Longtails at it again - RPLOG

Participants

• Angus
• Cedric
• Ictus
• Mazurek
• Viara

Date

16/4/476

Log

The Cat's Meow Tavern is quiet today, contrary to the name, it doesn't serve just those of the feline nature. You are all directed to a nice room upstairs where one of the richly dressed feline types are waiting, the lion looks at those gathered and grins with a feline grin, "Ah, hello. hello! Please take a seat." he gestures to the table and some chairs

Viara enters the room with a smile, padding over to a seat and hopping up into it. "Hello! I'm Viara, and who are you? I'm supposed to help you somehow, can you elaborate so that I can do the best job possible?" she yips, smiling widely. She takes in the decor a bit as she flays her tail about, watching the lion expectantly.

Angus slipped in quietly behind Viara, but refuses to take a seat. With a smile he clasps his hands behind his back and nods to the lion. "Thank you for the offer but I've been sitting in a rather dusty room for the past few hours and I think I'll stand." He responded, giving Viara a nod in greeting as he waited.

Mazurek is in griffon form as he has come to be for some time. He fits the name of the establishment...well, halfway anyway. The Raven-Panther follows behind Angus, and instead of taking a seat the quadruped instead settles to the floor in front of Viara. Silent footrest he is.

Cedric wasn't far behind the others in entering the tavern's room, giving the area a quick glance around before nodding to the welcoming lion. "Greetings." the young badger responded, pulling out a chair and taking a seat.

The lion nods to Viara and smiles, "I am Aqualia, it's a pleasure to meet you all." he chuckles at the questions and nods, "As for the job..." he looks over to a side room and calls out, "Genge, you can come out." A short persian cat comes out and nods, "Yes master Aqualia?" the lion chuckles and gestures towards the group, "These fine people will be escorting you to the outpost." The persian nods and smiles to the group, "Ah, You are to escort me to the Kindcraft area. There will be an outpost nearby, I have documents that will allow me to borrow some research notes." the Lion nods and smiles, "Any other questions?"

Viara scooches to the edge of the seat so that she can tap the griffon with a foot, offering a smile and a wave to everyone before she returns her attention to the lion. "The Kindcraft? They aren't good miners, are we going to have to fight them or will it be safe?" she asks curiously. "I guess we will since you want an escort. When should we go? It's nice to meet you Aqualia, and Genge."

Angus:nods lightly. "Not to restate Viara here, but how much resistance from the Kindcraft do you think we can expect, are we traveling there by foot. Not to mention are we taking any established routes to the location?" The fox asked bluntly, sizing Genge up slightly before he turned back to the lion.

Mazurek's tail swishes a little in response to the foot-tap, seeking to lightly bat against the leg of said foot, even shifting a little closer afterward, "I'll take a rider or two if needed. We'll get there faster that way." No saddle, though.

Cedric doesn't raise any further questions about the danger of the job, the others seem to have inquired enough about that for the time being. The badger leans back in his seat slightly and thumps his hands lightly on the table as he thinks about it for a moment. "I hope the question isn't too rude... but how much would the compensation happen to be, for this task?" he asks with an apologetic expression.

Aqualia nods to Viara and sighs, "Indeed, it's an unpleasent affair. And as soon as you are ready to leave will suffice." he chuckles, "Though they will be expecting Genge here to show up sometime soon." Genge nods at that and looks over at Angus, "Oh, we'll be taking a well traveled route. On foot sadly, otherwise I wouldn't need an escort. There is little expected resistance... But you can't be too careful with the Kindcraft." he shrugs at that before going pale at Mazurek, "Um, I'm sorry. I... I'm a bit afraid of heights." Aqualia hardly looks offended at Cedric's question and nods, "You will be fairly compensated. Provided the research notes, and Genge here, get here unharmed." he smiles

Viara nods and hops down, making sure not to jump on the griffon who she pats as she moves away. "Okay I can do this! He won't get hurt!" she declares and smiles, pulling out a shovel and smiling. "I'm ready to go when you are." she adds and looks to Cedric curiously. "Oh we'll get payed? That's nice I guess."

