Sweeping Darkness (IC) - Open

[Darkmoon]

Welcome to the town of Grelenstaad. Although normally a peaceful, happy town, recently there has trouble. A lot of trouble. It started with goblin hordes attacking the outlying farms. Goblins, in small packs, are not unheard of, but there were large armies.

The ogres that started appearing were much more unexpected.

As were the occasional dragons.

The townspeople, although not the brightest collection of farmers, merchants, and the like, have figured out that there's something big going on. Before they let it get so bad that the town, let alone the countryside, is so far in danger that it can never be saved, they pooled their resources and put the word out for heroes.

Those of you answering the call will find notices at the various entrances into town discussing the Town Meeting tonight, where all the heroes are supposed to show and announce their plans for helping the town.

Any of you that are interested in refreshments before or after the meeting are welcome to visit any of the fine Inns and Taverns around the town. Of note is the town's favored tavern, the Drunken Dragon.

The town itself is of moderate size. Although not famous for anything in particular, it is quite good, and well supplied.

The local baron, Netseki, is a kindly gentleman. He's as saddened by what has befallen his town as anyone else. There is discussion that he may offer his own reward at the town meeting.

[Lushin]

A stone hand ripped a notice off a walk. The figure the hand is attached to looked at the notice up close. It then looked about the village looking for a tavern to spend time in. It saw one where alot of people going in and out. With a flat male tone it spoke.
"Drunken Dragon, interesting'
The figure headed towards the tavern. It crumpled up the notice in it's had and threw it to the ground.

[Darkmoon]

The Drunken Dragon was like many a tavern all across the countryside. It was full of smoke and people attempting to get away from their problems (generally by sharing those problems with other people at the tavern, while smoking up a storm in the process).

The tavern itself was famous for it's Dragon Wing Soup, a rather tasty concoction that has as much to do with Dragons as modern day Buffalo Wings have to do with buffalo. The soup itself is bade from a tasty beef broth, seasoned with 11 select herbs and spices, and slow cooked for a minimum of 6 hours, just to get the broth the right flavor and consistency.

In the corner, a small stage is setup. Currently on the stage is The Amazing Cedric, and magician of fair renown in these parts. Part of the fame is for the grand magic he does (you should ask him, one time, to do the trick with the rabbits). The other part of the fame is for the fact that Cedric is also a puppet.

[familyghost]

One whole day in the wrong direction. 

Aeo kicked himself for his stupidity as he entered the town.  The people like always seemed shocked and he was fairly sure it was the horns, but the smell of sulfur might have had something to do with it.  He sighed and shrugged his shoulders as he walked through the town.  He heard rumors of the Baron and some great reward and he half wondered how many people were going to go rushing headlong into the danger so he could quickly sign on with them and blow some evil to giblets and sausages.

For the most part though Aeo was more interested in finding something to eat.  He had some parting money his group had given him after he was forced to leave.  He still couldn't figure out why the necromancer couldn't just smile, even for a second.  That thought quickly left his head though as he stumbled across a building called the "Drunken Dragon".  He blinked for a second and laughed the name off as one of the best names he had ever heard.  He entered the building and again a few people took notice of him, nothing he wasn't used to.  He took a seat near the door that was unoccupied with a small table and waited patiently for someone to show up and take his order.  He hoped it would be a cute little barmaid and he smiled devilishly as the thought passed through his head.

