Desert Dragon Sandcat Bandit stuff - RPLOG
Participants
Date
3/5/479
Log
Right. The desert. It's hot. There is wind, though it's also warm and generally unpleasant as sand gets all up in your eye regions. Along a sandy ridge, following a path-road-type-thing towards Firebough, there's a few wagons and carts, stopped and waiting for the arrival of whatever mercenary-types they've managed to attract. Outside the carts are a number of beings of various types and sizes. Few of them are armed, crossbows and muskets, mostly, none of which are particularly good quality.
There's also a Thel by one of the covered carts, covered in sandcat hides and blending with the sand, watching for whoever was coming to help.
An enormous Elephant stumps along in the dry desert heat. He seems rather unprepared for mercenary work, as he has no weapons or armor or gear with him. Only his short vest and loose, high-waisted trousers. The burly pachyderm stops by the carts with a huge grin. "Hello!" he trumpets, "Yegor is hearing that there is adventure for the having!"
Kazel is clad in her typical full plate that does not show more of her than part of her eyes, seemingly ignorant to the desert heat in her silvery metal outfit. She steps up to elephant and fox and lifts her ventail, eyeing the two before crossing her arms. "There was a request for help?"
Millicent trots along the path at a leisurely pace, dressed up in her usual, and only, set of armour, her left arm propped lazily up on the hilt of her sword. "Indeed there was," she calls out, slowing next to the caravan and looking over the elephant. "Ought to have worn a shirt, you know! The sand can be rough on the skin."
Kilani flies high overhead, arcing through the sky towards the ridge. The light wind poses no trouble to flying to her at this point, and the wind rushing feels quite nice contrasted to the heat of the desert. The gryphon comes to a soft landing near the chain of wagons, digging into the sandy road and peering at the other beings. "I heard there would be coin involved, here."
Robin trecks through the sandy deserts, holding his hood down as to get as little sand in his eyes as he could. Smaller in stature than most others at the wagons, the mouse trots up to join the rest. Others were already beginning to congregate around, giving a wave and saying, "A place with coin is a place I want to be. What needs to be done?"
Thel nods to the approaching people. "Yup, coin, adventure, help, all that good stuff. Couple of guys already went up ahead about an hour ago, haven't come back. Should just be the usual stuff, sandcats, bandits, maybe a bone dragon or two. Y'know, fun stuff. Anyway." The fox bangs on the cart behind him, which leads to a turkey emerging. He's an older man, garbed in overly fancy, red, silk clothing with gold trim.
The turkey speaks. "Ah, good, more people! I'm the one who'll be paying you today. We've been stuck in this spot for two days now, just, sitting here, waiting." He shrugs. "I'm tired of waiting. Just, uh, go kill the things. Or don't kill them, just, make them not here and in the way." More shrugging.
Yegor thumps a fist on his hairy chest, showing off to Millicent. "Is nothing to worry about!" he grins, "I am having most tough skin!" The elephant runs a thumb along one of his long, sharp tusks while he listens to the turkey's explanation. "Is sounds perfect!" he says, clapping his hands once, "Let us begin!" The elephant does not hesitate for even a moment, trecking forward to along the path, ham-sized hands swinging by his sides.
Kazel smirks and nods, before slapping the ventail shut again and and following behind the elephant. She is rests her hand on the hilt of her sword and eyes the road up ahead. This must have been the most vague job description she ever got.
"If you say so! I will trust in your self judgement," Millicent says, bowing her head. "Just didn't want you to get hurt! Since the desert here is much different from the snow of the north." She looks towards the turkey, then, and nods. "Let's get to it, then," she says, setting off after the others.
"Alright. Seems we're going." Kilani peers at the fox and the turkey for a brief second, before shaking her wings off of sand and taking to the sky again. Might as well provide a higher point of view for the others. Who knows, she might actually catch a threat before it reaches the rest of the beings. Being up high tends to do that.
Robin scratches his head, folding his arms over his chest as he asks, "Them? Who's them?" As much as he wanted to stay, it seemed the rest of the group was already getting to the road. He'd linger for only a moment, hoping for a response -or at least a better one- from the turkey before he bid him farewell, a brisk pace in his step as to keep up with the others, tail billowing behind him. "So does anyone know what we're to expect or looking for? I mean don't get me wrong, i love roaming the desert as much as the next person, but i'd rather not stab anything that does not need to be."
The turkey clarifies a little: "Them. Bandits, mostly, and other stuff... I didn't really check, was hiding in the cart... Good luck!" And then there was walking. Through a desert. Passing the carts, you notice, probably, that there are arrows sticking out of a couple of them. The guards acknowledge your presence as you pass, but don't follow on after you.
