Enter Sandman

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Jarzel

(( Hm. Just realized I forgot about Jarzel's backpack. He would have dropped it by the guard captain before conducting the medical examination... So that's where it is. ))

Jarzel retrieves his staff.

[Neon Knight]

Swiftly Saaya slinked into the shifting grass surrounding the depression, scrambling up the steep slop. ((I earn experience points for excellent examples of alliteration. ))

The rogue moved towards the source of the sound, slipping through the grass silently. He approached by moving along the south side of the depression.

It was not long before he sighted the originator of the rustling sound, some distance away from the depression and certainly not visible to one standing in that terrain feature. Four humanoid shapes huddled a short distance from the depression. Although one was warily observing the area, Saaya appeared to have evaded their notice.

The one glaring warily about was an elf. In his wide belt a shortsword and dagger were visible. A quiver and short bow lay nearby, easily with the reach of the wary sentinel. A small buckler shield was strapped to his forearm. His torso was protected by a leather jerkin inlaid with metal studs.

The other three where in an apparently heated discussion. One was a black bearded dwarf clad in banded armor. A large pavise shield with a war axe lay close to him. In his broad hands he held a powerful crossbow.

The third man was not a man, but another elf, shorter than his sentinel companion, but similarly equipped.

The final man, and the obvious ring leader, was an actual human. Even under his chainmail armor, his impressive build was obvious. This was a man of great strength and endurance. As with the others, he bore a bow, but this weapon was massive, easily as tall as the man who stood at least 6 feet. From his belt hung the scabbard of a long sword, the engraved hilt visible.

As earlier noted, the dwarf, the second elf, and the human were apparently discussing something. The first elf was apparently on watch.

[Proven_Paradox]

Raze begins swaying in place, looking impatient as he leans in his axe, waiting to hear from Saaya.

[Mephibosheth]

Saaya

Spotting the quartet of humanoids in the tall grass, Saaya crouched down quietly, straining to see if he could catch snatches of their conversation and gauge their intentions.

After a few moments, whether or not he heard anything, Saaya crept back to the group, moving to within whispering distance of as many as possible.

There are 4 humanoids, 2 elves, a dwarf, and a human, just to the south of us. The dwarf and the human are heavily-armored and well-armed and the two elves are equipped like skirmishers or infiltrators, all of them with both missile and melee weapons. They're discussing amongst themselves, but at least one is keeping watch and has undoubtedly noticed our presence.

OOC:

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Listen: 20

If Saaya was able to hear anything they say, assume he transfers the general gist of the conversation to the others.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Jarzel

"Did you hear what they were discussing?"

[Enzario]

Hearing Saaya's comment, Roderick grins to himself. He walks over to the main group and grins, "Well, I would hate for them to get the jump on us. Shall we pay them a visit?"

[Toliudar]

Yolande

Glancing over at the two deranged guards, Yolande responds to Roderick softly.

I can't just leave this patient right now. Not until we know what these two are likely to do. For all we know, they're the ones that did this to him.

[Neon Knight]

Unfortunately, Saaya only caught bits and pieces of their discussion. Words like guards, she, plan, caravan, and kill came up frequently.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Jarzel

"Lathrohar, can you help Yolande by keeping an eye on these two?" Jarzel whispers while gesturing to the two insane guards. "I want to help greet our company. Alright, keep your weapons down, but out. Don't want to be too threatening off the bat, but we want to be prepared."

[Proven_Paradox]

Raze nods and hefts his axe up so that the point where the head meets the haft rests just above his shoulder. "Agreed. This look too intimidating, you think?" He grins weakly.

[Toliudar]

Yolande

The priestess hurries to her horse to pull down the crossbow, and brings it with her back to the guard captain.

Oh, don't worry about me, Saaya. If there's four of them, you should take Lathrohar. I'll be fine. Be careful, gentlemen.

She smiles briefly at Raze, seeing the kindness under the bravado. She hunkers down in a place where she can keep an eye on the two guards, and on the place where Saaya has spotted the others.

[Chineselegolas]

Lathrohar

Leaving his arrows in the quiver, Lathrohar walked over obviously using his bow as a walking staff making a few gestures as a layer of transparent armour appeared briefly over his form. Then grasp the bow/staff like it is truly his support, Lathrohar walked forward, his spare hand lingering not far from his spell component pouch, nor from his quiver. "I couldn't find anything magically wrong with them, so hopefully those guards should just continue behaving as they are now, but if they do make trouble, I can't exactly club sense into them with my frail form. My mind is my strong point. I can get them to behave best from a distance, so going over with you would be good both ways. And as you said there were some elves, someone might finally show respect to their elders." Drawing and knocking an arrow with surprising speed he continued "And I do know how to use this quite well. Once does not make it to an advanced age without learning something on the way", before putting the arrow back into the quiver and returned to using his bow appearing as prop keeping him on his feet.

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I'm still here... Just reaching end of the semester so projects and exams and the such are keeping me busy...

My bow is elvencraft, so is very sturdy and can be used as a quarterstaff. Thus using it as one for the mean time. Got to keep them guessing
And that was me casting mage armour. Got two hours of it.
And if you really want me to be bluffing it (1d20)[7] + circumstance bonus's (I am an old elf after all...)

[Mephibosheth]

Saaya

Reaching down to his belt unconsciously, Saaya hooks his fingers around the crossguards of his twin short swords and loosens them in their scabbards. He moves silently beside Roderick, his black-on-black eyes emotionless. He points in the direction of the hidden group before moving forward to lead the way.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Jarzel

Jarzel follows Saaya. Once in the clearing, he greets the strangers, "Hello, there. And what might the four of you be up to?" His smile displays a strange mix of caution, genuine curiosity, and sterness.