[techmaster-glitch]

   Behind some trees next to a road just outside of town, two figures stood warily, keeping their distance. One was a fair foot taller than most men, while the other could have passed for a young giant. Neither were flesh beings. The shorter of the two seemed to have a body made up of tough, fibrous bundles that resembled thick muscle covered with composite plates making up a sort of exoskeleton. The head was mostly featureless, forged from a single plate, with another for the jaw. However, two glowing blue lights were embedded in it, signifying eyes. It, for there was no physically identifiable gender, was wearing many belts and bandoliers, filled with all manner of tools of crafting, and several completely unidentifiable ones. On its back, it had a large rucksack bulging with a variety of materials. The giant, on the other hand, seemed to have the same basic physical infrastructure as the smaller one but, (besides being larger), had plates that were thicker and less composite, and covered more of the 'muscle'. It was adorned with nothing but its own plates, and was carrying only one thing: an obscenely sized greathammer. It's light-eyes were red.
   "Now remember," the smaller one started saying, in a voice that did not sound entirely natural, "follow five paces behind me. And for the love of our creator, keep your hammer away."
   The larger one was silent for a moment, before it rumbled in a very deep monotone bass voice, "...Why are we here again?"
   "My chisel's broken, as you well know." The smaller one seemed to huff almost indignant, despite the fact that emotions were hard to express for them. It held up a chisel that was indeed damaged. "I'm going to buy a new one."
   Again, the big one paused before saying, "...Why don't you repair it yourself?"
   The smaller one put its hand down. If it could have sighed, it probably would have. "You know why we are here, brother."
   "Humor me again."
   "Our father, bless his soul, created us. He never imagined us as monsters. I find it difficult to believe that there are no others in this world who think the same. If we can find as many as possible, we should. Besides, what if we actually find a home? A place where we can settle down and be accepted for who we are, rather than what we are?"
   "...We don't really need that."
   "But wouldn't it be nice to have?"
   The large one was silent for a few moments longer this time, before speaking up again. "...What's to guarantee that this town won't attack us on sight, or eventually drive us out, like all others have before?"
   "We haven't visited that many towns. We've also traveled the farthest distance since the last town. I'm certain that they wouldn't even try to send out stories of a very large thing with a hammer that, in retaliation, walks through the door of everyone who shot an arrow or jabbed a sword at it this far out. That really was quite unnecessary. I don't know where you got the idea to suddenly do that."
   "I felt like it. They deserved it."
   The smaller one shook his head. "If someone happens to shoot an arrow at us as we approach, we will turn around, and walk away. Understand?"
   "...Very well."
   "Put your hammer away..."
   "I don't like to-"
   "Put it away."
   The large one hesitated, then, with a somehow disgruntled air, hooked its greathammer to his back.
   "Good. Now, let us see what the people of this town are like..."
   Leading the way, the small one (but still notably large in comparison to a normal person) walked out from behind the trees, and directly onto the road leading straight to the town. The larger one rumbled behind. They walked directly towards the town, with a steady and (as much as possible for large beings sculpted from heavy materials) calm demeanor, in an attempt to be as unaggressive as possible, hoping that they could talk to the inhabitants without being immediately attacked, and stay for a comfortable rest time before being asked to leave for being too 'different'.

[Darkmoon]

For those just entering town, a small caravan of street performers have taken up residence in the town square, singing, dancing, selling odd wares (or rather putrid looking sausages in buns).

Off to the side stands a single mime, quiet and unobtrusive. The mime looks as though she has managed to get herself quite firmly stuck in a box, and yet cannot seem to remember just how it is she gets back out.

-----

Inside the Drunken Dragon, Gussy, the barkeep, has opened up the bar for happy hour. 2 shilling draughts, 5 shilling house-brewed ale.

Gretta, the serving wench, has been around to take orders.

[Lushin]

The figure walked in and found a seat over in the corner by themselves. He didn't order anything when the serving girl came over. He just stared around the room.
"Just need a place to sit and wait"

[techmaster-glitch]

   Surprisingly to both, the two large figures managed to approach the town unchallenged. As they walked past the "Well-come to Grelenstaad" sign, they saw in the center of the town there was a traveling circus with which most people were focused on. While the big one couldn't have cared less about the antics, the smaller one was quite intrigued. He had not seen anything like this before, and he wished to know more about it. Off to the side, there was a person in a very strange striped costume and white face, making odd gestures. It approached and then, still being comparatively tall, knelt down to the woman.
   "Excuse me," The composite humanoid said in a voice that resonated a little around the street, and sure to turn a few heads to notice the newcomers (though they would probably take a fright at the giant-sized thing), "What is this event?"

