Graded &nbsp; [Norrobury Village] The Mysterious Disappearances at Norroburry Lake

Upon hearing Hildegard's and Sage's observations, Kain's eyebrows lowered in unease as he took a closer look at the footprints. Indeed, the lack of returning prints was odd, and upon further inspection, Kain noticed details he hadn't seen while he was in his flight of joy. Time hadn't passed long when Miss Victorique asked Kain a question.

Elvario said:
She took out her pipe again, trying to clear her mind. She then turned to Kain, puffing out some smoke before deciding on the next course of action. “Would you be able to learn if the lake had some sort of monster in it, or would it still be able to be calm whilst having a human-eating monster roaming free?”

After allowing her to finish the question, Kain shook his head. "I don't know if the monster would scare the lake, but I don't think we need to know." Kain explained with a slightly worried tone. Kain bent down to his knees to lower himself closer to the tracks. "I'm not too sure, but these tracks don't look like natural tracks." While following his finger along the line of imprints, Kain continued to explain by saying, "These tracks are very straight, but animal tracks are a bit windier, and these tracks are like identical stamps while animal tracks are a bit different between each step..." Kain trailed off into silence before staring hard at the tracks. After a good solid moment, Kain finally realized what felt off, before pointing out, "Oh... also, if the thingy lived in the lake, I think it would have a tail for swimming, like crocodiles, but there's no tail track here. If the thingy really is a monster, I don't think it lives in the lake..."

Kain worried that what they were dealing with was not natural, but man. He loathed to think that they'd be dealing with strange, dangerous people like cultists. The mere thought caused his face to form a small grimace, a look that Hildegard may recognize given Kain's history with her. Fortunately, Kain needn't have dwelt on the idea for long, for when Miss Victorique mentioned the mines, Kain jumped in, asking "There's mines? Where?"

Note: Elvario informed me of some details since Kain has the nature skill and perception skill.

NeramoDJI · Mar 21, 2022

Sage nodded at the two, hefting his sword up. "Well, lets go check the mines then. No use staying hewe if thewe's no monstew anyway." He said, putting the sword strap in his hands and taking the sword with himself. "And even if thewe is a monstew...." He began, before humming a little bit. "Maybe if we don't find anything, we could twy staying neaw the lake in a bush ow something to watch if anyone goes missing." He said, looking at the others, essentially suggesting a stakeout. "Cuz if they don't know we'we thewe, they might just do theiw thingie anyway." He explained, starting to flutter around Victorique and Kain.

"Fow the mine, do we just stay outside and wait fow the pewson to come to us? I-I don't like goin undewgwound." He said, stuttering a little since he really didn't like being somewhere where he couldn't fly away, under the ground being his least favorite place to be. "Ow like, what do you think we should miss Wachael?" He asked, looking up at the giant woman while holding his sword close.

Elvario · Mar 24, 2022

Victorique Sopheana

Victorique definitely felt victorious when Rachael wasn't able to come up with a come-back, but it also felt a little boring. It was a bittersweet taste of victory.

That said, Kain finally seemed to have warmed up to them enough to become a fair bit more talkative. The kid found yet another reason for the tracks to be deemed fake, which decreased the chance of there being an actual water monster to a neglect-able degree. “Well spot and good thinking.” She told him, with a rare smile. She felt like this might've set them a fair bit closer to learning the truth of the situation.

The others wished to go into the mines, so that's where they'd head. Victorique sighed a little upon hearing Sage's plan. “I think you're the only one that'd be able to hide away in these shrubs. Even me and Kain might be too large to be hidden by them. We'd have to figure out another way to remain hidden if we wanted to do a stake-out. However, those generally take a lot of time for a small chance of being rewarding.” The second question was a bit surprising. “We'll see what we can do when we get there.” She couldn't promise him what would happen yet.

The path towards the mines went further alongside the lake for a bit, until it went towards the right, up and over a hill and down again before passing over a second hill. At the middle of it, between the two hills, Victorique stopped, checking her surroundings. “I think this might be the only spot on the path where you can neither see the village nor the mines. If I was to kidnap people, here's where I'd do it..” There didn't seem to be any traces of such a thing having taken place, but the ground was rocky enough to leave little lasting traces altogether. It was a good thought to keep in mind for later, but for now it was little more than that.

