Tales of Aequar: Runite's Rise IC

[Athedia]

The Badger shrugged, as best she could with the goblin in her arms. "Whatever the guild asks. Catch runners, stop fights, guard those that pay. I don't plan to die soon, I have survived to much."

[CoffeeIncluded]

"I sincerely hope you receive proper compensation," Jadeite mutters, still shaking his head. "The average stipend is difficult enough to live on as it is, were I risking my life for the same pittance I would likely revolt."

He chuckles a bit at Badger's second statement. "A true enough sentiment, and one most share. And yet, would you like to know how many bodies I have seen my department receive, bodies not much older than you or I? ...At least, in terms of relative lifespan and not actual years lived," the elf amends.

[Athedia]

"The pay is just a bonus for me. I would do this without it." She looked to the newest member of the group. "Sora, where are you from? You were fast back there."

[CoffeeIncluded]

After a moment, the other thing that Badger said registers in Jadeite's mind. Admittedly, the pain of being stabbed is rather distracting. He turns to Elsee, his face having gone frighteningly dark, and says in a low clipped voice, "You started this?" The viper coiled around him has a similar expression.

[Silverraptor]

"The pay is just a bonus for me. I would do this without it." She looked to the newest member of the group. "Sora, where are you from? You were fast back there."

"Oh, uh... I-I'm from Kytos." She focuses and converts light to cure minor wounds on herself. "And I just don't like people hurt."

But as the truth comes out on who started the fight, she turns to look with a shocked expression.

"What?! Why would you do such a thing?! Look at how many people got hurt! People could have died!"

[Draconi Redfir]

Elsee sneered and rolled her eyes at the violent accusations of the two newbies, letting out a low hiss in frustration.

“Eye could very well ask the whole lot of you the very same question! What the hell were YOU thenking!? Bursting in there armed to the teeth at a time like THIS!? Are you INSANE!? It's no wonder the goblins pulled knives on you! Maybe if you had taken some time to actually stop and think about it then you would have realized what was going on!”

Elsee tensed up as she spoke, raising her voice any time one of the group attempted to interrupt.

“Thenk about et will ya! The one thing the Plavaan hate right now more then anything is YOU lot! Not just you as a group, but every stinkin person in this city with pale skin and flat teeth! They're pissed off at you because you didn't let their stupid Drow into your stupid Government, and just as their rage is at it's peak, you decide it's a great idea to burst violently into a bar weapons drawn and start attacking people!? What the hell did you THENK was going to happen!?”

Elsee slapped her head with her hand in a “Duh!” fashion, continuing her rant immediately afterwords.

“Ef you had all just LISTENED to me and gone AWAY from this mess then this whole thing could have been avoided! I was defusing the problem by setting up Plavaan against Plavaan! They needed to rage and they were going to rage no matter what happened! Eye mean have you even LOOKED at an Orc!? They're nothing but testosterone and muscle! At least the way i had it set up nobody would start a riot into the city and start burning down houses or whatever! It's just a flipping BAR fight! I've been in a few of those and for Pete’s sake nobody gets killed! Yeah, people get hurt! That's kinda the point of a fight! But you know what WOULD have happened!? It would have just been looked on as a bar fight and nothing else, they were angry, and they fought eachother to let it out, end of story. Now because of YOU lot those poor goblins are going to go rot in a prison cell for the rest of their lives for attacking one of the “Good” guys! Well can you freaking BLAME them!? How would you feel if suddenly a Troll burst down your door and started beating the everloving ships out of you just a few hours after a group of trolls killed your favourite Mayor? That's pretty much exactly what happened here! And guess what! You were the troll! Eye didn't make this whole mess worse, YOU did, and if you want someone to live up to their mistakes, that’s on YOUR belts boys and gerls, because eye had notheng to do weth et!”

Her face a much darker green out of frustration and a lack of air, Elsee turned on her heel and began marching back to the guild hall in a huff, her hands balled into fists on locked arms pointing down to the ground, not even giving any of her companions the chance to respond.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Jadeite can't even get in a rebuttal, about how he'd actually seen the fight and only the goblins with the knives were truly out to kill, how everything was fine before SHE went in and made that orc chuck a drow out the window (and oh, he knows that injuries like that can be severe, especially to elves) before Elsee storms off. "Oh, I am going to have words with her later," he says before looking down at his robes. "Look at all this blood. I've never had to use my magic to repair such extensive damage before."

The party, still carrying the unconscious goblins, must decide what to do next.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Hearine Elsee's explication of the situation he glares at the Goblin, when she storms off, he runs of and stops her.

