Kiyoka

[Graybeard]

"Let me help with that," Argus heard someone say. A tall man was extending his hand down to remove some debris. The hand was attached to a robed arm and body, surmounted by an incongruous wide-brimmed hat.

"Let me introduce myself," the tall man continued. "Reverend Vernon Atwater -- Healer. How may I be of service to you?"

[OOC: This guy was BloodHenge's invention back at the outset of Errant Road, but hasn't appeared since the startup. BH, mind if I "borrow" him for a bit to get things moving here?]

[Drannin]

(OOC: Heh, oops. Yeah, I meant Kiyoka. Fixed the earlier post. My Bad)

Argus sighed with relief. "Reverend, I am absolutely overjoyed to see you." Absolute truth. His head hurt like a b(*^%. "Healer, you say? You might very well have a new convert if you do something for an apparently concussed head." That was bullshit, but no harm in telling a priest that.

Argus' hand fell upon his staff, and he yanked it out with a cry of triumph... which turned to a cry of pain as he managed to bash himself in the face with it, knocking himself to the ground. Again.

In the embarrassed silence, Argus commented: "Something for my hand-eye coordination would also be lovely." And, just to clarify his condition: "Ouch."

[Graybeard]

Atwater smiled, more or less. "I'll be glad to help, but there is a small ... fee for my services. Let's say five tsuis. Don't worry, I'm not seeking converts."

(OOC: Hereby is proposed the "tsui" as the coin of the realm in Tsuirakushiti and Kiyoka. As envisioned in this exchange, a beer might cost one or two tsuis. Anyone want to guess what the subdivision of a tsui might be called?)

[Drannin]

Argus groaned and felt around in his pocket for some money. "Five tsuis, done," he grunted, holding the money up from a prone position. Damn and double damn, he thought, There goes my drinking and stripper money. Now I'll actually have to WORK and make some more.

On that note, it suddenly seemed to him that there was no need to stick around town any longer, given the state it was in. No bars standing, most like. And reconstruction efforts weren't a point of interest to him. Wait, on that note...

"Incidentally," Argus commented as Reverend Atwater bent over him, "What happened here, precisely? It's surprisingly hard to keep track of goings-on while you're unconscious."

(OOC: how about a 'raku' for one-tenth of a tsui?)

[Graybeard]

(OOC: how about a 'raku' for one-tenth of a tsui?)

OOC: I'd been thinking of a "raku" as 1/100 of a "tsui," but either way works. Back IC, sort of -- BH, please take over here, you're better at being you than I am!:

"Incidentally," Argus commented as Reverend Atwater bent over him, "What happened here, precisely? It's surprisingly hard to keep track of goings-on while you're unconscious."

Atwater completed his first Healing spell, then scratched his head. "Well, let's see. I don't know how long you've been out, so maybe you know some of this already. That crazy girl over there --" -- he nodded toward Kureji, who was trying to cast some sort of Stabilization spell on the bar's surviving walls, with disastrous results -- "flounced into the square shouting something about Springheel Jack, whoever or whatever that is. (I think it's some manner of mythical bogeyman they have around here, complete mystery to me.) Then she started calling my name, and also for somebody named Toeto who I gather was a member of that street band that was playing. I was just hanging around listening to the music and looking for someone to ... help, so I moved over to where she was, but I didn't give her my name. The band stopped playing and looked at her, but they had some kind of enchantment spell on their bass drum -- a lot of the small bands do that for the rhythm instruments -- and it kept beating after they stopped. The girl evidently thought there was something weird about that -- must have never seen a street band before -- and cast some kind of spell at it. There was a big boom, instruments went flying, the street band headed for the hills, and all of a sudden, the fountain in the square started to run blood. She cast another spell, another big boom, more instruments flying, wall got knocked out over here and landed on you. Luminosita alone knows what she's up to now..."

He paused and muttered a second Heal, then resumed. "There's been a lot of bad craziness around here lately. It sounds as if there's a gang war in progress on the south side, down close to the docks, lots of shootings. The authorities are keeping it as quiet as they can -- it'd make them look bad if they admitted they don't know what's going on there. And the Veracian mission got a wall knocked out in the middle of a service. The stories about that are really wild, something about a glowing blue troll, which is maybe where this Springheel Jack thing comes from. Some idiot junior battlemage blew himself away with his Yuuki staff, and the authorities actually are paying attention to that one; they look after their own. The damn fool -- excuse me -- didn't know that you don't cast Lightning Bolt into the air with one of those things when there are clouds around. The big shots don't care about the kid, they just see this as winnowing out the incompetents, but they'd like to know why he was firing the staff."

