Return to Port Lorrel

As we play, occasionally we'll close a thread and open a new one to keep the size of threads (and relative complexity) down to a dull roar. Here's where we store the closed posts from the history of Errant Road.
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Alberich
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Re: Return to Port Lorrel

Post by Alberich »

Udo hauled the Hand of Fate out of the back of the wagon, to the tune of Jamie's eerie whistling. As before, nobody seemed interested in helping. Gary lost no time in getting the wagon, horses, and baby under the ramp. Udo found a couple of rocks close to the foot of the ramp and lay down behind them, propping his weapon on top with the barrels toward the enemy. (Jamie was on the right with her rifle; Tamina was on the left, and even she got the idea of taking cover. The two strange monks were on top of the wall, behind them.) The gaggle of variously-armed opponents came closer - there seemed to be at least five long guns and maybe twice that many crossbows, plus a couple of axes and halberds. There was one big bare-chested bastard in back, in bright pink pants, with some kind of two-handed maul.

Somewhere between two hundred yards and one hundred, Jamie decided to start the party. Crack! went the rifle - and down went an enemy rifleman. Then BOOM!!!! - Udo let off the Doomcurdler, and the entire enemy force went down. It wasn't clear whether any of them had been killed by the blast, but something about the noise woke the urge to mate with Mother Nature.

They started crawling for cover themselves, while Jamie traded a few shots with them - and then with a CRACK! and a a rumble, the earth split right before the enemy and new wall rose from the ground. This one grew to only five feet, then crack - crack - crack - crack - crack!!!!! - a series of convenient loopholes opened along its front. One at a time, the enemy started pointing rifles and crossbows through these loopholes, and opening fire on the intrepid caravaneers. All five enemy rifles were in play, not necessarily held by their original owners.

Occasionally, the enemy behind the wall would shout their battle cries - "You're gonna get us!" - "Kill us! Kill us now!!!" Mostly, they spoke with arrows and bullets.

In time, Udo got his weapon loaded again. It roared once more. It made noise and took a few chips out of the wall, nothing more. Nonetheless, the enemy seemed determined to silence him. An enemy hand lifted a large crystal ball over the wall. A large glowing spot appeared in the air over Udo, and a massive splash of water came straight down on him, hammering him into the earth, soaking him to the skin, and getting all his powder wet. The glowing spot vanished and the crystal ball came down again.

Jamie didn't like the look of that, but she knew what to do. She kept an eye on that spot, and when the crystal ball came up, her next bullet smashed it. She ducked back quickly to avoid a crossbow bolt.

Crying baby noises from under the ramp didn't quite fit the mood. Gary improvised a lullabye -

"Hush little baby, don't make a sound
Mama's gonna splatter their brains all around.
And if mama's rifle don't make 'em stop
Auntie Tamina make their eyeballs "pop."
And if her sharp claws don't win the day
Udo's got a cannon to blow 'em all away
And if his cannon don't do the biz
Uncle Gary's gonna hide you like the coward that he is..."

Things were stable for the moment - but would they remain so? Udo still had his staff but it'd take him a while to get back into the fight, and no one else knew how to use it. Jamie's ammo wouldn't last forever.

Far to the rear, on her hidden clifftop, Jasmine stretched out satisfied on a blanket. This music was much sweeter, and she had some good company. A clip of ammo underneath the bough, a muffin tin, a whiskey jug, and thou...she was quite determined not to have anything to do with Jamie's little scrap, not unless the girl started screaming for help. And those screams had better include words like "Okay! I'll marry anyone you want!" Otherwise, the silly young thing could just get this out of her system, all on her own.

[OOC: I drew a simple bmp diagram of the situation - if Graybeard can teach me how to attach it, I will. Meantime I got a photobucket account and you can see the diagram here.]

[OOC: Trying Graybeard's suggestion -

Image

...to see if it puts the picture here. Hey, it worked! Thanks, Graybeard!]
Last edited by Alberich on December 9th, 2011, 11:23 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Return to Port Lorrel

Post by Jack Rothwell »

Tamina whined at the bullets zipping by and thudding into the cover. Firefights weren't something the kobold had much experience in, and although tactics of modern warfare weren't exactly a specialty of hers, she understood that channeling and running directly at a bunch of gun wielding opponents was a magnificent way of being turned into... holey.... erm.... pineapple before she got close enough to start swiping at people. And she was drained from her tree growing enterprise besides that.

