Return of the Emblem Chapter Nine: Consolidating Forces

[Mercakete]

"You sure you're recovered enough to fight?" Norbert asked Valter dubiously as he rested his hands on his hips. He was glad, at least, that Valter had decided that the team facing the lesser danger was where he'd rather be. This was his primary concern. He'd answer Valter's question after he got an answer of his own.

"I'm not goin' on th' decoy team," she informed, becoming more serious in her expression and tone. Something was bugging her, clearly.

[roymbrog]

The horseman shrugged at Blake's response. “Alright.”

Synthia thought for a minute. Gytha was going on dagger, Valter was going on dagger... “Put me on dagger,” she told the swordsman. She missed whatever mood Gytha was in, too busy worrying about people getting injured or generally being stupid. “I'm sticking with you,” she told the mariner, deciding she was probably the bigger risk.

Valter crossed his arms. Of course he was alright. Bert was acting like his mother, if he ever had one. “Yes. I promise I won't keel over and die, alright?”

[Mercakete]

Synthia's reply prompted a smile from the mariner. She'll stick with me, will she? Aye...I'm not out o' friends yet. I can still trust Synthia -- she's me teammate. "Aye, that's right -- Synthia n' I'll be on th' same team," she told Blake. Though she seemed on the cheerier side of neutrality, she was setting nonnegotiable terms: she didn't intend to be on a combat team without Synthia.

He could tell Valter was irritated, but the promise was valid enough to earn a nod from him. "Alright, but don't push yourself too hard. I'm holding you to that promise." That settled, he answered the horseman, "I'm on cloak."

Edited June 26, 2012 by Mercakete

[Phoenix]

Galley

"I see the 'not being killed' team is gaining in popularity." Gabbie commented with a somewhat unamused and unsurprised tone. What was once only dawning on Blake was now beginning to dawn on her as well; Raquel's team was still too soft. It didn't really matter how good dagger's offensive capabilities were if they couldn't rendezvous in time to save anyone, did it? Rather than say anything else, she sat there and waited to see how far off they were from finalizing things. Why did they always have to lose their knights and other heavy defenders, she wondered frustratedly.

Main Deck

Riley wasn't sure if he was receiving help, or about to be mocked for not having a particularly strong bite, but he did as requested and moved his head in hopes of the former.

Meanwhile, Luca made it up to the main deck and began sniffing around. Human males and sea water, mostly. This big floating hunk of dead trees was beginning to seriously irk Luca. He wanted to be on land, or at least the docks which didn't shift around much, but he needed to find Nadya first, so he steadily made his way toward the back of the ship and toward the aft deck. The sailors didn't know what to think at first, but a couple approached him, anyway.

"Great, I was just about to head out to find a nice pub, n' one of the blasted horses breaks loose. Which one 'a Raquel's people owns ya?" asked the sailor as he reached out to grab Luca's bridle. Luca, knowing full well that if they got a hold of him now, he'd have to trample them into the deck to break free, jerked his head back. "Huh, clever horse, ain't ya."

"Stop talking to animals." the other sailor more or less ordered. "He isn't going to say anything understandable."

"Fine. Come're, you ..." muttered the sailor as he attempted another grab. Luca jerked his head back again. The sailor tried again, and Luca pulled his head away once again.

"This is why I hate male horses. So damn stubborn." the other sailor commented. He quickly joined in and tried to grab Luca's bridle to hold him just as the first failed, an attempt to counter Luca's jerking with a quick follow up. Luca countered by stepping on the man's foot and that interrupted his thoughts. His hand decided to go down toward his legs instead of toward Luca, and Luca in turn used the opportunity to quickly back away from the sailors and then trot around them toward the aft deck. "Dammit! Blasted horse!"

"How do ya train those things, anyways?"

Still on top of the Dauntless, Ringo didn't take his eyes off of Gil or the wyvern's fresh kills. He simply waited where he was not moving much and staring blankly.