Angus taps his chin lightly as he nods, moving over near Mazurek to pat him on the shoulder. "Maz, you think you can try look out. Fly high enough to see if anythings coming our way, but close enough to offer us a warning?" He asked the Griffion, he wasn't much of a skilled flyer, and had never really ridden with the griffon thanks to his own fear of heights, so had no idea if his idea was a good or a bad one.

Mazurek shrugs, "It won't be any different than before, really. If nobody wants to climb up with me into the air, so be it. I can easily inform everyone if there's trouble. There's some advantages with being a griffon, after all. I can amplify my screeches with my air maths. I am not defenseless by any means, either."

"Performance-based incentive..." Cedric muses to himself with a nod in confirmation to Viara while lightly tracing his thumb's claw underneath his chin thoughtfully. "Sounds reason'ble enough to me. You?" he remarks with a friendly smile, posing the question to the others while pushing his chair back and leaning forward to rise to his feet quickly. He hadn't been sitting long, but it seemed more than long enough to him, and he was eager to get to work. The badger isn't afraid of heights, personally, and would be willing to give flight a shot. He doesn't mention this however, thinking it might be best for him to keep to the trail with the client.

With the question and answer round done, Aqualia nods as he escorts the escort and Genge to the entrance to the Tavern. He waves the group off and things get started along the way. At about the half day mark, Mazurek would spot a group of beings to the west of the group, seeming to be moving to cut them off

Viara smiles as she escorts the feline towards their destination, hefting around her shovel to be sure that people can see they are armed, if you consider a shovel a weapon. She looks back to the one being escorted and asks "What are we helping you get exactly? Or is that private?"

Angus frowns at all the noise being made. "Why did I have to be stuck with the civilian." He muttered softly as Viara waves her weapon around and draws attention to there little group. His own daggers stayed right were they belonged, stuck in their scabbards until they were needed as he walked along, flicking his ears as he stays ready in case of a signal from Mazurek.

Signal from the Griffon? Well, it doesn't really come in such a manner as one might have expected. The avian was circling a bit ahead of the group, within plain sight of them all. He breaks his momentum to begin circling the approaching group instead, calling down with the assistance of some air maths, "Hello there! Would you happen to know where the best hunting spots would be?" Bluffing? Perhaps.

Cedric sat nearby, watching the tiny wolf swing her shovel, while taking notice of Angus' displeasure. Truth be told, he'd been feeling antsy enough to start swinging something around, himself, from sheer boredom! He was able to contain his urges though, channelling them towards doodling in the dirt with a stick. His gaze turns over towards the circling griffon and he drops the stick and climbs up to his feet, heading towards Angus, Viara and their client. "Hey, I think I hear the griffon talking up ahead."

The group of beings stop as Mazurek addresses them and one calls out, "Well, there's one just down the road. We're headed to Firmement. If you need more directions, feel free to join us." then the group starts moving again, in same direction. At the question, Genge shakes his head, "I'm afraid I don't know the details myself, even if I knew. I probably couldn't tell you." the conversation with Mazurek and the other group goes unheard by the others

Viara nods to the cat and smiles at them. "Thats okay you don't have to tell me. I'm just here to help you." she says, looking them over. She turns her attention to the cute griffon who was next to her earlier, he appears to be talking to someone. She keeps herself ready just in case, unsure of what is going on. It was a well known path right?

Angus nods to Cedric as he also hears Maz, ears flicking as he waits for anything else. "Doesn't sound like he ran into any hostiles, but we still need to be careful." He stated, tails flicking lightly behind him as he continues on. "Either way it has something to do with the Kindcraft, and in my experience that means trouble." The last thing he messed with that had been kindcraft made could of actually drove him mad, if it wasn't for his sister telling him to throw it away.

