Digging Holes

Dax tilts her head in the direction of Aya, "Ya talkin' about Rada?" She questions and is rather confused, as she looks around to the rest of the folks present. "Not real sure wha' ya all talkin' about anymore?"

Chloe raises a hand up to her face, lightly tapping on her lower lip with the edge of her index fingernail as she considers Aya and Dax's words, "I must amend that I did mean kill, not harm, earlier. I couldn't kill someone, harm isn't as bad. With that in mind, it sounds more plausibly something I might consider helping with if needed."

As the group chats Razen aproches from one side. Spotting them he brightens considerably and waves. "Hello!" He offers a grin to everyone. "How is everyone this day?"

Yelrona arrives in the middle of a somewhat familiar conversation, and re-inserts herself into it casually. "Any observer who calls that 'good'... well, they need their eye examined. And, no, Rada may have a habit of remaining neutral on matters where neutrality serves evil, but that's far from the same thing. Maugrim, I assume? So... does his ship need to suffer an unfortunate but convenient mechanical failure?"

Dax offers to Chloe, "Oh, I was meanin' ta kill as well. Ain't worth it ta sink a ship if yer jus' gonna leave the bastards ta suffer." She shakes her head and is standing there with a shovel. There are holes dug all around, and she quirks her mouth to the side. "Rada seems ta treat all the same, from wha' I gather. Drownin'... winds... waves. They don't care who ya be, or wha' yer purpose."

At Razen's appearance the brunette priestess looks up, blinks several times, then backpedals slightly away from him as he approaches. She falls silent, despite comments being turned towards her, biting into her lower lip as she folds her hands together at the small of her back and tries to look as little as possible!

Admittedly the half orc is a little unsettled by the fact that no one returns his greeting save Aya, or even seems to take not of it, but the topic of conversation is serious enough that he lets it go. His green-gray eyes flicker toward Chloe, offering her a smile and then Aya a nod. "Are you talking of killing someone then?" Razen doesn't sound disapproving, but rather interested.

Yelrona observes curiously as Chloe hides from Razen.

Well. _That's_ a story, no doubt. "Well met, Razen! You appear to have terrified Chloe," she observes neutrally. "And I hope not! But I suppose it depends on what the alternatives are."

Chloe raises a hand from behind her to wave at Razen when he smiles, but then Yelrona calls her out and her cheeks flush bright red, "I'm not -terrified-!" She objects, then snaps her mouth closed, biting into her lower lip again as honey eyes shift back to Razen.

Walery walks in on all this and pauses it figure out what's going on.

Razen gets a bit of a look when other people start to react to him. And lack of recognition comes to her face, "This day brings wit' it bad tidings." Dax states, shaking her head, "Ale is gone, and there are too many gods ta keep track." She laughs at that before adding, "Look, if yer gonna stop a ship way out on the open sea, yer killin' the crew. Ain't no yammerin' about other options. It's either gonna be fast, or slow. An' I prefer not ta make a crew suffer."

Yelrona shrugs. "There are lots of different ways to cope with an enemy, and not all of them are fatal... but the most efficient ones certainly are," she agrees. Still, she sees no point to discussing alternatives against opposition. "I stand corrected," she adds to Chloe, and waves a greeting to Walery.

Dax's blank look at him makes Razen realize that he doesn't recognize her either. With a grin he sticks out his hand. "Razen Diharth. I agree with you on that bit. If you strand a boat at sea... the crew does not have a good chance of survival unless they are on a shipping lane."

Walery smiles to Yelrona, and peers at the commotion and crowd. "Did I miss some transdimensional invasion?" he wonders. "Or some attack by forces of evil?"

Chloe grins slightly at Yelrona, then as Walery speaks she tilts her head a little, clearly confused, "I don't... think so? Just this lady here with a shovel." Chloe points her chin at Dax slightly then falls silent as Razen introduces himself to the woman she was pointing out,

"Well, I don't know what you've missed," Rona replies to Walery, "but yes, there's been rather a lot of invading and attacking by evil outsiders going on. The most recent one I know of is the werewolves in the Temple District a week or so ago," she muses, pointing in that direction, "but no doubt there are several _I've_ missed."

"Wha' ya all yammerin' about?" Dax looks around first, "There be barrels o'ale missin', an' I'm doin' my service ta find." Then she reaches out to the half-oruch and grabs him by the elbow, in a big hearty hand shake, "Dax. Tha' all." She then let's it go as others start showing up and the conversation gets... harder to follow her eyes looking around. "Ya got some good armor their... fella. An' ya talk like ya got some brains."

The same griffon as before flies above, some 80 feet up. From the winged lion plunges Ga'Elian to the riverbank below, as Erithamiel soars away. The ranger's descent is rather slower than natural. He sticks a graceful landing and says, "Greetings all." Then to Aya, "If those of us who are here right now were to board that ship, I don't think the crew would stand a chance."

Razen looks a bit embarrassed, and shifts his weight a little. Then he glances between her and Walery and seems to become a bit more serious. Still, he grins and motions to her holes and her shovel. "It seems odd that they would be buried here, but if you like I could help you look for them?"

