Insight's "The Shadow of Set" - IC Thread

[Insight]

[sblock=NPCing Isphet]Isphet smirks. "Better pay? Well, that sells me." Stepping to Chief Jobbor's desk, Isphet takes the quill. "All right, fat one. Where do I sign?"

"Well, first, you must prove your mettle," Jobbor replies. "Go to the bazaar and speak with T'Shara. She sells leather goods in the marketplace. You know, pouches, scabbards, stirrups, those sorts of things. Go and speak with T'Shara and she will give you a task. If T'Shara gives you a favorable grade, you're in."

"Very well," Isphet replies. "We will play your little game and return shortly."

The moneylender takes the others outside. "I'm only in this for the pay, just to be clear," he says. "I care little for this town, but I have certain needs."[/sblock]

Note: I hope Sound of Azure shows up soon. I am giving it til the end of the week, and then I am dropping this character.

 

[Insight]

[sblock=Group 1]

Droban sighs loudly, and considers his decided lack of current employment opportunities. "Well, I suppose that doesn't sound too horrible. What sort of proof did you have in mind? We already spent the last week traipsing about the desert rounding up camel thieves for the city. Does that not demonstrate our mettle enough for your liking?"

Isphet smirks. "Better pay? Well, that sells me." Stepping to Chief Jobbor's desk, Isphet takes the quill. "All right, fat one. Where do I sign?"

"Well, first, you must prove your mettle," Jobbor replies. "Go to the bazaar and speak with T'Shara. She sells leather goods in the marketplace. You know, pouches, scabbards, stirrups, those sorts of things. Go and speak with T'Shara and she will give you a task. If T'Shara gives you a favorable grade, you're in."

"Very well," Isphet replies. "We will play your little game and return shortly."

The moneylender takes the others outside. "I'm only in this for the pay, just to be clear," he says. "I care little for this town, but I have certain needs."

Isphet, Droban, and Avardis walk across Majoor to the bazaar. Along the way, the heroes pass what is known as a healers' stand, where dozens of the sick (or possibly accursed) lay dying. A few priests tend to the infirmed, with little hope of easing their pain.

It isn't too long before the marketplace appears. The Majoor bazaar is rife with activity, merchants shouting entreats to visitors and potential customers, people haggling, goods shifting back and forth, guards watching all the action unfold.

Isphet, Droban, and Avardis don't have too much trouble finding T'Shara. An older woman of Ashadi decent, T'Shara's skin is weathered and leathery from far too many summers spent in the dead heat and blasting wind Majoor generously supplies in vast surplus.

T'Shara shouts in a gravely voice, "Leather goods... get your leather goods. I have scabbards, waterskins... you need waterskins if you wish to survive a day in the desert... six are better than four.... I also have, just in... a few saddlebags crafted by the finest leatherworkers in Shal Anon."

Spotting the heroes watching her, T'Shara adjusts. "My friends... interested in my wares? I'm certain I've something you desperately need."

A blind beggar next to T'Shara's stand shakes his panhandler's can, rattling a few coins within. "Alms for a poor priest who's lost his sight?"

T'Shara barks at the beggar, "Whimpering dog. No one's listening to you, beggar!"
[/sblock]

 

[Ilium]

[sblock=Group 1]

A blind beggar next to T'Shara's stand shakes his panhandler's can, rattling a few coins within. "Alms for a poor priest who's lost his sight?"

T'Shara barks at the beggar, "Whimpering dog. No one's listening to you, beggar!"

Avardis' warm manner suddenly becomes cold as he fixes T'Shara with a steely glare. "I'm listening," he calmly says while pointedly dropping a few silver pieces in the beggar's cup. Turning to the man he asks, "What god do you serve, my friend?"

[/sblock]

 

[Insight]

[sblock=Group 1]

Avardis' warm manner suddenly becomes cold as he fixes T'Shara with a steely glare. "I'm listening," he calmly says while pointedly dropping a few silver pieces in the beggar's cup. Turning to the man he asks, "What god do you serve, my friend?"

"Arden's blessing upon you, my friend," the beggar replies. "I was once of the Temple of the Eternal Sun... but no more."

