| Logs |
2009 January 25
| When The Bough Breaks |
| Realms |
Retired
| Reality Fault |
General Info
 |
| Realms: Bough Logs |
Second Movement, Second Verse
The group is preparing to depart their camp from the foothills around Alexandria. Ataraxos has gathered enough foodstuffs that, with Mikal's hunting, will see him healthily to Thebes. The kobolds have long departed on their path to the Winter Palace, and it looks like it will be a cool if pleasant day for travelling.
As they are about to depart, however, they hear shouting coming from the road down the hill. From their vantage point, a couple of hundred yards down the hill and through a copse of trees, they can see what looks like a wagon or carriage with a number of riders surrounding it. The riders are on simple horses, and the carriage is being pulled by same. The distance is a bit too great to discern any further details, other than there is some lively shouting going on.
Mikal stands up on Iron Antlers' back to see better. "Um... do you guys want me to go check that out?"
Mikal says, "I could go real quick and be back right away, if you want?"
Tomas shrugs. "I don't think it is any of our business, but if you want to, and it won't take too long, go ahead."
Mikal grins and slides into the saddle, the big fey-stag already moving, "All right -- moment!"
Jareth smiles at Mikal, "Go see if we can help, little rabbit."
Mikal waves cheerfully over her shoulder at Jareth as the stag fades into the underbrush. Seconds later the two of them are peering cautiously out at the wagon and riders, listening with interest.
Tomas continues to break camp.
It's clearly some sort of altercation. The arguing seems to be between the carriage and it's driver and riders, and the riders, all of whom seem to be carrying crossbows. After a few moments of listening, it's clear to Mikal that this is some sort of brigandry afoot, as one of the horse-rider says, "We will say it but one more time: Stand and deliver! Your jewels and your coin, and we will let you pass. Else your lives are forfeit!"
The carriage is a large, four-wheel affair, though made with light wooden paneling on the sides and top and with open windows; there's really nothing keeping a stray -- or even an aimed -- crossbow bolt from entering it and harming one of the three passengers. The wood is stained a deep, rich mahogany, and while the trimmings aren't ostentatious, it does seem to be a quality transport. This is further evinced by the somewhat nicely-dressed carriage driver, a portly-looking man in neat and well-tailored tunic and slacks tucked into riding boots, and a mantle of brown and white feathers. On closer examination, Mikal can see that the driver has a mop of wild hair and an unusually long nose. From her vantage, Mikal notes also that the passengers all seem to also have a similar appearance. They dont appear to be mortal to Mikal.
The riders are different; they're definitely not mortals. They have dogs' heads, though despite this they seem to have no trouble talking, albeit gruffly. They look rough and a bit unkempt, and not in the best of shape, and neither are their horses. There are four such riders, each with a crossbow. The only thing that might mark the leader is a sash of gold fabric around one of the riders' waists.
Mikal slips silently back into the underbrush, reappearing to her friends, "Hey, guys? It's a robbery. Can we pause long enough to help them, please?"
Tomas says, "Help who?"
Mikal says, "The folks in the carriage." She gives a quick run-down of what she saw, then adds hopefully, "Please?"
Norris's eyes get wide, his face hardening. "That's not nice, at'all." he comments, looking at Tomas. "Th' people bein robbed, ah spect. We shoul' do sommat."
Jareth takes a deep breath, knowing he won't be much good in a fight, but he nods, "Of course, rabbit."
Tomas says, "Ok, is there any way to get to hitting distance without getting shot with a crossbow bolt?"
Mikal beams at Jareth and Norris in relief, then nods eagerly to Tomas, "Sure, I can show you how I got there... or if you'd rather we can wait until they're away from the folks they're robbing, then effectively rob them?"
Norris's eyes cross. "Not less we's all as sneaky at Mikal...but mebbe a good distraction make them waste their shots. Take em a while t' reaload, durin which, we's charge.
Tomas says, "If they ride out, I'm not sure we can catch them, as they are mounted and most of us are on foot."
