[center][b]Morning, Sun's Height 25
Dawnstar[/b][/center]
[hr]
"Hey!"

Ashav was doing just fine before he met them, though he drank too much (and that's an issue), but he's alright. He would tell their friends it was nice to meet them, and hope to never see them again...

Wait, did he just think up some song lyrics? And did he just run into a robbery? In any case, things were about to get closer.

[hr]
They snuck about in a quick and obsequious manner that put their entire group slightly ahead of Ashav.

One of the robbers burst out in front of Ashav and another behind. Ashav bumped into his chest, bounced off, and was caught by the man behind him. "Hey," the man in front grinned, "you're right fucked about now, you pompous prick." He proceeded to punch Ashav straight in the nose, the crisp sound of crunching cartilige rang in his ears. Ashav was dragged down by the man behind, and he took a knee. Ashav's hand almost reached for his scabbard, but the ugly brute gave a swift kick to his side, knocking the breath out of him. 

The same criminal was too confident when he taunted. "Ah ah ah, wouldn't want that, would we?" He removed the glass longsword from its scabbard himself, looking it over. "For shame, someone could get hurt with this!"

Another pathetic lowlife snatched Ashav's coinpurse along with the paper stack formerly tucked under his elbow, "Lookey what we got here!"

Their boss grinned, "Why, that looks like perhaps the key to his quarters!" He clasped his hands together and looked to his lackeys. "Rough him up a bit so he ain't likely to come knocking, then meet me and Grimvar."

That's when Ashav saw his chance to counter attack. Turning his back and handing off Ashav's sword was going be a mistake the top thug pays dearly. They must thought Ashav was done for, as whoever was holding him from behind couldn't wait to get his hands inside Ashav's purse. With no one restraining him, Ashav lunged for the thug holding his sword. 

Surprised shrieks and screams scrambled the thugs. Ashav had knocked one down and snatched back his weapon in an awkward backhand grip. The man with his coinpurse reacted first, without even putting away the loot, he came after Ashav with a flimsy dagger. Ashav didn't have the time to swing around for a proper defensive stance, so he simply pointed his longer blade at the dagger wielding man and let momentum do the work for him.

Malachite pierced through flesh before resistance and recoil kicked in. The thug charged too fast for his own good, because he found himself firmly impaled on Ashav's sword. Even Ashav couldn't yank his sword out of his opponent's belly, and when the wind of a swinging arm sleeve closed in on his neck, he pushed off against the sword grip and ducked sideways from an incoming punch. The experienced mercenary regained his guard in the time his attacker swung around. Ashav blocked the second roundhouse coming from the thug's dominant hand, then a sloppy uppercut followed up, which Ashav took to trap the entire arm and kicked the thug back into one of his buddies.

"Someone could get hurt for sure." Ashav remarked.

"Enough, time to die!" Another thug kept coming, with another poor excuse of a knife. Ashav let him run in, pivoted at the last second, and saw the knife stab harmlessly between his left waist and left arm. The Redguard clamped in his left arm hard, pinching the knife wielding hand past his torso. With his right hand, Ashav palmed all his might into the knife-wielder's elbow. [i]Crack[/i], [i]clank[/i]; the arm broke and the knife fell away. Ashav might have stopped there, but his adrenaline already made the next move for him. An overhead fist bashed atop the thug's skull, setting up a knee straight to the face. The thug collapsed; either dead or knocked out, both of which were fine with Ashav.

At last, Ashav has thinned out the herd enough to see past the mob of thugs, and saw guards rapidly approaching. He decided to hold his ground and shout for attention. The thug boss, one of few unhurt criminals, had enough and took off to cut his losses. "Stop them!" Ashav tried to yell, but his voice was choked down by his rasp and a clout of blood he wasn't aware before. It was when he wiped his face did Ashav find his features pockmarked with broken and bloody things.

The Redguard sat down tired. He collected whatever he was able to get back; his sword, his keys, his coinpurse with most of the cash inside, but unfortunately, the thug boss made off with a good chunk of his documents. Ashav had to take record of they had stolen, because he was in no shape to chase them down, and the guards were already several steps behind when they arrived on scene.

[hr]
[center][b]Afternoon[/b][/center]
[hr]
It took Ashav more than an hour to get back to camp. He had to give testimony about his "incident" to the guards, who were absurdly clueless when it came to dealing with witnesses. Then he had to find someone to stop his nose from bouncing around like a mammoth's snout. This was not the worst the Ashav had been injured, but it was certainly a bizarre event. He had been ambushed before, and even dealt with the occasional assassin, but he had never been brazenly robbed in bright daylight. There's no way the thugs happened to pick him out of all the people to rob, because robbing a heavily-armed and fund-starved mercenary should be the worst in terms of risk-reward balance. So that meant the thugs were either really stupid or hired by someone else. It was probably a bit of both, and Ashav was already betting on Mehm for the latter. He had never seen or heard the Vanguards acting like robbers, but in these desperate times, nothing can be ruled out of moralless minds like Mehm's.

The camp was busy as usual. Edith was studying the folding bow schematics from Bthamz, which she claimed would be a massive boon for the company if she could realize the design. Ariane brought in a horde of Winterhold mages to talk about continuing arcane bomb production, contacting (non-existent) reinforcements with dreamsleeve and how the cataclysm of Winterhold matched the ancient descriptions of Tsaesci weather control magic. Finally, Daelin was at his worst. The Bosmer scout was torn both physically and mentally. He was showing regret Ashav had never seen in him. Daelin tried to find counsel with Ashav, but Ashav waved him off with his own wounds and told him that "there are more important businesses". He would regret ignoring Daelin later that night, when the Bosmer announced his resignation (in order to seek forgiveness of his tribe).

Ashav put his lieutenants to work immediately. He told Edith and Dumhuvud exactly what had happened, but chose to keep it vague with Ariane and Gustav for now, as he had yet to trust these two. Dumhuvud got to check internal security leaks, which meant inspecting every single mercenary one by one. However, Dumhuvud ended up taking his anger out on Keegan Vasque and forgot about the rest of the task. Edith followed the guards arresting thugs near the dockside warehouses. The guards said they cleaned up the entire gang and the only robbers left were the Argonians in the refugee camp, but Edith and Ashav were not so certain. Edith asked around a bit and found a few unoccupied warehouses. Hearing this, Ashav assigned her Daixanos and Elmera, two of the most loyal mercenaries, to kick in warehouse doors. To their surprise, Edith found a knife like the thugs' in one of the warehouses, along with heavy dragging marks on the floor and a freshly minted Septim coin. This coin bore the design of Cyrodiil, as most local coins had undergone "Nordification" under the Drgonborn's reign and appear distinct under examination.

Meanwhile, Ashav cross referenced his missing documents with his records. The thugs mostly took ledgers of Gustav's funding and the company's finance records. Another vital piece of paper missing was the mission planner, which had the detailed rosters of who went where, and a speech Gustav wrote (for Ashav) to "inspire an invigorating sense of confidence and courage". Suppose Ashav needs to make up another speech and another roster on the spot, something he prefered over formal briefings anyways. He'll also have to distract Gustav somehow; an unnecessary "performance review" sounded just like the perfect distraction. To conclude, the losses were concentrated on Gustav-related documents, which meant it was a negligible loss for Ashav.

For now, Ashav will have to meet and greet a bunch of random people. Maybe it will do him some good to have a social life. 

Maybe...