Oh noes! Bludgun!
There, up in the sky!
You have gathered together with an official city and military delegation at the Alexandrian airship yard.
In the sky, there is an airship of clear, BLudgunni designation pulling in towards the city, aiming to land. Apparently, a delegation from the so-called monster nation is arriving with the intent for high level neogitations between the two nations. Representatives of the various peoples of the heartland are here: Rawyn Telenor, for example, a steely-eyed and haired lady who's famed for roles here in Alexandria, ALuviel, one of the heads of the Mythwood elves, a representative from Rune, if the robes are any indication, given the city's lingering presence just across the Red Ridge mountains in the Desolation, a pair of gnomes (with a Xorn) from Happey Valley...
The Xorn is being eyed warily by the guards present, but then, how do you not eye a horrible maw-ridden monster? IT seems to be staying close to the gnomes, but then, it's a known factor that the gnomes of Happy Valley have a long standing alliance with the elemental earth creatures.
And then there's the lot of you: hired hands. Hired to play babysitter to the delegation when it arrives.
Serraphine of course is trying to push toward the front of the group. THEY'RE HER PEOPLE! And she hasn't seen them in almost a year. Her mouth pulled into a frown and she begins waving over her head toward the ship. Hopefully the gesture would not be misconstrued as landing or docking instructions.
The black-robed, white-haired Gnome eyes the waving Serraphine curiously, but chooses to remain silent. She leans slightly against her staff, a single, sputtering candle set atop the large ratskull that adorns the top of her staff. She glances 'round at the others, and then the Xorn. Frowning at the sight of the creature, she forces herself to look elsewhere, up above at the airship.
Razen stays to the back of the group, not entirely sure how to take this particular job. He watches everything acutely, aware that there is supposed to be some kind of danger involved. It's clear he's never acted as a bodyguard before, but he does his best. Of course, his hands never stray far from his weapons lest they be caught unaware.
Erakirak doesn't really understand the politics of what's going on, though he recognizes some of the names. It doesn't really matter. He's been hired to keep an eye on things, and that's what he's doing, perched up on top of a stone wall. His eyes scan back and forth, looking for anything that looks threatening.
Vaalyun, too, is probably less familiar with the political situation than a member of a diplomatic religious order should probably be. Nevertheless, his armor is shined and he wears over it a cloak with the blue rose of Althea. He's ready for whatever may come, and murmurs to his companions, "So, who's tasting the food?"
For his part, Darius is silent and taciturn, fulfilling his role as the party's resident meat shield and muscle. His armor clanks underneath the oversized hooded cloak that covers it and his huge greatsword.
The airship touches down with precision skill. A moment later, a pair of very large figures emerge from below its deck, stomping their way in their plate armor down the gangplank to stand beside it. One by one thereafter, a series of what you would presume to be members of the delegation emerge to follow. Arveks, Oruch and Goblins all make their way down in turn.
Zelany straightens up when the gangplank touches down, turning to cast her glance outwards, as with others, checking for threats. Looking back to the airship, she watches, and counts, the figures stepping down onto solid ground.
Serraphine, who's decked out in rather resplendent full plate, has now taking to hopping up and down and waving both her arms in the air. Clacking down she continues to wave at the procession, her mouth has gone from a frown to a grimace. Her eyes locked onto the Arvek that are walking down the plank.
Hop-CRASH. Hop-CRASH. Full plate is not the quietest, and Serraphine is not doing anything to make it quieter.
That's OK, Rak is quiet enough for two. He watches the airship enviously, then looks around the port as the delegation disembarks. He crouches stiffly, not moving much as they pass.
Vaalyun folds his hands under the mantle that covers his armor, watching the delegation arrive. Then he looks enviously at the air ship. That's a heck of a way to travel.
Razen ignores both airship and the party disembarking studiously, focusing on watching for dangers instead. Like he's supposed to. That's the reason.
