Fetzen

Winds of Fate - A Thieves' Adventure (Semi-Tabletop)

That bow had cost a considerable lot of coin! However, as Skarsat proceeded away from the stand, it dawned upon him that it would also cost him a decent bit of privacy. His very self was obviously quite well suited to attract some attention by innocent passer-bys, but that almost ludicrously large weapon on his back put up some serious competition for the prying eyes almost immediately. The problem was that it was next to impossible to discern those people looking at him from those rather looking at the bow on his back. It just and felt the same and that feeling was not good. Skarsat was used to stares, but not in such quantity as it could only happen on a very popular market in a very large city like this one.

This whole part of the world just kept feeling a little too populated. The prospect of getting out of here clearly was one of the pros of the sea journey ahead of them, even if it meant sharing the confined space of a naval vessel with a lot of other people for a bunch of days. There were other potential issues about a sea journey, too, but these could be fixed if he'd just do the right thing while he still could...

One of them was to prevent himself from vomiting all other the deck! Skarsat had very little illusions about his compatibility with the open sea for the nonexistence of said compatibiliity had become pretty obvious the last time he had dared to put his foot onto a ship. How many times had he been at sea at all in his life so far ? Skarsat had never cared about counting, but there was that certain memory about it being 'very few'. He clearly needed to do something about, get something against his potential see sickness.

His eyes searched for a merchant that might have the things he needed, but what he found was Solange. Why on earth did that filthy woman have to lurk at the one apothecary's stand that seemed to be the most trustworthy, if not even the only one around here ? He could not just wait here forever until she was gone, if not for the sake of his patience then for the sake of the man in the barrel... Yet on the other hand he could not just rush in there for he was looking forward to pretty much anything except yet another confrontation that would even take place in the public.

Get away from her!

Get away from her, you bitch!

Just... GET... AWAY! Stop talking and start buying before I dump your beautiful visage into the oily waters of this very port!

Finally!

"Oh! Something against sea sickness ? Sure, I have that. So it's true that what some people say, that your kind rarely reaches out for the sea but prefers to stay on land ? Who could not understand that! But you don't think that the waters would be poisonous, do you ? All those stupid rumors!"

Ziva shook her head while presenting her customer a mixture of smiling and laughing. It seemed as if she was trying to bridge over the time she took for her search of the item in question with some bubbly smalltalk. Skarsat listened in while at least trying to fake some interest, but in reality his eyes kept glancing over towards the cart where Neh'miah was still stowed away in some makeshift... disguise.

"Here it is! I'd recommend taking double doses for you, given your look!"

And then she suddenly froze, looking him up and down quite blatantly. "Say... The pretty woman that just walked out here... I know I maybe shouldn't talk about that, but I can't help but say that she mentioned a very big Tork. That doesn't happen to be you, does it ? She said you were starting to like her! Good choice I'd say!" and Ziva grinned.

"How much is it ?" Skarsat snapped back, cutting off whatever words might have spilled out of Ziva's mouth next. She however just silently pointed at a large wooden board where a quite long-ish list of items and prices had been written down with chalk. Yes, she liked to be prepared for all those petty, common questions! Not spending so much time on those just left more time for getting in touch with one's customers!

Yet as Ziva was already busy with how to formulate her next questions in a way that would not come across as an intrusion into one's privacy while at the same time being capable of yielding the answers her nosiness liked, the Tork's giant hand already slammed onto the poor table and left behind a number of coins that -- unfortunately! -- was quite sufficient. He walked away, taking the goods just bought with him in the process.

-----

So it seemed Solange had found her way towards the cart in the meantime. The bad thing ? Well, it was her! The good thing ? If anything such as a lack of breathable air would have happened to Neh'miah in the meantime, he had all right to blame her as well! Still the poor thief had nothing to do with all of this and was to be liberated from his suffering, Skarsat thought.

"If you'll allow..."

Skarsat took a brief look around, checking whether there was anybody looking right now. Then he rammed the palm of his hand so hard against one of the barrel's staves that it cracked, opening up a two small gaps left and right that would allow for some air exchange.

"Should have thought of that right away... This way we can pretend we're taking away some defective barrels along some proper ones and noone will be eager to check for some pricey wine in there for obvious reasons!"

Blades of the Blood Coast

Unfortunately I feel like since my crisis started my memory of my character(s) has been sorta erased. Sure, I know still who they are, but there's no real connection anymore if you know what I mean.

Long story short: I can't promise operation restart will actually take place anytime this weekend. I'm sorry :(

Blades of the Blood Coast

<Snipped quote by Fetzen>

If you would like, we could put your character on hold until you feel you have the time. Would you like that, or do you want to just bow out?