The desert is desert-y. It's uncomfortably hot, sunny, but that sky there's blue as all hell. It's nice... Except when it isn't. Following the path for about 12 minutes, from up ahead there's screams and shit. From up in the sky, Kilani can see what's causing it for a minute or two before the rest hear it... Clash of steel on steel, shouting, snarls from creatures, that fun stuff.
Yegor laughs long and loud. "This is famous Drytongue Desert!" he laughs, "I am told that all things in this place are needing stabbing!" His laughter stops when he hears the sound of screams and his normally jovial face hardens into a determined look. The elephant turns on the heat and pounds forward at speed, sand flying up around him!
Kazel changes her pace into a swift run, even she can't sprint in this armor, at the sound of the battle. Her ears would twitch, were the helmet not keeping them the way the are. She draws her sword though and readies her shield in case arrows find her before she finds the enemy.
Millicent would prefer not to go running TOO fast out here and tire herself out before the battle, but she does break into a jog at the sound of battle so that she may keep up with the others. She wouldn't be much of a defender if she spent all her time resting her legs. Her sword remains in its scabbard for now, though, until she can get to the battle proper.
Robin perks up at the sound of strife just up ahead, his pace speeding up as to find out what exactly it could be. Not wanting to go head in himself, he slinks behind the rest of the group, drawing out his simple pistol from his holister as his eyes kept surveying the area for the signs of conflict. "That didn't take long at all," he muses, more so to himself than anyone.
Rounding, well, around, a large dune, the group is met with the sight of what is basically a small battlefield.
Got a number of barely armored guys with crap weapons fighting each other, and sandcats, large lizard creatures with scales that blend with the sand, apparently taking advantage of the situation and mauling dudes left and right. And in the center is a massive skeletal creature, roughly 10 feet in height, flailing it's big, clawed, bony arms at lizards and beings alike.
A few of the armed men, and one woman, are les bandit looking and more freesword/guard looking, to clarify. But the bandits are fighting each other too, when not being chewed on by lizards. None of them immediately go after the party, as they're mostly preoccupied...
Detail on the ones who don't look like bandits: An eye patch wearing fennec in leather armor with a longsword, female. Then there's a short (about 3.5 feet tall) rat-guy in robes making flames at the enemy, and a rhino who's roughly Yegor sized with a bigass hammer in chainmail.
"AH HA!" Yegor cries out, trumpeting gleefully at the sight of the bone dragon, "This is what I am looking for!" The Elephant charges toward the undead monstrosity and takes a leap into the air to slam down in the midst of all the fighting creatures and beings, sending a sudden ripple through the sand in an expanding ring!
Kazel groans at the leaping elephant. "Was just about to suggest waiting till they thinned each other out." The bat shrugs. "Might as well." A swift swing of her sword through the air later, she has formed the maths for her spell in her head and focuses it on the center of the commotion.
Millicent surveys the battle, thinking. When Yegor leaps in, though, she's quick to follow, sword being drawn as she strikes out at one of the lizards, trying to tilt the battle in favour of those that looked like fellow Freeswords.
Robin sighs as the fighting begins, most everyone leaping into the fray of combat. It was hectic, and would just be harder to seperate friend from foe. The elephant did say after all everything needed to be stabbed, right? Then why not have some fun while they were at it. With his alliance going towards the ones who at least outwardly appeared as Freeswords, Robin would line the perimeter of the fight, moving inwards only to release shots at the lizard creatures.
And thus nothing is left standing on the battlefield except the bone dragon. He's sturdy... The bandits are all knocked over, thrown by earthquaky tremors, as are all of the sandcats, thrown to the ground and such... One of which is skewered by Millicent. It hisses, bleeding profusely from the wound Millicent gave it. It falls still a moment later, twitches, dies. Dead lizard.
One of the bandit looking motherfu- guys, ends up falling under one of the sandcats, gets mauled and chewed. It is unpleasant. Dead bandit.
Robin's shot, while it misses the sandcat he was aiming at, does manage to hit one of the others, standing directly beside it. Another dead sandcat.
Yegor does not wait for anyone to recover. The Elephant is a host unto himself and seems to have no regard for his own safety as he trumpets and throws himself at the bone dragon! The powerful pachyderm throws the entire weight of his body to strike at a skeletal kneecap!
Kazel is now too up close in the battle, her shield raised. She concentrates for a moment and the tattoo on her chest vanishes, imbuing her with otherworldly strength. This is to the misfortune of the nearest bandit looking fighter, who finds himself at the hurtful end of a shield bash executed with the strength of two seasoned warriors.
