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The Obivec Isles: Battle for Abbaden [Lore Rich, Lots to Explore]

Always a party when you hit post reply instead of toggling the formats. Got the full post up but I will admit to running with it so that it didn't remain as "Falke, East Shopping District" for very long

The Obivec Isles: Battle for Abbaden [Lore Rich, Lots to Explore]

Falke East Shopping District

"I would recommend ye take yer leave as quick as ye can friend." The man said with a slight snarl that offset his previously polite responses.

Cain was at an impasse, he was here to collect information and make an informed decision on what he wished to do next, but staying would certainly cause this man to alert the guards and the surrounding crowds, Cain probably could escape them with his knowledge from the city but that in itself would be a major inconvenience and would keep guards on the lookout for him. Yet even despite all these variables, from a sense of annoyance Cain really did not want to let this guy talk down to him with no issue.

"With further reassurance. Why don't you-" Cain was interrupted when the man grabbed a handful of the back of his hood.

"I said you'd best leave, friend! Or perhaps take the consideration to dress with much less-" The man himself was interrupted with a savage punch to his stomach, knocking the wind out of him and sending the man hunched over on the ground. Cain readjusted his hood.

"Enjoyment. As a professional, am ashamed to admit it but; did enjoy that much more than should have. Please refrain from harassing citizens in the future." Cain said quickly, as if to conclude his turn in this petty battle of one upsmanship.

Swiftly and before the man could even start alerting the guards, the immediate surrounding crowd had turned their attention to the two, Cain began pushing his way through the mass of humanity. Blending in was finished but if he was quick the descriptions of him may get jumbled up and wrong.

"It was him! It was the freak in the leather armour!" A woman helpfully pointed out from one of the crowd, prompting others to yell out vague pieces of information on Cain and others to call for the guards proper.

Amass the sea of angry faces trying to push him back or hurling insults in his face, Cain kept his head down and continued pushing and squeezing his way to the edge of the crowd.

Imperium

Nova Terra

"But was it necessary?" One of the two pure white armoured figures asked, the duo walking side by side along the glistening pathways of Nova Terra, a railing next to them proudly displaying the jewel of the Imperium.

"That isn't what you're supposed to consider lad." The other armour clad soldier replied. His helmet removed to show a grizzled man with a graying beard and tuft of hair on his head, a jagged scar on his left cheek completing his rugged image. "Your duty is to point at an' shoot where our Emperor and the Imperium tell ye to point 'n shoot."

"I don't deny that" The man's comrade replied, removing his helmet to reveal much more youthful looks and long black hair that stopped halfway down his neck. His eyes had seen battle and there were occasional cuts and scrapes on his face but in comparison to his superior he was much healthier. "But was it not enough to quell the resistance and leave? Why were the administration made to suffer? Hell, why didn't they take some of the ring leaders alive as suspects?"

The two stopped, the grizzled man's face staring grimly at his associate.

"Lad, what we do is not always glamorous, on paper it can damn well seem dictatorial. But consider all of the people who've suffered from these rebel leaders, those who didn't have a say in being forced into the fight. The planetary administration were just as much a problem in allowing it to happen as the Black Hand was. Even barring that, we were given an order by the prince and we follow it. No questions."

This answer did not sit well with the black haired man who frowned at the floor for a moment before his fellow Guardsman put a hand on his shoulder.

"Like I said lad, it isn't glamorous work, but we aren't the Navy or the Praetorians. We're The Guardsmen. We do what has to be done to keep the Imperium of Man continuing, even that means something that might not necessarily be right. We allow the nobles their soft beds and our Imperial family to continue keeping peace amongst the galaxy. Without us there is no one else willing to do these things. Without us, the Imperium falls." The man explained, as if it was a speech he had given times before but with no less reassurance in his voice.

"I... I understand Cassus." The black haired man conceded, brightening Cassus up considerably.

"Aye, see to it that you remember that lad. Every Guardsman questions themselves at some point or another but The Emperor needs us, and we'll be there when he calls." The two Guardsmen resumed walking towards their destination, the Senate building, a massive structure of foreboding scale that rivaled only the immense amount of bureaucratic run-arounds that transpired every second.

