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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kid Charlemagne" data-source="post: 2485517" data-attributes="member: 93">Nigel took a swipe at Iron Tusk’s ankle, hoping to topple the burly Orkling, but he deftly lept back and scampered to the peak of the roof.“Let’s see if ye can catch me,” Iron Tusk growled with an unpleasant grin.  He disappeared onto the opposite side of the peaked roof.Nigel swore under his breath, and clambered up the rest of the way onto the roof.  When he reached the peak, Iron Tusk was just reaching the edge of the roof.  He lept casually the ten feet to the next roof and stopped at the next peak, looking over his shoulder at Nigel.Kendra let out a cry from above.  From the street below, Orla saw IronTusk on the roof and began to climb up after the Orkling and Nigel.  Sandor and Artimis came running out of the brothel moments later.“He’s on the roof,” Orla cried, from about the second floor of the building.  She was not as good a climber as Nigel, and her progress was slower.Artimis and Sandor ran along the alleyway, trying to keep an eye on Iron Tusk as he lept from roof to roof.  Nigel drew his two hand axes, and began to make his way down the slop of the first roof.  A shingle came loose under his foot, and he fell, sliding towards the edge and a thirty foot drop.With barely a moment to spare, Nigel drove one of his axes into the roof of the building, like a mountain climber on a glacier.  The axe stuck, and his momentum halted just before he would have gone over the side.  He stood back up, and gingerly jumped to the next roof.  Having found his footing, he managed the next jump fairly easily.Sandor watched Iron Tusk make another leap, and hurled a dagger in his direction.  It clattered off the stone wall, missing by inches.  Artimis advanced to the next building.  Orla finally pulled herself up onto the first roof, but she was three houses behind Iron Tusk and Nigel.Nigel lept onto the next house, and here it looked as if Iron Tusk was going to make a stand.  The Orkling was working himself into a seething,angry, rage, and switched his table leg from one hand to the other, grinning madly in anticipation as Nigel clambered up to meet him.  The two faced off against each other, straddling the peak of the roof.“Now, I’m gonna take ye down a peg or two, little man,” Iron Tusk grumbled.  “I’ll….yawn…”Iron Tusk let out a deep yawn, and fell fast asleep in mid-sentence.  Below him in the alley, Artimis passed a hand across one of his tattoos, and grinned a satisfied grin.Iron Tusk hit the roof, and went sliding down to his own thirty foot drop.  Nigel reached out, and with a single blow from his axe, drove the axe head through Iron Tusk’s wool coat, and into the roof.  Iron Tusk went flying off the roof, and the wool coat tore, but not completely.  It held, and the Orkling was suspended thirty feet off the ground, held up only by his own ratty overcoat and Nigel’s axe.  The table leg clattered onto the cobblestones below.Nigel sat at the very edge of the roof, cross-legged, with one hand on the haft of the axe.  He waited for Iron Tusk to wake up, patiently.  Orla made it to the roof opposite, and groaned in disappointment, having been looking forward to a good dust-up.  Sandor and Artimis waited below, in case the Orkling fell.Finally, Iron Tusk stirred, suddenly thrashing about wildly as he got his bearings.  A faint tearing sound from his coat caught his ear, and he realized his predicament.  It did nothing for his mood.“I’d suggest you not struggle too much,” Nigel said calmly, his hand placed gently on the haft of the axe holding Iron Tusk’s coat, and by extension, him, in place.  “It’s quite a ways down.”“I don’t care!” the Orkling yelled.  “I’ll kill ye!  Every last fooking one a ye!”He thrashed about some more, trying in vain to reach the eaves over his head, but his coat was bunched up under his arms, and he couldn't reach far enough.  "We don't particularly care about you," Orla said, matter-of-factly.  "We're just interested in recovering some things you've stolen.""So why are young hanging out here instead of at your house?"Iron Tusk seethed, practically foaming at the mouth.  "Dunna wanna get sick, do I?  Bloody hell!"Sandor shrugged.  "Can't argue with his logic," he said to Artimis."We know you paid Balthazar to get Melthorpe into his shop after hours," Nigel said.  "But who paid you?  And why?""What the fook do I care why?" Iron Tusk howled.  "Cyranthus wanted that key and book, and I just do what I'm told!"His belligerence was starting to take a toll on him.  The thrashing slowed, and Iron Tusk stopped trying to reach behind his head for the roof."Where's he?" Nigel asked.  "And what did he want with the key…  and book?""Hell if I know.  Probably at the house.  He gave the stuff to a priest, one of those freaks that follows the Five.""Where is the house?"  Nigel moved the handle of the axe slightly, and Iron Tusk's coat ripped a little bit more."Highgate," Iron Tusk answered.Nigel looked down at Artimis and Sandor, and they nodded.  He backed off from Iron Tusk, and let the Orkling gain his bearings.  Iron Tusk climbed down the wall of the building, found his dropped table leg, and slipped away into the night.  Nigel and Orla climbed down to join Sandor and Artimis."What is this 'Five' he spoke of?" Sandor asked."It's a really old religious sect, maybe Fey-related," Orla replied.  "I don't know much, it's not really my thing.  It's a group of gods, they're known as The Five, or The Family."  "Let me see." Orla closed her eyes in concentration.  "Daughter of Spring, Mother of Summer, Son of Autumn, Father of Winter, and The Bastard.  They don't have names, they're just known as 'The Daughter' and so on."Nigel wasn't paying attention to Orla's explanation.  He was searching the alley for something.  Finally, he stopped with a cry of discovery, and dug into a trash pile, pulling out a fish skeleton wrapped in newsprint.  He shook out the bones, and straightened the paper out on the cobblestones. British Museum Burglarized! Public Outraged!  Police Baffled! Young Librarian Beaten Within An Inch Of His Life; Stolen Book "History of John Uskglass" Thought To Be Forgery Scotland Yard remains at a loss to explain the mysterious break-in at the British Museum this past weekend.  Gerald Wist, museum librarian, was beaten severely by an intruder who left with a recently discovered manuscript, "The History of John Uskglass," which purported to be the history of the legendary Raven King, but which Museum authorities had believed to be a forgery..."You know," Nigel ruminated.  "I think I really should have seen that coming."</blockquote>

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