Mikal says, "Oh, good point. But still... um, can we try to stop them anyways? From the robbing, I mean?" She turns, adding, "Follow me, please?"
Tomas follows Mikal.
Norris unsheathes his maul, and follows in their wake, interested in getting a layout of this mess.
Mikal leads the others towards the robbery in progress, sliding off Iron Antlers and whispering to him to head forward some so he can try stepping out and blocking the road and spooking the brigands' horses, if she calls to him. She sets Raphael to sneaking around as well, so he can come up on another side if there's an actual attack.
The carriage has been waylaid in a shallow ravine through wich the road runs, with a copse of trees sheltering it from casual surveillance from the city. By the time the group reaches where Mikal had been earlier, the carriage passengers have apparently given up, and are grumblingly putting their coins and whatever jewels or such they have into a bag one of the dog-faced highwaymen is holding; another is covering the passengers, a third the driver, and the fourth brigand is watching the road for any sudden passers-by.
Mikal pulls her bow and nocks an arrow, frowning. She whispers to the others, "I can take out the one covering the passengers. Jareth, can you sound scary and call on them to lay down their weapons first? Does that sound good?"
Norris huhs. "Four o' em, each wi' a crossbow. Four chances t' land a shot. On th' other hand...we startle em, get em t' shoot instictively..." he ponders.
Tomas says, "sounds like a plan"
Mikal looks pleased, "All right then! Norris, can you get the one covering the driver? Raph can get the one looking down the road."
Jareth nods and takes a deep breath, making his voice as stern as he can.
Norris hunhs. "Ah kin...but what'r we tyin t' do here? Disarm, r' whut?"
Mikal takes careful aim at the brigand covering the passengers while Jareth scares them.
Jareth calls out in as stern a voice as possible, "Drop the crossbows and return the possessions! If you do not comply, you will face dire consequences!" He does his very best to put the crack of doom into his words, even going so far as to try and deepen his voice by a few notes.
Three of the dog-brigands startled badly, whirling their horses about to look, panicked, around for the army they're sure is there. The one covering the driver goes so far as to drop his crossbow reflexively. But the leader, the one holding the bag, isn't convinced; he snarls, an unsurprisingly canine sound, and looks around for the person calling out. "You an' what army? This region's not claimed! Or... d'ye try to speak for Mordred?"
Mikal is relieved the one with the bag is still sans weapon. She fires on the one covering the passengers, and murmurs both aloud and mentally, [Raph, can you pull down the rider and let the horse go running panicked through the others?]
Tomas rushes the leader.
Norris moves when Tomas does, taking advantage of the distraction...but as the others never confirmed what the goal was, he attacks the crossbow, and not the rider, as he brings his weapon to bear on his brigand.
Norris realizes, mid rush, that the man he was assigned to take out has droppen his weapon. But he's already committed...and he supposes that he could still be a danger, even without his ranged weapon. So he lashes out with his weapon wordlessly, trying to knock the dog-brigand from his saddle.
The dog-faced man has enough time to register Norris bearing down on him before the maul impacts and launches him out of the saddle.
Fortunately for him, he lands on the ground, bruised and dazed, but makes no attempt to even think of standing up.
Raphael takes a quick running start, then leaps out of the underbrush aimed directly at the brigand on lookout, trying to knock the creature out of the saddle. His huge jaws gape wide as he roars, doing his best to terrify both horse and rider.
Jareth stays well and truly out of the way of his more martial friends.
With the furball leaping from the bush snarling, and suddenly bursting into teeth, the horse rears and the rider wisely decides to let himself be thrown, though not before letting out some sort of curse. In the process he lets go of his crossbow. The horse's screech makes the other two mounted horses skitter and move to ascertain wether they too should be lobbing riders off of themselves
Jareth blinks to himself, wondering how he has any idea what language these creatures are speaking...
Mikal's arrow flies true, impaling the weapon arm of the brigand who'd formerly been covering the passengers.
