[Nexus] Caravan to Elsewhere (Plot)

[happyturtle]

Barlin leads her caravan through the wilds of Outside.

http://public5.tektek.org/img/av/1012/d12/0808/2ecd932.png (http://tektek.org/avatar/41156968)

Twelve wagons, four of emigrants and eight of cargo, are slowly pulled by giant beasts. The roads are poorly maintained in these lands, and some of the older children play outside the wagons, sure of being able to catch up in time, while some of the guards and caravan crew merely walk alongside for the exercise.

Claude has ridden ahead to scout, while the other hired guns stay with the caravan.

So far, there's been no trouble, and Barlin hopes to keep it that way.

[QUOTE=happyturtle;9953204]Start of Caravan Quest

((I did the start of the quest over PM, since I recruited everyone in the ooc thread. Sorry if this is confusing. The guards are John by Ohmyani, Chumley by Moff Chumley, Claude by Lord Magtok, and Michicora by Shadowcaller. Unfortunately, I can't manage a party larger than four people, but if this is a success, Barlin might hire more guards for future caravans.))

==========================================

In the classic shadowy corner at Trog's, you come across an elf who is looking for caravan guards. You think it's a female - it's so hard to tell with elves. Her face is scarred and her eyes missing. Whatever replaced them is obviously magic.

http://i431.photobucket.com/albums/qq40/happyturtle-avs/2ecd932.png

"Name's Barlin. I've got a caravan of 12 wagons that I need to get safely to the Kingdom of Elsewhere. Four wagons of emigrants looking to settle elsewhere, and eight of cargo. I expect bandits, monsters, zombie hordes, and dysentery. Occasionally we might want help getting a wagon unstuck or clearing a road, but for the most part, your job will be watching for trouble, not general labor. The pay is 5 silver pieces a day, plus food and drink." She gives Claude a significant look. "That is, if you eat the same rations as me and my men. Otherwise, you're on your own. There's a large bonus for each wagon reaching Elsewhere safely, and an even larger one if the entire caravan does."

She looks the four of you over. "If you're interested, I'll need to know your qualifications. The caravan leaves in two days."

[TechnoScrabble]

Far ahead of the wagon, but not close enough to pose a threat right now, are several well hidden traps.
A bear trap with a spring loaded steel-spike launcher inside.
A dart trap poisoned with wyvern sting venom.
Several normal bear traps.
A fence trap (it's a cool thing. When a pressure plate is stepped on or a rope pulled, a series of wooden poles held together by ropes snap up. They're covered in spikes at about knee level.)
And a pitfall trap covered in thin plywood and fake stone and bits of grass.
Behind a nearby boulder hides Jumpin' Jack Snipes, his bow ready.

[TruorTupnm]

Behind another boulder, one that he was probably directed to hide behind until he heard some action starting, Nick (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9953989&postcount=312) fidgeted with his longknife. As the caravan moved closer, he became more and more excited, but he tried to focus on not moving. Wonder what they're moving? Gold and jewels, on my first try? There's gotta be a decent chance!

[Lord Magtok]

Claude just rides along as if nothing's out of the ordinary. And nothing is out of the ordinary, up until Ol' Witless steps on a pressure plate and activates a bear trap. That's exactly the moment when everything goes to hell.

Whoa, there! Wit, you-

Most of the time, when a horse makes a noise, it's described as a neigh, or whinny, or something else horsey-ish. Ol' Witless doesn't make any of those sounds here. That horse SCREAMS. Witless screams like nobody's business, it hollers and screeches and cries in agony in a manner that no beast of burden should ever feel necessary.

The squid-headed gunslinger is knocked off his horse, its wounded leg causing it to swing unceremoniously to the ground and onto its side. He hurriedly staggers back to his feet and over to the horse's side. A quick glance confirms his worst fears, that the leg bone is a completely mess, and unless someone sets it in place and casts the right spell, this poor horse isn't ever walking again.

WIT! I...WIT, NO! No, you can't...you can't do that, Witty, this...you're not supposed to-

BARLIN! GET A YOT-DAMNED DOCTOR OVER HERE! F***ing hunters, leaving their traps all over the yot-damned place...

Holy fudge, Claude is an emotional wreck right now. I didn't know his kind could shed tears before, but I certainly know now.

[happyturtle]

The sound of the horse screaming puts the entire caravan on alert. Barlin blows three times sharply on a wooden whistle, and her men start rounding up the stragglers and getting them to the wagons.

"Be ready for trouble. This could be an ambush," she says to the guards, but she can't ignore an animal in distress. She grabs a large leather satchel with a stylized golden tree painted on it prominently. An observant person may have noticed there's a gold-tree bag in every wagon. "Michicora, with me."

Without waiting to see if the night elf is following, she heads to the animal and tries to place her hands on its head. /"It doesn't hurt, Witless, not much. And right now you're very brave, braver than you've ever been. Hold very still."/ The words were in elvish, and a simple charm was woven into them, something the experienced caravan master had used many times to calm injured animals and people alike.

Once the animal is calm, she'll see if the leg can be saved.

[TechnoScrabble]

Jack looks around to see if any of the other bandits have attacked yet.
When he sees that the caravan got far enough in to hit the bear traps without setting anything else off or getting attacked, he curses under his breath.
"Gonna be so pissed if I have to peg these fools myself."

[Morty]

Gerald is also hiding near the road, waiting for the bandits' cue to attack. Three brigands is hardly enough, so he waits for more of them to show up.

[Lord Magtok]

Witless calms down, but the leg is well...

To put it simply, it's a mess. Bear traps are designed to hold thick bear paws in place, not the substantially thinner calves of a horse. The lower half of the calf, just above the ankle, has been almost entirely severed from the rest of the horse, dangling by just a thin, sinewy string of stubborn muscle. It's a big bloody mess, and there's a distinct possibility that nothing short of a regeneration spell or something could fix this.

Meanwhile, Claude's chickened out and left his horse in Barlin's care. He's just standing there, back turned to the animal, staring vacantly ahead and trying to pull his shattered psyche back together again. They'd been through some rough rides, and there were always some close calls, but it just never occurred to him that his luck might finally run out. He's trying very hard to repress the idea of what he might have to do if nothing else can be done for the horse, trying so hard to not think about the lever-action rifle strung along his back, but...

[happyturtle]

"Claude, watch for trouble. This may be an ambush," Barlin says sharply, in the hopes that giving the man something to do will help distract him.

She looks at the animal's leg, her eyes seeing the internal damage. She cursed softly in elvish. Too much of the bone was destroyed for it to be set and healed. The only way to save the animal would be to use one of the restoration potions she'd stocked for this trip.

Only a few days into the journey too. Should she take the gamble that it wouldn't be needed later to save the life of a person?

Back at the caravan, the wagon hands are loading everyone aboard. The wagons were travelling two abreast, at a comfortable distance from each other, before the signal came. Now they're being pulled closer together, and most of the adults are starting to load their crossbows.

