Rinkaiel: Kidnappers

For in-universe game play. Journey through both familiar and foreign settings, explore lost ruins and forgotten cities, and try to bring light to the darkness of the world... or, you know, blow stuff up. Either way.
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Graybeard
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Re: Rinkaiel: Kidnappers

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[OOC: OK, sounds good ...]

"Well, I think we're as ready as we can be," Layla said to Rufus as the sun set.

They were perched high on the outside of the dome that they'd checked out the day before. The old man's arthritis hadn't stopped him from climbing the gentle ramp leading to their viewpoint, which was as far as he would go. Soon she would leave him and climb to a considerably more inaccessible skylight, near the top. Jade and Joe were in position at another skylight; Eve and Bert, at another one. It wouldn't be long before Leo and Oskar would be showing up with their captive. Ace ...

At first, Ace hadn't been happy at being left out of the action. "We're short-staffed for this operation," he had complained (accurately) over breakfast that morning. "We're going to need all the people we can get, sweetheart. I should go with you and ... oh."

Layla had silenced her boyfriend's objections without speaking a word: she simply handed him her smiling, giggling son ... and one word from Zachary sealed the deal. "Da-da!"

Don't worry, Zacky, mommy will be back soon, and so will Grandma, Layla thought, fingering the little magic gadget that was Galina's contribution to this operation.
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Rinkaiel: Kidnappers

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Rufus grimaced, taking a hand off the rifle he carried to rub his aching hip. The climb, not to mention the uncomfortable ride up to the ruins over uneven ground had woken up a sleeping beast that was now stamping around and bellowing its disapproval. The old man forced his hand to return to his weapon and his eyes back to the building where the exchange would take place.

"Things were simpler in the militia." He half-muttered and then, to Layla. "Well, madam, it seems I'm not getting any higher up. So I'll be keeping an eye out..." He pointed meaningfully to the one he had. "...for unexpected arrivals, and covering our retreat if the worst happens."

......................

At that moment the wagon containing Leo, Oskar and their unfortunate captive was trundling up the final stretch to the ruins. The handsome mercenary was currently anything but thanks to the meticulous make-over he'd given himself during the day.

His normally clean shaven look had been changed to a thick, black beard which hung off his chin in a scraggly tangle. It framed a tanned face laced with pox marks and an ugly scar which ran from one ear to the bridge of a nose which an observer would have claimed had been broken at least twice, and badly. Leo didn't care if it wasn't a 'manly' point of view; make-up was a wonderful thing and, unlike illusion magic, couldn't be detected with a fancy spell.

He turned to Oskar and gave the man a lopsided grin.

"You ready?" He asked, in an accent far removed from his normal one.
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Re: Rinkaiel: Kidnappers

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"Yeah," Oskar replied, with about as long a sentence as usual for him. He then became unusually verbose. "Let's do this. I haven't had dinner yet."

-----------

Layla felt a minor pang of guilt as she climbed up to her own viewpoint. I shouldn't have had Rufus come up here, she thought. It was hardly a difficult trek, with only one hands-on spot, but the old man was clearly suffering from it. Maybe he should have stayed down below as part of the hostage exchange. No, that wouldn't do; he would be hard to disguise, and Seishi Torou had gotten a good look at him during the masquerade at the school. This was the only place for him. I'm sorry, Rufus, she thought. We'll take better care of you next time.

For a moment she laughed humorlessly at the irony of the whole thing. Rufus was clearly a father figure to the Silver Hands, making him the second one here who was parental that Layla was feeling the obligation to take care of. Well, that was what growing up was all about: a time came when you were the caretaker, for your parents as well as for your children. The thought evoked in her a rare speculation on her own father. She'd never quite believed the story of how he'd been killed when she was an infant, and she had a well-developed suspicion as to who her real father might be ... but she knew better than to push. Anyway, Gabriel was definitely a man who could take care of himself, without mothering by a daughter he did not acknowledge.

At least things were going well here. In fact, Layla's Wraith skills informed her, they were going too well. Not an Oshima was in sight, nor was anyone else, for that matter. The gadget Galina had given her would render scrying unusable in a radius larger than the dome, among other things, so they didn't have to worry about that. But surely a mob like the Oshimas would have some kind of surveillance set up, wouldn't they? She approached her vantage point warily, still looking for the watchers that she was sure had to be th--

"OW!"

She almost fell from the shock of running into something large, unyielding, and completely invisible, that occupied the exact niche she'd planned to occupy herself.
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Re: Rinkaiel: Kidnappers

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Leo eyed Oskar in an assessing manner for perhaps a moment longer than strictly necessary before he spoke again.

"...right. I think I should probably do the talking."

As the wagon drew to a halt the mercenary threw a glance back to their captive who was, thankfully, in a subdued mood. He hadn't Rufus' limited linguistics but a bit of sign language in these circumstances was usually sufficient. He jerked his head at the ornate door that was the entrance to ruins and a moment later the trio where marching towards it. As they approached Leo stole a glance upwards and briefly saw Jade looking down with an anxious look on her face (which later, of course, she would never admit to). The blacksmith tipped a hand to her lover and pulled back out of sight.

