Jerks! (Part 4)

When last we left our brave heroes, a tiny, less than a foot long lizard sprouted from the ground like a conquering monster, mouth open wide to reveal many sharp teeth.

It's albino, first of all, and tiny. Way tiny for a 'bulette'.

Ilwa points at it.

'...GET IT QUICK!"

Seeing the creature pop out of the ground Daechir acts quickly, summoning arcane words to his lips. The words seem to disappear in the air even as they're spoken, rising and falling in some weird symmetry of a song. Then with a writhe of the fingers on one hand the grass grows up around the bulette, vines jump up to encroach upon its space and wrap it up like a farmer might tie up a hog.

Watching Daechir perform that magical capture, Alaryn beams a grin. "That was great! I need to learn how to channel the mana for that effect!" She says this from her perch upon the horse she's been riding, and is just all excited.

"It's a pretty good spell." Lollia allows, watching from a safe distance. Because she doesn't want baby bullette bites taken out of her legs if she can avoid it, and she didn't really come prepared for capturing. She figured everyone else had that.

GAME: Daechir casts Entangle. Caster Level: 3 DC: 16

With the Pygmy bulette all tangled up, Ilwa looks relieved. "Yesssssss. We have it!" She does a quick little dance and looks thrilled. She lifts a wooden and metal cage. "Okay! Let's get it in the box!"

The huge lizard will perch on all fours, watching as the pygmy bullette is scampering along only for the world around it to begin attempting to grapple it to the ground. That's when she'll pounce at the thing, intending to pin it gently and scoop it up from the ground. No harm is to be done: the lizard actually has a lot of experience with being gentle when catching younger lizards. As mothers often do. She'll then convey the little thing toward the box in question.

Strike's hand hover near the clasp of a pouch on her bandolier, she glances about quickly as her companion forces the Bullette to fight the lawn, just to make sure no one comes to interrupt, until the lawn's won.

"Okay." says Alaryn. She inclines her head, "I forget what we're supposed to do once we capture this thing." she says, gesturing to the entangled beast.

Daechir glances toward Alaryn, most of his focus on the creature in case it needs to be captured once again. "Now we keep it from her rival. If he does not capture it his expidition is a failure. Which is what you wanted Ilwa?" Now his attention turns to the woman who hired them, a calculating look in his red eyes.

"Given those jerks sent ogres to squat on my site," replies the red-headed gnome, " I want to do one worse! I want to rub it in! Let's go find him!" She puffs her chest up.

"Uhhhhhh....aren't...a bunch of those ogres actually WITH him right now? I mean, if we just show up with what he wants, he's probably just gonna try to take it from you..." Lollia points out dryly.

Strike throws a slightly vexed glance the client's way. In all likelihood, something -is- going to die, tonight, after all. A faint sigh through her nostrils and her attention returns to the seeing the prize put into it's package, while she goes through a mental checklist of her inventory for when things go sideways.

"So, we're going to show dangerous ogres that we have what they want?" asks Alaryn. She inclines her head and adds, "That sounds like a terrible idea. Unless you -want- to start a fight with them."

Daechir sighs and touches his hand to his head in vexation. "I know that you are paying for our service, but this..." He motions to everyone. "Listen to the words of those who have fought in many battles. This is not wise. Take the creature and show your rival when he is /not/ surrounded by orges."

"Unless you are a skilled ogre slayer," Izzy suggests brightly. "Then do as you please."

Glare. Ilwa is glaring.

"No one HAS to die. But I could have been killed by him and his ogres! He needs to know not to mess with me any further or he's just going to keep doing it and throwing his ogre-money around." She scowls, seeming to relent a little bit in the face of the rather irritated opposition to her idea.

"Look, if you want to send him a message...then we could beat up his ogres and show they're not tough enough to protect him. AND that you got the bullette. Or something. I mean, I think that calls for a renegotiation of pay, though..." Lollia says. Mercenary little trollop that she is.

"We have no guarantees that the ogres won't kill us, if they win. There are few guarantees once a fight begins, we may take casualties, even if we win." Strike offers, then, with a shrug, gestures back toward the cage, "And if we start to gain the advantage and your rival destroys the prize, or you, out of spite, what then?"

"All I have to say.." begins Alaryn, "is that we were hired to help you retrieve this creature." She gestures to the baby Bullette. "Does the job include fighting a desperate battle against your enemy's ogre thugs? Or do you think we could arrange for them to see that you beat them, but we make it so that happens in a place where they don't dare attack?"

"I still state that the best course of action we have is to have her show the creature to him when his allies are not around." Daechir offers into the conversation. "Needless to say whatever option is chosen... you and the creature should not be around the orges."

GAME: Daechir rolls diplomacy: (16)+3: 19
GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls diplomacy: (15)+1: 16

"And /I'm/ saying why not go the extra mile to make sure that this is all done and done for? I mean, when am I gonna have a handful of highly trained warriors at my hands again?" Ilwa pouts, though it's clear she sees reason in what the lot of those adventurers are saying. She looks disappointed, though.