Millicent withdraws her sword from the lizard and advancs upon a second, taking the sword in both hands to strike down upon it in a practiced motion, glancing towards the other freeswords to make sure no one was in need of an assist.
Robin watches as the others take to taking down that giant skeletal beast that thrashes about. They would be fine he told himself, and instead he turns his attention to assist the fallen Freeswords across the field. Though he had no true medical knowlege, he would still see what he would be able to do to the best of his abilities, even if it was a simple confirmation of their decent health, or just get them away from the beast.
There is a loud crunch as Yegor slams into the bone dragon's knee, which is made up of half a skeleton on it's own. Which is now cracked and broken; the dragon kneels down on one leg, it's massive skull swinging towards the pachyderm with inhuman force.
Kazel, all empowered, slams her shield right into the skull-region of the nearest bandit, a panther with a sword, who was focusing on not being bitten by a sandcat as he gets to his feet... Doesn't stay on his feet, as when he turns towards the incoming shield, it slams right into his face. Head thrown back, follwed by the rest of him as he's thrown to the ground again, unconscious with a bad concussion. Will need medical attention to not die, probably.
Millicent drops another one of the sandcats, the creature letting out a hisss before it's head is taken off.
Robin can kinda tell that the three freeswords fighting the bandits and lizards are currently unwounded just by looking, probably, hard to tell if the blood on them is their own or not... and doing ok in their fighting. Not making it look as easy as the party, but holding their own.
And at this point the bandits and cats are up on their feet, able to fight again. Kazel and Millicent both have sandcats leaping at them with their snarling reptilian jaws biting at them.
Yegor is not fast enough to dodge the oncoming, draconian skull and is sent flying! He crashes down into the sand with the bone dragon between him and the rest of the fight. The pachyderm trumpets defiance at the bony monstrosity as he hauls himself back to his feet and wipes a small trickle of blood from a split lower lip. "Come you naked bones!" he bellows, "Yegor will fight you!"
Kazel is slightly annoyed by the sandcat that is trying its paws at what it must see as canned food. The bat swings her broadsword at the animal's throat in retaliation.
Millicent drops her sword to one hand, bringing up the armoured left arm to weather the lizard's jaws. For its troubles, the red panda brings the sword forward and tries to drive it up through the bottom of its mouth.
Kilani dives down at the bone dragon, arcing out of the sky and into the battlefield, razor-sharp claws bared out into the air in a deadly embrace. The gryphon aims to shred the bone, puncture, grab. Anything that'd do damage, really.
Robin moves in to help the others with the bone monster, keeping at a hopefully safe distance as he readies another shot towards the monster. With it as the most impending threat, the sooner it was gone the better.
The skeletal dragon creature would roar, if it had vocal chords. It doesn't. Instead it charges, or, uh, collapses, in Yegor's direction since it's leg splits and it falls over when it tries to move. Still manages to get it's face within range of the elephant, trying to crush him with it's skull as it falls.
And then there's another headless sandcat as Kazel decapitates the one attacking her. Yup. There is blood all over the sand. And probably Kazel's armor.
Millicent gets her sword right up through the creature's skull, stabbing right up through the bottom, shutting the jaw and stabbing out the top. It flails before dying, going lipm against her arm and blade.
Robin unfortunately misses the bone dragon, really swooded the grommet on that one.
Kilani though, slams into it with claws and such, gouging bone a bit, marring the creature.
The Elephant stands his ground as the skeletal dragon crashes toward him. He is not about to let something as simple as a skeleton take him down! Yegor raises his arms abbove his head to deflect the falling skull, shoving it to one side, sending up a spray of sand. The elephant then throws himself crashing into the side of the beast's skull, attempting to send it crashing over the other combatants to disrupt the battlefield.
Kazel was going to let the elephant have his fun and glory, but seeing as others have stepped up, she shrugs her armored shoulders and approaches the beast as well. Her sword twirls in her hand for a moment as she eyes the bone behemoth, before she decides otherwise and gives him a shield to the rips.
As the lizard falls, Millicent steps back and eyes the bone dragon. She crosses the sand towards the fray, favouring a blunt attack against the bone as she draws back her metal plated left arm, throwing it forward for a swift punch.
Kilani bounces back off into the air, circling around to the back of the giant bone creature and aiming for the base of the skull, claws outstretched and beak emitting a sharp screech, almost like a war cry. War caw. Whichever. Severing the spine would be a sure kill, and, everybody else appears to be distracting it from the front for the time being.