The offer to join the group that is headed back to the town draws a smirk from the avian, who is still too high for any of his facial expressions to be seen. Still, he resumes circling the new group but he is descending while he is doing so, "Have you folks any knowledge of dangers along the road or off that my colleagues might avoid to keep fresh? Where do you hail from, if you don't mind my asking?" If he is allowed to he will be landing a few yards ahead of the unknown group.

Cedric continues along with the other three, nodding in agreement with Angus as they continue along the trail. This time he makes the wise decision to pay attention, rather than start doodling equations in the dirt. "I'm sure we've got enough trouble of our own to pay in kind." he remarks flippantly.

The persian looks at Viara curiously and shakes his head, "Like I said, I don't know what these papers contain myself. All I know is, it's dark magic." he shudders a little before nodding to Angus in agreement. The leader of the group Mazurek approached looks wary but nods, "There were some kindcrafters nearby... We stayed clear of them though. We're from Firmement, well... Most of us anyway, Earnie there is from Shralesta." a wolf perks his ears at his name and waves to the griffon

Viara nods. "I've heard bad things about dark magic, so I understand your reluctance to deal with it." she yips and smiles. She tries to peer towards where the griffon was as she proceeds down the path, not wanting to stop but wanting to be aware of what is going on.

Angus stops as his shoulders stiffen. "Stop, bandits." Is all he manages to mutter to the small group as he rests his hands on his blades, underneath his cloak, and turns to a clump of tree a half mile ahead. "Don't suppose your planing a surprise party?" He shouts in that direction, making himself a clear target for the three bandits crouching in that location.

Mazurek turns his attention to the wolf and smiles with a slight nod, "I've been there once, though it has been quite some time. As for Kindcraft..." He cocks his head a little, "I've actually never been around them before. What should my colleagues and I be aware of if we should be confronted by them?" Clueless Griffon is entirely clueless...and he even sits on his haunches during all of this.

Cedric stops in his tracks at the mention of bandits, before having a chance to respond to the talk of dark magic. He's not really sure what to do in this situation, but he's not about to add to Angus's taunting, personally.

Genge chuckles at Viara and nods before an arrow lands right in front of his feet at Angus' shout, "Ack!" he backpeddles a bit as he draws his weapon, a dagger, and shakes his head, "Well... What do we do?" as a volly of arrows whistle through the sky. On Mazurek's end... The leader of the group shakes his head, "Oh, a great deal of odd things. Warped and mindless beings... Some don't even look like proper folk anymore."

Viara sees the arrow and jumps into action, holding up her shovel and moving to provide cover to the group, getting herself ready to take hits at the same time. "Be caereful! We need to get out of here!" she shouts as she does.

Angus quirks an eyebrow as the arrows start to fly. "Well...that's not what I was expecting." With that he goes through some mental calculations, and sends a litteral wedge of Air into the centermass of the volley of arrows, trying to direct them around their small party. "Watch yourselves, and after the arrows drop take cover!"

One brow quirks a little and the head tilts the opposite way, "Warped and Mindless beings? Why have they not been exterminated already if it is as bad as that? Or...are they being studied for some strange reason?" Griffon is unaware of anything hostile happening behind him, but he does turn his head to look back, "Odd. They know better to not draw attention..."

Cedric gets the idea to build a curved wall from earth magic to try and defend against the volley of arrows, and concentrates, willing the wall into being. The shape is very off and it's just a simple wall that probably won't help much against arching arrows landing in their midst.

As the battle rages, the leader of the other group notes, "I'm not sure why to be honest... Hey, are those your comrades you were talking about?" The tiger tilts his head curiously as he points towards the volly of arrows

Viara does her best to step in the way for everyone, her crude mining armor coming to her defense. She yips a very high pitch "YAH" as she brings her full strength upon one of the bandits, working her way towards them, before knocking out one of his buddies with her shovel.

