WikiSysop at 19:57, 20 April 2010

2010-04-20T19:57:15Z

WikiSysop: New page: == The Treacherous Sea: Paying For the Deal == Marius finishes his dinner at long last. He really did eat all of that food. He looks quite a bit healthier than he did when Raven came in a...

2010-03-24T18:10:38Z

New page: == The Treacherous Sea: Paying For the Deal == Marius finishes his dinner at long last. He really did eat all of that food. He looks quite a bit healthier than he did when Raven came in a...

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== The Treacherous Sea: Paying For the Deal ==

Marius finishes his dinner at long last. He really did eat all of that
food. He looks quite a bit healthier than he did when Raven came in and
he seems to be moving more steadily than he was when Raven entered the
cell.

"I think I could do this," he says. "Are you ready?"

"As charming as it is to stand around watching someone eat, this ain't
exactly my idea of a good time," Raven answers. "I'm ready."

Marius smiles as he comes to his feet and moves to the door. It bodes
ill for the Gatwegians.

He gestures to Raven to get into place. "You force it, and I'll deal
with their magic. It should come free quickly enough."

Raven positions herself appropriately and then nods. "Ready." It has
not escaped her notice that she'll be first through the door and first
to find out if there are guards out there (and how many). Not that
she blames him, but it's nice to know that her fellow prisoner is
self-serving enough to let someone else be attacked first. It's not
the most charitable of thoughts, but given some of his claims so far,
it doesn't seem entirely undeserved.

As soon as Marius indicates he's also ready, Raven applies her boot to
the door with extreme prejudice, aiming for the weakest point. If
it's actually going to give, it'll give there, and she'll give it her
best effort.

The door rattles on its hinges. Whatever Marius is back there doing,
it's having some effect, because when Raven inspected it before, it
wasn't moving at all. "Again," he says, and there's some strain in his
voice.

She assaults the door again, with no less vigor, and will continue to
do so until either the door breaks, stops moving, or Marius passes
out, all of which seem to be reasonable outcomes to her. And if she
happens to be taking out some of her irritation at the Harbormaster on
the door at the same, well... it's not undeserved, and the door is
there whereas he is not.

It takes two more tries before the door falls. Marius almost does the
same, but then he picks himself up to make good his departure. Breaking
the door and the bar are a feat of strength Raven hardly thought she
had in her, but still, people can do amazing things in extremity, and
this is extreme.

Once she's sure she won't have to sling Marius over her shoulder and
carry him out, Raven makes a point of being first out the door. "You
been out of the room enough to know which way we're going?" she asks
as she looks left and right for guards and witnesses that might cause
a problem later. "Or are we going off my memory of how I got here?"

Marius takes a moment to recover from his exertions but once he does,
he's moving through the door as fast as he can. He has no more desire
to stay in the gaol than Raven. "You'll need to be our guide. That took
more from me than I expected."

He's moving steadily, despite the appearance of a splitting headache:
wincing at the sunlight outside and care for how his head moves when he
jogs.

"Done, and done."

She does her best to navigate them back to the Harbormaster's office,
although she'll choose whatever seems to lead towards the docks if she
isn't sure. After all, finding that particular office from the docks
is supposed to be fairly easy. She keeps half an eye on her companion
- enough to make sure he doesn't fall too far behind (or over) with
the fast pace she's inclined to - but otherwise leaves him and his
headache to commune with each other in silence.

Assuming they make it as far as the dock area, she'll momentarily stop
their progress, turning off into an alley if there's one convenient.
"Right," Raven says lowly. "So is part two of this plan 'walk casual'
or 'charge in swinging'?"

Marius grins in a way that shows his teeth. "We'll 'walk casual' until
we need to break heads, and then we'll charge in, or out as the case
may be, swinging. Let me see if I can find something to make it a bit
easier to walk casual."

They're in a nest of small warehouses like the one that served them as
a gaol. As they move along between the buildings, Marius finds a door
and tries it. Surprisingly, it comes open and he ducks inside,
gesturing to Raven to join him.

It's a bit strange; Raven wouldn't have expected the building to be
unlocked.

