then I suppose it is OK to let them go. Alas..."
Verrix shakes his head, a grim set to his mouth. "Many will lie, telling a plausible story that they think their captors want to hear, when accused of a crime. Before we set them free, perhaps to spread their thuggish ways further, in the future we should find some verification of their story."
"Come. Let us go speak to their leader and see if he supports their story, and what he has to say for himself. Let us also make sure that Ms. Andares is safe."
|
|
With a shrug, Iovo responds to Phin “Most likely, both sides have bad information. Yet to be determined how many and who on each side is lying.”
Looking to Verrix, Iovo says “I care more about people’s lives than any sort of punishment. Still, exile is a form of punishment.”
Looking down at purple’s body, she asks “Is that one still alive?]”
She tries to check. “I can’t tell...”
|
|
“I don’t know,” says Damiar. “They involved the Gray Gardeners, the executioners who operate the final blades — the ones that when they kill you, they take your soul as well. So... We have a bunch of Galtans who are convinced that Thalia is a criminal noble. We have a story of a kidnapping, and a story of a runaway... Someone is likely playing both us and them, and I don’t like it one bit.”
The elf keeps walking, her long legs pacing back and forth with sheer nervous energy.
“Phinny and Iovo, I really hate this. If this was a set-up, who benefits? Kidnapping is one thing, but bringing the Gray Gardeners in to this is incomprehensible to me! Were these Galtan idiots supposed to take Thalia across the border and execute her, reaping her very soul away? And for what? Why would anyone set up something so convoluted to get one young woman out of the way?”
The young elf looks troubled, brushing her red hair out of her face. She’s never met Thalia, but she’s gotten a sense of Thalia as a fellow seeker and kindred spirit from what little she’s heard of the girl.
“So... what do you think this is? Perhaps Thalia set up her own kidnapping to get away from home, or to gain attention, and it got out of hand. Or perhaps someone else set it up. Her father is not old, but there is a lot of money in that estate. Maybe some other friend or relative would inherit if the girl was out of the way? And did you all notice that her father did not seem keen to help us at all?”
“Bah! This is a mess!” She kicks a rock out of the way, her normal jovial disposition suddenly turned stormy and serious. “After we meet uo with this leader, I think we should track down that Uncle, the Eagle Knight, and get some information on who would benefit if she disappeared.”
Then she looks grim. “When we find whomever’s responsible, I want to kick their ass.”
The man comes to as Kleines' magic does its work. As he opens his eyes, they widen as they take in the faces standing over him, and he coughs up some blood before speaking. "Was havin' a nice little nap..." he manages weakly. Licking his lips, his eyes move slowly from side to side as he assesses the group's intentions. "Spose you didn't bring me around just to kill me..." he begins, before trailing off, waiting for he knows not what.
The man eyes the two elves warily, but finally sighs in resignation and sips the proffered water. "Don't seem I've got much choice, huh? Boss told us. He's inside, unless'n you already fixed him, too."
|
|
“There are always choices.” Iovo replies.
She then points out “We chose to risk healing you enough that you could move, and soon enough that you could rejoin your companions. Please don’t make that the wrong choice on our part.”
“Oh, and does your boss have a name? We really can’t address him like that!”
The man shrugs. "Don't go tradin' names on jobs like these," he replies.