Swindlers in the forest - RPLOG
From Rusted Promises
Participants
Date
12/2/476
Log
A well dressed dugong stands behind a counter, calling out to all manner of beings. "COme on come on! Get your herbs! The forests are ablaze, you can't go in there! Stay safe, pick your herbs up today!" he cries to to a lined up crowd, workers behind him passing around things almost as if they were trying to look busy. Golems stand around, watching the line solemnly. A serpent stands at the back of the line, getting relative deja-vu as she considers what to do. "This is all very familiar." she hisses.
Angus crosses his arms as he waits, his taill twitching. "I wouldn't know, why are we standing in line anyway?" Leaning out a little he takes a peek at the line. "This is going to take forever."
Selena growls, her hackles raised at the sight of the dugong, gently nudging Bite. "Angus is right, and I remember the last time I saw that wretch of a being." She spits, gesturing to the dugong pawning off herbs. "Personally I'd like to see him thrown in the fire." She grumbles as an aside.
The moment Kilsa sees the dugong something in her snaps and she forgets any sort of nobility. "You!!!" The large badger growls from the back. "I swear I will wait this whole line to break his jaw. I can't refuse him the healing of a priest but I can make sure he comes back for frequent vists." The badger punch fist into her open palm her mind caught up in dealing as much justice to this crooked sales folk as possible. "The his arm.... I go for the arms...." She grumbles as the line carries along.
Wulf rambles on into the area only to hear the snarls and rages of an angry badger. She stops dead in her tracks and looks over at the line. "Did I.... miss something here?"
Arimia flicks her ears as she wanders up, looking a bit confused at the line that's formed. She stares at it a bit disbelievingly, then simply starts to go around, circumventing the line and making her way toward the forest. If she's stopped at all she simply replies, "I ain't waitin' in line for some pigeon plucker."
The dugong sees Kilsa and raises an eyebrow, allowing the line to continue a bit longer before saying "It's time for a break, don't worry those first in line in a short bit will be the first served." he says as the golems and workers all start moving into the thick of the forest, Bite blinks and remembers where she'd seen this before and begins following him.
Selena snickers quietly, having never taken a place in the line either - she was just next to Bite to chat. "Bite. Remember what happened last time we all went off to see what this dreg was doing? Can you make sure it doesn't this time? I'm going to head back to the forest. See what I can do about the fire." She comments and quickly makes her way after Arimia, giving the dugong an icy glare, murmering across to the raccoon. "Last time we saw this guy, half a dozen golem crafters and some army mages were involved."
Wulf still looks utterly lost as Ari and Sel runs off, she starts doing a sidestep shimmy step deal as she shifts her focus between people. Making up her mind she starts to og after Sel. "Oi wait up!"
The Badger notices that the dugong has headed off and exits the line following the badger, every few moments she looks behind her back in case anyone is tailing her. For once she decides to try to be quiet and careful to avoid a group of golems killing her in a horrible gang beating. Her face is twisted up in a scowl thinking of the many many ways his face can be broken.
Arimia flicks her ears at Selena's words, then says, "Maybe we should tail after him, then? I was jus' gonna grab some herbs an' set up a little competition for him." Once she enters the forest she alters her course to where the dugong entered, hoping to catch sight of him so she can tail him.
As the group pursues the fleeing salesmen and workers, they proceed deep into the woods, far from the well beaten path. Bite who had taken off first finds herself rather lost, and knowing her friends were following her quietly begins to call out, only to take an arrow to her side. The serpent staggers and drops to the forest floor as the attacker speeds off, only to be replaced by a rather aggressive set of golems. While the rest of the group is rather careful, Kilsa's massive body seems to almost barrel through theh forest even through her attempts at being stealthy, and she is soon met with a firebolt to the face, her attackers ambush and the badgers obvious position making it hard for them to counteract the damage with their armors.
Angus curses lightly as he watches Bite stagger. Ducking behind the nearest tree he draws his pistol and sighs. Poking his head out he scans the tree line, noticing the golems easily and lets out a muffled curse. Taking aim at the nearest golem he fires, trying for a distraction more then actually causing damage before darting off to the side, drawing his sword as he goes.