((Bandits, please don't actually start the attack until tomorrow RL, or until the other three caravan guards respond, whichever comes first. But go ahead and prep up all you like. :smallsmile:))

[Shadowcaller]

Michicora is watching the events unfold, unable to really help. Her abilities don't include healing sadly. "We can't stay here for too long. We need to make a decision, now. Heal it, or end it." She speaks, looking at the woods around them rather then the horse which she doubt will trouble her anyway.

[happyturtle]

Yes, she was right. No time to waste.

"Open the trap." Barlin says, knowing the potion will work faster when it doesn't have to rebuild the entire lower leg and hoof. As soon as the other woman does so, Barlin retrieves the hoof. "Hold it in place."

While Michicora holds the two parts of the leg still, Barlin takes out the valuable potion and carefully pours it over the wound. If it works, the leg should begin to knit itself back together.

(godmod approved)

[TechnoScrabble]

"************werearethoseguys?" Jack mutters several curses beneath his breath. If the other bandits ((and guards :smallyuk:)) didn't hurry up, the caravan would be back to full power and moving on, probably in a direction that didn't involve traps!
Of course, if they're far enough in to hit his bear traps, the safest way for them to go would be sideways but turning those wagons might hit more traps...
"Immabout ready to freaking peg that healer lady..."

[Lord Magtok]

Claude unslings and loads his rifle, keeping an eye out as Barlin said. He has his doubts that anyone would use bear-traps for something other than their intended purpose, though. I dunno why, I guess he just never encountered any particularly homicidal fur traders before. The opposition is pretty well-hidden, and Mr. Derleth has a lot on his mind, so none of the bandits are spotted, not unless they decide to do something ridiculous, like jump out and cry "SURPRISE".

Meanwhile, the horse's leg is repaired. It shudders uncertainly, and wiggles the leg about a bit, but it's still lying on the ground, and therefore incapable of doing a thing.

[TruorTupnm]

Nick drops to the ground and covers his ears, when the horse screams. What was that?! As he readies himself to rush out, he is perplexed, when he doesn't hear any other screams. Or at least a victory yell from one of the Brigands? With gloved hands holding onto the boulder for support and an ear to it, as if it's a door, Nick wonders if the attack has started, and he's just been stricken deaf. Just a few more minutes. Even if I am deaf, I'll still see somebody running away. He finds that he can hear voices and wagons moving, but, yep, he's pretty sure that he's deaf, and he's just imagining those sounds.

[happyturtle]

Barlin watches with her magic eyes. When she sees that the leg is repaired, she nudges the horse. /"Come on, Witless, on your feet. No time to be loafing."/

[Shadowcaller]

/"I suspect something might be afoul."/ Michicora states in elvish /"Beartraps like that don't just lay around on the roads."/ Michicora pauses for a second and then looks back at Barlin. /"We should be careful."/

[Moff Chumley]

Chumley's still sitting on the head wagon, keeping an eye out for some kinda diabolical flanking maneuver...

[TechnoScrabble]

((If your lead has gotten to the bear traps, then half of your caravan has missed the poison darts and the fence trap already. There's still the steel spike bear trap and the pitfall if you're not careful, though...))

[Shadowcaller]

((If your lead has gotten to the bear traps, then half of your caravan has missed the poison darts and the fence trap already. There's still the steel spike bear trap and the pitfall if you're not careful, though...))

((There are only three persons there at the moment, the rest of the caravan have yet to arrived yet.))

[TechnoScrabble]

((There are only three persons there at the moment, the rest of the caravan have yet to arrived yet.))

((Oooohh...that makes it a lot easier to attack now doesn't it? how far back is the caravan?))

[happyturtle]

------1 2 3 4 5 6 -------W--------

----- = road
W= Witless, Michicora, Barlin, Claude - site of bear trap

each number is a pair of wagons, with Chumley in wagon 6 and John in wagon 1

The distance between the trap and the lead wagon is... i dunno... close enough for a scream to carry, but just barely?



None of the bandits have shown themselves, so you can be anywhere.

((if anyone wants to make an actual artsy map, feel free))

[Morty]

Gerald tries to sneak up to his fellow bandits. They're in disarray, perfect to be attacked... but there's just three of us.

[TechnoScrabble]

"Maybe there are five or six godmoddable NPCs in wait with us?" Jack hopes in a whisper, "Even if there aren't, we need to remove these guys before they report the traps to the caravan!"

[TruorTupnm]

Nick is sneaked up upon and doesn't fall over, due to surprise, only because he was hanging onto the boulder. He glares, then forgets about it, as he shrugs and says, as if reciting, "I was told to stay right here, until stuff started happening." He blinks and says happily, "Hey, I'm not deaf! Oh, and, if the plan has changed, sure, I'll take the lead."

((Although, Out Of Character-wise, I'd prefer to wait for Darklord Bright. But whatever everyone else wants. Yay for NPC bandits.))

[Morty]

Let's see what they do, first. Rushing in without thinking will only get us killed.
((Yes, we should wait for Darklord Bright. The bandit group as his idea, after all.))

[Darklord Bright]

Sinara, unbeknownst to the others, has been on the other side of the road behind another boulder. She is casually loading her crossbow, her sword still sheathed. A hand moves around the boulder - hopefully out of sight of the targets - and indicates to the other bandits with a motion of the fingers that she's ready when they are.

The crossbow clicks quietly as the bolt is readied. She smiles, waiting.

((If we want there to be NPC bandits as well, agree on the number around now, I'd say, before things get too heated.))

[TechnoScrabble]

((I'd say 5 or six.))
Jack smiles at the signal and pulls the drawstring on his longbow (which according to wikipedia and tvtropes and history books could knock a horse down!) and aims for the healer, hoping he gets to shoot first.

[Morty]

((It's 4 bandits against 4 guards. I say we might not even need NPCs. Then again, there's Barlin.))

Gerald slowly draws his backsword and his arming dagger, deciding to move against Michicora first when the bandits attack. He also signals that he's ready.

[happyturtle]

((I have no problem with npc bandits. Have as many as you think reasonable. The caravan has 4 PC guards, plus Barlin, plus 2-3 wagon hands per wagon. The wagon hands have weapons but most of them don't have combat experience. Also the settler wagons have about 4-5 non-combatants each.))

[TruorTupnm]

With action obviously occurring, Nick, who let's type would have been directed to wait behind a boulder towards the middle of the caravan, pokes his head out and heads for the wagon towards the south, in the fourth pair. He wields his longknife and grins eagerly. He walks with a wide stance, very aware of his center of gravity. Towards the driver of the wagon, happily, "Hey, drop the reins and stay out of the way, or get a new scar! Good choices!"

[Lord Magtok]

Ol' Witless is brought back to his feet, and immediately trots away towards Claude. Any bandits in the area would have to be some sort of heartless monster to assault the poor beast a second time, but the squid-headed gunslinger sends him away towards the rest of the caravan anyways, just as a precaution.

