At Davor's bellow, the figure ceases their attempts at stealth & scrambles to a run.
Stumbling in the dark, Professor Rokannon mutters a word of power and waives his hand. Dancing Lights spring up around him, lighting his path as he tries to follow Davor in the dark.
Grinning, the young redhead says to the servant girl
oooops, no one there... i guess i drank too much. Thank you for your help, anyway. You can keep the money, as the other info will be quite useful in the near future...
She winks and pushes the door, trying to find her way to the privy
*Strange.... i am SURE i saw someone there.*
Tamarie's hawk eyes spot the man, and she readies for a sprint.
Either panic has stolen the mysterious figure's agility or he simply didn't have much to begin with, between the two of you, you manage to close enough to get a batter look at him at least.
Before you you see a bedraggled, almost frenzied figure. A human man, somewhere in his adult years, the disarray of his clothes & hair leads you to question his sanity. A question not reassuringly answered by his continued mutterings & cries.
"There's still time to give up, old man! No sense getting those brittle bones broken for no reason!"
"Or we can just shoot you.. Hard running with an arrow through your knee cap!"
While he continues to run for the bridge, by this point, the two of you have essentially closed with him.
"Persistent old bugger, isn't he?"
"Indeed. Not very fast as we can keep up with him without problem, but he sure is determined. Unfortunately for him, so are we..."
Tamarie grins as she checks that her arrows are still all there.
As close as the three of you are to the man now, it is obvious he is deranged. His hair is matted & filthy. His clothes are so poorly cared for they are falling away in places. What you can see of his person, it also appears he may be suffering from light exposure.
Davor hurls himself at the filthy madman, easily overtaking & plowing into him.
Tamarie tries to help Davor in maintaining his hold.
Unfortunately, everyone's inertia causes Davor & Tamarie's grip on the bedraggled madman to slip as Davor finds himself hurtling past the vagrant & onto the dirt lane at the foot of the bridge.
The madman bellows as he slips free of Davor's grasp. "I'm sorry my love, but they'll not get me as they got you!"
As he runs up, Professor Rokannon hesitates at viewing the odd scene; his Dancing Lights throwing odd shadows that flicker as if alive. Then lunges forward to grapple the man as well.
After an -hopefully uneventful!- trip to the privy, Vivian comes back to the inn main room
Are you ready to go, Zander? I'd like a midnight stroll..even if it's not midnight.
She bows graciously to the rest of the crowd
It's been a pleasure.. enjoy the night!
She waits for Zander, looking behind his shoulder at the people in the inn
I've got a most cunning plan.You'll see...
With a wink, Vivian grabs Zander's arm and start to walk to the exit of the inn
Tamarie keeps her feet as the Madman continues to violently twist & jerk about, avoiding confinement even as Professor Rokannon attempts, (and fails), to aid in his containment.
"Won't" He flails about, more to prevent another grapple attempt than with any hope of inflicting real harm.
All but throwing his head back & forth, the madman finally sees his way free of his assailants.
He throws himself towards the bridge, only keeping his feet by violently kicking them back & forth with all the force he has available to him.
His hands slipping free of the grapple, Professor Rokannon nevertheless sprints after the madman when he breaks free.
Then he thinks, "What are you DOING?"
He stops and uses his Hand of the Apprentice to hurl his staff spinning between the mans legs.
The staff flies out of Prof. Rokannon's had to spin between the Madman's legs, tripping him up & knocking him to the ground. He cries as he falls.
"Hmmph," Davor grumbles as he scrambles to his feet and starts after the stranger.
He closes the gap relatively quickly once Prof. Rokannon's staff sends the man to the ground and again tries to restrain him.
"Let's try this again," he mutters as he drops his weight onto the prone madman a bit more heavily than necessary. "Anyone got rope or manacles? I've got some rope around here somewhere if no one else does."
Though the madman's struggles become, amazingly, even more frenzied, to the point where you all actually hear literal bones or cartilage cracking he is so violent in his attempts, Davor maintains his hold. His vocalizations have by this point devolved into incoherent muttering, spittle frothing from his lips.
"Hold him down Davor! His left arm.. Yes!"
When you attempt to perform a combat maneuver, make an attack roll and add your CMB in place of your normal attack bonus. Add any bonuses you currently have on attack rolls due to spells, feats, and other effects. These bonuses must be applicable to the weapon or attack used to perform the maneuver. The DC of this maneuver is your target's Combat Maneuver Defense. Combat maneuvers are attack rolls, so you must roll for concealment and take any other penalties that would normally apply to an attack roll.