[familyghost]

Aeo was pleased.  The serving girl was definitely pretty, at least in the country girl sense.  He smiled as he ordered a small plate of jerky and a glass of water.  Then he continued to watch her as she walked off.  Now all he had to do was wait and maybe try and make a few friends.  Unfortunately he would have to entertain himself until such a thing happened, so he pulled out a gold coin and flipped it for a while, seeing how many times he could get heads over tails.

[Darkmoon]

From the stage:

"Now, my assistant Paul here, if he'd be so kind... yes, now, as you will see, Paul has nothing up his sleeve... whoa, watch it there, Paul, I said nothing up your sleeves. No need to get frisky with me.

"Excellent, so, now, that we know Paul is not rigged for this event, I shall now conjure up the box of water that Paul will place me in."

A faint blue light slowly builds around Cedric's hands, and then, it condenses on stage into a large box, 8ft by 8ft  of water, glassed on all sides.

"Now, Paul, please open the box. Splash a couple of the people up front with the water so they know it's real."

There's some grumbling from the front of the room.

"Good, now, please invite someone on stage to inspect the box..."

Paul looks out into the audience for a volunteer.

[familyghost]

Aeo had barely been paying attention to the magic show when he heard call for a volunteer.  Aeo quickly raised his hand with a childish and innocent.  "Pick me!"  accompanying it.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

In a corner of the Drunken Dragon, a monkey appears, and scampers across to Gretta to give her a note, along with 13 shillings, then scampers back into the corner, where Bocks is making a fair imitation of a table.

The note reads:

Four draughts, and one house ale for the pretentious prat.

When Gretta returns with the drinks, five monkeys pop up and grab one each, then vanish inside the box again. The next time anyone looks, Bocks isn't there any more.

* * * *

While the smaller humanoid next looked to his left, there was a nondescript box sitting there as if it'd been there forever. The dust piled up around the bottom indicated that it had been there for a while, which was somewhat contradicted by the five monkeys sitting on the top drinking beer from glasses that hadn't completely been covered in condensation yet...

The five monkeys chattered to each other, and watched the mime artist carefully. They chattered some more, then one of them dropped back inside the box for a moment, then poked his head out and chattered something authoritative at the others. The others sighed, then handed their drinks back in. The one in the middle vanished again, then popped out, and all five of them swarmed over to the mime.

Under the somewhat bemused gaze of the humanoid, they build a quick pyramid, then throw the top monkey on top of the (non-existent) box the mime is trapped in, where he stands, running his hands around the edge of the box, looking for the opening. Meanwhile, the other four spread out around the box, running hands up and down the walls, and wrapping their hands around the corners. As they do so, they chatter to each other, and in fairly short order they are all gathered around the far side of the box, jamming their fingers into the corner, and screaming at each other as they pull their fingers out and jump up and down about getting them crushed.

Eventually, one of them screams at another one, and the other one wanders back to the box, drops inside, and comes back out with a crowbar. He drags it over to the group, and they argue for a while over which of them gets to hold the crowbar. After they settle this (2001 AD style), the one who lost stood back rubbing his head, whilst the winner carefully stuck the crowbar into the edge of the mime box. He took his hands off it, and spat on them, then launched himself at the crowbar - which promptly spun free and smacked him in the back of the head, sending him sprawling, much to the amusement of the loser behind him.

Some more disagreement went on for a bit...

[Darkmoon]

"Ah, excellent, sir." Cedric says to Aeo. "Nice to see a strapping young lad show an interesting the thaumaturgical arts."

Cedric motions Aeo up on stage. "Now, if you would please, inspect the box and tell those in the audience if there's anything amiss."

