The search for Brother Dalton, part 2

[Alberich]

Anfisa screamed and fought back too but not as hard as Desiree - she wasn't made for that. Once her arms were pinioned she was down to screaming, and once one of the oafs raised his hand to strike her, she fell dumb to avoid the blow. Keyes was bound and held firmly enough that he couldn't get away.

The man holding Desiree looked to the shortest priest, the leader of the moment. "Hey, brother, this one's fallen faint!"

"That's no good," said the Brother, "no profit in smiting an unconscious sinner. Best get her to some secure spot where she may be properly healed, revived, stripped, and smitten."

"You mean smoted!" said another - who was quickly shushed.

"Out in the street?" said another. There was some bickering. "Right here?" said another. More quick bickering.

"No good," said the shortest, "we mustn't let the passerby be tempted by the sight of all this female flesh....ah...to the temple! We may find another spot along the way."

As they dragged their victims into the broader street, Anfisa got up enough courage for another scream. She was soft-voiced and demure most of the time, but when she had cause, her voice could split the air and the hearer's ears. She got a punch in the belly that silenced her for that one, but in the meantime she'd been heard.

It might be said that Anfisa was better at screaming than thinking. The noise naturally drew the Gorielian whoremasters in the "Seamstress" shop. They were out in the street in a trice. They didn't recognize their quarry in the group, at least not right away they didn't, but it looked like a fun kind of scene to interrupt. Or join in. Might save a silver or two, too.

"Hey!" yelled one. "You fight!"

"He mean share!" yelled another.

[Graybeard]

The outrages being perpetrated against Anfisa and Desiree were more than Keyes could put up with. "Hey, you ape!" he shouted at the priests. "Dey aren't whored any more dan you are! Let go ob ut! You tould be atamed, treating helplet women like dat! Id dat what dey teat you to do in OOMPH!"

Speech impediment or no speech impediment, the final sibilant came out just fine as one of the armed men whacked Keyes across the face. "Shut up," he hissed, "or we'll start the smiting right here and now ... and it ain't gonna be done with birch sticks."

This didn't do Keyes' mood any good, of course, and he glared daggers at the man ... but a plan was forming. The force they were confronting was too powerful for a direct fight, particularly if these alluring young women were as magic-poor as they seemed to be. (Little did he know about Desiree.) But if he could work a hand free for long enough to release Old Charlie, the odds would change, drastically. He wasn't supposed to use the amulet in town, but there were exceptions.

He was still struggling to make that contact when the Gorielites showed up.

-----------

Meanwhile, Sister Rose, Argus and Tamina had heard Desiree's and Anfisa's screams, even though it was at least three blocks away. Rose looked at Argus. "Uh, oh, we've heard that before..." She placed a couple of coins, in rather large denominations, on the table to cover her half-eaten steak (not bad, she thought wistfully; maybe they could come back and finish it later, but she wasn't too hopeful) and stepped out into the street, starting to rally magic, and first making a quick change in her appearance back to the Orthodox nun that had been the second side of her Argus had seen so long ago.

[Alberich]

The stupid priests were pointing at their vestments and loudly declaring over each other that they had "diplomatic immunity" or that assaulting a priest was "a serious offense" -- as indeed it was in Veracia. The Gorielians were yelling back "Wha'?" and "Huh?" and "One for you, one for us," and "Hey, they're buggers, they got a dude! They can keep him!" as they prepared to wade into a street brawl.

At this point one of Port Lorrel's Finest, a guardsman named Yogi, came running up from a nearby tavern and started yelling at everyone to "nip it in the bud." A few Lorrelians peeped out their windows at the street theater, but none came out to join in. "Getting involved" was not the Port Lorrel way, 'least not in this kind of situation it wasn't.

With this much noise going on, and with diplomatic implications too, the real question was whether Rose's team would get there before the Eisenfaust saw the need to step in.

[Graybeard]

[OOC: OK, time for a partial Big Reveal -- which is most emphatically not the same thing as saying "an encounter with the BBEG"...]

"Oh, damn," Sister Rose said, none too softly, as she rounded a corner ahead of Argus and Tamina (remarkably enough, but Rose had been notably fleet-footed as a younger woman and she could still move very quickly for short durations). "This is going to get messy, get ready for some spellcr--"

"ENOUGH!" The voice split the air like the lash of a whip, and there was magic in its wake.

Within two seconds at the most, Binding spells enveloped the three Farrel thugs, and the stupid young priests and their military goons. Because of the way Keyes was being restrained, a tendril of the spell was wrapped around him too. Desiree and Anfisa were not enmeshed in the spell, but in the condition they were in, they weren't going anywhere soon. Only Yogi remained untrammeled, and he simply faded into the background for the moment ...