Prone: The character is lying on the ground. A prone attacker has a –4 penalty on melee attack rolls and cannot use a ranged weapon (except for a crossbow). A prone defender gains a +4 bonus to Armor Class against ranged attacks, but takes a –4 penalty to AC against melee attacks.
In spite of the man's vehement struggles, Davor, with Tamarie's assistance, succeeds in securing his grip on the madman.
Only to lose his grip once more as Tamarie pulls away.
Tamarie gets pushed back, but holds herself up by putting her left arm out. She redoubles her effort.
"Damn you!! I'm going to break your arm if you keep fighting!"
"Hold still, you maniac."
OOC stick a fork in him, he's done!^^
Meanwhile,Vivian roams into the little town of Ravengro, in the gallant company of Zander, her arm hooked with his arm. She keeps her voice down, and a smile on her pretty face, as if they were two lovers walking under the moon and stars.
But, as often with Vivian, the truth is different.
I will tell you all the little I know about the tragic death of Professor Lorrimor. I -we- suspect he was killed, murdered, while investigating the action of an occult sect near the prison of Ravengro. So we're collecting clues at the moment, both not to suffer the same Fate as the professor and to avenge Kendra's father by finishing whatever he tried to do. My guess is that Davor believed you were a spy from that occult sect, due to your late arrival. We're all tense, I confess, because Prof Lorrimor asked us in his will to stay in Ravengro for a while so his daughter wouldn't be without help, if someone tried to ..finish their job. When we arrived for the burial of Professor Lorrimor, a bunch of the town people tried to interfere, saying the Prof was a necromancer and other frightened nonsense. Fear spoke by their mouths, and we manage to calm the things down. No more than one night after the burial- if my memory serves well, cause plenty has happened since we came here- someone wrote in blood a sign over a statue, and of course, being strangers, we were accused of the foul deed. To be honest, one of the town resident- a guy from the "not so welcome crew" at Prof Lorrimor's burial- was accused of it too. He was the one the sheriff nearly broke the arm, I showed him to you in the inn. People here are scared, and we have to be cautious. That's why, even if i'd like to investigate the statue once more, i will wait till tomorrow morning. If anything strange happens again tonight, I don't want to be the easy culprit.
She leans over Zander's arm
I hope you'll be able to speak to Davor soon. We need both of you. Kendra needs all the help she can get, and she deserves it!
Thoughfull, she asks
Do you think it.. No, i guess it wouldn't be a good idea to check on the prison by night. It could be dangerous, and I left my sword and equipment at Kendra's place. Even if you're here to protect me, obviously.
She gives a warm smile to the priest of Shelyn and winks.
So, back to Kendra's? Feel free to speak of yourself while you can, I have an underserved reputation as a talkative woman.
Her vibrant laugh rises in the nightly air as a rainbow
|
Zander listens to Vivian’s tale, trying to keep the cover of a smile on his face while hearing such dire news. ”This would continue to explain Cassandra’s warning, and why this dark cloud on the horizon should be stopped. People are easily swayed by others bad moods, and when an entire town is affected, things do not bode well. It is my feeling that Shelyn delayed by arrival to ensure I was here when I was most needed. This town needs a return of light and beauty to their hearts. I will help if they’ll have me. I think Tamarie will welcome me easily enough, but I would ask that you approach Davor in advance to try and smooth over the difficulties of my last encounter with him.”
I'm quite a smooth operator. Davor and me share the same faith, that will, i hope, be helpful
The Madman's frenzied struggles seem to have wound down to simple wheezing, though his eyes still roll with a combination of panic & some deeper madness.
"Got him?"
As the manacle clasp finally locks into place Davor, you realize that for all the seeming trouble, you have still taken a fleeing suspect from 'on his feet & running' to 'prone & manacled' in less than a minute, a new personal best for you. Granted, you had help...
As he feels the lock snap, the madman spasms in a final rictus of despair, a faint "No!" his only vocalization.
"So... Now what?" Davor asks as he drags the man to his feet and further secures him using a length of silk rope. "Regardless of where we're planning on taking him," he says as he elbows the captive solidly, but without the intent to injure, "I think someone had better get back to the house and check on Kendra."
"We should get him back to the house..." Tamarie replies.
Professor Rokannon looks on the demented man, wondering how he fits into the events surrounding Harrowstone. There must be a reason he was lurking outside the house...