The dog-man yelps -- again, surprisingly or unsurprisingly doglike in tone -- and even if his horse wasn't already skittish he'd be in trouble. AS it is, surprised and hurt, he drop the crossbow.
Tomas takes a swing at the leader with his glaive.
The brigand leader yowls as the glaive strikes him, unable to get out of the way of the weapon's hit. He drops the bag of plunder in the process.
When the battle seems to be slacking off, Jareth moves to join his companions, knowing that the people in the carriage are going to need to be soothed.
Mikal glances around carefully. Raphael's standing on the lookout, teeth bared in a snarl -- the lookout is being very still, and his horse has bolted. The leader has fallen down due to Tomas' attack, and dropped the loot. Norris has knocked down the brigand covering the driver, and that horse has bolted too. The brigand covering the passengers has dropped his crossbow and fallen off his horse too. Mikal calls, "Iron Antlers, bring in the horses, please?"
With so much damage done by his associates, Jareth wonders if the suggestion that the brigands surrender might be a little more effective.
Mikal grins at Jareth as she nocks another arrow, "Can you get them to surrender now?"
The voice Jareth uses this time has the crack of doom and of diapproval in it. "I warned you to surrender! Drop your weapons now before we are forced to employ even more deadly tactic!"
The one who had been menacing the passengers and who was stuck with Mikal's arrow has a change in heart and decides not to push the matter anymore. Besides, he's bleeding, not profusely, but enough to convince him that this is not easy money. The leader on the other hand doesn't look like he'll give up without a fight.
Norris is looking at the prone man he hit, trying getting back his breath...he doesn't seem likely to do anything at this point, already having been disarmed in fear, and then slammed off the horse to boot. But when he looks up at the wild-eyed leader, he frowns. He doesn't want anyone to be robbed...but he doesn't really care to shed blood either. Without really understanding what he's doing, he half reaches out to the leader with his left hand, as if trying to settle a spooked animal. "This's over. Y'did a bad thing...doan make this worse on yerself. Jus' give it up."
The leader looks at Norris for a few long moments, then at Tomas who's about ready to smack him with the glaive again, and all the fight leaves him. "All right... all right. Let us go on our way, 's all I ask."
Mikal has another arrow nocked already -- she says indignantly, "You were robbing people! You can't go on doing that sort of thing!"
Jareth steps forward going to the door of the carriage, "Is anyone in here harmed?"
Mikal says, "If what you need is money, why aren't you helping the Winter Palace for pay? And ditto if what you want is excitement!"
THe leader laughs a little bitterly. "Winter Palace is a long way from here, girl." He looks at Mikal again, then squints a little. "Ah. Mortals. Ye work for the Palace, then? or yer just travellers? Or what?"
Within the carriage, the trio of neatly-dressed, large-nosed and rather ruddy-faced people nod to Jareth. "Hai," one says, a woman it seems. "We're fine now. Thank you, thank you for rescuing us!"
Mikal snaps in annoyance, "You had horses -- it would have been easy for you to get there! Why didn't you?"
Jareth smiles and pats the door of the carriage, "Glad to help. Doesn't do to have people running around pointing crossbows at folk."
Norris doesn't respond to the verbal banter...while he'd have something to say, he's instinctively concentrating on the leader. He's the lynchpin - keep him non-violent, and worse fighting doesn't happen. It takes nearly all his focus to do it, though. "T'mas...look to th' fella at my feet. Get him up an away." he says after a moment.
The leader lets out a breath, not willing or uncomforable in answering Mikal.
Tomas goes to collect the two that are down. "Someone should look after the wounded man."
Mikal hmfs at the leader, then lowers her bow and starts collecting weapons off the ground and the injured.
Tomas comes up to the leader. "What was that remark about Morderd you made?
