Return of the Emblem Chapter Thirteen: Flight

[Mercakete]

Norbert shook his head. As far as he could tell, the bandits hadn't bothered with the space down the slope. Before answering the captain, he pointed the arrow out to the staffers and told them, "I'll keep her calm. You go ahead and take care of the arrow."

Once that message was conveyed and he'd adjusted his grip on Rizen's reins, he replied to the captain, "I didn't find any traps or bandits there. They probably saw us last night and set up for an attack. So, they're probably going to be around the road, mostly, and places where those of us with wings are likely to hit them, like what happened here. I'd expect to be expected at this point...and they're probably adjusting how they're set up now. I wouldn't be surprised if we're being watched."

It was annoying to have to deal with the bandits on their terms -- one wanted as many advantages over one's foe as possible, after all -- but that seemed to be what they were dealing with now. At least they still had daylight, but the bandits still knew the area a lot better than they did, and were accustomed to this sort of terrain. Norbert couldn't say the same for many of their own number. At least I'm not fighting these bandits alone. If that was the case, I'd call off the attack entirely, at least until I had the element of surprise again.

Edited July 21, 2015 by Mercakete

[Nanami Touko]

"I'm not dealing with Bert at all. I apologized for how I acted at the cathedral, but if he starts going off on me again, I'm just going to ignore him. He seems way too temperamental." Eva shrugged, and urged Sasha to go up. "Hold on tight." And so the went, climbing and climbing for a few hundred feet, getting themselves the vision they needed of the surrounding area... And they saw more trees, more rocks and-- "Oh. Well. Those clearings look... A bit weird." There were some suspicious clearings to the north, something she'd have to tell the captain when they got back. "See anything else, Jam?"

[Phoenix]

A Rough Time of It

"Great. Let's hope they can get something out of one of our hosts here, then," the captain said, nudging his head over at the restrained bandit. By this point, he was bleeding profusely from the nose and mouth, the repeated gauntlet clad strikes to his face having done their worst.

As if on cue, the man cried out in agony. It wasn't because of a punch, however. "Stop ... please ..." he begged Doran as blood began to flow from where one of his front teeth had previously been. Doran held the tooth in his hand for a moment, and then chucked it into the dirt.

"Come on, you mountain scum," Doran began, "tell us how many of you there are and where your hideout is." He was tired of this, too tired to even raise his voice or try to sound even remotely threatening. "You had a good run but this needs to end, and your leader needs to pay for what he's done."

Shadrak tried to tune out the interrogation to focus on what to do next. So far they'd been out here for roughly a day and probably weren't any closer to finding that hideout. Not unless their other scouts found something or the bandit cracked. It was times like these when he wished he had some minor experience in mind magic. He could try getting the information without the man's consent. Bringing an avian and tricking him into thinking about the information they needed would have been an even easier work around, but Joanna was never going to be available for this mission, and by extension, neither was Liam.

Meanwhile, the staffer had a look at Rizen's injury. It was definitely a lucky shot, but a gap was a gap ... and they were probably dealing with some seasoned shooters. Hunters, possibly. "Could they still be nearby? If they start shooting at us, we could get pinned down rather quickly." That said, the healer decided to quickly but carefully remove the arrow. He wouldn't risk the arrowhead coming free from the shaft, because he would be healing immediately to keep the blood loss to an minimum. Here was hoping Norbert could keep Rizen relatively still ... or at least calm. The healer would settle for simply not being injured himself at this point.

[Mercakete]

Those sorts of pleas were nothing new to Norbert, especially coming from a bandit. Still, considering the one doing the interrogating, the rider couldn't help but feel his anger flare. He had Rizen's head resting on his shoulder and kept a tight grip on her reins right under her head. He knew how instinctively his pegasus reacted to things, so he'd already taken these precautions to protect the healers. If her head moved, it wouldn't be much, and would probably just bump against his own, if anything. As far as he was concerned, she was as secure as she could be. Anything more would just freak her out.

