Rinkaiel: Kidnappers

[Graybeard]

"Do you not want to rest a while and take stock?"

The quiet question brought Layla back around. She cocked an eye in Jade's direction. "Not much need," she said. "That bastard Orpiment needs to die, and I know just how we're going to do it. We're going to go visit that dwarven site you people were talking about, and find an artifact or two. Then Mom will make some modifications to what we find ... using her specialty." The smile that crossed Layla's face would have been unsettling in the best of conditions, and given that she'd just been making preparations to nurse her son, it had an extra frisson to it. "Now excuse me for a minute." She went back to unbuttoning her blouse.

Faye, for her part, had been eating like a cave bear ever since she got to the house; obviously the Oshimas hadn't fed her very well. Now she produced a cigar, unaware of the role it had played in her rescue. "Let's step outside," she said to Jade. "Layla doesn't like us to smoke in the house, and I must say, I feel a need for this thing." She turned a mock scowl on her daughter. "Besides, she doesn't tell me anything, typical daughter, don't you think? You can bring me in on the plan while we're smoking."

"All in time, Mom," Layla smiled; this time it was a rather more benign expression. She set to work renewing the mother/child bond.

[Jack Rothwell]

The blacksmith stepped outside with Faye lighting her cigarette the second she cleared the doorway. She cast a sympathetic eye to Faye, although the older woman had recovered considerably since Jade first laid eyes on her that day.

"My man doesn't like my habits either, but since he knows what's good for him, he never presses me about it."

Jade scanned around to find Leo. She spotted him on the porch in a crouch with his back to her. He was peeling off the fake hair and synthetics in a manner that made her repress a shudder. For a moment she thought back to the fall of the golem, to that heart-stopping moment when she thought he might have been crushed and all her plans for the future had gone up in a shower of rubble. She winced, then drew another lung of smoke hurriedly.

"As for the plan. Not much to tell. We find this evacuation site Leo told us about. Break in and swipe anything that looks remotely useful. Personally I'm hoping for something I can work with, dwarven guns or melee weapons... maybe some kind of generator that could power a forge." Her mouth went dry and her eyes became glazed as visions of the possibilities danced through her brain.

"How would we sneak something that big out?"

"Shut up, Leo."

[Graybeard]

Faye stood in silence, puffing her cigar, as Jade explained what was going on. An observer would have noted that the flowers around the house were looking decidedly peaked as the smoke from the stogie wafted over them. On the positive side, they certainly weren't going to have any problems with thrips or aphids.

"I think I get the picture," she finally said, "but it may not be that easy to tell what a dwarven weapon is, or a generator for that matter. A long time ago, when Layla was a girl, I had a job providing security for some guy who was smuggling dwarven artifacts into the country." (She didn't add that the "job" also involved performing a hit on the man's wife, who'd been asking for a divorce, and whose inheritance was ... substantial.) "We had a little run-in with a bunch of bandits down south, operating out of a small town called Thranel. Nothing we couldn't handle, but there was one moment ..." Her eyes got unfocused as she savored the memory, a little smile on her face. "I'll never forget the look on the guy's face when he aimed this revolver-looking thing at the bandit chief and pulled the trigger. Turned out it wasn't a revolver, it was a grease gun. Literally." The smile broadened. "Two seconds later, the bandit was covered in slippery black goo, and Luminosita's Nethers, he was pissed..."

[Jack Rothwell]

Jade smiled at Faye's recounting of a job gone well. She finished her smoke and ground the butt under her heel and began making her way back to the wagon.

"With any luck we've still got a few days before we have to get down to the dig site. I thought we'd head out tomorrow morning. Will you be joining us?"

[Graybeard]

"Will you be joining us?"

Faye stubbed out the cigar. "I think so. Layla wants me to make some, shall we say, modifications to whatever we're going to 'donate' to that temple. Can't do that if I'm not there." She glanced at Jade; evidently the younger woman hadn't been filled in on the plan yet. "I have a certain -- facility with poisons," she said, then smiled. "Don't ever criticize my cooking."

By now Layla had finished with Zachary and put him down for a nap, and she joined the other women. "Tomorrow sounds good," she said, "but I thought it would be a good idea if we flew rather than drove. Ace and Joe are at the airship terminal, renting a small ship for us -- you knew Ace is an airship pilot, didn't you? That may limit our cargo capacity a bit, but it'll save time and get us out of here quicker. Plus, they'll have their ears to the ground, to see if there are any rumors around about what happened to Mrs. Torou. That'll be good information to have."

[OOC: Anything more to do during the day, or can we fast-forward to evening, if not the morning?]

[Jack Rothwell]

OOC Depends, is there any other info that the characters need to get today? If Ace and Joe have news about Mrs Torou then just assume Jade stayed behind while the rest of the silver hands headed back to Barker Lane./OOC

[Graybeard]

[OOC: Well, just to fill in the blank ... I'm not sure how timing would have worked here, since the exchange of prisoners would normally have happened late at night, and events both at the vineyard and in the following exchange would be happening in the morning. I guess everyone got a few hours' sleep without telling us? Anyway:]

Ace felt a bit nervous as he and Joe neared the airship terminal. Were they walking into a trap laid by a vengeful Oshima syndicate? Would they be magically blown to bits -- or worse -- as soon as they were recognized? Joe had taken pains to disguise himself, in case there had been more watchers at the elven ruins, but one just couldn't be sure about such things.

