Scams and dams - RPLOG

Participants

• Ariella
• Bite_PC
• Kilsa
• Mirana
• Selena

Date

3/2/476

Log

A large collection of stands has been set up, and carts and travelers alike are lining up in front of them. Huge glass jugs of water sit on display, next to a rather weak river. "COME ON GET YOUR WATER, CAN'T YOU SEE THE RIVERS GONNA BE GONE SOON? DON'T GO THIRSTY! PROTECT YOUR CROPS!" can be heard from a over-dressed shouting Dugong. His top hat and bow-tie complement his suit nicely, all black, an odd choice of dress accompanied by a cane. Behind him dozens of workers move bottles about, almost as if trying to look busy. Golems surround the stands, acting as gargoyles to prevent misanthropes from trying to steal their precious supply. Bite slithers up to the line, looking around it to the salesman as she tilts her head, rather perplexed why anyone would want to bottle water.

Ariella steps up behind Bite, having tailed her subtly for a while, reaching out to pat the taipan on the head, looking around at the scene. "Hey love. Am I the only one asking where they got the water in the first place?" she asks, folding her arms, staring around at the congregation. "Also wondering if this crowd would appreciate a juggler."

Selena paces down the riverbank, looking rather disdainful of the 'water merchant' operation as she approaches. The wolf nods to Bite in acknowledgement as the Taipan comes into view. "Nah. But I have a feeling if we went upstream some more we'd find out." She comments, overhearing the pair's conversation. "And how are you two today?"

Dressed like a steel fortress with her armor Kilsa calmly steps out toward the Dugong, "Greetings. Could you inform me as to why this river is will be gone soon." She lean down low enough that he can see the symbol of the Creators church on her armor. "Hey!" She stands up and waves at the group that gathered before turning her attention to the Dugong, "How much is the water your selling?"

Mirana continuing to disguise herself as Holly Teatherman walks up shortly behind Kilsa. "You can hear the commation all the way back into town. Do problems like this happen often here?" She faigns ignorance. Looking over to Bite and Selena she gives a slight wink and walks over to them, "Well, bottling water is good if you are going on a long trip, but you could just bottle it yourself." She'd made sure to pick up a new staff so it wouldn't be easy to recognise as hers and has her locket carefully tucked away.

The dugong smiles to Kilsa. "Well my lady, allow me to sort this out for you. You see the river is drying up." he says as he points his cane over to the rather low river. "There won't be enough water downstream for the farmlands to work with that's for sure, and what about the poor shanty folk? Firmament needs this water, so we've devised a method to deliver it to them. It's twelve crowns for the hefty ones, you get the bottle and all, or six crowns for the scrawny ones, bottle and all. You use it up, bring it back, our skilled mages will work their magic, go up the mountainis, clean em out, fill em up with pure clean water an bring em back for you to pick up for a meager three crowns to compensate the labor. You must know how valueable time is, not everyone can spare it, even fewer folk know nuff water magic to do this themselves. If you'd like some good lady, I'd be more than happy to help you from the back of the line, status or not you can't skip ahead of these nice folk." Most of the crowd smiles, a few "Yeah no cuttin lady"s and the like coming out for the badger. Bite giggles at Holly and hisses "Oh just fine sssweetie, but I wonder what all this is really about."

Ariella snorts, shaking her head and looking around at the group. "Hey Holly, Sel. What say you we take a walk upstream? Should be a fun trip and we'd satisfy curiousity a lot better than this bag of wind," the lioness says, raising her voice intentionally at the last half of the sentence, making sure the dugong can hear her. She raises a hand to get the badgers attention, waving her over. "You come too, you owe us for watching our show, right?" she teases, winking at Kilsa.

Selena waves across to the badger, looking comparatively unconcerned with the line. "Hello again, Holly." She greets the disguised fox a little tiredly. "Makes more than one of us that thinks this whole thing is sketchy." She comments in response, and continues with a sarcastic roll of her eyes, "I like the part where he explained that the river is drying up because the river is drying up in particular. I already suggested little hike to take a look, so yes. I'm in on that." She comments. "Rivers don't just dry up like that without intervention." the wolf states a little louder.

"I don't want to cut in line but I would rather not watch other be swindled. I want a full keg for all those in line." She counts everyone up and drops 240 crown into the dugong's hand. "Also I will be coming back to set up a huge deliever but let me go speak to my friends first." She smiles sweetly before catching up with the other and following along the river.