Robin continues releasing bullets from his weapon, hoping one of them would eventually find their spot into the bone beast. Though not effective for the most part, he was glad to see the rest of his allies were faring well in the battle.
Yegor manages to force the injured dragon over, causing it to collapse atop some sandcats and a couple bandits. Battlefield is getting cleared out, as some of the bandits finish killing each other off and start running away, to shouts of "Run away!" Many of them dropping weapons as they go.
The last of the sandcats are also dispatched, some fleeing, but most dead. All that's left is the bone dragon, and it ain't lasting much longer, as it's ribs are crushed by Kazel's shield bashing.
And then Millicent's fist hits the thing, causing the bone in the face region to splinter and fly apart from the force and placement of the punch.
Kilani gets right up in the spine behind the shattering skull, severs it with the force of her aerial pounce while at the same moment Robin's pistol round pierces and blows a hole through it's clavicle
The bone dragon collapses into a bony heap, falling apart, slamming into the sands with a muted 'thud.' The battlefield is clear now, a few defeated bandits still alive but injured, dead sandcats all over the place. Win.
"HA!" Yegor trumpets, striding across the battlefield, "This was excellent fight!" The elephant wipes away a little trickle of blood from his lip and looks around at the others. "Everyone is still alive?" he asks, "This is good!"
Kazel sighs quietly. "That was all? I am a bit disappointed." She eyes the bandits that lie around squirming around on the ground, then announces to the others, "Should we help those guys up, I suppose they learned their lesson." She smiles under her helmet. "If not they are welcome to try once more after it, by all means."
Millicent wipes her blade clean of blood and slides it back into her scabbard, looking over the bandits, then at the other Freeswords. "No one is dead, I hope?" She asks, looking to see if the ones spotted earlier were all accounted for.
Kilani touches down near the others, blowing up sand where her wings bat and flap, folding the large shapes up against her body once she's not liable to fall over. "Not dead, no. Your elephant friend seems to have gotten a bash to the face, but I didn't see anyone else get hit." The gryphon peers back into the sky, dusting her wings off. "I'm going to see if there's anyone else around here. Fire a round into the sky if you want to catch me."
Robin sighs as the fight came to it's conclusion, stowing his weapon away. "I think everyone's alright for the most part," he say to the elephant. "Not bad out there either." With it over, the mouse scurries over and begins to inspect some of the fallen bodies across the field of anything that would otherwise prove useful. They didn't need it anymore, after all. Reaching into the side scabbards of a fallen bandit, Robin slips out a simple small blade, small enough to be a dagger. Giving it a playfull toss in the air, he stows it away to return to the Freeswords. "Are you all okay?"
The three Freeswords from earlier are all still fine. Unless that's their blood on them, but they don't seem to be wounded. "Thanks for the help." The bigass rhino gives, laying his hammer over a shoulder. "Good work with the big one. We're gonna head back to the camp, get payed and then back to the city. You planning to run after the fleeing bandits?" The other two freeswords- the fennec and rat- are looting the bandits, as Robin did.
The Banditry all seem to have run in the same direction, and are not killing each other anymore. Their group must've won...
"Cowards!" Yegor shouts after the fleeing bandits, running out over the dunes, then he turns his attention back to the rhino and shrugs. "They are gone," he says, "Is not worth chasing them. Besides, I am being thirsty in all of this sand!"
Kazel walks up to the nearest non-dead bandit she can find and nudges him with her foot. "Hey, you there. What was that whole fighting each other when there are bones to pick thing about." She nudges again, harder this time. "If I like the answer I might fix you up."
"I'm not planning on going after them, at least," Millicent says, resting her arm on her sword again. "No sense tiring myself chasing after people that've fled the battle. No honour in it, and besides. They gave up." She shrugs and looks out over the sands. "And being paid sounds like a better alternative to running."
"I concur, although it's best to make sure nobody else is approaching. Unless they're giving us coin right now." Kilani cocks her head towards the other beings, peering at them closely. "Are they giving us the crowns now? That'd be excellent."
Robin waves the others off, keeping up a spot with the Freeswords. "Gold sounds like a pretty solid deal right now. The bandits were beaten up, and hopefully they won't be that dumb enough to come back. We'd have to head back to the turkey in order to get our pay, remember?" he chuckles.
Rhinoguy nods. "Yes, no water in the sand. Let 'em go, not enough left to cause problems." The freeswords mostly just ignore the rest of the dying bandits and finish up their looting. Start to leave then...
The nudged, dying bandit is a muscular badger covered in his own blood and mauled pretty bad by a sandcat. He coughs, spits blood, makes wods with difficulty. "Another *Cough* bandit... group. Wanted the territory... Sandcats just joined in, then there was the bone dragon..." Coughs more.
