Port Lorrel

[Graybeard]

[OOC: To see the antecedents of this little interruption, read the second, and presently last, entry in the Kugelheim thread... /OOC:]

As the coach moved inland, Layla thought to herself, well, time to get on with the rest of my life.

She'd known even before she and Arty were married that she had a better than statistical chance of becoming an unnaturally young widow; it came with the territory. That gave her a chance to start building the emotional armor against the possibility -- and now it was coming in handy, as her grief turned back to the cold professionalism that had characterized most of her young life to date. She started to plan -- plan what her new cover story would be, how to see to Zachary's needs in a new place, how she might interact with her formidable mother (and, never to be forgotten, Zachary's grandma).

And of course, revenge.

She'd just finished telling Zachary for probably the hundredth time (not that he'd understood, of course, but it made her feel better), "Don't worry, Zacky, Mommy's going to find the people that killed Daddy and make them pay," when the coach slowed to a halt. What was going on? She poked her head out the window, earning a surprised oath from one of the men escorting her, and asked the driver.

"Lepivores up ahead," the man said. "Down the side road to the right, you can see 'em out in the distance. Looks like a big pack, got some travelers to eat from the looks of it. We gotta decide whether we get to the intersection up ahead before they do, you don't wanna screw around with those things ... yeah, we'll make it if we hustle. Hee-YAH!" And he cracked the whip to get the horses moving briskly.

"Lepiwhat?" Layla asked the men in the coach, only to get a pair of shrugs.

[Viking-Sensei]

Lucas took off his coat and shirt, which seemed an odd thing to do amidst the chaos, but it was an important part of Operation Hareraiser... Lucas had never been sure, but he always suspected that his old leather patchwork coat was on the verge of becoming sentient, having absorbed a significant portion of magic over the years and being one of the few constant items upon his person, and somehow it seemed to dampen some of the more... unusual... effects he'd picked up since being suddenly and forcefully flung halfway around the world several years prior.

So, coat and shirt off, he stood, facing the oncoming herd. Ayiee stood behind him, about 10 feet back, holding Bob out like a gun. Bob cast one of his pre-programmed simple spells - the levitation one - only instead of casting it on himself, he fired a very small bolt of levitation at Lucas' back...

And then, every single rabbit with a 2 mile radius started floating off the ground.

[Sareth]

I grabbed Marcus' hand and thrust it away from my crotch. Normally, such an intimate touch would be grounds for immidiate introduction of new 44. caliber orifices to the body attached to said hand from man and woman alike, but I figured this time the bullets needed to be saved for fuzzier prey. Instead I merely growled "Buy me dinner first" and wiggled my way free from the pile of limb.

Freed from the mass, I immediately pulled out one of the backup pistols. Holding it made me feel tons better about the situation, but I knew it was a false optimism. After all, there was an entire pack of them, and the back ups only had one shot apiece. I began looking for my normal pistols.

"Wait..."

Remembering, i thrust my hand into my clothes, pulling forth the pistol I'd retrieved back in the Wayfarer Inn. It wasn't mine, but it was similar enough, and it had the virtue of being a revolver.

"Muuuuuuuch better." I turned in time to watch the rabbit-things float into the air. Shaking my head, I debated firing. But not knowing what that might do, instead I chose to leave the rabbits be for the moment and continue to search for my pistols. Finding one, I picked it up, and turned to look for the other. Just as I found it and was retrieving it, though, something caught my attention.

"Is that a coach?"

[Graybeard]

Leaving Zachary (whose power to charm knew no bounds) gurgling happily in the care of her escorts, Layla climbed up to where the coach driver was sitting, to check out the situation.

They'd made the crossroads without problems; the lepivores were too busy fighting the travelers down the road to make a run for the coach, even if they were interested. The nearest was a good 300 yards away ... and that gave her an idea. Time to make a point. She turned to the driver, who'd given his name as "Hoss," reasonably enough, and pointed to his rifle. "How's your piece throw?"

"It's at zero, or at least it was before I set out on this trip," the large man replied. "Maybe throws a little high."

"Give it here," Layla commanded. Hoss knew better than to argue with a Wraith and handed it over. Layla checked the weapon, chose the clearest hopping target, sighted carefully, and fired. A second later, the giant rabbit's head exploded messily -- just as the other lepivores suddenly floated off the ground.

"How did you do that?" Hoss marveled, his eyes wide open. He was referring to the long-distance marksmanship, which of course wasn't that notable for a top Wraith -- but when Layla saw the other lepivores in the air, she started to ask herself the same thing. "I don't know, but let's get out of here," she said as she made her way back to her son.

The coach churned on up the road toward Kugelheim.

[AdamZero]

Marcus smiled at Jamie's response, getting to his feet as the gun-slinger drew a pistol from within the folds of their clothing. "You prefer steak and salad or something in the way of noodles and fish?" He asked as a shot from abroad turned a wabbit into a bloody mist.

"Boom... head shot." Marcus said, his Northern accent breaking through and the subtle charm it carried with it. "Right then... second swing..." He reached into Boris's head for something a little less likely to kill them all...