[Morty]

((How about 2 NPC bandits per player, then?))
Geralt swiftly leaps from behind his cover. The wiry half-elf with a crewcut hair and a scar across his right cheek, hefting a backsword and an arming dagger rushes at Michicora, flourishing his weapons. Alright, everyone! Hand over your valuables and noone will be hurt!

[TechnoScrabble]

Jack sighs and stands up, firing his first arrow at whoever it was that healed the horse, then ducks down to load his bow with another arrow, this own dipped in the same wyvern venom as the dart trap nobody hit.
"Come on! Let's hear the pained scream!" he snickers to himself.
((Forgot to add he was aiming for center of mass))

[Darklord Bright]

Sinara stands, brushing her short black ponytail over her shoulder and propping her crossbow up on the top of the rock she had been hidden behind. She sees Claude with his weapon and aims at one of his shoulders.

The bolt is released.

[Moff Chumley]

Chumley has probably overheard the thwack of bows, and a bit of shouting by now. "Aw, this can't be good. Someone stay here, guard the caravan." She's announcing this to the caravan in general, no one specifically. Crowbar is one hand, rifle in the other, she jogs ahead down the road.

[TechnoScrabble]

((Let's hope she doesn't step on anything while going through half a field of traps, eh?))

[Shadowcaller]

Michicora's ears were already snapping up the sound of the bandits as they came through the bushes and turns around with quite amazing reflexes aiming a small crossbow at the incoming bandit(s).

"Stop and this can be avoided without bloodshed."

She stares at him coldly and unless he seems to stop, she'll fire off a bolt towards the center of his body and then back away, using her other hand to draw one of her short swords.

If he stops however, she will still draw her short sword, and back away, waiting for the others to come after her.

There was still a possibility they hadn't surrounded them after all.

[Morty]

Gerald does stop, seeing that the woman isn't joking. He then proceeds forward cautiously, weapons at the ready.
((Deadtime. Sorry for a short post, I just don't have time for more right now.))

[happyturtle]

Barlin's right arm moves swiftly, blocking the arrow with her leather gauntlet. /"Back to the wagons."/ she hisses to Michicora. If she knew Chumley was coming towards them instead of staying put, she'd have some curse words to add to that.

"What's the price for safe passage?" she calls out to the bandits.

[TechnoScrabble]

"I rather like the idea of everything, boss, but I've never been one to buy things! More of a stealin' person myself! What do you think?"
Jack shouts in a direction away from where Sinara actually is, just in case they still don't know she's there.
He's still got the wyvern venom arrow pointed at Bralin, though.
((Imma say Jack's bandit pals are hidden under fake rocks at the start of the trap field))

[TruorTupnm]

If the driver of this wagon goes for a weapon, Nick frowns with annoyance and slashes at the guy's face with his longknife. "What'd I tell ya?" He hears Barlin and curses to himself, as he goes for his main goal, at the moment, which is getting a look inside the wagon. The two brigands who'd been hiding behind his boulder with him catch up and uncertainly brandish swords at the driver, ready to bolt if it turns out that they aren't needed.

[Shadowcaller]

Michicora don't even need to nod, instead she carefully puts the crossbow away as if to prepare to listen to the bandits offer.

But as she is done she simple takes a step back as the Bandits seems more focused on talking with Barlin and simply runs, heading to the Caravan. She is good at running, supernatural good really, especially in the forest.

[Moff Chumley]

*thud*

"OWW!"

*thwap thwap thwap*

"MEEP!?"

*explosion*

"CRAPCRAPCRAP-"


So, Chumley makes it to the other side of the trapped area in more or less one piece. :smalltongue:

[Lord Magtok]

Sinara stands, brushing her short black ponytail over her shoulder and propping her crossbow up on the top of the rock she had been hidden behind. She sees Claude with his weapon and aims at one of his shoulders.

The bolt is released.

Well fudge, I guess that's the price of riding up in front of the caravan. Claude's spun to one side and dropped to the ground by the sudden piercing agony in his arm. I didn't notice before this fight happened, but apparently his blood is blue.

Even after getting knocked aside like that though, he's got no intentions of wussing out just yet. Depending on how negotiations go, he'll either point the rifle at whichever bandit is farthest from cover and unload a .45 round at center mass, or just keep the thing at the ready as he lies there.

[TechnoScrabble]

When Micholia begins to run, Jack turns and fires his bow at her.
"Get back here, you pointy eared strutter!"
If he fails to hit her, he'll give the signal and his bandit pals will pop up from beneath their fake rocks and try to tackle her with their longknives.

[happyturtle]

With action obviously occurring, Nick, who let's type would have been directed to wait behind a boulder towards the middle of the caravan, pokes his head out and heads for the wagon towards the south, in the fourth pair. He wields his longknife and grins eagerly. He walks with a wide stance, very aware of his center of gravity. Towards the driver of the wagon, happily, "Hey, drop the reins and stay out of the way, or get a new scar! Good choices!"


If the driver of this wagon goes for a weapon, Nick frowns with annoyance and slashes at the guy's face with his longknife. "What'd I tell ya?" He hears Barlin and curses to himself, as he goes for his main goal, at the moment, which is getting a look inside the wagon. The two brigands who'd been hiding behind his boulder with him catch up and uncertainly brandish swords at the driver, ready to bolt if it turns out that they aren't needed.

The driver drops the reins and puts his hands up. Of course the oxen like beasts are still hitched to the wagon. "There's nothing in there..." he tries to say, but he doesn't stop Nick from looking. When he does, he sees a pregnant woman and a boy of about 8, looking terrified, and a teenage girl holding a crossbow pointed right at Nick's face.

Back at the site of the bear trap, Barlin turns and snarls at Jack. "I'm the one in charge here. Are we going to deal, or not?"

[Shadowcaller]

Since Jack had to turn around to fire his arrow, it's accuracy isn't quite enough to hit her and instead it end up piercing the bark of a nearby tree.

As the two men appear to try to tackle her she just changes her direction a bit and tries to avoid their attack with her supernatural grace keeping trying to get away from the place by running as fast as she can.

[TechnoScrabble]

"You two, go after her! Bring the big stuff!" Jack points and the two men pull their shields and wicked looking spears out from the rocks to chase her.
"And you!" Jack turns to Barlin, "Neither of us is in charge here, just wait for the boss!"

[TruorTupnm]

Nick gulps, "Uhhh..."s, then grins, in a manner that he is certain is irresistible. "Well, hello... I'm Slick! Now, you don't wanna be pointing that at me, doll." He tosses his longknife to an annoyed brigand behind him, then takes his gloves off and raises his hands, as if in surrender. "There. See? You heard you boss? Sounds like we'll be negotiating! I'm just here to talk, alright?"

If, at any point, the girl looks to be having none of his shenanigans, he'd duck while grabbing for the crossbow. With his amazing No Friction Dude powers, it should just slip out of both of their hands, as he bats it away. If not, he'd just ask for the inventory, I suppose.

