To the Southern Continent

[Sareth]

[OOC]I swear I responded to this recently, but can't find the response. Ah, well...[/OOC]

"I'm coming, I'm comi*URK!*" Jamie's response to Tamina was cut off as she was nearly hoisted from her feet by her mother's fingers snatching her collar and giving it a good yank.

"Oh no you don't. You're staying right here while this boat turns around and heads back. You're coming home and settling down to take care of my granddaughter."

"How about a compromise," Jamie responded. "How about you settle down and take care of your granddaughter while I wander about trying to create more?"

*WHACK*

"OW! ... I take it that's a no?"

Jasmine glowered at Jamie. "Would you like me to emphasis it?"

"No, that's alright. I think I got it." Jamie sighed. "I'd better go check on Nera."

"That sounds like a good idea." Jasmine parked herself at the lowering gangplank, well positioned to block off any attempt to dart down it.

With a sigh, Jamie scooped Nera out of her makeshift sling. "How's the baby? How's the baby? Are you the baby?"

Nera squeeled and made a grab for Jamie's hair, which Jamie easily fended off.

Jamie tossed Nera in the air, then caught her. "Ready for some fun?"

Near smiled and blew a spit bubble."

"Good!" Jamie tossed Nera into the air a second time, caught her, then tossed her toward Tamina. "CATCH!" she yelled, then dove over the side of the ship.

"JAAAAAAMIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEE!" Jasmine's screech was audible clearly even under the water.

[Jack Rothwell]

Tamina's ears pricked up at Jamie's yell, and then pivoted to track Nera's excited squeal. The kobold caught the child easily and smiled delightedly in her face.

"Kee el keysha, riiti gah?*" She asked her, the tone was mothering even if the language wasn't understandable. She passed the tyke to it's adopted mother after Jamie caught up with an expression of pure mischief written across her features. Tamina's grin grew wider, this was the most light-hearted she felt in what seemed an eternity.

"K, k, Let's go, look, see."

It would've been immediately apparent to a newcomer that there wasn't an enormous amount of Grendell to 'go, look, see' but nevertheless the place had a charming simplicity to it. The homes were more hut-like than house, and most of the residents were outside enjoying the warm weather. The few businesses were either stalls or simply denizens sitting on chairs with their wares spread about them on blankets (although there was a big hut at the edge of town with an oversized entrance and a few unsteady individuals outside it which were all the signs of a bar). The order of the day for these shops was food and all things fishing-related. The kobold wiped glistening lips as the trio passed a seller who seemed to specialise in exotic-looking shellfish. There were a few fishermen sitting in rowing boats who called to the newcomers, offering them boat rides up the streams that fed into the backdrop of densely packed trees where the kobold's home lay.

Yet for every happy-go-lucky face there were two or three who seemed troubled by some unseen problem. As Tamina passed a young mother with a child barely old enough to walk she scooped up the infant and went inside, as if afraid the humanoid would turn and attack. The kobold observed this with a frown, clearly unused to people displaying that kind of behaviour to her. She didn't pass comment however, the joy of simply being on her home soil eclipsed everything else for the moment at least.

*- who('s) a pretty, furless cub?

...................................................................

After the teenager had made her hurried exit, the Captain had returned to Jasmine. Rigby had overheard the prior conversation between the two (as if it was possible to ignore it) and spoke in tentative tones to the pretty woman.

"Begging ya' pardon lady. But the Clark'll be here for at least the next two days, we've some cargo to pick up and ship back to Lorrel which isn't due 'til then." He tried a smile, but it looked weak and unsure of itself.

"I think there are worse places to be stuck for a few days than a tropical paradise, don't you think?"


OOC New town, new frontier, new opportunities for new players to get involved, any takers?/OOC

[Sareth]

Jasmine glowered over the railing at where her daughter was quickly retreating. "Maybe not, but how much fun will it be if I'm going to have to spend all of it chasing her around instead of sunning on the beach?" She sighed and started to hurry down the gangplank, then slid to a stop, reversed, and dashed into the cabins. Re-emerging she dashed once more towards the ramp to the dock, this time burdened with both her own pack and Jamie's. "At least I got her stuff as bait!" she shouted with a laugh, and then was lost in the people milling about in the streets.

****

"Nice place," Jamie said, looking about. "Warm, pleasant, friendly..." She oggled a couple passing by in a way that made it unclear if she was oggling the young man, young woman, or both. "Definitely warm." She noticed the woman sweep her child inside and frowned. "But maybe not so friendly after all. I take it this isn't your home town? Or that it is, and you have a hell of a reputation?"