The huge warrior crosses mailed arms and cracks his neck, looking as intimidating as possible, as the party begins to disembark. He casually reaches behind him and loosens his greatsword, expecting danger at any moment, as his eyes slowly sweep the most likely places of potential ambush.
One gets the sense that the rest of the delegates are still waiting for another. That's when a third, ogre-sized individual emerging from below decks, though he's dressed in finery. Velvet robes colored to go with this deep, blue skin. Blue like the bluest ocean.
An Ogre-Mage. There can be no doubt of that. That's probably why he's /flying/, floating down the gangplank to deposit himself upon the earth. He moves towards the council delegates and they begin having quiet words.
The sun is just now beginning to set.
It's not every day one sees a floating Ogre... let alone an Ogre-magi. Zelany's eyes are on the large man and his finery. Then she remembers the duty she's here to perform, and moves a little closer, eyes outward again in search of things not right.
Storm-gray eyes widen at the sight of the mage. Razen takes one look at the massive magic-user and immediately heads to the furthest point where he can still be in sight of the people he's supposed to protect. He moves quietly and as discretely as a massive half-ourch can move across a space like this with tons of fighters looking around for any kind of perceivable danger.
Much like Razen, Rak has been trying to keep his eye on the Port and possible threats from passersby. But the ogre-mage grabs his attention, and he stares unabashedly, having never seen one before.
Vaalyun is doing his best to scan for threats, but then again, there are already a lot of eyes up here, and someone floating through the air is still something strange - especially an Orc. He looks that way for a few seconds, and then shields his eyes against the sunset.
Darius again for his part simply attempts to look extremely intimidating, hopefully enough to discourage anyone from being dumb enough to attack this delegation.
It's clearly working. Nobody is dumb enough to attack the delegation at the moment.
...at the moment.
The Ogre-Mage moves towrds the others and greets the councilmen and women in a booming voice.
"AND A FINE WELCOME THIS IS, HUMANS. TO YOUR CASTELLUM THEN? I ASSUME ACCOMODATIONS FOR MY PEOPLE HAVE BEEN MADE."
There is nodding agreement.
"Yes," says Lady Telenil. "Welcome, Vort of the Vorpal Blades, to Alexandria. We humbly receive your delegation. Now, we have much to discuss, but you surely must be tired from your long journey."
"I am, but my friends are itching to see your city as discussed. Altorik wishes for them to spend time with your irregular forces."
"We have several here with us now,." a nod in the direction of, well...the lot of you, actually.
And then when Serraphine jumps again, Rawyn simply sighs.
"Yes. Irregular. They are hereby instructed to take your friends to tour Alexandria to any destination they wish to go."
"Wonderful! Altorik will be most pleased."
Erakirak 's eyes widen comically. Are they to be tour guides, now? He shrugs, irritated but ultimately going along.
Serraphine hops and waves again from the back. I mean, she probably towers over most of the people here anyway and she's even among the taller of her fellow adventurers. Hop-CRASH! Hop-CRASH!
And she's flailing her arms now above her head while grimacing and staring with her eyes boring in at the delegation. Like perhaps they are meant to rue the day.
It's hard to tell. Serraphine always scowls.
Zelany snorts and shakes her head. She glances at Serraphine and gestures with a hand. "The lady here is a well known tour guide. She'll be happy to take the lead."
Darius imperceptibly rolls his eyes, this is SURE to go well, a handful of adventurers shadowing a bunch of tourists. He glances at his compatriots and simply raises his eyebrow, a world weary look in his eyes, as he moves to be able to take point. At least if they're attacked, he can get hit with most of the arrows and still survive.
Razen says nothing. He simply remains as far from the delegation as he possibly can. If anyone cares to pay attention they will note that he's sweating heavily, and his eyes keep darting to the mage with trepidation.
Edinaz just might have gotten the tap because of his blood, and he didn't bother trying to hide his yrch-ness at all today. Instead, everything is polished up, his arms are bare so he can show his Korite tattoos to the world, and he's just been watching the ogre mage float (float!) down from the ship.