To make things worse, the kobold's crossbow was the only weapon in the immediate vicinity that she had the digital dexterity to work, she hadn't had much practice with it, and reloading speed meant it was a good fifteen seconds from one shot to another. Nervousness quickly gave way to annoyance.

So far she'd hit a man's hat.

"Should be... dunno... mana potions or something. Get my energy back." She grumbled in a very un-Tamina manner. "Some kind of sweater or something, protects peoples from the bull-l-l-l-lets."

Tamina knew how to start pronouncing 'bullets' but was unclear on how to stop.
Alberich
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Re: Return to Port Lorrel

Post by Alberich »

A female death-yell drew the girls' attention. Looking to the ramp, they saw what had happened.

The monks atop the wall, seeing Udo's discomfiture as he lay prone behind his newly-wet weapon, had drawn large knives from beneath their robes, slipped off their shoes, and tip-toed down the ramp. Hoping no doubt to stab him in the back. The female monk had fallen to "friendly fire," and she spun and dropped off to the side, a crossbow bolt in her chest, dead before she hit the ground.

Howling inarticulately, the yellow-robed shaven-headed male leaped on Udo, his knife out, determined to do harm. Udo, warned by the sound, had at least turned over so he could fight back, but he had no time to get out a blade of his own. Still stunned and sputtering from the wash of wizard's water, he took an early wound and had trouble in the struggle. But he grappled with vigor and fought hard for his life.

Crossbows and rifles weren't the best weapons to help a comrade wrestling around on the ground. Running over to where he was would expose the girls to hostile fire. (He'd taken cover behind rocks, as they had, but there was open ground between him and them.)

Then again, if he was half the warrior he claimed to be, he'd pull out a really fancy move and disembowel his enemy bare-handed. Any moment now. (Ahem!) Any moment now.
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Return to Port Lorrel

Post by Jack Rothwell »

"Ahh... umm..." Tamina saw 'Ooo-doh' struggling against his assailant and not doing fantastically well. The kobold struggled with the crossbow (discarding the idea of simply running over for bullet-related reasons), placing a fresh bolt into the firing mechanism while the thrashing sounds intensified.

'Just a few more seconds...'

She winched the device back slowly, tightening the cord.

'Gonna save the day! How exciting!'

The weapon clicked; signalling it was ready to fire.

'Just gotta aim steady...'

The crossbow swung around as a gargling noise sounded somewhere from Udo's throat.

'Here we go...'

The bandit was dead in her sights.

'Now!'

A bullet from Jamie's rifle punched neatly into the chest of the bandit on top of Udo. The outlaw collapsed without a sound. Tamina threw back her head and let out a stream of loud curses which were, thankfully, in her native tongue.

OOC Whoops, sp!/OOC
Last edited by Jack Rothwell on December 7th, 2011, 5:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Sareth
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Re: Return to Port Lorrel

Post by Sareth »

"Hey! Ood Dude! Stop playing around! There's playing around to be doing!" Jamie grinned and swung her rifle back towards the action up front. The rifle rang out several more times and then the girl was reloading."

****

"You know, something just seems a bit odd here," Jasmine commented. She was watching the action below, rifle at the ready but unfired.

"What's that?" her companion asked, also resting easy.

"They're too determined. Bandits are all about the money. They're not about dying to get it. Yet Jamie's already punched three of them out and they're still at it. Doesn't that seem a bit odd to you?"
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Alberich
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Re: Return to Port Lorrel

Post by Alberich »

"You know, something just seems a bit odd here," Jasmine commented.

Resting on his elbows, his chin on his hands, her companion considered the brightly-robed motley crew that yelled its own doom as a battle cry. What was your first clue? he thought.

"They're too determined. Bandits are all about the money. They're not about dying to get it. Yet Jamie's already punched three of them out and they're still at it. Doesn't that seem a bit odd to you?"

He shook his head. "No stranger than the rest of them. They're acting leaderless here, that should be plain. Anyone with half an ounce of tactical sense would be sending a party back and up, to get on the clifftops above her. Then they'd nail her easy and there's nothing she could do."

He didn't know it, but the brightly-robed bandit-monks had brought a leader with just about half an ounce of tactical sense. But he had also brought his vanity with him, worn robes of stunning electric blue, and worse yet armed himself with the best-looking rifle of the bunch. He'd been Jamie's first victim. The question of succession had not received sufficient attention. And without the crystal ball, another victim of Jamie's marksmanship, they couldn't call in fire (or water) or get orders from "higher." Was that good or bad? They weren't saying.

