Shorebound, Day 536.95
So maybe the car was on the low end of its' price range because it needed a largish repair. Repair done. Next up, body shop for some more running up the costs. I guess in the end we'll have gotten an average deal vs a good deal. On the upside, most of the metrics were good and it had new tires. On to the story!
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The bugbear didn't see us - it was facing away looking toward something in the back of the next room, which also looked pretty large from what I could see past Kromnir and Kiarra. Even from the back the bugbear looked huge and mean. Maybe we could surprise it? Kromnir bellowed something loud and official at it. It turned around quicker than its' bulk would imply it should have been able to and came at us. I could hear a couple other startled oaths from somewhere deeper in the room. Ok, maybe not.
Having alerted everything in the room that they were being raided, Kromnir stepped into the room to meet the bugbear with his shields up. The bugbear tried without much success to get past the shields while trying to fend off Kiarra's glaive. I think it was used to dealing with scared little old dudes, because it took a couple of nasty hits and was looking suprised and maybe even a little worried. One of the other standard human types ran up and set off a smoke stick in the area and the bugbear, Kromnir and Kiarra disappeared in a billowing acrid smelling cloud.
Hoping it wasn't poison (they wouldn't poison their own muscle, right?) I launched into a blind slide. Several sets of tall being legs flashed by and I popped up outside the cloud right next to the smoke guy. I gave him an unpleasant smile and swung my inheritance at him. He did not like meeting my inheritance and retreated. However I could now see another of those bowmen at the back of the room and suddenly felt very exposed.
From the mess behind me, I heard thumps and oaths and the clash of weapons, and the bugbear suddenly came fleeing out of the smoke. It ran in the direction our informant had said housed the Boss's office. Kiarra and Kromnir emerged from the slowly dissipating cloud as I leapt over some boxes and made a beeline for the bowman I had spotted.
Kromnir chased the bugbear with singleminded determination. Visandus and Aja cautiously entered the room and sized up the situation. Visandus tossed off some electical arcs at Smokey. Aja did a better job of not becoming a pincushion.
The bowman tried to block my sword with his bow, and got a nasty slash and broken bow for his trouble. He threw the pieces down and folded up at my feet, saying he gave up. I glanced over in time to see Kromnir knock the bugbear down as it tried to open a door. Oh no, Kromir! I tried to yell to him to wait up, but he opened the door and disappeared inside. Kiarra was manacling Smokey to a rack. I growled at the bowman to stay put and sprinted after Kromnir. As I got to the door, I could hear Visandus yelling "HEY STOP!" I'm not sure if he was yelling at me or someone else in the room.
There was a drab little man standing behind a large desk and throwing papers into a fire in a trash bin, listening politely while Kromnir gruffly tried to convince him that he should give up and come quietly. The globe mentioned by Chedraxis was quite noticable on a corner table in the room. I started to think it was maybe going to end semi peacefully, but then the little man drew weapons and attempted to jump over the desk and get behind Kromnir. It might have been impressive but he slipped. Showing him how it was done, I jumped up onto the desk with much more flair to try to split his attention between myself and the half-orc, and tried to overhand him. Kiarra, Visandus and Aja came through the door in time to see Percen nearly hamstring me. He put another painful hole in me but then Kromnir caught him with a solid shield clip. He started to head for the door, taking another couple of big strikes on the way.
Oh no, Aja was between him and the door. He put a hole in her too while yelling at her to get out of the way. She responded by calling on her god to shield her, and basically whipped out a bandage and fixed herself up while pretty much all of us, including Percen, gaped at her. While he was distracted for a second, I thew myself under his feet and tripped him. He rolled to the ground, past Aja, fortunately for her...but then picked himself up and took off. We could hear someone outside calling him, that there was still time to get away.
We all streamed out after him, and ran right into the reinforcements...one of which appeared to be my previously surrendered fellow. And this time Aja did unfortunately take another arrow from the new goon. Kiarra went after that guy while Kromnir and I chased Percen. He's fast! Aja and Visandus gamely cast their more destructive flavors of magic, but he somehow staggered on. Broken Bow was standing near the back waving him on. This guy was NOT going to get away. I gritted my teeth, left a trail of red drips over the top of a couple boxes, and launched a sweep at him. Not sure if it was me or the blade that caught him, but he crashed to the ground and I fell on top of him. Broken Bow re-surrendered. Kiarra had taken care of the new goon and the previous one was watching from where he was still manacled to the rack on the other side of the room.