It was a simple metal box... thin, fitting within Marcus's palm. Any passerby would think it was little more than a magick lighter. Which it had been... until Marcus opened it up an took away a few of the little safetly measures that kept the fire in check. It was fine, because of his own mage powers, he didn't need to worry about it running out of power.. and the worst it could do was 1st degree burns at 30 paces....

Until he aimed it at Lucas.

"Let's see if this kills us all..." Fully aware the blast was almost certainly going to rebound and turn his body into a crusty cracker, he flicked open the lighter and let a spark flash out and into Lucas's back...

The Wabbits' wool started to change colors. Marcus's arm fell to his side. "Great... now we're gonna get killed by hippie wabbits..." Marcus sighed.

[Sareth]

"Who said it had to be one or the other?" I quiped in reply to Marcus' offer. "I'm rather fond of surf and turf." Quickly checking to make sure my barrels hadn't been blocked with dirt, I spun away from the view of the carriage. I turned as I heard two shots, one up close, and one from afar.

"Hey! That carriage just shot! Was it at us or the rabbits?" I asked, just as the rabbits began to turn odd colors. This, I decided, was enough antics from them, and I proceeded to drop three of them (sort of, they seemed to keep floating, but went belly up) in short order, the report of my fire echoing about.

[Graybeard]

Confident that she'd made her point -- widowed young mother or not, she was still a complete badass and not to be mucked around with -- to the three Gewehr operatives, Layla retired to the interior of the coach and contented herself with playing with Zachary as the coach rumbled along. Thus occupied, she didn't pay particular attention to the farm house that they passed, half a mile or so beyond the intersection, and didn't see that it was subtly protected with razor wire that she might have recognized from the decoy outside Kiyoka.

Or that a man wearing farmer's overalls was standing on its porch, with a pitchfork in one hand -- and powerful binoculars in the other.

The man wasn't paying attention to the coach, either; his focus was on the chaos with the lepivores down the hill. Convinced that he'd seen enough, he went back into the farm house to use a most un-farm-like communications device. Into it he spoke just two sentences before hanging up:

"They're gonna win now. You should expect them in Volkanenborg tomorrow, unless something else comes along to slow them down."

He left the binoculars in the house, right next to the high-powered rifle that he'd been considering using until the humans had started to gain the upper hand, and went back out to work in the barn, getting a wagon ready for a hayride.

[AdamZero]

Marcus shrugged to Jamie, putting the lighter blaster back into Boris's skull pocket space and fuddling around for something else. He pulled out a gnarled looking stick, remembered Lucas, and put it right back into Boris. With his arm still vanished into an inner dimension, Marcus looked to Jamie. "You have that covered or do you want a little extra bang? Most of my stuff may turn us all into penguins if I pull the trigger within a mile of Lucas...and... is it worse now?" He pulled his hand out and looked at the jacket-less man. He tilted his head and watches as the field of improbable ironic, reverse-magick-mixation seemed to quicken around the man.

"...." Marcus looked with his eyes glowing a bit. "This is madness...." He muttered.

"THIS IS FARREL!!!" Boris roared, kicking Marcus, or rather, kicking at him. A safety measure still active in Boris cause the skeleton to slip and fall on his pelvis, as he lacked the flesh and muscle of an 'ass'.

Marcus just sighed knelt down by Boris and reached into the skeleton's skull, pulling out two brown bottles. they seemed to have a layer of frost on them. Marcus wasn't just good at the dead spells... he was rather skilled at fire too.. However what people rarely realized that if you reversed the flow of energy in just about any fire spell, you got a makeshift ice spell... it wasn't as pretty, it wasn't as nice if you were using it in battle either, but damn did it keep drinks cold.

He popped one bottle cap off and took a long draft of the drink. It wasn't a strong ale, not really an ale even, more of a root brew than a yeast beer. He offered a bottle to Jamie as he walked back to the gunner. The drinks had spent some time in Marcus's hands as he'd focused some of his vitality to it. Which meant it was a good pick me up... what he didn't know was that for anyone not him... within Lucas's zone of the unlikely ... it would give them a peak into Marcus's self...

He didn't know that of course, as when he took a draft, he simply felt rather centered and comfortable with himself.

[Sareth]

"Nah," I replied. "It's all good. These things are some of the best manufactured weapons mother had." I gave a flick of the barrel of one of my pistols before firing twice more. Pausing, I began working to reload the piece, holding the other in reserve.

I turned at the sound of a clattering of bones to watch as Marcus pulled an icy brown bottle from the skull of the skeleton that had struck the ground. Accepting it as he thrust it towards me, I popped the top off and took a deep slug. "Tasty, but isn't that an odd place to store it?"

[Graybeard]

It ought to take the party down the hill about ten minutes more, the farmer calculated, to finish off the lepivores. He could reach them in five -- so it was time to get busy.

The wagon had room for about a dozen, more than the number of people down the hill, even with their luggage. He made sure there was plenty of room and plenty of hay to sit on, and also that he could quickly lay hands on the rifle concealed under the front-most bale of hay; there could still be more lepivores -- or other things -- around, after all. He adjusted his straw hat and overalls to look as rustic as he could, making sure he had the token in his pocket in case there were ... recognition ... problems. That still left him a minute or two to go back to the house and give his wife a quick smooch; priorities, after all.

"Yup, about time to pick 'em up," he said to himself (and his horses), and started off.