[Jack Rothwell]

"But maybe not so friendly after all. I take it this isn't your home town? Or that it is, and you have a hell of a reputation?"

"Rep-o-tash-un?" Tamina shook her head, not understanding, and instead answered the part of the question she DID understand. "My town, home is... that way!"

The kobold wheeled on the spot and pointed to a path that more resembled a furrow in the trees in the near distance.

"'bout an hour through that." She continued, noticing out the corner of her eye a heavy-set man holding a fishing rod looking at her with a naked scowl. "...don't know why they frowning at me."

Tamina looked unsure of herself for a moment, then made a decision and walked over to the man. His expression altered as she did, changing enough to now hold a hint of fear.

"Why have you got mean eyes?" The kobold asked.

Maybe it was the directness of the humanoid's question and the nakedness of her approach that shamed the man, he couldn't look at her, but instead observed the floor with clentched fists.

"Ask my sister..." He said quietly. "Better yet, ask your kind." The colour rose in his cheeks; he strode away without another word.

Tamina watched him leave, he walked down the short street and turned into a hut with a sign hanging over it that was larger than its neighbours. The kobld suddenly felt a large part of the good mood she'd been in evaporate.

The sign above the entrance read 'Doctor'.

[Graybeard]

[OOC: The character and ship introduced here aren't yet connected to anything going on so far in this thread, but she will be lurking in the background, so may as well get her established while Jamie and Tamina are getting their feet on the ground. Her basic concept is here, and links to other places in Errant Road where she has appeared or been invoked are cited below, as applicable. Meanwhile, go ahead, have fun in town -- and we could really use new players! /OOC:]

As the armada either carrying or chasing Jamie and Tamina dispersed, another smugglers' ship made landfall.

It's been a long time, thought Lucy Kankaniel as Grendell came into view off her ship's port bow.

She'd been diverted from her regular Lorenzel/Grendell run by a most peculiar band of characters. The half elves she could understand; they needed to get home, and they paid well. But just what in Luminosita's Blue Hells had Egbert been doing there? And why hadn't he followed through on the contact he'd made with his sister to smuggle him to the Southern Continent? On one level, she didn't really care; she'd abandoned contact with her family years ago, and the man's flakiness was entirely consistent with her reasons why. Still, if he needed to be smuggled, that meant that he needed some confidentiality in his movements ... and whoever he was concealing those movements from might decide to take an interest in her operation, whether he was on the boat or not.

Well, no matter; she'd dropped off the half elves at a highly discreet location in the north, then made a beeline for her original destination of Grendell. Now it was in front of her, the one regular port on the north shore of the Southern Continent where a ship of humans might make landfall in relative safety, and conduct a little business. It was also as close to a "home" as she had, other than that special cabin on the boat.

It's nice to be back, she thought, as she passed orders to the crew to bring the boat about and take her in. Maybe we'll be able to relax here a while this time, before heading back with our next load of ... whatever.

[Jack Rothwell]

OOC Just nicking Jamie for a line or two if that's ok Sareth. Hope you guys don't mind the overlong post./OOC

"Are you sure you want to see?"

"Y-yeah." The kobold replied. There was a morbid curiousity in her mind that Tamina knew would dig its claws deeper and deeper until she caved and found out that the problem in Grendell was. It was better to surrender now and find out than to wait and fear the worst.

The door to the clinic was already half-open to allow the air to circulate within the warm building. The kobold and the teenager went inside, overhearing the tail-end of a conversation as they did.

"...isn't working."

"Why? All the Gods damn it, WHY?"

"This isn't anything I've come across before. It's not poison whatever it is."

As their eyes adjusted to the gloom the pair could make out several figures inside the spacious hut. There were four beds amidst the bottles, tools and other paraphernalia of the clinic. Two of the pallets were occupied. One had a young woman standing next to it with a roll of gauze in her hand, she leaned over the side, wrapping up the twisted arm of the bedbound patient. The other had the pair of men standing around it who were holding the conversation. The one on the left was an elderly and slightly built man wearing simple white clothes that marked him out as the town doctor, the other was the man who'd scowled at Tamina moments before.