@POOHEAD189

I'd be grateful if you could put Lorcan on hold for a while. I don't want to bow out, in fact I'm profoundly disliking even writing this very message, but I think I just need a break for a few weeks. I'm feeling mentally dead and find it hard to even try to produce good posts.

Blades of the Blood Coast

I'm sorry to say it, but I think I might have to bail out of this. At least for an amount of time yet to be defined. I'm burnt out by real life issues I frankly just want to chainsaw massacre a very particular individual(s) for and feel like I won't have the energy to keep going for the moment.

Blades of the Blood Coast

Lorcan's eyes watched Raddek as he leaned back in his chair and his ears picked up what appeared to be more of a monologue than anything else. No criminal, huh ? And then admitting that he actually was, but still trying to find some relief in the fact that he was not a thief. For the Skayleigh, the attempt felt humble at best, but 'ludicrous' would have been a more appropriate description. So if Raddek was not a thief, what kind of thing had he then done in the past that had got him here that was less serious than being a thief ? Or was it just on the Caelic Isles that murder was considered worse than stealing something, maybe ?

Lorcan found it hard not to continue endulging himself in these thoughts and this even more so when he remembered his own situation: The Skayleigh did not deem himself to be a criminal at all. Someone who had made a grave mistake, yes, but there was a difference between an accident and an intentional killing out of some ulterior motive. It had only been due to... diplomatic issues... that he had ended up here. And now he should dabble with some underground organization that was even more unknown to him than the whole city it was situated in ? Aside from the not so negligible fact that this would only make him susceptible to more accusations even he could no longer deny to be criminal, there was the potential that his lack of experience with black markets and the like would screw up things.

So, to cut a long story short, the half-giant member of the party did not like the idea at all. And yet even before he could try to say anything about it Raddek already announced what felt like a definitive decision to accept the job and get it done. Anyone spending a sufficient amount of attention would notice that Lorcan did not touch his alcoholic beverage. The mood to do so had vanished in a very profound way -- he'd have to deal with that kind of liquid shit soon enough in quantities large enough for sure.

"Given that the city guard does not refrain from openly trying to draw money from newcomers into their very own pockets one should assume that the concept of bribery is more common here. I'm surprised that it does need the help of a bunch of strangers without any coin to keep things moving here." For Lorcan, the conclusion was clear: There was some very dirty work ahead of them, and most likely nobody would tell them it advance. Great.

Blades of the Blood Coast

I'll try to get my post up on Saturday or Sunday. Work has me in its grip still.

Blades of the Blood Coast

Action ? So Lorcan can taunt the enemies with some miserable instant poetry and the others can start shooting!

Winds of Fate - A Thieves' Adventure (Semi-Tabletop)

Skarsat

As the donkey made the cart trundle through the wide and more narrow streets of Guillan, Skarsat spent little attention on the one barrel that had a not so harmless content, but was much more on the lookout for irregularities in the cobblestones beneath. If there was any pothole, any stone that protruded from its neighbours or any gap one of the wheel's could get stuck in suddenly, there could be trouble. He was not worried about provding as much of a comfortable ride as possible towards Neh'miah, but much more about the man banging his head against the barrel and crying out in pain. Such an unusual noise could end not only the thief's but also his very own journey much sooner than acceptable.

Skarsat felt his will to get over with this whole endeavour as efficiently as possible quite renewed given the prospect of returning to Guillan afterwards. Returning to this city meant paying the tavern another visit. Paying the tavern another visit meant quite probably bumping into a certain man. Bumping into that certain man offered the opportunity to rip him apart.

There were a few guards he and the cart passed by unharmed on their way towards the market. It seemed the barrel trick was working out nicely. If only Neh'miah would be able to hold out until the Tork had finished his business which he planned to do. If this market was as big as the whole city, then it was bound to include some goods he could use, too! Skarsat gave the donkey a gentle nudge to move just that bit further that was necessary to get the cart's cargo into the shadow cast by one of the adjacent buildings. Neh'miah moaning due to excessive heat induced by sunlight into an unventilated space was not something Skarsat was looking forward to, either.

Speaking of an unventilated space... Maybe he should have taken the time to just bash a small hole into the barrel while still at the warehouse and to turn the whole thing until it was hidden by the other barrels ? If something was built to hold a liquid, it was not only not ventilated, but outright airtight. That in turn meant he'd have to make a bit of a hurry out of his shopping tour or otherwise their ship would have a corpse on board even before departure...

Therefore, Skarsat decided to make his decision more based on his very first impression. Given this strategy there was one stand that attracted his attention more than any other... It was the large arrangement of bows and even more arrows with not only one, but two people behind the counter who, given that even the female one was rather towering over their average customer, likely were Tork. This initial characterization found confirmation as Skarsat came closer and could make out more details about their faces. Clearly Tork. What a surprise to see a couple of his countrymen and -women here!

