Histories of Allurand: The Keep of Kiirsahqoqeth

Stone Boar

"I just simply want to help aid people against the dragon. I don't want to bear witness to another city's ruin...", Lyra said, with her tone being somewhat downtrodden as she speaks. As she began to play a tune on her harp, it was clear that she had seen something horrible occur in her past, just from her looks alone.

"I don't even really have a home anymore...", she says in a low voice.

Corneron, The Stone Boar

"I ain't gonna brag, but after that job, it was cold beer and hot baths for a month." Which meant the more impulsive ones of the company blew much of their pay away in a week. Bas wished he had a bit of Freiholt's coin at the moment. He looked to the bar and thought about adding another onto his tab. Instead, he sighed and looked to where the spotted beastkin gathered a very diverse crowd.

"Well, no sense in just hanging about. C'mon," he put his mug down and gestured for Hamish to follow. "I'm Bas, by the way."

STONE BOAR

"After tha week it was shit and the pox. Our medic spented the night in a dirty whore's box." Hamish said distatefully, "Aroonsoon dint pay us much. He spented all o' his gold an' silver trying ta hire mor' mercies than Lor' Shitstain. Still, a toast to yer morel victory an' our fortshun in slaying a Dragging." He raised his cup to the air. "An I'm Hamish. Hamish Powderbeard thank to Viranda."

He got off the seat, following Bas.

The Stone Boar.

Returning with some scrolls, a quill and ink to write down the details that Cassian was pointing out, along with trying to get a rough sketch of any diagrams, the beastkin glanced over at Sigurd. "If I'm putting it into simple words, staircases and places we don't want to pick a fight. ...That's if they haven't collapsed or been blocked off by rubble."

Of course, the middle aged dwarf made Newr gave a bemused smirk. "Yes, I suppose I should take lessons the foul-mouthed, grumpy dwarf with the stench of liquor and gunpowder. Truly a paragon of chivalry, especially with the remark on the Avian's occuption." Of course, the remark about waking them up to a song made him scoff, almost giving a genuine laugh. "If you insist and don't value the ability to hear."

Stretching his hands, the young man with raven-colored hair nodded at Ryo. "...Handpicked, huh. Well, it's an improvement on the would be bandit mages who're deluded that they're great warlocks and achieve little except for setting their robes on fire." Newr remarked, sounding as if he'd had to put up with this sort of thing quite a bit.

Glancing back between the Orca and the 'paladin', he sighed. "...Right. Then try to stay out of harm's way. I'm sure the 'lady in shining armor' will at least try to help with that." He idly motioned to Alva for emphasis before turning back to taking notes.

Corneron, The Stone Boar

Looking over the team hunched over parchment and how they were doing it, Bas took note of the book in Cassian's paws and remembered some of the seals and runes which matched his most recent purchase.

He coughed to get their attention and pulled out his trump card; a sun-browned and dirty-looking parchment. It didn't look like much, until one looked closely and noted the broken seal which matched Corneron's Builder's Guild.

"For the price of a mug of ale, maybe a meal, I can be persuaded to lend this find."

STONE BOAR: MAP

Hamish raised his hand, smiling. "I only request ten minnits in the Dragging's cov." He said simply, it would be more for sentimental value going into his retirement. He glanced over at Baz's seal and whistled. The Corneron Builder were not exactly what one wouldn't call, stuck up whoresons who fined people a ton for their maps.

"''War the feck didya git somethin' like that?"

Stone Boar

"Well, if'n ya 'avin' trouble readin' it, I could translate fer ya." Andrea said with a grin as she sidled over and glanced at the bounty of intel Cassian had provided. "Aye, quite a few ways t' get in, I could mebbe make somethin' t' make th' process easier. Shouldn't take me more 'n an afternoon." She boasted with a proud grin.

Cassian hooted a couple times and shuffled around in her pockets for some more coins to begrudgingly hand off to Bas. Cheap bastard, but she couldn't hold too much against a hustle.

"Now is that the plans for the actual castle?" Cassian asked, then tapped her book. "Because this is the castle that our target is based on. Having more than an approximation might be nice."

Corneron, The Stone Boar

"You can find anything in Corneron," Bas winked at Hamish and took a seat, ordering more ale and a trencher of stew. He lay his map atop the papers and unfolded it. Not minding the obvious marks of mud and other worse things, it was a perfect representation of a Great Fort from the time of the Second Apocalypse.