[Acacia Sgt]

''For an infiltration, it sure has gathered quite the crowd.'' John commented. <This could probably prove bad. The main bulk of the cult will be focused on our arrival. The other team is might as well gathering more people than it needs, perhaps.>

-----

There wasn't much going on as Gil ate. One of the horses emerged from the inside, and alone to boot meant he had done it on it's own.

He payed no mind at that, but it seems the other wyvern had him in it's sight. And just that, gazing. Was he interested in the fish? If the other wyvern wanted some, he should try to fish for himself. He wasn't that interested on sharing considering how little he had managed to catch. Most likely John would feed him anyway, negating any food loss, but he wasn't keen on letting anyone taking his food without his consent.

And with that, he resumed to a thought-less meal... unless some other thing came across.

[Eail]

Remembering/Noticing all the people that were volunteering for Cloak or Dagger Zach noticed a distinct lack of armored people on his team, and decided to voice his concern about that.

"Far be it from me, the guy nobody trusts, to tell you all how to run this operation. But would it be possible to get a few more defensive people on Cloak team? I'm not exactly the physically strongest or toughest guy around, so some more armor around us would be nice."

[Mercakete]

The horse complied and Rizen set her horn on the weakened portion of the tether. With a soft snort and a swivel of her ear, she instructed Riley to pull a bit. Then, she pushed her horn down on the tether until the bond broke. Then, she raised her head and walked toward the exit with a shiwsh of her tail, clearly expecting to be followed.

As they emerged, a gust blew off of the water and the sun was shining. Ah, yes, this this was freedom. They could roam where they pleased and weren't forced to stay in some tiny, dark place with no wind. Rizen decided to walk over to the Dauntless and stand around there. She had accomplished a great good this day.

[Phoenix]

Galley

"Heh," Gabbie found Zachary's comment a little humorous. "If Connor and I finish up my combat gear before the mission, then I'll go on cloak, but otherwoise ... just seems a little silly." she explained, gesturing down at her chest and below. Reign glanced in her direction and looked her over. He'd be hard pressed to set her ablaze, but in the heat of battle, who knew how those cultists would react. It was a little sad-and funny-to him that the only potential volunteer was a woman dressed in little more than a tunic, knee high boots, and riding gloves. He looked down at his exposed chest an the necklaces dangling over it and chuckled to himself. Yeah he definitely wasn't going on cloak if at all ...

Main Deck

Riley didn't have anything else to do, so he followed Rizen around. Luca on the other hand found the scent trail of the food and figured Nadya might be there getting food for them. He went in as far as he could, stopping before he could get lodged in the passage leading into the galley. Well this sucked. He let out a whinny to see if she would come to him ... because there was no way he could get in like this.

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

"It might be difficult for the dagger team to go in completely undetected at this rate, but they'll be more prepared for combat with these numbers. If their team is too small they might have difficulties defeating any guards they encounter," she responded to John.

Connor

"I should probably get working on that," Connor spoke up, snapping back to attention after hearing his name. "Uh, try not to die or anything," he advised them all before returning to the Dauntless.

Nadya

She was relieved to hear some people were willing to act as decoys...though not so relieved she wouldn't have Luca as an escape option. Thinking about Luca, she thought she heard a whinny from outside the galley. Walking up from the table she went over to investigate and there he was.

"Whatcha doin' out?" she asked him rather calmly. "Guess ya don't like bein' cooped up down there, but the sailors would give me an earful if I just let ya roam the ship," she said, patting him on the head, before noticing he seemed a bit stuck. Silly horse...

[Eail]

All this talk about defense made Zach remember a particularly important detail that needed to be brought up.

"Like I've said before, I have a teacher named Kerrigan. I'm not gloating but I'd say I'm a fairly powerful mage for my age, but he's still stronger than I am. We're going to have to fight him, no doubt about it. If you guys have any Barrier Staves, or Pure Water you're going to want to bring it along with us. If we're lucky I might be able to fight him, but probably not alone." Zach informed the group

[Ether]

"Cloak is defending Raquel and holding a room, right?" Faatina asked, interjecting into the conversation.