There was a young woman lying in the bed who looked more than a little worse for wear. Even in the darker interior of the clinic it was obvious to both the travellers (especially Tamina; who enjoyed a certain measure of night-vision) that the wounds on the woman's arm and leg were claw marks. And by the size of them the monster that inflicted them was large. To Tamina, they resembled one of the galdy; a species of oversized cat-like predators that roamed in intermittent packs in the north-eastern jungle.

"But that's... long way from here." She muttered.

"What?"

"Nev' mind."

The woman let out a moan which sounded feeble in the gloom. her eyelids fluttered like hummingbird wings as she rose back to consciousness. The big man let out a low gasp and dropped to her side, taking the hand of her uninjured arm.

"Sis? Sweetheart, are you ok?"

"G.. Gara..." She whispered. "It..b-burns..."

The light streaming through the circular windows picked out the glint of tears on the man's face. Tamina's good mood was gone. She tried to speak but her tounge felt like it was stuck to the roof of her mouth. The man turned back to the doctor; the kobold couldn't recall the last time she'd seen a face that was such a study in misery.

"Can't you do anything to help her?"

The doctor, much credit to him, managed to meet the younger man's eyes as he replied.

"I'm so sorry."

At that, kobold finally managed to muster up the courage she needed.

"What... happened here?"

The bereaved brother of the patient looked around and glared, an expression made more terrible by the wetness on his cheeks. The doctor appeared to be the one to answer the kobold's question, he opened his mouth to reply just as the sick woman took her first look at the newcomers. Her gaze shifted to Tamina.

She screamed.

It was a sound that wasn't weakened by the wounds on her body, nor the fever running through it. It was pure animal terror, she sat bolt upright and frantically clung to her brother, babbling nonsensically as she did.

"Get away! Oh Luminosita! They've come to get me! Help! HELP! HELP!!"

"GET OUT!" Gara roared.

Tamina turned tail and fled outside.

[Graybeard]

[OOC: I guess I'll treat Keyes as a PC for now, for the sake of moving things forward. He's really intended more as an NPC for people as a whole to direct/interact with, but until we get some more players in this scenario... /OOC:]

"Let me get dit traight," Keyes spoke into the crystal ball; his speech impediment became more severe when he was under stress ... and the order that he'd just been given was certainly one that would be stressful. "You want me to make landpall and pollow dote two?"

"Correct," his employer answered. "We have a make on that other incoming ship, and you don't need to worry about them any more." (That, at least, was good; Keyes wasn't sure that Old Charlie was up to devouring an entire ship.) "Just make sure Jamie and Tamina, that's the catgirl, stay out of trouble for two weeks, and we'll make other arrangements after that. You'll be on an expense account; arrangements have been made for that. Check in at the Southern Cross. They're expecting you."

The Southern Cross. Keyes tried to summon the place from his memory: a reasonably reputable inn on the outskirts of Grendell, nothing terribly fancy, but as safe and secure as anywhere on this wild-and-woolly continent, and most unusually, equipped with the Tsuirakuan crystal-net service. As far as he knew, it was the only place in all of Grendell, and perhaps the Southern Continent, that had that. (In fact, there was at least one other crystal-net connection down there ... and if Keyes had known about that one, not only would he have fled Grendell in horror, he'd have done everything in his power to sever contact with his employer permanently, and move to the other side of the world in the hope that Mr. Stagpoole couldn't find him. But ignorance was bliss ... sort of.) They used it frequently when they had "special" missions to the south. The owner, Mr. Cleghorn, and his wife could be trusted -- at least to the extent that anyone on the Southern Continent could be.

Mr. Stagpoole was talking again, and Keyes rose from his reverie. "Oh, and Keyes? One other thing. There's something going on in town that the Cleghorns are worried about. They'll fill you in when you get to the Southern Cross, as best they can. All I know is that if it scares them, it's enough to worry me too -- and you. Take care of yourself. I value you too much to see you get your ass killed over those two fugitives." There was real concern in the man's voice; Keyes and Mr. Stagpoole had worked together for many, many years.

"Aye, aye, thir," Keyes said, and the man at the other end broke the connection, as Keyes brought the boat about, to prepare to dock at a very well concealed little inlet down the coast from the port city.

[Jack Rothwell]

OOC Borrowing lines, is Sareth away for a while?/OOC

The kobold burst into the sunlight with a hand clamped over her own mouth to stifle her cries. Jamie followed shortly behind, concern written all over her face. Tamina almost collided with a crate outside the trading post opposite the medical centre. She skidded to halt just before it and leaned, panting in sudden exhaustion.