... As Father Amalric emerged from a side street leading toward the airship terminal, his face half enraged eagle, half thundercloud.

"Now will someone please tell me just what the hell is going on here?" he inquired of the apparent leader of the priests, the timbre of his voice leaving no doubt where the earlier word, and the magic that it introduced, had come from.

Rose retreated back around the corner, to where she could see but not intervene; barging in now could only make matters worse. She put on the Empathy spell and awaited what it would reveal.

-----------

Watching from a very well-concealed position atop a nearby building, Captain Kentauro Kitaura simply smiled and nodded ... a gesture that would have utterly astounded any of his retainers, if there'd been any nearby.

[Alberich]

Right behind Father Amalric was Brother Tim, not half so powerful but every bit as enraged from the look of him. (Amalric had commandeered the nearest asset on the way out here, and Tim was that.) He didn't by any means grasp what had just happened but there was no way it could be right. These three men in vestments must be very new to this town -- he hadn't seen them through all the nights he'd stayed here, and this was by no means the right place for a set of priests.

An unconscious-looking Desiree and a hurt-looking Anfisa didn't belong anywhere near the Veracian clergy, unless they were rescuing them from something, but Tim thought it more likely Desiree had offended the priests on purpose, just as she had in the past, and these fools lacked the self-restraint to keep their hands off her. Well, since she didn't respect decency or good manners, she might learn to respect force...

One of the taller priests, and maybe the dumbest of all in a field of close runners, actually tried to answer the question, "Uh, ah, well, it being Wednesday, father, and all, smiting the fallen faithful, sort of thing, cleansing the public morals, discouraging this disreputable house here..."

Tim cut in clearly and evenly. "Those women are known to me and they are heathens." The implication was clear to any Orthodox Veracian. The redemptive pain of smiting could cleanse a believer of his sins and turn him back to the Right Path; but such sacraments had no meaning whatsoever for one who had never been raised or confirmed in the Faith or confessed it. Neither could this be justified as enforcing the laws of Veracia or the Church, which did not apply outside the community of the Faithful here. (Inside Veracia was a different story. Whoever went into that country was subject to its laws, save he had Patriarch's Protection, and even then he had better behave.)

On top of which they were foolish as policy. As Tim had often reflected during his recent adventures, even back home it was standard to tolerate a certain amount of license -- like the local trollop or "funny boy" -- on the understanding that such things would happen, but insisting they be kept discreet. In this country, where the Church did not rule outside its own community, and instead tried to win the Heathen over by good works and good example, this was rank stupidity.

Tim wanted to shout all this out, to let the people see that these priests were not what the Church stood for, and call for them to be unfrocked and scourged in the open square. But he lacked the authority. Amalric was the senior man and must make the call - and if he was like most, he would take them back to the mission with as little fanfare as possible and let the Abbot deal with them. It would be a terrible blight on the Abbot's leadership if he could not control them any better than this, and given how public the disgrace was, Tim could not anticipate much mercy for these transgressors.

Healing those two licentious libertines would require him to touch them. He wasn't looking forward to that (was he?) but he was honor bound to do it once Amalric had the situation sorted out.

[Graybeard]

"Those women are known to me and they are heathens."

Father Amalric cocked an unfriendly eye in Tim's direction. "And how, pray, do you know these women, and know that they are heathens?" Then he sighed. "Never mind, I know the answer already. Sister Rose, who is Major Nuria-Lucas, correct?"

"Correct," Sister Rose said, choosing this time to appear from around the corner. She'd been able to get enough off the Empathy spell to have a pretty good idea of what was going on, although she still didn't know why. Well, there'd be time enough to figure that part out. "They are part of the party who will be traveling north." I'm sorry, Desiree, but whatever just happened here, it demonstrates that you're going to be safer with us than making your own way back to Snamish. She made a mental note to say these exact words to the half-elf priestess later; Desiree would be disconsolate, she wanted to just go home, but ... it wouldn't be for the best.

Now Rose became the target of Amalric's jaundiced eye. "I don't suppose you would be willing to confide to a humble airship pilot exactly why two heathen, and exceptionally beautiful, young women are necessary to this mission?"

Mission, thought Rose. As if there was ever any doubt about this so-called "vacation." She found her temper rising, made a physical effort to choke it back. "No, I would not," she said coldly; wearing the mask of command would suffice for the moment to get her displeasure at this line of questioning across. (Or so she thought, although it would take less than thirty seconds for her to be proven wrong.) "Let's get these two women and their helpful friend untied and ready to go find Therese. As for the priests and the foreigners, I frankly don't give a rat's ass what you do about them, as long as no one is killed or injured. Now let's get moving, we fly in an hour, as you said." With my steak still uneaten, and the hoped-for moment to tell Argus about ... developments ... still in the future.

