[IC] Plague-Hunters

[LHG100]

With that, the Quartet would go on the road to Coalstrike again. Hours would pass, until the next night would come and go, as the group decided to waste the minimal amount of time and simply continue walking, instead of making a camp for the night. Morning would come as they continued their travels, few things happening on the way. Aside from Imgor comically tripping in a ditch while daydreaming about spells, anyway. He got up and brushed himself off, explaining that he tested a spell he got from that enchanter and sort of poured way too much mana into it.

Another day would pass as they saw a large town with thick, sturdy stone walls surrounding it, far in the distance. Steam could be seen evacuating from the top of the city, along with smoke and other, presumably magic-related gasses, forming various colors. As the Quartet continued in, some soldier looking fellow on a horse quickly trampled past! Doing no harm, but spooking everyone a little as it was so sudden. It seems like the rider took a double-take, then turned his transportation around and stopped next to, then trodded alongside the quartet. "City Guard, I assume you're entering Coalstrike? What do you plan to do inside?", the young, but strong sounding individual interrogated, with a mild noble accent. With a closer, longer look he was in Coalstrikes' iconic plate armor, the visor of his knightly helmet just revealing two green eyes. He carried a lance, and a sword, in his hand and on his belt. All of his equipment was kept extensively clean, not a single blemish or dirty patch.

This Dutiful Guardsman was just doing his job, it'd be best to simply answer him, he does seem trustworthy enough anyway.

[M127]

"We traveled to this town to purchase some weaponry, which is essential to our duty as hunters." Iṃgor promptly responded without thinking about it, his subconsciousness created that response as he was daydreaming again. One could easily tell from his eyes and absent expression that he wasn't present mentally.

[NanoFreakV2]

Sapphire huffed at Imgor's response and was inclined to step forward and clarify that they are looking for a person. Strangers trying to enter for the reason of acquiring weaponry might not be welcome. But she thought the deed was done and she'd rather wait for the guards response before taking any further action.

In the meantime she had Ruby observe the outskirts of the town. Sapphire took note from the last town that it was rather useful to have layout of the towns they enter, which Ruby could of course provide.

[LHG100]

The Guardsman was obviously mildly worried, "Weapons... for what purpose, could I ask? That's pretty damn suspicious, you know-... Oh. Oh I think I get it, I understand completely. Aspiring Hunters, right? These animals are your 'familiars'?", he asks, after 'getting it'. He looks at the town's primary gate, then looks back at the group. He seems to wait patiently for a more clear answer.

Ruby would note that the town is highly organized, from above, and the smokestacks (among the other gasses) are coming from what appear to be various small factories. As well, when she flies near, the steam appears to be cold, for steam. She would also notice somewhat large, strange crystals in a circle formation around the town, pulsating slowly. It seems like they're responsible for a few magic related things all around the town, such as Coalstrike being oddly cool, for one with so many small industries inside. A very large amount of people are seen doing their own things all around the town, of all sorts. Hell, you think you're seeing a few other Hunters even.

[Eklispe]

Alexander spoke up somewhat annoyed by the guard even if he was only doing his job. "Yes, we're training under Joshua." he said hoping the distinctive name would catch the guard's attention. "We were told to meet him at Coalstrike as well as to talk to Harold the Blacksmith, now may we please enter?" He asked polity

[LHG100]

The Guardsman nodded to the gate, and escorted the Quartet as they continued on the path. Obviously, they reached the actual gate in a few minutes at most, and it opened just a smidge to allow everyone (aside from the guard) inside. Entering the town, the Quartet obviously got a few funny looks, being such a strange band of Aspiring Hunters after all. The Quartet would get a hands-on look of the entrance, a few other guards, what appears to be an officer, and a Hunter conversing with the aforementioned. There is a fairly roundabout, connected to the entrances' path, and with its' own walkways to various other areas of note in Coalstrike.

There's a sign post as well. The Quartet would see one of its' signs pointing towards a path to the center of the town, flanked by various structures. The sign has a fairly large list of many individual blacksmith establishments, with 'Harolds' Armament Imporium' as the one that catches their eye specifically.

