Fetzen

Blades of the Blood Coast

Will try to get my post up tomorrow. Just came home from work and it's already past midnight over here :/

The Prince's Royal Guard

Manald Halung

Manald could feel a weird sensation crawling up first along the lines of his lower arm, then through his upper arm and shoulder before it started to disperse along his body and, to his fortune, became less and less noticeable. The lycanthrope hoped for it to be nothing but an imagined side effect of the poison, but it could very well be otherwise and now that stuff would be floating around in his blood for who knew how long! What would it cause ? He could not know. Manald could only hope and pay attention to the signals of his own body for the next hours and maybe even days to come.

After all, at this point, the beastman was still completely oblivious to the fact that the prince himself had fallen victim to the assassins and thus had no reference for their poison's effects. He did have a reference for one of the assassins themselves though and knew what he wanted to do with the nasty, hideous man.

And that definitely was not to bite into his body and having to maintain a delicate act of balance between enough force to drag him along and enough gentleness not to eat right through him! Manald was a lycanthrope, not a cat! And this wannabe killer was not his kitten that needed to be carried along in a very cat-like way! Aside from that Manald's jaws were quite a tad smaller than Merik's, at least while not in his true werewolf shape. The latter on the other hand would not have been appropriate for a task like this... there was no need to frighten the cities inhabitants in the middle of the night.

So the assassin whose name Manald never felt the need to ask for was inspected thoroughly. He had little hesitation to not only look through the man's pockets and let his hands pat along his clothes, but to also use his nose and sniff along his skin. No more poison to be smelled, just the clear signs of growing anxiety. But anxious for what reason ? Manald's infernal vice grip was probably harmless compared to what could come in the castle they were now headed for!

And, to Manald's slight surprise, they did not encounter the broken apart remains of Merik's cargo because the latter had failed to control his jaws with enough delicacy. Dragging the assassin along behind him, the beastman walked towards one of the guards.

"Would you mind taking care of his individual ? He's tried to killed me and has poisoned me. Don't worry... the only weapon he has left is his piss!"

Winds of Fate - A Thieves' Adventure (Semi-Tabletop)

Skarsat

Skarsat's eye twitched in silence just like a vulcano's walls bent and shifted ever so slightly when in reality, pressure was building up inside and waiting to break free. Finding cool water ? Yeah, maybe just swimming alongside the ship instead of sharing his free time with one of the more... exotic... members of their little party was indeed a good idea. Though, a neutral observer from outside the fourth wall might object, an idea that came along with the risk of the ocean just evaporating as the vulcano swam in it.

Today however would not turn out to be eruption day. Or would it ? After all it had only just begun. Yet at least for the moment Skarsat decided there were higher priorities that presented themselves in form of a 'sheriff Gerranti'. So the city's forces responsible for law and order were looking exactly for the one person he was supposed to wake up ?

Skarsat found that, if not anything else already, to be a good call to leave the main hall and get the job done. He heaved himself up the staircase and down the corridor he believed the room in question was accessible from, then knocked on the door -- hard. He could still feel a great amount of irritation trying to smother his attempts to calm down and at the same time he could feel the urge to act quickly because who knew how long those down in the main hall could keep this Gerranti busy before he'd give the order to start searching ?

As he was thinking about the ifs, whens and hows of talking to his boss, Nora, about any of the most recent events, he knocked at the door a second time. Still he didn't openly call out Neh'miahs name or even just say anything else. If there was anything he had learned then probably that his voice could easily be heard. Normally not much of an issue, but if this sheriff down there would hear the name of the one being searched for and could associate it with some frantic efforts to wake up the man... Anonymously knocking at the door and opening it by force if needed was bound to be much more effective in this case.

The giant did seriously hope though that Neh'miah would get out of bed by himself by the second though. The man needed some time left to leave the place, too -- and preferably not completely naked or with a prostitute making a loud fuzz about his sudden departure!

Blades of the Blood Coast

I mean, at least he is turning into a tree...

@Penny

Everyone: Hey, innkeeper! Can I have some cold beer and a piece of rosted meat, please ? And I know I stink a little, so... does this place offer some opportunity to have a bath ?

Lorcan: Hey, peasant! Can I have some rainwater and a bag of fertilizer, please ? And I know I'm not looking so good at the moment, so... does this place offer some opportunity to get sprayed with a fungicide ?

Blades of the Blood Coast

He might not be the only one...

Winds of Fate - A Thieves' Adventure (Semi-Tabletop)

So his hand had made her bleed. Good!

Not so good that this included the possibility than some of said blood, along with residual traces of cosmetic ingredients this damn woman certainly applied to her face every day, could have attached themselves to his palm. Skarsat had no real proof of that, but even without actually looking at his fingers he rubbed them against each other to get an estimation about how much of a smeary layer of shit there was on his skin. Otherwise though he just kept staring at Solange, his face being kinda stuck in a state of forced idling around because his mind was too busy thinking about...

Defeat. How could this woman just keep doing shittalk all the fucking time ? 'Suckling babe', 'mommy's big boy', 'like he was told...'... for a brief series of moments all these nasty little provocations just did not seem to have any impact because Skarsat was just too flabbergasted by the initial 'love' which had already announced a lot about her overall reaction. Then however, with some noticeable delay, he caught up with Solange's queue of insults.

"You know... I'm no arrogant fool like you who maintains an unshakeable belief in his own infallibility. I know that, despite my training and experience, some of my arrows can and will miss their intended target. I start to think that despite all the real hostiles we might encounter on this endeavour this might actually be a good message for you."