"This'll be where we part ways lad." Cassus said, stopping with his partner at the entrance. "File those training reports and your last few missions an' you'll be one step closer to movin' up in the ranks and being given missions of more importance." Cassus playfully gave his comrade a slap on the arm "You've got limitless potential Whitley, don't worry, this whole thing will pass an you won't be taking orders from me anymore" he finished with a chuckle.

Whitley chuckled alongside him despite himself "In that case I'd better half ass these reports, otherwise who else is gonna break up the monotony of your everyday life Cas?" The two shared another laugh before bidding each other farewell.

"I'll be in touch when it's time for you to go offworld lad, don't ignore me when I call, I'll know!"

Imperial Senate Building

Whitley kept his mask removed as he navigated his way through the building, The Senate Building saw members of various organisations filing unnecessary reports all the time so a Guardsman wasn't an uncommon sight, but Whitley had never enjoyed being fully armoured in public, it made him feel even more outcasted from the populace than he already felt.

Whitley collected the report outlines and set about finding an available desk to fill them in as quickly as possible, this task was put on hold however as Whitley noticed the unmistakable entourage surrounding the Senatorial Representative for the Emperor. More bluntly the Emperor's eldest daughter Valeria.

The vast majority of Guardsman are loyal to the Emperor to a fault, this extends to his children by proxy, some of the more fanatic even kneel in the presence of the family members and revere them as gods. Whitley had seen some members of the Imperial Family but never directly spoken to or even looked at one. Had the helmet on. Carried the gun. Always the soldier. For this reason Whitley decreed it best to stay out of The Red Lady's way lest he perhaps cause an incident by not showing her the reverence she was used to or that a Guardsman should supply.

The armour made this difficult however, Whitley resolved to sit at the nearest desk so he wouldn't have to walk around in his Stormtrooper gear, but this meant he was directly facing The Emperor's Daughter, Whitley quickly buried himself in the suddenly much more interesting mission reports to conceal himself slightly more and let the day pass by uninterrupted.

The Obivec Isles: Battle for Abbaden [Lore Rich, Lots to Explore]

Falke, East Shopping District

Through some stroke of good fortune instead of losing those he was trying to shadow, the golden warrior appeared to have tired of her companions and pushed her way towards the lady on the Golem. She was not subtle with her questioning, confirming Bafford's information that she was after some magical trinket. Cain noted she had yet to mention anything about travelling companions though, which would sort of defeat the purpose of selling his services.

Even then she wasn't overly sure what she was actually searching for, from what Cain had seen thus far she was not overly smart. After all, Cain was a walking social faux pas and even he took longer to get on people's bad sides.

As the warrior and the vendor conversed between each other Cain took the opportunity to work through the crowd slightly further to finally decide if this woman was someone he'd even want to follow, money or no.

Cain gently pushed a shopper to the side which for some reason the shopper seemed to take as an opportunity to strike up conversation, rooting Cain in place so as not to avoid suspicion.

"Crazy times these" he said simply, scratching at his stubble in thought "Guards will just let anyone in these days, oughta be stricter about that sorta thing I think. Two wackos brought in to Falke from the bridge burning is the kinda stuff that leaves me up at night."

Cain was silent for a moment before realizing this was his cue to add something to the conversation. Anything.

"With hesitance. Er, yes. As a law abiding citizen this congregation fills me with fear also. I too would opt for more vigilant security." Cain said in a deadpan manner that made him mentally stab himself. It did not help play to the man's fears and keep his eyes off Cain, instead coming across as more derisive and mocking. Enunciating his emotions as per usual was a tic that Cain could rarely seem to control and at times like this it could become quite the burden.

"Hes- What? Yer soundin' none less queer than the rest of 'em friend..." The man turned to address Cain but trailed off after his sentence concluded, instead he diverted his full attention to Cain and eyed the leather clad bowman with a mixture of curiosity and hostile suspicion. "Those are some awfully strange clothes yer wearing if I may say friend."

"Assuring. I know." Cain couldn't frown but he shifted his body slightly to look the man in the eye, attempting to make the man back down without brandishing one of his weapons, even implying the use of it could cause the man to go into hysterics.

The man was unfettered as he continued staring intently at Cain, a few of the people standing next to the two of them beginning to take notice and stealing aside glances.