The Hunter talking with the Guard Officer appears to be a strange one indeed... as he carries a very strange weapon, along with wearing odd clothing. He wears a thick, grey shirt, fastened with various thick ropes. Alongside his militaristic boots, heavy leather pants, and wool gloves, he seems to be from the frosty northern regions. While he's facing away from the quartet, they can tell quite obviously his hair is ear-length, well groomed, and very blonde.

His weapon is just as odd as his clothing, however; it appears to be a severely modified circular greatshield, almost as large as its' wielder! Its' rim looks to be lined with retractable blades, forming a sort of saw, and it has many handles on each side. What a gruesome, inefficient looking weapon...

Yet, with more thought, wouldn't he be dead if his various strange choices on armaments were really that ineffective? Each member of the Quartet might get a desire to ask just what this Hunter does with these choices. Interestingly, yet somewhat unrelated, he appears to be discussing religion with the Officer, yet the Quartet can't tell without getting closer, as the specifics seem to be snuffed out by the bustling of the rest of the town.

[M127]

"I think we should visit Harold's Armament Imporium first, to get that out of the way." Iṃgor suggests.
"After all Joshua recommended that blacksmith to us, so he shouldn't be surprised to find us there."

[NanoFreakV2]

Sapphire observed the hunter and guard conversing. More precisely she was studying the interesting weapon the hunter was carrying and its applications in combat. She noted it’s main advantage was that it had both defensive and offensive capabilities. And the user could switch between both very quickly. She imagined two scenarios in her mind. A person wielding a normal shield and a sword and . . . that guy. She tuned out the outside world as she tried to figure out which block and retaliation would be quicker. As she did this a second thought occurred to her. The shield could be thrown at a target. She let out a huff of air at the realization.

Lost in thought she only caught a glimpse of Imgor’s words but she knew quickly what he meant.
She continued to observe the townspeople looking in no particular direction at all as she responded.

“He might be waiting on us already.”

Sapphire began walking towards the direction indicated by the sign but once again found she was going ahead of herself again and thus she turned around, half her face visible, as she expectantly looked at the rest of the group.

[M127]

After informing his teammates he'll quickly head to Harold, Iṃgor heads right into the narrow back alleys, using his tracking spell to navigate their albeit not that complex labyrinth. Back in his home-town, the maze of such narrow paths between the buildings was his way to escape just about any hostile person, so he learned how to quickly move through them. Apart from tracking spells, only Sapphire had a realistic chance of being able to follow him once he is out of sight, due to her familiar's top-down view of coalstrike.

Soon after he left the main alley, it was relatively quiet, the buildings block most sound from the street, and there are few to no people to block the path. He sprinted towards Harold's shop, jumping against walls to quickly take turns, occasionally running/climbing up a pile of crates to save the time of running around it instead, and to get a little exercise.

[agentmanatee]

Nickolaus was completely uninterested by the hunter with the strange weapon fir in the end it mattered little to him. So, without even acknowledging the others he began to make his way to Harold's shop, effortlessly sliding through the crowds, taking the straighter, and in the end faster, route to the blacksmith's shop.

[Eklispe]

Alexander tore his gaze from the clearly veteran hunter and began following Nick towards the shop. Albiet not quite as gracefully, but then again he didn't need to as people tended to move out the way once they saw Larion. He would've liked to ask the unknown hunter some questions and perhaps some advice for aspiring hunters, perhaps he would've even had a rune or two to shown them. It seemed Sapphire had similar thoughts given how she had been staring at his weapon, er shield, er, shield weapon. But he felt not being with his team was reason enough to give up the idea and besides it would make introducing themselves awkward if they weren't all there. He did hope they got to meet that hunter again though...

[NanoFreakV2]

Sapphire almost lost Imgor as he took a turn to a more unorthodox path to the shop through narrow pathways. With light jog she caught up to him.
"I'll assume this is your tracking spell in action." she said as she moved next to him.

