The group of adventurers headed north, towards the Greycloak Forest, and the Hermits Hut.
Jean had done quite a number on them, it seemed. While the party managed to follow her trail (with some difficulty), they had been travelling for a few days now, and surviving only off hunting for food.
Perhaps luckily for all concerned, north was indeed they way they were supposed to go, as Fred stated along the way. The ransom location was past the Greycloak forest, where they would hopefully obtain another clue towards their enemies whereabouts.
Right now, however, the group had managed to get within 50 meters of Jean, and there was now a chase...
Jean, running through thick foliage to the side of the main road was being chased by John at the front, who was slowly but surely catching up.
'twas now a battle of endurance...
OOC: Firstly, Rez, direct your smart-ass DMbait to AIM.
Secondly, the foliage is quite thick, and you can't really tell where you're going. As such, you're basically relying on sound to chase each other. Jean can quite clearly hear John, but John may/may not be able to hear her, depending on the noise made by his companions.
Kwok is, as usual, fair game for all. If you live to the end of the forest, Kwok, I'll have a surprise for you ^_^
John's eyes rapidly darted from side to side, making sure that no sudden obstructions dare get in his path.
Slowly breathing through his nose as he continued running on. He hoped that by keeping low to the ground, the reduced wind resistance would allow his speed to increase.
He was going to do everything in his power to catch that girl.
Following at a leasurely pace, the bard simply used the nice clear trail that John was blazing for him. It was so good of the big strapping man to take all of the branches and brambles to the face, and make all the noise that would attract any monsters to John instead of Lucky.
And as an additional precaution, The bard played a little traveling tune on his bagpipes as he walked quietly through the forest, making use of his Bardic magic to cast a "Please don't pay any attention to me, there's nothing to see here" aura around him. While it wouldn't stop undead, strong willed and higher experienced people, or the (tone)deaf, it was just the thing for keeping those pesky run of the mill goblins and bandits from noticing him. Especially when there was such a better looking decoy running in front of him.
OOC: I'm fair game? >_<
Bastard >_<
IC: "Never fear, people!" Heezan loudly proclaimed in the relative darkness, completely unaware that it would give away their position. "With my magic, I'll be able to catch that thief once and for all!"
Jean mentally recited all the curses she knew. The list was quite extensive.
Who knew the musclehead would be this persistent?
She ran through the brush as quickly and as quietly as she could, and due to the fact she was fairly slender, she managed to slip quite quietly through the dense underbrush, although she was unable to avoid some noise.
Judging by the sounds of the crashing behind her, the hero type was catching up. Not good.
She began looking around for a hiding spot, or a tree to climb. She knew in a test of endurance, she didn't have high odds of winning. But if she could change the game, she might even get away clean...
Lallie giggled as she jumped spritely over the bard, using the fun running time to play a game of 'Jump Over the Heads of Slow People'. And when Heezan yelled out a warning, she stumbled a bit, waiting for him to catch up. As he did, she smacked at his nose with the back of her hand.
"Quiet! John is trying to run! And look, he stumbles when you yell!"
She pointed this out by letting out a yelp. "See?"
ARGH!
John mentally reigned in his rage as he came to a halt, face bright red from both exhastion and anger.
Damnit! He'd lost her trail!
Pounding his fists into the ground, he tried to calm himself down. His blind rush into the woods had been an incredibly stupid manuever, and he knew it...
But his money...
Gritting his teeth, he forced himself up to his feet and slowly continued onwards. He had to use his wits now.
John breathed a quiet sigh of annoyance when he heard all the racket behind him.
Not much to be done, it seemed.
Continuing at a fast pace, he quietly cursed the fates as he tried his best to follow the thief's trail while remaining as quiet as possible.
He hoped the assorted forest vermin killed the mage.
"There's nobody here mate, O ' just walk on by and attack the crickey big dummy
in front of the little ol' me that's nae' even here..."
Walking behind John, but ahead of the Idiots Local 101, Lucky hoped that whatever
these people were chasing was worth the effort he was making here. Otherwise he'd
have to settle for whatever coins they had on them.
Ah well, at least there were cute girls here. ^_^
Heezan yelped as Lallie smacked him on the nose. She... hit him? B-but he was just trying to help! And she hit him! Lallie of all people!
"Fine, fine..." he said, almost whining. "I'll shut up if I'm not wanted..."
OOC: No, Kwok, you're not. I give you a 1/100 chance of surviving.. even if I'm actively trying to keep you alive ^_^
Jean held her breath, watching the ground below her from a perch about ten feet up a large tree. She knew she had no chance of holding onto her lead, and when she'd spotted the enormous tree, she hadn't hesitated to scramble up it, into the cover of the branches.
She peeked through the crisscrossing branches to the ground below. Hopefully, with no more sound to track, the big lug would just give up, and let her keep the money.
