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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Galina smiled. "I could probably do that. Let's talk about it after your own lesson. I wanted to introduce you to the basics of conjuration when we got back together."

One exhausting (this particular class of magic didn't come naturally to her) but rewarding (apart from the time with a friend, she could see -- uses for this one) hour later, Layla collected her son and headed for Barker Lane.

The Silver Hands were doing whatever they did when she got there, but she succeeded in prying Rufus away for a quick conversation. "My friend Galina, that I'm studying magic with, says it would be okay to run one or two of you people into her introductory class if you're interested. So are you?"
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Re: Rinkaiel: Kidnappers

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"Personally? No." Rufus said with a shake of his head, guiding the young woman to a seat and retrieving a boiling kettle from the fireplace. "I actually tried to learn about forty years ago... well... the Lorrelian militia had a few test runs on the men to see if we had any inklings of talent. The instructor singled me out and told me, quote 'You, young master Latemer, are about as magically inclined as a brick, stick to your sword.'" The old man chuckled and poured tea into cups for himself and his guest. "However, it seems you and Ms Ermingard are on the same wavelength in that regard. Our resident blacksmith..."

"...thinks you should help bully her boyfriend into accompanying you to your next lesson." Jade finished, stepping out of the cellar streaked with dust and pulling off a pair of work gloves. She enveloped the younger woman in a companionable hug and sat next to her with a tired sigh.

"How's the mapping of our acquisition going?"

"Slow, but steady." Jade replied. "Back to your subject Layla. Leo and I had a discussion about him learning magic earlier in the day, Eve also came up as a possible candidate... but I haven't had a chance to mention it to her yet."

A brief moment later the subjects of the trio's discussion were with them in the kitchen, one bleary-eyed from an afternoon cat-nap, the other oiled with sweat and still clutching a wooden practice sword in her hand.

"Jade... Layla." Leo drew a deep breath. "I'm still not sure that..."

"It's only a practice lesson." Jade cut him off. "You suck, you go home, no big deal..."

"I suppose, but... can Galina teach illusion magic? Something that might be more convenient than doffing a disguise, for example?"

"Bugger that." Eve scoffed. "Can she teach me how to blow things up with my mind?"
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Re: Rinkaiel: Kidnappers

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"I'm sure she can teach illusions," Layla answered. "Probably fireballs, too. The question is, can you learn them? One of the things I found out is that I didn't just automatically have aptitude for the things I wanted to learn. You can do some kinds of magic better than others. And besides, it's not the same for us as it is for a Tsuirakuan who started to learn all the magic stuff when she was about the same age as Zacky." She kissed her son. "We'll never be able to do things as easily, as naturally, as they do." She chuckled. "Of course, Tsuirakuans aren't such naturals with firearms, either."

[OOC: Just a little repartee to bounce it back. No hurry in moving this thread along.]
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Re: Rinkaiel: Kidnappers

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Eve's chest (such as it was) puffed up in a way that Rufus and Leo immediately recognized.

"...and here comes the boasting." The younger man said side-mouth, too low for her to hear.

"I don't know about Tsuirkuan's, but us Lorrelians (OOC Is that the term for someone from Port Lorrel?/OOC) are fast learners... well, at least I am. I can learn anything I set my mind to."

"Guitar lessons." Leo stated flatly.

"Not my fault. The teacher was a dick."

"Alchemy?"

"That was a pointless waste of time." Eve replied, getting testy.

"Exotic dancing?"

"That was for a job!" She shouted, going crimson. "And it got cancelled!"
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Re: Rinkaiel: Kidnappers

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OOC Just using Layla for comedy purposes here, hope you don't mind Grey./OOC


Jade chuckled and stood up, tapping Layla on the shoulder to get her attention as she walked past.

"Well, before you go off learning how to bend the ether to your will I've got something to show you."

A minute later the pair stood in the blacksmith's forge, staring at the metal humanoid sprawled across a workbench.

"I've just about got this beauty mapped out." Jade said with obvious pride, lifting a loose plate and reattaching it to the frame. "If all goes well I should be turning this thing back on around tomorrow morning. Yeah... hopefully the adjustments I made to what should be it's behaviour centre should work... well... probably. Our tour guide at the ruin had some interesting notes in that pocketbook of his, I just hope he knew what he was talking about. He did well."

Something about Layla's continued, quiet stare made Jade want to talk to fill the silence.

"Well... things didn't exactly work out too well for him." She added.

More silence, a raised eyebrow.

"He may have made a miscalculation..."

No reply.