"If that's the case, I might be of use to you guys." She continued, rapping her gauntleted hand against her shield, letting out the ringing thud of metal on metal. "I've never been one for stealth regardless."

[Acacia Sgt]

''Well, I don't know about the inside, but Zach did say places like the basement were lightly guarded.'' John said. ''Not to mention, since they're expecting us, they might as well be focusing most of their forces to deal with us. Having Dagger team to quickly arrive to us is good, but we also have to be capable of lasting that long for them to arrive.''

-----

And now the pegasus was back, followed by another horse. So that was the intention all along, to bring them outside. Well, no matter, so long they didn't bother him, he couldn't care less what they were up to, so Gil resumed eating.

[Phoenix]

Galley

"Well, I'm gonna go help him out. Not sure how much we can get done in toime, but maybe something." Gabbie announced as she stood up and followed Connor out. She had to take a detour to get around the lodged horse to get to the main deck.

"I've still got plenty of supplies if anyone needs anything like that. We won't get another chance once the mission starts." Raquel spoke up.

"We have to pay for that stuff, don't we?" Shadrak inquired. Well, THAT was embarrassing to have to answer at a time like this.

Raquel quickly swallowed the fear and shot back saying "We're going to win, so don't worry about things like that. I'm still running a business, here, albeit a lousy one." she explained, lowering her head shamefully as she calmed back down.

"Running a business? Interesting." Reign commented.

Luca

Luca nuzzled his master a few times as a greeting. That was when he realized that he was indeed 'stuck'. He could probably force himself back out with a good push, but he didn't want to scratch himself up on the woodwork. Stupid humans, never making things big enough for his kind. What were they, cargo? And to top it off? No food or treats ... or gold to trade for food and treats.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

So the others actually paid for goods? That's some loyalty she had going on there. "I'll save my money for latter when I can pay for the secrets of monkey butlers," Gar randomly added before switching thoughts to naked maids again.

[Mercakete]

It seemed that stallion had decided to follow her. Maybe he just wanted to be by the human-carrier too. He did seem to spend a lot of time pulling it. So she decided to ask why he chose this particular place to stand around at.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Maw had had quite the wondrous meal recently. Ship rats were always abundant and she was quite the huntress. There had been strange noises coming from below but Maw had largely ignored them, deciding to investigate later. For now she lounged in the sun on the roof of that part of the ship sticking up from the deck where no one would bother her. The animals seemed to be acting up. Well, that was worth watching, at least, between naps.

[Phoenix]

The Dauntless Stallion

Riley held his head up high proclaiming the Dauntless as his own property and anything within a few feet of it as his territory. He then welcomed her to it before finally noticing Ringo on top of the wagon. The wyvern had finally stopped looking at Gil's meal, but only because the horses had gotten closer than he was expecting, and now the shiny black one was staring at him like he wanted to fight. This didn't look good ...

Riley snorted and brushed his hoof against the deck a few times, ready to run the wyvern out. Ringo just stared for a moment. Was this seriously happening, right now? Weren't these horses the docile variety that he was supposed to get along with? What did he do wrong? He couldn't figure it out before Riley reared back and neighed loudly as he threw a few horse swats his way. Ringo decided to back off and flew away from the Dauntless and toward the foremast where he took up a new position. Well that sucked. At least the wingless ones couldn't pester him up here.

Riley snorted in victory.

Edited June 27, 2012 by Phoenix

[Mercakete]

Apparently, this was his territory and she was just then officially accepted into the herd she'd been travelling with with her human in for all this time. But, there was an intruder right on top of the human-carrier. It was one of those things that ate her kind, albeit a funny-looking one. The stallion would not stand for it and threatened it before attacking, chasing it off! Rizen lifted a front hoof and partially spread her wings, rearing her head back and whinnying in victory. The wingless stallion had defended the place bravely. Undoubtedly he was the alpha stallion of this herd.

