Goriel and beyond, part 2

As we play, occasionally we'll close a thread and open a new one to keep the size of threads (and relative complexity) down to a dull roar. Here's where we store the closed posts from the history of Errant Road.
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Drusia
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Re: Goriel and beyond, part 2

Post by Drusia »

A woman in a cloak sat down in a bar.

The bar was located in a small town. The town had a name, but the woman couldn't remember it - she called it by an older name.

Another person in a cloak sat down across from her. The figure kept his or her hood lowered.

"You asked for this meeting," Drusia said softly. "Make it quick. I don't like being this far north of my usual patrols."

The figure nodded and slid a piece of paper across the table to her. Drusia picked it up and read it. She did not let her hand tremble. She put the note down.

"An Errant city," she said. Then, moving her hand to her blade, she asked "Where?"

"The Northern Confederacies," the figure replied. Drusia's hand paused, then moved away from her blade.

"What would they be doing all the way up there?" she asked.

"Hiding like rats," the figure suggested. "We don't patrol that area as heavily - it stand to reason some might have made it there. Anyway, it's just a rumor. We need to check this out quietly. If the others hear about this, they'll send in the army. It'll be a slaughter. Better to find out more first."

Drusia nodded. A thoughtful expression crossed her face. "Did they name it Santuariel again?"

"Not this time," the other replied. "According to my informant, it's called Racosky."

"Huh," Drusia replied. The name sounded a bit like a Rinkai word, but the northern accent made it incomprehensible. "When did your informant hear about this?"

"A few hours ago," the figure replied.

"You work fast," Drusia said, smiling. The figure didn't reply. "How many others are you planning to bring in on this?"

"Just you," the figure replied. "There aren't that many left that I trust."

"No," Drusia agreed, "I don't imagine there are."

"Funny," the figure sighed, standing. Drusia followed suit, and then followed the figure outside.

-- Drusia

OOC: Since we didn't end up going to Tsuirakushiti, that side-story is scrapped/held for the moment. On to something new.
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Graybeard
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Re: Goriel and beyond, part 2

Post by Graybeard »

Therese didn't find anything notable down among the lower strata (there appeared to be some manner of upset at one of the brothels, she noticed, but nothing either requiring or inviting her attention), but on the way back out of town, as she passed by Clan Duravsky's operation, she had better luck.

Standing sentry duty outside now was a man she'd gotten to know on her previous missions ... a man she'd come to know had certain -- vices. She walked quietly and confidently up to him. "Long night, huh?" she said, casting her voice into its lower register; his facial expression said he wasn't looking forward to this duty -- for reasons she knew full well.

"Yeah," the sentry said. He smiled sheepishly. "Had a bad day at gambling, so I drew the night shift." Therese guessed, accurately, that the "bad day" was more a matter of getting caught at something underhanded than having the cards or dice run against him.

"Well, maybe I've got something to warm you up," she said, rummaging in her pack. "Anything exciting going on in there?"

The man smirked, half in anticipation of what he knew Therese was trying to find, and half due to his answer. "Oh, yeah. They've brought a new getera in there from somewhere, don't know where. Don't know much about her either, but wow." The smirk turned into a full-blown leer. "Damn unfortunate that low-lives like us can't get a piece of that action."

Therese smirked in turn, thinking you don't know the half of it. "Where's she from?" The end of a chewing-gun-like stick was now visible in her hand.

The man shrugged. "Don't know. Some unfamiliar outfit, from out of town. All I know is, she's got a body like a walking sex toy. Got a look at her through a window as I was heading out here." The leer widened.

Which is just what they're going to use her as, isn't it? "Well, this'll keep you warm while you dream of the sex toy." She extended the man a piece of the "chewing gum," which was a mild euphoriant, theoretically illegal in town, but chewed by many men in situations like his, although for a woman like Therese to be caught with it would be ... unfortunate.

The leer softened. "Gee, thanks, Tolya." He popped the gum in his mouth and began to chew; moments later, his eyes started to glaze slightly.

"No problem, man," Therese smiled, and she left the sentry to make her way home ... and wonder about that sex-toy-like getera. Specifically, to wonder if she was part of the Cleiviein outfit. It seemed ... possible.