Angus was not happy after that volley of arrows, can't bandits just take a joke! He thought as he slipped out of the way of a rather vicious, but inaccurate swing of a sword. With a sigh he lunged forward, his blade aimed at his target throat. And when he connected he was already moving before he could ascertain the damage he inflicted, sweeping a second bandits legs out from underneath him, before he presented that same bandit with an edge of cold steel. "Move, and you'll be the next meal for the crows."

Mazurek watches the battle take place from his spot with the other travelers. The leader's question draws his attention yet he doesn't respond until the dust has cleared from the brief battle, "Yes. The victors are my comrades. It seems I missed some fun here, yet I also kept you folks from being attacked at the same time." Turning back to the travelers he bows his head, "I should head back to the sky to continue scouting. My apologies for keeping you." Wings are spread and he launches soon afterward.

Cedric takes a less direct role in the battle, standing somewhere more towards the back of Angus and Viara, trying to make himself less scarce. The badger began to utilize his mathemagic to set the bandits aflame. As the bandits neared their end, the mathemagician invoked a darker math to drain some vitality from the last remaining bandit, leaving him weakened for the Fox and Wolf respectively.

Genge peeks out from behind the wall as the bandit freezes up at the point of the blade, "D-don't kill me! I waz jus' follin' orders!" then he suddenly lurches forward onto the blade with a sick gurgling noise. The other travellers wave to Maz and continue on their way

The wolf frowns and shakes her head, the bandit throwing their life away makes her feel sad, but it was his own choice. "I don't see why he did that, if he was scared of something we could have helped him... lets keep going we have to help someone else now though."

Angus frowns as the bandit so easily gives his life away after begging for it... "Something isn't right here, search the bodies." Are his only words as he starts going through the Bandits equipment, even turning the poor fool around to see if he can find something that isn't supposed to be there.

The Griffon makes his way over to the group while they are clearing the bandits of the belongings they no longer need. He hovers over them and inspects the immediate area, "Is it a good thing that we were here to stop the attack? The group I just left are travelers returning to Firmament."

Cedric touches his hand to his forehead as the battle ends, closing his eyes tight in strain as he recovers from the heavy use of magic, reopening them just in time to watch the bandit impale himself on the blade. "What on..." his voice chokes out the words, unable to finish. Something strange is definitely going on here, it seems.

Genge wanders over to one of the bandits and kicks them, "Leave them, we have notes to recover... May have been warped by the kindcrafters anyway..." he spits on one of the corpses

Viara looks a little curiously at Genge, keeping a close eye on them as she moves to disrobe the bodies, pushing them towards cover to keep them hidden as she collects their clothing. She leaves the armor and weapons, save a knife if she finds one, but the clothes can go to the needy.

Angus frowns as he notices something odd, but he doesn't make a comment about it as his eyes are drawn to Genge. But when Viara starts to roll the bodies away he shakes his head. "Field strip the corpses, they aren't going to be using that armor or their weapons. Don't want to let them go to waste either, so carry what you can." He comments, standing back up with a sigh. "Well, that was...intresting. To say the least."

Mazurek notices that nobody seems to be interested in his report, so he lets it be and goes so far as to help in his minimal way of doing so. For the clothing he uses his beak to help remove them, tugging on pant legs for the lower portions. No nipping where it would otherwise sting a living creature. When it is all done he comments, "Would be nice to have a saddle to carry all this."

Everyone appears to be looking at Genge oddly, and Cedric is no exception. He raises an eyebrow to the persian cat as he kicks and spits at the fallen bandits. He opens his mouth, about to say something that might negatively affect the job's bounty pay, and realizing that fact he wisely holds his tongue for the time being. The badger turns his head to Angus, nodding in compliance. "Alright. Sounds good to me; let's loot n' scoot, then." he says with a goofy grin as he goes to work, helping Viara and Mazurak collect all the useful goodies!