[Shadowcaller]

As the men are doing that, Michicora have kept running at full speed, trusting her spirit energy to keep her from being exhausted before she reaches the caravan. Normal humans wouldn't really able to keep up with her at a longer distance without some sort of aid.

And besides, Michicora knows how to lose her tracks in a forest, heck she is barely leaving any, moving very silent despite running. Keeping track of her will be very hard without some major experience in tracking.

She might even be gone when they enter.

[TechnoScrabble]

The two men give up after a while and decide to head down to the caravan to cut her off.
I mean, she went into the woods, she shouldn't be able to still beat them their.
They do, however, vow to run her through beneath their breath.

[Shadowcaller]

Michicora keeps running in the same direction, maintaining the same speed as before. As she notices she have lost the followers she starts to go closer to the road she have tried to keep herself near. After all, it leads directly to the caravan which she was running directly to.

She goes along, keeping looking out for more bandits that most likely would be lurking near the road or the caravan.

Eventually she by this logic would see the two men again as they travel faster then her on the road. But rather then revealing her presence she follows them from the shadows.

[ApeofLight]

Nick gulps, "Uhhh..."s, then grins, in a manner that he is certain is irresistible. "Well, hello... I'm Slick! Now, you don't wanna be pointing that at me, doll." He tosses his longknife to an annoyed brigand behind him, then takes his gloves off and raises his hands, as if in surrender. "There. See? You heard you boss? Sounds like we'll be negotiating! I'm just here to talk, alright?"

If, at any point, the girl looks to be having none of his shenanigans, he'd duck while grabbing for the crossbow. With his amazing No Friction Dude powers, it should just slip out of both of their hands, as he bats it away. If not, he'd just ask for the inventory, I suppose.

" Gegeget back! If y-you're gonna negotiate do it with the head of the w-w-wagon! " The girl is able to sputter and shout at Nick while keeping a shaky finger on the trigger and a good enough aim on Nick.

A few men on the wagons further back are starting to reach into the backs hesitantly while the front wagons remain oddly secluded with the people inside.

[TruorTupnm]

Nick, only a little offended, pulls back and drops back down to his buddies. "Fine! Nothing pretty in that wagon, anyway!" One of them tries to hand his his longknife, and Nick fumbles with his gloves for a bit, before he can take it. Sure in his safety, while whatever negotiations (however short they may be) are going on, he trots up to the other wagon on the fourth row, where he pokes his head in the back with a, "Blackhallow Brigands, at your service! Women and valuables first!"

[Morty]

Gerald stands still and flourishes his weapons. Now, let's not be too hasty, comrade. Maybe we should give the caravan leader an opportunity to be generous himself? He smirks.
Meanwhile, two more bandits emerge from the bushes. One of them is a halfling with a fox's tail on his hat and hefting a bow; the other is an axe-wielding, short and muscular human.

[Darklord Bright]

Sinara, still positioned behind the rock with her crossbow now ready and loaded again, shouts out to the caravan leader.

"The question is, what are you offering?" she rotates her body so that the crossbow is trained on Barlin, "Because I have a feeling what we're after is a mite more than you're willing to bargain for."

[happyturtle]

"And I have a feeling what I have is a lot more than what you want. Unless you're slavers, my wagons full of emigrants are of no use to you, yes?" Barlin calls out. "Now lets get everyone to put away their weapons, while you and I talk. I'm unarmed." Not precisely true. She's carrying a riding crop. But as a weapon, a riding crop is decidedly sub-par, since it's meant to give an animal a smarting blow without causing any injury.

[ApeofLight]

A wise old NPC steps out of one of the wagons in the front. " Hmm... Bandits? Slavers? Negotiations? " His big bushy eyebrows furrow in thought as he looks around. " How did we get into this situation anyways? "

[Ohmyani]

((I'm really sorry guys, I haven't had a chance to post recently. I'm going to be able to now though.))

John had started to doze from boredom and heat when the caravan suddenly had came to a halt. Figuring a wheel had broken or such, he had stayed behind, not being able to see anything going on from way in the back.

John decides to get up, nodding a farewell to the driver. He heads down to see what's going on. Although he's unaware of any troubles, he's still trying to keep a lookout.

[TechnoScrabble]

The two bandits finally reach the caravan and run up to assist Nick. They both brandish wooden round shields and wicked looking spears at anyone who looks threatening.
"Anything good?"

[happyturtle]

The bandits who are poking through the wagons discover 4 wagons of settlers, and 8 of goods. The caravan seems to be carrying a large quantity of iron, in the form of bars. The other goods are in crates and barrels and not easily identifiable. The wagon hands will let the bandits peer in, but if they actually want to climb into the wagons and start rifling through the goods, then fighting will break out again.

[Shadowcaller]

Michicora stays in the shadows, seeing the bandits already raiding one of the wagons. With more bandits coming she needs to set up some defense before the rest of them arrive. She goes around in the forest, avoiding the bandits to get to the last wagon.

Once there she will inform everyone of what have transpired and that they are under attack.

Next step will be to defend the caravan as negations surely would fail, rallying all the defense the caravan can muster seems wise.

John will most likely hear and see Michicora as she start to lead the caravan NPC's against the incoming bandits.

[Morty]

I definetly support the idea of those guys just giving us what we want. I don't fancy a crossbow bolt between my eyes. While Gerald is confident in his fencing skills, he knows that even the greatest swordsman can die purely by accident.
The halfling archer and human axeman stay in the back, keeping an eye on the caravan members.

[TruorTupnm]

Nick shakes his head and waves, "Nah, nothing yet," at the other two Brigands that run up to him.

Once they're done checking the wagons, Nick heads back to the one that he started at (it's in the middle of the line), followed by at least two other Brigands, who spread out to either side of him. He grumbles about how unexciting negotiations are, as well as how boring the caravan's cargo seems to be. The Brigands flanking him spread out a bit farther and appear to be consumed by the task of watching the wagons.

Nick stands there with a wide stance, very aware of his center of gravity, so he doesn't fall over in front of the girl in the wagon that I wouldn't be surprised is still tracking him with her crossbow. He waves. Not very quick on the uptake, he figures that the preparations the caravaners are making will be negligible, or they'd be cutting their losses.

[Lord Magtok]

Yot-damned bandits, shooting him in the arm and then just leaving him for dead. Claude tries to holster his rifle against his back again, and limp away towards the rest of the caravan. His shoulder might be screaming at him to lie back down and wait for medical assistance, but he had a job to do, a horse to protect, and some filthy thieving bandits to take down. He chambers five rounds into a revolver as he drags himself ahead, doubting that he'll need any more than that to scare these barbarians off.

[ApeofLight]

The caravaner merchant travelers are either standing or sitting on or in the wagons looking nervously around at the bandits. This was a good haul of cargo and if they lost it most of them would be taking a year or two to help pay the losses back to the company.

The settlers are all in the wagons just wanting this to be over so they can move on.

