Shorebound Day 536.75
Car aquired. Depressing to see that we paid about double the price it last sold for, and purchased it on the *low* end of what most cars of that year and model are selling for. Such is the used car market. On to the story!
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Light spells are being tossed all over the place. So much for a low profile. And it didn't take long for one of the toughs over by the front door to notice. He wandered a few steps toward us and made the mistake of trying to tell Kiarra to move along. Well, THAT went about as you would imagine. If you imagined that she started a fight, then you were correct. In what felt like about a second, she (we) had the attention of a good half dozen various grades of street thugs and some big fighting mastiffs directed at us. One of them took off inside, presumably to go issue a warning. Ug.
The nearest two made a beeline for us. The two wheeled cart they had been unloading was at least a small obstacle, but most of them were sporting some kind of sling or shortbow so they didn't exactly have to get up in our faces. Someone had been teaching them tactics, because their first volley took the wind out of Visandus' and Aja's sails. The two that had decided to bring the fight to us regretted it in very short order, with Kiarra taking down the goon that had given her lip to start off, and me, his bud.
Aja got a calming spell off in spite of the arrow she was sporting, which honestly helped a LOT but did not save her from her poor decision to stand in front of us. Maybe she thought the cart would be more protection than it was, but it was just a low two wheel hand pulled jobbie, and while it meant things had to come around to get to us with their swords and clubs, anyone with stones or arrows were free to take potshots. Which the half of them who had not been calmed proceeded to start doing. Aja went down, Visandus took cover behind the corner of the building. That left Kromnir, Kiarra, and myself out in the open.
I did some quick mental math and decided that maybe it was bowtime. 1 shot later, I decided my math skills were just as terrible as ever and pulled the sword back out. By that time, Kiarra had told Aja to walk it off, a couple toughs had simply wandered off, the rest were getting in our faces, and Kiarra had one of the mastiffs dangling off her armor. I felt a little guilty laying the flat of my blade across it's snout, but really, a dog is only as good as his owner lets him be.
The biggest tough had tangled with Kromnir and both looked worse for it. Visandus was peeking out and firing off electric arcs when he could get clear sightlines. Aja dragged herself up just in time for another arrow to come flying out of the shadows and take her down again. Shit, someone hadn't just wandered off after all! Kromir saw her fall again and decided playtime with the big fellow was done and slammed him into a wall as he was trying to give up, then jumped to Aja to administer a healing potion. Visandus called for some backup via Morton, but it was going to be a while in coming.
Kiarra and I handled the last dog and goon in our vicinity. I saw shadowy movement in the general area the arrows had come from and figured I had a few seconds before the archer was ready to shoot again. I vaulted over the cart and charged. I got to about arms length from him and he dropped the bow and surrendered. I wanted to slam into him or give him a taste of steel *so* much I was shaking. But seeing Kromnir headed our way with an expression of vengeful rage like I had never seen on him gave me a cold splash of grounding. I intercepted him, grabbed his arm and got dragged along with him as I tried to talk him down. It's a bit of a hard sell to stop someone else from doing something that you yourself wanted to do. I saw Aja getting up again and shouted at her to come over quick. She saw what was happening and got to Kromnir about the time he lifted up the cowering bowman (and myself, still futilely hanging on his arm) and told him quietly she was OK thanks to him. Kromnir almost reluctantly looked at her, saw it wasn't someone trying to pull some trick and growled at the bowman with the full force of an angry half orc "This must be your lucky day." That guy is going to need new pants. I had been getting worried about my own there for a minute. He dropped the bowman and stalked away. I pulled the shaking fellow right back up and frog marched him over to the cart while breathing a big sigh of relief.
Kiarra took off after a runner while the rest of us gathered up the detainees. Aja looked rattled but gathered everyone in for some healing attention, herself foremost. Kiarra reappeared pushing the failed escapee in front of her, none too gently.
Ziraya and her irregulars chose that moment to arrive, of course. They looked over the carnage and observed "Couldn't wait, eh? Well, looks like you mopped this gang up." I let people who maybe were less full of rageful simmering than I talk to the them. My one contribution was to suggest that they might want to see if the dogs could be cared for and maybe retrained to become canine units for the Muckrackers. The new arrivals commandeered the cart and started directing the gang members to it after manacling them.
Kromnir went to the warehouse doors and peered inside. Nothing obvious was moving about or making a ruckus, so we left the Ziraya and her crew to deal with the toughs and stepped cautiously inside. It was indeed a warehouse, lots of bolts of cloth, boxes, and pallets of goods stacked on shelves around the walls and in the center of the room. A small scuffling noise drew the attention of the nearest few of us, and we found one of the previously calmed gang members hiding in a corner. Life had not been overly kind to him - he was an old fellow, grungy and stooped - he said he just carried the empty boxes in and didn't know much other than that. Between Kromnir growling and my questioning, we did get a few more useful tidbits from him. The bugbear foreman was likely nearby, he showed us on the back wall the area that the Boss' office was in, and that there were likely at least a few more gang toughs with the Boss. He asked if his information was enough to get him off the hook, and it was allowed that if he had been truthful, we could see about cutting him loose after the action was all over. He took that to mean "now" and started to run off outside, but a couple of cuffs from Ziraya's guys put him down. We called out to just take him with the rest and that was enough roughing up and they were all like "oh...ok."