She DID deserve it, after all. After all, wasn't it HIS fault that her long brown tresses now ended near her shoulders, rather than halfway down her back? And it was his fault she'd been made a target by those assassins, too. She quashed an uneasy thought that she was partially at fault, being as how this incident has been triggered by the initial theft.
She continued to watch the area below her hoping that he wouldn't come...and half hoping that he would...
OOC: Grr >_<
You just wait, Rat >_<
Mod Edit: Kwok, we have the OOC area for a reason. I don't mind these attached to a game message, or even having something to do with the game itself, but could you save the vague and lame threats for the OOC board? It ruins the flow. ^_~
Thanks.
John briskly walked through the various fauna, and breathed a sigh of relief as he heard the noisy din from 'his' party considerably dull down.
Looking around at his surroundings, he immediately spotted a tree that towered above the others.
Hmm...
Walking up to it, he slowly grinned as he spotted faint movement behind the tree's protective canopy.
"Gotcha." John quietly murmured.
Jean stifled the urge to curse as her mark looked slowly up and grinned.
Damn that stubborn idiot, anyway! Why wouldn't he just leave her alone? She began looking around at the surrounding trees, for an escape route....
Finally getting close enough now that John had stopped, the bard paused and looked to see what the thickheaded
fighter had found so interesting. It didn't take him long to spot Jean, *nothing* could hide a woman from his sight for long.
Lucky pondered, girls or gold...girls or gold...
Alas, to be faced with such a decision, he must have them all!!!
"Down you go!" John gleefully said as he dashed towards and climbed up the tree. Moments later he grinned as he softly landed on the ground, grip firmly holding Jean by the wrist.
"Can I please have my money now?" He sweetly said.
Jean glared at him, pulling on her trapped arm.
"Why should I? I don't even KNOW you, and you've got me hunted by assassins," she snapped, "and I blame YOU for what happened to my hair, AND I've been fondled by that freak of nature bard!"
She ented her little rant, breathing hard. "The way I see it, taking your money was only fair, seeing what I've been through ever since I laid eyes on you, jerk!"
"Hah! The way I see it is that you got yourself into these messes by snooping into other's affairs!" John growled out.
"Besides, you look much better with your hair like that than you did before!" He raged on.
Only to stop...
Did he actually? He did...
Oopsie...
Jean's expression darkened. "I did NOT! All I did was steal from you! You should have known better than to carry that gold where anyone could find it anyway!" she replied tartly.
Anyway...I...wh-?" Her eyes widened and she trailed off, a pink blush spreading over her cheeks.
Did he just say what she thought he did...?
An opening! Now he could direct the conversation AWAY from this touchy subject!
John looked smug as he responded. "Well, now you in this for better or worse. The people we're dealing with have associated you with our little 'group'."
Best not to refer to the party as a freakshow.
He mostly certainly did NOT want to give her any free shots.
Jean blinked, taking a moment to re-orient her thoughts, forcibly prying her mind away from dwelling on what he'd said a moment ago, thankful that she could think about something else.
"How could they?" Jean snapped. "I'm SANE! Your 'Group' are all escapees from a looney bin!"
"Sorry about that darling, but that's them breaks." John said with as much false sincerity that he could muster. "Not that I disagree with your statement, of course."
A thoughtful look crossed his eyes as he turned to examine Jean.
"Hmm...you could be a help, though. How about it? Wanna ditch all these loons and go get the money...er...rescue the princess ourselves?"
Jean stopped short. This guy didn't sound like your ordinary, stick up the @$$ hero-type. It was a tempting offer.
Still, she was very attached to remaining in one piece.
"That's tempting." She admitted. "Princesses usually have a lot of money. Still, I'm not a fighter...not as good at it as you look to be, anyway," she stated, giving him a critical once over. "You know what we'd be up against. You think you can handle it with only little ol' me beside you, sugar?"
"Hmm...we are much more weaker without the others." John mused, a look of consternation crossing his face.
But he DIDN'T want to go back to deal with the loons!
John sighed. "Well, you seem to be a pretty good thief. With the money I have so far, and your own skills we should be able to get enough to hire a couple of like-minded individuals to our cause. Preferably sane people, yes?"
Jean's lips quirked into a lopsided smile. "Preferably." She agreed wryly.
"Ok, sugar. You make a convincing case. The money's good, so I'm your girl."
She stuck out a hand. "Jean Bluevalley."
John beamed at the girl. The thought of actually having some RELIABLE backup from now on made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
"John Trueblade." He firmly shook Jean's hand.
"First things first, let's get the hell out of this forest before our....'friends' attract unwanted attention."
Jean nodded, glancing around uneasily.
"As quick as we can." She agreed. "I feel like we're being watched. If we keep going north, there should be a town..."