[TechnoScrabble]

Jack's bandits circle the wagons together, not being rude to anyone, but making sure that they're aware of the threat they pose.
Jack, meanwhile, is slinking away to the wagon. After all, it never hurts to get the goods early.

[happyturtle]

Which wagon? There are 12 of them after all. :smalltongue:

[TechnoScrabble]

The whole train. It may take a while to do a few passes, but it's worth making sure nobody's planning to do something that would require the bandits run them through.

[Ohmyani]

John notcies the elf running about in a hurry between all the wagons, and walks up.
"What's going on?"

[Shadowcaller]

"Bandits are attacking." She replies. "We can't escape now so we must look to our defenses, try to find any weapon you can find." She continues as John and Jack might see that a fair number of the caravan's residents are getting themselves armed with whatever is available at the time.

There are two crossbows, some bows, some simpler short swords, a number of wooden shields, some rather pointy long sticks. They don't really seems to know what they are supposed to do with these weapons, but it's better to hold on to then nothing at all when the bandits start to attacking.

And hey, there they are already, thankfully the caravan is already armed by now and is standing in a group near the two middle wagons. The elderly and the children keeping inside along with a few archers that have positioned themselves on top of the wagons.

The wagon Jack will enter is empty however, what's inside it is up to Happy thought.

[happyturtle]

http://i431.photobucket.com/albums/qq40/happyturtle-avs/werewolf/caravan1.png

Lets see if a quick map will help.

The green and yellow wagons are settlers. The rest are goods.

Barlin is at the trap site.

[TruorTupnm]

Nick is hanging out near the southern green wagon, trying to impress the teen-aged girl who's pointing a crossbow at him by obviously flexing as he paces, waiting for either the call to cause some damage or to flee.

[Morty]

Gerald stands near the red wagons, pointing his weapons at the caravan members so they don't get any bright ideas.

[happyturtle]

The teenage girl is none too impressed by the guy who threatened her pregnant mother, no matter how nice he flexes. :smalltongue:

Barlin is in the trap area waiting for a response from Sinara.

Jack finds iron bars, crates, and barrels in the wagon he looks in.

[Darklord Bright]

"Slaves?" she raises an eyebrow, "Well now. That's a whole new problem in an' of itself."

She keeps her crossbow trained on Barlin. Her tone is conversational. Her face betrays no emotion.

"See, I may be a bitch, but at least I ain't about to abide slavery. Leastways not in my neck of the woods. So the way I see it, us two have a problem now, don't we?"

[happyturtle]

"Exactly. I'm trying to get my settlers and the goods safely to Elsewhere. You have no use for the settlers, and I highly doubt you have an easy buyer for all the iron bars I'm carrying. I'll give you two supply wagons, and everybody leaves with no fighting." Barlin says.

[TruorTupnm]

Nick spends some time sticking his tongue out at the girl and mentioning details about his many past girlfriends, who were far prettier than any crossbow-wielding maniacs, to the Brigands who are ignoring him. He listens with half an ear to the negotiations, but pipes up with, "They've got the gold hidden somewhere, boss! Look at all these weapons!" He just wants his first raid to make him rich!

[Shadowcaller]

((I thought Barlin and Sinara were quite far away from the caravan, at the camp site, but whatever.))

"Stay back scum unless you like a bolt resting in your throat." The rugged elven woman hisses at Nick, clearly quite capable at doing just that with her own crossbow. Unlike most of the caravan she have been in quite some fights and killed with this crossbow before.

Some of these fights included reality controlling beings.

[ApeofLight]

Most of the caravaners have armed themselves. There's about two armed men per wagon one with sword or some sort of short range weapon and the other with a crossbow or bow.

[TechnoScrabble]

Jack, sneaking around the woods, may come across Micholia (though he'd do his best not to be noticed if so). If not, he goes up to the wagon Nick is at, but stays quietly on the other side so that the people inside can't see him. If successful, only Nick would have seen him at all.

[Ohmyani]

John takes out his sword and walks over to the young woman with the crossbow.
"Everything okay here?... want me to get these guys moving?"

[Shadowcaller]

((It's Michicora actually TechnoScrabble.))

The elven woman is right now focused on the bandits outside the caravan and will most likely not hear Jack as he is sneaking past unless he makes any clealr noises or is trying to sneak up on her.

Her senses are supernaturally strong after all.

[TechnoScrabble]

Well, then, he sees her at a distance, and immediately stops moving.
Perfect.
He draws back one of his poison coated arrows and takes careful aim. He didn't plan on missing again.

[Shadowcaller]

Just as the arrow is about to hit her she seems to 'sense' the arrow and tries to move out of it's way, but it's already a bit too late for that, it hits the back of her leather armor, penetrating it deeply enough to make her grunt in pain as it hits.

She moves away from her position, taking cover, the poison starting to spread, thankfully for her, she have a high resistance to poisons and diseases so it won't kill her or take her out for too long, but right now she isn't exactly fit to fight.

This should make the other caravan guards/workers react thought.

[TechnoScrabble]

Jack grins, pulls out his fighting knife, and sneaks around, hoping to get closer to Michicora without being seen.
Whether successful or not, he then charges her without shouting or anything and attempts to run her through. A knife in the gut hasn't been known to improve one's health.

[happyturtle]

((Slow down, TS. The other players need their chance to react. :smalltongue:))



One of the settlers sees Michicora goes down and screams.

The teenage girl, who is now named Rebecca so I don't have to keep saying 'the teenage girl' shoots her crossbow at Nick.

The violence, once instigated, spreads up and down the caravan, with the wagon hands releasing more arrows or bolts at the bandits.

And Barlin, hearing the noise from a distance, and recognizing that the chance of escaping without violence is gone, charges towards Sinara's voice.

[Lord Magtok]

BANG!


If there's one thing that Claude Derleth's revolvers are not
, it's quiet. The area by the red wagons should suddenly draw a whole lot of attention, as the squid-headed gunslinger pumps a bullet right into the chest of some hapless NPC bandit. And if everyone somehow manages to miss that thunderous crash, the man's screams should almost certainly be heard. It's enough noise to make the deaf cringe.

Claude doesn't waste a moment after that round, immediately turning towards Gerald and regarding him with a cold-blooded stare of doooooom. He's only got one functioning arm right now, but it's all he needs.

Tell me boy, while you're still standing, who put this crossbow shot in my arm?

[TruorTupnm]

When Nick sees Jack sneaking in the woods, he almost waves, but he catches himself and puts his hands in his pockets and snickers, wondering what the guy is up to. Watching the scene, he finds out. Not a large fan of the outright murder of someone who already looks like they'll be out of the fight, he takes his hands out of his pockets to wring them with indecision at coming to Michicora's aid. Since he's distracted, he gets shot in the shoulder, let's type.

He whirls from the impact, losing his shirt, gloves and a shoe, in the process, due to his lack of friction. He stares up at the sky with a surprised look on his face for a moment, before he decides to play dead while he just concentrates on the pain for a little bit. "But...she was so cute!"

