"Sounds like a plan to me. If Airy doesn't come back down, we'll figure the roof isn't a good way to go" Tarvak says with an uncharacteristic grin.
Shane/Jaelynn
Shane, floating in the open air in Airy's grasp, and Jaelynn, cradled in the earth elemental's stony arms as it glides up the stone walls, quickly came to the top of the tower. The top floor of the tower was capped by a crenellated roof to allow snipers to fire upon invaders, though the Duchess was clearly running out of troops because the roof was clear.
There was a metal door and a mechanical hatch that took up most of the roof, but no sign of Asabrey or hostile soldiers.
Shane scanned the roof for opponents. Finding none, he glanced at Jaelynn before sending Airy back down for reinforcements. "We might need Tarvak if that hatch is locked."
Jaelynn nodded, and sent the earth elemental down to fetch another team member. She'd left the shadow with orders to protect the team until everyone was up top together.
While they were gone, she examined the metal door - from a distance.
Shane likewise sent the air elemental back for more constables. Then he approached the metal door stealthily, not wanting to alert anyone below to their presence. He stopped when he was in a position to attack anything that came through the door.
Ralf and Tarvak go up in the next lift, then Anthony and Aziel. Soon the whole team is on the roof. Anthony is very interested in the retractable, mechanical hatch cover most of the roof and inspects it in detail as the others examine the door.
Tarvak looks at the door and tries to unlock it but snaps off a pick in the lock, jamming it. The only way through now is to force it open.
"I have two flasks each of acid and alkaline. Perhaps we can burn through the lock? Or at least the portion of the roof that supports the bolt? The copper itself is likely to be resistant to direct application of either substance, given its low reactivity."
Seeing Tarvak casting about for leverage, Ralf nudged him, then held out his hanbo.
Aziel lifted the musket she had appropriated and sighted down the barrel at the lock. "Maybe the acid, then we try to blow the lock, oui? Or are we trying to be more, how you say, discreet?" Her long tail twitched at the tip as she considered the problem.
"Well, the acid would be quieter - let's try it first, ok?" Tarvak said, looking around for dissent.
Tarvak took Jaelynn's proffered acid and pours it gingerly into the lock. A few seconds of hissing and an acrid smell leter, he tried the door again and found that with a little leverage he could force the handle open.
Shane volunteers to go first, being perhaps better at hand to hand combat. Tarvak can cover him with his bow if need be. If stealth will help, he'll try to keep to shadows.
Following behind Shane at a short distance (3 squares, maybe?), crossbow at the ready, also trying to be Stealthy :
+4(DEX) + 2(lvl) = 17
Tarvak and Shane crept down a set of metal stairs to a catwalk overlooking the large observatory that took up the keep's top floor. As they watched, a tall, dark haired man with a burning sword and a lion-headed shield cut down the last two soldiers guarding the other way into the room. A pack of slain summoned wolves was just fading from view. From their vantage point they could see the Duchess easily, crouching behind a control panel festooned with dials, wheels, levers, and gauges. There was another man- no, a tiefling, hiding behind another panel, frantically reloading a pistol.
"Don't do this, Asabrey," the Duchess said from her hiding place.
"Save your breath for prayers." The fey warrior stalked toward the Duchess's voice.
"If you're here for the reason I suspect, you should pray with me. Did I so displease the Court that you had to slaughter a hundred men just to reach me?" She clutched a sprig of holly in one hand and seemed to be preparing another spell as she spoke.
The other constables came down the stairs as the conversation continued and Asabrey stalked toward the Duchess's hiding spot.
"To avoid war? I would kill ten times as many to save the lives of thousands of my folk. Your people must not think we attempted to kill their king!"
[ooc]I'll break here in case anybody wants to jump in or do something. Otherwise they'll keep talking to each other.[/b]
Tarvak froze, thinking furiously. His job was to bring the Duchess in for justice. But wouldn't justice be served by this fey warrior? On the other hand, could he just walk away and let someone be slaughtered? But the Duchess herself had killed some people and tried to kill many more, and Tarvak wasn't sure the team could take on that warrior. He'd never had to deal with these kinds of problems when living on the streets!
Shane, like Tarvak, watched but saw no chance of standing up to the man with the fiery sword. He wanted to do his duty but did not feel that he would be able to stop this force of nature. He would willingly sacrifice his life for his country, but in this case, it seemed that trying to stop the man would be nothing but a futile gesture. He also couldn't muster up much sympathy for the duchess, so he remained where he was and tried to hear and remember the conversation, hoping it would shed light on the actors and plans of the conspiracy, of which the duchess was apparently only a minor portion.