Having said this, Skarsat raised himself to his full height again and looked down at her for a second or two.

"Now if you'd like to turn this journey into a damned world of fear where a possibly growing number of people outright hates you, then just keep going!" Skarsat turned away from her, but not without trying to hit her foot with his own and put his full weight onto it. Upon success he'd express his regret, which of course would be entirely fake.

Blades of the Blood Coast

Lorcan was about to deliver a rough reply about cleaning one's ears towards whomever had asked about the Skayleigh's urge for a distraction, but before his words had ever had a chance to leave his mouth he could also see a figure move past him. An eerily familiar figure whose identity turned Lorcan's face into a test rig whether one's eyeballs could actually fall out by too much staring.

Emma... he could not remember the second part. Could you perhaps consider asking the others first ? Tagging her as 'fucking moron', Lorcan quickly realized that Emmaline's action would not allow the rest of the party to prepare much. What's the damn purpose of a distraction if you don't have any kind of action in the back of your hand to actually make use of it ?

For the Skayleigh it came accross as a pretty bad move, but it would be even more of a dick move to abandon Emmaline now, using her as a distraction to just escape the overall situation. Sure he could, thereby probably greatly boosting his personal chances of survival, but what would his conscience say about it afterwards ?

So Lorcan launched his own move. No time for discussing this with Mr. Dwarf or any of the other unknown variables that were his companions, but instead he had to do in a hurry now what he had originally planned to do with much greater care: circle around the village and approach the men with crossbows from behind... or from the side at least. Starting to crawl along, Lorcan could only hope that at least some of the others would come to the same conclusion.

However the very first few yards of crawling on soil littered with leaves and branches made clear to him that both his current equipment -- that was the rattling chain of his manacle -- and skill were no match for the task of combining speed and stealth in this environment. He'd have to think of something easier, quicker to reach, and redirected his eyes towards a nearby tree. Then back towards the ruined village in an attempt to see what the bandits were doing and if they were looking at his direction, then back to the tree again.

This will have to do... If there are any lumberjacks around here I'm screwed!

He crawled a little bit further until he was at a position where his line of vision towards the bandits was blocked by a building of the village. There'd be no point if those bandits would be able to see how he turned into something else. And then, there it suddenly was, a brand-new... well whatever fucking non-Hurlgim species of tree this was next to him. As long as he would be able to maintain a halfway proper replica of it's visual appearance (albeit a lot smaller) everything was good!

"Stop! I told you to stop, bitch!" Lorcan inserted a brief, artificial pause into the words he yelled before continuing: "Oh damn why do women always have to think with their fucking curves while you claim we'd do it with the thing between our legs! STOP! Or I'll make you fuck a duck once I got you!"

Hopefully that was enough to give the impression that Emmaline had indeed some kind of pursuer on her tail that was about to emerge from the woods a few yards away from the rest of the group. Now if just one of those bandits would come here to check... or better more than one. As long as he would not have attracted the attention of too many men everything would be good, right ? Otherwise... Faeril and those around him would better start moving... and he'd have to continue acting like a tree that had suddenly learned to keep its mouth firmly shut.

Rolls

Attempt to reach the position near the tree without being seen: Stealth 4 (#21822)
Fool the bandits into believing there's more potentially hostiles to come while standing around as a fake tree: Deception 7 (#21823)

Blades of the Blood Coast

So now I definitely need those answers about the Tree Walk questions :P

Blades of the Blood Coast

Is it allowed to post again before the current round has reached completion ?

Blades of the Blood Coast

Lorcan had little interest in being the one betraying their position. Therefore, he could not allow his tall figure to be seen or his dark voice to be heard. So, when he addressed Faeril, he did so in a pose that went somewhat beyond mere crouching. His hands and knees were on the verge of touching the dirty ground as he bent forward the best he could without losing his balance, trying to lower his profile further. A giant toddler who had lost his rattle and who, while searching for it, suddenly found the dwarf nearby more interesting.

That stink! Sure he himself probably did not smell like a field of roses either after that week in a wagon, but the kind of miasma wafting around Faeril irritated Lorcan's nose definitely a little hard! An opinion absolutely not biased by the fact that he had stopped to like dwarves in general since they had forced him to go into exile in the first place, so he kept his mouth firmly shut about it at that point!

"I find your logic sound, Faeril, but only at first glance." he started, almost whispering in the dwarf's right ear. "Upon deeper investigation I find it deeply flawed. First of all we don't know if there will be anything useful left to scavenge when they leave. Then just sitting and waiting here or somewhere else in the vicinity will expose us to the risk of detection as we do. Who knows how long they will take to finish what they're doing ? And then there's the fact that even if we succeed and get what we want we might very well happen to run into them again the next day. I say we should try and find a plan to dispose of this problem as we see it. If we don't find one we can still go for any of the alternatives."

In Lorcan's opinon they also could not just go around that village right now and gain a headstart, simply because there could be more bandits hiding somewhere else. Who said that all they currently saw was all that was there ? And suddenly an idea rose above his cognitive horizon: Of course those bandits would kill them right away if they went for any kind of frontal approach, but...

Lorcan turned his head behind, trying to see their 'princess': "Hey! Doesn't your kind of people have this fancy trick of not to be seen somehow for a short time ? We two could try and go for some distraction, maybe we can lure someone away from the rest." These, after all, were woods around them. Woods Lorcan started looking at for some minor study of their detailed appearance. Nobody would take notice of just one more tiny little tree, would he ?