Pava snorts. "Oh yeah, much better it all stays locked up here doing heaps of good. Probably easier to carry on the way out though," they allow.
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Pava quaffs an antitoxin before the descent. "Thanks Acadamae, never knew anyone to get got by the poison of it all. Claws being what they are and such." Cut-down klar on their forearm, they quickly follow. "On your heels, Murderbird."
Pava creeps along as well, uncertainty weighing down their limbs. "Anyone know who this Chamidu bloke is and if they'd mind us insulting them?"
Hey y'all. Very sorry for the prolonged absence. I got busy and the site got silly, which meant that the time I had to give my games here wasn't enough to actually get to everyone, but I'm sorry this one slipped away from me. Should be on track now :-)
Nips at Heels has always had a hard time keeping a civil tongue with folk like the Arkona, but they do mention in an aside that it "Might be worth freeing up some space in the magic bags. Da always said reefclaw was good eating if you weren't the one had to get gutted to catch it. Course he didn't wear armor while he was casting his nets."
Whatever you like. Okay, Rule of Two says we move forward with waltzing up to the front door in the morning. Let's get this show on the road. Sounds good to me!
"Nobs're all a bit criminal in any case... Pava murmurs. "Might as well nose about on that side of the lane. Trouble with asking after defenses is that the ones got caught in them usually won't have much in the way of tales, but there's always someone who watched a salutary lesson crash down on the bloke in front of them. Course, they might keep that quiet..."
Pava grimaces, but accepts the logic of Shrike's plan. They make sure to not tarry too long with Lina, asking Madam Ioana instead too "Not leave him alone for too long, yeah? He's had more than a bad brush or two, and needs his time to recollect himself."
Pava shudders at the too close touch of the divine. "His mind's been strung up on barbed hooks. Just 'cause it hurts more now doesn't mean it'd be good to reopen the wounds."
"And maybe a bit quietly, mate? Working on a headache that doesn't need your help."
Hey y'all, sorry for radio silence - I'm here, just fell into a pit of irl stuff. I'll toss at least a quick quip up just to place Nips at Heels in time.
I just bought a +2 :') I believe the hat and headband don't conflict (head and headband being separate slots), so Audria should be good. I think Shrike can be the caretaker of the ring - we can always pass it off to Shane at need
Future Pava Thoughts: They'd feel very weird about basically just taking up the Blackjack mantle without so much as a conversation with Ven, but that's a direction for them that I think would be interesting!
Pava rolls one shoulder, glaring at Elric's casual revelation of Orisini's nom de guerre. "Soldier boy's got a point. He looks the part most, and I can't see as Ven'd mind us borrowing his togs to do it."
"Well take some notes. Some day might be cause to give some other blade a royal task." Pava squats down on their haunches, eyeing Pilts's riven throat and Jabbyr's axe as well. "Well, probably we just need the crown and the fleeing toughs." Gingerly they slide the erstwhile emperor's ermines from his body and snatch up the crown as a cherry on top. "Anyone else want to be the face of this as well? There's a lot of folk need to see the consequences of trying to be the next biggest leech."
Pava rushes forward to cut off Pilt's escape
Pava switched off of nonlethal as soon as they landed an Enforcer hit (I just didn't know when that was) I think Green can barely see and is within 30??
The speed and ferocity of Jabbyr's axe has already made quite an impression, so as soon as Shrike vaults past the executioner Pava slides forward, smooth as silk to make their own. Their klar bats the flat of the axe aside, and as soon as there's the slightest drop in Jabbyr's defenses, they strike. The speed, the ferocity, the sheer power of their blows portends doom not just for Jabbyr, but for the fools that shelter behind him.
Yeah that's fine - we can always look the area after we roust Pilts. Speaking of: If it's okay with you GM, I'll be just on Shrike's tail as stated once the door opens - (and I'll wait for her turn to see if she tumbles through for a flank!)
Pava creeps along just at Shrike's back. "Let's have us a look in the quiet rooms for any surprises first, yeah? While they won't hear us out where Pilts is going on?"
They're too close now, even for whispers. Here's hoping Mendev can be at least as quiet as Acadamae in a fight...
"What say we clear out the chokers, yeah? Gives us a nice place to make our own if this takes too long. They won't be patrolling here as Pilts can't be in the habit of just gradually feeding guards to them. 'Sides for afters, a thug without numbers might stop making a nuisance of his self, but I've never known a choker to be neighborly."
