The Anthropic War (IC)

[craptonofgames]

"Aw crap." Shadow said as he realized that the pirates were getting ready to head inland. A soft set of footfalls let Shadow know that Quickfoot had returned. Shadow suddenly remembered the mountain nearby and it's intriguing cave. It had a cave that was near-perfectly smooth on the inside. It could be described as a tunnel if the entrance and exit were the same size. The entrance was a fifteen foot hole in the mountain while the exit was only around one foot in diameter.

With a plan in mind, Shadow sprinted off towards the cave. Quickfoot caught up to Shadow once he arrived. Shadow turned and said, "Quickfoot, hide in the bushes and make sure you are not seen. On my signal, you are to shoot one of the lesser pirates and then move locations. Make absolutely sure that they do not see you when you switch locations. I may yet just scare these pirates off..." Shadow left Quickfoot at the entrance to the cave as he went around the mountain towards the exit, all the while with a mischievous grin on his face.

[spineripper123]

"Aye... That would be much appreciated." Blackblade replied to the offer of the strange creature.

Turning back to his men, Blackblade instructed that they would start repairs 3 hours from now. Suddenly, he turned to the creature.

"Say, would you mind if we scour the island for materials? We kinda wasted some cannon balls and we be needin' some ingredients to procure more. In exchange, we'll give you anything. Our ship have a lot of exotic spices, treasure and things you can find from beyond the seven seas." Blackblade asked as he expected the worst.

"Don't worry, we won't do anything to the island. We'll only be needing some fiber, some minerals and some small stuff. We'll be very careful. You can count on it."


Asking a creature with powers sure is terrifying. He couldn't fight against it without losing some men. Guess the best way was to be diplomatic and be... sensitive. But hey, they're pirates. A pirate's life has no rules.

[Anneyong Haseyo]

Isabel gawked at the sword Peter held out to her. The unmistakable flames motif and the beautiful red ruby adorning the pommel was definitely something she's seen before. In fact, it was pretty well known in the pirate community as Pyre's sword, the pirate who, true to his name, left funeral pyres in his wake. She looked up at Peter with an incredulous look on her face, as if asking him if he really wanted her to have it.

She reached out as if to take it, but instead slid the pouch of the hilt and took that instead. Her eyes wouldn't meet his as she busied herself with looking inside the pouch and counting the wealth.

"What'd I say, Petey? I'll take the treasure and leave you with the arsenal. I can't be taking swords from famous pirates that you've obviously risked life and limb for. That'd be breaking our agreement, wouldn't it?" The woman grinned up at him apologetically, "Really, you keep that for yourself. I can't take that."

It really wouldn't have been a big deal for her to accept the sword, but accepting it meant comradery and that meant that you trust the other person to watch your back. While she had no problem watching his back, Isabel never was a person that would so easily trust anyone at a first meeting, even with a lass's gentlemen standing before her.

[Stigiroth]

When all of a sudden, a giant carnivorous bunny comes bounding out of forest, crushing a few pirates before chewing on the dragon's tail.

[Shoryu]

Kaven allowed a soft smile to cross his face as he drifted a little closer once more, His mind weighing so many options and outcome to allowing the pirates to stay, or even to go inland, As they say nothing ventured nothing gains, however these were heavily armed pirates as opposed to the standard explorer/settlers that had made friends with the anthros. He was doing his best to analyze their intentions through voice, expressions, and other body language, despite the little bits of magical light starting to dim as they neared the ground, perhaps as a good gesture he slowly landed, well out of melee reach, just as the lights burnt out and left only fire and moon light to illuminate the area now. He spoke again, perhaps in a slightly more friendly tone, and once more started with Isabel"hmhm, Isn't it customary for the unknown visitors to give their names first? granted I kindof Gleaned them all from your conversing... I must admit 'blackblade' is not an especially reassuring name, But It is suitable of a captain not to be crossed."

He paused to give a soft chuckle and glance over to the horizon to see the dawn just daring to peek over the horizon as time passed, He was a bit tense still, His legs ready to spring himself in whatever direction he needed. "Hmmm, As far as my name, You may call me Kaven, I'm a bit more open minded than some, hence why the cannon fire didn't trigger and explosive reaction of my own, And as for both of you, I can see a small group being able to head inland to 'explore' and trade being acceptable. Don't take offense to it, But taking a group of strangers, much less 3 pirate crews worth, on just their word that nothing will go wrong, Is something only a naive child would do, I'm certain you all have your doubts about 'me' as well. But I can at least tell your unwilling to chance hostilities to avoid losing men..."

Yet again he paused, considering the methods he could used to try keeping strangers 'in line' once they had time to spread out, a little 'show' might not hurt, they didn't know what manner of offensive things he could do yet, But if it were to actually 'hit' anyone it would certainly lead to self defense. "And you've got a nice plan there 'Blackblade' Though I'm not a trader myself, While i can't rightly guess every other inhabitant, I can fly fast enough to collect such things myself If i really want them... Though if your willing to make trades, Then your best chance would be to run into some of the human settlers, you could say they value Treasures more than other inhabitants, In most cases however trading service for service, or the results of such services, tends to be the way to go... Value is weighed differently here than where your from I'm sure... however, If you should happen to manage being trusted enough, Being loose on the land to acquire the materials yourself is certainly acceptable as long as you know how to get them already.