In the meantime Ruby was keeping an eye on everyone from above. Sapphire was rather disappointed that Imgor's tracking spell took them on a longer route in the end as she could tell from what Ruby was showing her that Nickolaus would be beat them to the shop.

[M127]

Noticing the slight disappointment in Sapphire's voice Iṃgor replied: "This route may be a littlebit longer, but there are less people around, which could get in our way. Besides, this allows us to train our agility and stamina, and to enter the shop through the backdoor doing our business away from the public eye. Not that we need it right now, but who knows."

[LHG100]

The two duos would go to the exterior of the shop, to the backdoor and front respectively. The backdoor would appear to be locked, yet with its' small window, Sapphire and Imgor can see signs of distress inside. The room the door connects to seems to be a storage room, and the contents of a few barrels appear to be scattered all over the floor. There's a small amount of a red liquid as well, seemingly blood. They could see a man dart past, not getting a look at his face due to a bag over it with eyeholes cut out. Otherwise, he does seem oddly familiar.

The ones at the front door, Schulze and Alex, would see who appears to be Harold tied up to an anvil, apparently knocked out. His actual forge appears to be in use, but the fire is thankfully not going out of control at all. What happened? Whatever did, it must've been recent! They could see some sort of note inside as well on the anvil, although it is obviously unreadable from this distance. The door doesn't seem to be locked, you should investigate.

[NanoFreakV2]

Sapphire approached the entrance and forced the door open with her air burst spell and then entered the room pushing some of the barrels scattered in front of her out of the way. She noticed the red liquid on the floor and crouched in front of it, letting a finger slide through it.

"Seems to be blood." She said as she turned her head towards Imgor.
She then stood up and continued scanning the room.

“What happ-“ Sapphire was cut off as a man with paper bag on his head passed them at blinding speed. Her mind started running wild and time seemed to slow down.

“Stay here and check the shop!” she said to Imgor as she entered pursuit of the escaping man with her Kris at the ready. She didn't know whether the others had arrived at the shop or not so she thought it'd be best if someone stayed there to check if Harold was hurt, or even there, though considering the amount of struggle visible, the former would be more likely.

“Ruby track him!” She shouted out loud as the man exited the shop, only afterwards realizing it was not necessary as Ruby already knew of her intentions.
Her sprint shifted to more of a succession of leaps as she used air bursts to close the distance between her and the man, at the same time using more pressure waves to throw various objects on the side of the street they were on in front of the man with the bag on his head. She also instructed Ruby to take position at the next crossroad or corner to the left or right of it and swipe the man off his feet as soon as he emerged if she didn't manage to tackle him before that.

[Eklispe]

Alexander knocked on the door once and then came in, to his surprise the smith was knocked out and tied up. The forge was still flaming, though luckily contained, so it looked like it must've happened merely minutes before they arrived. As he stepped into the shop he noticed a small note, "Nick, look at the note, I'll take care of Harold." At least Alex assumed the tied up smith was Harold, couldn't be that many smiths in town. He took a small knife out and cut through the ropes, examining the smith for injuries. Larion slunk around sniffing around the shop suspiciously.

[LHG100]

This 'Bagman's mobility exceeded even Sapphires', without even using spell assistance! He dodged Amaryliss' various projectiles with ease, barely even looking back. A very familiar voice would shout back, in a dopey sounding accent however. "Hey Rookie! Hunnters pay for cawllateral damages, I tought I tauht you this? Blargh!". You can tell he's holding back some laughter at his own forced 'thuggish' accent. He suddenly stops, making Ruby above him slow down in a mild panic, not expecting that at all.

He turns around and begins jogging backwards, shouting. Without the silly voice this time, of course. "This is a test, see if you can catch me! Also, I swear to god stop throwing other peoples' stuff around! It's not lady like at all!", He'd order before continuing his sprint towards the entrance of the town, crowds making way in a panic and wondering what the hell is happening.

