Summer Days

It is a bright and sunny mid-day, as many have been as of late. What better way to beat the heat than to enjoy the mighty Tornmawr? Within the city, it is slightly less mighty and more managed, making it even more the spot of respite for many residents; adults, children, and even a dog or two splash in the shallows, enjoy a swim in the much cooler waters, or lounge about in the sun on the shore.

Sjach does not visit the city often- in fact, he actively avoids it most of the time. But he had some pelts to trade and wilderness pointe had no need of them and so he's made the journey down to civilization. While he does enjoy the warmth, it is not the cloistering, humid warmth he is most accustomed to and so he has found himself down by the river. He has his shirt off, and is washing it in the water, while he waits for the trader he spoke to to finish with some other business so that he can be on his way.

Warrick may have been getting ready to leave for a while, but that didn't mean that summer fun was to be put on the sideline. The Eldanar man could be found sitting in a chair in shorts and a loose shirt with a copy of the tribune in hand, shaded from the sun under an umbrella as he occasionally glances to two teens, his daughter and an equally young Arvek Nar girl, taking turns throwing each into into the waters from one of the nearby wharfs. Beside him is a heavy bag of his traveling gear. They were pretty insistent on a quick stop at the riverside beach.

GAME: Warrick rolls perception: (18)+6: 24
GAME: Sjach rolls perception: (3)+8: 11

From upriver, a boy on a raft floats into view (not for the first time for those who've been present awhile). Following a bit behind him is some flotsam and jetsam; a smattering of leaves, some sticks, and even a possible fallen log or two. The Arvek teen on the wharf waits for the raft to pass (safety first!) before heaving Cynthia out into the river with a grunt (from her) and a squeal (from Cynthia). The two might be competing for distance in addition to the general fun of throw-dunking one another.

Sjach has finished scrubbing his one and only shirt, and then wrings it out and places it on a rock to dry in the sun. He casts his gaze up the river, but doesn't seem to notice anything too untoward about the boy or his raft, and so goes to sit on a rock next to his shirt to sun himself as well.

Warrick glances up from his reading, looking bemused as Lomi and Cynthia are in a competition with one another. But his brows furrow as his gaze drifts past them. He clears his throat. "Hey girls, come here for a moment!" he raises his voice towards them, reaching over to pick up a sheathed sword as he stands up, watching the raft. <Goblin-talk>

He starts to walk towards the wharf, "Hey kid," he waves to the boy on a raft before pointing at the pile collecting behind him. "You good?"

The boy on the raft is already waving and laughing at those he floats by; Warrick is added to that list. "It's great! Hop on! Have to be quick, though! Can't stop!" Nor can he really steer, either: its little more than a few logs lashed together; no rudder or even a push pole, so he's entirely at the mercy of the current. Fortunately, the current is fairly slow here.

"Sure!" Cynthia calls and swims back towards her friend (and yeeter), who offers the girl in the water a hand out to help her up. In a minor pique of, well, adolescence, Cynthia uses the offered hand to pull the Arvek girl into the water with her. "In a minute!" More splashes and giggling laughter.

The logs now trail farther behind the boy and his raft then before. And they are no longer following it directly. Instead, they are floating their way towards the girls near the wharf. And more quickly than before?

GAME: Warrick rolls perception: (13)+6: 19
GAME: Sjach rolls perception: (19)+8: 27

Aznara's meandering down from the bridge above, along the usual pathways for making such a journey, to the public park along the riverside. As she comes into the shade of a tree, she pulls back the hood of her black, silken cloak to reveal her face and pointed ears -- it's clear she's mul'niessa.

She can't help but spot the children playing in the water, but her attention's drawn by the 'logs' and she hurries towards the water's edge to find something, anything, that'll give her a bit of height so that she can look more closely at them.

GAME: Aznara rolls perception: (13)+11: 24

Sjach opens one eye at the commotion, and sees Warwick grabbing his blade which causes him to sit to attention. A second glance at the logs in the water, and he hisses. He rolls off the rock, snagging his bow from the pack next to it as he does, and drops to a knee to string it. "Out of the water! Now!" he bellows- perhaps the loudest anyone who knows him has ever heard him speak as he fetches an arrow from the quiver and knocks it to the freshly drawn bow.