"Just answer his blasted questions!" Norbert called over to the bandit, "Whatever your protecting isn't worth this."

The bandit himself wasn't worth protecting, Norbert knew. He, himself, had been interrogated for information he could've just been asked for, and he'd undergone punishment for telling the truth. Prying information from scum like this one in order to protect other people was different, even if the methods were brutal. There was a difference, and at the moment, the rider had to remind himself of that.

To the healer, the rider replied, "Unless people went to investigate the place I pointed out earlier, who knows? I came up here in the first place to deal with archers. The guy Doran's tormenting was one of two, but there's at least one or two more up here if they haven't been dealt with."

Rizen jerked with a surprised, short vocalization as the arrow began to be removed. Norbert's free hand quickly moved from resting on his hip to resting on Rizen's nose. He also leaned his head to the side and onto her own. "It's ok, Riz. Hold still."

She was still tense and apprehensive, shifting around on her hooves a bit. Honestly, the pegasus wasn't sure what to make of the situation, but she felt alarm for sure. Her ears swiveled about attentively, and her eyes were wide. She occasionally gave an uneasy, hummed bray, but it didn't hurt too much...and her rider was right here...and he even seemed calm about this... Maybe things would be okay...

[Toogee]

"I'm not dealing with Bert at all. I apologized for how I acted at the cathedral, but if he starts going off on me again, I'm just going to ignore him. He seems way too temperamental." Eva shrugged, and urged Sasha to go up. "Hold on tight." And so the went, climbing and climbing for a few hundred feet, getting themselves the vision they needed of the surrounding area... And they saw more trees, more rocks and-- "Oh. Well. Those clearings look... A bit weird." There were some suspicious clearings to the north, something she'd have to tell the captain when they got back. "See anything else, Jam?"

Jam was barely listening; she was distracted by a little bluebird that was floating around her head. It sung a song as it landed on Jam's shoulder. The dancer turned and smiled.

"Well, aren't you a cute thing," Jam said. The little bird was the only thing noteworthy in the otherwise landmark-less landscape.

[Phoenix]

Information Gathering

"Why bother?!" the bandit said, blood spurting from his mouth as he did, "I'll be killed if they find out I ratted them out ... and you lot are just going to kill me, too ... just like you did Jack!"

Doran smirked. "Didn't kill that one, sorry. That was the 'scout' over there. As for you dying, I'm definitely going to put you down like the dog you are if you don't tell us where your hideout is, and the longer that takes, the more you're going to wish you were dead."

"T-that's impossible ..." the bandit shook his head in disbelief, trying to recall the encounter as best he could. It was significantly more difficult considering the amount of pain he was in. "Nah-no ... no way ..."

"Hmm ..." Shadrak got to thinking. They had a captive and they still didn't have the basic information they needed to proceed with any confidence. There had to be some way to coax something out of this bandit, a way to trick him into revealing something. These threats weren't going to do it.

Second Tour

Joanna's wings began to unfold ever so slightly. Then they gently moved back and forth several inches at a time. "I see ... umm ..." Amon and Greta were on edge as they awaited Joanna's explanation. "It's strange ... like I'm flying ... who is this? Are they in the air? Yes, it's a wyvern." Finally the wing movements made sense, though the whole ordeal was a little unsettling to watch. Her expression was similar to a deer that had just spotted danger, and the golden glow in her irises was making that expression resemble a magical trance. It was all just a little too creepy for Glen, so he decided not to watch at all.

"What's the wyvern they took with'em?" Greta asked. She couldn't remember the thing's name.

"Sasha, I think," Amon answered.

"They're really high up ... I can see so much of the mountain."

"Wait," Glen called back, "they're not getting shot down?"

"Nothing seems amiss ... but I can't see anyone else ..."