"What the fuck is going on?" The teen asked.

"Don't know!" Tamina almost wailed. "Jus' got home!"

The door opened and closed behind them a moment later. A figure stepped into view who'd been standing over the bed with the terrified patient in the clinic. It was the doctor. He, at least, appeared to be calmer than the other residents in the town.

"Sorry about that." He murmured in a soothing tone. "Gara and his sister are both in a bad way right now. I wouldn't expect a rational conversation from either of them."

Tamina sniffed and wiped a paw-like hand across her eyes. "What happened to her?"

"She was attacked." He replied. "She came staggering through the trees a few hours ago, screaming about monsters in the jungle."

"Where?"

The doctor pointed at the same gap in the trees the kobold had pointed at a short while before. "There. She was coming from the kobold village I'm sorry to say." He paused to let the information sink in. "She also said that the monsters who attacked her were your people."

Tamina went deathly pale. Her reply was quiet and swimming in horror.

"We don't hurt yooman's... Grendell peoples are our friends."

"I know." He tried to smile reassuringly at the humanoid; but it looked strained. "She was delirious; half raving. When I examined her I saw injuries that were inconsistent with the claws your people have and, besides that, her wounds are tainted with some kind of infection I've never seen before. Whatever attacked her isn't native to the jungle, maybe not even native to the continent."

"Why are you telling us all this?" Jamie arched an eyebrow at the medical expert.

"To warn you." He said simply. "And to ask for your help. Zell is the third victim of this kind of attack in the last two days; the first two were found torn to pieces." He stared at the wooden docking below his feet. "Some kind of evil is at work here, something we know precious little about. We need more information, better yet we need someone who can find out where the source of this corruption is and put a stop to it."

Jamie felt Tamina grab her arm; she looked into the kobold's glassy eyes.

"Jay-me." She whispered. "I got to go home, got to find the Killakah*, got to know they're safe."

*- sisterhood.

[Graybeard]

[OOC: Continuing to PC Keyes, but it would be really nice to get some other players into this...]

Mr. Cleghorn's face lit up with pleasure as he responded to Keyes' knock on the door of the Southern Cross; he quite liked the half elf, in addition to the considerable sum of money he'd been promised to make a room available. "Keyes! We've been expecting you. Do come in -- it's been a long time!"

"Tank you, Miter Cleghorn," Keyes answered, a surprised smile on his own face; it was rare enough to meet a friendly innkeeper this far from home, and it had been a long time. "Torry not to give you mut advante notite."

"Tut, my boy, not to worry," the rotund man answered. "For you and your business associate, there's always room." He ushered Keyes into the inn.

A few minutes later, arrangements all made, Keyes was enjoying a beer made on site by the Cleghorns as they asked him the obvious question. "So what brings you to town on such short notice? That's not the way you and -- Mr. Stagpoole usually do business."

Keyes thought about it for a minute, unsure what to say. Eventually he settled on an answer that was guarded, yet accurate. "I'm on a pact-pinding mithion. One of our competitor brought a load ob tupp here and Miter Tagpoole want to know what dey're up to. De, uh, trade route dat we udually run it udually one way, going de oppotite way. Maybe dere could be anoder opportunity or tometing, Miter Tagpoole didn't tell me what it wat." He didn't say that the "tupp" -- "stuff," modified by his speech impediment -- that he was to keep an eye on was animate; the Cleghorns could be trusted to keep their mouths shut, but why risk trouble?

In any event, the answer satisfied his hosts, or perhaps they just knew not to ask too many questions. "Well, you're welcome here," Mr. Cleghorn said. "But when you go into town, be a little more careful than usual. There's something going on in the hinterlands that's reaching into the city. I don't know what it is, but it's trouble."

[Sareth]

"Jay-me." She whispered. "I got to go home, got to find the Killakah*, got to know they're safe.

"Yeah... Yeah, let's go." Jamie looked around, her eyes taking in the surroundings. She could see more people looking suspicious, muttering and whispering to one another. "I don't think we want to stick around here for now. Lead the way."

As the two walked, Jamie patted down her various bits, checking on what weapons she'd brought with her. She'd left her long arm behind, as well as a good bit of ammo. But she counted that as a reasonable trade off for escaping her mother. She had managed to get away with her three pistols, however, and three pistols could get her quite far, if she was conscientious. She just needed to avoid getting into too many tight spots. Speaking of...

"Say... You don't suppose your village might be blaming humans for this same sort of thing, might you?"