The brigands do not resist; the one who was thrown to the ground by Norris's maul is laying there very quietly. The lookout, the one who had been thrown my the spooked horse -- said horses being returned now by Iron Antlers -- is murmuring, "Good god, the teeth... the teeth...." in apparent reference to Raphael, who is quite pleased. The leader looks sullenly at Tomas. "Mordred? Hell, everyone knows his army's out and about. Outside of the cities' little spheres of control, it's the only real power out here in the Wyld.
Mikal drops the weapons in a pile by Ataraxos, asking the satyr to please keep an eye on them. She brings over the horses too, handing the reins to the satyr.
Mikal puts her hands on her hips and glares at the wounded rider she shot. "All right, hop down."
Jareth can't help but smile at Mikal's fierceness when it comes to this. He's still standing by the door of the carriage, out of the way of his companions.
Mikal says, "Jareth, can you bandage this guy after I've taken all his weapons?"
Tomas looks around and wonders, "Now what are we supposed to do with these guys?"
The rider nods, murmuring, "Yes'm," as he very, very carefully slips down off the horse."
Mikal strips all the weapons off the man before she'll let Jareth near. She also says very firmly, "You do everything my packmate tells you, all right? If he's unhappy, Raphael will bite you!" She points at the raptor wolf, who's sitting with his tongue lolling out of his shark-like mouth and looking extraordinarily pleased with himself, "That's Raphael. Now, behave!" She gathers up all his weapons and the horse's reins, and heads over to Ataraxos, adding to the loot pile.
The man gulps a bit, having already seen the effect Raphael had on the lookout.
Jareth nods to the folks in the carriage and says, "Be right back." He saunters over and crouches, admitting, "I'm not great at this, so it might hurt a bit."
The leader does not give Tomas any suggestions as to what to do with them.
Mikal marches over to the leader and Tomas, picking up the loot bag and looking within it, "Hmm..." She looks up at the folks in the carriage, "Hello. I don't recognize your species?"
The woman beams -- it is a very wide-mouthed and toothsome smile. "We are tengu, mortal-san. We thank you for your aid. Really, we appear well-off but all we own are within this carriage. Thank you, thank you so much!"
Norris swallows...he's feeling pressure on his skull. This is taking something out of him. "T'mas...uh...get him...offa the horse." He's gesturing at the leader, his words even more clumsy than usual.
Tomas grabs the leader and pulls him off his horse. He looks at Norris with concern. "Are you all right?"
The leader doesn't resist, though he is grumpy and doesn't exactly help TOmas too much.
Mikal brightens, "Oh, I know of your species -- you're like the kitsune, yes? Er, I mean-" She blinks at Norris -- then starts to react, whirling towards the leader -- but Tomas, fortunately, is even faster. Mikal hands the bag back to the tengu, saying, "Excuse me just a moment, please?" before she trots over to the leader and starts calmly taking all his weapons.
Norris swallows and closes his eyes...he releases the mental grip he put on the man's mind after a moment, and when he opens his eyes again, he looks better. "Think so. That wuz...dunno what that wuz." he murmurs. He's no longer fuzzy headed, but he does look confused.
The leader swallows any sort of retort as Mikal checks him for weapons. All she finds is a rather crude knife and a quiver of crossbow bolts.
Tomas says, "Once we give the loot back to the people in the carriage, what then?"
Norris absently wonders how the robbed folk feel about their belongings being called 'loot'.
Mikal gathers up all the weapons, stepping away from the leader, and takes up the horse's reins. She gives Norris a worried look, but goes to deposit all the stuff she's got by Ataraxos again, calling to Jareth, "Jarr, can you check Norr too please when you're done?" She comes trotting back, smiling up at the tengu, "They already have their stuff back, Tomas." To the tengu she says, "Why do you have everything you own with you? Are you fleeing something?"
Jareth arches a brow at Mikal, not sure why she thinks he's got the skills for that.
THe woman tengu nods, sighing. "Hai. We migrated to Babylon some time ago, when our trade business demanded we be at the heart of trade for the Wyld.. With Mordred's army, our trade business has collapsed, and we are on our way back to our home of Yamato.