Selena curses quietly as she hears Bite's calls suddenly go silent, murmering something back to Arimia and Wulf before she quickly sends an unusually violent tremor towards the golems, knocking them and several trees down onto them, several stray branches falling from the canopy onto and around them, keeping them out of commission for some length of time.
Wulf notes the plight of Bite and she springs foreward through the chaos, nimbly avoiding dangers as she races towards bite. As she nears the scene she drops to the ground with a slide, taking cover behind the tree as she starts to grow, scales forming on her body as fur starts to fall out.
The badger gives an anguished cry of pain as a firebolt catch her in the face and blinds her for a moment. "ARG!!" She screaming pauses for a second as she puts out the flame and looks to her attackers, "You dispicable constructs return to the scarp heap." She does a simple guesture of math and attempts to blow up the nearest golems with an explosive force. As the explosion clears she is already preparing a secondary set of math.
Arimia flattens her ears, watching the various ambushes. She nods when she sees Wulf run over to help Bite, and says softly to Selena, "Do what you can to help Kilsa. I'm going to try an' keep on the dugong's tail." After saying that she slips off to continue on the path the salesman had taken, if she can.
Angus manages to distract one of the golems, it appears whoever's controlling them sees Angus as a problem. The golem takes wild swings at the fox, trying to pummel them unsuccessfully. Wulf manages to reach the semi-tree crushed bite unhindered, but soon finds themselves deflecting an arrow as someone decides to take advanage of their dedication transformation time. Bite lays rather still, blinking frequently as she tries to keep from passing out. As Kilsa's explosion rocks the golem attacking Angus, the other golem grabs her arm and sucker punches the badger mercilessly, he blow being buffered by armor but still of substantial strength. As Arimia runs off after the dugong they avoid notice, for a time. As they draw close to the panting well dressed salesman a well disguised heavy folk grabs hold of them, failinig to backstab the raccoon quite pitifully, the dull dagger doesn't even break the skin.
Angus easily manages to avoid the golems powerful, yet clumsy swings. His sword was drawn, but he hadn't tried to use it yet as he waited for an opportunity, this was his first time confronting a golem in battle so didn't know where to strike. Kilsa's explosion came as a surpise for the young fox as he stumbled, nearly being thrown from the explosion. After regaining his footing he turns back to his task, moving to help Kilsa against her assailant.
Selena nods to Arimia. "Godspeed." She offers, though the raccoon is already off and she makes way to the badger quickly, deciding to test the shear strength of the golem suckerpunching Kilsa, causing the metal to buckle and warp, forcing the internal mechanisms to jam. "Kilsa! Get back from the golem!" She calls out as the machine grinds to a halt. "And try to break its legs!" THe adept calls out - the logistics not having a disabled golem falling on Kilsa for doing it herself a little bit undesirable.
Wulf somehow manages to knock away some of the arrows being shot at her, slowing them down with air magic occasionally if they seem a bit too be going a bit too fast while she finishes her transformation from Husky to Dragon. "I have granma's that are better shots than you lot, why not run back to yer mama's skirts and hide under'em!" That said she punches her fist and slams her claws into the side of the tree; muscles straining as she starts to lift. "Comon bite, try an hold'on here."
The Badger clears her head and backs up at hearing Selena, "Give me a litle bit of breathing room someone?" She asked as she tried to swap out her soulgems and get some space from the attackers.
Arimia writhes and squirms in the grip of the heavy clan folk, and before long it isn't a raccoon they're holding, but a large, serpentine dragon. One who swings a clawed fist well below the belt, causing the clan folk to buckle over.
Arimia deftly dodges a blow to the back of the head by the dugong, his cane now a wildly swinging weapon. He follows her every motion swiftly. "Just leave me alone!" he says as he backs off a bit, the heavy clan folk pushing up and grabbing at Arimia's ankle in an attempt to stop her. Kilsa dodges back as the golem makes one final attempt to smash the badgers face ini, but then starts to look off. Wulf manages to completely remove the tree from bite, before they start to look a little strange as well. Selena is able to easily dodge an incoming attack herself, one of the golem mancers joining the fray with a staff. Bite seems to have lost conciousness, and Angus is far too late to get any action in on the golem.