Her thoughts echoing those of the others, Aziel listened to Asabrey and the Duchess speaking - but she was watching the tiefling with a pistol. With a minute gesture, she caught the attention of her company, and nodded toward the enemy tiefling, then raised her musket in query.
Shooting the tiefling before (he? she?) could attack might prevent Asabrey from out-and-out killing the Duchess before she could reveal more... or it might draw his attention to them, instead.
Aziel did not want Asabrey angry with her.
Of course, it was also possible that they should at least attempt to stop him to fulfill their duty. Aziel was really, really hoping it wouldn't come to that.
Jaelynn stepped out from hiding, her hands very clearly empty and held widely away from her body.
She'd sent the shadow flitting towards the Tiefling that Aziel had indicated just before stepping out, in the hopes that anything stupid (or anything more stupid than what she was about to do, at least) might be avoided.
"Lord Asabrey," Jaelynn called, once she was clear of her companions, hopefully leaving them hidden, still. "Risuri does not suspect our People of this. But if you kill the Duchess, rather than letting me bring her to trial for her crimes, there will be those who will ask what the Unseen Court wishes to hide."
Jaelynn shrugged. "Unlike the man in the corner with the firearm, I will not be so foolish as to try to fight you, if you are determined to see her die. I merely point out that you may be hurting your own cause if you mean to slay her to avoid bringing suspicion upon elf-kind."
Shane will send the air elemental closer to Jaelynn with instructions for it to defend her if anything attacks her. He readies shurikens to throw at anyone who tries to attack Jaelynn.
Feeling completely out of his element and caught off-guard by Jaelynn's tactic, Ralf continued to hang back, waiting and watching.
Stunned, Tarvak suppresses a grunt of surprise and if possible, takes a step or two while staying in their hiding place in order to get a better line on Asabrey with his crossbow. If that isn't possible, he'll just stay at the ready.
Asabrey didn't look half as surprised as her fellow constables when Jaelynn stepped out into the open. He shifted his stance slightly to put Jaelynn more squarely in his line of sight but didn't move any more than that. He frowned at Jaelynn for a moment. "You are an elf." It was more than the simple statement it sounded like. Jaelynn had never met him before, but apparently there was no deceiving this man. He flicked his sword in the Duchess's direction. "This handmaiden isn't as loyal as Rell, Duchess."
The Duchess stood but didn't come out from behind her console. "She doesn't serve me, but if you would listen to me, unlike my brother, I can tell you why I did all this."
Asabrey turned his frown on the Duchess. "I won't listen to you beg, Ethelyn."
"Don't be ridiculous. There's a threat to all of us. I told the Court..."
"Enough of your visions." He looked at Jaelynn. "You serve Risur? One of Aodhan's spies? Fine. I will give you a message to take to your King. No one has to die here today."
Jayelynn nodded.
"I serve where I am called to serve. I will deliver your message to the king, as you say."
Asabrey nods. "The Unseen Court had nothing to do with the attack on Aodhan. Ethelyn acted without our support. He knows our goals, but we do not seek war with Risur." He sneers in the tiefling's direction. "And we are not allied with the devils."
The Duchess held up her hands and stepped in between Asabrey and Jaelynn. "Wait! Wait. Asabrey, don't do this." She turned fully toward Jaelynn. "The skyseers have had a vision. Please, you have to listen to me. 'A globe spins on its axis, and a steel ship sets off to war on a sail of shadows. The world passes into night, and blackness grips all of Risur as the stars fall from the sky. The king’s eyes turn a soulless white, and he moves as a puppet, his strings pulled by a man who has already died a thousand times.'"
"You see? Axis. Axis Island!" She gestured down at the floor, indicating the ground at their feet. "And the steel ship must be the Coaltongue. Aodhan must turn away from this... this obsession with technology of his. He's in danger. The whole world is in danger if we don't return to the old ways."
Asabrey stepped forward and grabbed the Duchess's hair from behind, jerking her to the floor with a surprised shriek. "That's enough." He looked at Jaelynn. "I will take Ethelyn and her pet as assurances of your good faith. I will need a ship with a skeleton crew to take me to the mainland. Once we have arrived I will release the Duchess to Risuri care."
"Can you provide this?"
Aziel side-eyed her companions. Would Asabrey really turn over the Duchess?
If he didn't, could any of them stop him?
Shane shrugged and nodded, to indicate he would agree to try to arrange a ship if would mean no more lives lost and the mission accomplished. If Asabrey had ulterior motives, that would be a risk we'd have to take.
"No," Jaelynn said, as a number of things came together in her head. She hadn't seen Shane's nod from his hidden position behind her.