[techmaster-glitch]

   The smaller, but still large composite figure looked around when the costumed person didn't respond, and was surprised to see an ordinary wooden box near him. How did that get there? Even more surprising was when it opened up and a group of small (seeming ridiculouly tiny to both large composite figues, especially the giant) chittering primate creatures emerged. They then proceeded to interact with the costumed woman, in a way that seemed to indicate that she was trapped in an invisible cage or box. While doing this, the chittering things frequently squabbled. After unsucessfully attempting to use a crowbar to pry open the invisible cage, they degenrated into another squabble.
   The figure with the tools and rucksack was utterly at a loss for words. Never in his life had he ever witnessed a spectacle like this. He turned his attention to the box, and after a moment, reached out to touch it (he had to to crouch and bend very much, as he was still tall, than the box was fairly low to the ground). When he did, he suddenly pulled back, as if stung. The box was filled to the brim with magic!
   "What is this?" He said to no one in particular.
   The metal giant simply stood in the back the whole time, statue-like.

[Darkmoon]

The mime sits, watching the monkeys with an air of amusement.

[familyghost]

Aeo quickly shot from his seat to the stage.  He looked over the box carefully and laughed at it in amusement.  He really wanted to see the trick now since he couldn't spot any direct way for the trick to work.

"Looks good to me." Aeo said as he returned to his seat.

[Darkmoon]

"Excellent. Now, if everyone is the audience is ready...?"

Although Aeo, and some others, are paying attention tot he act, most have not been bothered to look up from the conversation. Cedric slapps his "hands" together, causing a wave a silence to drift through the room.

"As I said, if everyone in the audience is ready, we shall being. Paul, if you would."

Paul brings out a ladder, one handed, and places is next to the box. He takes each of Cedric's "hands" and ties them together with a bit of twine. He then climbs the ladder, and drops Cedric neatly into the water, whereupon he sinks down to the bottom of the box. Paul then climbs back down, and stands, nervously, watching the act.

After a few moments, those watching can detect a faint shimmer of energy playing along the water. Cedric suddenly shoots to the top of the box, and floats there, near the top, making imperceptible motions around the sloshing water. The box bursts forth, and, those with a good view, can see Cedric float to the edge. Paul then rushes to the top of the box, and puts the puppet back on.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," Cedric says, out of breath, "Please, please, as daring as that stunt may be, you may now applaud." The room remains silent, splint between those who wonder how it was Paul was able to float the puppet and then break the box open all without making a single motion, and between those who wonder just how death-defying it is for a puppet to survive being dropped in water.

[Azlan]

It had been a long day filled with travel, investigation and wild fowl chases.  Aire had spent the better part of the day examining the farmsteads and interviewing the outlying townspeople.  She had not turned up much more then was already general knowledge, and as such rode back to town.

A meeting was supposedly happening at the Drunken Dragon tavern, so she Aire decided to make this her first stop.  She gave a quizzical look to the street performers, but was too tired to pay much attention so instead she tied up her horse at the post in front of the tavern and entered cautiously through the front. 

Cedric had just finished saying something about applauding and Aire decided it would be rude not to, even though she missed the show, and gave a quiet clap and smile to the puppet.

Weary from the road and the effort of trudging around all day in platemail, Aire sat heavily at an unoccupied table and waved over Gretta, "A glass of honey wine please.  If you haven't any, then simply some tea would be fine."

Aire observed the gathered crowd and waited.

[Darkmoon]

After the confused applause from Cedric act dies down (or, more accurately, dies off in a slow, strangulated kind of way), conversation around the bar picks back up. Those as listen to it over hear snippets of dialogue:

"...yeah, I hear the Baron's already sent out two different raiding parties. Neither returned..."

"...I tell ya, with these goblins attacking my farm, it's getting the point where I might just have to pack up and leave..."

"...No, I don't think that boil looks too infected. Just rub some dirt on it, you should be fine..."

"...I'm going to collect whatever reward the Baron is offering. I'm the greatest warrior. No, really, I am..."