In the event, they needn't have bothered.

"Did you hear about Junko Torou?" a security man was asking a ticket agent as the Gewehr men entered, and they slowed their pace to remain in earshot of the conversation.

"What about her?" the agent answered. "She hasn't been in today. Probably the kid is sick or something."

The guard gave the agent a look. "Not hardly. She, the kid and her husband were all found dead up at the historical park this morning."

The agent took in a sharp breath. "No shit! What happened? Don't tell me an elf came back and didn't like them poking around..."

"Best guess is some kind of gang warfare among the Tsuirakuans," the guard answered. "Their bodies had been squashed by one of those damned Tsuirakuan golems. Pieces of the golem were still there. Had to be Tsuirakuan, nobody in this country has anything like that."

The conversation continued for a while, but Joe and Ace had heard enough. They went off to find someone to rent them an airship, hoping their sighs of relief at this bit of news hadn't been too obvious.

[OOC: So on to preparations to launch for the dwarven site?]

[Jack Rothwell]

The Barker Lane guild was remarkably quiet the following morning. The only sound to be heard being the limping footsteps of its patriarch, hobbling his way to the kitchen to cook his breakfast.

Despite the pain in his leg Rufus felt good. His younger proteges, namely Eve and Bert, had gone off on a dawn errand to escort a trade caravan to a nearby town. It was a job handed to them by one of the more respectable (if such a term existed in Rinkaiel) companies and would certainly entail further work if the job went well. He had a meeting scheduled mid-morning with a representative for a militia outfit who were interested in buying supplies from the young blacksmith. Between those deals and the ongoing relationship between with the 'vineyard group' ensured security for the new guild at least for the time being. Although the old man had made a note to himself to find out who Layla's group were as soon as possible, mercenaries were mercenaries at the end of the day, and a possible blade in the back was something to be avoided.

Bacon hit the frying pan with a sizzle. Rufus was whistling to himself as he heard the front door open.

"Mr Landau, Ms Ermingard."

Jade and Leo exchanged looks, neither bothered to voice their incredulity at Rufus' uncanny knack of knowing who was walking in without looking. The blacksmith suspected he just guessed; Leo knew the old man kept a mirror in his pocket.

"Busy day ahead, boss?"

"For you two certainly." He said, without turning around. "Do I need to tell you to strip as much useful stuff from that excavation site as possible?"

"Not at all." Jade could hardly contain her grin; she'd sewn extra pockets into her duster the night before and was fairly jogging on the spot at the prospect of filling them.

"Excellent." Rufus finally looked around at the couple, and returned the young woman's smile. "Eat some breakfast. It'll give you something to throw up on the airship ride."

OOC Just setting the scene. You can have Leo and Jade arriving at wherever the airship is leaving from if that's more convenient./OOC

[Graybeard]

"So that's the airship?" Layla asked, impressed.

Ace grinned. "Yeah. I was expecting some aerial garbage scow, to tell the truth. I sure wasn't expecting this."

The ship that they were checking out practically sparkled. It was small by the standards of airships, with room for only about ten passengers. That wouldn't be a problem; only five were going (well, plus Zachary, but he hardly counted against any weight limit), which would leave plenty of cargo capacity. In context, small was good. They'd be able to put this thing down in spaces that a commercial airship could never begin to fit into. It would also make good time, based on the impressive engines and propellers. And there was another thing ...

"This looks remarkably like Peter's ship," Layla observed. "You don't suppose it's got the same -- stealth features, do you?"

Ace's grin broadened. "Neither confirm nor deny, sweetheart."

Layla had a grin of her own now, and she kissed her boyfriend, earning a happy giggle from her son. However, the "professional" part of her brain hadn't stopped working. Small, fast, potentially invisible -- just the kind of thing it would be nice to have if we venture into hostile territory. We'll have to look into not just renting this thing, but buying it, to replace the one we lost. Of course, there's the interesting question of who we're getting it from, and what use they have for a ship like this. Anyway, we can work on that later. All the low-profile stuff isn't going to matter on this trip. The Silver Hands said the dwarven site is completely abandoned because it's so hard to get to. We shouldn't have any need for the defensive features on this trip.

Sure they wouldn't.

She, Ace and Faye turned around to greet Leo and Jade as they arrived at the terminal.

[Jack Rothwell]

Jade paused for breath at the sight of the sleek vessel and, in a moment of unapologetic girlishness, laughed, jumped on the spot and clapped her hands delightedly.

"Oh! I want one of those!" She exclaimed.

Leo, on the other hand, having grown up with considerable wealth and had traveled in luxury airships often enough to class the experience as completely pedestrian, merely gave the pilot a cursory 'nice ship' and settled down to watch his girlfriend spaz out.

"That thing'll cut the air like a bullet! We'll be at the site in no time! THIS is what I call some fine technology!"

After a few more exclamatory remarks the blacksmith suddenly became aware she was drawing amused looks from everyone present. She coughed into her hand and began rolling a cigarette, if only to avoid having to meet their gazes.

"Well... I... think we should we going, don't you?"