Pava marks each body in their memory, expression shifting with the tides of anger, hollowness, and resolve welling up from within. "Good work for the Fairwind to do. Doing the bodies right and all. Takes more hands than it does coin, and it'll do folk good to be able to help make things righter with their own hands. "Once we break Pilts off at the ankles, of course." Pava eyes the collapsed section of the wall speculatively. "Works for me. Can't imagine this lot will be disciplined enough to keep a spot lets in the wind and the damp all that well guarded."
"Make sure you keep those axes nice and shiny though, yeah? Won't be half as scary if they don't look ready to use."
"Better steel than I'd guessed," Pava muses as they rub a familiar sting from their knuckles. "Still, they're armed for terrifying those who might fight back, not for overwhelming the ones they can't stand against. Fight like this'll help take the fight out of the next few too."
Pava grins a challenge to Agnar. "Let's see how well you swing that thing then."
"Something to weigh there, Mendev," Pava begins with a crooked grin. "This is Old Korvosa, and this isn't a man took over the place in a carefully crafted campaign. He's ruling by fear and threat, not soldiery, and he's been doing so while no one else could get in here to take his things away. I doubt he's got a well-laid store of alchemicals, and inside the walls there's not so much call for archery that I'd expect bows to be what he's rustled up." Pava cracks their knuckles. "If we can make a challenge that will bring him and the whole of his forces down on us, then we'll give you your Nine of Iron, but for the first day, might be wiser to plan for steppe-running, not a sprint." "Especially, as Acadamae noted, since there are third parties who may wish to involve themselves at inopportune moments."
"A bit odd to call yourself emperor and be the one bringing in your own guillotine," Pava snorts, their voice a poor match for the tension that suffuses their long limbs. "Can't say it's not hospitable though; lugging around one of those things is hell on your back." More seriously they add, "What's been happening when he and his touch a stove? Back off or triple down?"
Pava smiles crookedly, "Fixing people's your business, Odds. No intent here to go three falls with the Prince of Pain over her loyalties, no more than I wanted to talk Abella out of bunking with her sister's skull. But yeah, let's go speak to the Doxies. If Pilts is in the habit of taking private swims or something without his Varangian Guard, it'd be a shame not to know it."
Pava grabs their face in one palm, slightly muffling their embarrassed response. "If only I could stop at nipping, mate. Once I start, I'm usually in it to my ears."
Pava reflexively shakes their head. "Eh? No I'm fine." They shrug one shoulder and scratch at the back of their neck. "It's just that I, err, I have a, err, a bit of a- Look, I dabble, yeah? Fun's fun after all, and if fun's all you're after it doesn't have to matter whether it's someone you bend an elbow with, or the likely bloke with the arms from around the bend, or the bird with the the scarves and tattoos who knots up the nets." Pava catches themself and hastily adds, "Or 'Lina, of course, when it's her off-night." "But yeah, err, dabbling. Dabbling's fine and fun, but there are some... Look, some women I get me into trouble over, yeah? And I guess you could say that they flock together as a bit of a... type." Defensively they shrug again. "I just fancied her a bit, yeah? And I didn't think she was childish. Just to be clear."
Pava nods hard when Agnar points out how unwise it would be to just kill Laori. "Killing a god's chosen is awful luck. Even with Andaisin forcing our hands, Her Pallidness took it all quite personally."
It's two different authors though! That's what cracks me up about our dastardly elves, there was just clearly something in the Redmond water. I do think that Laori owes much less to any one fatal femme than Jolistina's rather clearer inspiration.
"I think I handled that alright, yeah? Didn't have any verbal tics that might have made me seem off my game, yeah? Imagine how silly it would be to be snookered by the whole Manic Pixie Doom Girl thing, yeah? Yeah, I mean err... Yeah?"
"At least without a new bargain, yeah?" Pava modifies, "And we won't either of go kicking off hostilities, yeah? Absent truly intolerable deeds." Their gaze trails from Laori's piercings and chains to the assembled heads, and they wrinkle their nose. "So keep it, errm, consensual, yeah? And maybe tidy up after your divinations?"
Pava stays discreetly silent during the discussion of the merits of pain, but does look oddly relieved that Laori isn't just being killed off despite her taste for the macabre. "You're just not thinking far enough ahead, Odds. Brightside to Swastel setting himself up as king is clear as day - I've been wanting to smash that face in for years."
