Agril, Axe Murderer

-=--=--=--=--=--=--<* City Docks - Alexandria's Welcome *>=--=--=--=--=--=--=-

        A waterfront district full of sailors in search of entertainment and the
 businesses that cater to them, the famed area known as Alexandria's Welcome
 can be a rough-and-tumble place. Roughened sailors careen through these
 streets in groups of three, four and five, moving from tavern to bordello and
 back again in search of a good time. This area most assuredly caters to
 the lower classes.

        Daring captains tend to wander through here in search of the rowdiest 
and the toughest to attempt to sail their ships; fist fights are common, as are
boistrous claims and stories by loud sailors who have no shortage of tall tales 
regarding their time at sea to share with anyone willing to listen.

-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-- Contents --=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
 Alteri          Tall, female human fighter; dark hair, pale eyes.     0s   10h
 Agril           A human man in priestly garb.                         6s   53m
 Halani          Shortish, dusky skinned woman with almond shaped eyes 1m   3h
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--= Exits -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
Ox-Strength Tavern <OX>   Dragon's Gate <S>         Cliffside <NW>
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-

A night watchman sounds his gong, marking the final quarter of an hour before midnight. The air is still, save for his measured pacing. Shadows bob and lengthen with his passing, casting odd shapes that the more nervous might jump at. Not helping is the fog, creeping in from the sea and causing sound and echoes to bend oddly. Most of the sane have found their beds, while the less prudent continue swilling and wenching indoors. The most imprudent of all? They loiter the docks, heedless of the rough-hands and confident no one will bother them.

Alteri is one of the latter-most. Her hands are cupped strangely to her face, and if ears are sharp, they will hear a soft melody whistling through her fingers. Upon a closer look, a pair of thin leaves are spotted between her lips, blown to create the simple Sendoran melody. Meandering with no true destination, she saunters past a drunken scuffle already being broken up by the City Watch.

"All is well," mutters Agril as he makes his way down the street. "All is *not* well. I had to delivere twins tonight. *Twins*. How many more times is this going to happen? Daeus, are you trying to send me a message? I bloody well *hope* not.."

His smock, by the way, is covered in blood.

Halani wasn't quite sure what she heard.. it's not that she has sharp ears, but some trick of the alleyways brought the soft sound of Alteri's music to her, drawing her out into the street in search of its source. Almost entranced, the young woman doesn't see Agril until she bumps into him. She lets out a startled "oh!" and starts to apologize.. until she notices blood on her robes. And then notices blood on Agril's smock. And then misinterprets his expression as something else entirely. Her eyes widen, and then she lets out an ear piercing shriek.

Mist swirls, giving way to Alteri's long steps. She has reached the boardwalk itself, her war-like stature and Big Freaking Sword staving off any possible offers for a quick tumble from the dockhands. Most are gathered in small circles, gambling their day's wages away. In the dark waters, quiet splashes are still heard, as the more enterprising or perhaps, the most desperate, search the briny shallows for things to salvage. Boat-borne lanterns bob and sway like a myriad fireflies, while men, affected by the oppressive humidity and fog of the night, quietly grunt and strain to haul their next big find into their crafts.

Alteri's tune reaches a crescendo, and some few she passes by even tap to the rhythm. Halani's piercing shriek shatters that uneasy peace in an instant, and the Eldanar's head whips to look where she -thought- she heard the sound coming from. But then more screams are heard, this time from the dark waters. One of the lanterns is bobbing madly, showing men with arms flailing wildly. A loud splash, as one goes so far as to abandon the boat, trying desperately to make it to shore. Stark terror paints his pale face, the expression melting to one of desperation as he begins to sink. He does not know how to swim. Taking this all this in, Alteri mutters a general prayer to the Holy Order and, quickly stripping off her breastplate and sword, she dives in, strong strokes taking her out to the struggling man.

"It's a body! Gods save us!" Come one of the shouts drifting over the murky waters.

"..."