[Mercakete]

"If you're a bandit, you'll be treated like one," Norbert informed the man, still not entirely sure who killed the guy's ally. Maybe it was someone else they considered a scout....but did Doran really think he was the one who did it? He'd worry about that later. What mattered right now was getting information. He continued to the bandit, "If you're not a bandit, then why would anyone here beat you to death? Citizens get protected by the local guard, right?"

That last bit was directed at the guard captain. If the only thing this guy was fighting for at this point was his life, well, he had to see living as an option they were offering. A small part of Norbert spoke up on this partially from his own views, too, however: that it was society's leaders' -- and, by extnesion, the guards' -- jobs not just to punish lawbreakers, but to protect the general populace.

[Nanami Touko]

"Well..." Eva wasn't quite sure what to say towards Jam's nonchalant attitude, but they weren't being shot at, and nothing angry was flying towards them, so... "Let's go back down, and start going back, then." Eva slowly angled Sasha towards the descent, getting him to take them back down to the treeline. She did make sure to stay alert, though, because while they hadn't been shot at yet, getting shot at on the way down could prove even deadlier.

[Toogee]

As they descended, the little bird flew back to whatever it was doing. Jam was holding onto Eva as they descended when she pointed out the obvious.

"For all the precautions we were taking yesterday, we flew up there in broad daylight and nothing happened," Jam said. "I mean, I'm glad nothing happened, but what gives?"

[Phoenix]

Stuff

"Hmm?" the guard captain glanced over. Was that at him? He hadn't even considered letting the man off the hook, though killing a captive wasn't his usual approach, either. Of course, it wouldn't be given that they typically arrested people in or very close to the city and threw them into a cell straight away. There was no such convenience out here, and it was the first time he was seeing the barracks and outposts as a convenience in this regard.

"Beat him to death?" Doran echoed with a strange look, "I've got a gun; we haven't got all day ... and besides, he's definitely a bandit."

The man's face lit up in realization. "N-no, I'm not! What ... do you ... you actually think bandits use bear traps like this for people? Come on ..."

"Ugh," Doran pinched the bridge of his nose, "here we go ..."

[Mercakete]

"Don't dig your grave here, you moron," Norbert snapped at the bandit. Quietly, he irritably requested of the healer working on Rizen, "Hurry it up, if you can."

He didn't want a rush job on Rizen's injury, but he also didn't want to just stand there at the moment. Not when this bandit was getting this annoying. He returned his attention to the bandit. "Don't you get that you're being given an opportunity that your fellow bandits won't get? Start throwing around lies like you just did and I might just smash your face in myself! Whether you're a bandit or not is determined by the choices you make, right? So start making the right ones, idiot, before I lose my patience: tell these soldiers what they want to know, and you'll just wind up captured instead of killed, and I don't just mean killed by this lot either."

He looked to the captain, though his words were still directed to the bandit. "Or at least I assume you'll be protected if you give up banditry and start saying something useful. That's not really my call."

[-Cynthia-]

Liam frowned as Joanna had another vision. Even though she tried to have a vision this time, does she really control it?

"Maybe the battle's over already?" Nadya guessed optimistically.

Edited July 26, 2015 by -Cynthia-

[scorri]

Hoshi had been standing quietly by listening, but she finally stepped forward. "Uhm... if... if we are sending another group out to them, I will go. If they are in danger... I should be out there trying to help them." She wasn't exactly happy about this decision but if she was their leader, she should be helping them, right?

Lumi wasn't willing to watching a man get tortured, so she'd wandered a bit away from the group and was currently just practicing with her ice magic while she waited for the others to make a decision about what they were doing. She was still trying to work on getting that shield just right... She growled as yet another attempt collapsed around her. Something wasn't right but she was getting closer.

[Nanami Touko]

And there they were, back on the treeline, without any trouble getting up and down... It was a bit worrying, to Eva. "Yeah, seriously... This was almost too easy. If I get any shit from Bert, or the captain for doing so, I'm ignoring it outright. I was expecting arrows, or even ballistae, but... Nothing. Weird..." Eva turned Sasha around and started flying him back to camp, still concerned, and thus, still vigil for anything to happen.