Now she knew she'd done the right thing by helping to set him free. He'd chased off that pegasus-eater, after all, and he deserved much better than where he'd been put previously. Curious about which human was crazy enough to store away such a powerful herd member, Rizen asked who his rider was. She'd seen him pulling the human-carrier before, yes, but she wasn't certain what that meant exactly seeing as different humans directed him and Sandrock at different times.

[Snike]

"Very well," Blake said, as he jotted down the mage's name onto Dagger team, as Gytha essentially told him that Synthia would be on her team. Okay, he was planning to put them on the same team anyways. No big deal. What was more of a big deal was the fact that John suggested that Dagger was a bit too large, which Veronika justified by saying that the group would be more combat-ready. That was true, but the real issue was that they probably would not have enough firepower. Surprise would only go so far, and with half of the strongest fighters on the defending team, Dagger needed every body it could reasonably get its' hands on, so when Gabbie suggested that she would go over to Cloak, the swordsman grumbled mentally. Faatina volunteering for Cloak was also unfortunate. However, before he could say anything, Blake remembered that they had all probably worked this out while he was off trying to make teams for a single squad. His opinion was probably irrelevant, anyways. So, instead of expressing his doubts, he decided to ask about Raquel's wares.

"Any new weaponry?," Blake asked evenly.

[Acacia Sgt]

Blake's question of new weaponry made Sophia think back on Zach's words on his master. A powerful mage... Zach's suggestions were good ones, especially the staff. Come to think of it, from what she had seen so far, anyone capable of using a staff had been so far ones for healing wounds. Until Raquel stepped in, there had been no other utility in use.

Besides, a Barrier Staff may prove to be handy on the long run, not just for this fight. Perhaps trying to get one now may be for the best. But come to think of it, did Raquel even had them in stock? For now, she'd wait to see what she answered.

-----

And that was the last fish. A small meal, but that would have to do for now. Of course, Gil could just go fishing again until he was satisfied and not wait for John at all. Though having to fly back and forth... no, better to just wait it out. If only he could carry more of them at the same time then maybe...

And now all that was left was to wait for the humans to come out. And see the other animals' antics. In a way, it was amusing. The other wyvern being shooed off from by the horse. It's not like the horse had an easy way to get up there, so why was the other wyvern complying? Probably all the racket, being nagged like that was bound to annoy someone.

But other than that... nothing. Though by the previous spectacle... If he felt like it, he could fly and lie up there too, just to mess up with the horse. But surely there were better things to do, right? Maybe...

[Phoenix]

Galley

"I didn't really get a chance to do any trading, which is kind of sad considering where we are." Raquel answered. "I thought I might be able to find some useful things before we set out, but instead we're raiding a mansion with the governor's blessing. I honestly didn't see that coming ..."

"Maybe you still can, though we won't be able to use anything before the mission unless you do it right now." Shadrak chimed in.

"It would be a lot harder this time, because I can't bring the Dauntless. It would also take longer and I would have to pay for everything directly or bring what I know I can sell, and I'd need a lot of people to help me with that, and with the cultists already after us ..." she didn't finish the rest of her thought. It didn't make a lot of sense, her being attacked in the streets, but who knew with these people?

"Well, at least you'd have people with you who can watch your back. How long would it take?" Shadrak pushed with another question.

"Some hours, at least." she muttered with her head down.

Dauntless

Riley woefully informed Rizen that his own human was missing and that the 'shiny one' gathering all the new humans was his replacement ... for better or worse. On the bright side, he at least saw less of that small brown and white creature with the loud metal stick.

Docks

Repairs on the Dark Utka were coming along, albeit slowly. Filat wasn't too worried at first, but then some of his men stepped back aboard the Utka with a roughed up captive. He set his drink down on the guardrail and jogged over to investigate as they hauled him toward the forecastle. "Oi! What's going on? Who's this guy?" Filat inquired.