Genge shakes his head at his escorts as they loot the bodies, "Is that nessecary?" the bandits don't have much that is useful, clothing, weapons, enchanted bows... ENCHANTED BOWS?! That's an oddity on bandits, however, they do appear broken...

Viara nods to Genge. "These can go to outfitting the poor, helping starving familys gain a way to down wildlife for their food." she yips and smiles. "I know it probably doesn't mean much to you but others can use them. It won't hinder our aid of your escort, this stuff isn't as important as your duty, but... they do have nice bows!" she declares, moving towards the feline with a smile and a wink. "So shall we go?"

Angus sighs as they find the bows, and his shoulders stiffen. "You know...I really hate bandits, but what I hate even more..." Turning around he throws a brutal punch into Genge's stomach, and when the feline doubles over he takes that same arm, forcing his forearm into the felines throat, before he pulls the feline into a Vicious headlock, his free hand grabbing his other wrist. "Is being lied to!" He snarls, glaring vicious at him. "I saw the wound in the bandits throat, the only one who would need to cover something like that up. Is you!"

Mazurek finishes with assisting with the removal of the bandit gear and other things before he returns to the group in time to see Angus put the client in a headlock. He is apparently slow to process some information but he finally settles in front of the Badger and asks, "So. Tell me. Are we here to deliver these things to someone at our destination, or are we really going to pick them up and deliver them back to the lion that we were hired by?"

Cedric is chipperly slinging one of the enchanted but damaged bows over across his shoulder, rising to his feet just in time for Angus' outburst at the persian cat. He turns his head towards the griffon. "Hnm... couldn't say for sure." he answers hesitantly, looking towards the headlocked cat, and then to the bow slung across his body. "...kinda seems like we're the real bandits here, don't it?" he wonders aloud.

Genge coughs as the wind is knocked out of him and grunts as he is put in a headlock, "The hell?! You're supposed to be protecting..." Then he realizes what was said and growls as he struggles, "The fox has gone mad!" he's still trying to deny it, it seems. "Help me!"

Viara walks up to the very cute fox, passing some things to the cute griffon as she goes. "Then I could ride you!" she says with a happy half giggle, making light of theh situation until she gets over there. "Cutie what are you doing? Did he do something vile?" she asks, readying her shovel to subdue whoever might be at fault here. "These are very nice bows for bandits, unless they were professionals, which they didn't fight like they were, I can't understand why they would have them." she says with a tilt of her head. "Is something going on Genge?" she says, trying to put on a show of a lack of initimidation.

Angus doesn't say anything as Genge starts to struggle, just holds the fool there as he tires himself out. At Viara's comment he turns his head to her, and nods in the direction of the bodies. "The bandit that decided to shove himself on my knife, had an entry wound in the side of his neck. Very small, no projectile left inside, and the shot had to come from someone within our group." He then nods at the bows. "Not to mention those are enchanted, which means someone with alot of coin went to alot of trouble to arm those bandits. And they were here, at the exact moment we got here, ready to ambush us." Turning his head back to Gene he shows no restraint in his intimidation, as he presses the cold steel of his dagger against the felines throat. "Now that you've proven your completly innocent, why don't you tell us what you were 'Using' us for. Me thinks those documents you wanted aren't really for you, am I right?"

Mazurek snorts, "Yes, he has gone mad. He has gone mad with you betraying everyone involved here. I would suggest spilling the beans on your plans, for the travelers that I spotted could have just as easily been the victims of these bandits." He snaps his beak a little, close to the neck but not making contact...even though it's also close to the dagger.

Cedric has the wonderful ability to pretty much look the other way on this situation, whatever the fox with the very sharp daggers decides. There was something fishy about the whole business to begin with. "You know, cat. It'd probably be a lot simpler for all of us if you just come clean about your plans." the badger says, glaring at the persian cat. "Or... an idea occurs. We can find out how flammable you are compared to these archers!"