The freeswords, still letting the rhino talk, colarify: "Well, the threats seem to be gone for now, and they have guards. Should be safe enough for us to be payed."
Yegor looks around at the downed bandits and nods. "Well," he says, "Let us do the cleaning up!" The burly elephant kneels down beside the wounded badger. "We are take you away now, da?" he says happily, fiddling with something inside his vest and beginning to go around tending to the wounds of those bandits still living and making sure that they are restrained. "We take them to the carts, da?" he says happily, tossing a pair of beings over his broad shoulders after seeing to the worst of their wounds.
Kazel nods sharp, puts her gauntlet on the bandit's head and flames start to lick at his head, then quickly his whole body. Once they die out he is looking much better. "You can take the others to the carts, this one," She lifts him by his collar so that his feet dangle an inch over the ground. "This one is telling his friends to stay away from here or we, or at least I will be back." She drops the guy onto the floor and makes a motion with her head towards where the others ran. "Go."
Millicent, lacking medical talent, stretches out and turns away from the scene. "I'll let you patch them up. I'd do more harm than good," she says, starting to make her way back to the turkey.
Kilani nods, peering around at the bodies strewn around the battlefield. It seems all the good loot is gone already, so, y'know. She takes off into the sky again, heading back towards the caravan as a whole. Need to go get the coin and things. The wounded could really matter less, at this point, to her at least.
Robin waits up with the Freeswords, eyeing over the dagger he had aquired with a grin. "Let me know when we are on our way. I'm sure nobody wants to cook out here loner than needed," he says.
Kazel heals that guy. Then, that guy goes! Is healed and not dead! Win. Much running in the same direction as the others.
Yegor stabilizes the wounded, carries the dudes away. They're not really in a position to argue...
Getting back, when you go, takes about the same amount of time as getting here. 10-12 minutes... The carts are as you left them, with less arrows in them, someone pulled them out while you were gone. The turkey is outside of his wagon now, though, waiting patiently as he sees you returning.
Yegor grins and waves his trunk in greeting to the turket and his caravan. "See!?" he trumpets, "We are best choice for helping you!" The elephant stops at the carts, an incapacitated bandit over each shoulder. "You are saying that there is payment?"
Kazel lifts her ventail to speak to the client. "The path is clear and should stay so for some time." She rests one hand on the hilt of her sword, while the other finds a drop of blood on her armor to rub away.
"I'd hope there is pay," Millicent says with a soft chuckle. "I am all for charity work, but a ship isn't free to maintain." She rolls her shoulders and looks up towards the sky. "Nor is my equipment, for that matter."
The gryphon lands relatively by the turkey, digging a bit into the ground to slow herself down. "Hello, there. The obstacle to your caravan was... dispatched. I do believe it's time for the fee to be paid, if you'll mind the bluntness here." Kilani peers at the fowl closely, glancing over at the panda for a second before returning her gaze to the turkey.
Robin follows behind, a bit of a skip in his step as they all come to the turkey. They handle the talking, he'd simply sit by and wait for the payment to be made. Definitely a way to spark up the day~
The turkey is a happyturkey now. "Woo! You're still alive!" Quietly passes something to Thel, who pockets it quickly. "We can finally get out of this desert!" Turns around and pulls a few bags of jingly metal things, uh, coins, out of his wagon. Tosses a bag each to all of the mercs who're here. "Oh, and if you want to work for me again, my name is George. I'll make sure my name is on the next job posting, because apparently my people can't post jobs properly." The Fox beside him snickers at that.
Yegor accepts the offered payment with his trunk and tucks it away into a pocket within his vest. "Many thanks!" he grins, reshouldering his bandit flavored burdens, "Now come, my little broken friends! Yegor will take you back to nice place for resting in barbarian Firmament." He then proceeds, despite the protesting groans of his passengers, to tromp back toward the city.
Kazel pockets the bag of payment without checking its content or even taking the time to test its weight properly. She gives a sharp nod to George, then to the others, puts her ventail back down again and heads back to the city herself.
Millicent catches the tossed bag and hefts it in her hand for a moment before securing it to her belt. "Til next time, then," she says, offering a little wave as she turns back to make the long trek to the city.
Kilani takes the pouch of coins in her beak, looking around awkwardly for a second. She looks slightly annoyed for a fraction of a second, before shrugging and looking towards the city again. "Right. Enjoy yourselves for the time being." The gryphon takes off towards Firmament with a flap of the wings, heading off fairly quickly.
And then there was more travelling back home and such, after being paid and all that good stuff... Win.
