Amoxtli
You stand in Amshere, the jungle quiet and the elders of the village you stand in are subdued. They've offered you rest and refuge against the night, but... at a distance. The sith-makar aren't terribly social, particularly not after their village has been raided and half burned to the ground. Many sith sleep outdoors tonight, but it is insisted that you sleep inside one of the few still-standing homes. It's the finest they have, and it's on the outskirts. Likely it survived on that fact alone.
When morning dawns half the village is standing before your borrowed sanctuary, the other half is gathering food and trying to put things to rights. The children of the village are in its center, carefully guarded now by several of the villages finest warriors though... they only have three. At least those three are in better condition than they had been previously. They watch you as much as they watch the jungle and everyone seems jumpy.
Finally, after a long tense moment one of the elder sith-makar steps forward. "We ssssaw that one came to join you... doesss this mean that you will go? That you will go out and look for Amoxtli for us?" There's a murmur at the name. It doesn't quite die down.
Iuitl sleeps only because she has to or she won't recover from yesterday's ordeal. When she wakes the next day, she can be seen convening with her familiar, speaking at length with him in hushed tones. There's a sense of bubbling magic in the air around her, of menace and fury in her eyes. She is clearly preparing for a second day of pursuit... she won't let that man get away with stealing the most treasured egg of her tribe. She has failed them once by being absent during their moment of need, she won't be absent again.
When she steps out of the home, she takes a moment to assess the wounds and wear of those that stand guard. If any have wounds that remain, she merely touches them and their wounds partially, or fully, heal. The powers of a witch are quite potent when she needs them to be.
When the elder speaks up, she answers. "I will need a ssswiftclaw, or another form of transsport." As if her pursuit of that slaver was the obvious answer. She looks to the others in case they have a resource or spell to offer.
Gregor wakes up a big groggy, but well-enough rested, and he folds up his bedroll and repacks his pack. He keeps a neat camp. He'll step out of the hut to survey the situation, eye his horse to make sure he's OK, and he replies to the Sith, "Traveller and I will help." He speaks for the horse, but it doesn't object.
Delilah is feeling much better this morning. She's had some rest, for one thing; for another, one of the Sith has managed to break her chains for her, so now she has a manacle on each wrist with a bit of chain dangling off of each, but she's not stuck with her hands behind her back anymore. (And that's a serious improvement.) She's also swapped out her blood-soaked shift for some appropriate jungle clothing; basically a skirt and a beaded sort of thing that drapes over her shoulders and hangs down in front. Bare feet can't be that bad in the jungle, right? Surely there's nothing poisonous or sharp on the ground?
The rather... ill-equipped sorceress perks an eyebrow upwards, and hunhs? when the Sith finally steps forwards to make herself known. "I'm in," she replies. "And my sister is still asleep I think but I think I can count her in, too. ...I'll always help the Sith, that's a fact."
Elyanna spent the night in visible isolation. Making herself sick enough to nearly pass out for the retching as she used her limited magic to repair her damaged weapon, then making sure to bury the outpourings of her illness. Dawn finds her ashiver, though ruddier complected than when she slept, until the morning necessities are handled, when she reclaims her prim, if solemn demeanor.
Mashila's pretty quiet really. So the war pony riding Bard is probably one of those easy to miss things. She gives a bit of a wave when the elder points her out and then it's back to being quiet until the group decides what they were going to do. She was was what the calvary called in as it were.
The elder meets Iuitl's gaze, and... something passes between them though it's difficult to say what. It's clear that the two sith-makar know one another, and that this one is perhaps not entirely approving of her. Then the elder glances away. "We have no ssswiftclawsss. The few we had were ssscattered into the wild." The elder glances toward the center of the village, worry tickling over their features. "We can ssssend our fassstessst with you, to ssshow you the sssecret waysss through the jungle to where you go. If you promissse to keep him ssssafe."
The elder waits a moment and then motions toward the one at their side who walks away toward the warriors and talks quietly to him. They return to you together, and the warrior gives you a steady look. "Thissss is Macu. Macu, take them to the sssoftsssskin port at the end of the great river. Take them safe and as quickly asss your feet can carry you."
Macu looks at the elder and nods seriously. "Yes Elder." Then looks at you expectantly, motioning for you to follow him. It seems that NOW is the time to go.
Gregor ehs, hustles to saddle his horse, and will ride off with the group if they don't leave him behind. Otherwise, he'll have to catch up, though he probably can. Following the party through the jungle is not as hard as all that.