[TechnoScrabble]

Jack's pair of bandits move to help Nick. One moves to pull him up, while the other holds his shield in front of everyone and holds up a hand and a white handkerchief.
"Hey now, there's no need to get violent. Remember that I have armor and a shield, while you don't. I'd rather not impale a young'un."

[Ohmyani]

John stops his sentence mid-word and pulls out his sword.
He glowers meaningfully at Nick. "I don't know who the hell you are, but you're making a mistake to be threatening her. I'd advise you to go back with your friends."
John stops and looks around. "We have more than enough people to take you down, no matter how good you think you are."

[Morty]

The axe-wielding human is shot in the throat with an arrow and falls over, dead. His halfling companion drops to the ground and tumbles behind cover.
Instead of answering, Gerald throws his arming dagger at Claude's neck, hoping to at least distract him, then dashes towards the wagons.

[Shadowcaller]

Michicora spots Jack herself as she looks around for the shooter and realizes that he is coming to finish the job.
But instead of just sitting there, she is forced to pull up her reserve inner spirit energy and gets up, the poison still flowing in her body which makes every move excruciatingly painful.

With a grunt stands up and aims her crossbow towards Jack.
There wouldn't be a good solution to this, she fires off a well-aimed bolt towards his chest-section and then pulls one of her silver short swords, leaning towards her cover.

[TruorTupnm]

Once Nick is helped up by one of the Brigands, he almost falls over again at the very loud bang from Claude's shot. But then, the adrenaline rush helps him out with closing his eyes and pulling the bolt out of his shoulder. With no friction, it comes out less painfully that it normally would, but he still wouldn't call it fun. He inexpertedly starts tying his bandana around the wound. Pickpockets don't get shot in the shoulder! And being one of the Brigands seems to be helping out with the ladies a lot less than I thought!

With angry tears in his eyes brought on by pain and shame, Nick spares a glare for Rebecca, who totally just broke his easily broken teen-aged heart, then an idea strikes him. He notes that one of the Brigands helping him out has a white handkerchief up, so he turns his tears on John, trying to milk the whole "I'm just a young kid who's been swept up by tales of romantic bandits" angle. Not the greatest actor, though, he sniffles and looks around for the longblade that he dropped. "Alright, okay. I'm going."

[TechnoScrabble]

Not even Jack's khajit reflexes are enough. The bolt hits him dead on in the chest, and he's knocked onto his back.
He lies there for a second.
Then, he can be heard growling.
"Metal plates or not, that hurt!"
He pulls himself up, revealing that the arrow went in, piercing the leather and thin iron plates, but not nearly far enough to be lethal.
He grabs his knife from the ground, snarls, and pounces at Michicora, hoping to pin her down.

-Back at the Caravan-
The bandit who helped Nick up shakes his head.
Because bandits always travel in small groups [/sarcasm].

[Darklord Bright]

Sinara curses as the fighting starts, and sees Barlin charge from her position behind the rock. She was momentarily distracted by the gunshot from Claude's revolver, but seeing as she already had a bolt loaded it doesn't take her long to fire, though her aim isn't quite as fine as it could have been.

[happyturtle]

Barlin's magic gauntlet isn't fast enough to block the bolt this time, and it hits her in the left hip, just outside the pelvic bone. Probably bruised the bone pretty badly. She curses and keeps going, trying to run around the rock to tackle Sinara.

[Shadowcaller]

As Jack fell down, Michicora have slowly put down her crossbow on the ground to re-load it once she is sure Jack is dead.
When that doesn't seem to be the case she grinds her teeth together, not able to do much more then to lean against her cover.
She holds her sword back and sinks down a bit, pretending to be more wounded then she already is, which isn't too hard when your in constant pain.

As Jack pounces at her thought, she thrusts her sword out aiming to cut into his middle section as she tries to protect herself with her other arm.
She very quickly attempts to slam the knife out of his hand with her arm the second after the thrusts out with her short sword.

[Ohmyani]

John watches Nick suspiciously. He's not letting anything unexpected happen.
"Good. Go."

[Lord Magtok]

The axe-wielding human is shot in the throat with an arrow and falls over, dead. His halfling companion drops to the ground and tumbles behind cover.
Instead of answering, Gerald throws his arming dagger at Claude's neck, hoping to at least distract him, then dashes towards the wagons.

Oh shi-

Claude deftly moves to one side, but it isn't anywhere near enough. That crossbow bolt suddenly has a new neighbor, in the form of a dagger slicing into Derleth's shoulder.

Aaargh!

Yot damn it, he should've shot that cowardly rat while he had the chance. Now his useless arm is even more useless, and that pain is cripplingly severe, so intense he's on his knees and struggling just to remain conscious. Even so, he's still not going to abandon the caravan and leave those innocents to die. Those bandits have to be stopped.

He wraps a hand around the handle of the arming dagger, and another around the crossbow bolt. He takes a deep breath...and falters. He loosens his grip on the dagger, lets out the breath, and stares at the ground. NO. No dammit, he needs to keep going! Claude shuts his eyes tight, wraps his hand around the handle of the two penetrating weapons, and takes another deep breath.

AAAAGH!

He rips the things out of his shoulder and everything immediately a piercing, obscene, blinding white light. He tosses the blue blood-soaked items aside, and then hits the ground face-first. He's out cold, completely unconscious, there's no chance that he'll be of any use to anyone now that-

Raptor Jesus Christ, is he getting back up? :smalleek:

Get...back...here.

Even with the gun in his hand, I have my doubts that Claude's going to be hurting anyone anytime soon. He's bleeding an awful lot, wincing with every step, and limping along at a snail's pace. It might be a good idea to just keep your distance.

[Morty]

Seeing that Claude is in pain and will have troubles hitting anything with that heathen weapon, Gerald rushes him and tries to run him through with his sword. He's going to have to pick up his dagger later.

[TruorTupnm]

With a sneer, Nick grabs his longknife and dives for John's legs. He loses his pants and his other shoe on the way (still wearing his black bodysuit, though, so, he is entirely Safe For Work), but he concentrates on holding onto the longknife, for the moment. One of Nick's sword-wielding buddies makes for Rebecca's wagon, looking to break or steal her crossbow, and then possibly her face. The other one follows in Nick's wake, slashing his sword at John, mostly in an attempt to distract, from this distance.

[Lord Magtok]

Seeing that Claude is in pain and will have troubles hitting anything with that heathen weapon, Gerald rushes him and tries to run him through with his sword. He's going to have to pick up his dagger later.

Claude blinks. His vision is a field of bouncing, flashing lights. Nothing makes any sense, it's all a sort of dull blue shade, he can hardly tell what's three feet in front of him. Footsteps tell a terrifying story, one of an insurmountable death, an inevitability that we must all come to face some day.