[Phoenix]

Why Bother?

"I'm not so sure," Doran glanced Norbert's way with a strange look on his face. He slowly unholstered his pistol as he did. "These bastards have been killing our pegasus knights left and right. I'm pretty sure he had a hand in at least one of those murders. He's not talking sense, so why shouldn't we just blast him and leave his pathetic carcass for the dogs?"

While this was typical Doran behavior, the guard captain noticed that his tone was far calmer and more sadistic than it would normally be in this situation, so he didn't make an effort to talk him down. If he thought Doran was actually about to shoot, he would say something, though admittedly, he would probably be too late by then and would have to punish the man. If Doran was going to take that risk, then so be it, but short of some very advanced techniques, they weren't going to torture anything useful out of this bandit.

And that's when something completely unexpected happened. "We weren't trying to kill them! Most of them are still alive," he yelled pleadingly. It wasn't the information they were after, but it was still good news. "A-at the base! The survivors and their pegasuses are at the base!"

Doran immediately slammed the pistol into the man's face. "Which ones?! Who's still alive and what did you do with'em?!" He was so shocked by the revelation that he dropped his act, hoping to learn more. It was the best news they'd had since they started on this mission, after all.

The healer flinched at the sound that impact had made, figuring something had been knocked loose if not broken. The healing was coming along well enough, especially since the complication of a broken off arrowhead never came up. The wound quickly closed up with no scarring, and the only sign that the injury had ever occurred were some lingering blood stains away from the site of the injury. Only cleaning the harness and armor and washing the fur would fix that little problem, but the worst was over. "All done ... let me know when you people are done with our captive. If we're taking him back as a prisoner, I'd like to make sure he can at least survive the trek."

Next Report

Joanna flinched as a pistol flew past her face. She snapped out of her vision after that, having much preferred the peaceful view from up high. "I ... I don't know what just happened, but there's ... still some violence. Perhaps someone captured? Someone was asking questions ... violently."

"Maybe they're alright, then," Greta mused aloud. She doubted bandits would interrogate people so much as put them to use or put them down. Joanna obviously wasn't a fan of abuse no matter which side it was aimed at, so it made sense that she would frame even victory as bittersweet.

"Did you see anything that looked like fortress walls, buildings ... or anything resembling a camp?" Amon asked. If they hadn't actually found the bandit hideout yet then even if they had won some small skirmish, they were likely far from finished and had more trouble to come. If that was the case ...

"Nothing but trees and bushes," Joanna answered.

"Hmm ..."

Edited July 28, 2015 by Phoenix

[Mercakete]

The bandit wasn't the only one who bought Doran's act, but Norbert was already wary of the guy before this interrogation. The captain still said nothing, which was annoying, but the news of the captives both surprised and lit a fire under the rider. He registered that the healer was finished with Rizen, so he let go of her reins and closed the distance between the interrogation and himself.

Rizen was left to look at the healer next to her. The pain in her side was completely gone. This human had something to do with that, didn't he? All she was doing for now was staring, though. Curiously, at that.

Norbert, meanwhile, didn't particularly care that Doran was interrogating this thug or that he'd just whacked him in the face. He wanted answers himself, and would get them himself. He agreed with the questions, particularly since this wasn't typical bandit behavior. ... Actually, none of this was. And that was beginning to annoy Norbert. It wasn't that he wanted them all to be brutalized, but it was frustrating thinking you were dealing with one kind of animal and finding out you're up against something entirely different.