"I know my way around storming redoubts and things, but if you ask me, there's a few symbols here that I just don't get," Bas admitted.

"'Places we do not want to fight'?" Sigurd was somewhat taken aback by the statement "It seems we have little choice in the matter."

Turning to Andrea, Sigurd said "Not needed. I need someone to read for me. That is all."

Upon hearing that the plans that everyone was looking over were in fact, for a completely different building, Sigurd spoke up once more, somewhat annoyed that he wasn't able to simply observe as he was more fond of doing "Send a small scouting party. Investigate where these supposed points of entry are."

STONE BOAR

"'Cept a good, clean whore." Hamish grumbled under his breath as he looked over the map and stared at it. "Feck is that? A furt or a feckin' maze?" He asked, "Tomanny rumes, 'is jes ain't a good enough. Weven know tis map fit where the Dragging is? I'd like to lay me ow' eye oon that."

The Dwarf put his hands on his hips.

Inn

"I don't like your tone, sir." Alva glowered over at Newr. "You would do well to keep this hostility for dragon's thralls."

One of their party presented a document claiming to be the layout of the fort, or at least how it looked before the disuse and disrepair damaged it. "Why haven't you shared this with us right away?" She asked, deciding to magnanimously omit the whole "charges to see vital information" thing. Bloody mercenaries, always trying to squeeze out as many coins as possible. "In any case, I doubt we have enough time to send in scouts. We can afford two days of preparations at a maximum; then it is a march to victory or ruin." Alva replied to Sigurd's words.

Ryo recognized the sorrow in Lyra's tone as she talked. Hadn't he used a similar tone in the past, when he talked about Shiroshi to the other members of the order? Though he had a sinking feeling that her inability to go back was not something she enforced on herself and more to do with why he hadn't heard of the Orca Tribe before.

Is she the only one of her tribe left?

"W-well, you've come to the right place, then," he responded, a twinge of sympathy in his tone. "We were working out plans to defeat the dragon..."

Stone Boar

"I see...is this group in need of a healer or spellcaster? Because I have some proficiency in both of those areas...", Lyra said as she kept on strumming her harp. She didn't look like much of a spellcaster though, especially since the harp seemed to be her only possession as far as everyone else could see.

Corneron, The Stone Boar

Bas didn't hear Hamish's last bit, but the cannoneer raised a point. "You gotta understand, Forts like these were built with the end of the world in mind. The map don't exactly cover how high some of these rooms are. But if I had to make a guess..." He tapped his finger on the largest rooms. "Great wyrms aren't exactly built to use the hallways, is my thinking."

And then Alva clattered to face him, her indignation obvious. Bas met her coolly. "Other than needing to eat, it pays to be discrete with the cards in your hand." He crossed his arms. "Besides, how do I know I can trust you?"

edited 1st Aug '17 6:14:16 AM by KR_Vandal

Inn

Bloody mercenaries indeed. "Next time you have something to share with the rest of us - and that goes to all of us lot - you do just that or I'll give you a reason not to trust me, sellsword." The sheer amount of spite in that last word could likely kill someone if words held such power. It was obvious Alva did not hold him in high regard - especially with this little presentation.

"Truly, this is dire times when people like you go dragonhunting. If eating is all you need, you could be catching rats in the capital instead and not risk your life."

Corneron, The Stone Boar

As a man who has had to catch rats (and on occassion, eat the damned things) more times than he could count, Bas was very offended. These holy warriors and the sheer nerve of them, thinking that if everyone shared their dogma then all would be right in the world. If not that, then their unshakeable belief that they were enlightened and empowered and knew so much better than the rest of them.

"Okay, two things; first: fuck you. Second: Fuck the ore cart you rode in on." There was a definite sharp edge to Bas' speech, which he mastered with some effort. "You don't trust me, I can deal with that. It'd be a smart thing to not trust me. But taking that tone with me just 'cause I wanna improve my standing in life?" The mercenary's face was stone-set in his disdain of Alva.