------------

"Here, let me take care of that," Sister Rose told her cousin. Brad had been out of most of the fighting, but had sustained a nasty gash on one arm that could use some healing. She looked around first, to see whether any other women were using healing magic; at least one was, so she didn't feel obliged to do it surreptitiously.

The mind-speech at the end of the Healing spell, however, was most definitely surreptitious, and aimed at Argus, not Brad. <"More people who 'just died,' huh? Looks like we're in the right place. What happened?">
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Drannin
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Re: Goriel and beyond, part 2

Post by Drannin »

<"A whole bunch of would-be assassins infiltrated. Pretty rough bunch. We managed to take a couple prisoner, but then they all just... dropped dead. From what I can tell, exactly at the stroke of midnight."> Argus replied to Rose through the mental link.
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Re: Goriel and beyond, part 2

Post by Graybeard »

<"Oh, damn,"> Sister Rose thought back. <"Let's talk of this later."> She turned back to Brad.

He was still wincing in pain, but the deep cut was now largely repaired. Another brief burst of healing magic into the brachioradialis muscle where it met the humerus, and the radial nerve that serviced it, should do the trick. She focused magic into the damaged area, gently massaging it to disperse the healing energy ...

... And heard a gasp.

"How did you do that?" one of the young women watching asked, her face halfway between astonishment and horror.
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Alberich
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Re: Goriel and beyond, part 2

Post by Alberich »

Back on the previous day, Udo made it downstairs first, smiling and looking well pleased with himself. Now here were some ladies that knew how to make a man feel good! 'course it helped that the first one was turned on by his medals and the weapons they'd checked in and wanted to talk about them...Anyway, these ladies just needed better gridding strategies to stop their ships from being shot down, and they'd be ideal. Now he could see why wealthy, powerful men liked to come here!

True, he hadn't actually gotten the information they came here to get. But he'd helped to get the lay of the land (as it were). This "Blaize" was probably just another sex tourist - who wouldn't be? ('course the damn Veracian fool probably didn't know any decent games but you could teach Battle Fleet to anyone...) They'd have to find ways to search more of these brothels. Then they'd find him for sure!

He would've liked to stay upstairs even longer, but a primitive survival urge drove him to come down first - there was something about Jamie's presence in establishments where sex or drinking took place that made "violence" come into the mix.
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Re: Goriel and beyond, part 2

Post by Graybeard »

Sister Rose blinked at the young woman's outburst. "I was just trying to help," she said. "My son-in-law here got hurt in the fight and I --"

"It was magic," the woman interrupted, and she was now starting to draw attention from the other women in the room.

"Well, yes, it was," Rose admitted; no point in denying the obvious. "Is that a problem? I saw --" she rummaged her memory for a name -- "Renaya casting healing magic on her husband, so I thought it would be okay to --"

"No, no, that was different," came another interruption, this time from Marfa, the wife of the chief's brother, and not to be ignored. "Some of us learned little ways to use the forces of nature to make people feel better, soothe burns, fix bruises, that kind of thing." (Rose would later understand this to mean "folk magic," but her head was in too much of a whirl for the concept to register now.) "But what you did -- it was like one of the Healers. A good Healer." She did not need to say, a male healer; that was clear enough, even to Rose.

"What are you, Rose Cleiviein?" Marfa asked, and the tone of her voice demanded an answer.
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Alberich
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Re: Goriel and beyond, part 2

Post by Alberich »

[OOC: I'm making assumptions here, subject to correction.]

By the time Eli returned from his past-midnight machinations (which were closer to the Veracian embassy than the Yurkashev compound), everyone else was in bed, alseep or not. He'd offered angry insult to the cream of Yurkashev manhood, and so it was surprising to see that he was now getting the red carpet treatment from these strange and fickle humans. Everyone was at his service; any refreshment he wished was his to command. Lord Argus and his good lady wife had retired to Lord Shashenka's own bedchamber, and the most noble Bradley Cleiviein had retired with his good lady wife to the chambers of the chief's son Kir. A servant stood outside the door of Yakov's chamber (Yakov the chief's nephew, who had swung a mighty axe in the hall before) - this had been set aside for Eli. Other servants were bringing pitchers of hot water inside, in case he wished to bathe. As they left, they let him enter.