Agril pauses for a moment. A long moment. He looks at Halani and says, "I'm a priest of *Daeus*, Lady. Calm yourself. Please. Now." And then there's the body call and he just -groans-. As if this day couldn't get any worse.

Halani backpedals, Agril's identification being lost on her. Or maybe she doesn't trust a psychopathic killer to tell the truth. Either way, she doesn't take her eyes off of him until she's out of arm's reach, and then she sprints.. to where a few people are beginning to gather. Safety in numbers and all that. Nevermind that they're gathering because of the shouts from the water and Alteri's heroics.

It is not so much heroics as a pragmatic wish for the docks to not smell any worse than it already does. Corpses, sea-bloated ones especially, smell terrible. Spluttering, the panicked man claws at the first solid thing his hands find, that being Alteri's face. Grunting at the sting of salt water on her cuts, she quietly waits for just the right moment and simply gives his temple a good hard rap. Much better. Holding the now unconscious man's head above the harbour's calm waters, it is a simple task to haul him back to shore.

Not so simple, however, is the attempt to get a handle on just what is going on. Between the scream and all the shouts, people are pouring out of taverns and hovels, milling like an ant mound a petulent child had kicked over.

"Did they say body?"

"WAAAAH! It's my honeybuns! I knew he wouldn't leave me on purpose! WAAAAH! Wait for me, my roasted chestnuts, I'm coming to join you! Give me your knife! Is it sharp??"

"By the gods, would someone shut that twat up?!"

"Madame, kindly take your hands -off- my crotch!"

"You've got to be kidding me," says Agril. He tears the smock off and tosses it aside and then marches to the front, then, calls out, "Calm down, people!" The priest's voice takes on a deeply commanding tone. Because, well.. he *can* be.

Halani gets jostled a bit as people start crowding about, and then.. she sees him! Not to be fooled by his half-hearted attempt to hide his misdeeds, Halani decides to act. She tried the better part of valour.. she tried to just run away and avoid confrontation.. but oooooh no. He had to follow her. So, hopefully before he has a chance to really spot her, Halani ducks under his arm and then.. goes for the knees. Well, the back too. A combination if you will, of pushing at the small of his back and kicking at the back of his knees.

More lanterns bob around the boat that is the source of the -second- panic, as conscientious captains or simply the curious ones, paddle over to see what the fuss is about. One and all go pale under their weather-beaten tans, and a few begin retching into the waters. One of the older salts retains his fortitude and points a finger, gnarled and arthritic by the rigours of his trade, towards the shoreline. "Y'best git it t'land, son." he rasps, "B'ain't fer us ta deal wit' this sort o' badness." Making superstitious warding signs, he is the first to get his boat as far and away as possible. The rest follow suit, unwilling to be tied up in questionings. The remaining hands reluctantly begin paddling towards shore.

For Alteri's part, she is just dragging her rescuee's inert form up the closest shale slope her feet find. "Teach me *ungh* to hang around here." she can be heard grumbling to herself while pulling their waterlogged selves up past the highest tidelines. Of course, the spot where she dumps her burden is just next to where the bloodstained smock is piled. Eyes widening at the rust stains, she looks around, just in time to see a monk she knows, making a move for... a priest she knows. "Huh?" comes her eminently erudite query.

Agril was about to call to Alteri, really. Say something to the shape of the woman dragging the person she's rescuing in. But then he feels hands on his back and a good kick to the back of his legs and he goes tumbling into the water with a SPLOOSH.

"AUGH."

Halani dusts her hands off, allowing herself a moment of self-congratulations before she really takes a look at what's going on. What little she manages to see in what poor lighting there is for her mere human eyes, she still blanches. There is a moment... a mere second, really.. of regret for dumping Agril in there. But then she remembers he's some sort of nasty axe murderer, so she backs away instead. And then spies Alteri, all sodden and burdened with a fellow who looks half her size. Eager to be away from looking at the waters, she trots over to Alteri. "What's going on?"