Kilsa spends 240 Crown for RP reasons.

Mirana listens to the prices and whistles, "Yeah.. better to bottle it yourself. And sure, not sure how much help I'll be in investigating this out, but I'll come along. You are right, umm... not sure I ever made your aqcuatance Miss Wolf, Holly, Holly Teatherman. But you are right, rivers doing just dry up. And Bite, think you'd like to come see too?" she offers as she waits for Kilsa to join them.

The dugong blinks and starts filling orders, everyone rushing forward and causing a bit of chaos as they wait for their water bottles. Bite stops herself mid motion, she was going to plant a kiss on Ariella's cheek but instead she gives her a look and a smirk, then hisses "Sure sssweetie i'd be happy to come along, i'll lead." as she strolls off towards the mountains, walking along the river. "Come on sssweeties." she hisses.

Ariella falls into step beside Bite, stretching her arms above her head. "Well, this is better than anything else I planned today," she says, talking loud enough for the part to hear but addressing herself to Bite. "Romantic walk! You... Me... All our friends and a dried up river bed," the lioness jokes, still keeping half an eye on the flow of water.

Selena smirks, following along behind the taipan. She gestures to 'Holly' and notes, "I've heard your name at the inn. Apparrently you're quite to performer. Sorry; I'm Selena." She offers, holding a hand out to the girl, though she doesn't stop walking along. "Not my idea of romantic, Ariella, but sure. Whatever you say." The wolf chuckles dryly.

Mirana takes Selena's hand very shakingly, never having done that kind of greeting before, but gives her a gentle handshake, "Nice.. to meet you Selena." She looks over to Bite and Ariella and quivers a bit, but goes on. "Well, lets take a look at things shall we?"

Kilsa follow the group and look at Mirana, "Your that dancer from before. Holly.. was it? What bring you out here?" She asked while looking over the river and shaking her head, "Decided to take a break from being a fluid work of art to find a missing river?" She joked and walks a little further ahead.

As they travel up river, they come to a place where the water can be seen. A blockade in the river is preventing the liquid from flowing properly. Bite gigglels at the group and looks over the blockage, hissing "Sssweeties we found the source of the problem I think."

Ariella had been turning to say something to Kilsa on the subject of art when something catches her eye. She frowns for a moment, reaching up to clap the badger on the shoulder. "Looks like your type of thing," the lioness says, massaging her aching fingers and slipping into the shade of the trees beside the path, her fur blending into the gloom save for the shining of her peircings.

Selena quickly begins to work out some math as she notices the golems approaching, tearing down a large potion of the blockade and allowing the water to spill back through. Not the best idea on her part, though - it takes longer than anticipated and she doesn't dodge a swing from one of the golems and takes a hit from the metal thing to her head. The wolf is knocked back a little and dazed by the blow, but doesn't seem too concerned by the injury rather than the other golems.

A painful bot of fire hit the badger in the back knock her forward as she attempt to regain her balance, "What in the name of the Creators...?" She notices a large golem that wasn't there before, "Oh. That dugong is going ot be in a world of hurt." She growls as her armor is still smoking and her back feeling like someone took a hammer to it.

Mirana as they walked along looks back to Kilsa, "Yeah, I'm her, but..." and at the notice of the barrior and the start of some golems coming up to them, ducks for cover along with Ariella, whispering to her, "Ok.. so what did we just get into exactly?" as she looks back around to check if Kilsa and Selena are alright.

The golem that smashed into Selena attempts to follow up with another swing, missing but looking to be ready to fight again. The golem that had fired at Kilsa finds the badger spry, making a grab for their weapon, meeting firm resistance from Kilsa. Undeterred, it continues to hold on as it's master knocks an arrow back, shooting Holly in the hip with grace. Three more golems and four more masters approach, passing directly by Ariella. The dam gives way completely, water pouring forth to make it's way downstream, carrying something large, a fin jutting out of the water. Bite dodges a second arrow narrowly, lashing out with a quick flame in retaliation.

Watches from the sidelines, nimble fingers working on something before she watches the arrow impacting on Holly's hip. The lioness winces in sympathy, a dagger suddenly appearing in her hand. Shaking her head, the lioness mutely steps out from the bushes, moving up quickly behind the master who shot Holly, clapping a hand over a mouth, the blade burying itself in a back, Ariella's expression strangely impassive.