Angus stops in his tracks, finishing up the reload of his pistol as well, as he watches the golem crash to the ground. Turning to Wulf and Bite he changes direction, brandishing his Rapier and letting out a yell, to try and gain the unknown group of archers attention. Hoping his speed and agility will allow him to walk out of this without an arrow to the lung.
Selena suddenly moves a hand up to her head, looking rather disoriented by something before shaking it off. The wolf growls irately, voice raising to a yell towards the staff-bearing golemancer. "You... Get. Out. of. my. head!" Her math seems to skew awkwardly, a few cuts appearing on her form before the gale of razor winds loose themselves at the mathemagician in front of her - hopefully reaching the neck she was aiming for.
Wulf snarls at the images invading her mind, shaking her head she tries paying them no need... justy images she tells herself, just images. She's seen worse, thoigh she is moving just a bit slower than normal as she tries to fight the magic. Leaning down she grabs Bite by her shoulders and starts to pull back from the fight, bringing her back towards Selena.
"Get back! Your dead, I watched you die!!" Kilsa screams while swinging wildly and casting spells at foes that aren't there, "NO! DIE! DIE!" She screams louder and attacks more frantically trying to slay a being that isn't there and sounding more and more like a scared child rather than a seasoned warrior.
Arimia swings several of her tentacles down at the grasping hand of the heavy folk, utilizing the full strength of those appendages, each as strong as one of her arms. Once her ankle is free she launches into a spinning kick, aiming to strike the dugong with the kick.
Wulf seems to be getting better as they progress towards Selena, the serpent in tow slowing them down only slightly. Kilsa has clearly lost it, something she's seeing putting her out of commision combat wise. Angus succeeds in drawing arrow fire, the fox being missed barely by a glistening arrow. Arimia manages to wang the dugong pretty good, and he stumbles backwards before falling on his rump.
Angus felt it as the arrow tugged at his cloak as it flew by, revealing the location of the archer that loosed it. Turning in the archers direction he lets loose the only magic he knows. A gale of razor sharp winds, much like Selena's but not as finely shaped, that ripped into anything standing in it's path.
Selena whimpers for a moment as she feels a familiar spell forming about her. Anyone around her would know something is very, very wrong with the wolfess, her eyes have glassed over slightly and her movements are orchestrated as though resigned, though she howls out in anger with her form. "Kilsa, for the love of the creators PUT ME DOWN! I can't do this; don't let me DO this!" THe wolfess cries out distraughtly, small pieces of debris beginning to split up from the ground and broken branches around Bite and Wulf.
'Oh dear Creators this is trouble' races through Wulf's mind, thinking fast she tosses Bite over towards a softish looking bush, and lopes towards Sel, arms out wide to tackle Selena in an attempt to disrupt her math, for lack of anything else she can do against math. "I'm sorry Sel but this might hurt!"
The badger notices a shimmer in the growing folk she was trying to kill again and looks around as reality comes into focus and a very unfortunate tree is smoking with flame marks over the majority of it. "By the creators....I need a drink." She hears Selena and turns to see her. For a lack of a better ideal Kilsa runs to the female wolf pushing her body to the limit and swing her shield HARD against Selena's face to stop her from killing her own allies. She is too tired to even say aything witty.
Arimia moves close to the dugong, quite close, and one of her hands moves in a blur, striking the dugong from a short distance to try and put him out. She turns her attention to the heavy folk then, to see if she's going to be having any more trouble from that being.
The heavy folk and the dugong are both on the ground, the heavy folk seems unwilling or unable to stand at the moment. Bite is cast aside onto a relatively soft bushh, the arrow plunging deeper into her side. This detour for a safe throw prevents wulf from reaching Selena before Kilsa, who gives a mighty blow to the head and knocks her down, stunning the poor wolf. Angus rips into their foe with air magic, and the archer turns tail and runs, along with many previously hidden figures.