"I'm starting to think this isn't your first jail break," Raven says,
sounding amused, as she follows him. She frowns slightly and quirks
an eyebrow at the door as she passes it, despite her amusement; it's
strange that it wouldn't be locked... but then, Marius seems to be a
bit strange all around. On the other hand, this could also be a
set-up; it would be a shame if it was, though - he was doing so well
at lulling her into a sense of fellowship to go and screw it up with a
'luckily' unlocked door. She shrugs just slightly as she looks
around. Time will tell, after all.

"It is a useful skill if one travels a great deal," Marius says
agreeably. He looks at the crates and locked trunks in this warehouse.
"There should be a crowbar around here somewhere. See if you can't get
one of those crates open--quietly. I'll work on this." His foot nudges
a trunk with a padlock on it.

"I got more sense than to make noise fit to wake the dead," Raven
answers drily. "Say something if you need help."

A bit of searching turns up a crowbar on top of one of the crates, as
though someone had set it down to do some other task and forgot to
pick it up again. She hefts it for a moment, testing the weight, and
decides to take it with her when they leave; she'd always liked the
utility of crowbars. And then, badly humming a tune about a
particularly bloody sea battle under her breath, sets off along the
row of crates in search of a likely suspect: a crate with shipping
marks indicating it contained clothes, boots, hats, or some other
useful thing.

Searching through the warehouse, Raven finds and opens what proves out
to be a crate of bolts of cloth of the right weight for cloaks. When
she digs around the edges a bit, she finds two cloaks that she wouldn't
describe as perfect fits for herself and Marius, but certainly adequate
for disguise. When she looks down from her perch on top of some boxes,
she finds Marius has joined her. He has a sword in hand and looks like
he knows how to use it, which is no surprise.

"Can you make do with knives, or should I keep looking?" Marius asks.

"Knives'll work," Raven agrees, "and I'm taking the crowbar, too.
Might come in handy. Here." She tosses down one of the cloaks.
"Finder's right - I'm taking the less ugly one. 'Ware below; I'm
coming down."

Marius catches the cloak, laughing at the comment about finders, and
steps back to clear a space for Raven to leap down into. When she's
steady on her feet again, he passes her the knives, haft first. They
seem like they'll do for throwing from the way the weight is
distributed, which leaves her with the crowbar for any melee they get
into.

The blade Marius took is a bit longer than the ones sailors use for
close-in work; more of a landsman's duelling weapon. He draws the cloak
around his shoulders and fastens it with his free hand. "Lead on,
Captain Raven. We have your men to free and your vessel to escape to."

"And my papers to collect," Raven reminds him pointedly as she tucks
away the knives and hooks the crowbar on her belt. "I ain't about to
try explaining the last few years to the higher-ups without 'em. And
I hope you're planning to hide that thing," she adds, with a gesture
at the sword. "You did say 'walk casual' and not 'stalk around like a
young idiot with more gold than sense'?"

She fastens her own cloak and leads the way back out of the warehouse,
returning to where they'd turned off. She picks a pace that is not so
fast as to be conspicuously running away from something, but brisk
enough to look like they have someplace to be and something to do -
which is entirely true - and sets off down what she thinks is the
correct way.

"We'll find them," Marius says, closing his cloak in a way that
somewhat conceals his blade, but not enough to suit Raven's taste. But
he walks behind her swiftly and silently, and as if he's well used to
moving with the blade, not just sitting and dancing.

When Raven identifies the Harbormaster's office, Marius nods and
suggests they see if they can't get behind it, with an eye to entering
via a back door or some such. He judges the risks as being more likely
to be seen if they bluff their way in, and more likely to be caught by
magic if they try to sneak in. He'd have an easier time if he went it
alone and Raven rescued her crew, but he certainly understands that
she's unlikely to think much of that plan.

The just slightly mutinous look that briefly crosses Raven's face when
he suggests the plan of splitting up is probably a good indication of
how she feels about it. She tempers her actual reply to a succinct,
"Terrible idea."

The back door seems like a reasonable plan to her, and she somewhat
prefers bluffing over having magic tip off unknown and unseen numbers
of people and maybe just catching them like flies in honey. At least
if they're bluffing, they have half a chance of seeing who they tip
off and a fighting chance of getting away.

[in progress]

Characters:RavenLogs/TTS PayingForDeal - Revision history

WikiSysop at 19:57, 20 April 2010

WikiSysop: New page: == The Treacherous Sea: Paying For the Deal == Marius finishes his dinner at long last. He really did eat all of that food. He looks quite a bit healthier than he did when Raven came in a...