They likely wouldn't find much more by just standing there, so she continued towards the mines. The moment they climbed the hill on the other side high enough to look over it, they would be able to look down upon the mine's entrance. It was pretty much just a big gaping hole in the mountain. However, what would stand out more, was that a lot of rough looking folks had gathered around, covered in rock dust, sweat and grime and carrying mining equipment.

Irwin Stonewolf

The only 'clean' looking person among them was the man that Victorique, Sage and Rachael were already familiar with, Irwin Stonewolf. Was talking to a much shorter man, most likely Dwarven, who was likely to be the mister Simin they'd have heard about.

Simin

The Dwarf himself was smoking a cigar, although he looked unusually grumpy.

Once they were close enough for Irwin to spot them, the guard called out to them. “Ah, there you are. You've come at the right time. Someone blew up a wall separating the tunnels in the mine from cave inhabited by giant spiders a few moments ago. We've managed to get everyone out safely, but we can't resume mining like this, its...”

Before he could finish, the Dwarf interrupted him. “Everyone, literally everyone and their mothers, knew not to touch that blasted wall! If I find whatever traitor did this, I'll strangle him personally!”

It looked like they were getting into a little more trouble than they bargained for.

Dante Verren · Mar 25, 2022

Hildegard Karling
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Despite her annoyance with some of the party members she couldn't help but smile as Kain revealed his findings. The boy was already proving his use to the group, and that meant he was more likely going to end up on the good side of this group. There was also a bit of pride behind her smile. The boy had shown his connection to the forrest previously, but it looked like his connection with nature was still strong even here. Her ears perked up a bit as she heard mention of a mine. If the creature wasn't sea based then a mine would be a perfect place for a monster.... or someone faking a monster.

The uneventful trek was nothing to really comment about. She was ultimately glad that doing a stakeout was vetoed. Stealth did not really work out well in her favor last time, her arm even throbbed a bit at the memory of the previous fight she had been in. At the mine she laid eyes on two men, a dwarf and dirty looking man. The fact that someone blew up a wall mean they were likely in the right spot and at the mention of spiders she snarl lightly. "It seems the lord is being kind today. Even if our ultimate goal is not here, we can at least exterminate some dangerous pest." Sparks of electricity danced around her fingers as she spoke. Hildegard hated spiders. Bugs in general had no effect on her, but spiders were another story.

Parrot Parfait · Mar 27, 2022

Kain Lief

"This doesn't look good..."
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Dante Verren
Mentions:

As the mines came into view, Kain felt a frantic chaos exuding out from the mines, prompting him to hold onto Hildegard's hand in fear. He didn't know what was going on, but he knew whatever the commotion was, it wasn't going to be good. Sure enough, he learned the situation wasn't good hearing from Stonewolf and Simin. His expression darkened considerably as he thought about this unnecessary conflict.

"I think... uhh... nevermind..." Kain sputtered. He nearly suggested they'd attempt to calm the spiders down, but given the flustered atmosphere and his lacking abilities, Kain figured he wouldn't be able to do much to desescalate the situation. Still, he greatly desired for a peaceful resolution because he felt it wasn't fair that the spiders nor the miners had to suffer from the selfish and manic actions of bad people as there was no way this explosion wasn't setup by the instigators. In other words, he didn't want this conflict to be a repeat of what happened last time...

Out of knee jerk action, Kain had used his ability "Check" on the Irwin as he was talking. Any observations he made, however, were put on the backburner given more important matters were at hand.

Check - Grade F - No cooldown

Sixth Sense [Aura] - F, Magic Affinity - F, Perception - F
Kain can focus in on a target to pick up on visual cues and smaller changes in their aura. How he interprets the information, however, is up to him.

NeramoDJI · Mar 27, 2022

Sage didn't like the looks of these guys, or their tone, but he knew he had to help out since it was what the adventurers guild wanted him to do. And also, maybe they'd be more friendly when he made the bad spiders go away. He didn't like spiders. Spiders caught him in a web once when he was a kid once, and his parents had to rescue him before he got eaten. But now he had a sword.

