Thanks very much to Kilid for providing the write up for last week's event.
In other news, we had another event last night which brought new developments into the FC plot! Thanks to everyone who attended; it was an interesting evening. Have some screenshots!
Show Content
SpoilerChapter 3
"...right, an' we'll be keepin' watch from th'shadows like, so don't y' worry." Kilid flashed a dazzling, confident grin at the white maned elezen stood before the carriage outside Limsa Lominsa's city gates. She didn't look entirely convinced, given the dour expression dragging down her features, but nodded and returned to the chocobos squawking in their harnesses.
Inarah was having a quiet conversation with Xivrez'to, a Keeper male they had recently employed, about whether clouds are edible. As the female miqo'te tilted her head with confusion at his odd remarks, Helia and P'etri appeared over the hill. The dark haired Keeper, finely dressed in long robes, moved with a bearing befitting royalty, whilst P'etri bounced along behind her, the Seeker's long blonde dreadlocks whipping about in the warm sea breeze. "O-oh, ye came!" Inarah greeted them warmly. She and Kilid had met the friendly pair the previous evening as they were negotiating today's contract. Worried that the Jackals' plan to make the caravan appear unguarded would blow up in their faces, Helia had insisted that she and her partner accompany them. "Of course we did," P'etri replied with a beaming smile.
Kilid finally turned away from the elezen to the small crowd of people assembled before him. "Y' all ready then?" A choir of assents later and the carriage was creaking along the cobbled path north towards Camp Bronze Lake.
Inarah sat hidden in the back of the carriage, muscles tense and ears flicking about nervously. Helia casually called from the front, next to the driver. "Relax. There's nothing to worry about. We're on a main road." The blonde miqo'te sighed and settled onto the box of goods she was perched upon. "A-alright...so where'd ye say yer from then...?"
The pair chatted away amiably whilst the rest of the entourage kept a brisk pace about half a malm ahead. Up ahead, the trio of ambush-ambushers were passing the journey with talk about, of all things, windmills. After Xivrez'to's excited exclamation about the size of the local birdlife ("Dodo!"), their journey along the road north led them past the monumental 'mills, and a number of docile Goobbue. Given Xivrez'to's... "unusual" nature, eventually the combination of questions and explanations about both windmills, and goobbue, along with P'etri's anecdotal story about someone she once knew living in one or the other, culminated in a very puzzled Kilid vocalising the question of just -why- anyone would want to turn a goobbue into a house.
Until his dying day, this would remain one of the most surreal conversations Kilid had ever participated in.
Onwards they travelled however, the confusion of goobbue windmill housing proving to be nothing more than a speed-bump on their journey north. Unlike the following caravan, the trio -could- cross the bridge between southern La Noscea, and Wineport, making their coming plan all the easier to achieve. Despite an unfortunate incident involving the swallowing of a Midge or three by Kilid, and a face full of midge swarm by P'etri, their journey North, then doubling back around the cliffs, remained uneventful. Boring, almost! If there was an ambush laying in wait, there was no sign of it just yet, and so the three settled down in the shade of a great tree to wait, and discuss today's relevant political and philosophical topics.
Such as what it would be like to fly. Not using an airship, but to -fly-, man! And daring each other to try and ride one of the wild couerl they saw on their travels. Important topics...
The driver came to a halt abruptly when they reached the rickety bridge leading up to Wineport. "W-what's wrong?" Inarah immediately leant out the back of the carriage and scanned the terrain. "The bridge is too narrow. We're going round the long way," came the terse reply. A flick of the reins and the chocobos trotted off deeper into the jungle.
They hadn't travelled far when a faint whistling rung through Inarah's ears, followed by the death squawks of both chocobos. "We're under attack!" Helia cried, pulling out her engraved staff as the elezen dove into the back to huddle behind a crate. The female Seeker was silent as she peered out from the back. Archers on either side of the carriage and a handful of men with axes were charging down a small knoll towards them. Helia began chanting and raised the staff high into the air as flames circled around her head, whilst Inarah dropped down onto the ground quietly with a dagger in each hand.