John nodded, before leading the both out of the clearing at a fast clip.
"Quick question, Jean. Did those assasins let anything slip while they were going after you?"
"Nope. The one that came after me was the silent type. All I ended up finding out was that he had a strong stoneskin spell on him...nearly ruined my dagger..."
Jean commented, shrugging as she followed him from the forest.
"Damn. I suppose it wouldn't be that easy, would it?" John let out a put upon sigh.
"Oh well, at least I've doubled my chances of succeeding now that I have you with me." He casually said as he ducked under a low lying branch.
Jean stopped briefly, blushing. What does he mean by that? she wondered.
She shook her head quickly. He had a girlfriend. He was just being nice to his new partner, she decided. After all, she'd be relucant to chase sane people away after hanging out with...THOSE people.
She nodded back. "Thank you," she said, acknowledging the compliment. "And with a few more people, and a lot of luck...we may even succeed.."
John forcefully nodded in agreement. "Then all that money will be ours!" He gleefully said, visions of gold coins and varied other treasures dancing in his head.
Jean laughed, grinning at him. "I like the way you think, sugar,"
She smiled to herself. Maybe this guy wasn't so bad after all?
Heezan's loud voice rang out from about 70 metres behind the duo.
"Hey John!" he yelled. "Found the girl yet?"
John came to a complete and sudden halt. Curse it all! Being too deep in his fantasy of actually FINISHING this mission, he had completely forgotten about...THEM.
Picking up a stone from the ground, he threw it as far back as he could. Watching it cause a commotion in the bushes thirty meters behind him he called back.
"Help me get her!"
Dashing towards Jean, he scooped her up in his arms and made a break for it.
He WASN'T going back to them! Never!
Jean blinked as she was suddenly swept into Trueblade's arms, instinctively throwing her arms around his neck.
It was a bit of a shock...but she had no great love for the human disaster areas either. She looked over his shoulder, watching for signs of pursuit, trying not to blush in embarrassment...
"I'm coming!" Heezan answered. "Hold her down!"
Sprinting as fast as he could, he ran to the thrown stone...
... and continued past it, after seeing no sign of Jean or John.
"Where are you?" he yelled out.
Lucky followed after John, unnoticed in his sneakiness. It helped that those two were making those lovey dovey eyes at each other, which made it easier for him to stay a shadow on their trail. He wished he could have gotten his hands on a magic camera like that Takeru fella, for the bard suspected he would have been able to get some *very* interesting pictures if he waited long enough.
But right now, he had more pressing concerns.
Like the clink of coins coming from the pouch that crazy violent girl was carrying.
When in doubt, always follow the gold!
The rather odd couple ran from the 'loonies', stumbling over bushes, logs and small animals...
And came to a screeching halt when they nearly ran straight over a cliff.
The cliff was tall, and at the bottom was a fast-flowing ravine. It would be possible to climb down the side of the cliff, but it would need a rope and at least a little climbing expertise.
To the sides and rear, there was nothing but the thick shrub they party was through. The main path, at a rough estimation, would be about two miles away.
The group was getting *really* off track..
Lallie skidded to a stop beside Heezan, looking around with wide eyes. "Where'd they go?"
Without waiting for an answer, she listened carefully for any suspicious noises... A thump from the left!
"This way!"
"Alright!" Heezan cried out and ran to the left. "Thanks Lallie!"
"I'll catch you yet..." he thought as he ran. "Thief..."
"For 50 gold coins I won't tell the others you're here."
Lucky decided to announce his presence to the deadend duo the old fashioned way.
And just in case they got any nasty bad violent ideas he had his bagpipes up and ready
to wake every ear bearing creature in the forest.
Jean dropped her arm, somewhat awkwardly, being as how Trueblade hadn't put her down, and one of her daggers dropped into her hand.
She cocked her arm, ready to throw, aiming for Lucky's bagpipes.
She paused then, considering. "Twenty." she offered coldly. "After all, You still have my panties."
Lucky cocked his head to the side.
"Point."
He considered briefly.
"Forty, and I'll even forgive you for trying to castrate me that time before."
{I love money, lots and lots of money, money piled to the sky...I wanna be rich....}
She followed behind Heezan reluctantly, now upset with oddness of the chase. This was really wierd. Where was John, and why was the chase going so slowly?
John should've caught up with her by now... and she hadn't heard any suspicious noises for a while. She should be able to hear SOMETHING. But all she caught was a vague impression of voices. And it left he with a sinking feeling for no reason at all...
John sighed as he put Jean down. Turning towards the bard, he suppressed a flare of red hot anger.
At least the bard was smart, so that tempered his anger.
Crossing his arms across his chest, John remained silent during the proceedings. This was Jean's show, and he wasn't about to butt into it.
Jean's expression turned frosty.