Warrick walks all the way to the wharf's edge from where the girls were throwing each other. He's about to say something to the raft boy, but his attention snaps over towards the moving logs. Sjach's warning makes the sword drop to the gound. "Lomi, Cynthia, get out! Now!" he barks at them, reaching forth to yank both of them out with each hand.

Aznara isn't loud, like the men. She does pull her whip from the hanger at her hip, throwing back her cloak in the process, as she hurries out onto the wharf. Her whip unfurls as she moves and she lashes it out... but it doesn't crack, instead getting thrown out over the water in the direction of the two girls like a rope.

Warrick's yell definitely gets the girls' attention and they stop for a moment before they start splash/paddle/wade for him. Sjach's bellowing gets the attention of most everyone else as its enough to even make the playing children pause. The adults, however, are the first to process the significance and they begin frantically moving themselves away from the water and/or children away from the water.

The 'logs' hear the bellowing, also, and take this as a sign. They rapidly pick up speed towards Cyn and Lomi, which makes them conspicuous to all. They also open large maws wide, making it even more conspicuous that they have teeth. Quite alot of them.

GAME: Sjach rolls knowledge/nature: (6)+7: 13
GAME: Sjach rolls Handle Animal: (3)+8: 11

Sjach looses the arrow he knocked towards the logs, it sails over their heads- but that seems to have been the intent. The arrow emits a shrill screech that can be heard from one bank of the Tormwar to the other and beyond. Sjach stands up to his full height and takes a step closer, spreading his arms and baring his fangs. He smits a harsh, reptillian hissing growl at the logs as he attempts to make himself as big and intimidating as possible.

GAME: Aznara rolls acrobatics: (17)+13: 30
<OOC> Aznara nods. once i land, i'll spend a panache to double my Precise Strike damage, and strike at my 'ride' with my rapier.
GAME: Aznara rolls weapon3: (15)+12: 27 (THREAT)
GAME: Aznara rolls weapon3: (11)+12: 23

The whistling arrow from Sjach seems to flip a switch in Warrick's mind, as he suddenly yanks the sword free of the sheathe at his feet. "Move it!" he shouts, taking a few steps back before sprinting forward with the naked blade.

He makes a ungraceful splash into the waters, treading with one hand while the other holds the sword forward like a pike. A cold expression of focus plastered on his face.

GAME: Aznara rolls damage3+10: aliased to 1d6+2+10: (5)+2+10: 17
GAME: Aznara rolls 1d6+2: (2)+2: 4
<OOC> Aznara says, "this also triggers Menacing Swordplay."
<OOC> Aznara says, "intimidate to demoralize"
GAME: Aznara rolls intimidate: (4)+11: 15

Seeing one would-be rescuer leaping into danger to protect the girls, Aznara... follows suit, although she opts to try and not actually go into the water itself. Instead, she takes a few running steps before leaping into a somersault through the air. Her rapier is out straight to one side and her whip to the other, the latter trailing behind while the former is almost perfectly matched with the axis of her mid-air 'roll' through the air... and her goal becomes clear as her untucks herself from her somersault, feet aiming to land on the back of one of the crocs!

The mul woman's rapier, as she came out of her tumbling leap, comes down near to where her feet touch down on the croc's back. Her knees bend, absorbing the impact of her landing... but the point of the rapier disappears, half the blade's length sinking deeply into the croc, only to be withdrawn as the woman stands herself back up, blood spraying off the rapier's blade as it's pulled from her target's body.

Aznara's position, atop the croc, isn't as sure as she'd hoped -- after making it look so fancy, she's forced to slip off the croc's back and into the water in as controlled a fashion as she's able to manage, instead of an uncontrolled bellyflop.