"I get it. It makes sense. I just... I don't like bullies, and I don't like him thinking he can bully other people. If he's willing to send ogres to squat on my site and maybe even kill me..." She bites her tongue. Her shoulders slump. She looks down.

"Let's just go."

"You want to hire us to defend you in case his ogres get.... feisty, that's fine." suggests Alaryn. "I was just saying that's not what you hired us to do. We could always... negotiate a new deal for that." She shrugs and rests her hand on the pistol holstered at her side.

"I am all for additional pay for hazardous additions!" Lollia agrees, raising a hand. "I mean...we don't have to FIGHT them, maybe, but if we maked them look stupid...I mean, stupider than ogres normally do..." she allows. "That'd embarrass him, right?"

Daechir frowns. "Our job is to keep you out of danger Ilwa. At least return to your home while we settle this score on your behalf." He offers this with a slightly hopeful expression.

Strike turns her attention outward as they're still out in the wilds and, thus potentially at risk of attack. She glances at the others, then, "If it means that much, we could take some proof of having the creature, just to show it to him and have him realize it's out of reach."

"If we are being paid let us go fight those ogres," Izzy states reasonably. "But we need to be paid for it," she continues, echoing Lollia and the others. Though to the blonde elf Izzy adds, "...If you embarrass ogres they attack. If you trick them they attack. Anything that ends where they know we've dealt with them will mean a fight. Having beer means a fight," she'll relate.

"I mean, you're already being paid! But you're right. It's silly to fight ogres when we don't have to," admits Ilwa, shaking her head with a sigh. Izzy seems to've helped by pointing out it goes into a fight pretty much regardless because ogres.

"We'll just have to figure out a better way. Maybe back in town, once he comes back from the 'hunt'." She smirks.

With that, she picks up the cage, with the screaming pygmy bulette, and prepares to go.

"It also means more witnesses to his failure, this way. Humiliations galore." the transcended half-elf chimes in, idly fingering her staff.

With Ilwa and her Pygmy Bulette in tow, you work your way back through the forest. While there's little doubt that any other hunting parties in the area are aware of the commotion you caused there's a good chance you can make it out of the area before they catch up with you, assuming you can set a good pace and navigate properly.

That's a fairly big if...

GAME: Strike rolls survival: (4)+2: 6
GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls Survival: (14)+0: 14
GAME: Daechir rolls survival: (6)+1: 7

Strike finds herself at the tip of the compass needle, somehow. There is a familiar....ish looking tree. She thinks. Though, wait wasn't there supposed to be a rock over... The half-Mul stops with some consternation in her expression and begins looking around with more intensity.. where the hell is it....?

Lollia eyes Strike. "...what? You know where we're going, right?" the blonde elf says, frowning. "I mean, it's the same way we came in! How hard could it be?"

Daechir looks at a tree and frowns. "I have no idea where we are." He makes a motion with his hand, up and down. "We should keep it quiet though, to keep from allowing anything to find us."

Izpapalotl recognizes the flora. It's apparently close enough to a jungle that she has some measure of an idea which directions to go. Moss doesn't actually grow on specific sides of trees necessarily, she'll helpfully relate at one point. The lizard might be undereducated in this area but she at least pays attentions and makes copious notes.

Strike sets a hand on her hip and, while she doesn't look back, the hickory staff creaks a little bit, though she offers a distant, "Hard enough, it seems." The helpful advice from the Sith makes the grip on her staff fidget a little, then, "You're welcome to try." she invites the blonde with a look.

On her horse, Alaryn is just happy to be moving and heading to some.. objective. She does her best to chat up the client too, "So, you don't like bullies you say." she remarks, "I tend to shoot them."

...it isn't long, a few hours of marching, before you come to a conclusion: you are now hopelessly turned around and lost because you just arrived back at a creek you're fairly sure you've already gone over.

And hey! That's that rock you saw earlier that Ilwa said looked like Gilead coppin' a squat! Her words.

Lollia is muttering by this point, looking increasingly grumpy. "Oh gods dammit, we're just walking in circles!" she says, throwing up her hands. "I should have memorized a divination spell that would actually tell me the direction at least!"

Sora was distracted by a few things so has just been following along with the others, not really paying that much attention. She does start to look around a bit and it downs on her that they might not know where they are.

Daechir can only pause in his steps. "We have no choice but to press on unless you want to give up." He pulls out his rapier and marks the nearest tree. "There, at least now we will know we are headed in the right direction."

Strike actually does wince as the fellow scores the tree. Though her pace is unabated, she watches the tree for several strides as if she were waiting for it to take umbrage for it's new tattoo.

"I mean," Ilwa says as she rides her corgi, "It's not like we can lay down and give up. At least we haven't run into any ogres yet. Or more giant spiders," she adds, a moment later.

It's the giant spiders she's worried about. She pats her dire corgi on the back of the head.

GAME: Alaryn rolls craft/artifice: (3)+10: 13

Shaking her head as folks start doing weird tree stuff, Alaryn climbs down off her horse and goes to pluck a compass out of her saddlebag. She plucks a few tools out as well, adding a crystal to the bottom of the compass and muttering as she works, "Seriously.." she says under her breath, followed by, "Just need to follow..." And then she looks at her jury-rigged device and snorts, "That'll teach me to work while frustrated." she mutters.

