Devastated Dragonieri (Part 1)

It's before dawn on a cold autumn's day where the ground is already beginning to frost over and the trees are shedding their leaves. The Adventurer's Guild has requested a party of several experienced members to help a group of refugees coming from the ruins of Dragonier to Alexandria to immigrate and find new lives here in the city.

The only catch is that people remember the skirmishes and wars of the past between the two countries and that is why you are here...

Crowd control.

You were asked to meet the refugee column and relieve the Guard patrol that were escorting them a few miles outside of town. You were made aware that perhaps that once you entered the gates, the column may be met with hostility and perhaps even violence, which is why you were asked to bring them in before the sun rose to mitigate that possibility.

You met up with the column just fine, relieved the Guard and are now marching towards the city as false dawn begins to break on the horizon.

Darius looks around as the city gates slowly begin to loom over the group and says, "Well... at least they left the gates open for us..."

Morgan looks around "Well the spider does make its webs inviting."

Stirling blows a plume of smoke from his cigar into the cold air, matching the trail of smoke coming from the furnace on the back of his armor. "Just as long as people keep moving. We are exposed until we are inside the walls. Serriel guard us all." he says casting a glowing red eye to the horizon.

Constantin saunters along, shield slung on his arm. He shakes his head. "These people are the blood of Alexandria."

"Ya all worry too much. If someone attack, jus' hit'em hard an' they fall down. Once one fella falls, ya can knock ta next one down, and after a few like tha' ya ain't got no more problem." States Dax as she's looking at the rest of her compatriots, and walking along the left front side of the group of refugees. There's a bit of a shrug, "Now I ain't understand why there be any worry any how. Folks are too dumb ta realize they all need a place ta live. Might as well jus' get along else ta ale tastes sour."

While it has been a long time since Dragonier fell, refugee communities are always on the move and thus Boshter is here to help with this one! Bouncing on the tips of his toes, he seems eager to help.

He is holding a sign that says, "FREE HUGS," on it.

This will surely go great.

Morgan looks to the sign and says "We should tell them that Sandy loves to hug people." She then looks to the group "Well we dont know untill some one trys."

Constantin nods. "We don't, and they shouldn't. How many waves of people 've come through these gates? 'Guys, I'm here' is a terrible reason to shut the door against the next one." Connie grumbles away, ruining his jaunty step.

Stirling casts a glare at Boshter but otherwise grunts in responds to Constantine. "Maybe... if these people acclimate to the city and become a part of it they are welcome. Society only works when all the cogs run nicely together, becoming something greater than the sum of the parts. Those who don't merely slow it down."

The refugees are dressed in rags and carrying whatever possessions they could scrouge up, very few have anything truly valuable, most have a few trinkets or detrius of their former lives. None carry weapons and all look like they might fall over at any point.

As the first group approaches the gates, a murmur rises up from inside the city.

"It's THEM!" "Those Dragonier scum!" "No more immigrants!" "We don't want your kind around here!" "Make Alexandria Great Again!"

The rallying cry of the fearful and disenfranchised, so long as there is "OTHER", one does not have to take responsibility for one's own actions or their lives. Much easier to blame those that supposedly don't belong rather than realizing that they too have much to offer the community. Sad as it is, as soon as the group passes through the gates, angry faces can be seen. Most are holding signs with slogans on them decrying Dragonier, immigration in general and other complaints.

There are no visible weapons, so there is hope that perhaps a heavily armed party of adventurers may be enough to prevent something beyond protests...

That is, until the first projectile is thrown, a rotten tomato, aimed at one of the most vulnerable of the refugees, an old woman bent over in pain but gamely walking to freedom and a better life but hit full in the face. A symbol of hope and freedom, marred by rotten vegetables, and that is when more start flying.

Darius blinks and then draws his greatsword, "Frack! We need to get these people out of here, right now, before this turns ugly!"

Still walking with the group and she looks over at Stirling and then to the others, and she just shakes her head. She brought with her a wineskin and she's unscrewing the end so she can have a swig. "Ta way ya fellows are talkin'... I'm better off jus' leading the group."

As soon as the tomato is thrown she flicks her claws out and shouts out to the rest of the people. "Look, these folks are comin' in. They need'n help, an' ...." She looks around, "Help. If I see anyone throwin' anything their way again. I'm gonna take me claws, an' I'm gonna make ya watch as I cut off all ta fingers on one of yer hands. Ya 'ear me?!" And she does start moving the refugees through a bit faster, but is glowering at people as she passes them.

GAME: Dax rolls intimidate: (7)+10: 17

Morgan sighs and says as she covers her head with her hood "Best not let them know a half elf is here."

Constantin raises up his shield against the vegetables, armouring himself in dignity (and plate armour, to be fair). "Idiots." He pauses, and points out. "A greatsword against an unarmoured crowd is pretty much the definition of ugly, if you mean to use it." He interposes himself, and glances at Morgan. "They could have hired mul'niessa for the job."

