The Road to Salaband

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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Jack Rothwell
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Re: The Road to Salaband

Post by Jack Rothwell »

As soon as she'd been unbound and able to do so, Jade had leaped to her feet with a girly shrieking noise and set about the other, pressing matter of discomfort. For the next half minute, there was little to be heard beyond the tap-dancing and noises of disgust from the Blacksmith as she moved her frantic hands to crush, kill, destroy the bugs which had invaded her life so intimately.

Through all her time flailing and scrabbling, and the rescue that had preceded it she'd noticed who her rescuer was. Fortunately her desperation to be free of her entrapment had trumped any panic she'd felt when Udo had produced the knife. Now, mercifully untied and insect-free, Jade turned her attention to him.

"Thank you- ahhhh-" She scratched at a patch of the rash which had sprung up in the centre of her back. "A thousand times thank you kind stranger!" The sweet relief of an itch scratched made even the bald-faced lie sound genuine. "I owe you a drink, a bunch of drinks.. well... if that bastard didn't rob me. I've had enough of that already..."

She glanced in the direction of the man who'd led her into the damnable situation in the first place since she finally having a real chance to survey his condition.

OOC What state is Aden in atm?/OOC
Alberich
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Re: The Road to Salaband

Post by Alberich »

For the hours Jade had hung there alone, Aden had appeared to be in a state of deadness. Now that she look a look, though, his state appeared to be one of "half-dead mild amusement." He must've been watching Jade's tumble to the ground with Udo and all that went with it.

"Great moves," he croaked. "But I'd be easier to frisk down there."

Udo was still gasping to recover his breath as he struggled over to regain his staff.

Jade found she was missing only her weapons and any food or drink she'd been carrying, not her money.
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: The Road to Salaband

Post by Jack Rothwell »

With a muttered curse and clenching fists at Aden's familiar cocky tones the blacksmith strode directly over and, with little hope in her heart, frisked the criminal in search of her valuables.

"Nothing." She whispered and then, with a nod, cast around for something on the ground. She stooped and picked the object up with a strange expression on her face, doubtless a byproduct from lack of sleep, lack of food and lack of luck.

"Right then." She declared after she'd apparently found what she'd been looking for. She hefted it for the men to see. It was a rock. A sizeable rock. With no further ceremony she walked back to Aden and, with an air of intense concentration, pressed the stone against the runway's head.

"Now, I'm going to ask this once, and by all the Gods that ever walked or crawled you'd better give me an honest answer. Did you, or did you not STEAL my FUCKING STUFF!?"

The volume of the last sentence was really quite impressive.
Alberich
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Re: The Road to Salaband

Post by Alberich »

"Did you, or did you not STEAL my FUCKING STUFF!?"

Aden's face looked bored or sleepy, but his voice could not conceal that he was weak and suffering from thirst. He actually cocked an eyebrow as he answered.

"You mean like dildos and lube, that kind of thing? Nope. Didn't find any."

As she made whatever show of rage this brought on, and inflicted whatever pain she cared to inflict, he answered in his usual way, coughing just a little.

"Hey, hey, easy, easy, I didn't take any a' your other kinda stuff either."

Udo was using his staff to struggle to his feet and staying out of this one. The bounty was for "alive or dead" and after the merry chase he'd been run, he wasn't feeling particular.
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: The Road to Salaband

Post by Jack Rothwell »

Jade eyed the prisoner intently for a moment before exhaling a weary sigh and straightening up to view the leafy landscape.

"Figures..." She muttered. "Well, my heroic rescuer, it seems like you saved a fool and a criminal today. A fool who now has to find her sword, her gun AND her livelihood... assuming those Falkonrehr beastwards haven't sold it on already..." She managed a weak smile at Udo to show her appreciation despite the cloud of depression hanging over her. "Guess i'll have to go back to Ester first, cant go after the vine-wizard without a weapon."

She gave a contemptuous glance back at Aden. "I leave this smarmy prick and his reward to your better judgement. Frankly I've had all I can stand of him."
Alberich
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Re: The Road to Salaband

Post by Alberich »

"Revenge quest?" said Udo. "That's badass!" For he had no idea of his nocturnal visitation by "Jasmine." "Wish I could join you," he said, "but Sensei's got other plans for me. Ester's thataway" - he pointed the way he'd come - "and if we ever meet again I'd love to hear all about how you got that dumbass vine wizard. Stupid ass thing for a wizard to be. Say, does he live in these woods?" Udo cupped his hands around his mouth and called out into the forest, "THE VINE WIZARD LICKS COW SHIT OFFA PIG HOOVES!"