GAME: Verna rolls 1d20+5: (10)+5: 15
GAME: Verna rolls 1d20+5: (10)+5: 15
GAME: Verna rolls 1d8+4: (2)+4: 6
GAME: Verna rolls 1d20+11: (9)+11: 20

Now there is blood in the water (even if it IS that of the crocodilian that Aznara skewered) and there are now meat morsels directly in front of the hungry maws. These morsels are Warrick and Aznara, however, rather than the girls, and jaws snap at them both. The wounded one is distracted by its wounds and misses Aznara. The other, however, closes its sizable jaws on Warrick and they stay that way, clutching him.

Cynthia and Lomi, Warrick's daughter and Cynthia's Arvek Nar friend respectively, add to the chaos by screaming in fear as they scrabble to the wharf. Lomi getting out first before yanking Cynthia up the rest of the way. They pant, staggering to their feet. "Cin, what do we do-"

"DAD!" Cynthia screeches, seeing Warrick get nabbed with a powerful jaw latched on to.

GAME: Sjach rolls athletics: (9)+7: 16
GAME: Sjach rolls weapon6: (10)+5: 15

Sjach curses as the scene rapidly devolves into one ill suited for archery, and he drops his bow onto the gravely sand of the shore and springs into motion. Keeping low as he runs he reaches behind himself to draw the shard of obisidian half wrapped in leather from the back of his waistband, "BACK!" he hisses at the girls on the shore as he passes them, and then springs into the air- sailing across the distance and landing with a splash he grabs ahold of the Crocadile attempting to drag Warrick under and attempts to plunge his dagger into the creature's throat- but the thrashing and splashing makes it difficult and he can't penetrate the creature's scales.

GAME: Warrick rolls cmb: (16)+6: 22

Warrick gasps in pain as the maw clamps down on his shoulder. The screeching of his daughter seems to gain some clarity, feet jamming into the ground underwater. The longsword gets jammed into the maw, prying it open briefly before slipping out of the hold. "Girls! Call the Watch!" he shouts back at them before trying to shore up a line with Sjach and the mul'neissian woman that had flown in to join the fray.

<OOC> Aznara says, "also... I'll spend a point of Panache to double my precise damage, again, and strike with my rapier at the same one i'd previously wounded."
GAME: Aznara rolls weapon3: (3)+12: 15

Being in the water just isn't Aznara's element, even if she'd look really good in the water, were she actually (un)dressed for a swim. She tries to bring her rapier around to stab at the croc she'd leap-stabbed, while at the same time working to wind up her whip while it's underwater. She's not able to get much leverage against the croc's hide, so the point of her weapon slides off it without doing much hard, if any at all -- but she does manage to get her whip coiled back up and securely stowed in its hangar on her waist.

GAME: Verna rolls 1d20+5: (13)+5: 18
GAME: Verna rolls 1d20+5: (20)+5: 25
GAME: Verna rolls 1d20+5: (8)+5: 13
GAME: Verna rolls 1d8+4: (4)+4: 8
GAME: Verna rolls 1d8+4: (5)+4: 9
GAME: Verna rolls 1d20+11: (13)+11: 24
GAME: Verna rolls 1d20+11: (19)+11: 30

Snicker-snack go the jaws again, this time the badly wounded one manages to clap down on Azanara. Meanwhile, the recently-freed Warrick is more recently un-freed. On the bright side, the river and its banks are now quite barren of bystanders, with some (girls included) going for help in addition to getting clear.

GAME: Sjach rolls weapon6+2: (7)+5+2: 14

Sjach maneuvers around to get behind the Crocodile, one hand coming up to grab the front of the creatures maw as he makes an attempt to pry it off Warrick and jam his dagger into the creatures eye, but the chaos of grappling a crocodile in its native environment is working against them. "Ssshaa... if you can break free, draw them to land!" he advises his impromptu companions.

GAME: Aznara rolls cmb: (12)+5: 17

Anzara's obviously not in a good spot. She's a LOT smaller than the croc that's got her in its mouth, after all, and being in its maw that way makes it very hard to use her agility to what benefit it can provide. She gets her free hand on its jaw and wedges the pommel of her rapier against the other jaw and struggles to pry herself free... but to no avail!