Thoroughly lost on what is going on herself, Alteri shrugs an eloquent shoulder while watching Agril to check if he can actually swim, "Mistress Halani," she greets, impatiently tossing aside the strand of seaweed that is trying to give her a unibrow look, "I haven't the faintest..." Eyes made colourless in the dim light fall to the deck of the boat now crunching into the sand; an advantage of being able to see past most of those crowding around.

Arms, legs, and a body. Yes, they are all there. Unfortunately, that is all that is there. The grotesquely bloated thing is missing a head, as well and hands and feet. Whether they were cleanly sliced off is difficult to tell, for the fishies have gotten to it. At least the age of the corpse rules out Agril. Maybe. Throat moving as if she is swallowing back bile, she winces as new screams begin sounding. Trying to speak over the noise, she gestures towards where she saw Agril go in, echoing Halani, "What's going on?"

"..gwaah," dammit, Agril isn't a great swimmer, but he begins paddling back to shore, sputtering, to try to haul himself up out of the water. There is HORRIBLE THINGS in the water. The body, for one. Alteri for two. And vomit. And oil. And piss. And everything else.

Halani's eyes widen, and her cheeks puff out as if attempting to control her stomach and not lose her dinner. She puts her hands over her mouth.. and then fails as she has to turn around and retch. The sound of other people doing the same probably doesn't help much. It takes her a little while to finish; when she does, her breathing is hard and her voice is shaky. "I think I know who did it," she manages to claim. "He was following me. I think I was going to be his next victim!" Yes. The world does revolve around Halani.

Alteri does not have Halani's advantage of having seen Agril suspiciously bloodstained. Thus, she steps over to offer him a hand. The pause indicates her attempting to recall his name, "Double-rainbow man." She fails, "Are you all ri- Wait," frowning, she glances from Halani to Agril. Agril, who was shoved into the sea by the monkette. "Him?" In her shock, she might have dropped him back into the sea. And -still- the crowds mill, torn between morbid fascination and a spreading word that someone knows who the killer is.

"Uagh," coughs Agril a few more times as he finally gets back on the land. "That's *it*. In the name of Daeus, you will all *calm down this instant!" And Agril's commanding enough to demand just that. He's got that presence to him, after all, that only high ranking clerics can really muster.

GAME: Agril rolls diplomacy: (1)+29: 30

"It's him!" squeaks Halani, and she immediately falls into a fighting stance, shifting to the balls of her feet as she raises her hands up in front of her. Heedless of the fact that people are stepping away from him, somewhat hushed from his Commanding Presence. "I'm not gonna let you turn me into fish food!"

Thoroughly flummoxed, Alteri's head snaps comically from monk to cleric and back. She is not being paid enough for this, and she mumbles as much.

More screams, prompted by Halani's squeak, and one shriek of outrage, "That the one that killed my hunka lunka owlbear sausage? Let me at him!" A halfing with more make-up than sense shoots out from the crowd's edge, claws outstretched and ready to dig Agril's eyes out. Once she finds a ladder.

Heaving a sigh, Alteri reaches out one sodden paw and slaps it onto the irate female's head, keeping her fearsome claws back. Her heavy 'you better have an explanation' look settles on the dripping priest.

"I'm *not* going to turn ANYONE into fish food unless they throw me in the water again," says Agril, giving Halani this awful glare like she farted in church. Maybe she did. Anyways, he marches forward. "GUARDS," he booms. "Where are the damn guards? STEP FORWARD." He's glancing back and forth still.

"Stay back! I'm warning you!" Halani yelps at Agril, backing up even as he advances. She glances at Alteri. "I bumped into him not far from here! His clothes were all bloody, and he had a mean glint in his eye!" Oh, no. She isn't letting her guard down just because Agril has his innocent face on.