"Of course, if they did that, we might be forced to kill them ourselves," mused Jasmine.

"Yes, but they don't know that. So, anyway, the way I see it, whoever's the brains behind this outfit might be in it for the money. But he's got these monkeys doing the Holy Will of Ho-Ho even unto death." He paused and thought. "There's another thing, too. If you've got a little band of cut-throats and you want to make some serious money, you've got to make a name somehow, or you won't get the recruits or the contracts. Dry-gulching one-wagon fish-merchants isn't much of a living by itself, but if you get a really fearsome reputation, like you don't run away from little girls and their kittens, you might be the next Eisenfaust.

"Anyway, unless a real leader shows up, they all look ready to plink away the rest of the afternoon. Unless everyone dies from freak ricochets or they run out of ammo."

Down below, Udo was in no condition to help - the water smash and the fight had left him dazed and spluttery. He lay behind his rocks, tying up his wound as best he could. Too bad. "Ood dude" was probably as respectful as Jamie'd ever get.
Last edited by Alberich on December 9th, 2011, 3:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Graybeard
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Re: Return to Port Lorrel

Post by Graybeard »

OOC:
Alberich wrote: [OOC: I drew a simple bmp diagram of the situation - if Graybeard can teach me how to attach it, I will. Meantime I got a photobucket account and you can see the diagram here.]
I think you should be able to do this by embedding in your contribution this language:

Code: Select all

[img]http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j349/Alberich1485/ESBDiagram.jpg[/img]
That should cause the diagram on your photobucket account to appear within the message. At one time we were restricting drawings, etc., to the "Images and Artwork" forum, but either that restriction has been lifted, or my admin-fu powers are allowing me to do this. If the former, you can show drawings like this (which might be a very nice addition to our usual way of writing); if the latter, let me know via private message and I'll edit this diagram, and others like it in the future, into your own posts.

I haven't been following this thread so closely lately, what with the extremely rapid development of the Getsemiel thread, but things like this diagram will help me and others get caught up. Thanks for taking the time and effort to do it.
Image

Because old is wise, does good, and above all, kicks ass.
Alberich
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Re: Return to Port Lorrel

Post by Alberich »

[OOC: It worked and I put it into the post where it belonged. Thanks, Graybeard. It is now slightly obsolete, as the monks from atop the wall are both dead, and Jasmine has apparently crawled further forward, though the "not helping" part is still in effect. Anyone looking for tactical discussion of the current situation can always carry forward the conversation between Jasmine and her boy-pal. 's pretty late in the day, I calc'late another hour or two to sunset, which might change things a smidgen.]
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Return to Port Lorrel

Post by Jack Rothwell »

Tamina saw 'Ooo-doh' go down looking somewhat the worse for wear and made a mewling noise. Her train of thought was interrupted by one of the cultists making her way rapidly down the ramp and throwing herself at the kobold with gleeful abandon. Ignoring her initial instinct to give the woman a hug in responce to her wide-armed gesture, Tamina brought her foot up, connecting squarely with the woman's jaw and collapsing her into a senseless heap.

The kobold gritted her teeth and sprinted from cover to the downed highwayman, stiffling a hiss as a stray bullet punched a coin hole through one of her ears, a moment later she was by Udo's side, doing her best top sound reassuring.

"Mmm, kay." She began conversationally. "Should be able to help now. Hang on... don't mess with the bleeding!" She swatted the man's hands away from his attempted first aid and put a stubby hand to the area with a air of practicing professional. She murmured a few words under her breath and a healing glow ran from her digits to the wounded area of the man, sealing it up in a few seconds.

Tamina winced, and repeated the process with her injured ear, feeling light-headed as her mana hit bottom again.

"Not much more now?" She heard herself plead. "Please?"
Alberich
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Re: Return to Port Lorrel

Post by Alberich »

Bliss filled Udo's face, from the magical healing touch, and the vision of loveliness above him. The ex-highwayman -- he couldn't think of returning to robbery, not now, not that he'd ever gotten around to taking anything on the highway, anyway -- in the midst of this battle, had found a moment of true happiness. Just as he'd always imagined! (Well, okay, not just as he'd imagined, but he wasn't going to chafe at the variance.)

He gazed into the face of the weary young kobold, and whispered, "Stay with me." His left hand stole up towards the back of her head. Her brave act had changed the tactical situation (and considerably for the better), but she had one matter of grave strategic importance to consider, one decision that only she could make, and she had to make it right now:

Would she allow him one single solitary pat?
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