The room was barbarous enough. The bed in the midst of the floor had a coverlet of tanned hides. The wall hangings were brown, some of hide, decorated with dog's-head and axe motifs. Yakov's weapons had been taken - wherever he slept, they'd be near him. The tub was wooden, but at least it was a tub, and scented soaps and a bottle of something to drink were close by. And as the door closed behind him, he saw there was a cushion beside the tub, and a girl kneeling on the cushion. She wore a dark sleeveless dress, belted in copper, that showed well-exercised arms, and her raven-black hair was cut much shorter than Desiree's. Her hands, if he took a moment to notice, were short-nailed and strong. Her glittering jewels suggested high status, but she was looking down at the floor, not up into his eyes.

"My lord," she spoke, her voice a clear contralto.
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Sareth
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Re: Goriel and beyond, part 2

Post by Sareth »

[OOC]Sheesh! I'm going to stop disappearing for weekends. All the good stuff happens then! *laughs*[/OOC]

"Hey! Dudo!"

Jamie and Tamina were already sitting in the main room, being eyed with distrust and some concern by the women. Jamie was bouncing a particularly small woman on her knee and letting hands wander. Tamina was apparently completely oblivious to this, as she was utterly entranced at playing with and swatting at the long braid of another women, who was as stiff and rigid as it was possible to get and not rupture something.

"Figured out where to go next! So now that you've fired your cannon, it's time to fire mine!"

With this Jamie produced a pistol from who knows where. Suddenly girls were screaming and running every which way. The madam of the house was screeching at the top of her lungs that no weapons were allowed, and her head assistant was screaming that he had a gun, that was a gun, wasn't it, guns were illegal, someone call the guard! For her part, Jamie looked like the cat that had not only eaten the canary, but that had convinced another to go in as a rescue party.

****

Lillith quietly stepped up next to Brad Her fingers fluttering over his cut and bloody sleeve. While inspecting it, she quietly spoke. "If it please you, she is a natural. She can just reach out and fix things some how. It is how she saved my father's life and what drew him to her so. And now it has saved my husband's arm. She calls it magic. I simply call it a blessing."

The girl then settled next to Brad, clearly the doting wife relieved that her husband in well after a danger to his life had passed. There was no sign of the worry inside of her, the worry that her answer wouldn't calm the situation but inflame it. As the devoted daughter and wife of a clan chief and his right hand man, perhaps her words might carry weight with these women than Rose could currently muster.

Head down demurely, her worried eyes quickly flickered over the other members of their group, and took clear note of the one that was missing. Eli...[/] Her eyes narrowed a little. She opened her mouth to say more...

...before falling to her knees and vomiting into a flowerbed.
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Re: Goriel and beyond, part 2

Post by Alberich »

"Hey! Dudo! Figured out where to go next...!

She had? Well, that was to say - of course she had! It'd been his plan, hadn't it? Of course it'd worked! So maybe he himself hadn't been the one to obtain the information. The point was, he had made good tactical use of the personnel at his disposal to achieve the objective, and they were ready to move on. Which, come to that, was just as well, as their funds might not support much more "investigating." He hoped this mission would take them someplace rich!

He laughed at all the panic "James" was causing. "Okay!" he said. "Let's get going!" He waived goodbye to the panicky inmates and attendant. "Great place you have here!" As they left, he patted his newly-bulging breast pocket. "They've even got pictures. Hell of a lot better than that last place we raided! Just need to work on their grid strategies..." The staff in the anteroom willingly and eagerly returned all their weapons, illicit or not, and did nothing at all to discourage their rapid departure.

Only when they were outside, the better to preserve operational security, did Udo ask - "So where're we off to?"
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Goriel and beyond, part 2

Post by Jack Rothwell »

OOC Thanks for toddling Eli back Alberich./OOC

"My lord."

Eli's mind was still a whir from the actions he had taken that night and the possibilities the future held. The weight of it on him was so strong that for a moment he half-entertained the presence of the woman as a vision of the future where the half-elf had the influence he craved. Although in truth, he hadn't been surprised at the lordly treatment he received since returning the to Yurkashev's; one of the things he'd learned about humans was that if someone made a group of people question their value that group would fall over themselves to prove to the accuser that they were not valueless... and now the woman... interesting.

Well, no need to drop the pretense.

"Who sent you here, and why?" He asked sharply.

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

"So where're we off to?"

At this, Tamina jumped up and down on the spot enthusiastically and held up her hand like a pupil in a classroom.

"Oh! Oh! Fishing trip?"
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