"Excellent, then!"
Vort and the Alexadrian military turn and begin to lead away towards the Castellum, while some of the other delegates, you know, the Arveks, Gobbrs, the pair of armored ogres, and the oruchs, all turn towards the rest of /you/.
Several of them are giving Serraphine a stink eye specifically, at least.
"Of course you do," Rak mutters under his breath. Or, well, OK, over his breath. The last thing he wanted to be was an Alexandrian tourist, but, well, the job is the job.
Serraphine hops! FLAILS! And... then stops as she sees the other Arvek. Her mouth pulls off to the side and her eyes turn away from the group. Then down, and she looks to herself. A pause and she reaches down to her Never Ending Bag of Cookies (tm). A reach inside and she pulls out something that's bone shaped, offering it toward the Arvek as her eyebrows arch up.
"Cookie?" Not that she would ever offer a Hyena treat to a delegate.
Nor would there be a Hyena the size of a horse not that far away eyeing the cookie. Hint: She did, and Mayra is watching the cookie.
Darius imperceptibly sighs when they mention that they have a list, it's not like he didn't know that was coming, so he simply waits for them to let them know where the first place they want to go.
Edinaz nods. "Well, what is on the list?" He tries his best to smile, an honest, toothy smile. Of course, he's new -- he probably wants to see these places too!
Razen doesn't answer the inquisition, looking at the rest of the group as though he's expecting them to answer the question not him.
"First up, we're told that the Goblintown in Alexandria has a place in it... a wonderful place."
"Ma Rosie's," begins another goblin.
"Finest Goblin dancers in all the land!"
...oh no..
...not Rosie's...
As it happens, Rosie's is one of the few places in Alexandria that Rak is somewhat acquainted with, having been introduced to the place by Murder on one of their visits. Not that he's precisely comfortable there, but then again, he's not precisely comfortable anywhere in the city. At least there are fewer humans here... that's something.
On the opposite end, Darius isn't surprised, but being the only other human here he wrinkles his nose a bit. He shakes his head as he steps in, surveying the clientelle, and just hopes that the tour group aren't planning on spending too long here.
Edinaz steps in, looking somewhat comfortable -- he does watch his head, though.
His last trip to Goblintown wasn't much to write home about - except if you are into pulp adventure novels - so Vaalyun does his best to keep his face neutral. If that's what the dignitaries want, that's what they get. That's the job, after all. It's a good thing that keeping a neutral facial expression is what the Altheans are all about.
Still, it is the worst place. THE WORST. There are dancers. And booze. And everyone is now staring at the lot of you as you arrive. /Everyone/. Including the goblin dancers on stage.
Razen has never been, nor heard of the place. He's at the end, the last person in and then immediately back out again. He'll watch their rear. The rear of the party that is. Or rather... the back. The end. He's out of words that don't sound like things that were out in that room.
Darius cracks his neck again along with his knuckles and his scar looks livid as his gaze sweeps the patrons staring at them, giving them a hostile look back as he shrugs the hood and cloak aside a bit to expose his huge greatsword. The implication being, attack and expect to suffer, greatly.
With the cookies snubbed, Serraphine hunches a bit and starts nibbling on the cookies. Mayra follows behind... all the way up until the door to this place. And all the while Mayra looked mournfully and hungrily toward those cookies that Serraphine keeps on eating.
Probably because they're dog biscuits.
At the door, Mayra is finally stopped, dancing this way and that on the outside of the place while trying to look in through the windows at Serraphine.
GAME: Razen rolls perception: (2)+8: 10 GAME: Darius rolls perception: (6)+0: 6 GAME: Vaalyun rolls perception: (2)+4: 6 GAME: Serraphine rolls perception: (15)+3: 18 GAME: Edinaz rolls perception: (4)+7: 11
Edinaz looks around, a little wide-eyed. He thought it was going to be okay, but... it's a little different when everyone is staring at you. He does get out of the way of the ogres, though.