"You'd better start giving us some answers, you miserable mound of filth," he snarled as he took his maces into his hands. "If you think you've been brutalized by this piglet so far, then you've never been up north." She could still be alive. She and the others... If we don't get to them soon, though... "Answer his questions, but answer these, too." His grip tightened on his maces. His ferocious glare bored into the bandit. "Where is your blasted base, who is your leader, and what's his background? If you don't start talking, you'll never talk again -- understand?! I'LL CRUSH YOU, YOU HEAR ME?!" He was poised to lash out with his maces at any moment, too. There was no time for this, not when people coming to rescue the bandits' captives and said bandits could still hurt said captives.

[Toogee]

And there they were, back on the treeline, without any trouble getting up and down... It was a bit worrying, to Eva. "Yeah, seriously... This was almost too easy. If I get any shit from Bert, or the captain for doing so, I'm ignoring it outright. I was expecting arrows, or even ballistae, but... Nothing. Weird..." Eva turned Sasha around and started flying him back to camp, still concerned, and thus, still vigil for anything to happen.

"Well, for what its worth, I think it was important to know that they're not firing now. Either we're not close enough or they don't actually have ballista. ...Or it's empty and they're on their way here. Hm..."

While trying to determine whether their update would be good or bad, Jam thought to add on another observation from earlier.

"Hey, did you hear that roar from earlier? What do you think that was?"

[Phoenix]

Interrogation Continues

Not sure how to communicate with a pegasus, much less one as spirited as Rizen, the healer gave a small wave of the hand. That was around the time the interrogation really began to pick up. He didn't expect this could possibly turn into a rescue mission.

"Watch it, orphan boy," Doran warned after the piglet remark.

"H-how should I know 'which ones'?! We just captured whoever we could, but they didn't always survive the falls," the man explained, trying to delay whatever beating was coming. The smack from that pistol was still throbbing as if his own heart was located right there ... and he was still in pain just about everywhere else from the previous beating he'd received. "The ones that survived are being kept at the base," he explained, small spurts of blood falling from his mouth thanks to the fresh, bleeding gap in his teeth. "... a-and I can't tell you where the base is or who our leader is! He'll kill me! They'll all kill me! That's worse than anything you sods have planned!"

"He's wrong about that, but why would they want to capture pegasus knights?" Doran mused aloud, "There's no way they can convince those girls to work for them. What, are you outlaws lonely or something?"

Norbert's question about the bandits' leader got Shadrak thinking about Carlos Lich, again. He hadn't heard the name before, but maybe someone else had. Maybe if he brought it up between all the yelling, the guard captain or someone else could shed some light on it.

[Mercakete]

Without any further warning, Norbert whipped one of his maces out at the bandit, slamming it into the captive's upper arm before returning it to a guarded yet poised position. His intense glare was still fixed on the man as he snappishly informed, "That was a warning. Don't refuse to answer my questions, bandit. I've made a living out of hunting scum like you down and destroying you until your bones are a fine powder, you hear me? The only reason you're not hurt even worse right now is because you answered something. Start making it a habit, and start now if you want to keep your arms. Now, when you say they'll 'all' kill you, who exactly do you mean? Give me a good answer and I might not hit you this time."

Rizen's ears swiveled about, listening to the further-away sounds of the woods as she looked from the human to the goings-on of the camp. It seemed like her rider was attacking someone again. Well, that wasn't much new. Maybe they would be going somewhere soon. Sometimes that meant that. She shifted around on her hooves. There was a bit of blood on her and it was beginning to annoy her. Now wasn't the time to seek out a good brushing, though. Norbert was a little unreasonable in that regard. When he was talking to other humans while fighting with them, he never let her interrupt, even for something like a dirty spot on her coat. Humans and their backwards priorities...

[Ether]

Well, with Eva out scouting and the interrogation, of sorts, under way, it seemed things had calmed down... well, relatively speaking. And the lack of further, and louder, ...dragonesque roars was certainly preferable to the alternative. Angelica was somewhat surprised, thought not overly so, at Norbert's particular approach to gathering information. Not so much that this was the method he would have used, so much as that he had a method to begin with. Apparently he was a bounty hunter, of sorts.