Elyanna approaches the congealing group of adventurers, still straightening out her cloak to assume her proper trim and looks to the Sith, first, "If I fall, strike off my head or reduce me to ashes." She takes the time to affix her buckler, under the cloak and makes with the following.
"Got any spare weapons? A knife would do..." Delilah shrugs her shoulders lightly. "The slavers took all of my gear. Heck, they even took my /clothes/, so thank you for making sure I'm not stuck with being, y'know, naked." She pauses, and glances back and forth between the Sith who are present. "You know what, actually, nevermind. You need the weapons more than I do right now, if you have any. I..." She sighs softly, and slumps her shoulders. "Peace to your nest. We'll return as soon as we can with what was taken. They won't get away with what they have done to you, I promise."
Iuitl reacts with a subtle bristling of her feathers. In this moment she is not hunched. She stands upright, though she's still short for one of her people. She closes one of her eyes when she hears the swiftclaws were driven away in the chaos.
Macu is given a nod. She readies her longspear and waits to be led in the direction of the port. She lifts her hand to her Raven and grasps him, and whispers something to him... And he takes flight, flapping his wings and disappearing among the branches. He heads toward the portal to inform the Sith-Makar on the other side that her tribe needs swiftclaws and a contingent of warriors. He can speak Tradespeak, and he rarely gets sent to bear messages like this. It will be seen as especially important, probably.
Gregor will pass Delilah his masterwork longsword for the duration of this emergency, if she wants it. "It's my backup," he says, "but it's well made and should serve well enough." He's back to saddling his horse so we can get out of here.
You are led on what is quite possibly (depending on how much time you've spent in Amshere) the longest trek through a jungle of your life. Macu is a godsend. He knows the jungle very well, and points out every possible danger to you before it has a chance to strike. He leads you around pitfalls and creatures so that you never even know that they're there. He also pushes you, moving at times faster than your animals can through the jungle. The only thing that slows you guys down is well... you all.
Even with you slowing things down you reach the port city sometime late in the day. Not quite sunset, but close enough that the merry-making sounds of evening are starting up down there. Macu stares at the settlement balefully and hisses quietly under his breath. He murmurs something in draconic that sounds like a curse then looks at you all. "Thissss one come with? Thisss one... there are /ssssslaverssss/ down there." He is gripping a little knife he is carrying quite tightly. It's clear what he would do to any slaver he found.
Gregor shrugs as his longsword is declined in favor of the punching dagger. He simply nods at the situation and resumes saddling up. It takes a few minutes, and then he's got to check everything because this environment is not kind, and then he's mounted and off. The trip through the jungle is hard, jungle is not a good terrain for a horse. But Traveller is steadfast, and Gregor checks his horseshoes whenever we pause to rest. Upon reaching the town, he will look to Iuitl, since she seems to know what we're here for. He just came along since things seemed urgent and has zero idea of what's going on other than that we're here to retrieve some item.
"Softly," Donna murmurs, resting a hand on Macu's arm. "Too much blood in the water too soon just calls sharks. I ain't got no use for slavers, but, I like em' fat an' happy an' stupid up until we got what we came for."
Elyanna passes the woman her curved punch dagger as the hunt commences, again stressing that if the red woman is taken down, steps really should be taken. As the settlement comes into view, she asides, "If we had manacles I could allay some suspicions, until Emerind and his snivellers caught sight of us, that is." She gives a mirthless snerk at something said, then glances to the elder Sith, "This hunt is yours, how shall we proceed?"
The jungle is an old friend to Iuitl. She follows instructions reflexively... she isn't a trail master, but she does know what to listen for from Macu. Once the party has reached the place that Emerind had fled to, the first thing she does is turn and prod Macu harshly on the chest. "Losssing more of our tribe to foolhardy bloodthirsst will only endanger us further," she tells him. "Mind yoursself."
"First, we locate Emerind's boat. If it is in dock, then we know he is likely still here. Probably celebrating his victory and getting fat. If he has done anything to the egg..." Her eyes widen briefly, "He's mine." She sniffs and breathes a brief sigh. "Loosely bind me and Macu. Make it easy to remove. Does anyone have any rope?"