"I get you and your like believe in causes and wanna do right by the people. That's good. But for the rest of us, feeling good doesn't pay rent or put food in the table or get us out of the gutters." A serving girl finally brought Bas his meal and his beer. "Yeah, it's a selfish reason. But it's as good as any, especially if I gotta risk my life for it."

edited 1st Aug '17 7:57:19 AM by KR_Vandal

STONE BOAR

"Baz, olson? Lay oof. The feck ain't gonna fecking listen to ye. He ain't werked in his life to ern a pay." Hamish told him before turning to the holy warrior. "An' Im gonna charge ye some extra fer that."

He pointed at the fort. "So, what ye're informin' us is that this Dragging got in a place that wouldn't feckin' fit in that shait? Why would he take that?"

"...That depends on how willing people are to fall back and how gullible the monsters will be to follow us into a more favorable position, really." Newr remarked to Sigurd, giving a small shrug. "Red won't really pursue us, but...that's not much comfort considering, to put it in simple words, 'burning fiery death breath.'"

Of course, Alva misinterpreting the backhanded compliment/comment just made the 'beastkin' give an exasperated sigh and gave a slight huff of smoke as he shrugged at the Orca.

"...Got a spellcaster." He shrugged, pointing at Ryo despite being aware he probably wouldn't be seen and deciding not to comment on the healer, since, well, not everyone had divulged what their talents WERE.

And with arguement between Bas and Alva was definitely getting on his nerves as his fist collided rather harshly against the wooden table, leaving a bit of an indent. He was biting his tongue, although considering how aggressive he was looking...a push would probably lead to a sharp retort.

Stone Boar

Lyra looked at Newr as he commented, then back at Ryo. He certainly didn't look like a spellcaster, but she wasn't making assumptions.

"Even so, I would still like to join you all and offer up what skills I have...", she replied.

Stone Boar

"Oy, oy, is this really th' time t' be arguin' 'bout why we're 'ere?" Andrea asked with a grunt as she shot a look at Bas and Hamish. "Dun matter if'n it's fer coin or nah, we're 'ere t' kill a Dragon, 'n help this 'ere town, nah?" She asked, replacing the dirty look with a grin.

Inn

For a moment, Alva was silent. Whether it was Newr's fist silencing her or the sheer insolency of the sellsword before her, it was unknown. "You would have more gold than you could carry from the monster's lair. I thought this is obvious. The folk of this city and of this part of Allurand would praise you as a hero, reward you with all the treasure you could think of." It was obvious she was straining to keep herself calm, even as her eyes pierced into Bas. "You want to fight the beast for wealth? That is fine. You want to make our fight against the beast harder just to satisfy your greed? That I cannot accept."

"As for you... honorable elder" It was clear that, despite using the dwarven official way of addressing someone older than you, Alva didn't think much of Hamish. "may want to check your eyesight before we depart. In any case, back to the order of things." She looked up at the meek orca. "Everybody is welcome, as long as they do not impede us."

STONE BOAR

"Well, Prodigal yoongster, I wo' hav ta tell ye that I can tell from yer eyes tha' yer a sweet chil' of stone. A boulder-simple as that, alrigh' uncarves, inexperienced? No' ye best be showing me fello' merc some respects? Mercs be the one fightin' yer wars. An' his greed is ta allow him ta eat. Now, if yer gonna play god-picked and judg us? I'll beat yer arse black and fecking blue with ye own shield."

Hamish was quite indignant to be called out by someone so young. She was barely a seventh of his own age!

Corneron, The Stone Boar

"Leave off, Hamish," Bas said after he took a sip of what passed as beer. "It ain't her fault she was trained to outsource her thinking to a higher power."

"Though if I truly wanted to be as disruptive to this mission as could be, maybe I should have asked for something more than the price of a meal," he laughed, a rough sound though not anything unfriendly. "Very well, let us start properly. I am Bas, of the Corneron Sewerjacks."

Then he turned his attention to Newr then scoffed. No words needed to be said when the mercenary's disdain was very clear.

edited 5th Aug '17 9:54:15 AM by KR_Vandal

Cassian made a rude gesture of self-gratification at the assembled party and hooted. "Fallen Crest Knight Cassian Mcelroy, by the way. Got a little bit of magic," she coughed out a plume of foul-smelling smoke as demonstration, "but a nice fist or paw in the face does more than enough." Again as demonstration she scritched her legs under the table briefly. "And Bas, you wanna hustle then you hustle. I'll empathize. You want to have a business meeting about this, settle up, we can talk."

edited 6th Aug '17 8:31:43 PM by Taco