Tsuiraku-town, part 2

[kagome_kino]

Maya pointed to herself looking a bit confused then got the idea "oh right sure leave it to me." Walking up to Rhett she put a finger to his forehead "Scan" Maya looked on with unfocused eye as if seeing problem only she could see "it's nothing major but this should take away the pain. Heal." The soft glow from her hands became visible erasing what damage the Northern man had taken.

[Graybeard]

"I think we'd better get to the bottom of this place," Layla said, indicating the shack. "This is the third time that either somebody has come out of the damn thing to make trouble for us, or we've got into trouble by checking it out."

"'We'?" Joe echoed, remembering that when he'd tried to investigate the shack, the warp gate embedded in it had whooshed him off to Luminosita alone knew where. And there was another thing ... "Layla, remember that at least one, and maybe as many as three, people came out of that thing, and then got killed on our side of it. It's not exactly like they don't have some reasons to be pissed at us."

"Point." Layla suppressed a shudder, remembering the lucky(?) shot of a few days back. The thought caused her to hold Zachary just a tiny bit tighter than she'd been doing. "Okay, so what next?"

[kagome_kino]

Maya listened to the conversation confused "if its causing you so much trouble why not just set up an anit magic field?" Maya asked this like it was the most obvious thing in the world having been born into a city of magicians.

[Graybeard]

"if its causing you so much trouble why not just set up an anti magic field?"

Layla turned to look at the girl. If only it were so easy... "We'd need magic users to do that. This isn't Tsuiraku, and very few people know anything about magic. I'm trying to learn, that's why I'm in town, but I don't know how to set up an anti-magic field. Unless you could do it yourself..." She let her voice trail off; the girl was a Tsuirakuan, after all, and maybe she could do something that off the wall.

Joe snorted; apparently he didn't think much of that idea. "Well, while you're figuring out how to do that, I'm going to go start setting up some conventional defenses." He ambled back toward the house.

[kagome_kino]

Maya shook her head "Sorry I cant see the drawing for the circle on the paper since it only one solid color to me I could probably activate it if one was already laid down but spell involving rituals are almost all out of my reach." Maya looked around for anything useful but wasn't really coming up with anything off her head.

[Graybeard]

"It was just an idea," Layla said, not quite understanding Maya's response. Well, the reply really didn't matter in detail; all that mattered was that she apparently couldn't help with defenses. That was unfortunate, if not entirely unexpected.

By the time the women (and Zachary, of course) and Rhett got back to the house, Joe and Jamie were setting to work on all manner of traps of varying but considerable degrees of lethality. Layla was amused, and also just very slightly concerned, to see the enthusiasm with which the girl was going about her work. She was equally amused to see Jasmine giving Joe the once-over. Apparently the woman divided all men into two categories: enemies to be wiped out without compunction, and potential sons-in-law. Wonder whether Jamie would fit into the Gewehr? Layla thought. She was a little ... undisciplined, but she wouldn't be the only low-to-mid-level operative with a shortcoming in that area, and she seemed to know her stuff. Well, that might come later. For now the connection of Gewehr to the vineyard was a strictly off-limits subject.

"Far be it from me to interfere with these master craftsmen plying their trade," she commented dryly to Rhett. "Got any ideas for other things to try to find out what we're facing here?"

[OOC: Paging Rhett! Gonna be hard to make much progress until you're back in touch...]

[Sareth]

"Bait," Jasmine replied, tearing her eyes away from Eligible Bachelor #382, a.k.a. 'Joe.' Whoever they are, these bastards have clearly shown a willingness to come after supposed weak spots for us... for you... right? So if we make one that's not too obvious, but just obvious enough..." Jasmine's smile turned feral. "We only need to keep one of them alive..."

Off to the side, Jamie cackled. Though it might not always be obvious to the casual observer, in that moment the family ties between the two couldn't have been clearer.

[kagome_kino]

"b.. b.. bait?!" Maya said looking terrified and hiding behind Layla "not it, not it!" she repeated using her host as as human shield. This sucks I can't even get breakfest without becoming hostage around here.

[Graybeard]

"Bait?" Layla echoed, her face making it clear that she didn't like the idea much. "Bait is used to attract things, catch fish, get vermin into traps, all that. Whatever the Tsuirakuans working out of that shack are up to, I don't want to attract them here, I want them to leave us the hell alone. And I don't want any more damn deaths here. Sooner or later, they're going to decide there have been so many of their people killed at this place that they don't screw around with surveillance or kidnapping, they just come wipe us out. If they really are Tsuirakuans, there are a helluva lot more of them than there are of us, so they can do it. In fact I don't get why they haven't pulled out the whippin' stick already." She hugged Zachary slightly closer at the thought, getting nods from Faye and Joe.

Then she had another thought. "As for leaving one of them alive, though ... hmmm. I wonder what the former caretakers of this place know about that shack and who's behind it? I think Kalin called them Vikor and Sarya. Maybe the best defense is a good offense ..."

She couldn't see Faye or Jasmine, her face being turned half to Jamie and half to her son, but at that last aphorism, the two grandmothers in the room were grinning ear to ear.

[Sareth]

"I'm all for being offensive," Jamie replied. "But where are they and how do we get to them?"