"Well, actually." Delilah steps forwards, holding her arms up. "If you're going to loosely bind people to pass 'em off as slaves, better loosely bind me, too. They were nice enough to bust the chain, back there, but I'm still wearing these manacles and it'll be pretty hard to pass me off as a slaver when I'm dressed in Sith clothes and I'm manacled. Better pass me off as an escaped slave, instead." She nods to Donna, and then to Macu. "Don't worry, we're going to get them. And, you don't have to come into town, if you don't want to."
Macu hesitantly lowers his knife at Donna's words, but outright glares at Iuitl. He doesn't seem to appreciate being bossed around by her. "Thissss one isss no sssslave." He steps further back from her when she suggests that they be tied up. It seems that this plan does /not/ have his endorsement. Yet it seems like it might go apace with, or without his consent. But Delilah offers him the chance to stay behind and he seems to have second thoughts. "Thisss one will go with... if you think it best, but thisss one... does not know how to play at being a ssslave." He awkwardly offers up his knife however. One does not leave slaves armed after all.
Gregor says, "I can try scouting ahead. I was ... well, the light cavalry -are- scouts as well as skirmishers. The point is, I might be able to get the lay of things by sneaking closer and seeing what can be seen before it gets too dark."
"It's deception you cracked egg," Iuitl spits at Macu, "Of courssse you are no slave!!" Heavens, she's almost raising her voice to shouting, her hands both up in the 'are you dense???' hand choppy motions. She rubs the bridge of her snout with her fingers and looks to the others and back to Macu.
"The deception is to get us closer to the egg without having to fight our way to it. We don't have an army. We cannot fight every ssslaver in the port. We will likely have to spill blood to get the egg back, that is sssure."
Iuitl gazes out and tries to spot the boat. It should have scorch marks all over it from the battle the other day. "Go ahead. Information isss key." She motions to Gregor in approval.
Elyanna looks between the members of the group and considers them, weighing them with a scrutiny much akin to a butcher plotting a freshly felled bull, making little suggestions like 'lay facefirst in the dirt for a moment or two, then roll over' 'tuck this under here' and so forth. The burlier Sith she regards for some more time, "Remember that the lives of your people, and the future of your tribe demand your pride stay tucked away. Snap at me and I -will- give you a kiss of the lash because I must, but you -must- obey to see this through. Once our trap is ready, you will be unleashed to kill many slavers on our way to bring the egg to safety, do you understand?"
GAME: Gregor rolls stealth: (10)+8: 18
"I could be a bodyguard, sure," Donna notes, nodding her agreement with the forming plan. "An' it's not hard to pretend to be a slave; don't look at anything but your feet, an' imagine you're a rabbit surrounded by wolves. That means you too, D... Remember that time we was stablegirls for that elf. Only everything you had nightmares about."
With that, she unhooks a roll of rough rope from the back of her belt, and starts cutting away lengths for 'bindings.'
GAME: Gregor rolls perception: (14)+7: 21
Delilah glances at Macu, before handing the punch-dagger back to Elyanna. "I'd probably better be unarmed again," she replies. "Slaves don't get weapons." She looks at her sister, then back to Macu. "It's easy to pretend. Like this." She slumps her shoulders, and looks down at her feet. "Yes, mistress," she mumbles, her voice going all meek and completely pathetic, complete with a little sniffle. "I'm sorry, it won't happen again, I swear."
Gregor sneaks out down towards the city, and is gone for probably longer than he planned on. It's maybe fifteen or twenty minutes later when he returns to report. "I found the ship. It's moored outside a very nice looking hotel boat crawling with a bunch of Mul's.”
Macu's head ducks down and though he looks like he wants a fight he reigns himself in and nods. "For Amoxtli..." He sighs and holds his hands out to be bound. He... just doesn't look very much like a slave. Even looking down he's just too defiant and perhaps a bit irritable. But that could work in your favor too if he's 'newly acquired'.
Iuitl stabs her spear into the dirt. She won't need it for now. She prepares for their plan, holding her hands out for the binding, flexing her fingers. She doesn't look like a very high quality slave, especially when she hunches her shoulders again and resumes her terrible posture.
Elyanna nods, 'I'll pass it to you when the time comes.' she assures Delilah. Once the cosmetics and obfuscations are complete, she turns back to Macu, 'Better. You aren't broken, yet, but I can work with this. Remember the egg.' That done, and Gregor returns, she accepts the report with, 'Interesting.' before approaching him more closely and lowering her voice, "I would ask a favor." <goblin-talk>
As the others prepare for their deception, Gregor will slip into town one more time to rent a rickshaw. But before he departs, Elyanna gets his attention. He nods for her to continue?