Quite oblivious to the assault happening just out of earshot, the trio hiding in the shade of the tree continued their deep, meaningful conversation about how it would be -really- nice to have something to eat right now...
Weaving this way and that, Inarah's blades were a confusing blur of steel as she worked her way about behind one of the surprised axe-wielding roegadyn and promptly embedded both blades hilt-deep into the small of his back, bringing forth a roar of pain from the falling roe. Surprised, and now somewhat cautious of the sweet-looking miqo'te that so effortlessly laid low one of his comrades, the nearest of the remaining three swings about, axe raised in a defensive posture to hold off the unexpected assailant, for his archer 'friends' to finish off.
Things never work out as we want, though.
While one of the archers did, indeed, manage to score a grazing blow across one of Inarah's shoulders, the other in his panic, embeds his arrow deep into the arm of the roegadyn stood next to her, bringing forth an enraged yell of pain from yet another of the ambushers! Re-prioritising her targets, Inarah's spritely dance about the axe-wielder turns into a fully-fledged sprint, dodging and weaving, towards the two archers further along the path, leaving Helia alone atop the drivers bench behind...
Not that this seems to phase the lone Keeper much! Almost negligibly, she waves her faintly glowing staff, forming a barrier about herself that deflects the pair of arrows coming from the opposite path to Inarah. Oddly, no further arrows seem to come, although far from leaving her safe this does create something of a problem, in the shape of two large, burly roegadyn that broke away from the pair that challenged Inarah.
A gesture of her hand, a sweep of that staff, and the ill-prepared assault staggers to something of a standstill as a wave of ice washed out over the pair, and the kneeling roegadyn with the arrow lodged in his arm. Of the three, only the arrow-impaled roe remains held for long however, the charging pair stumbling about the ice, each other and the dead chocobos with their hands seemingly frozen solid to the crystallised axes, but still intent on drawing blood from the unimposing, lone Keeper.
In unison, two glittering, ice-sheathed axes swing for Helia's body, and as one, the pair of axes shatter like glass against the pulsing, glowing staff in her hands. The pair, already unbalanced and in pain beyond the understanding of most men and women, were carried past Helia by their own momentum. Tripping at last over one of the fallen chocobo, they remained on the ground, clutching crystallised hands to their chests and groaning in apparent agony.
Unheard by the distant trio, who were back to goading one another to try and mount one of the couerl, the fight on the far side of the ravine played out for the most part, unnoticed until the second roar of pain, and the roar of the rush of ice. Curious and slightly fearful as to quite -what- was causing those sounds, Xivrez'to and Kilid poked their heads about either side of the large, ancient tree.
And promptly pulled them back in again as the wood of the tree suddenly found itself peppered with arrows, one either side, and worryingly close to hitting each of the miqo'te. A momentary confab between all three led to them concluding, bravely, that it was best to send P'etri out first as a lead ("Ladies first", Kilid uttered with a small bow, gesturing her onwards). The method behind the madness of charging out headfirst before at least two archers being that P'etri seemed rather confident about her ability to deflect arrows, which neither of the two males felt it prudent to question at the time.
All for naught, it seems. The two archers that had thus far remained hidden chose this moment to turn tail and flee from the failed ambush, as...
With one of the four archers laying dead at her feet (this one a miqo'te), and the other (a hyur, no less) pressed up against the rock with a hand pressed tightly to the gash across his gut, Inarah turned tail (literally) and rushed back to rejoin Helia...
Arriving with all the effect (and timing) of the cavalry in just about any film ever, P'etri, Xivrez'to and Kilid arrive at the carriage just in time to bear witness to Helia almost lazily thrusting her staff out to one side. From the tip, a ball of lightning that flies straight along the path results in a cringe-worthy crackling sound, and a high-pitched scream accompanying the sight of another hyur, this one smoldering, falling head-first into the Ravine.