[Omega]

Crows.  A whole dozen of them flying on the sky a half a mile outside the city. Belowe them a lonely figure approaches the town. One blessed with a sharp wit might've wondered what would have driven these birds upon this person, if everyone wouldn't be looking for goblins and dragons.
The figure itself looks nothing unordinary: A young boy, walking with ill matching clothes and leaning to his poor looking spear from time to time.
Armita halted and gazed the road ahead. A single crow landed on his right shoulder.
"Can you see what's making that noise in that direction? You probably have better eyes than I do, or that's what I read from somewhere"
His throat felt dry. When was the last time he had watter?
"The merchant said that this land could use a helping hand, remember? When people are worrying about their lives, they don't care who is that helps them."
The voices of a city rang into his ears, but it was something else that drew his attention towards the settlement. Something that draws flies to a carcass "No" Armita thought "That's too stereotypical. More like moths to a flame. Wait, that's not good either. It's like, like.......Bees to honey! Except I don't like bees. There's no sense animat...l" The crow gave a loud shriek. "Alright, alright. We're moving already! stupid bird... OW OW, I'm running. I'm running"
And so the flock of birds started closing the city.

[Lushin]

The figure continued to sit in the corner by himself. His gaze drift from around the bar to out the window. He didn't didn't seem to care much about. His attention was draw to a man sitting near him who was rather drunk. He was being loud. The was eyeing a a female sitting near him and making comments to her. For the most part she was ignoring him.The man seemed to get annoyed at her for doing this. He got up and made his way towards he and slammed his fist into her table, she recoil in shock and fear of him.
The drunk man spoke "Listen little lady you need to be nice to me. I'm the man that is gonna save this little town..."
The man stop when a stone hand grabbed his shoulder.
The figure spoke with a annoyed tone "I don't think she likes. I suggest you take your drinking else where"
The man laughed and shrugged his shoulder trying to shake off the hand. " I don't know who the hell you think......"
The figure spun the man around and drove his left hand into the man's gut, doubling him over in pain. The figure them dragged the man to the door and literal threw the man out.
The figure stood in the doorway for a sec and listened to the man hurl insults at him then wonder off drunk. He then turned around  and walked back to the table he was sitting at. He paid no attention to anyone staring at him.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

The two monkeys - the winner and the loser, so to speak - started an all out battle, losing interest in the crowbar and the box. One of the other monkeys wanders over to grab the crowbar, and starts prying away at what appears to be the utterly invisible door, without much success.

While this is going on, another monkey heads back into the box, and comes out with a pair of bolt-cutters, followed shortly by another five monkeys, carrying the beers the first five had put away. This second bunch set up around the box, drinking and screaming "advice" to the monkeys doing the work.

The two fighting monkeys pick up their heads and head back to the box to "remonstrate" with one of the hecklers, remonstrating so thoroughly that all three are knocked back into the box, and drop out of sight. One of the other spectators wanders over to where the crowbar and the bolt-cutters are being set up on the mime's box. The bolt-cutters are being used as a wedge, and the crowbar is being used as a hammer on the fingers of the monkey holding the bolt-cutters in place...

A few moments later, and the two are chasing each other around the mime cage, and the one from the top is headed back to the box. He sticks his head into it, screams a bit, listens to the echo (!) and nearly gets brained by the shovel that comes flying out. Catching it on the way down, he heads back over to the mime, and starts shovelling dirt from one side of the base - somewhat hampered by the two chasing each other over his shovel every other shovelful. Three of the beer drinkers point and laugh, the fourth (drinking the house ale) puts down his beer to come over and point at the box, screaming warnings and waving his arms, dissuading the digger. The three hecklers are left to scream something that sounds a lot like "bad form" at him, clearly disappointed that he's spoiling the show. Eventually, the pretentious one shrugs, waves his hands in the air as if dismissing responsibility for any further problems, and returns to his drink, screaming at the hecklers a bit on his way past. All four settle down and watch the three again, since the two chasers have settled their differences and are working on the bolt-cutters, attempting to find something to attach them to.