Elyanna nods, "If I die and chance permits, please take this-" and she pats the braided hair whip at her side, "To Lady Danika von Diesel, she is currently in Alexandria. Tell her I tried to make things right." With that spoken, she takes a knee and bows her head, "Will you do this?" <goblin-talk>
Gregor's eyes widen, but he shrugs and nods assent. That done, he will go into town once again and rent a rickshaw, pulling it back out to the party to complete our disguises.
The binding is uncomfortable for all, Donna included. But, the ropes are deceptively easy to get out of; a slipknot, wound over a couple times and tied off, meant to come free just by pulling the wrists apart. Delilah is bound first, then Iuitl, and last comes Macu. Pausing, she looks up at the Sith's eyes, her face serious. "You ain't no slave in your heart, Macu, an' I hope to the gods y'don't ever be. But right now... you're putting on harmless camouflage, an' if this works, you'll be arm's reach of someone's soft meats when you need to be. Thanks for trustin' us, and we won't let you down."
Macu gives Donna a sharp smile that's all teeth. He seems to relish the idea of being close to something soft and - perhaps biteable - when the time comes. He would it seems, do anything for the egg that you are after, and so he is willing with silent judgement to pull the cart when it appears. He's stronger than he looks to be, and is able to pull it quite easily; following Gregor's directions to where the ship you're looking for is.
The city is sort of amazing. A huge grouping of ships that have been bound together with bits of port and gangplanks. They make haphazard roads for you to make your way down. You don't even get a second glance from the inhabitants and it's easy to see why. You're not the only one with slaves in tow (even if yours are fake). There's not much here that would last if the ships pulled out, and that's the way that its built to be.
The ship you're headed to is the largest, and by far the nicest. It's easy to tell that its been heavily modified from most ships you've seen so that it looks more like a hotel even from the outside. There are a lot of mulniessa in this area, most of whom are heading to or from the hotel-ship. Likely they 'live' here however temporarily. A sign proclaims this the 'Blue Door Inn' and indeed all the doors you can see from here are blue.
You are stopped at the gangplank to the ship by a bulky half-ourch with a collar around his neck and a slightly glazed look to his eyes. He looks clearly like he's seen too much of the world. "What be your business here?" He asks, coming to life just a little and looking none too pleased to see you.
Iuitl keeps her head down for the time being. She isn't much for diplomacy, and she isn't very big or imposing. She just lets the 'masters' lead this. She makes it clear again before they depart that they are after Emerind, and a Sith-Makar egg with a lustrous appearance. She flinches when the half-oruch stops them. The collar gets a brief glance. She feels her skin crawling just being in this place. She wants to gut the slavers just as much as Macu does. It takes some effort to keep that in check.
Gregor will say, "I've come to stay at your inn." He figures that ought to get them aboard? It's simple enough, and the bruiser doesn't need to know about his ulterior motives, just about his gold.
GAME: Gregor rolls bluff: (1)+1: 2 (EPIC FAIL)
Once they are in the city -- or even just within view of the city, honestly -- Delilah keeps her head bowed, and gazes downwards at her feet, looking up just enough to make sure she doesn't trip over anything. She plays the part of a defeated, possibly escaped slave, who's been viciously threatened. So she sniffles from time to time, and manages to find something to think about (like maybe Mom being mean to Donna) that makes her eyes tear up, so she can look like she's been crying. Might as well get it right. Once they get to the hotel ship, she keeps her eyes on her bare toes -- filthy by now, from walking through the jungle -- and just waits for things to progress.
With her cloak shrugged back, now to bare her Bludforged gear (it makes sense with her... complexion), Elyanna glances at the oruch as he perks up, then askance at Gregor with his rebuttal before she decides to take her turn at the gate, as it were. "DOG! What gives a thrall leave to ask -anything of his betters? Stand aside -now- or I have you flayed -right here-!" she even lets her accent relax a bit, falling into the old habits. Her leather whip seized at her belt. <yrch-speak>
While Donna may not be very capable outside her preferred skillsets, but luckily? Looming and projecting menace out of all proportion to her size is very, very much something she is skilled at. As they're stopped and challenged, Donna simply leans just slightly from behind Elyanna, her armored knuckledusters very much the focus of her crossed arms. The one eye that looks down at the door-slave seethes, as if insulted by this interruption of Elyanna's forward motion.