He sifted through his thoughts for a moment and felt a sudden bit of salvaging may be in store, He'd rambled a bit and thought he may have made it confusing, Though at least it wasn't hard to tell that they felt he could be dangerous to trigger retaliation from, They didn't know what he could do. Though he 'did' know that he probably couldn't take down 3 crews of pirates on his own, at least not from the ground or before they can take cover, It was a useful tool if they thought he 'could'. "It seems I may have talked quite a bit, just in-case I caused confusion, a few of you should be able to pass, I imagine enough to carry trade-able things, But beyond Needing a few trees from the edge of the forest, I can't see letting whole crews loose on the land as a good idea. Complete Strangers tend to get mixed reactions at best, and there 'are' some who would take such strangers running loose in a more hostile manner than I have.... Honestly after the cannon show I'm surprised someone overzealous hasn't showed up to attack 'you' first."

[craptonofgames]

Shadow reached the exit of the cave to find Ashley stuck trying to get through it. Shadow let out a short burst of laughter and reached to help pull her out of the cave. "Is this why I haven't seen you in a while?" Shadow eventually said.

Once Ashley had been removed from the cave's exit, Shadow took several deep breaths and prepared to execute his plan. Shadow shouted into the cave through the exit, his voice rebounding off the walls of the cave until it grew to thunderous proportions (think a giant megaphone). "WHO DARES STEP FOOT IN MY LAND?!" Shadow yelled. "I AM THE GOD OF THIS LAND AND YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE!" Shadow hoped that a voice like thunder claiming to be a god would be enough to scare off a bunch of humans, especially pirates and even cubs knew that pirates were a superstitious bunch.

[spineripper123]

"Thank You." Blackblade bowed in respect. "Two men is mighty enough for me."

"Me real name is Artemis. Blackblade is a nick those navymen called me. I don't really know why but I liked it." Blackblade continued.

Suddenly, a booming voice echoed throughout the area. The voice claimed that he was tne god or something of the same kind of crap, well that's how Blackblade thought. Either way, his men cowered from the voice and had begun to pack up when Blackblade shot a flare into the sky, creating a bright flash to get their attention.

"You yellow bellies. Are you scared of just a voice? If it was a god, he'd smite me right here, right now!" Blackblade shouted. But the men showed no enthusiasm as they made excuses not to go with Blackblade to salvage resources.

One pretended hewas sick, one pretended he had some mapping to do, another claimed that he would have to do the sail, yet another claimed he was busy when he was just faking the action of inspecting the sails.

"A'right you birds. I'll be going alone. However, once I shoot a flare remember this, if its white, one of you get to my location and help me. If yellow, prepare yourselves fo any confrontation, if red... At any cost, pack up, move the ship and leave without me. At the case of red, I'll be dead after I fire the flare. Got it?" Blackblade instructed.

The crew nodded in response an hung their heads.

"If I may, can I now pass and enter the island to collect the things needed? I'll be bringing some things to trade then." Blackblade bowed in respect to Kaven. "After all, there are some 'people' here other than us right? To show a sign of peace, I'll leave my pistol and carry only a sword." Blackblade said as he tossed his pistol and one of his swords aside.

[Moxxi]

Ashley had not been a happy camper being stuck in the cave, her staff had wedged her in place and no amount of flexing, twisting, or pushing would free her. Finally free thanks to Shadow, Ashley raised an eyebrow at his yelling and commented. "Pray that you do not anger the actual gods, and that the humans are stupid, else you have, essentially, marked yourself for death."

[craptonofgames]

"Trust me, if there is a God who cared about us Anthropes, then He would've made us either fully man or fully beast." Shadow replied. Simply having the ability to perform magic goes against all of the Gods stories have told of, so it just seemed silly to him that there were still those who both performed magic and believed in them. Shadow headed back around the mountain and met up with Quickfoot who said that all of the minor pirates had panicked, but there were some noteworthy pirates who did not quake in their boots at the sound of Shadow's voice.

"Dang, I really hoped that would've scared them off. Well, at least there will only be a few heading inland which makes the threat all the more manageable. Quickfoot, hand me my bow and run to our camp to search behind the rock shaped like the bear. Behind it you'll find your birthday present. I know it's still four nights away, but I think the situation calls for it." Shadow felt bad ruining the surprise for the young fox, but he had personally spent many a sleepless night carving a strong bow for Quickfoot to use on his hunting expeditions. Shadow had also fletched 2 dozen arrows out of the finest feathers for Quick foot. Shadow began walking towards the pirates with one final plan to get the pirates to leave. If this final plan didn't work, then there would be much bloodshed, for if these pirates had the slightest malevolent intent, then it would be death for them to reach the Anthrope’s Settlement.

[Moxxi]

Ashley stood by while Shadow gave commands to Quickfoot, but as he walked away Ashley caught him by the shoulder and said. "Do not be too hasty Shadow, i am an experienced pryomancer, tell me your plan and i will help you as much as i can, and if need be, make a massive smoke screen for our escape." Ashley released Shadows shoulder and waited, she hoped that he would be reasonable and let her know of his plans, instead of doing the asshole warrior thing and shrugging her off.

He would get no help if he did that.