Their hostage taking a slight lead, they entered the ruins.

...........

On the roof, Jade took a deep breath, held it, and let it out a long exhale which somehow conveyed the stress she was feeling. She rested a hand on the bundle which contained her altered rifle as if the feel of it had a steadying influence. The faint vibration of the weapon calmed her... a little.

"If he gets murdered I'm going to kill him." She muttered, half to Joe, half to herself.
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Re: Rinkaiel: Kidnappers

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It's a golem, Layla realized, unsure whether that was good news or bad news. She'd felt the contours of the thing as soon as she recovered from running into it, found a massive body and legs, reached up to a head that was almost beyond her reach. It was still invisible. It was also utterly stationary. Presumably, once the chamber below was full of people transacting the exchange of prisoners, that would change.

So now we know how they're going to try to screw us, she thought. Well, that knowledge had to be good. It was also good that the thing was inert for the moment. That meant its operator wasn't there -- yet. She checked her timepiece, found that they still had ten minutes before the exchange was supposed to occur. That gave her five to find countermeasures.

She risked a call out to the other people atop the dome; there didn't seem to be anyone around other than her own people, so the risk was low. (Other golems, maybe? She doubted it. Everyone else had been able to reach their watch positions without incident.) She quickly sketched the situation, then asked the key question. "What can we do about this thing?"
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Re: Rinkaiel: Kidnappers

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It didn't take long for Leo to find the chamber that Jade had described to him. It's distinctive features made it instantly recognizable even through a second-hand account. With Mrs Torou still in the lead (and now with a gun surreptitiously pointing at her back) the trio entered the octagonal room.

'They should be here in a moment." Leo murmured to Oskar.
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Re: Rinkaiel: Kidnappers

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Layla didn't like the way this was going.

The exchange couldn't be more than five minutes in the future now, and she still hadn't figured out anything to do about the golem. The tactical setup was as clear as it was discouraging: as soon as the Oshima people entered the room, one of them would summon the golem down from its perch. On the one hand, if it was anything like the war golems she'd seen in Kiyoka, it could beat Leo and Oskar to bloody pulp in seconds. On the other hand, it would be all but invulnerable to bullets, which would also make it a perfect shield for the Oshimas against the firepower arrayed against them on the roof. If the Gewehr and Silver Hands were lucky, one of them might have a clear line of fire against one or more of their enemies before the annihilating magic came back up their way. Might.

Inspiration dawned.

She'd come here geared up for more of a climb than the ascent of the dome actually presented, and one of the items in her pack was a length of rope. She wasn't going to need it herself, of course, but things could easily have been hairy enough that she'd want to belay Rufus or one of the other Silver Hands up the side. Now she extracted the rope from the pack, and tied a pair of knots to protuberances between golem and skylight, with the rope drawn tight between them. Good; the taut rope was about shin-high on her own legs, which should mean that it would be ankle-high on a golem. Now if it stepped forward as it jumped down to the room below ...

Layla didn't really believe in Luminosita, but that didn't keep her from muttering a quick prayer as the Oshima party appeared at the other entrance to the octagonal room.
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Re: Rinkaiel: Kidnappers

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Leo watched the approaching group, giving a cursory nod to Faye who, although a little frayed around the edges, looked largely unharmed from her brief career as a work of art. He turned his gaze to Torou.

"Let's make this quick." He drawled, and put a hand on Seishi's wife shoulder, getting a brief spark of pleasure at the way the man's face darkened from the contact. "I let mine go, you let yours go, they switch places and we all go home safe. Do we have an accord?"

OOC Bugger, retconned :)/OOC
Last edited by Jack Rothwell on February 11th, 2012, 2:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Rinkaiel: Kidnappers

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"We do," Seishi Torou said, in a flat tone of voice. [OOC: I assume you meant Torou, not Oshima; he works for the Oshimas, but Torou is definitely his surname. /OOC:] He motioned to Faye. "Go, but do not pass out of reach until my wife and child do the same."

Up on the dome, Layla tried to remain silent. She could see what was coming next ... and she could only hope that the trip trap she'd set up would be enough. If it wasn't, things would turn to gunplay versus spellcraft very rapidly ... and she didn't want to think about that.
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Re: Rinkaiel: Kidnappers

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The silver hands watched the exchange from their various portholes on the roof. Jade's hands tightened on the mana-rifle as Faye and Mrs Torou left their kidnappers and crossed briefly in the center of the room. Her eyes flicked mistrustfully to Faye's captors.

"One wrong move, you bastard, just try me." She muttered.

At ground level, Faye finished her trip (a little unsteadily) to the 'safety' of Leo and Oskar. The dsiguised merc touched a hand to his forehead and began to back away with Layla's mother.

"Business is done." He said. "Let's not see each other again."
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