"Well, maybe we can just knock the ceiling neaw it down to block the wall again? Cuz spidews make mowe spidews weally fast, so maybe we can block them off so we don't have to go fowevew." He said, not liking spiders at all and wanting to spend as little time fighting them as possible. This of course was with him assuming they'd be doing something about it. "Though, should we keep someone out hewe to keep an eye on people twying to get away while the spidews distwact us?" He asked in a more hushed voice to the group, floating up and sitting on Rachael's shoulder again to give his wings a rest.

Silent Angel · Mar 28, 2022

Rachael Meredith

Rachael's brow furrowed as she took in the issue at hand. She had decided to let smarter heads go over the issues at hand before this, but her gut was screaming that this was not a coincidence. The cave being opened for the spiders just as they got here to investigate? That was something that she personally took as someone sabotaging the mission they were on. She glanced down at the halfling, before looking at the others. Best wait to make sure she was alone with Victorique before she spilled her thoughts. For now, however...

"Is there another entrance into the mines?" She glanced around, as if looking for another entrance. "Because if there isn't, the best option for this is fire. If we light a fire at the entrance, the smoke will take out the spiders without a fight. It'll keep us safe and be a lot less painful for the spiders than an all out brawl." She paused once more, something else springing to her mind. She hoped this wasn't the case, but she still had to ask, as her conscience wouldn't let her get away with not. "Is... everyone out of the mine?" She would prefer not having to go into the mine, especially if her suspicions were correct, but it was a necessary question, and if need be, the amazon would go in.

Elvario · Mar 28, 2022

Victorique Sopheana

Mentions: Sage

NeramoDJI | Rachael

Silent Angel | Hildegard

Dante Verren | Kain

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Victorique was taking in the new information and trying to draw conclusions from it, but Sage proved to be on the same wavelength as her yet again. She instantly decided to make use of the fact that he got closer to them to whisper, as she'd whisper back. “I've got a plan.” She quickly looked around. All the miners were gathered right here, near the entrance, but there weren't many places for someone to hide or stay out of sight. However... “Sage, if you leave your sword with Rachael or Hildegard and fly up as high as you can, you'll be really difficult to spot by those that aren't actively on the look-out for someone small and flying. Then, if you stick around the entrance, you can wait around in relative hiding until someone tries to sneak off, after which you can follow them. You're right that this is likely a distraction, but it seems like Irwin and Simin kept everyone here, so the perpetrator might yet need to start trying to sneak off. If we give them a chance to do so while you're keeping watch from up high, you might be able to follow them directly to their hideout and return to us to show us there. Meanwhile, we'll try to contain the spiders whilst giving the perpetrator the sense that they should be free to sneak off.” She decided to ignore the parts about knocking the wall down and spiders making new spiders really fast, as the first sounded like a bad idea and she had no idea what the second part was meant to be about.

The next step was deciding their course of action on the spiders. Before they could discuss it amongst themselves, however, the Dwarf called out.

Simin

“Hell no!” He looked up at Rachael. Her massively larger form didn't seem to impress him all that much. “There's no other entrance and we've got everyone out, but if we're gonna try filling the place up with smoke, we'll have to barricade the entrance and burn through entire winter's supply of wood and oil to fill up these mines. You've got no clue how large these tunnels are and how deep they go! This is the main mine, lass, there's even gonna be some places that the smoke won't be able to reach even if it were blown directly out of a giant's ass.”

He'd only just finished talking when he seemed to return on his words. “Although... If we chase those spiders back into the C-section, they we could block off the narrower tunnel there and smoke them back into their nest. After that, we'd still have to barricade the wall that fool has blown out, but the smoke might keep the spiders away...”

Irwin Stonewolf

Irwin interrupted them. “Shouldn't we question everyone first, to see who did it?”

Victorique, fearing he'd ruin their plan to have the perpetrator lead them to their hide-out, was quick to answer him. “No, the spiders take precedence. It was probably just an accident anyhow.” She really hoped her bluff would work.

As for Kain's observations using [ Check ]. He didn't get a whole lot of interest. Irwin was somewhat calm, but more out of practice than personality. His aura was bit like that of the mountains themselves. Unmoving, calm, competent in what they're there for, but also dumb as a rock in other regards. The parts he was competent in, however, would soon show.