"Well... curses. I was hoping to get both..." muttered the dark-haired Keeper, Helia, to somewhat awed stares from at least one of the group assembled back at the caravan. The best thing that could be said for the cleanup after, is that it was swift. The two roegadyn in possession of frozen hands were forced into a deep sleep, while the kneeling Roe with the arrow in his arm remained safely entombed (mostly) in ice. Of the archers... well, two were dead, but leaving loose ends in this sort of situation was agreed to be a bad thing. Frustratingly, the injured Archer had managed to find the strength to try and 'flee', albeit rather slowly and leaving an easily followable path.
Xivrez'to offered to go after that particular prey, and so sauntered off at a leisurely jog. Rather more urgently, P'etri volunteered to chase down the remaining archer, which looked to be the only elezen of this particular group of bandits, and so set off at an impressive pace after him.
Sadly, it seems no-one ever taught P'etri not to play with her food. (Xivrez'to seems to have also escaped from this sage piece of advice).
After a masterful display of dodging arrows (Including, quite literally, stepping on one as it passed beneath her in mid-leap), and perhaps unnecessarily breaking several fingers by punching the elezen's hand as he tried swinging a long sword at her... and definitely very much unnecessarily breaking several ribs with a suplex, P'etri returned to the group all but dragging the elezen by an arm across her shoulders.
Xivrez'to's approach to apprehending a target, while far different in approach to Petri's, turned out to be just as effective. Offering the hyur a peaceful solution and, surprisingly, even medical aid, the hyur's response was to bare his teeth, draw a dagger, and lunge for the peaceful, somewhat spaced-out Keeper, who just as casually, stepped to one side, brushing the blade away without a care in the world. More words were exchanged, Xivrez'to recommending that perhaps the hyur should think about a career change. Maybe become a baker. Everyone loves bakers, right?
More snarling from the hyur, perhaps predictably. This time, however, his wild slash with the blade, instead of being turned aside, is caught by the Keeper, who promptly uppercuts the already wounded hyur with enough force to shatter teeth and send him sprawling on the ground.
Yet another of the attempted escapees has to be dragged back... such is the danger of this line of work, it seems.
While P'etri and Xivrez'to are off making sport of their respective escapees, Inarah's offer of moving on ahead to Wineport is, perhaps a little grudgingly, accepted by Kilid, who by this point is sat on the drivers bench, quite bored out of his mind and pointedly ignoring the damp smell coming from the back of the carriage, where the Elezen driver continues to hide.
Helia, however, makes much more productive use of her time, expressing her displeasure with the idea that eight armed men would be spared to assault a simple, sole caravan. Stepping on through into the back of the carriage, Kilid gives into curiosity and pokes his head in after her, watching with a mild interest as she breaks open first one crate (Silks. Lots and lots of bolts of silk), and another (Books. Many many books. All hand-written.), and another, the smallest of the seven or eight contained within... seemingly more books.
An oddly smooth, level, flat layer of books that, when she tried to prise one free, ended up shifting the entire layer of elaborately painted wood. With Kilid's help, the cover hiding the true contents of the crate was pulled free, and... crystals. So many crystals. Shards, even clusters poking through in places!
This, of course, wasn't what either Helia nor Kilid were -quite- expecting, and so followed some awkward questions at about the time that Inarah returned, atop one of the two chocobos and in the company of two Yellowjackets, and more awkward questions ensued, as Kilid led one of the two Yellowjackets aside to explain just what, precisely, had happened to the best of his ability while the other bound and secured the surviving bandits in the carriage...
Having sufficiently explained... sort of, kinda... maybe, the events to the remaining Yellowjacket, they set off after their companion riding the carriage, after helping affix the fresh chocobo to the harnesses of the fallen Gridanian birds.
Which left... the inevitable goodbyes! Not that these sorts of goodbyes last, but... it's always something of a come down, after such an action-packed few bells. There's always work to be done, however, and so having seen off P'etri and Helia, and bidding adieu to Xivrez'to, Inarah and Kilid departed on foot for Wineport. They had a carriage to deliver, and no group of Yellowjackets was going to stand in the way of -that-! Not with Kilid's winning smile and Inarah's batting lashes...