"... OLD WOMAN, " says Boshter, "ARE YOU OKAY?! I WILL ASSIST YOU!"

Naturally, he is movcing towrds the tomatoed woman in question, with his superior height and reach, he's gonna try to assist her.

HE is an unhappy Arvek. Given that he's been the recipient of many wa thrown piece of fruit or rocks, this is not surprising.

Stirling growls a bit at the crowds, the steady glow from his artificial eye glowering in their direction as he slots a bright red shell into the large 4 barreled firearm he is carrying. "Not to worry, first one that does something too stupid gets turned into toad." he moves close enough to support Boshter should things get more ugly.

Morgan shrugs to Conie but says to Stirling "Lets not kill, and they are looking for a chance to riot."

The old woman falls and lays there pathetically, rotten tomato paste dripping off of her as others are similarily pelted. As Boshter helps the old woman up, she weakly protests that she is alright. More people go down under the rotten fruit and vegetable assault, and yes the mob is just looking for a reason to fully riot.

Dax manages to get several people nearby to back off in fright, the problem is they're replaced by 2 or 3 more who aren't impressed.

When the rotten vegetables and fruit begin to run out, that's when animal dung and other such things are used, strangely though, the adventurers are now the one's being targeted, perhaps because if they do anything provocative, that will be all the crowd needs to gather it's courage and overwhelm and kill everyone, weapons or no.

Darius blocks a couple of dung bombs and snarls, "Where's the Guard, we need some reinforcements, if we're going to get this crowd under control!" He shoves a few of the mob back to give the column room to try and push forwards.

Constantin nods to Morgan. "Do you have anything that can help? Or get airborne and see if you can identify some leaders?" He keeps putting himself in the way, trying to make himself a target for the throwers. He hasn't gone for his sword, though. On balance, though, he doesn't need to.

GAME: Morgan refreshes spells.

GAME: Morgan casts Shield. Caster Level: 8 DC: 17

Morgan nods to what Constantin said "first protection." her hand takes a form and says "troth ve." A blue shield like forms around her for a moment and then fades away. A second later she says "svern svern vur mojka." she takes up in the air and is looking around at both crouds.

Dax is actually avoiding some of the worst of things because she's not standing in the way of refugees getting hit by dung and vegetables. Instead she's starting to push herself through the crowd. She's not going to try and cut anyone, but she is going to try and find these vegetable tossing dung throwers. She's just bullying her way through whatever folks in the crowd get in front of her, "Out of my way. No one throws shit at me an' gets away wit'it."

Stirling grumbles and stows his deathray on his back and moving between the two groups before pulling a pair of hidden levers on the front of his armor. Like a kaleidoscope of metal components, parts tumble out of spaces in his armor to form into a much larger chrome version of himself, 24 feet tall with a reach to match and two enormous wings of crackling lighting. "Move." he bellows.

GAME: Stirling refreshes spells.

GAME: Stirling casts Monstrous Physique III. Caster Level: 15 DC: 21

The assault continues, small rocks are beginning to be thrown, although Morgan magical shield and Stirling's physical shield do help to keep the damage to the refugees to a minimum.

That said, while the group was trying to help the refugees from getting vegetabled and avoid dung bombs, the crowd has managed to surround them.

Dax manages to open a hole at least, enough so that the refugees begin trying to push forwards, frightened now.

Darius grunts as he's shoved from behind and says, "Oof, wait... we're handling this!"

The crowd quiets then, an eerie quiet that reminds one of the eye of the hurricane, even as Stirling grows big enough to be intimidating and opens up a nice big gap.

To be honest, Boshter is not one of those monks with an eye for catching thrown projectiles. Really, he just isn't. Instead, he's just quite athletic and acrobatic... both of which don't reaslly help here.

So he just shouts.

"STOP! PUT A STOP TO IT RIGHT NOW BEFORE SOMEONE GETS HURT! I WILL HUG ALL OF YOU IF I HAVE TO!"

Constantin calls back to the refugees. "Keep moving, and move through the open spots. We keep the assholes in a thin crust around the outside. It's better inside." Still, he keeps his shield up against the worst of the inbound shit, using footwork to do the rest. "Dax! Keep it on the level - causing a fucking riot is what the shit-throwers want."

Dax keeps pushing forward. By this point there's no way she can hear someone shouting at her from way in the back of a crowd. It is creating an opening, but she's specifically moving in the direction of throwers, trying to find them so she can take the stuff they brought and kick it over. She's not stopping though, "Get outta my way else ya goin' ta regret it!" Using her short stature and her impressive strength to move more common folks out of the way relatively easily.

Morgan keeps looking around "We better get paid good for this... sending mercs to keep back rioters what the hell were they thinking."