“Alright.” He instantly accepted Victorique's excuse and switched to planning on how to deal with the spiders. He looked at Hildegard and Rachael with high expectations. “The three of us should be able to drive the spiders back all the way into the C-section. Then, why don't we just light a fire there and use the smoke to keep them contained in that part whilst we're barricading it off? The C-section hasn't been rich in ore and doesn't open up to new areas due to the nest, so we might as well surrender it.”

After a short moment of a silence and a click of the tongue, Simin spoke up. “Fine. I'll get the miners to work on bringing in wood and oil to start up a fire and build a barricade. You think you can handle some spiders while we're doing that?” He looked at the two warrior-women. Were they to agree, Irwin and Simin (with some of his miners) would set to work. Simin starting with informing his men of the new plan and Irwin with leading them into the mines.

Mine Entrance (inside)

The mine itself had pretty broad hallways, which meant that even Rachael was able to walk around unhindered and that they could freely swing their weapons. The biggest issue would be the darkness, but Simin and some of his men eventually joined up behind them with torches. Irwin was also proving his worth not long after they entered the mines, as he could easily hold his own against the spiders. He did seem to mostly just focus on driving them back though, rather than on exterminating them.

OOC note: The spiders are dangerous, but not to the point that they'd be able to beat the characters in a one on one (or even a two on one). For as long as you don't got around challenging multiple of them of them at a time, you'll be good. Furthermore, they'd fight rather defensively and retreat the moment things look dangerous, rather than fight to the death. Within those limits, I'll allow you guys to control both your character and the spiders, so that you can customise how much detail you want to put in the spider-detaining part and what course of action you'll take for it.

Eventually, they'd manage to make it towards the C-section, where the terrain would allow them to set-up an effective smoke-wall to drive the spiders even further back whilst the area was being barricaded by Simin and his men. Kain, thanks to his trap-making ability, would even be able to help them with both the fire and the barricade, as whilst they weren't technically traps, their effective use was similar enough to spot some things they could be doing better. Furthermore, throughout the battle, Kain would more and more sense that these spiders were just confused more than they were aggressive.

All things considered, the only one who was pretty useless was Victorique. She followed the rest of them, but only because she didn't want her presence remaining outside to ruin their plan. After all, she wasn't any use in a fight or in trap-making and just stumbled along with the rest of them, her short legs not really agreeing with these rock-filled mineshafts.

Meanwhile, were Sage to stay outside as planned, he'd see all the miners join in the effort, following after Simin. However, after a bit of time, he'd see three of them sneak out again.

They were clearly acting suspicious, as they looked around multiple times in all directions (other than up) before making a run for it. They were heading straight over the hill towards the lake, but rather than crossing over the second hill, they stopped in-between them and ran across the pathless ground towards the mountains. They wouldn't stop, but they'd be slowed down by the uneven terrain and steady climb, as they eventually ended up on what seemed to be a small path that hadn't seen much usage over the centuries. It made its way further into the mountains for a while, before ending up in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere. However, the trio would take away some rocks to reveal a hidden entrance into what seemed to be an abandoned mineshaft. Whether Sage (assuming he followed them to begin with), would return to find the others or stay to investigate further was up to him, but the moment the bandits entered the abandoned mine and closed the hidden door behind them, they were entirely gone from sight.

Parrot Parfait · Apr 1, 2022

Kain Lief

"Smoke!"
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When Rachael came up with a less harmful plan to confront the spiders, Kain looked at her with a bit of awe and thankfulness. He then gave a (somewhat) nervous smile and a nod of approval. Invigored with a new sense of direction, Kain began following the group as he took his sling along with a bunch of stones. Before they left, however, Kain turned up to Hildegard to make a request. "Please don't hurt the spiders too much if you can," he softly pleaded, "They're just as hurt from the bad people as we are... but if the spiders about to hurt you, it's okay to squish them." After saying all that, Kain waited attentively to her reaction, giving an appropriate response to whatever she may have said.