Kromnir, the designated opener of doors, found them and looked back at us. We all nodded. He threw open the doors...and there was the bugbear!
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Light spells are being tossed all over the place. So much for a low profile. And it didn't take long for one of the toughs over by the front door to notice. He wandered a few steps toward us and made the mistake of trying to tell Kiarra to move along. Well, THAT went about as you would imagine. If you imagined that she started a fight, then you were correct. In what felt like about a second, she (we) had the attention of a good half dozen various grades of street thugs and some big fighting mastiffs directed at us. One of them took off inside, presumably to go issue a warning. Ug.
The nearest two made a beeline for us. The two wheeled cart they had been unloading was at least a small obstacle, but most of them were sporting some kind of sling or shortbow so they didn't exactly have to get up in our faces. Someone had been teaching them tactics, because their first volley took the wind out of Visandus' and Aja's sails. The two that had decided to bring the fight to us regretted it in very short order, with Kiarra taking down the goon that had given her lip to start off, and me, his bud.
Aja got a calming spell off in spite of the arrow she was sporting, which honestly helped a LOT but did not save her from her poor decision to stand in front of us. Maybe she thought the cart would be more protection than it was, but it was just a low two wheel hand pulled jobbie, and while it meant things had to come around to get to us with their swords and clubs, anyone with stones or arrows were free to take potshots. Which the half of them who had not been calmed proceeded to start doing. Aja went down, Visandus took cover behind the corner of the building. That left Kromnir, Kiarra, and myself out in the open.
I did some quick mental math and decided that maybe it was bowtime. 1 shot later, I decided my math skills were just as terrible as ever and pulled the sword back out. By that time, Kiarra had told Aja to walk it off, a couple toughs had simply wandered off, the rest were getting in our faces, and Kiarra had one of the mastiffs dangling off her armor. I felt a little guilty laying the flat of my blade across it's snout, but really, a dog is only as good as his owner lets him be.
The biggest tough had tangled with Kromnir and both looked worse for it. Visandus was peeking out and firing off electric arcs when he could get clear sightlines. Aja dragged herself up just in time for another arrow to come flying out of the shadows and take her down again. Shit, someone hadn't just wandered off after all! Kromir saw her fall again and decided playtime with the big fellow was done and slammed him into a wall as he was trying to give up, then jumped to Aja to administer a healing potion. Visandus called for some backup via Morton, but it was going to be a while in coming.
Kiarra and I handled the last dog and goon in our vicinity. I saw shadowy movement in the general area the arrows had come from and figured I had a few seconds before the archer was ready to shoot again. I vaulted over the cart and charged. I got to about arms length from him and he dropped the bow and surrendered. I wanted to slam into him or give him a taste of steel *so* much I was shaking. But seeing Kromnir headed our way with an expression of vengeful rage like I had never seen on him gave me a cold splash of grounding. I intercepted him, grabbed his arm and got dragged along with him as I tried to talk him down. It's a bit of a hard sell to stop someone else from doing something that you yourself wanted to do. I saw Aja getting up again and shouted at her to come over quick. She saw what was happening and got to Kromnir about the time he lifted up the cowering bowman (and myself, still futilely hanging on his arm) and told him quietly she was OK thanks to him. Kromnir almost reluctantly looked at her, saw it wasn't someone trying to pull some trick and growled at the bowman with the full force of an angry half orc "This must be your lucky day." That guy is going to need new pants. I had been getting worried about my own there for a minute. He dropped the bowman and stalked away. I pulled the shaking fellow right back up and frog marched him over to the cart while breathing a big sigh of relief.
Kiarra took off after a runner while the rest of us gathered up the detainees. Aja looked rattled but gathered everyone in for some healing attention, herself foremost. Kiarra reappeared pushing the failed escapee in front of her, none too gently.
Ziraya and her irregulars chose that moment to arrive, of course. They looked over the carnage and observed "Couldn't wait, eh? Well, looks like you mopped this gang up." I let people who maybe were less full of rageful simmering than I talk to the them. My one contribution was to suggest that they might want to see if the dogs could be cared for and maybe retrained to become canine units for the Muckrackers. The new arrivals commandeered the cart and started directing the gang members to it after manacling them.
Kromnir went to the warehouse doors and peered inside. Nothing obvious was moving about or making a ruckus, so we left the Ziraya and her crew to deal with the toughs and stepped cautiously inside. It was indeed a warehouse, lots of bolts of cloth, boxes, and pallets of goods stacked on shelves around the walls and in the center of the room. A small scuffling noise drew the attention of the nearest few of us, and we found one of the previously calmed gang members hiding in a corner. Life had not been overly kind to him - he was an old fellow, grungy and stooped - he said he just carried the empty boxes in and didn't know much other than that. Between Kromnir growling and my questioning, we did get a few more useful tidbits from him. The bugbear foreman was likely nearby, he showed us on the back wall the area that the Boss' office was in, and that there were likely at least a few more gang toughs with the Boss. He asked if his information was enough to get him off the hook, and it was allowed that if he had been truthful, we could see about cutting him loose after the action was all over. He took that to mean "now" and started to run off outside, but a couple of cuffs from Ziraya's guys put him down. We called out to just take him with the rest and that was enough roughing up and they were all like "oh...ok."
Kromnir, the designated opener of doors, found them and looked back at us. We all nodded. He threw open the doors...and there was the bugbear!