"You cut your way through both forces like a hot knife through butter. You don't need a hostage. Unless you've been hurt much more than you want us to think. In which case, giving you a hostage puts us at a needless disadvantage. As you said, no one else needs to die here. Leave the Duchess with us, and we will see you safely to the mainland. You could kill her right now, and we could only try to avenge her. We can't stop you. So it is we who need a sign of good faith from you, not the other way around. Leave the Duchess as that sign."
Asabrey looked at Jaelynn for a moment before shaking his head. "I have more to say to Ethelyn, and it's not for your ears. I am hurt, and killing you would bring me no joy, but you would still fall to my blade. I will keep Ethelyn with me to insure there are no misunderstandings with your troops. As you said, I cut may way through your soldiers. There may be hard feelings."
He gestured in the tiefling's direction. "Keep the devil, I will take the Duchess."
Jaelynn arched an eyebrow.
"You do realize that, as the representative of the Unseen Court, who came here claiming that the Duchess wasn't working for the Court, that trying to leave with her as a "hostage" could easily be seen as an attempt to rescue her, or to kill her in order to keep her quiet, yes? Literally any other person or persons on this island would be a smarter choice for you to take as a hostage than that woman, if your priority is to be sure that the King knows that she wasn't working with the Court. You can take me, for example. If you insist on taking her with you, or killing her, all that you will do is prove that the Court wanted her rescued, or killed to prevent her from telling the King about the Court's involvement. Even - especially - if the Court wasn't involved. One cannot prove a negative, sadly, and most people are idiots, who will believe whatever the circumstantial evidence implies."
Literally any other person or persons on this island would be a smarter choice for you to take as a hostage than that woman, if your priority is to be sure that the King knows that she wasn't working with the Court. You can take me, for example.
"Jaelynn, no," Ralf said quietly but firmly.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Shane summoned the air elemental to his side to be ready to move when the negotiations settled on an arrangement.
Sensing a stalemate, Shane called out to Jaelynn in a voice he hoped was loud enough for her to hear but soft enough to keep Asabrey from hearing or at least to keep him from reacting violently, "Let's take his offer. I can fly with Airy to arrange the ship."
Jaelynn frowned. It didn't make sense to her to let Asabrey walk with the Duchess. He didn't need her. Not if his story was true, and the Court had nothing to do with her actions. No, his insistence on keeping her as a hostage made no sense, unless he was lying, and intended to kill (or rescue) the Duchess. Or unless he was more injured than he was letting on, and felt that he needed a human shield to even get to the boat safely.
In either case, letting him take her seemed a mistake.
"Asabrey," she said, her tone authoritative (she hoped), "I will guarantee your safe passage to a ship, and to your destination, but only you, and only if you leave the Duchess, unharmed, here, with us." Her voice softened, just a little, as she reiterated her logic to him. "You don't need her. And taking her just makes the Court look guilty by association. I've said before, we probably can't stop you - despite the blood trail you left coming here, that indicates that you are more wounded than you'd like us to think - but I would prefer to avoid further bloodshed. Take my offer. Safe passage - without the Duchess - and your mission is achieved."
Shane sighed inwardly and rose and slowly made his way next to Jaelynn. "Asabrey. I am constable Shane Sangster, comrade of Jaelynn. We and several others single-handedly infiltrated this city, opened the gates, and let the Rishuri marines in. You may be a strong fighter, but we are prepared to defend that which we have been assigned to secure: the Duchess. You may be able to take us out, but then you have to fight the rest of the marines. Let's take the Duchess together to the bay and negotiate with the fleet leader. They will have to agree to your terms and without us, you will likely not convince them."
Shane motioned for the others to rise and show themselves, so Asabrey knew what he had to deal with.
Aziel stepped out of the shadows, her musket politely not pointed directly at Asabrey.
"Oh, great - gonna die on my first job" Tarvak thinks to himself.
He came out of the shadows, readied crossbow angled down at the floor, but pointing in Asabrey's direction.
Asabrey looked like he was going to refuse Jaelynn's offer, until Shane spoke up and both Aziel and Tarvak revealed themselves. He grunted and shook his head tiredly. "Fine. No more blood on my blade today." He locked eyes with Jaelynn. "But if you are deceiving me and I walk into a trap, I will kill every soldier you send at me then come back and kill each of you, one by one."
He sneered at the Duchess. "I leave you to what I hope is a fate worse than death, Ethelynn- ignominy and obscurity. Death may have been cleaner for you."
The Duchess, finally assured that she wasn't about to die, whooped in a great breath and started sobbing tears of relief.
The fey warrior looked back at Jaelynn and Shane. "I am done here. Take me to your leader."