As they proceeded down the cave, Kain's intuition was right. Though it was a bit difficult to distinguish the auras, Kain could sense the spiders were in a confusion. What seemed like the half-way point, Kain announced to both Hildegard and Rachael, "The spiders are in a tizzy right now! I don't think want to fight at all!" After saying that, Kain slung a stone at the feet of a spider, and upon being spooked, the spider quickly scurried back supposedly to the mines, demonstrating Kain's point.

Once the group got to the C-section of the mine, Kain remained in the background, continuing to throw warning shots should any spider get too close to the group. After the barricade was partially built, Kain saw a place where the barricade could be improved. He wanted to ask Irwin, but Kain didn't know if his idea was good or not, so he went over to the idle Victorique to test his idea. "Umm... miss Victorique? I think have an idea," Kain asked before pointing at a specific spot in the barricade, "I think we should leave a gap there and add this... thing," Kain then proceeded to mold his hands in a specific yet easy to follow way before continuing, "this way, we won't accidentally smoke ourselves out. It'll also let us safely add more oil and billow in air for more smoke. Do you think that would be good?" Kain looked at Miss Victorique with hopeful eyes. If she thought it was a worthy idea, Kain would ask her to ask Irwin to implement it.

Dante Verren · Apr 2, 2022

Hildegard Karling
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Nodding along Hildegard listened in earnest. A two pronged plan, one to catch the villain's involved in this madness and another to deal with the spiders. While she much rather have slaughtered the whole lot of the bugs she would still acknowledge that getting the people out was the priority. If a few bugs escaped it wouldn't be a huge problem.. as long as the monsters learned never to come back. This C-section also sounded like the perfect place to spring there trap and assaults onto the beast. With a smile on her face she sent a prayer to her lord for there protection.

Hildegard marched with her blade out, held firmly in her right hand. Kain's pleading caused her to pause and look down at the boy. With an annoyed Tisk she nodded her head. "Fine, I will only strike down those that draw to close, and only aim to kill so they don't have to suffer." She hated the bugs, especially when they were going to be the size of a man if not larger. Yet she did not wish to upset her younger companion more then necessary. She wouldn't let the aggressive ones live, but those that ran would be allowed to flee.

It seemed like most of the bugs were scared like Kain had said. Barely any rose to challenge them, yet Hildegard still managed to wet her blade. Upon passing by one tunnel, a flurry of movment to there side caught her eye. An ambush from the side as one of the spiders launched out. Hildegard raised her blade and met the creature, sheering through one of it's legs with her weapon. As the creature stumbled she followed up and planted the sharp end of her sword straight into the creatures many eyes. It was dead rather quickly.

Overall the trip to C-section was rather long and less exciting then she had hoped. As they arrived things grew more interesting. Her sword struck out time after time, not aiming to kill anymore but to scare back the creature's. Her main goal wasn't extermination like she had hoped, but to defend the barricade.

NeramoDJI · Apr 3, 2022

Sage spotted the criminals escaping the scene, huffing a little and fluttering after them as fast as those lil' wings of his could carry him, keeping himself way up, as high as he could manage while keeping a clear view of the outlaws. He knew something was fishy about those three, and he figured if anyone could get to the bottom of it, it was his friends back at the mine. Problem was, he left his sword with miss Rachael. And that was no good for fighting people bigger than him. So instead, he followed them all the way back to their little hole in the hills, huffing to himself. Upon spotting where their presumed hideout was, he began to flutter back to the mines, wanting to get his friends first before he went in there, and he also wanted his sword before he went after the mean people, since he knew his sword was important for fighting things. His papa said a man was only as good as his steel.

So with that, he returned to the mines, looking at them over the treeline, walking down towards the mine shaft to go find miss rachael, who still had his sword from when he left it with them.

Elvario · Apr 4, 2022

Victorique Sopheana

Mentions: Sage

NeramoDJI | Rachael

Silent Angel | Hildegard

Dante Verren | Kain

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Victorique, being in a very bad mood due to feeling useless and due to being pretty freaked out by the giant spiders they were chasing off, was surprised when Kain addressed her. For a moment, she expected him to plead for the spider's lives to her, but luckily enough, it was about something different. She wasn't entirely sure about the things he pointed out, as she herself didn't exactly have any knowledge on these types of things, but it sounded plausible and reasonable. She wasn't sure why he was telling her, of all people, so she called out to mister Simin instead. (Irwin was busy keeping away the spiders, whilst Simin was in control of the barricade.) “Mister Simin, you'll want to hear Kain out. He's good some great ideas.”