"...right, an' we'll be keepin' watch from th'shadows like, so don't y' worry." Kilid flashed a dazzling, confident grin at the white maned elezen stood before the carriage outside Limsa Lominsa's city gates. She didn't look entirely convinced, given the dour expression dragging down her features, but nodded and returned to the chocobos squawking in their harnesses.
Inarah was having a quiet conversation with Xivrez'to, a Keeper male they had recently employed, about whether clouds are edible. As the female miqo'te tilted her head with confusion at his odd remarks, Helia and P'etri appeared over the hill. The dark haired Keeper, finely dressed in long robes, moved with a bearing befitting royalty, whilst P'etri bounced along behind her, the Seeker's long blonde dreadlocks whipping about in the warm sea breeze. "O-oh, ye came!" Inarah greeted them warmly. She and Kilid had met the friendly pair the previous evening as they were negotiating today's contract. Worried that the Jackals' plan to make the caravan appear unguarded would blow up in their faces, Helia had insisted that she and her partner accompany them. "Of course we did," P'etri replied with a beaming smile.
Kilid finally turned away from the elezen to the small crowd of people assembled before him. "Y' all ready then?" A choir of assents later and the carriage was creaking along the cobbled path north towards Camp Bronze Lake.
Inarah sat hidden in the back of the carriage, muscles tense and ears flicking about nervously. Helia casually called from the front, next to the driver. "Relax. There's nothing to worry about. We're on a main road." The blonde miqo'te sighed and settled onto the box of goods she was perched upon. "A-alright...so where'd ye say yer from then...?"
The pair chatted away amiably whilst the rest of the entourage kept a brisk pace about half a malm ahead. Up ahead, the trio of ambush-ambushers were passing the journey with talk about, of all things, windmills. After Xivrez'to's excited exclamation about the size of the local birdlife ("Dodo!"), their journey along the road north led them past the monumental 'mills, and a number of docile Goobbue. Given Xivrez'to's... "unusual" nature, eventually the combination of questions and explanations about both windmills, and goobbue, along with P'etri's anecdotal story about someone she once knew living in one or the other, culminated in a very puzzled Kilid vocalising the question of just -why- anyone would want to turn a goobbue into a house.
Until his dying day, this would remain one of the most surreal conversations Kilid had ever participated in.
Onwards they travelled however, the confusion of goobbue windmill housing proving to be nothing more than a speed-bump on their journey north. Unlike the following caravan, the trio -could- cross the bridge between southern La Noscea, and Wineport, making their coming plan all the easier to achieve. Despite an unfortunate incident involving the swallowing of a Midge or three by Kilid, and a face full of midge swarm by P'etri, their journey North, then doubling back around the cliffs, remained uneventful. Boring, almost! If there was an ambush laying in wait, there was no sign of it just yet, and so the three settled down in the shade of a great tree to wait, and discuss today's relevant political and philosophical topics.
Such as what it would be like to fly. Not using an airship, but to -fly-, man! And daring each other to try and ride one of the wild couerl they saw on their travels. Important topics...
The driver came to a halt abruptly when they reached the rickety bridge leading up to Wineport. "W-what's wrong?" Inarah immediately leant out the back of the carriage and scanned the terrain. "The bridge is too narrow. We're going round the long way," came the terse reply. A flick of the reins and the chocobos trotted off deeper into the jungle.
They hadn't travelled far when a faint whistling rung through Inarah's ears, followed by the death squawks of both chocobos. "We're under attack!" Helia cried, pulling out her engraved staff as the elezen dove into the back to huddle behind a crate. The female Seeker was silent as she peered out from the back. Archers on either side of the carriage and a handful of men with axes were charging down a small knoll towards them. Helia began chanting and raised the staff high into the air as flames circled around her head, whilst Inarah dropped down onto the ground quietly with a dagger in each hand.
Quite oblivious to the assault happening just out of earshot, the trio hiding in the shade of the tree continued their deep, meaningful conversation about how it would be -really- nice to have something to eat right now...