"...he got skewered." She finished.
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Re: Rinkaiel: Kidnappers

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[OOC: This thing has been idle for a very long time, and to my knowledge, I'm the only person who still has a character in it -- although some of yours, JR, might still be here; I'm having a hard time sorting out who's where among the Silver Hands. However, it is desirable to have at least a bit of reactivation of this, because of a possible interaction between it and some things that are starting to happen in the Port Lorrel thread. Accordingly I'm going to "run" it as a bit of fanfiction for the time being, unless one of Leo, Rufus, Eve, etc., gets involved. Can you let me know what your preferences are there? Anyway:]

Things had really been going quite well for the last month or so, Layla reflected as she set out for her morning run.

The vineyard was beginning to get into operation, although acceptable wine wouldn't be produced until next year. (Possibly she could palm some of the current hooch off on the boxed-wine market, as long as it couldn't be traced back to Bad Ass Wines. She did know how to do that.) She'd managed to find a couple of seemingly reliable workers to help tend the grapes, and Joe, bless his heart, was already at work on a distribution and marketing plan. She'd underestimated the Gewehr underling, she thought; his business sense was quite good, and she could trust him. (As far as she could trust anyone, anyway.) The magic lessons with Galina were going swimmingly, not to mention the fact their friendship, and that of their children (to the extent that a 9-month-old could have "friends"), was becoming closer all the time. She was on good terms with the Silver Hands and had managed to at least stay out of trouble with the Seeadler, the little episode at the museum, and the followup at the elven ruins, notwithstanding. Her relationship with Ace was ... also close. Best of all, whatever had been happening with the Oshima clan and the Temple of the Divine Dwarf had gone quiet. She didn't want to poke at that too closely, but she did keep tabs on it closely enough that she'd be able to pick up on a resumption of nefarious things there. (She thought.)

I may be able to get away from life as a Wraith, and become a winemaker, low-level mage, and mother -- maybe even remarry. The thought made her feel good; her willingness to kill on a contract, it was fair to say, had taken a big hit when Zachary was born. Was that why the Gewehr had had no female Wraiths until her mother's generation, and very few in her own? Motherhood did that to them? It seemed credible.

She rounded the corner where the shack had once been, feeling good about herself and the operation. The only down side was that Peter had gone strangely silent. Something didn't seem right about that, and her mother wasn't getting any better intell as to why than she herself was. That was particularly odd. Faye knew just about everything that was going on in the Gewehr, or at least she could learn about it if she wanted to. But Peter had just clammed up.

Well, screw him, she thought, rather uncharitably. I don't need cover from the big shots of the outfit any more. We're going to make this operation work without the Gewehr if we have to, and if they don't want to use it as a safe house any more, we can live with--

BOOM!

Wraith reflexes took over as the ground beneath her feet shook, and she realized as she dropped and rolled that she might not be out of the Gewehr business so completely after all.
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Re: Rinkaiel: Kidnappers

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OOC Most of the Hands are still around and available for hilarity, time-wasting, elaborate espionage and any other of your plot-advancing needs :)/OOC

Eve had been up with dawn as usual and raising a racket at the Barker Lane guild. The thunk of wooden practise weapons hitting wooden dummys had filled the twenty square yards of the back court of The Silver Hands headquarters for an hour as the young woman worked out whatever perpetual aggression gave her such tireless energy.

Eventually she'd drawn to a halt, not from fatigue, rather the aggravation of the newer recruits arriving, spouting bravado and other male idiocy as the front door crashed open. Rufus had picked them up for the mercenary group a short time after they arrived in Rinkaiel. They were green as grass, but young and willing to learn, and the old man had much to teach. Rufus' long-time protégé had had minimal involvement in their education, but she'd paid attention to their progress. Reeve, some ex-milita-barely-a-man with all of a year's experience and a dishonourable discharge to his name, had shown an aptitude for understanding combat tactics, and was already twice the swordsman that Bert was trying to be. Earl, a snot-nosed brat with the digital dexterity for picking locks and pockets that put the young woman in mind of herself at that age. The boy, all of sixteen, looked at Captain Rufus with the same quiet gratitude she had after he pulled her off the streets some nine years and a lifetime ago. Under his tutelage they'd become competent enough to do the steady stream of odd-jobs that came in from the local traders, and the rest of the populace who wanted something protected, punched or pinched.

Such was the case today. Bert and the newer recuits were preparing to escort a trade caravan out of town and would be gone for at least two days. Eve, for her own part, would be doing what she'd been doing three times a week, every week for the last month. Go to Rose's friend Galina and spend half the day banging her head against a mental wall trying to convince her to teach her destructive magic which, her tutor had insisted, she'd shown no talent for whatsoever.