He shuts his eyes, and his inner ear momentarily seals itself to shut out the clamor as Claude goes reaches a sort of barely-conscious nirvana. Time sloooooows...and he can just barely remember the face of the one who threw the dagger. It's right there, in his mind, that wretched bandit with the sword. It would be so easy to just lift the gun a little higher, right at the spine, to make sure that rat never walks again...But what kind of man would that make Claude?

He opens his left eye, and finds his gun lined right up with Gerald's knee. He doesn't hesitate in the slightest, and the trigger is pulled once, then a second time, with what little vestiges of will Claude had left.

Regardless of how things go with Gerald, the weapon's clamor and recoil is enough to throw the gunslinger off his feet, and back on to his bad arm again.

[TechnoScrabble]

Michicora's sword cuts through the leather of Jack's armor, and glances off of the metal plates with an ear splitting screech. Jack falls, and instead of shanking her as he had hoped, he winds up trying to pull her down.

Jack's two bandits will split up, one moving to give Nick cover, and the other moving to keep Rebecca from getting hurt too badly.
After all, they could just take her back to camp and ransom her.

[Ohmyani]

John shouts abuse at his attackers, while he tries to knee Nick in the face and slash him across the back with his sword.
"Oh, BIIIIG man, battling the solitary family with the pregnant mother! 'Better be careful and bring my two retarded buddies as well! The lady might go into LABOUR!'

BRING IT, you slimy little BITCH!"

[Shadowcaller]

Michicora's sword cuts through the leather of Jack's armor, and glances off of the metal plates with an ear splitting screech. Jack falls, and instead of shanking her as he had hoped, he winds up trying to pull her down.

Jack's two bandits will split up, one moving to give Nick cover, and the other moving to keep Rebecca from getting hurt too badly.
After all, they could just take her back to camp and ransom her.

Michicora isn't going to use her spare spirit energy to resist Jack's pull so she is dragged down with him. Her sword is gliding off Jack's body completely as he drags her down.

The pain isn't as clear anymore however as her body quickly tries to resist the poison, but it still hurts to move. So she have to make the most of it by putting her knee hard into Jack's crouch as they fall, letting the fall do part of the work as Jack's body will meet the ground eventually.

Meanwhile her sword free hand is still trying to get a hold of Jack's knife hand to see if she managed to disarm him before, and if not, try to get a hold of it.

[Morty]

Aaaaaaah! Gerald's knee is shot and he falls flat on the ground, gnashing his teeth in pain. That's it from him, probably. Expecting death, he just wishes he could get his hands on the moron who started the fight when the negotiations seemed to be getting somewhere.
Seeing Gerald fall, the halfling sends an arrow Claude's way from his position away from the caravan.

[happyturtle]

http://i431.photobucket.com/albums/qq40/happyturtle-avs/werewolf/caravan1.png


With a sneer, Nick grabs his longknife and dives for John's legs. He loses his pants and his other shoe on the way (still wearing his black bodysuit, though, so, he is entirely Safe For Work), but he concentrates on holding onto the longknife, for the moment. One of Nick's sword-wielding buddies makes for Rebecca's wagon, looking to break or steal her crossbow, and then possibly her face. The other one follows in Nick's wake, slashing his sword at John, mostly in an attempt to distract, from this distance.


Jack's two bandits will split up, one moving to give Nick cover, and the other moving to keep Rebecca from getting hurt too badly.
After all, they could just take her back to camp and ransom her.

Rebecca has reloaded by now, and tries to shoot Nick's buddy in the face. Some more of the wagon hands have noticed the vulnerable family being attacked, and move in to help, leaving the purple wagons unguarded.

[Darklord Bright]

Sinara barely manages to fumble for her sword as Barlin rounds the rock, having to take a hasty step back to avoid being completely overtaken. As Barlin jumps to tackle her, Sinara tumbles to the ground with a spray of dust, shouting.

[TruorTupnm]

Nick's buddy gets shot in the face. Well, at least Nick didn't know him that well. Nick gapes at John's agility, as he somehow dodges his lunge and is still there to attempt to knee and slash at him. Since he's frictionless and would have just kept sliding, John's knee instead easily knocks him back the way he came. Luckily, due to Nick's uncontrollable speed, the sword misses. Unluckily, Nick gets kneed in the face.

When he slides back into it, he grabs the boulder that he started at and wonders if John was hired for his people skills. They're not bad, at least for this application of people skills. He swipes at some blood coming from his nose, then blinks, wondering why he hasn't heard the call to retreat yet. oh well. He shrugs and makes his way back to his feet, still holding onto the boulder. It might not be readily apparent, but he's about to push the thing at John and the wagons. If it isn't too deeply buried, without friction, anybody would be able to push it.

[Moff Chumley]

Chumley arrives at the fight, thouroughly confused and lost. She points her rifle around with a profound sense of befuddlement. It doesn't help that her player is confused also. She shrugs, and takes a potshot or two at bandits, experimentally.

[happyturtle]

Sinara barely manages to fumble for her sword as Barlin rounds the rock, having to take a hasty step back to avoid being completely overtaken. As Barlin jumps to tackle her, Sinara tumbles to the ground with a spray of dust, shouting.

Barlin, armed with her mighty riding crop, uses it to attempt to smack Sinara about the face with the little leather tongue. It make little *thwip thwap thwip* noises, and smarts quite a bit. If the blows land of course. They shouldn't cause any real damage.

[TechnoScrabble]

Michicora's knee might hurt itself bashing Jack's metal 'cup''.
He's done this before, he ain't risking the family jewels.
He is thrown off, and rolls to the side, though his favorite knife is taken, leaving him to dagger or hatchet.
Except his hatchet seems to be missing...
He runs for his bow, laying on the ground a few meters away, and grabs for his poisoned arrows, hoping to use one as a weapon.

[Caravan]
When Nick's buddy is killed, Jack's bandit attempts to pin Rebecca down with his shield, using his rather impressive body mass to add as much force as possible.
The fatass.

[Ohmyani]

((I'm not godmodding, am I? You said you were going for my legs, so I said that I tried to knee you on the way down...))

John looks over at his helper and shouts, "Hey Rebecca, nice shot! See lots of little pieces where his nose was..."

He looks back at Nick.
"Ya got some real air time there, didn't ya little buddy! Wanna go for a record? I got a real strong kick!" He grins evilly as he walks towards the bandit.

[Shadowcaller]

Michicora don't really have the energy to follow Jack, especially if she hurt her knee, instead she pulls herself backwards, back into her cover.

As the elf did seek cover from arrows coming in that particular direction Jack was shooting from. It should give her protection from arrows coming from that range, especially as she can see where Jack is going and can now more effectively see where the best cover is.

She doesn't stay still there thought, waiting for jack to attack her. Instead she moves towards one of the green wagons, hoping to find shelter there. The cover could give Jack some difficulty to see her.

[TruorTupnm]

((No large deal. You didn't type the result to Nick's attack, and I wasn't about to assume that something negative happened to somebody else's character. Craziness. I typed a reaction to John's attacks. I have no problem with rolling with it.))