Immediately, the delegates aim to blend into the crowd.
They fail. Miserably. Especially the ogres. Ogres can't blend into a crowd. Ever. Unless it's a crowd of ogres and even then, a crowd of ogres is not exactly subtle.
Point is, they're joining in the fun times such as they are.
All is going well...
... so far...
GAME: Serraphine rolls Sense Motive: (9)+1: 10 GAME: Serraphine rolls Sense Motive: (8)+1: 9
Razen stays outside. With the hyena. He eyes the canine with interest and makes sure that no one comes in the door that shouldn't. Now he's playing the part of a bouncer. He's actually not upset about this as it keeps him away from the magic-user. And the inside of that room.
"I DON'T LIKE THIS!" Serraphine announces to everyone near her, then she reaches down into her Never Ending Bag of Cookies. She rustles it about and then pulls out a coffin-shaped cookie with what looks to be black icing. But who knows, could be another dog treat.
Either way, Fi crunches away at the... whatever it is and lets her eyes roam around the room. A look toward the other Arveks with them, and she shoves out half the cookie. "Cookie?" Her eyebrows arching, hopeful.
Darius sticks close to the ogres, making sure that no one comes near them with a weapon. He's none too happy about this, this is the kind of place where everyone is a potential assassin.
Edinaz sticks close to Darius. It's a role he can understand, instead of leaving him to grapple with larger or smaller questions about appropriate drinks and such.
Vaalyun spends a few moments in quiet prayer. Because Althea knows, prayer is needed at a place and time like this. He calls forth the blessings of the Star Mother on his companions, and then emits a sense of peace around himself. Violence is often the answer - just not right at this second.
Meanwhile, the band gets back to work playing a saucy tune for the goblin dancers to dance to. They're showing off all their warts.
So many warts.
There's wolf whistles from the goblins in the crowd who soon return to their gaming.
In the meantime, the delegates are getting itno the swing of things. One figures that they did not so much have a list as they wanted to blow off steam here. Catering to the whims of an ogre magi can't be easy.
They've started drinking, palling around, laughing...
And then one of them suddenly collapses to the ground, gagging. Choking. In this case, it is an Arvek.
GAME: Darius rolls heal: (13)+0: 13 GAME: Serraphine rolls heal: (6)+1: 7 GAME: Razen rolls heal: (16)+0: 16
Darius shoves goblins out of the way, even to the point of flinging them away as he tries to get to the Arvek choking and roars, "EVERYONE STAY BACK!" He looks at his companions, "We need a healer... NOW!"
GAME: Vaalyun rolls heal: (9)+12: 21
Razen hears the commotion and enters the room, looking at the Arvek choking on the floor. He has no idea what to do, so he follows Darius's lead and yells at everyone to back up.
Edinaz looks at Vaalyun, and goes to grab the Arvek. He sweeps his mouth with two fingers, then gets ready for stronger measures if that doesn't work.
Serraphine looks down at the Arvek that seems to have keeled over and she cants her head. Frowning. She claps her hands together, rubbing them vigorously and throws the hand on high. "PRA-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-AISE Serriel!" And with that, slaps the Arvek that's on the ground across the face with a burst of holy light. A shrug to those around her whether or not it works.
The crowd begins screaming immediately, scattering back from the collapsed Arvek. Immediately, the other delegates are looking very concerned, crowding around him instead, but Vaalyun and Darius is able to get them to stand aside for the moment.
"Someone fetch a priest," snarls one of the ogres. Nevermind that there are priests RIGHT HERE.
Hey, it's an ogre. What do you want?
Vaalyun moves towards the stricken hobgoblin. He doesn't bother to do any shouting of 'step back' or the like, figuring that the others have that well under control. He pulls a healer's kit from beneath his mantle, and begins to help the Arvek, saying, "Consider them fetched."
GAME: Darius rolls intimidate: (2)+7: 9
Edinaz looks up from Arvek, to Vaalyun. "Do it. I can pass you things." He seems pretty calm for someone who's just making it up from spending too much time with shamans.