Whether or not Leo deemed to accompany her that day was beyond her to guess. The usually cocky conman had been out-of-sorts for the last two weeks. After Jade's failure to reactivate the golem they'd helped themselves to from the Dwarven ruin she'd packed-up, asked her boyfriend for a loan, and caught the first carriage to the nearest warpgate, declaring as she'd exited that she'd find a way to 'get her baby up and walking if she had to scour the whole continent'. Leo had stayed behind at Rufus' insistence, citing his duty to the guild and his responsibilities as second-in-command and primary investor in the organisation. Leo had argued, but eventually conceded. Now he'd taken to periods of moping which drew her to poke at him with a sharpened verbal stick.

Yep, things were pretty boring. Even the occasional bandit or drunken lout their work confronted them with had done little to ease the tedium which had settled on the restless woman like a vulture. As she re-entered the guild through it's back door she emitted a sigh and wished idly for a war.
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Re: Rinkaiel: Kidnappers

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[OOC: OK, thanks ... One or more of the Silver Hands might drop by the vineyard at some point...]

Layla's Wraith reflexes were still good; by the time she emerged from the protective drop-and-roll she'd entered at the sound of the explosion, she was already holding the pistol that she carried on runs. It looked like an overreaction, though. A quick self-inspection showed nothing wrong with her and no obvious effects from the loud noise she'd heard. Still, explosions that loud had to have some effect, somewhere.

"Layla!" Ace shouted from the direction of the house, interrupting her efforts to check out the area. "Are you all right?"

Layla's first reaction was irritation; her boyfriend really should know by now that a Wraith was not to be interrupted when casing a setup. On the other hand, he was apparently all right, and that was important ... and even more important, he was holding a giggling, cooing Zachary.

"I'm fine," she yelled back. "Did you hear it?"

Ace merely nodded and didn't say anything more until the three were closer together (very close for a second or two). "We heard a muffled explosion at the house, sounded like it came from underground," he said. "Had that crack to it that sounded like a fair bit of high explosives, according to Faye." [OOC: Truth in the Real World here. I used to work with an explosives expert who said he and others in his line of work could tell roughly how big a detonation was just by the sound of it, even if it was a couple of miles away. /OOC:]

Layla nodded back. "It was big, all right. But all contained, as far as I can tell. No damage up here." She waved her hand at the seemingly peaceful scene around her. "I think we'd better check it out, though." She took her son and started a slower, methodical examination.
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Re: Rinkaiel: Kidnappers

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She found Leo lounging in the room he had in recent weeks decorated with his deep pockets and dubbed 'his den'. It was a plush affair which featured an oversized and intricately patterned couch where it's owner spent too much of his time nowadays. It boasted artworks of serious looking men which made Eve feel as if she were presenting herself to a grand jury every time she violated his privacy; she'd guessed they'd been obtained from his father's estate in Port Lorrel.

"Eve... dear, sweet Eve." The man began as she strode inside. As Eve faced him she noticed the room's other occupant, that raggedy bag of fur Keeko, his pet cat, currently curled in a ball of it's owner belly and dozing. The animal opened a mistrustful yellow eye at her approach.

"How many times-" He continued, with great theatricality. "-must I ask you to knock before you come in here?"

"Must've forgot." She grunted. "I just wanted to see if you had any plans to get off your arse today."

"The new boys are on a job and my affairs are all in order." Leo replied, grumpiness leaking into his tone. "And I don't consider learning parlour tricks a high priority."

"Well it's better than catnapping." If Eve was been a softer soul, she might've encouraged Leo to come along by citing the talent he shown for illusionary magic (as least when he there, and fully focused on the lesson) instead of merely being irritated that he'd shown potential in an art that would help him in his work. She might have also pointed out that Jade would doubtless be back before the year's end, maybe sooner if her 'quest' hit disaster and forced her home. As it was, she took a different approach.

"How about you stop moping around like a sissy and do something useful? I can't carry this organisation all by myself."

"Be sure to shut the door behind you." Leo muttered, retrieving a book and thumbing it open with a bored air.

Eve stared at her friend for a scowling moment longer, then wheeled around and left. The slam of the portal shook a light shower of dust from the paintings. Leo's expression, like the old portraits, remained unchanged.

"Always nice chatting with you." He said.
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Re: Rinkaiel: Kidnappers

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"Underground passage," Layla muttered softly to Ace; for some reason this felt like the kind of situation for keeping it quiet, even though there was absolutely no obvious threat. (Zachary seemed to understand; his customary happy cooing subsided as well.) "It's collapsed. No idea what's down there." But we'd better find out.

One thing was clear already, however: the direction in which it was trending was straight toward Tsuiraku-town.
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