"Thirty, and I'll forgive you for the groping, I won't ruin your instrument, and John here won't kill you for trying to blackmail us."
She folded her arms under her breasts, waiting. She trusted John to stay quiet, so she just watched Lucky with a hooded gaze, her dagger still raised and aimed at the bagpipes.
"Thirty five, and I won't curse your boy toy with lifelong impotence or bring up your existance to the local authorities later. Do we have a deal?"
The Bard had measured the distance off perfectly, he'd get off a spell well before either of them could close if they tried. He did hope they would be reasonable though, he hated violence, especially when it was directed towards him.
Jean debated for a moment, toying with a counter offer. No, best to leave off like that, to let him think he had won. She sighed dramatically, hiding her smile, and pulled out a money purse that didn't belong to her.
Neither Lucky nor John recognized it, but a certain young mage was likely to notice it's absence soon.
She tossed it to Lucky, nodding. "Deal. Now get lost."
A quick count of the bag's contents verified their number and quality.
"Always nice to do business with a reasonable party."
He gave the pair a humble little bow and faded into the woodwork.
Of course the first thing he did once out of sight was to discard the bag
and add the gold into his *own*little stash.
Then he settled down to wait for a bit.
After all he'd only said he wouldn't tell the others, he'd said *nothing* about
not following them out of the forest. Better that they take any lumps then he did!
Heezan stopped abruptly in mid-run as he noticed a familiar-looking money purse.
"Huh...?"
Feeling around on his waist, he didn't feel the money purse that would normally be there. Grabbing the purse up from the ground, he took a closer look.
"Hey, that's mine!" he exclaimed. Opening the money purse to check on its contents, he was enraged to find that nothing remained in it.
"Dammit!" he cried. "I had thirty five gold pieces in there! Who took it?!"
The situation was as thus.
Excepting Jean and John, the party was pretty much travelling single file through the somewhat dense brush, searching for the aforementions.
The path is relatively easy to find- simply double back.
To the north, there are a great many trees which block out futher view.
The south is the way in which the party came. If they go back that way, they'll find themselves in Escaville again.
To the West is a valley with a slope that simply can't be climbed down with the parties current equpiment. Spells *could* be used, but would *you* trust Heezan?
To the East are some farmsteads, occupied by the middle class farmers who have several labourers underneath them.
The direction in which the party must go to further the adventure along it's linear route is north.
However, the occasional traveller the party past across has heard of strange doings to the farmsteads, who have only been exporting half their usual grain.
OOC: There are technically two parties now, but at the moment, you're roughly in the same place, just... well, you know what I mean.
OOC: Hey, what about me? I know I haven't been around, but there hasn't been much fighting to be done. >_<
IC:
Hammerfist Axebeard trudged along. He had been trudging for a while now, since he was much slower than the average human. The rest of the party had decided to travel ahead without him, and he didn't want to slow everyone else down. Besides, the puny humans would tire long before he did, so in the end everything would work out.
It was therefore suprising to him to find the trail he had been following split into two directions, and he wondered what happened to the rest of the group.
"Hullo, out there!" he yelled, in hopes someone was still close enough to hear him. "What's happenin?"
Lallie stopped, uncertain. "I hear someone back that way, Heezan."
He was busy mumbling about his money purse. Gosh, that was a lot of money to lose, wasn't it?
"I think it's Hammerfist. But Jean, John and Lucky went on up ahead this way."
She didn't like the woods. Her family had lived on open fields. Edging closer to her companion, she took a look around at the close-knit trees and brush. This was really, really not fun.
Heezan blinked out of his thoughts on how many spells he would use on whoever took his gold.
"What?" he said without thinking. "Oh, that way... alright, let's go..."
"Huh?" he uttered as he suddenly noticed Lallie's apparent nervousness. "What's wrong?"
Lallie shrugged, grinning. "Nothing! You're being silly, Heezan! C'mon, hurry up!"
Heezan shrugged.
"Well, if you say so..." he said, looking at the direction Lallie pointed them at. "Let's go then!"
Breaking out into a run, he sprinted towards their target.
John looked around at their current surroundings, and began to assess the situation.
South was no-no...he most certainly did NOT want to join up with those nutjobs anytime soon.
North was iffy, too many trees, they'd likely get lost if they went through there.
That left West or East...
Pulling out a coin, he flipped it.
Coming to heads, he nodded.
East it was.
Turning towards Jean and what's his name, the bard, he started.
"Whatever, let's go now before trouble finds us, alright?"
Not even giving the two a chance to talk, he started heading East.
Wordlessly, Jean fell into step behind John, glaring at the area where Lucky had vanished.
He had better hope he didn't run into her again. If she ever saw the pervert again, she fully intended to rob him blind.
Lucky trailed after the pair, staying just out of sight.
Nothing beat a pair of Polish monster detectors out front to keep trouble away. ^_^