T'Shara looks over at the beggar. "Don't encourage him. He's mad as a jackal."

The beggar smiles in Avardis' general direction.
[/sblock]

 

[Insight]

[sblock=Group 2]

Asad somberly walks over to the wagons and starts to reverently remove the bodies of the deceased monks and acolytes. He silently prays to Horus for the opportunity to avenge their deaths as he covers each body with a few handfulls of sand.
When he looks up, his eyes are hard and his jaw is set in determination. He meets Dirk's gaze and then speaks in a voice that sounds devoid of emotion, "Find them, then we kill them."

Dirk walks through the carnage to a smoldering wagon, careful not to disturb the dead. He pulls an arrow from the wood, and notes that something is not right. "Something is wrong. These arrows are not right." He tosses the arrow away, and kneels to examine a corpse. "These wounds are not right as well." He studies the slashed and bruised bodies, his mind running through his mental inventory of weapons and who uses them. He wanders the sight, looking for more clues. Upon hearing Asad, he stops, turns to him, and nods.

G'sharn snorts, as close as he seems to come to laughter. "I think that I might come to like you, Asad. Like Dirk, you cut right to the point."
He crouches down next to one of the corpses, tracing a wound with one finger. "But what's the point of this? Who is it that's trying to cover their tracks?"

Dirk spends a little bit more time searching the site, and with the aid of Asad and G'Sharn, finds additional tracks. Buried quite skillfully, but not quite completely, are sets of hooves (most likely horses) and a few humanoid boot tracks. These newly-found tracks are much older than the scorpitaur tracks.

Dirk notes that the tracks lead vaguely south, towards Majoor.[/sblock]

[sblock=G'Sharn and Asad]Checking the burned wagons, G'Sharn finds a large polished wooden box, a religious symbol of some kind on its face. Asad, seeing the find, recognizes the symbol as the same emblazoned on the tunics of the dead around the site. Examining the box, Asad and G'Sharn think it must have held something of importance. The moulding inside the box suggests it may have held an urn or some sort of large, rounded symbol, though neither G'Sharn nor Asad can imagine what that might be.

Whatever was within the box is long gone.
[/sblock]

[sblock=Dirk]Dirk thinks that the older tracks are a good week old. He gets the impression that, while those who actually performed the ambush did try to hide their tracks, the scorpitaur tracks are just a coincidence.

In terms of the groups that might use these weapons, it could be local bandits, bands of marauding humanoids, or perhaps the forces of a nearby warlord (though the possibility of that seems remote, unless an invasion of Majoor is imminent).[/sblock]

 

[YeOldeAlbatross]

Droban Ironthane

[sblock=Group 1]Droban raises a bushy eyebrow in the direction of the 'mad' beggar, keeping one ear affixed to the conversation between he and Avardis. To T'Shara he states, "We need no leather goods today, woman. Captain Jobbor sent us to you...something about an errand you would assign to gague our fitness for service in the guard. What would you ask of us?" The glower on the dwarf's face makes it all too clear that he considers this entire exercise a waste of time.[/sblock]

 

[Insight]

OOC: Group 2, I need some actions from you. If I don't get anything by tomorrow, I'm moving the game forward on my own. I'd rather not do so, but I also don't want the game to stagnate.

 

[Redclaw]

[sblock=group2] Asad nods as Dirk points out the tracks heading toward Majoor. He looks with interest at the wooden box, but decides it's too big to carry. He then beckons to G'Sharn and starts heading south. [/sblock]

 

[Rolzup]

[Sblock=Group 2]
G'sharn frowns, looking towards the South. "Majoor," he says sourly. "Such a surprise, that these killers should be headed there. I can almost smell the stink of the place from here."

Pulling a piece of burned wood from one of the wagons, he uses the charred tip to draw a crude copy of the symbol on a piece of cloth, which he carefully folds and stows in a pouch.

Having done this, he changes shape once more and paces off to rejoin Asad and Dirk.
[/sblock]

Sorry -- missed an update there.

 

[Necro_Kinder]

[sblock=Group 2]
Dirk nods to Asad and G'sharn and leads off to the south, his bow still ready if the scorpitaurs show up.
[/sblock]