GAME: Sora rolls survival+2: (18)+10+2: 30

Sora cocks her head to the side and shakes her head, "Sorry, I was distracted at first, um, mind if I lead us out?" she says and then starts to head towards the front like she knows where she is going, humming a bit softly to herself.

"Here." offers Alaryn as she hands Sora an artifice-augmented compass. "This might help." she shrugs, "If it works any better than normal. It -should-, but.. it's a quick build."

Sora nods and accepts the compass, smiling at Alaryn before she uses it to help.

The good news is that Sora seems to have a good sense of direction. You soon feel like you're making progress. The abd news is that you've lost time. Enough time that it's getting dark out.

Really dark.

The Pygmy bulette mewls in its cage. Mewl! Mewl!

Scratch!

Hiss! Bite!

It's trying to gnaw its way out of the metal mesh enclosure without much success.

And now you see a fire in the distance, a camp of some kind, that the trail you're on is leading you towards.

Sora cocks her head to the side, "Well that got dark fast." as she has been leading the way. She does notice the fire in the distance, "It seems our path leads there."

"There likely lies the orges." Daechir offers quietly and not without a touch of distaste. He looks over the group. "I volunteer to check out the site and see who they are. If I do not return, then that is the likely reason and you should avoid the site. - I say this as it is our goal to keep her safe not to engage with them."

"Hey, you're the scouty scout person." Lollia says, shrugging. "If the ogres start killing you, just scream really loudly, okay?"

Sora cocks her head to the side, "Well we can try going around, though with everything, we are going to make a lot of noise, so avoiding them might not be possible, though we can try it."

"That could be them," agrees Ilwa, "We can just... go around. Let's not attract their attention. Much as I *want* to confront him and wave my pygmy bulette under his deserving nose, you were all right to stop me earlier!"

"NO, YOU CANTANKEROUS OAFS! KEEP IT BOUND TIGHTLY!"

There's a much larger roaring sound. That's not ogres. But it is apparently something the ogres have caught.

"Or we can backtrack, camp, and move on. Or.. just walk into their camp and show them the prize and get ready to shoot'em. Whatever we're being paid for." offers Alaryn with a shrug, "I got a magic campfire. A magic lightning blaster. And a few other things. Oh, and the little git is loud as fuck."

"We should choose the terms of our engagement," Izzy replies. "At this juncture we should fight them instead of continuing and being caught from behind." The lizard, as usual, speaks with little emotion as if her plans is clearly the most reasonable possible solution.

Lollia looks at the pygmy. Looks towards the camp. Looks back at the pygmy. "...Ilwa. Are you /sure/ that's a pygmy bullette? As opposed to, say, a baby bulette. With a really pissed off mother bulette nearby. That the ogres found. BEcause they're stupid."

"...very sure. The pygmy is an albino," says Ilwa, firmly, "There can't be that many tiny albino bulettes around, could there?" She eyes Lollia.

Lolilla isn't wrong with the shadows growing deep it's getting harder and harder to see Daed. It's not just his obsidian skin and raven hair, or the black clothes he wears, it's the shadows curling around him like he's their beloved son. They move and shift to keep him from sight and he creeps just a little closer. Silently he lifts a finger to his lips, his red eyes blazing suddenly with so much dark around them. "We draw close, keep her and the creature back... and then we strike." It doesn't matter if they have the wrong thing or not. Because the orges are going to want a fight either way. He motions for his companions to follow him and then creeps in closer.

"...there would be at least two more, a mama and a pappa who were albino too..." Lollia points out.

"I mean, I suppose that's /possible/, but the lore indicates that there's just the one, and its tiny and never grows. Mini Bulette. It's parents were regular bulettes... again, according to lore." She eyes the pygmy bulette. Warily.

GAME: Daechir rolls stealth+2: (16)+3+2: 21
GAME: Daechir rolls perception: (10)+3: 13
GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls stealth: (16)+-3: 13

Red eyes appear first, then Daechir like a ghost from the dark. He has his hands slightly raised as if knowing that his reappearance might cause alarm and then offers the briefest flash of a grin which is somehow less than comforting for all that it's meant in good humor. "They are indeed up ahead. They are busy enough that we might be able to go around. Seems they caught a baby bulette and are painting it white to fool those who look at it." He offers a half bow to Ilwa. "If you care to go around with the real one and head home I suggest the rest of us confront them while they are... white-handed."

Yes, he's definitely smiling.

"You've /got/ to be kidding," says Ilwa, a bit too loudly.

Lollia blink, blinks at Daechir. "....I'm with Ilwa." she says.

Sora blinks and looks at the gnome and shakes her head. She glances towards the fire, "Think we are going to have to fight anyway. Should be fun." she shakes her head, "Who paints a creature white?" she shakes her head a bit. She wonders of the artists heard the gnome, or if they might be able to just get around.

-End