A semi silence fell, broken by some groaning. I'm sure some of that was me, and I wasn't the only one feeling the hurt. What was still outside on the docks? What was important about the globe? Why wasn't "Get holes poked in you regularly" on the job description? More hazard pay, yay?
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The bugbear didn't see us - it was facing away looking toward something in the back of the next room, which also looked pretty large from what I could see past Kromnir and Kiarra. Even from the back the bugbear looked huge and mean. Maybe we could surprise it? Kromnir bellowed something loud and official at it. It turned around quicker than its' bulk would imply it should have been able to and came at us. I could hear a couple other startled oaths from somewhere deeper in the room. Ok, maybe not.
Having alerted everything in the room that they were being raided, Kromnir stepped into the room to meet the bugbear with his shields up. The bugbear tried without much success to get past the shields while trying to fend off Kiarra's glaive. I think it was used to dealing with scared little old dudes, because it took a couple of nasty hits and was looking suprised and maybe even a little worried. One of the other standard human types ran up and set off a smoke stick in the area and the bugbear, Kromnir and Kiarra disappeared in a billowing acrid smelling cloud.
Hoping it wasn't poison (they wouldn't poison their own muscle, right?) I launched into a blind slide. Several sets of tall being legs flashed by and I popped up outside the cloud right next to the smoke guy. I gave him an unpleasant smile and swung my inheritance at him. He did not like meeting my inheritance and retreated. However I could now see another of those bowmen at the back of the room and suddenly felt very exposed.
From the mess behind me, I heard thumps and oaths and the clash of weapons, and the bugbear suddenly came fleeing out of the smoke. It ran in the direction our informant had said housed the Boss's office. Kiarra and Kromnir emerged from the slowly dissipating cloud as I leapt over some boxes and made a beeline for the bowman I had spotted.
Kromnir chased the bugbear with singleminded determination. Visandus and Aja cautiously entered the room and sized up the situation. Visandus tossed off some electical arcs at Smokey. Aja did a better job of not becoming a pincushion.
The bowman tried to block my sword with his bow, and got a nasty slash and broken bow for his trouble. He threw the pieces down and folded up at my feet, saying he gave up. I glanced over in time to see Kromnir knock the bugbear down as it tried to open a door. Oh no, Kromir! I tried to yell to him to wait up, but he opened the door and disappeared inside. Kiarra was manacling Smokey to a rack. I growled at the bowman to stay put and sprinted after Kromnir. As I got to the door, I could hear Visandus yelling "HEY STOP!" I'm not sure if he was yelling at me or someone else in the room.
There was a drab little man standing behind a large desk and throwing papers into a fire in a trash bin, listening politely while Kromnir gruffly tried to convince him that he should give up and come quietly. The globe mentioned by Chedraxis was quite noticable on a corner table in the room. I started to think it was maybe going to end semi peacefully, but then the little man drew weapons and attempted to jump over the desk and get behind Kromnir. It might have been impressive but he slipped. Showing him how it was done, I jumped up onto the desk with much more flair to try to split his attention between myself and the half-orc, and tried to overhand him. Kiarra, Visandus and Aja came through the door in time to see Percen nearly hamstring me. He put another painful hole in me but then Kromnir caught him with a solid shield clip. He started to head for the door, taking another couple of big strikes on the way.
Oh no, Aja was between him and the door. He put a hole in her too while yelling at her to get out of the way. She responded by calling on her god to shield her, and basically whipped out a bandage and fixed herself up while pretty much all of us, including Percen, gaped at her. While he was distracted for a second, I thew myself under his feet and tripped him. He rolled to the ground, past Aja, fortunately for her...but then picked himself up and took off. We could hear someone outside calling him, that there was still time to get away.
We all streamed out after him, and ran right into the reinforcements...one of which appeared to be my previously surrendered fellow. And this time Aja did unfortunately take another arrow from the new goon. Kiarra went after that guy while Kromnir and I chased Percen. He's fast! Aja and Visandus gamely cast their more destructive flavors of magic, but he somehow staggered on. Broken Bow was standing near the back waving him on. This guy was NOT going to get away. I gritted my teeth, left a trail of red drips over the top of a couple boxes, and launched a sweep at him. Not sure if it was me or the blade that caught him, but he crashed to the ground and I fell on top of him. Broken Bow re-surrendered. Kiarra had taken care of the new goon and the previous one was watching from where he was still manacled to the rack on the other side of the room.
A semi silence fell, broken by some groaning. I'm sure some of that was me, and I wasn't the only one feeling the hurt. What was still outside on the docks? What was important about the globe? Why wasn't "Get holes poked in you regularly" on the job description? More hazard pay, yay?