"Elsee I agree that starting the fight might have let them steam off; but still someone could have been hurt, nevermind what could happen if it escalated more.

Secondly how in the nine hells did you expect us to react to a bar fight when the guildmaster told us to come and control the situation? If you would have simply told us your plan, things would have been very different. Like it or not you are part of the guild and you have some responsibilities to it and us, your teammates."

[Athedia]

The Badger shrugged at Elsee but let the goblin walk away. "Her methods are unorthodox, and she occasionally makes a situation worse. But I wouldn't trade her for a team of human watchmen. She always has your back if you need it, and she is honest about it too." She did agree with what Elsee had said about the non-Plavaan. In her life they had often been the worst monsters, not the half-orc working as a bouncer in a bar or the goblin pickpocketing in the streets to feed themselves.

[Draconi Redfir]

Elsee snarled at Atorias and shoved her way past him to continue home to the guild hall, her fingers almost twitching in rage as they wanted to squeeze or hit something, she resisted pulling out her Kurkri and squeezing the handles however, as an angry armed goblin with a knife walking down the street was likely to end badly.

"I already told you, they would have gotten hurt, that's kinda the point of a fight. But if they didn't want to get hurt they could just leave the bar, we aren't the brainless animals you THENK we are you know. And oh, i don't know! Maybe when i come running out of the bar saying "I've got it settled, lets go home" maybe you could take a second to believe me and let me explain on the way? Sometimes plans don't come to you until the last minute and if you don't act on them then and there then things will just get worse. It would have happened anyways even if i wasn't the one to start it, if even one of you had stepped through that door or looked through a window it would have started, if even one orc got too drunk and started preaching his hatred of the city it would have started, i just started it before it got out of hand, and hey, look! No flipped carts! Imagine that!"

[CoffeeIncluded]

Jadeite turns to Badger after a few moments and asks her, "You and Artorias appear to be the leaders of this group--am I correct? Even if Elsee is reliable, isn't her volatility enough of a liability?"

Spoiler

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Are we taking these goblins to the watchtower? Depending on how severe we tell the watch the injuries are, they could have anything from a few nights to cool off or a trial and possibly several years. It seems to me like we'd prefer the former...am I jumping the gun too much?

[Athedia]

The Badger smiled. "We work for the mercenary guild for a reason. We are all liabilities, I think." She shifted the goblin to her other shoulder. "Now what do we tell the watch? These folks were a little drunk and when we tried to stop the fight for their own good they panicked? Or did you want something more Artorias. You were the most hurt I will leave it to you."

[Dusk Eclipse]

While Elsee storms off, Artorias mutters to himself"That goblin will be the death of me, I know it.... ", He let's out a sight and is somehwat startled byThe Badger's question.

"Not really sure, on one hand I would like to give it to the guard and acuse them of lethal force, I wasn't the only one who was hurt" At this point he nods towards Jaedite "; but with with how things are since the council denied the place to that Drow woman , I am not sure if that would be the smart thing to do."

[CoffeeIncluded]

"If I had an option, I would prefer reparations in the form of testing--rats and zombies can only tell so much after all. I wouldn't require much, just subject them to various forms of magical and physical dehydration. Think of how much more they will benefit society than by getting drunk and fighting in a bar!" Jadiete's grin is positively predatory at this point.

"However, I understand that such experiments would be ethically questionable at best, and I would prefer to submit my findings with minimal fuss."

[Dusk Eclipse]

Artorias looks a bit disturbed by the gleeful way Jaedite describe his experiments on living humanoids"Has anyone told you have a scary smile? Because you have one"

[Silverraptor]

Sora looks sideways at Jadiete with a look of bewilderment and horror. She unconciously takes a small, inconspicous step away from Jadiete.

[Devmaar]

While his companions may be concerned, Alim understands the appeal of experimentation
Sadly Jadeite, I fear there is too much squeamishness around for that to happen...

[CoffeeIncluded]

"Why thank you for the compliment, and yes Alim, it is a shame," the elf says airily. "Hemlock approves as well." As if on cue, the viper raises his head to look at Artorias, and flicks out his forked tongue.

Spoiler

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Do you guys like Jadeite?

After reconvening and...discussing the fight, the group decides to take the unconscious goblins to a watchtower and see where to go from there.

When they knock on the door, a severe-looking woman in half plate armor and long orange hair just takes a look at the two unconscious goblins along with the mercenaries carrying them, and just sighs.