<OOC> Warrick says, "welp. drop longsword into water, attempt to reverse grapple"
GAME: Warrick rolls cmb: (13)+6: 19

"Alright- shit!" Warrick yells as he wasn't expecting a second head to come out and clamp him from the side. He spares a heartbeat to glance back at shore, making sure bystanders (and more importantly, his daughter and friend), were in the clear before looking back and raising his sword.

The mul fencer starts to struggle. In a split second decision, he throws the sword aside and full bodily throws himself atop the creature. One hand jams fingers into nostrils, yanking and pulling his side free of the maw as he coils an arm around the croc's neck pulllling!" "Stab it! Stab it! Stab it!" he gasps at the other two, half covered in blood.

GAME: Verna rolls 1d20+5: (3)+5: 8
GAME: Verna rolls 1d20+11: (19)+11: 30

Now that Warrick the Croc-Wrangler has fingers jabbing in soft spots like eyes and nostrils, the one that no longer has him trapped is biting blindly. Fortunately, Warick being the grabber means his limbs are out of the way of jaws.

Aznara is a bit less fortunate, as she is still held. Worse, the one holding her tightens its grasp, tucks in its short legs and begins to roll. One moment her head is above the water, the next it is not. Then it appears, then it vanishes.

GAME: Verna rolls 1d8+6: (3)+6: 9
GAME: Sjach rolls weapon6+2: (6)+5+2: 13

Sjach's eyes flit back and forth between his two companions, and he curses under his breath and breaks away from Warrick with an apologetic expression to go assist Aznara- he lashes out with his dagger once more but succeeds only in momentarily distracting the crocodile.

<OOC> Aznara has ... 2 panache. will spend one to double my precision damage, again.
GAME: Aznara rolls weapon3-4+2: (9)+12+-4+2: 19
GAME: Aznara rolls damage3+5: aliased to 1d6+2+5: (2)+2+5: 9

Aznara's problem with not being to find leverage is solved, despite being on the receiving end of a croc's death-roll -- with it firmly holding her in place as it turns her through the water, she's able to bring the point of her rapier up to the underside of its head... and press upwards. As the rapier's point reaches the creature's brain, the croc shudders and goes limp.

Freed from the animal's jaws, Aznara quickly reorients herself and gets her head above water, coughing and gasping for air. She can see what's going on around her, though, and half-swims/wades over towards where Warrick's gator-wrasslin'.

GAME: Warrick rolls cmb+5: (19)+6+5: 30
GAME: Warrick rolls damage0: aliased to 1d3+2: (2)+2: 4
<OOC> Warrick says, "4 nonlethal"

The water in Warricks eyes makes it hard to see what's going on with all the splashing. Only for him to realize it was two scaled amphibians (minus the other one). He barely only manage to catch Sjach slinking towards the mul woman, the situation has changed rapidly.

There was really only one move.

Warrick squeezes the gator's neck, bruising it and actually starting to choke it out. "Graaaaa-! You ugly-!"

GAME: Verna rolls 1d20+5: (6)+5: 11

Fun fact: crocodilians are used to being the ones holding things in their jaws, not being held by them. Another fun fact: the muscles that open the jaws are far, far weaker than those that close them. With Warrick holding the remaining croc, it can't even gets its maw open enough for a proper bite.

GAME: Sjach rolls weapon6+2: (10)+5+2: 17
GAME: Sjach rolls damage6: aliased to 1d4+2: (2)+2: 4

Sjach pushes back off the corpse of the croc as it goes limp in the water, half wading, half swimming back towards Warrick wasting no time now that one of them is dispatched. As Warrick squeezes the life out of the croc, Sjach comes up behind him placing one hand on Warrick's shoulder and then plunges his dagger into the croc's exposed underside, finally finiding a softer spot he draws blood from the reptile.