Simin

“Huh?” The dwarf replied, a little grumpy due to being interrupted from his work. “Fine, just hurry up and tell me. We're lucky the spiders are retreating, but they might change their minds if we don't hurry.” If Kain wasn't speaking up, Victorique would try to give him some encouragement, reaching up to put a hand on his shoulder. “Just tell him what you told me.”
Were Kain to repeat his ideas to Simin, the dwarf would stare for a moment and finally give an approving nod. “Oi, lads. Stop doing that! Even a kid knows you're doing it wrong! Go do it like this instead...” He'd take over the task of making his men implement Kain's suggestions.

With the combined efforts of the warriors driving the spiders back, the smoke from the fire keeping them away and the miners building a barricade, it wasn't too long before the C-section was neatly closed off. Although they'd all be covered in sweat, rock-dust and smoke, they could call it a job well done. “That's looking good, if I do say so myself.” The Dwarf lit up a cigar to celebrate.

Irwin Stonewolf

“Make sure to have two or more people keep watch, just in case. We want to make sure it holds and that nobody will try blowing up the barricade as well.” Irwin said, as he was wiping off the dirt and some spider-blood from his blade. He only needed to kill one spider, in the end, as it had somehow ended up behind the entire group and would've snagged up one of the miners if he hadn't intercepted it with deadly force. That said, he was still trying to figure out why they hadn't gone after the perpetrators yet. “Is it time to start questioning people?”

Victorique sighed. “No, but if my plan paid off, we should be able to find them. Let's head outside and see if Sage returned.”

Considering Sage would hopefully realise he'd just get hopelessly lost in the mines if he wandered in on his own, they'd likely meet him at the entrance. (OOC: Let's just say Rachael is with the rest and returns his sword to him.)

Victorique was eager to hear the results. “Did it work? Did you see some people trying to sneak out whilst we were busy?”

Upon confirming their success, Victorique quickly tried to come up with a follow-up plan. “Irwin, do you know of any abandoned mineshafts in that area, and whether there might be other ways in or out?”

After a bit of thinking, Irwin replied. “For as far as I'm aware, only some test shafts were made in that area. It's mostly likely nothing more than a single mineshaft into the mountain to check for ores, with only one way in and out, considering there wasn't enough of value to turn them into a mine.”

Victorique smiled. “That's perfect, then, we should be able to catch them if we hurry. How quickly can you gather the militia?”

“Most of them would be in town right now, so it'll take a while to run there, gather them and return...”

That was unfortunate news. Victorique turned to the others. “How about we head over to the mineshaft first and stay on the look-out until the militia arrives? We don't know how many enemies there might be in there or how powerful they are, nor if they could use the captured people as hostages, so it might be best not to move too rashly, but if we don't go now, they might be escaping before we get there.”

Were the others to agree, Irwin would hurry towards town, whilst the rest would be guided by Sage towards the hidden mineshaft. However, the scene they'd spot would be vastly different from what Sage had spotted.

Bandit Leader

Four armed men were standing just outside the mineshaft. Three of them were the bandits Sage had followed before. Another one was clearly in charge, as his equipment and the way he carried himself showed clear superiority over the others. They were in the process of making the captured people climb out of the mineshaft. About six of these people were already outside, but more of them seemed to be coming up. The captured people had their hands and legs bound together, with just enough room to climb a ladder and walk at a slow place, but far too little wiggle room to make a run for it or try to fight their capturers. Among the captured ones, two of them (an older man and a boy) had striking resemblances with the woman they'd spoken too at the start of their investigation. If, for some odd reason, there was any doubt left that these were the captured villagers, that resemblance alone would confirm it.

At the same time as their group spotted these bandits, the bandits spotted them. The leader instantly pulled one of the captured villagers, a girl that seemed to be of the same age as Kain, towards him and held a knife at the girl's throat. “Stay where you are or she'll die!” He barked towards the group of them.