[Neon Knight]

The keen eyed sentinel spotted them immediately. With hardly a second of hesitation, the group went from their weapons, drawing but not raising them to strike.

The human leader, hand on sword, spoke, focusing his gaze on Jarzel. His eyes and tone were harsh. "We were discussing what to do about this little situation here. Seems to me you've claimed some of our property as your own."

[Proven_Paradox]

Raze raises an eyebrow, but remains silent, waiting for someone more subtle than he to respond.

[Enzario]

Roderick trots up, an arrogant smile on his lips, one drawn and one sheathed dagger clearly in evidence, "And what might that be? Unless you really feel like ticking me off, you'd better explain that bit of reasoning. Fast." Lazily, he flicks his dagger towards their weapons, "Those are not necessary. Unless you feel like an especially spirited form of conversation?"

[Chineselegolas]

Lathrohar
Stood leaning on his staff, Lathrohar look at the four, his eyes lingering longer on the elves. "Now what would this been that we have claimed as our own"

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Detect Magic still going, unless it has been two minutes. Swinging it over them if they are within 60ft, if not, then how far away are we?

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Jarzel

Slowly shaking his head, Jarzel calmly and without accusation states, "We've taken nothing."

[Neon Knight]

"Oh? Really?" He indicated the depression behind them very bluntly by pointing at it. "We found that loot first. Perkins here," He clapped one of his hands onto the shoulder of the elf who had been on watch, "Found this mess and came back to get us. Only once we got here, we found you lot mucking about in it. Now, would you kindly leave so we can get to work?"

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Let's say you're discussing roughly 30 feet from each other. One of the elves has the faintest trace of magic about him, seemingly focused around the buckler on his arm.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Jarzel

"Ah, ah, aaahhh... That's what you mean, hm? Well, we certainly aren't interested in looting. Well, I'm not, anyway. I cannot exactly speak for my compatriots," Jarzel replies with an air of disinterest.

"However, one thing does intrigue me. I was under the impression that to a scavenger ownership was determined by possession rather than simple claim. And, uh, as you are not in possession of anything from the caravan, that would make you simply...'Out of Luck.'

So, why do feel you can claim ownership over any of those goods simply because you passed by?"

[Neon Knight]

"I reckon the law doesn't matter much out here." He waved at the surrounding planes with the hand not occupied by the sword hilt. "There ain't no courts and no guards here. The only law is the law of the sword."

"Look, if it'll get this over with, let's make a deal. Let's split the lot 50-50."

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Jarzel

"I did say I was not interested in looting?

"And I am sure you are aware that there are surviving caravan members that have their stakes in this. For reasons of my own, I am reluctant to apply this 'law of the sword' to them. And I know I can speak for at least one of my compatriots on that."

[Neon Knight]

"If you don't want the stuff, why don't you just hand it over?"

"Look, Mister..." The man sighed, and placed his free hand to his brow. "I don;t much care about those caravan people. They ain't here, they ain't a factor. It's just you and me."

"Want do you want? Money? A favor? I can get ya both."

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Jarzel

"A favor? You must be a man of influence to be one who deals in favors. What is a man of influence doing scavenging the plains, then?" He doesn't give the leader a chance to respond before continuing, "Ah, but I don't suppose that's any of my business. I have my reasons to be here. You have yours.

"In any case, those caravan people are a factor as a number of my compatriots and I deem it prudent to act in their best interest at the time being."

[Neon Knight]

"Listen," he scratched at the stubble on his face, you don't seem to be understanding me all that well. You'll get nothing from those caravan folk if you return the stuff. I can make it worth your while."

[Mephibosheth]

Saaya

Originally content to observe the conversation in silence and support Jarzel with nothing more than his presence, Saaya quickly becomes impatient with the back-and-forth over the ultimate possession of the caravan's contents. Fixing his unnerving stare on the man, he chimes in.

Listen, am I the only one who thinks there are more important things involved here than who gets their stuff. Something strange happened to these men, and it seems to me it behooves us to find out what. At the very least we don't want the same thing happening to us. You didn't happen to see anything, did you?

[Neon Knight]

The leader at first met Saaya's gaze, but then broke eye contact and shifted uncomfortably under the stare. "Doesn't matter much to me. We didn't see anything."

[Chineselegolas]

Lathrohar

Still leaning on his staff, Lathrohar looked straight at one of the elves, and raising his hand to point a finger said "Young one, tell me what you saw"

[Neon Knight]

The man looked at the elf wizard with a sort of confused mirth, apparently confident in his followers loyalty. His mouth opened to speak, but he halted when he noted the serious face on the elf the wizard had pointed at.

With only the slightest sideways glance at his leader, the elf stepped forward and spoke in elven. When he was finished, he stepped back in place as his leader stared slack jawed at him.

((Only understood in-game by those who speak elven:))

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"Honorable Elder, I saw nothing. Nor did the man, nor did the dwarf. My brother, however, saw two things: A rider on a pale horse, swathed in head to toe of cloth of some dark shade, heading towards Grey Chasm. It was the haste of his flight that caused my brother to investigate and discover this place.

The second sight was a brown horse, still living, tied to a rock in this place. My brother freed him, and he fled down the road."

((Spoiler for Yolande))

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Meanwhile, the daughter of Pelor was having difficulty with her childish charges.

The two unhinged guards had obeyed the command to take shelter behind the horse, but like two bratty children bored with a long trip they couldn't resist poking and prying at one another.

Finally, one of them got either angry or excited enough to escalate the conflict, and in the blink of an eye a fist was swung. One guard now had a black eye, and both were wrestling and clawing at the other while the laconic guard continued to be unaware of the world around him.

Arthur Dent was up near the horses, looking nervously about. Apparently, when they had first come upon the sight, he had been so rattled he had moved off a short distance and vomited for a while before returning.