The shoveller keeps digging, making a nice little hole, and rests his shovel for a moment - at which time, the bolter and the crowbar throw themselves at the other side of the box in an attempt to use brute force. In a clearly predictable moment, the mime artist tilts gently, slowly, and inexorably over, until the box thumps solidly into the top of the shovel, hammering it into the ground, and holding it in place. The mime artist inside bounces off the inside, and the two monkeys on the far side chatter to each other in shock for a moment, before swarming over the now 45-degree angled box, and manage to find something to attach the bolt-cutters to. Mere moments later, they fling open the door (apparently - it's a little difficult to tell - and bow to the mime. The Pretentious Prat jumps back into the box, and comes back a moment later with a small folded piece of paper, which he trots over and presents to the mime artist with a bow. He then sweeps up the other three monkeys, scolding them back towards the box. When he arrives there, he finds that someone has pinched his beer, and absconded into the box with it. In fairly short order, all the monkeys, the bolt-cutters, the crowbar, and the beer, has all vanished, leaving an inscrutable box just sitting there, and a shovel propping up an invisible box.

At this point, the mime artist gets a chance to read the note, which says:

You're welcome.

When she looks up, Bocks is gone again.

[familyghost]

Aeo watched with slight confusion as a large odd looking man tossed another, drunk looking man right out of the place.

Aeo blinked and then mulled an odd thought over as he walked back to his seat, ignoring the show.  The puppet had been only a little interesting and now this new stranger seem more promising.  "You know, I think they hire people to do stuff like that in most taverns and such.  So I take it you're here for the money and not the adventure?"

[techmaster-glitch]

   The smaller of the two large constructed figures watched in incredulousness as the party of monkeys continued their absolutely ridiculous efforts to free the costumed woman from the invisible cage. Eventually, they succeeded, and left a note for the woman. When the figure looked back, the monkeys and the box had vanished. The two large humanoid things were left standing alone.
   "...Now what?" the huge one rumbled, finally speaking for the first time since entering the town. He sounded slightly sarcastic. It was not lost on the smaller one.
   "Shut up, you thick block of metal, I'm thinking." This town was indeed strange. Not only had they not been attacked, it seemed no one had noticed them yet. Ususally someone would have seen two towering figures composed of metal and other things and shouted "What in the Nine Hells are those things?!?", but no one had even done that yet.

[Lushin]

The figure continued to stare out the window he was spoken too. He sat there silent for a few seconds then spoke in a flat tone.
"That man was bothering the girl"
The figure remained quiet for a little while longer than said.
"This town needs help and I can help"

[Damaris]

The Mime looks at the two odd... things... standing in front of her, raises her eyebrows, and cocks her head to the left, purses her lips, and waves to get their attention.

She then smiles, pantomimes a drink, beckons, and wanders a several steps in the direction of the Drunken Dragon, pausing to see if they follow.

[Darkmoon]

A rather diresputable man wanders up to the mime. "Sausage ina Bun? Totally organic. Totally... delicious... yes..." He smiles a rather toothless smile. "Only tw...three shillings."

[Damaris]

The Mime screws up her face, shakes her head, and shoos Dibbler away.

[Darkmoon]

"Right you are then miss, right you are... What about you two... errr..." The vendor looks the humanoid over. "A nice ingot maybe? Nothing but pure cop---errr---iron. Right, iron. Thr...five shillings."

[familyghost]

Aeo couldn't believe his luck.  A guy motivated purely by doing good and helping others, the stuff legends were made of and he was just sitting here in a bar.   

"You mean you're bard bait?" Aeo smiled.  "AWESOME!  You guys always have the best adventures!  Need a warlock to make things go splat at a distance?"  Before the stranger could even respond Aeo was giggling madly while introducing himself.  "Name's Aeo Dall by the way, what would be yours?"