The joy was not entirely mutual though, at least if one considered the looks on the male owner's face who darted a not so friendly look towards Skarsat. Was this guy disappointed that he was no longer the biggest bloke around here ? The woman quickly compensated for this by identifying herself as "Aniska" while presenting a big smile.

"Hello! What can we do for you ?" she asked before putting down the arrow tip she had been working on with the grinding wheel.

"Do you have any good bows. For me, I mean ?" Of course they had good bows... even they actually weren't good they'd still claim so because they were merchants who wanted to sell things. Tork were not above bantering, Skarsat knew that. He aimed his view onto the goods hanging from the ceiling and being stacked on the floor as far as he could see it, but also had to divert some observation time towards the cart. It still stood there with all barrels on board. Good...

Aniska looked at Skarsat up and down and then back up from his tremendous thighs to his more than just 'broad' shoulders, then could keep herself from grinning. She leaned against the counter with one hand and let the fist of the other one rest on her hip. "Lark ?" she said in an almost teasing manner. "Do we still have that one thing around you did once ? That bow you couldn't sell to anyone so far?"

"There are many things we couldn't sell so far! Look at the goddamn cart!" it came back from the small workbench in a quite annoyed tone and with a fingerpointing gesture towards the vehicle in question. "I told you more than once already that we shouldn't go back to this fart of a city. There are no good bowmen here!"

Aniska sighed slightly, but only so loud that Skarsat could barely hear it. This time less teasing and more demanding she restated her request: "Not now, Lark! Please! Just give me the one bow this 'fart' of a city's guard was interested in as a makeshift replacement part for one of their stationary installations. We do still have that one around, don't we ?"

A pair of prongoues and a big knife were dumped onto the workbench a little harder than would have been necessary, then Lark proceeded towards the cart while also exhaling a lot louder than necessary. There indeed were still plenty of goods laying around there and that made Lark's task not easier as the item in question appeared to be at the very bottom of the mess. The ruckus he made even made some of the passer-bys turn their heads. Then he returned with... something. Skarsat's eyes widened a bit.

Aniska however had long gotten over her initial concerns about wasting precious resources on something far too oversized for there to ever be any potential users. It had been Lark's idea and luckily he had only instantiated his madness in this way once so far, so the bow he was bringing back to her was one of a kind right now. At least as far as two humble merchants and bowmakers could say that. Having received it from her colleague, she handed it over towards Skarsat. "Draw it. If you can do that, it is yours. 13g and no shittalk around it. You will get a fresh bowstring and some basic care for the wooden parts because the thing is not new anymore, okay ?"

And Skarsat started pulling, and pulling harder,... and pulling even harder until the bowstring started to feel very, very uncomfortable in his hand without thick leather gloves protecting it. As he slowly worked his way towards success even Lark took a brief moment to watch, along with a few other people.

"Well, erm... I'd say give me the coin and the city guard will have to look for spare parts elsewhere. You wouldn't like to see this beauty being abused and slowly rotting away in some crude ballista on a high tower either, woud you ?"

Skarsat put the thing down and eased up his shoulders before reaching into the depths of his pockets. "Does this work for payment too ?" and he pulled out the weird token he had been given from Vargas. The man had said it would work on the market, so hopefully that had been the truth.

"Erm... a crumpled piece of parchment ?" Aniska asked, arching an eyebrow. She shifted her upper body left and right to try and look past the small document that was hiding the actual token from sight. Only then Skarsat realized that he had forgotten to remove and maybe even read that right away when he had received the whole thing. It probably was some less important thing!

"Oh, now I can see! So it appears you're a special one in more than one way. Consider the bow to be yours. Give me a minute or two to make sure it's in proper order. Anything else you need ? Maybe a few arrows that don't limit the drawing weight of your new weapon by being too short ?"

Lark saw the token, too, and the moment he did his mood dramatically worsened up to the point that he took the token they had received from Skarsat and smashed it so hard onto the cobblestone beneath that it actually shattered. Skarsat started reconsidering whether he should just try and revert his decision and to just pay the coin for the Champion's bow ? Maybe Vargas was not paying the local merchants here, but only put pressure on them. Or there was outright blackmailing going on ? Unfortunately there was more than one reason why he did not have the time to dig deeper now. Not only he needed to get onto the boat quickly! And, of course, Lark's decision to break the token instead of just storing it somewhere had made any attempt to revert decisions doomed from the start.

Therefore the Tork's attempts to talk down the price his country people would take for a decent bunch of heavy arrows and a high tensile bow string as a replacement, just should the need arise, were only half-hearted. Needless to mention that while Aniska was much more understanding, Lark was not.

Rolls

Charisma d20+1: 9