Genge gulps at that blade and sighs, "I... I... Just don't kill me ok?" he whimpers a bit as he looks at the others, no longer struggling, "It's... It was Aqualia's idea... He-he's a Longtail! He wanted to get back at the blackbacks for... For something! I don't know what..." he whines a bit as he spills the beans

Viara moves in to push aside Angus's threatening dagger with a bit of effort, slightly before kneeling besides the cowering feline, trying to bring them some comfort. "There there we aren't going to kill you unless you make us, we aren't the bad guys here." she yips and looks at them. "Now just calm down and tell us what we need to know to get you out of this situation."

Angus allows her to push the dagger away, and looks to Mazurek. "The Longtails at it again, Mazurek I want this one in front of the royal court confessing what he did, and I want those bows as evidence. We can strip some of the leather off of the bandits armor to make bondage for our 'Friend' and to make a makeshift saddle to hold the bows." Turning to Viara he nods. "And I want you flying along with him if that's okay, don't want some fool trying to throw himself off of Maz to get away with it."

Mazurek draws his head back when the wolf steps in, if only for the reason that he isn't poked with that deadly-looking blade, "Who said that anyone needs to ride on my back at all? There's a reason griffons are quadruped, after all. Clutch with all four feet." He shrugs and turns to collect what leather he can, separating it from the rest of the equipment, "If I could help with the bondage, I'd definitely do so." He has another devious plan in mind and he shares it with Angus.

Cedric breathes a slight sigh of relief as he doesn't have to fry the cat for real. He really isn't the sort of powerhungry mage who could make good on such a bluff. "Glad that's settled then, Genge." the badger says to the cat, folding his arms across his chest. "Don't it feel good to get that burden off your shoulders?" the boy asks teasingly as he wanders away to begin working on making some makeshift bindings out of the leather armor.

Genge blinks at that and shakes his head, "N-no! Not the courts! They'll kill me!" he whimpers a bit as he watches the makeshift bindings and saddle crafted, "Please..." he begs

Viara frowns. "I'm sure they won't kill you will they? That would be cruel." she yips and shakes her head. She looks at the gathered things and smiles, trying to mount the feline bird with great difficulty, not entirely sure how to climb up without feeling like she's hurting them. She doesn't ask for help, seeming determined to climb Mazurek all on her own, before she realizes the bows have to go up there, and pouts a bit, hopping down.

Angus does not look at Genge as he works. "I am a noble of that court, and a Member of the House Solacious. You will be under the protection of myself and the Lightbringers, not to mention the rest of the Solacious house if you confess." He responds, giving the bows a frown as he picks them up. "Either way your probably already dead if they catch you, considering you confessed to us. And you won't be finishing your job."

Angus then turns to Mazurek and smiles. "I would love to say yes to that idea Maz, but at the moment we need him alive. And able to testify. Besides." He eyed Viara as she clambered up on the Griffon. "I think someone really wants to go for a flight, dont you?"

Mazurek feels the hands clutching his feathers and looks back to see the wolf trying to climb aboard. He can't help but chuckle softly while he watches her the entire time. Sure it hurts, but he isn't making a fuss over it. After she remembers the bows and the need for the saddle he moves to settle on the ground so it will be much, much easier to put the thing on as well as climb aboard. He merely nods to the fox and draws his head down to the ground to watch like a 'cute' animal, watching it all.

Cedric works studiously at cutting the leftover armor and fashioning them into crude, but sturdy leather bindings with which to bind the treacherous persian cat with. A persian cat with a wicked side, who would have guessed? He finishes tying one strip to another and clambers to his feet, taking the rope over towards Genge. "Okay, I think we're ready to put this cat in his cradle." the badger jokes with a stupid grin.

Genge looks defeated as he's loaded up onto Mazurek with the bows and Viara, the trip back to Firmament is uneventful and the guards take Genge after everything is explained. THe courts will definitly hear about this though