GAME: Elyanna rolls intimidate: (9)+11: 20 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20: (18): 18
The half-orc doesn't look suspicious. At least not until Gregor speaks up and then... He looks at you all a little more carefully. "You don't look like..." He's interupted by Eylanna and... he pales considerably which is something of a feat. He cowers away from her, trying to hold onto the shreads of his will. "Sir! M'am! I just... was told by my master to! I'm very sorry. Go on!" He motions you forward hurriedly and Macu doesn't hesitate to move you past the half orc to where the 'stables' are for your rickshaw.
At the front door is another slave who holds the door open for you, and your ushered inside. Almost immediately you catch sight of your quarry. He's seated near the fire regaling some mulniessa with a story... about you. You can tell because he's laughing about dumping a bunch of sith-makar children into the river. The whole table laughs.
Macu looks like he's liable to leap across the inn and strangle Emerind where he sits with his bare hands, but he's muttering something under his breath that sounds suspiciously like the name of the egg you're after and stays where he is behind Gregor and Eylanna - but just barely.
Gregor will enter the room and take the sead adjacent to the fellow. Big as it is, it's a ship and space is at a premium. He'll call for a drink, himself, and mind his own business.
Iuitl sits and glares across the way, covered in mud from her poor disguise. She isn't sopping wet from coming out of a river this time and the lighting is way different, so it may be hard to recognize her when he's entertaining his friends, but Iuitl secretly hopes he recognizes her so she can kill him... She's really with Macu on this, honestly. But the longer they spend outside of notice, the better their chances of finding the egg.
Elyanna handles the necessary business, touching bases and such forth, then with a look toward Donna and a quiet, "Get them ready." she gestures dismissively toward her entourage. Her attention returns to the manager and she resumes feeling things out.
With a curt nod, Donna takes hold of the 'captives' ropes, chivvying them toward the stairs. "Hurry," she grunts. "Gotta stash you out of sight, now."
Delilah picks up her pace, moving her bare feet to keep up with Donna; she keeps her eyes on the ground, both to avoid giving the game away by not looking like a slave, and to avoid giving the game away by getting recognized by Emerind, seeing as how he's seen more of her than anyone else in this group.
Emerind is happily telling the story, and embroiled enough that he doesn't notice any of you. Not even Gregor who occasionally laughs at his story. Most of you head downstairs into the slaves galley. Which is... about as miserable as you expect. There are several large glazed-eyed oruch or half-oruch who are guarding the lack-luster slaves down here. Most of whom are chained to one another, or are sitting down squished together in a small space. Elyanna continues her conversation with the hotel manager.
Gregor will sip his drink slowly and listen, but if Emerind looks ready to get up and go, he will call him back for another drink, and ask again for one or another tale of his wit and skill. Keeping him busy and drinking.
Donna herds Delilah, Iuitl, and Macu into the slave's galley. With grunted instructions, she sits the trio down in the closest empty space, and leans to growl quiet 'instructions' into her charges' faces. "Keep an eye out, an' if anyone tells you to do something, tell 'm you need your master's approval. Don't start nothin' unless you don't have a choice, but if you do... pick your targets."
Delilah comes to an abrupt halt, upon arriving in the ship's galley, and seeing the absolutely squalid conditions. She stops, looking up for the first time since entering the city, and staring slack-jawed at what's in front of her. She knew, of course; she'd heard the stories, she's known what slavers are like and how they treat their 'property'. She's almost not paying attention when Donna speaks, but she manages to nod. "Yeah," she whispers back to her sister. "Donna... this is /way worse/ than jail."
Iuitl knows she could break out of this place in mere seconds if she needed to. She quietly shuffles along and takes a seat somewhere... and then she looks around the room, and thinks to herself. For a moment, she almost considers just leaving it be, but the galley is a dark and awful place and she can't just sit and simmer. She goes from person to person, and gently rests her hands on them, muttering strange words... all to heal the various slaves that she sees with any manner of wounds. She's slow and careful about it, but... she can't really help herself.
While the others reconnoiter and entertain, or in other cases, assuage, assimilate, and solace, as they can, Elyanna continues to keep the manager. Intent on collecting tidbits for later, potentially tactical consumption, as well as surreptitiously glancing about for means of egress and, "How far would my room be from that boor's? Should I expect his soused crooning to sound like it is right next to my head?" she asks quietly.
-TBC