Having a tough week; I'm caught up in the reading, but can't do tons more than chime in here - Pava understands all the many, obvious reasons not to trust this deal, but also has their, by this point thoroughly documented thing for evil women, and so is probably the person next to Audria most likely to want to hear Laori out. (I do think that if we want a way that makes sense for the crew to stomach Laori, using Audria as the wedge makes sense, and that the Zon-Kuthon/Shelyn connection would probably be what makes it possible to push that home, but I'm not fussed if we can't ge there)
"Another burning two-hander?" Pava looks on with distaste at Agnar's chosen weapon. "To each as they choose, I suppose." Sideface on with the tension of one waiting for the handkerchief to drop, Pava professionally sizes up the crusader as though they actually had a rapier at their hip instead of a cut-down klar on one arm. "I'm Pava, Nips at Heels on Quah business, which hopefully will not be the case. Sounds as though you might not be caught up on all the latest gazettes: No I'm not the last descendant of Galstak Sevendeaths; no I'm not here scouting for when I sweep the Plateau of all its warriors and bring them back to claim righteous vengeance. Do you name all your swords? Or just whichever one's biggest?"
"He probably won't mind if we use this in our efforts to find and free him. Heck, we might even have "Blackjack" himself make an appearance. Anyone fancy being a masked vigilante? Well, another masked vigilante in your case, Shrike." "We could at least see if the man's dead before squeezing into his pants,"Pava complains. "Unless there's some reason to attempt the disguise later, of course."
"Wait - those're Blackjacks real togs? Not just some ratty bits from Ven's boudoir?" They search their party members' faces for confirmation. "Well don't look at me like that. 'Lina tells me stories from work is all." "Can't say as I'm certain who the mantis was talking about, though it sounds like The Painter is a man, so no need to trouble ourselves about Mlle. Sabor. May as well take a poke around across the street though, yeah? Give Soldier Boy a chance to see what tracks can be seen."
Welcome! I think taking levels away from clericky goodness for a few skill points is probably not worth it - it seems like Agnar's gonna fit in just fine anyways.
Pava's smile is invisible behind their illusory mask, just as their dagger is tucked out of sight. "Good tips mate. I expect that's just what we'll do." A quick thrust of their dagger puts an end to the interrogation. "Well, decision time. We've got answers to a few questions, including some I didn't ask out loud: There are more Red Mantises about; he was expecting them to show sometime today. So then, ambush the ambushers and hope that's an end of it? Or get out of here now that we know we weren't the ones being hunted?"
A raspy chuckle slithers out of Pava's mask. "Do you have a plan beyond the Mantis God's favor? Where would you pursue them that would make them vulnerable enough to one who has already failed?"
"Fine, fine. Give us the magic hat instead of the dead one's gear, yeah? I'll bug up, but I'd rather not find out the kind of fleas that live on their kind.." As they await the assassin's awakening they hop back and forth, shaking the tension out of their long limbs before squatting down in a menacing hunch to loom in the peripheral vision of their target. A growled whisper flattens the accent from their voice as they ask, "Why do you still live? Has the Mantis God spared you in your failure? Or do you think that success may still lie before you?"
"No harm in leaving one more mantis alive I suppose. Can't imagine they'll be much of a chatterbox without already thinking we're their friend..." Pava trails off with a look to Shane. "Got any tricks for that, Acadamae?"
Pava twists past the Mantis with a spinning backfist, a challenging smirk plastered across their face to hide their own dread. "Red Mantis, eh? You sure you can live up to the name?"
Pava sighs. "Mates, far as we know someone's just standing around upstairs and left a fire lit. Yeah, it could be someone playing a wicked handgame, but could equally be someone else came here looking for Ven who's worried about us coming to call." They stop hunching down, unfolding their long limbs as they rise to their full height. "Pull me out if I step in it, yeah?"
"I can yell pretty loud for them to show themselves." They grin wickedly. "With Acadamae's help, shouldn't be too taxing to sneak in though, yeah? Get a look with eyes and all?"
A pit opens in Pava's gut. Conjuration sounds like the worst kind of Acadamae business. "He never ensorcelled anything where I could see. Doesn't mean I couldn't be surprised."
"If a mob came calling, a rapier's not the weapon to chase them off if words failed him." Pava replies grimly. "Can't see as he'd rather drench the steps in blood to protect the building in any case. He might not have put up a fight by his own choice if the ones doing the burning were the right sort." They sigh. "Stinks of Sabby a bit though, don't it? The house being untouched and all. Most mobs aren't quite so discerning about looting only the one building if the other's unguarded as well. Feels like orders. Smoke in the chimney though..." They scratch at an ear looking puzzled. "Not the choicest way to lie in ambush. Might not be Ven, but let's keep our blades slower than our tongues, yeah?"
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