"Way! Make way! By the gods, make way or I'll have you all arrested!" Bellows a gruff voice. The sea of bodies part, admitting a regiment of city guards and one officer whose handlebar mustache bristles in affront at bodies daring to show up when he is trying to sleep. "Eerngh," he scrubs the tiredness from his face, "What have we here then." Belatedly, his eyes fall on the corpse, most reluctantly, and gingerly, being transferred to the ground via the same net that had fished it up. "Join the guards they said, see the world, they said..." Throwing a quelling look at his men to force them NOT to vomit by sheer force of pissed-off will, he stomps over and begins poking fingers into everyone's shoulder. "All right, who did it? You? You?"

It is the word of someone Alteri has fought and bled with, next to the word of someone with interesting ideas of how rainbows save the world. Dabbing at the bleeding scratches crossing her face, the fighter looks dubiously at both, "He uh... was he holding a weapon?" Thankfully, the guards arrive before she can embarrass herself with trying to figure this out on her own. Happily, she steps back, clearing the way for, "Hey! Watch your finger, I just saved a man from drowning." Her eyes drop to the bloated body, "That one I couldn't save."

"HMMM?!" Swivelling to eye the Highborn, the officer's head tilts one side, then the other. His meaty fist thuds into his palm, "Defensive wounds! Take her into custody. And her little accomplice there, too." The guards not incapacitated by the stomach-churning scene immediately step forward to clap irons on Alteri and her 'accomplice'. "Huh? Wait a minute!"

"There's no telling who did it. It doesn't have a head," replies Agril, irritably. He's drenched, a little cold from being in the water and he eyes Halani. "Let me make this simple for you: I am a priest. A healer. I was delivering babies. That a body washed up is total coincidence. Would you like me to grab you by the ear and introduce you to the newborns? Because I will. I *will*. So stand down, girl, before I put you over my knee and deliver the beating your father should've given you ages ago." He's not in a good mood. At all. He then turns towards the highborn and the guards.

As soon as the guard officer starts asking who did it, Halani, of course, starts pointing fingers. Two of them. At Agril. Not that the guard pays her much attention, as focused as he becomes on Alteri. "Noooo! She didn't do it. She saved people!" She tries to put herself between the much taller highborn and the guard, trying to divert his attention to the 'priest.' "It was..." And then, of course, Agril lays into her. Verbally. Her eyes go wide... momentarily, at least, seeing the mistake she might have made. But then he has to go and mention her father. Her face goes stony, her eye twitches.

Zarkhan arrives from the main docks of Alexandria. Zarkhan has arrived.

Agril glares at Halani before turning his attenton back to Alteri. He says, firmly, "Guardsman. That woman is a member of my church. You will release her into the custody of Sunblade Svarshan when you are done with her. Are we clear?"

He isn't going to interrupt the questioning. He has respect for the lawful duties of the guard, after all.

Falling silent, Alteri could power herself free, but thinks it better to remain peaceful, for now. "Eenie meenie mynie..." Eyes casting towards the star-speckled skies, she seems to be having a silent talk with whichever god is piddling on her head today. Then, chin lifting, she raises her voice to gain Halani's attention, "Mistress, if you could see to my sword and armour, I'd appreciate it muchly."

"No more talk!" The officer shouts, "You're all four coming with us! Cuff them, and call for the city coroner. You three, arrest anyone else that tries to touch it." Aside to Agril, he mutters only loud enough for the priest to hear, "Do us a favour and play along. It's the only way to get out of this crowd. She'll be delivered to the Sunblade, on my wor-OW!" Glaring at the halfer who had assaulted his shins, he growls, "Get her ankles too." To the rest of those gathered, he brandishes his halbred, "Off, off with the lot of you! Back to your wenching!" Mutters and grumbles meet the offer's orders, but people do begin to disperse. A few remain a little longer, saying their own prayers to Vardama before leaving.

Zarkhan is strolling down the street, hands folded behind his back like he doesn't have a care in the world. Nevermind that it's the middle of the night. Commotion and a dispersing crowd is sure to draw his attention though and he drifts closer, against the flow as well as common sense. "Oh my." he remarks, spying Alteri being taken into custody.

"As you wish, guardsman. I will respect your wish." And so play along Agril does. Though he does give Halani another glare. He's soaking wet after all this.