"Captain, we've got a situation. Someone might be watching, so can we handle this 'inside'?" one of the sailors suggested, nudging his head back toward the docks. Filat glanced over to see the beginnings of twilight and various people coming and going. His eyes couldn't help but stop at each individual he saw that wasn't moving to get somewhere. They were the ones most likely watching if anyone. After he'd had his fill of speculation, he turned back toward his men and nodded.

"Right, inside. Let's move."

Once they were inside, they sat the man down in a chair and began tying him up while anyone not helping with that kept their swords and axes at the ready. Filat was the exception, and simply watched with his arms crossed while they worked. Once they were finished, his first mate began the 'interview', with a resounding smack to the side of the captive's head. "Tell us who sent you!"

That didn't seem quite right; Filat had to be missing some crucial context, here, so he asked again. "Who is this guy, anyway?"

"He asked about our cargo, the dragon eggs, captain." the sailor replied, skipping straight to the good part.

"No one in this port should know about those eggs. No one!" Filat exclaimed. "Ah no, that means Tremere is one of their checkpoints! Shit!" he realized. He immediately threw his fist off to the side to strike the inner doorway.

"What should we do, then?" the first mate asked.

"We'll discuss that later. There's no use doing anything until the repairs are done. Put this guy down in the brig with the Ursian for now. We can't afford to let him go anywhere." Filat ordered.

"Heh ... heheh. So my suspicions were correct. The Utka has been captured ... along with her cargo. Do you people ... have any idea who's property you're stealing? Do you have any idea just who it is you're messing with? Well? Do you?" the captive spoke up with a confident attitude. "You imperial privateers have gotten in way over your heads, heheheheh." The room returned a silent and uncertain glare at him. That was a bad sign.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Unless those some hours take us into the next day things should still meet a timetable, or even just a curiosity scouting of the local establishments to see if they truly have anything desperately needed at the moment. Even gives a bit more of a cover if there are spies about. I suppose I could carry stuff to a store if need be," Gar volunteered. "But once I get my cloak I'm heading off to play unneeded-scout and link up with the rest of you once the attack actually begins." It was becoming increasingly more annoying to shied his thoughts with naked ladies. Getting away from the damned Avian would certainly help.

[Mercakete]

Rizen was startled and felt sympathy for Riley again. However his rider had been, he'd been a companion to the stallion, clearly. Her mood shifted a little, making her stiffen in intense worry -- almost fear. His rider was missing, but she didn't know how that'd happened and it probably wasn't her place to ask. She and her own rider were very close, though, and he'd been spending more and more time away from her and he wasn't talking to her nearly as much as he'd used to. Was he going to go missing, too? Was he somehow fading away, appearing less and less frequently until she never saw him again altogether? Was that a thing humans did? Did it mean her rider was dying?! She just thought he'd been neglecting his clear privilege to spend every moment of his life near her! And in turn, robbing her of her privilege of spending time with him...

Overcome with worry, the pegasus mare shifted around restlessly, asking Riley what her own rider's behavior meant after detailing it out: spending more and more time with the humans in the herd and leaving her behind, not talking to her as much as he used to and generally ignoring her more often in general.

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

"The longer we wait to arrive, the more suspicious the cultists will probably get," Veronika pointed out. "Investing a few hours into improving our supplies is probably a worthwile use of time though," she admitted.

Nadya

"Ya know I think this is the fattest I've ever seen ya Luca," she said to the horse in a pleased tone, looking him over. "Should probably get ya out of here though, hope this doesn't hurt," she said, grabbing his sides and slowly pushing him out of the hallway back towards the deck.

[Acacia Sgt]

''Well, if it does ends up happening, it would be for the best to prepare for it around now.'' John said. ''Depends on how much time we can let pass before starting to still arrive at the manse within a reasonable time.''

[Eail]

Speaking up Zach answered the armored guy's question "I have a twenty-four time limit to bring back Raquel before they take things into their own hands and throw out the subtlety aspect and just come after her."