Weaving this way and that, Inarah's blades were a confusing blur of steel as she worked her way about behind one of the surprised axe-wielding roegadyn and promptly embedded both blades hilt-deep into the small of his back, bringing forth a roar of pain from the falling roe. Surprised, and now somewhat cautious of the sweet-looking miqo'te that so effortlessly laid low one of his comrades, the nearest of the remaining three swings about, axe raised in a defensive posture to hold off the unexpected assailant, for his archer 'friends' to finish off.
Things never work out as we want, though.
While one of the archers did, indeed, manage to score a grazing blow across one of Inarah's shoulders, the other in his panic, embeds his arrow deep into the arm of the roegadyn stood next to her, bringing forth an enraged yell of pain from yet another of the ambushers! Re-prioritising her targets, Inarah's spritely dance about the axe-wielder turns into a fully-fledged sprint, dodging and weaving, towards the two archers further along the path, leaving Helia alone atop the drivers bench behind...
Not that this seems to phase the lone Keeper much! Almost negligibly, she waves her faintly glowing staff, forming a barrier about herself that deflects the pair of arrows coming from the opposite path to Inarah. Oddly, no further arrows seem to come, although far from leaving her safe this does create something of a problem, in the shape of two large, burly roegadyn that broke away from the pair that challenged Inarah.
A gesture of her hand, a sweep of that staff, and the ill-prepared assault staggers to something of a standstill as a wave of ice washed out over the pair, and the kneeling roegadyn with the arrow lodged in his arm. Of the three, only the arrow-impaled roe remains held for long however, the charging pair stumbling about the ice, each other and the dead chocobos with their hands seemingly frozen solid to the crystallised axes, but still intent on drawing blood from the unimposing, lone Keeper.
In unison, two glittering, ice-sheathed axes swing for Helia's body, and as one, the pair of axes shatter like glass against the pulsing, glowing staff in her hands. The pair, already unbalanced and in pain beyond the understanding of most men and women, were carried past Helia by their own momentum. Tripping at last over one of the fallen chocobo, they remained on the ground, clutching crystallised hands to their chests and groaning in apparent agony.
Unheard by the distant trio, who were back to goading one another to try and mount one of the couerl, the fight on the far side of the ravine played out for the most part, unnoticed until the second roar of pain, and the roar of the rush of ice. Curious and slightly fearful as to quite -what- was causing those sounds, Xivrez'to and Kilid poked their heads about either side of the large, ancient tree.
And promptly pulled them back in again as the wood of the tree suddenly found itself peppered with arrows, one either side, and worryingly close to hitting each of the miqo'te. A momentary confab between all three led to them concluding, bravely, that it was best to send P'etri out first as a lead ("Ladies first", Kilid uttered with a small bow, gesturing her onwards). The method behind the madness of charging out headfirst before at least two archers being that P'etri seemed rather confident about her ability to deflect arrows, which neither of the two males felt it prudent to question at the time.
All for naught, it seems. The two archers that had thus far remained hidden chose this moment to turn tail and flee from the failed ambush, as...
With one of the four archers laying dead at her feet (this one a miqo'te), and the other (a hyur, no less) pressed up against the rock with a hand pressed tightly to the gash across his gut, Inarah turned tail (literally) and rushed back to rejoin Helia...
Arriving with all the effect (and timing) of the cavalry in just about any film ever, P'etri, Xivrez'to and Kilid arrive at the carriage just in time to bear witness to Helia almost lazily thrusting her staff out to one side. From the tip, a ball of lightning that flies straight along the path results in a cringe-worthy crackling sound, and a high-pitched scream accompanying the sight of another hyur, this one smoldering, falling head-first into the Ravine.
"Well... curses. I was hoping to get both..." muttered the dark-haired Keeper, Helia, to somewhat awed stares from at least one of the group assembled back at the caravan. The best thing that could be said for the cleanup after, is that it was swift. The two roegadyn in possession of frozen hands were forced into a deep sleep, while the kneeling Roe with the arrow in his arm remained safely entombed (mostly) in ice. Of the archers... well, two were dead, but leaving loose ends in this sort of situation was agreed to be a bad thing. Frustratingly, the injured Archer had managed to find the strength to try and 'flee', albeit rather slowly and leaving an easily followable path.