The Obivec Isles: Battle for Abbaden [Lore Rich, Lots to Explore]

@bobert778 Hey... this:

My Hider

@rivaan

Damn dude these never fail to impress, keep up the good work!

The Obivec Isles: Battle for Abbaden [Lore Rich, Lots to Explore]

Ah, I usually write up my posts up in Google Docs before I paste them here. I won't lose my work if I reflexively mash the refresh button and I can write a bit on my phone if I'm in a good mood to negotiate with it.

@lavulman

Docs would've been a good shout but the browser crashing meant I barely got a para in before it was gone, even then I like writing on sites since I feel it flows better. It's insanity I know but hey whatever works I guess.

Also turning my computer off an on again seems to have fixed the problem at the moment. Go figure.

The Obivec Isles: Battle for Abbaden [Lore Rich, Lots to Explore]

Lil post up, length is shorter than I would've liked but my browser shut down twice whilst I was writing so I admitted defeat and wrote it on Word.

Hopefully will lead to some character interaction in the next post or so

The Obivec Isles: Battle for Abbaden [Lore Rich, Lots to Explore]

Falke, East Shopping District

The booming voice of the peculiar lady and the sight of her hulking Golem caused many in the marketplace to stop what they were doing for a few moments and take in this odd spectacle.

Despite this strangeness of the woman and her “pet” a few very quickly went back to their trades and negotiations, seeing them as the more pressing matter to attend to, though many talked amongst themselves and stared in confused awe at the woman advertising her wares.
This event put Cain in a bad position, on one hand he had made some progress in getting closer to the arguing party who seemed to show the woman no heed. But now that the mass of humanity was shifting and moving to accommodate their differing schedules and the massive Golem, Cain’s cover was failing.

In an attempt to double back Cain attempted to let the crowd following the Golem swallow him up, hopefully by moving with them he could find an alternate route to catch up with the golden warrior or the cloaked lady she seemed very hostile towards for answers. If Cain was able, he’d be frowning but he pulled his hood further down to obscure more of his face and kept his head drooped to avoid any glances his way as he moved along with the crowd following the lady and her “unique” sales pitch.

The Obivec Isles: Battle for Abbaden [Lore Rich, Lots to Explore]

If you count Calieo's mace and Rebecca's weapon, I think Cain is the only PC in Falke who can't easily come up with some sort of explosion on the spot.

...

There's going to be a lot of collateral damage in this RP.

@lavulman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT8q_ITh0uw

There was the mention of "experimental" arrows in his possession, with all the crazy enchantments roaming around who knows~

The Obivec Isles: Battle for Abbaden [Lore Rich, Lots to Explore]

Falke – East Shopping District

It hadn't exactly taken long to track down the women in question, not many in Falke sauntered around loudly declaring their presence in a set of, frankly excessive looking, golden armour. Even still the cloaked figure was surprised by how little the blonde haired women downplayed her presence, perhaps she thought at that point it didn't matter but at least make an effort. She seemed to be arguing with a woman cloaked in fur and seemingly having claws for hands, it could well have been the cat looking lady Bafford mentioned but it's best not to jump to conclusions with his information. There was another, a much more reserved woman who seemed to be at a loss for how to deal with the situation unfolding before her, Cain was about to turn his attention away from her but then thought better of it, in his line of work even the most unassuming should be kept firmly in view.

Following the warrior to this chaotic scene had been relatively straight forward, ordinarily Cain would never dare traverse the streets in his armour but at this time of day with the sheer density of people, coupled with Cain's knowledge of the back alleys and crevices he kept a steady pace alongside his target with minimal effort. The rooftops would have been much faster but in broad daylight he'd be a very easy sight to see perched atop a gargoyle or hanging from the side of a building.

Cain stuck to the shadows but attempted to move in slightly closer, blending in with swathes of buyers and sellers, so that he may eavesdrop on the conversation at hand.

Adventurers weren't anything new in Falke, but with the bridge burned down and a steady stream of work dwindling, times were tough. Cain usually lived on a shoe string budget anyway but this was beginning to get worrisome, he hadn't slept in a bed for some time and sooner or later Bafford and his other contacts were going to upgrade their locks. If this blonde warrior did indeed search for companions and had the coin to pay for it, a lucrative job may be available for him to walk into. Provided she didn't immediately cause enough of a scene to have the city guards get involved.