Amalric's glare was just as severe as it had ever been, but he nodded. "As you say ...

"... Major."

He bent to release the magical bonds holding Keyes.

And that was when Rose noticed that the sleeves protruding from Amalric's priestly vestments had stars and other insignia that proclaimed them to be worn by a retired officer in the Veracian military.

A retired general, to be precise.

[OOC: Everybody OK with a fast forward to the airship?]

[Alberich]

[OOC: Actually, no. I think that Tim healing Desiree should be done in play; and since Tim and Anfisa are both against Desiree and Anfisa being brought along, though their reasons are not exactly the same. I think that should be played out, too. I know they're going to lose the argument but it ought to be played out and not just skipped over. Won't have time to post 'til tonight.]

[Jack Rothwell]

Tamina's late arrival on the scene (partially credited to her quickly doubling back to the restaurant when she'd realized she'd left her steak behind*) had doubtless been a good thing given the unfolding of the current situation. Not to mention that the magic being thrown around really didn't need the chaos of a kobold mage added to the mix. She'd skidded to a halt, chewing the last of the delicious gravy-soaked meat, taken in the scene and, wisely, decided against offering any interjections, verbal or otherwise.

The lion's share of the kobold's attention however, had not been fixed on the imposing figure of Father Amalric, but rather the man who'd arrived with him. She'd given Brother Tim a unguarded frown since he'd first spoken which contained anger and a hefty measure of suspicion. Not surprising, given his recent morally-cloudy involvement in her affairs. What he'd said about Dezzy and Anfi had done him no favours in her eyes either; she had no idea was a 'heathen' was, but the tone of his voice made it clear it was nothing nice.

'...rrrrrrr....' She growled quietly out the side of her mouth.


OOC *not to step on Rose's fitness level, but kobold's are fast little buggers even without Tamina's speed magic, so I'd thought I'd add that little aside about the food as it was in character.

Apologies for the intermittent posting btw, had double-shifts over the last two days and a pointless training session to attend today. I'll get posts in the other threads hopefully before the day is out./OOC

[Graybeard]

[OOC: OK, a pause on the fast-forward, until the character interactions play out. Just as a heads-up, I'm going to be intermittent for the next week or so, but Rose would be waiting patiently while those interactions occur -- although after what she has just learned about Amalric, she would now be rather insistent that Desiree and Anfisa travel with her, not necessarily for the best of reasons. Meanwhile:]

Therese and Mordan walked along a well-constructed but seemingly endless corridor, encountering nothing larger and more menacing than a spider or two.

"We must have been on this thing for a good hour," she eventually complained to her companion. "The good news is that that means it's made like this for a reason. The bad news is, I have no idea where we are going."

A break in the routine lay not far ahead, however. There was another curtain of magical light blocking the hallway, and this time, it was transparent enough that she could see what appeared to be a set of stairs leading upward beyond it. There were still no signs of other travelers.

She cocked an eye at Mordan. "Ready to repeat the countermeasure, and head for the surface?"

[Alberich]

Tim imagined the growl to be directed at some other part of this ruffianly crowd -- he had not picked up on the Gorielians' nationality. In fact, they were now dealing with an extra-loud harangue from the newly-emerged Officer Yogi, who was laying down the law on publicaciously intoxicatory disturbification of the peace, and any moment now might read them the riot act. If he could read at all. A block or two away Sergeant Smitty's special "Yogi's Doing Something Stupid" instinct went off like a firebell, and he came puffing along at his own pace. The Gorielians, it was to be hoped, would have enough to occupy them.

Tim had no time for any of it. There were injured women here, and for all their heathen decadence, they needed healing. The wayward priests fell back at a glare, and he showed empty hands to Keyes. "Just to heal them," he said. He attended to Anfisa first because she was conscious and in pain. Or, rather, he tried. She was still trying to get her breath back and, at the sight of his vestments, thought he was another attacker. She fought him away. He couldn't very well force her to hold still for a healing, so he turned to Desiree. Once she was conscious she could take care of Anfisa. While he did not relish laying hands on this luscious young temptress, he did not flinch as he would have done a few weeks ago, but went to it boldly.

[OOC: How far he gets before he finds out what that growling was really about...we'll see.]

[OOC2: btw, he was not using a scornful tone when he said "heathens" - picture an angry officer saying to some soldiers, "These people are civilians," while barely containing himself from screaming in fury. But he was angry enough that it would've been easy - and is certainly more fun - for Tamina to misread that.]