Selena groans and clutches her head, the bright light from Bite's fire spell not making her feel any better. The wolf suddenly launches a violent tremor throught the ground when she realises she's still face-to-face with the golem, though in her dazed and slightly concussed state the spell forms erratically, knocking both herself and the golem over. Mind on autopilot for a moment, Selena rolls out away from the golem and pulling herself to her feet. "For the love of..." She grumbles irritatedly when she notices the new golem arrivals.

Kilsa growls and puts some distance between herself and the golem, spotting one of the Golem operators the badger growls and fires a concentrated bolt of light into the eyes of the operator. "Creators REBUKE you!" She screams before charging to attack the nearest golem.

Mirana yips out as she is hit and looks down at the wound. She pulls it out very roughly, yipping loudly as she does. The wound would heal on its own in due time. She focuses on some Air Math to cut at their back line, and a sharp breeze slices though at them, though only leaves small wounds and no great effect. She curses a bit under her breath and looks out. Would she give herself away if she did what she is good at? She decides it would be best to do so, and she observes the actions including the stream as she tries to get an idea of what best to do.

The golems back off, sheildinig their masters briefly. While the fighting was going on, two mages in fancy white and red garb steped out, lifting their hands into the air. Fire begins to rain down from the sky, and the attackers flee. Bite hisses and activates her caustic shield, slithering to the now flowing river.

Ariella drops the bleeding victim of her knife to the ground, looking up and around at the rain of fire. The lioness hesitates for a fatal moment, causing her tails to be singed, which makes up her mind. The woman bolts towards the river, doding between the patches of fire and diving towards the river, the lost words before she goes under "Damn it all!"

Selena turns to face the two mages as they arrive, seeming to freeze for a good few seconds before arriving in the water and looking none too pleased with the bombardment. "What is these people's problem." She groans, still looking a little disoriented, watching her decoy burning.

Kilsa raises her Parma, "I hate being on fire!" She growls as she slowly makes her way to the water as she feel her shield starting to cook under the constant barrage of fire. "Screw this!" She lowers her shield long enough to dip it through the water with a hiss and raise it again.

Mirana looks about trying to watch for the next move, but didn't expect fire from the sky! She braces up on her staff, and uses it to help her limp along to the water, blood trickling down her leg as the fire singes her. Still mobile, she dips and rolls as she moves along as best she can with her wounded hip, till she gets to the water and just rolls in. Once under she opens her eyes to examine just how badly she got hit. While under, she gets to thinking about what she could do or what could be done by anyone to get though this with everyone alive.

As the party reaches the water the mages vanish, the golems and masters fleeing. Whatever was in the water is gone, and as the fire clears up Bite emerges and hisses "Sssweeties we should get back and confront them." a little angrily. She starts to run off but then thinking better, hops back in the river and swims her way downstream.

Ariella pokes her head up from the river, spitting out a stream of water and pulling herself up onto the bank with a grunt. "I hate this. Really, really, hate this." she says, looking down at her sopping body with her singed tail, shaking her head. "Please let me kill the bastards behind getting me wet," she says, holding a hand out towards the river, asking anyone who needs it a hand up out of the water.

Selena pulls herself from the water, taking some medicine from her bag and downing it, cursing silently before following Bite along from the far side of the river. "Ariella, you'll live." She grumbles, rubbing her head for a moment before continuing on with a smirk, motioning as though she was casting a spell to splash more water on the lioness.

The Badger growls as the group runs off, "I'm going to break those golems and use them to make pot and pans!" She dips her shield into the water again." She look to the group, "Is everyone ok? I didn't have time to really help anyone with all the fire." She said feeling like she sjould have protected someone at the very least.

Mirana holds her breath for a while and pulls some herbs out, applying them to her wounded hip and where things burn the most. With a bit of earth math she pulls out the healing properties of the herbs and surfaces a bit more well off then when she went down. "Not sure we are on the winning side of things right now." she says and looks to Ariella and Selena. "You two ok over there? And Kilsa? How are you? I'll live... I think." she responds as she takes Ariella's offer to be handed out of the water to follow along.

The party ensures their health, before proceeding back to what was once a booming business. Everything is gone, theres not even a scrap of wood from the stands left in place. Bite hisses and frowns at the development, they all got away.