Alex and Schulze would likely be in a similar state as well, of course, Schulze would get what was happening first due to his superior training and simple natural skill. Ruby would try to grab this Bagman, and he'd speak to it, Amaryllis also recieving it due to the way familiars work. "Wow, you found a wondrous grand-eagle, by the way! She's a beautiful specimen!", afterwards, out of nowhere, the man would jump up and do a somersault as he reached the grand entrance, hitting the wall above it and rebounding just below Ruby, then landing behind Sapphire to continue his run behind her. The Interesting Hunter from before would simply look at what's happening for a second, look back at the captain, then continue their little discussion about god knows what. It seems like the captain is in on it, yet he gives a disapproving look at Sapphire looking at all the crap she's been throwing around.

Alex and Schulze would begin to see him as he sprinted towards them again, Ruby and Amaryllis quickly following her, and Larion doing a sort of 'bark', likely in raw excitement. After all, this is highly unusual to an Ironback. Stuff is flying around! People are moving really fast! Birds! Smelly food! Larion might be going a little crazy in the hustle and bustle of this town, really.

[NanoFreakV2]

Sapphire could only smirk at the silly show the 'bagman' was putting on. “Joshua . . .” she trailed off in a growling tone and then sighed. Seeing that nobody was in actual danger, and the ‘bagman’ hadn’t stolen anything or something similar Sapphire indeed stopped the throwing of random stuff at the perpetrator. Since she didn’t have to focus her airbursts on hindering him she used even more forceful air bursts to propel herself.

As the pursuit continued something changed for Sapphire. She initially took the previous events very seriously thinking people might be in danger. However this was not the case and as result Sapphire's mood changed. She was experiencing something she hadn't in a long time. Joy. She was having fun. Joshua's preposterous attitude was . . . infectious.

"Come back here, you!" she shouted behind him.

As she got closer to him she put away her Kris and used her now free hand to grab on cracks and openings in the walls while also aided by pressure waves. She achieved something remarkably agile using this technique, literally jumping form wall to wall, from one side of the street to the other and back hoping to close in on Joshua. As she would get close she would have Ruby glide through the center of the street as she rebounded from one of the walls using her as a stepping stone increase her range as she attempted a tackle. If she wasn't going to succeed, certainly one of the other fellow hunters in training would. How many people at once could Joshua dodge, she wondered.

[M127]

Iṃgor followed the events from an observer's perspective, sighing as he suspects Joshua being the masked man. He uses his tracking spell searching for Joshua. In case it doesn't hit he plans to just look with the spell for any person that would match the rough description.
He follows, remaining hidden within the maze of back alleys. All the while he transmits the results of the tracking spell to his familiar, to allow him to follow underground, surprise-attacking from below in order to hold the escapee in place.

[LHG100]

Indeed, 'Bagman' is simply Joshua being silly, your tracking spell reveals readily. Sapphire's tackle tactic appears to pay off, using Ruby as a launch pad to jump towards Joshua and grab him, plunging both of them towards the ground at a fast pace and sort of smacking into the ground, kind of hurting the both of them. Joshua would quickly shake Amaryllis off, then do a cartwheel away. "I, BAGMAN, must be captured four times to be stopped! Indeed, and not by the same person! I will explode the city unless four heroic rookie hunters pounce on me and my baggy bones! As well, the four rookies must work together to stop me and my dastardly plot to explode Coalstrike in a wave of evil!", he explains the rules of this little game more, then a little reward.

"Of course, BAAAGMAAAN got himself a nice reservation to a little restaurant he really likes. After this is over, if he loses, BAAAAGMAAAAN will be nice and also bring along his defeaters, but only if they played square and fair!". "Oh, and maybe a little treat that's actually useful on the field. But that's a surprise! BAAAAGMAAAN likes to surprise people.". He then rushes something else into his rambling, "And not your switch-weapons I mean, something else. We'll do your switch-weapons immediately after this."

"Who else will dare attempt to defeat I, BAAGMAAAAN!?! Of course, Bagman, as stated, is okay with others helping the next tackler or whatnot, but I can't be tackled twice by the same person. Because."