He paused again and noticed that Kureji was looking in their direction, through a cloud of levitating beer mugs, sparkling bricks orbiting her head, and what looked like the animated bodies of two dead wharf rats. "Uh, oh. Looks like the Girl Genius has noticed us. Look unconscious and I'll try to look busy fixing you up."

[Drannin]

Argus played along and pulled a passable imitation of a comatose body. He was halfway there anyway... well, not so much now. The reverend certainly knew his stuff and Argus already felt a lot better. Still, it sounded like his first impression- warzone- was a little more accurate than he liked.

Gang wars. Glowing trolls. Churches being blown to bits (although a Veracian Church really didn't count). And lunatic barely-nubile magettes going on a PMS rampage. Come to think of it, why was a girl like her investigating some ridiculous story about the town bogeyman? Argus always figured it was just some addict's bad trip that worked its way into local legendry. It had happened before. Like the story of the beer waterfall up north. Turned about to be some drunkard's fantasy and the result of a rather large herd of animals relieving themselves at once. Argus had been very diapointed to learn this.

He also hadn''t been able to look at a beer for a week.

...So why was she investigating Springheel Jack? What in blazes was going on in this town?

"Is she coming this way?" he muttered through narrow lips.

[Graybeard]

"Is she coming this way?" he muttered through narrow lips.

Afraid so. Ignoring the bleeding-but-healing Argus completely, the strangely dressed young woman tripped over to where Atwater was standing and said, "Reverend Atwater! I've heard so much about you. I need to enlist your aid in solving ..." She spread her arms dramatically and paused for effect, then continued, "a MURDER!"

The Animate Dead component of whatever spell she'd cast moments earlier picked this particular instant to wear off, and one of the levitating wharf rats plopped dead in front of her, rather spoiling the dramatic effect.

At the end of the bar, a young woman wearing a curiously mini-skirted version of the robes worn by nuns of the Veracian Church noticed the conversation, and started to move slowly and quietly toward the three participants.

[OOC: BloodHenge and Viking, HEELLLP!]

[Viking-Sensei]

(OOC - Sorry, GB, it's been crazy in prep for D*C, but I'm back!)

Kureji, undeterred by the fact that she was down to one flying dead rat, continued to point the Finger of Justice at Atwater and glare at him with her best "I Answer to a Higher Calling" glare. "A murder most... muderous! I have reason to believe that all this..." she motioned to their ruined surroundings while neither breaking finger direction nor eye contact "...was caused by the one and only Springheel Jack. And I have reason to believe-" Her other zombie rat rose slightly into the air, shook violently for a second, and then exploded. "I have reason to believe that I'm going to need another rat."

[mindstalk]

OOC: the previous post made me wonder about the authorities -- Kiyokan, or Tsuirakushiti? What happens if the Tsuirakuan FBI/National Police gets involved? Bumbling officialdom or scary mind-reading trace-reading mages? Modern civilization implies some competence at the basic jobs of government, Republican dogma and Italy notwithstanding.

[Graybeard]

OOC: the previous post made me wonder about the authorities -- Kiyokan, or Tsuirakushiti? What happens if the Tsuirakuan FBI/National Police gets involved? Bumbling officialdom or scary mind-reading trace-reading mages? Modern civilization implies some competence at the basic jobs of government, Republican dogma and Italy notwithstanding.

OOC: A fair point. The events at the dock aren't a problem, for reasons that (I think) have already been discussed: Admitting that things are out of control in the dock area would amount to a loss of face for the Powers That Be, and the Powers That Be must never lose face. Accordingly, they simply don't admit that the out-of-control things even exist -- which is a non-problem anyway, since none of the bodies participants there are Kiyokan except for Arty, and Sergeant Ohta is already on CYA duty on that one. (I actually have something scripted on that theme once Layla makes it back to town.)

Events at the mission and, particularly, the square that Kureji just trashed are more difficult to reconcile with Kiyokan civilization. The mission itself isn't a huge problem; Kiyokan officialdom wish it would go away anyway (and have much more reason to hold that opinion than they're aware of yet...). However, it's accumulated a rather unseemly number of corpses nearby that can't be arm-waved away as conveniently as in the dock district. The introduction of the mini-skirted nun (apparently "Sister Eva" from earlier events at the mission, but in fact, her twin sister -- late retcon here) to the fountain and bar scene was done partly with that problem in mind; stay tuned.

As for the fountain itself, and the damage to the Kiyokan infrastructure nearby: Viking, ol' buddy ol' pal, your thoughts would be appreciated. You blew it up; you fix it.