Mikal says, "Yamato..." She sounds a bit wondering -- then she brightens, "Are there kitsune there?"
Once Jareth is done with bandaging the brigand, he walks over and lays a hand on Norris, voice quiet, "You OK, Nor? You're looking a little befuddled."
The tengu exchange looks. "I... do not know if there are anymore. There used to be some... but they are all shy, and given to wanderlust."
"Fortunately," the male tengu murmurs worriedly.
"Forgive my husband, please. Kitsune are notorious for being tricksters and a coterie of them played merry havok with a shipment of silk once."
Norris blinks at Jareth a moment, and then looks sheepish. "Ah jus...I dunno. Ah didn't like th' way the leader was lookin. He coulda hurt folks, an I didna want him to. An then...it wuz like mah mind wuz a blanket, an I was smotherin his fear and anger with it. Does that make enneh sense, Jar? Did ah jus do maggick, or sommat?"
Mikal looks a bit chagrined, "That's sad... because there's a lone kitsune there who is very nice and also very lonely -- she thinks she's the very last kitsune. I know she'd be very excited to know there were more, though? Her name is the Lady Oko-ree."
Mikal pats the horses drawing the carriage, then looks inquiringly at the folks within, "So do you all have any weapons?"
Mikal glances over at Tomas, "What will we be doing with the weapons, Tomas? We can't give them back to the robbers, after all."
Tomas says, "Maybe give them to the tengu?"
The tengu lady shakes her head. "I do not know any kitsune by name, I fear. If we see any and they are not shy, however, we will pass on what you have said?"
The male shakes his head. "No, no weapons. We thought we had little enough to warrant defending, let alone fighting over."
Mikal beams at Tomas, "All right!" then turns back to the tengu, "Do you all know how to use crossbows?"
Jareth smiles at his friend and one corner of his mouth quirks upward, "I'd say you did something like it, Norr. You're solid and calm. Maybe you just showed him how to be like you a little." He coughs, almost embarassed, "I can't say I don't wonder about just how persuasive I am sometimes."
Mikal glances curiously at her companions, "Hey, do any of you want a crossbow too?"
Jareth grins at Mikal and shakes his head, "I'm not bad when I'm shying rocks at gophers, but I don't want to be a menace."
Mikal giggles at Jareth, then looks inquiringly at Norris, Ataraxos, and Tomas.
Tomas says, "No thanks, I can't hit the broad side of a barn."
Mikal laughs, then grins at the tengu, "You're welcome to the weapons then!" She glances at the robbers, adding sternly, "I don't think we should give the horses back, though."
Norris huhs at the crossbow. "Th' master showed me how t' use one once...suppose it caint hurt t' have someone b'sides you what's got arrows. Prolleh have t' practice, though." He looks at the weapon with practicality, though inside, he's not so happy about the idea of skeweering someone with it. That said...Mikal does it well enough, without killing. Maybe he can too. He takes the offered device.
Mikal beams at Norris, "I'll show you how to shoot, all right?"
Norris's face lights up. "That'd be awful nice o' you, Mikal."
Mikal looks at the horses, then at her friends... then she grins, "I think we should take the horses!" She adds even more sternly to the robbers, "And you folks should go find legitimate work! Why don't you go to the Winter Palace or something?"
Tomas says, "Since I can't ride a horse, keeping one would only slow us down."
The brigands, of course, have little say in the matter. The leader rubs his head, sighing. "All right, all right. It.. can't be any worse than what you could've done to us, so.. all right."
Mikal smiles at Tomas, "I'll keep it then. I'm sure we'll find someone who could really use a nice healthy horse, and could give it a good home." She smiles encouragingly at the brigands, "Good for you!" She Mikal returns the eating/daily knives to the brigands, then shoos them off. She dumps the crossbows (minus one for Norris) where the tengu ask her to, then pats their horses and waves as they leave.
[Previous Log] [Index] [Next Log]