Pointing in the direction of Razen with a chuckle, and a look around Dax says, "Ya see. I mention ta same ta all o' these 'ere folk. An' not a one, not a single one, offer ta help wit' ta diggin'." She pulls the shovel from the ground and holds it out to Razen, "Jus' don't dig where I 'ave. But I'm sure they are 'ere." She quirks her mouth about and then to Walery, she smirks, "Not ta ya. Yer smart. But a half-oruch wit' some use of 'is tongue fer more'n cleanin' hands, pretty rare." Turning back to Razen, "No offense, I rather prefer a dumber fella, means I can keep up."

Dumber Fella says to Razen, "She doesn't like her men too pretty, though. They've got to be scarred, too."

Walery tries to puzzle out what Dax has said. "Oh, right. Er, what exactly are you digging, though? I think I missed that memo. I don't know that I'd be much help," he begins. And indeed he looks like a slacker, physically. "But maybe I can assist /somehow/?"

Razen laughs and accepts the shovel, shrugging off to the side the bear pelt that he wears before digging the metal into an unmarked part of the ground. "I will take the complement of you thinking me smart. It is not one I get often." He throws a grin Walery's way briefly. "I can understand her thinking on that! Scars show you can survive the hard things of the world."

Dax puts her hand up to her forehead, "Fer fucks sake. 'ow many times I gotta explain?" She looks around, and she looks at Walery square in the eyes, "Ale, got stolen from ta warehouses. An' one of the culprits be a land witch, much like yerself. An' I am jus' doin' my service ta the city in tryin' ta find'em. So I figure they be buried, wha' else ya gonna do wit' barrels of ale? An' so I been diggin' ta find them." She sighs and shakes her head, looking around, "I'm thinkin' the dry city sabotage be makin' fer some smart fellas be a bit more dumber'n usual." Turning her attention to the Ranger who floated down from the sky, Dax just takes a few steps back from him, "An' I also don't like me fellers bein' sky witches. Not to offend, jus' cannot be lookin' over me shoulder ta see if I'm a chicken all the time." Adding onto Razen's words, "He gets it a bit, an' they got stories ta tell. If ya ain't able ta spin a good tale, an' show me some sorta proof of it... I ain't gonna listen. Like a book when there ain't no pictures. Ain't worth nothin' but kindling."

Walery wonders to Razen, "Do they? But if you've avoided the hard things entirely rather than just barely, you won't get a scar at all. I'm not sure where that leave your metaphor?" To Dax, he says, "I think in this town, if ale's been stolen and more than an hour has passed, you'll find it in someone's belly." Which also answers what else you can do with ale.

Ga'Elian takes a deep bow to Dax and says, "I've never been called a sky witch before." Then he winks at Razen and says, "I guess there's one more name."

The elf's words make Razen laugh hard enough to lean against his shovel and shake his head. Then he digs a bit more. "I am sure that she has more reason to think it here than that." He looks at Dax questioningly.

Dax chuckles a bit to Walery and offers, "Aye, I 'ave thought of tha'. I'm thinkin' it be a devious plot though, by someone foul an' vile. Earlier it was said there be tunnels under ta city, built by gnomes. Tho' tha' unlikely since I never knew of those tunnels. An' it be a land witch who buried 'em 'ere. We kno' tha' from the sky witch here. He mention tha' the ground not look disturbed, fer sure our culprit be a witch of some kind."

Ga'Elian suggests, "Seems to me like the best way to find what a witch has hidden is to get a witch to find it. You need an earth witch... like one that conjures and commands earth elementals."

Walery says, "You just need Sandy. She can always find booze. She counts as a witch, I think?" He scratches his head. "I don't have any boozefinding devices, or I'd offer to help."

Dax grimaces a little bit at that, while she looks to Walery, "Ya prolly right." She offers, shaking her head, "Sea witches seem scarier than ya all." She just puts that out there as she points back to Razen, "Ya keep diggin'. I gotta go find me a Sandy, like the beach. Huh, tha' actually makes a lot more sense now." She squints her eyes some and starts to head away, probably on a determined path to find the elf.

Ga'Elian laughs. "YES! That was an inspired idea, Walery! Damn! Why didn't I think of that. You know? I should mention that particular talent of hers in that song I'm writing."

Razen shudders and shakes his head. "I would rather find it the old fashioned way. Digging will locate it one way or the other if it is buried around here." He pauses and stabs the shovel into the ground long enough to shirk his armor and lay it carefully to the side. Then he adds his tunic. All the layers had him sweating profusely, and he was glad of the breeze with the work he was doing digging. There's a tattoo on his shoulder, large and covering most of the muscle. He nods to Dax and offers her a grin. "I will keep at it! I saw her in the warehouse district last night, so you might start there!"

Walery says to Razen, "While I admire your determination, and I agree, digging will locate it if it's buried here, that if it's buried someplace else, then digging here will not locate it.

Ga'Elian shakes his head. “If there were barrels of anything buried here, the ground would show signs of the disturbance, unless, as Dax believes, it were done by magic.”

Razen shrugs. "We will know for sure once she returns with Sandy." He just keeps digging... and digging.

With so many people wandering off and Razen being in left of charge of the digging, apparently mostly disrobed, Chloe just.. silently settles down on the bank on her knees, hands folded in her lap, and watches the half-orouch work in silence.

-End-