"Think you'll be able to handle him, Norbert? Or would you like some help?" The adept offered somewhat lazily, as she watched the area for any signs of movement or any other oddities.

[Nanami Touko]

"I think it's a bit too wishful to think they're all out of ammo, but... Let's at least hope we weren't close enough. We didn't see their base, so I'm assuming we weren't." It was a hopeful thought, as they flew back. It would take something short of a miracle for them to be entirely out of ammo, if this really was such a problem. But, at least Jam was good at being positive. "That noise?" Eva asked, smiling, but for all the wrong reasons. "That was a dragon. Let's hope it's not working with the bandits... That would be the last thing we need."

[Phoenix]

Stuff

"Everyone," the man shouted. He likely wasn't getting anymore specific with that, not given the extent of his injuries and the effect it was having on his ability to explain himself. "You don't betray your people! You never betray your people or they'll kill you!"

"And we won't? Seriously what is with these bandits?" Doran mused aloud, though he was still curious about the pegasus knights more than anything.

"Excuse me, Captain?" Shadrak quietly approached the patrol leader, "I've got a question."

"You should probably ask the bandit, then. He's the one getting interviewed."

Not sure if that was a joke or not, Shadrak stayed the course. "He's already got a lot of questions, besides, you're just as likely to know as he is." That seemed to get the guard captain to at least make eye contact. "Does the name Carlos Lich mean anything to you?"

The captain nodded slowly. "It most certainly does. Why?"

"Well ..." Suddenly the druid hit up on a ridiculous idea. He wasn't sure whether to go through with it or not, but if it worked, they might trick the bandit into confirming something important for them. Also if this ridiculous idea worked, the rest of the interrogation might go far smoother.

[Mercakete]

"If you mean all the bandits and us, then you're right," Norbert replied, annoyed but understanding at the man's vague answer.

Angelica asked if he needed help, specifically. That was interesting, since he supposed this was technically Doran's project. Also since he hadn't supposed that Angelica was inclined toward this sort of job. If she was offering help, though, maybe it was something she'd had to handle in the past. She sure didn't seem overly-emotional about it, so she'd probably at least grown numb to caring what the one she was interrogating thought. Maybe. It was all conjecture anyway, and the long train of thoughts was beginning to annoy him, so the rider shoved them to the back of his mind.

"I don't think it matters either way," Norbert answered. He cast an annoyed glare to the bandit, now addressing him. "If she does decide to join in on this, though, I can't make any promises for her. But keep up the answers and I'll keep not breaking you, at least. Now, your band have a name?" As he asked this last question, Norbert adjusted his grip on one of his maces, swinging it thoughtlessly in casual rotations.

[Phoenix]

Mind Reading?

"One sec," Shadrak held up a finger at the guard captain before turning toward the interrogation.

"Just stop," the man pleaded, "there's nothing more I can tell you! Figure it out for yourselves and just kill me, already!"

"Oh great, he's giving up," Doran mumbled. Why did so many people do this after a modest pummeling, he wondered? He was about to chime in, again when Shadrak walked around him.

"Bert, can I see him for a second? I might be able to read him," Shadrak said. There weren't any outward signs or cues that this was a bluff; Shadrak didn't see the point in trying to convey the bluff to Norbert or anyone else, not when he didn't know how be that subtle, and not when they would likely see what he was trying to do as soon as he started. Whether or not it worked would depend on the bandit's state of mind. Right now, he seemed pretty much broken and possibly gullible enough to fall for this ruse.

[Ether]

Angelica cocked her eyebrow a tad, as Shadrak walked over. As far as she was aware, he wasn't practised in mind magic, but she could be wrong... it was also possible that he was bluffing to try and get a reaction, as he was being rather obvious about the whole thing. Generally a mind mage would want to go in unawares, after all.

"Well, if you think you can, that'd save a whole lot of effort on my end." The adept noted, casually giving her nails a once over as she watched.