Selena yelps loudly as the shield connects, the force knocking her to the ground, and a thin trickle of blood drips from a laceration, though she spell seems to flicker and wane for a moment, it returns with a vengeancearound the gathered allies, though Selena seems to be capable of little other than weeping at her tratorous body, Simply repeating, "No, no, no..." between fevered sobs, her arms guiding the spell beside herself.
Wulf oh cruds and pounces down onto Selena, grabbing her arms and pinnning them to the ground in attempt to stop the spell. "Dammnit Sel, pull yourself together!" The husky barks loudly. "We got a woman injured and this ain't helping!" The Husky glances backwards at Bite and she grimaces, hopeing that the snake will be okay before turning back to Sel. "Kilsa, you think maybe you can get Bite?"
The badger nod to the Husky, "Alright." She moves over to the taipan and breakout her medical kit. "I know you've been through way worst than this." She chuckled and began to work on the serpent with her kit. Before finishing up she replaces her normal healing herbs with a special set that she was saving for herself. "If this doesn't fix you up in a bit nothing will." She crushes the dried herbs and puts them under the bandage she put over the arrow wound.
Arimia grunts as she lifts the dugong up, using arms and tentacles both. Once she's got him she starts making her way back in the direction she'd came, leaving the heavy folk on the ground, not even bothering to knock them out.
The spell goes off, but not quite as planned, Selena doing her best to counteract it almost immediately, her mind once again her own. Kilsa treats the unconcious Bite, and as Arimia approaches they can see a massive swirl of dust and dirt being kicked around. The rest of the attackers have fled, leaving the group alone in the woods.
Selena collapses again the moment she finishes her counterspell, weeping onto the ground pitifully. The wolfess manages to sputter out "Is Bite okay? Where's Ari?" between deep breaths, trying and failing to calm herself down from her almost catatonic state. "I couldn't..."
Wulf grabs Selena by the arms as she slowly shifts back down to her normal Husky size. Wulf pulls up on the Wolfess and tries pulling her into the hug. "Ari is off catching the bastard who did this... Bite is stabilized I hope." She continues the hug silently for a bit and whispers into Sel's ears.
A glance at the 'arrow' she pulled out of Bite leaved the badger perplexed, "Hey! This isn't an arrow it looks like a tiny cane or something." She moved the bloody tool around in her hand before picking up bite and heading closer to the group. "Anyone need some treatment? I still have supplies."
Arimia makes her way through the dust storm, squinting to shield her eyes as best she can as she moves toward Selena and Wulf. She glances over at Kilsa's shout and gives a small shake of her head. She rather carelessly drops the dugong onto a clear spot of ground then sits down, near Selena, but not so far that the dugong is out of reach. "I'm here, Selena."
Selena nods as Wulf attempts to console her, though the moment she hears Arimia dump the dugong next to her she turns for a moment, briefly double-taking before she lets out a tortured scream, flaying the body with a torrent of air magic unusually brutal for the mage. She simply stands for a few moments before she drops to hug the raccoon tightly. "I-... Ari, I almost... Could've killed Bite and Wulf..." she whimpers, though no blood seeps from the now-skinless body, tears still dropping from her eyes.
Wulf grimaces at the sudden sight of a only muscled covered body. "Right... that... ouch..." The Husky shakes her head and moves over to stand next to Sel and Ari.
Kilsa looks at the skinless dugong and back to the crying Selena, "Selena. After you heal up and get better we will need to have a long talk." The badger doesn't look mad or upset just worried and sad.. "I think we should head back, I'll carry the dugong if he is too heavy long as someone can gently carry my friend here."
Kilsa looks at the crying Selena, "Selena. After you heal up and get better we will need to have a long talk." The badger doesn't look mad or upset just worried and sad.. "I think we should head back, I'll carry Bite till we get her to a better healer and a better place to get better."
The false dugong left ini place, the crew carries an injured Bite along with them out of the woods, emerging far from the main road. They make the long trek back to firmament to seek treatment and file a report.