Serraphine wanders up behind Darius as he plays the bad cop routine, she plays the good cop. She pulls out another cookie and offers it toward the bartender. "Cookie?"
GAME: Serraphine rolls Diplomacy: (12)+8: 20
And Serraphine is even holding out one of the coffin shaped ones with black frosting.
GAME: Vaalyun rolls heal+2: (20)+12+2: 34
The 'tender that Darius is speaking to blinks his eyes a few times, seeming puzzled by his reaction and confused to the goings ons. The yellow eyed goblin scratches his bald head and qadds, "I don't know. I just put the drinks on the waitress, you know?" And indeed, it must've been one of those mugs selected from a waitress with the platter full of them -- of which there are several going about their business now.
In the meantime, Serraphine's efforts do nothing, but Vaalyun manages to get the poor goblin hacking up and rolling over to vomit out all the alcohol he'd been imbibing. While he's still weak, he's breathing a bit easier after the applied medications and more. He's going to be out of it for a while, but he's.,.. probably stable.
Probably.
Vaalyun applies various herbs from his healer's kit to get the emetic effect, and then nods in satisfaction as the Arvek rolls over onto his side. "That's an improvement, but he might need more." He begins to pack the kit back up.
Razen is glad to see the goblin is still breathing. His gray eyes skim the crowd trying to determine who could have poisoned the man, but he wasn't even in the room at the time. The half-ourch utters a curse low under his breath. This is the last place he wants to be with... He glances behind him at the mage and takes a few steps away. He's distracted by the mage, unable to concentrate on what he's really supposed to be doing.
"We'd best get him to the soldier's defense. Can one of you fetch the guard to seal this place off?"
One of the ogres just said that. He sounds remarkably intelligent and lucid, suddenly.
Edinaz keeps watch over the Arvek, keeping him turned. A glance around. "Anyone going?" If nobody does, he goes to fetch the guard.
GAME: Vaalyun rolls perception: (7)+4: 11
So far, nobody's moving.
They just aren't moving. In fact, everyone is just sort of staring. This is not what they expected.
Darius and Edinaz are keeping them in place.
The ogre is nodding in agreement with Darius, while Vaalyun locates a mug of ale sitting on the goblin's table. It's hard to be a hundred percent certain about it, though.
"I will take him to the Soldier's Defense, I know where it is." Razen offers. (Anything to get away from...) He moves toward the much smaller goblin. "I can carry him there and he should be safe."
Darius draws his greatsword and points it at the crowd, "I'm giving you all ONE chance to give up the poisoner... Alive preferably, but I'll take dead in a pinch, whoever brings me them gets 100 gold pieces for the trouble. But here's the catch... I need proof or no gold. This offer is only good for 10 minutes while you decide amongst yourselves. After that, I will start 'interrogating' people and you won't like it." With that he sits on a stool and places his sword between his legs ominously.
Edinaz goes to fetch the guard, as Darius seems to have the crowd in hand…
GAME: Edinaz rolls athletics: (4)+4: 8 GAME: Razen rolls athletics: (11)+8: 19 GAME: Serraphine rolls athletics: (17)+4: 21 GAME: Vaalyun rolls athletics: (19)+-4: 15
At Ma Rosie's: All is quiet for a time. The guards will have to be on their way to seal off Rosie's and nobody is leaving. But about ten minutes after everyone has made their way out, the room is suddenly plunged into darkness. Gutteral, ragged hisses can then be heard from within the room.
Razen and Vaalyun: Running through city streets lightened only by the omnipresence of mana lamps, all seems well...
... until It doesn't. Soon, they catch sight of... shapes on the edge of their vision. Pallid, fleshy things lurking in the darkness.
Edinaz: Oh hey there's the guards at the nearest guard post. They're all dead.
Undead, actually. They're starting at Edinaz with hungry eyes after he burst into the post to ask for help.
Oh boy.
-TBC-