Nick yelps, as John approaches. He repositions himself and shoves against the boulder. The boulder slides along, quite improbably, towards John and the green wagons. Nick stops his backward movement by stabbing his longknife into the ground, at which point, he grins and yells, "Landslide!" Any Brigands that hear him would know this as a signal to, well, I suppose that anyone who heard this would be watching out for falling rocks, but the Brigands will be less confused about it.

[Ohmyani]

John sees the boulder sliding along at him and yelps himself, and tries to dive out of the way. Unfortunately, he's too slow and gets smashed and knocked to the ground! Painfully.

F%$k, that was one hell of a friggin rock to stub your toe on, frick!"

John looks up, contriving to look menacing while holding his foot sitting on the ground in a heap.
"You'd better get the hell outta here, because neither you OR me wants me to have to get up and go over there."

[happyturtle]

By the green wagons, Rebecca is pinned to the ground by the fat bandit's shield. She screams and kicks a lot. From the inside of the wagon, her mother screams too.

Two wagon hands with short swords run to her rescue. "Unhand that girl, you filthy bastard!"

The boulder ends up smashing into one of the oxen things, knocking it to the ground as it screams in pain.

[TechnoScrabble]

The fat bandit pulls back, trying to bring the crossbow with him.
"Hey now, I wasn't going to hurt her or do anything nasty! She shot my pal without reason! That's murder it is!"
He then attempts to impale the nearest of the two wagon hands with his barbed spear.

Jack stops shooting when Michicora takes cover, and doesn't move too close to the wagons, though he does follow her when she moves. He'll wait for an opening.

[Shadowcaller]

The cover is in fact a smaller wagon containing bags of flour and some caskets that have been placed near the green wagons for cover.
Currently, Michicora is moving from the cover to the wagon with her back against it, it would be possible to shoot her underneath the wagon if Jack would spot her, or he could go around the green wagons corner.
The elf does however got her crossbow with her, now having had the time to reload it as she was moving towards the wagon.

She is currently moving towards the entrance of the green wagon to be able to recover inside.

[Darklord Bright]

Sinara is getting wapped about the face by the riding crop.

"Hey now - "
Whap
"Could we - "
Whap
"Maybe just -"
Whap
"Approach this like -"
Whap
"Reasonable -"
Whap
"People?"

Damn, these hits were starting to smart.

[happyturtle]

Barlin tries to stand on Sinara's sword hand while the thwapping is hopefully distracting her.


One of the wagon hands takes a spear to the gut and falls to his knees, his eyes filled with pain and fear. The other looks on in horror, then turns and flees.

Rebecca scrambles out from under the fat bandit and grabs the sword dropped by the impaled guy. "Leave. Us. ALONE!" :furious:

[TechnoScrabble]

Jack is on higher ground, so he can't see below the wagons, but he does start to slink around the side, having found his hatchet. He considers setting up one of his spare traps, but they make too much noise.

The fat bandit turns to whack at Rebecca with his shield, but his friend stops the shield and tries to be reasonable.
"Come on, Nigel isn't normally like this, he just got a bit spooked is all! We'll patch yer pal right up iffin you drop that sword, girly."

[Shadowcaller]

By that time, Michicora have almost reached the door, still leaning against the wall of the wagon.
She got her crossbow aimed in Jack's direction if he should come around.
The distance to the door is so small that she doesn't consider it a threat if he decides to come around the other side and a look around revealed there were no bandits dangerously close to her.

[TruorTupnm]

Nick does a careful little dance of victory, when his boulder hits John and the ox, but he hesitates at John's challenge. He's far away. None of the other caravaners are paying attention to him. He could just slide away and see about being a pickpocket again.

Unfortunately, the Brigand that came with him notes his hesitation with displeasure, so he makes a show of issuing a challenge to John, tossing the guy an exaggeratedly contemptuous look. "Ha! I'm not afraid of you! Come on! Get up!" With his necessarily wide stance, he heads back towards the wagons. The remaining Brigand that he came with drifts towards him, looking to cover him from any more missile attacks, but he looks eager to see John and Nick going at it. Nick winks at the guy, then draws a line in the dirt and waves John over.

[happyturtle]

Jack is on higher ground, so he can't see below the wagons, but he does start to slink around the side, having found his hatchet. He considers setting up one of his spare traps, but they make too much noise.

The fat bandit turns to whack at Rebecca with his shield, but his friend stops the shield and tries to be reasonable.
"Come on, Nigel isn't normally like this, he just got a bit spooked is all! We'll patch yer pal right up iffin you drop that sword, girly."

Rebecca holds the short sword in both hands, hilt at her waist, and the blade sticking straight out, yells in fury, and charges the reasonable bandit, meaning to run him through.

[Lord Magtok]

Aaaaaaah! Gerald's knee is shot and he falls flat on the ground, gnashing his teeth in pain. That's it from him, probably. Expecting death, he just wishes he could get his hands on the moron who started the fight when the negotiations seemed to be getting somewhere.
Seeing Gerald fall, the halfling sends an arrow Claude's way from his position away from the caravan.

The arrow scores a glancing blow on the back of Claude's leg, but he doesn't seem to notice it. In fact, he doesn't seem to be noticing much of anything at the moment.

[Morty]

Gerald tries to bring himself to a sitting position, figuring it gives him at least a small chance of living through all this. He grips his sword tightly as he finally manages to sit upright, leaning against one of the wagons.
The halfling archer lets loose an arrow, aiming at Rebecca.

[Ohmyani]

John laughs and gets up, walking forward to a little before the line. He fixes Nick with a an evil smile.

A voice rings in Nick's head.
"You have no idea what you've just started, kid."

With that, the boulder lifts from atop the oxen and flies at the little pickpocket.

"No. Freaking. CLUE."

[TechnoScrabble]

The reasonable bandit holds his shield out, hoping to block the sword, while the fat jerk tries to tackle Rebecca.

Jack, hoping to scare Michicora out, knocks on the other side of the wagon.

[Shadowcaller]

The elf is hardly in a condition to flee right now, she needs to rest with the poison and the arrow wound still hurting her.
Instead of trying to slowly flee away while Jack is there, she sits down in the nearest chair, trying to guard the entrance to the wagon while her supernatural healing is trying to deal with the poison and the wound.
This process makes her quite tired, but Jack's knock makes all her sense still stand on full alert.
Not even able to relax for a second she eyes every entrance to the room she is in, aiming her cross bow for signs of any intruders.

[TechnoScrabble]

Jack growls quietly in anger, and tries to crawl beneath the wagon. If he can get under there without being spotted, he places one of his loose shear traps beneath the wagon, and crawls away so he can safely poke it with a stick.
The trap should be able to cut through wagon wood with it's heavy blade, but will probably get caught halfway through and most likely wont even hit Michicora.
Jack stands ready with his dagger and arrow, and pokes the trap with a stick, setting it off.