[Athedia]

"Ma'am, these two need to sleep it off for a few days. Violent drunks, you know how it can get. We were just watching the bars to make sure no trouble started."

[CoffeeIncluded]

The guard rolls her eyes and shakes her head, muttering under her breath. "Just leave them on the floor, I'll take care of it," she says.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Leaving the Goblins where the guard indicated, Artorias turns towards his companions"It seems we are done here, let's get back to the guild"

[CoffeeIncluded]

As the group makes their way back to the guild, they see the city starting to quiet down as night grows longer. There would normally be people milling the streets at this hour, but it's starting to rain. While they walk, they see another group from the guild running to the watchtower--they ignore everyone around them.

They patrol for a few more hours, but don't encounter anything of note. There's some drunks, some shouting, but nothing serious.

Upon their return, the head of the guild takes one look at Artorias, Jadeite, and Sora, their clothes still stained with blood despite the rain, and simply says, "Damn, I'm sorry. Didn't think there'd actually be any real trouble."

Spoiler

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No ideas for names yet?

[Silverraptor]

"Yeah..." She looks at the cut over her sleeve. "I'll have to prepare a mending spell just to take care of it.

[CoffeeIncluded]

"As do I," says Jadeite. "Well, this has been a rather...interesting experience, but I believe I shall take my leave here. I apologize for the misunderstanding, but I am a graduate student of necromancy, not a mercenary, and--"

"Oh," the boss interrupts, "I almost forgot, here's your pay for this job, minus food, board, and guild expenses of course," as he gives each member of the group 50 gp.

Jadeite looks up. "Wait, did you just say room and board?" After a moment's pause, he turns to the others and asks, "I suppose another listing on my resume couldn't hurt...Are you in need of a part-time necromancer?"

[Draconi Redfir]

Elsee made a beeline for her room once she returned to the guild hall and flopped onto the bed after slamming the door behind her, burying her face into the pillow as her rage began to cool down. The others were still on patrol at the time, she having left them after the whole bar incident. She huffed into her pillow as she scratched at her unkept hair, she could already tell the newbies were going to get her in trouble despite not doing anything wrong, fun times to look forward too that's for sure.

Elsee winced as she felt a sharp pinch on her finger, tilting her head to the side and pulling the hand in front of her face to examine the cause, the familiar sight of her favoured pet clearly visible a few millimetres away from the edge of her nail. She blinked the one eye that wasn't pressed against the pillow and stared at Lil miss for awhile, her abdomen quickly swelling up with goblinoid blood as her head was buried beneath Elsee's flesh. “They just don' geddit do they Miss?” She asked, getting the predictable lack of a response from the unintelligent arthropod. “Stupid newbies, stupid all of em. Woulda worked if they had left it alone, but nooooo, they had to jump in and muck et all up, Hell wouldn't be surprised if Alim can't show his face out there anymore 'cuza that.”

Elsee yawned a bit and rolled over on her mattress, pulling up a blanket to cover her up to her neck as she got comfortable. “t'sa shame too, The Elf was kinda cute.” The Tick of course said nothing, simply eating it's fill as Elsee rested her hand on her head to allow it to return whenever it so desired, her eyes slowly falling shut as the hours passed.


Elsee pretty much fell asleep soon afterwords, napping until shortly after the others finally returned.

[Athedia]

The Badger said her goodnights to the group going to the guild hall rooms. She paused outside Elsee's door and knocked, waiting for a response. "Elsee, it's Badger. I just want to talk. Please?"

[Draconi Redfir]

Elsee groaned as she blinked herself awake at the knocking, idly checking her finger to find Lil miss gone, leaving behind small scar from where she had planted herself earlier. She forced herself to sit up straight as she rubbed at her eyes, mentally glaring at the door and the voice calling through it.

"Whaddea waaant"

[Athedia]

The Badger leaned next the door not yet opening it. "I wanted to make sure you are okay with what we did today. I know you were mad. If we could talk about it? You know I value your help."

[CoffeeIncluded]

As Jadeite cleans off his robes with a thought and whispered magical word, goes over the contracts for becoming a part time member of the mercenary group, a rather devious thought crosses his mind. Carefully studying the legal terminology, he jots a few things down. After signing the contracts, the necromancer trances later than usual that night, taking the time to write out something, or rather several somethings.

Spoiler

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Snerk. I hope this plays out right, it should be funny.

[Dusk Eclipse]

A shiver runs down Artorias' back as he prepares himself to sleep, with a slight feeling of dread the young man goes to sleep, his thoughts still troubled by the events of the night.