Shane will have Airy carry him to the harbor and begin to explain the stand-off, terms, and what the constables promised Asabrey. Then he will maintain a position in between the marines and Asabrey as some assurance there will be no general ambush or musket fire at him.
If there is an opportunity after the work is done, Shane would seek out some local folk and ask about the mine shaft with the magic spikes and the coins to see if those are local concerns or something instigated by the Duchess. If local, he'll offer to return his coin to their service and notify the locals of the presence of some of their own hiding and possibly wounded in the cave. If instigated by the Duchess, he will report that to the leaders as something to follow up on with the appropriate experts.
First day of summer
Summer in Flint was not anyone's favorite season, but the warm, muggy morning had yet to turn into the hot, wet heat of deep summer, and the belt-driven ceiling fans were doing an adequate job of keeping the air moving in the office, so it wasn't quite as bad as it could have been.
Over the past few months as memory of the attempted assassination faded from public memory, the news had become dominated by one of five things- the small earthquakes that were gradually becoming commonplace, the upcoming nuptials of wealthy Flint industrialist Guy Goodson, the Ragman murders, the arsonist burning down factory buildings and the homes of factory owners, and the anti-technology terrorist Gale. Of the five, only Gale was of interest to the Royal Homeland Constabulary.
Gale was the name given by the papers to the anti-technology terrorist for her apparent ability to fly away from the scene of the crime, in spite of years of research and experimentation showing that to be impossible. Her usual M.O. was to sneak into a factory at night and sabotage the machines to stop work or cut the mooring lines of docked ships to get them to drift into the harbor. She has won the sympathies of anti-Danoran agitators and those who hold to the old ways.
But many common workers saw her as a threat to their livelihood, and the government considered her a foreign provocateur with ties to the Vekeshi Mystics. She was also blamed for thefts from the homes of wealthy factory owners, for the killings of a company of surveyors who wandered into the Cloudwood to site a potential railroad, and for a botched assassination attempt against Kane Westman, a tax collector with strong political friends.
While they had been lauded by King and nobles alike for their part in preventing an assassination and capturing Duchess Ethelyn- now safely imprisoned- Unit 11 was now facing down their most daunting foe to date- paperwork. Turns out that a great deal of the work of a constable involved filling out forms.
With her shirt collar open and her guns hanging from the back of her chair, Aziel was frowning at her stack of paperwork with the usual cigarette dangling from her lips. Her frown slowly turned into a scowl as she picked up the sheet she had just finished inking in and peered at it closely.
"Did I just write 'refer to form 8-z' instead of 'refer to form 8-Bc'?! Bloody blitzkrieg! Je suis un fou!" Crumpling up the paper with an exasperated sigh, she flung it at the back of Jaelynn's head. "Shane is the one who should be writing about the damn elemental, anyway. Or rather, Jae should fill out all the forms, because she never gets them wrong. 8-z! Tell me, Ralf, do you remember when we requisitioned Category G: wild animals? I bloody meant we requisitioned miscellaneous items of a value not exceeding 1000 standard denomination gold coins! Though, calling for a tiger doesn't sound so bad now. Maybe it will eat me and save me from more paper cuts."
Ralf, who had been staring blankly at the forms before him for some time now, grunted. "Am thinking eaten by tiger much better fate than... paperwork." He gestured at the sheets to emphasize the last word.
Jaelynn heard the paper ball coming and flicked a finger at it, almost without looking. The ball burst into flame and dissolved into a sprinkle of ashes in the muggy air of the office. She waved a finger, and another (blank) copy of the form Aziel had thrown at her floated from her desk to settle on the Tiefling's blotter.
"I don't get them wrong, because to do so wastes even more of my time. It's an asinine waste of resources. I could be cataloging wood smoke varieties right now!"
Jaelynn had, in fact, through experimentation, determined that getting the forms right was the most efficient use of her time. She'd originally tried ignoring them (Delft had not responded well to that tactic, nor to her explanation that, since she could remember everything important that had happened, they were unnecessary); her minor rebellion of intentionally mis-filing forms had gone equally poorly, as not only had she had to re-file everything correctly, she'd also had to fill out dozens of additional forms, to have the original, incorrect ones deleted, amended, or removed from the records.
That had been a seriously annoying week. It was a miracle that the station hadn't somehow burned down.
"Aiwa," Ralf agreed. "Working katas also is being better use of time." He pulled a small crystal from his robes and idly rolled it around atop the papers. "Also is learning more control of powers."
You're the one who wanted this job. Paperwork is part and parcel. Just do it!
Ralf grunted. "High on list," he said, jabbing a pointed finger at the crystal, "is teaching you to be doing paperwork."