GAME: Aznara rolls weapon3+2: (2)+12+2: 16
GAME: Aznara rolls damage3+5: aliased to 1d6+2+5: (4)+2+5: 11
GAME: Aznara rolls intimidate: (19)+11: 30

Aznara gets her feet under her as best she can, and thrusts her rapier foward through the water to stab the croc that Warrick's got held more or less in place, drawing blood.

GAME: Warrick rolls cmb+5: (5)+6+5: 16
<OOC> Verna says, "Fortunately, the flanking bonus also applies, which is just enough to maintain."
GAME: Warrick rolls damage0: aliased to 1d3+2: (2)+2: 4
<OOC> Warrick says, "4 nonlethal"

Warrick takes the shoulder touch with stride, yanking the crock around so that Sjach and Aznara can get a clean strike at it. He slides off of the creature as it bucks, falling into the water. Still with an arm around the neck, he slips under it, wrapping both arms around its neck and SQUEEZING.

The creature flails. Slows. Slows. Then goes limp. Warrick pants heavily, dripping blood.

From the beach, the teenage girl from before yells, "HOLY SHIT, DAD!!" Looks like she returned from getting help.

"Lang... langu... oh whatever..." he pants, dropping the alligator and clutching his side.

Sjach twists the dagger before withdrawing it from the Croc's gut, and when the creature goes limp and Warrick relinquishes his grip, the Sith-Makar scoots around to hook an arm under Warricks to support him, lest he be carried aweay by the water as well. He'll help the injured man back to shore, and return for Anzara if she needs help as well. And then he'll be scanning the water for more crocodiles. "They do not normally come into the city." he says then, wondering what might have drawn them here.

Aznara shakes her head to Sjach's offer, and swims herself most of the way back to shore, shifting to walking once it's waist deep for her; it's clear that the fight's over and it'd just be safer out of the water, where (mostly) everyone else already is, after all. She's got a few scratches, but it looks like the links of the mail dress she wears held up against the croc's fangs; she's probably going to be as bruised up as can be around her middle, where it got hold of her, but it didn't *bite* her, after all. Still, once she's out of the water and about ten feet away from the riverbank, she settled down to her knees the kinda just flops out to lay on her back to catch her breath, her rapier still drawn and in her hand.

And help was found, indeed. Two members of the watch descend the bank with others leading them back to the scene of the incident. Some might grumble that they are fashionably late, but others know that they cannot simply teleport directly here; nor are flailing folks screaming for help always the most coherent to get actionable information from.

Along with the watchfolk is an Althean, likely worried that there would be injuries (or worse). It doesn't look like there's worse. In fact, given the number of people making a rapid exodus from the river moments ago, she expects it could have been much worse. She makes her way to those who look like they are, or might be, injured to offer tending of wounds and healing prayers.

"Thanks," Warrick grunts in Sjach's native tongue, readily accepting the help as he's aided back to shore. He stoops briefly to scoop up the discarded sword, only to toss it ashore once he gets there. <Draconic>

He ends up sitting down next to Aznara, a hand pressed into his bleeding side. "Appreciate the-... the help, miss," he offers to her. "Absolutely wasn't prepared for that..." Warrick glances to Sjach. "... good point. They... shouldn't be... *pant*... here."

Cynthia, however, is already at his side after tugging the Althean along. "Oh Serri, Dad are you okay? Holy moly-"

"Mister Rick, sir, you wrestled an alligator," the Nar friend deadpans.

"You choked it out!" the girl beams, shaking her father.

"... ow. Cinny please..."

Aznara lifts her sword hand as if to wave, realizing her weapon's still there... and takes a moment to pull the sheath out and slide the weapon into it. "I'm glad the children made it out of the water safely", she says, in a quiet voice, though it's clear she's still catching her breath -- and the way she moved when she sat up to stow her rapier away makes it clear enough that her ribs could use minstrations from the Althean, too. "Fortuitous that I chose today to visit the riverside park...", she adds, undoing the fasteners of her cloak and shifting herself about enough to lay it spread out on the grass next to her -- to let it start drying out, too.

-End Scene-