Xivrez'to offered to go after that particular prey, and so sauntered off at a leisurely jog. Rather more urgently, P'etri volunteered to chase down the remaining archer, which looked to be the only elezen of this particular group of bandits, and so set off at an impressive pace after him.
Sadly, it seems no-one ever taught P'etri not to play with her food. (Xivrez'to seems to have also escaped from this sage piece of advice).
After a masterful display of dodging arrows (Including, quite literally, stepping on one as it passed beneath her in mid-leap), and perhaps unnecessarily breaking several fingers by punching the elezen's hand as he tried swinging a long sword at her... and definitely very much unnecessarily breaking several ribs with a suplex, P'etri returned to the group all but dragging the elezen by an arm across her shoulders.
Xivrez'to's approach to apprehending a target, while far different in approach to Petri's, turned out to be just as effective. Offering the hyur a peaceful solution and, surprisingly, even medical aid, the hyur's response was to bare his teeth, draw a dagger, and lunge for the peaceful, somewhat spaced-out Keeper, who just as casually, stepped to one side, brushing the blade away without a care in the world. More words were exchanged, Xivrez'to recommending that perhaps the hyur should think about a career change. Maybe become a baker. Everyone loves bakers, right?
More snarling from the hyur, perhaps predictably. This time, however, his wild slash with the blade, instead of being turned aside, is caught by the Keeper, who promptly uppercuts the already wounded hyur with enough force to shatter teeth and send him sprawling on the ground.
Yet another of the attempted escapees has to be dragged back... such is the danger of this line of work, it seems.
While P'etri and Xivrez'to are off making sport of their respective escapees, Inarah's offer of moving on ahead to Wineport is, perhaps a little grudgingly, accepted by Kilid, who by this point is sat on the drivers bench, quite bored out of his mind and pointedly ignoring the damp smell coming from the back of the carriage, where the Elezen driver continues to hide.
Helia, however, makes much more productive use of her time, expressing her displeasure with the idea that eight armed men would be spared to assault a simple, sole caravan. Stepping on through into the back of the carriage, Kilid gives into curiosity and pokes his head in after her, watching with a mild interest as she breaks open first one crate (Silks. Lots and lots of bolts of silk), and another (Books. Many many books. All hand-written.), and another, the smallest of the seven or eight contained within... seemingly more books.
An oddly smooth, level, flat layer of books that, when she tried to prise one free, ended up shifting the entire layer of elaborately painted wood. With Kilid's help, the cover hiding the true contents of the crate was pulled free, and... crystals. So many crystals. Shards, even clusters poking through in places!
This, of course, wasn't what either Helia nor Kilid were -quite- expecting, and so followed some awkward questions at about the time that Inarah returned, atop one of the two chocobos and in the company of two Yellowjackets, and more awkward questions ensued, as Kilid led one of the two Yellowjackets aside to explain just what, precisely, had happened to the best of his ability while the other bound and secured the surviving bandits in the carriage...
Having sufficiently explained... sort of, kinda... maybe, the events to the remaining Yellowjacket, they set off after their companion riding the carriage, after helping affix the fresh chocobo to the harnesses of the fallen Gridanian birds.
Which left... the inevitable goodbyes! Not that these sorts of goodbyes last, but... it's always something of a come down, after such an action-packed few bells. There's always work to be done, however, and so having seen off P'etri and Helia, and bidding adieu to Xivrez'to, Inarah and Kilid departed on foot for Wineport. They had a carriage to deliver, and no group of Yellowjackets was going to stand in the way of -that-! Not with Kilid's winning smile and Inarah's batting lashes...
In other news, we had another event last night which brought new developments into the FC plot! Thanks to everyone who attended; it was an interesting evening. Have some screenshots!
Show Content
Spoiler![[Image: 2173419.jpg]](http://files.enjin.com.s3.amazonaws.com/925363/module_gallery/original/2173419.jpg)
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