The vines on the trestle did nothing to avenge this insult.

"Anyway, you wanna help me escort the prisoner back to town, you're welcome, if not, you got a revenge quest to get on, no hard feelings!" For it was not for a Noble Knight Protector like himself to demand gratitude from anyone, and especially not the ladies. Though a little freely given gratitude wouldn't go amiss. Especially from kobolds...wistfully he remembered his final kiss from Alleece before he got back to business.
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: The Road to Salaband

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"Back to town?" Jade asked, her brow furrowing. "But didn't you take him from Ester?"

Her own plan (as much as making plans had done her any good lately) was at return to Ester, retrieve her father's gun, retrieve her merchandise, break out the nastiest weapons she had in that lovely pack of destruction, paint the forest with the vine-wizard's innards, then retrieve her sword. How things unfolded were, as ever, at the mercy of pitiless fate. At least she was fairly certain the mercenary-killer turned dish-washer turned prisoner-escort didn't know about her activities from the previous evening, so him pulling a weapon on her seemed unlikely. Aden, for his part, didn't seemed inclined to discuss that business either.

For now, at least, things were looking up.
Alberich
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Re: The Road to Salaband

Post by Alberich »

"I think you're a little turned around," said Udo. "We were taking him off to the east." He waved his arm that way, away from the forest. "When he got away, he bolted back to Ester and then ran south for some damn reason. So Ester's back north" - he waved ahead, along the edge of the forest - "and that's where I'Il take him to meet up with Sensei. Then we'll try again!"

Insofar as his state of privation allowed it, Aden had carefully weighed the possibility of telling Udo about Jade's role in his escape, or even exaggerating it and boasting that jailbreaks came with blowjobs in Gropey's two-for-one Aden special. He'd decided against it because he couldn't see himself gaining anything that way. For all his stubborn endurance, he was simply in no shape to run now, even if he could get Tubby and Gropey to go at it like cats and dogs. Or dogs and bitches for that matter. No, this was the time to keep quiet and wait for better weather.
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: The Road to Salaband

Post by Jack Rothwell »

"Then it looks like we're headed in the same direction." Jade conceded. A 'little turned around' was a pretty apt description for a chase through woodlands followed by insect-torture themed imprisonment.

"I would feel safer with you come to think of it. What with you having the only weapon and all." She added, coupling the declaration with a smile which was part genuine, part device to sweeten her temporary protector up, and to make it clear to Aden that any contest to corrupt the man's loyalty would be woefully one-sided. The blacksmith brushed herself down, not bothering to turn her back as she did (just as an added measure) and extend a northwards pointing arm.

"Shall we go? I believe I promised you a drink."

OOC Edited./OOC
Last edited by Jack Rothwell on September 4th, 2013, 6:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
Alberich
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Re: The Road to Salaband

Post by Alberich »

"Then it looks like we're headed in the same direction. I would feel safer with you come to think of it. What with you having the only gun and all. Shall we go? I believe I promised you a drink."

Udo didn't remember that "Jasmine" had promised him a drink. But he wasn't going to argue that one! As it stood he got to make the lady feel safer and besides that have an extra pair of hands. Female she might be in form, but if she'd withstood the vine wizard and his trellis crucifixion, well, she might just have a little kobold in her!

Aden, for his contributions to the scene, was permitted to walk in front with his hands tied behind his back. He got a little food and drink -- Udo wasn't being cruel, just watchful. The walk to Ester was largely uneventful. Udo told a little of how they'd woken up to find their prisoner escaped, searched the ground for signs that he'd cut across country, and reasoned out that if he'd taken the road, he must've gone back for Ester. It'd taken some work and some asking around to find out which way he'd gone, and a helpful goatherd had said the victims of the forest (these were few; and none had been seen for years) sometimes turned up in that ruined vineyard. And so he'd made it in time for Jade, and just in time for the wretched Aden.

When they were away from the forest but not yet in town, Udo stepped a little closer to Jade and added some info. "By the way," he said, "I wouldn't be spreading around what you're planning to do to that vine wizard who licks cow shit offa pig hooves. From asking around I get the idea the Falkenrohr guys would rather see nobody go in that forest ever, and would've stopped you the first time if they'd known you were going. Maybe he's a secret ally of theirs or something, I dunno. I'm not gonna tell 'em. But don't you either.

"And I expect Mr. Prisoner will be keeping his trap shut too. I mean, once we get the chains back on him, I figure you can either point yourself at the vine wizard or at him. And if he stops the one, well, that just leaves you the other. And we get paid alive or dead, and 'alive' might just be getting to be more trouble than it's worth."
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