Victorique's danger instinct went off, but only for the leader. It was clear the other three weren't an immediate danger. It also looked like the leader's focus was on Hildegard and Rachael, which might give them an opportunity. It's why she whispered to suggest a rather risky plan. “If Kain manages to catch the leader off guard with a ranged attack from his sling, we might succeed. The other three don't look fast or smart. I'm fast, but I can't fight, so I'll try to tackle the girl out of his hands. It won't be elegant, but it might work. If someone can intercept him from stabbing us before he recovers while the others keep his goons occupied before they can react, we'll all live to see another day.”

The bandit leader, upon seeing Victorique whispering, shouted out. “Stop your mumbling and put down your weapons or this girl will get it!”

It was clear that if they wanted this to end with the villagers saved and without bloodshed, they'd have to act quickly.

Silent Angel · Apr 4, 2022

Rachael Meredith

The amazon lightly scoffed at the actions of the bandit. She never understood why people made those threats. If they did that, not only did they lose their bargaining tools, but they also made the people attacking them just want to slaughter them more. So, instead of backing off, she played along, stepping forward towards him. "OK, do it then. You'll lose out on any leverage you have against us, so that's fine by me. But know this..."

She brought her hands up, cracking her knuckles as her face morphed into one of sadistic glee. "If you do, I'll enjoy tearing you limb from limb with my bare hands."

While it wasn't true that she didn't care, she wasn't going to tell these people that. Instead, she waited for the bullet to fly by before she rushed forward, driving her right fist into the leader, and her left fist into one of the goons.

Parrot Parfait · Apr 4, 2022

Kain Lief

"Let's beat up some bad guys!"
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Dante Verren

NeramoDJI

When the two approached the dwarf, Kain didn't feel too intimidated by the dwarf due to his stature, but upon hearing the dwarf's dissatisfaction, Kain was happy he'd ask Miss Victorique first. As Kain did with Miss Victorique, he pointed and explained the improvement with some hand gestures, and when the dwarf seemed to like the idea, Kain gave a slight smile as the workers changed their workflow to implement Kain's idea.

Not too long afterwards, the barricade was completed and the smoking fire lit. The smoke, though some of it still fumed into the main mines, funneled into the other side of the barricades. After taking a look around their surroundings, the causalities appeared to be kept to a minimum, prompting Kain to beam a happy smile. Though this incident could have been avoided completely, everything in the mines was neatly wrapped up.

"Thank you for helping!" Kain chirped to all his companions with a slight bow, before turning to Hildegard and saying more privately, "And thank you, Miss Hildegard, for holding back!" With the mines concluded, all that was left was to find the missing persons...

After the group rendezvoused with Sage and walked over to the abandoned mineshaft, the scene that appeared before them angered Kain greatly. Those goons really did kidnap people. However, when the man put a knife to the woman's throat, Kain hesitated to take any action. As he was contemplating on what to do, Victorique whispered her plan to Kain, and though he felt a bit unsure whether he'd be able to, Kain cautiously took out the sling from his back pocket before quickly winding it up behind him.

Given that he had to hide his sling from the bad guy, Kain had a bit of a hard time aiming properly. His intended target was straight on the man's head, but when Kain let loose the stone, it skimmed the thug's ear, causing him to flinch and lower his blade just a little bit. In those few moments, Kain hoped that this distraction sufficed for everyone else to take action...

NeramoDJI · Apr 4, 2022

When Sage saw the hostage situation, he grumbled as he began to unsheath his sword, watching Kain throw the rock as he began to rush forward, looking towards the three stooges. He figured if he could get them, they wouldn't be able to get any help to their leader, who he saw Rachael dealing with, flying towards them with that big ol sword and swinging it towards them, intent on either scaring the life out of them or incapacitating them with cuts. All the while, his intention was to keep himself between the three and the other prisoners, to avoid a second hostage situation.

"You won't huwt anyone else you big mean fatties!" He said, doing a stupid playground insult with all the intensity he could manage, thinking it was a good idea in the moment. Of course, he wouldn't enjoy if they tried to do anything else, since he figured he'd be able to take them on. And if he couldn't, well, it was a matter of flying out of their grasp. After all, these guys aren't as dangerous as the main guy from what he could tell.

Dante Verren · Apr 6, 2022

Hildegard Karling
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