RPGWW

Jaeko looked to assassin and nodded, as if giving the okay to let him go. Getting a bit closer to the others, he simply gave the word that he was ready when they were.

"Do that", Assassin hissed, "and your life is forfeit."

This moment of threat caused him to turn away from Jaeko's nod, eyes drilling into the back of the ex-bandit's head.

While this man may have been bluffing, Assassin did not intend to let the criminal go, just like that.

"Do you truly want to risk your own life to bring this down upon all of us?" He whispered slowly and calmly. "My blade is ready. It can easily slide through your backbone, snap it, and send it splintering forward into your chest, piercing your heart and many, other, organs. While the rest of us may not be off to such a pretty fate... your fate will be a painful one, and an inescapable one. If you wish to chance it, go ahead."

"Look, all I want is to get out of this alive," the man hissed desperately, "I don't want Jin finding out who led you to him until I'm well out of town."

This impassioned plea didn't seem to have much impact on Siolen, who simply glared at him. Letting him go didn't seem to appeal to her in the least.

Despite agreeing somewhat with Siolen and Assassin, Idran decides to continue keeping quiet on this matter, making but a single comment towards Assassin.

"...Quite a bit descriptive, aren't you?"

"Think of it this way," Assassin murmured. "I'm sure you'd be far safer under lock and key than you would be free. After all, you've already told us some information. How do we know that this Jin isn't already aware of the fact? A set of iron bars will only increase your security and thus your life expectancy."

He gave an eye to Idran. "A threat can have no meaning unless you depict and describe the act beforehand. Don't you agree?"

Idran appears to consider it for a bit, and responds soon after.

"...Honestly, I don't have much experience in that area. If it ever comes up, though, I'll keep that in mind. It does make sense, although in a hopefully-unnecessarily violent fashion."

"Oh, believe me, I'd rather not come to violence at all. I retired from that career some time ago, and I'd rather not go back to what I had to do back then."

He gave a quick nod and turned back to the bandit/ex-bandit/potentially annoyed and frightened individual, waiting to hear his response.

Petty had kept his mouth shut up until this exchange, the ex-assassin's threat prompting him to put an extra foot between the two of them. Ally or not, he didn't want to be unnecessarily close to a man who'd once made killing his profession.

"Look, we could just stash him somewhere till t'is lil' encounter'r is over. Stop hanging around before Jin gets wind t'at someone's asking around about him."

He cast a quick glance around the group, hoping that the man upstairs didn't have any lackeys enjoying a good drink here right now.

"As long as we do not let him go entirely, and as long as we can be sure that this 'stashing' will hold him, I'd have no problem with such a procedure." Assassin relented, still not turning away from the now somewhat-endangered individual.

"Find, or rent, an empt' room, gag and bind him, and t'at's t'at."

He paused, thinking on something for a second.

"We do have some rope, aye?"

Jaeko thought a minute. Unless someone else had some he didn't know about, he wasn't sure they did. Even so, he began plotting.

"I'm sure we could find something, even if we don't."

Idran offers his own solution to the problem, hoping to get through this brief bump and continue on to deal with this Jin fellow.

"Well, I could bind him magically, but I'm not sure how long it'll last. I've never let the spell run out to its end, but it should be good for at least an hour, as far as I know."

Assassin folded his arms. "An hour? We need something more secure."

He looked to Siolen. "Do we have any extra supplies that can assist us with this man?"

"I've got some rope in my pack," Siolen said, "You never know when it'll come in handy. I'll handle the room arrangements." So saying, she stepped over to the barkeep. Coins changed hands, and Siolen got an iron key into the bargain. That done with, Siolen led the way upstairs, letting the others follow at their own pace.

The prisoner, for his part, seemed rather deflated and back to his prior level of nervousness from Assassin's threats.

Petty chuckled to himself as they left the prisoner in his new room, commenting "T'at's t'at" to nobody in particular, following Siolen shortly after.

Silvanus immediately followed Siolen, without hesitation or so much as a farewell to the prisoner.

Judging from his facial expression, something had ticked him off about this whole deal.

Assassin made certain, as much as possible, that the prisoner would not be escaping his confines. He left said prisoner with one more threat, along the lines of 'inflicted blindness', before leaving with the others.

Also following Siolen, Jaeko began going over his inventory, making sure he'd have all the guns loaded that he'd need.

He had already had bad experiance with running out of ammo at unfortunate times...

Idran follows Siolen as well, though watching for anyone that appears to be a possible ally of Jin. Still somewhat uncomfortable with the quality of his surroundings, and realizing they did talk about it much more than was probably a good idea, he is careful to look for any paying an undue amount of attention to their group.

A short period of walking brought the group to the door in question. Apparently identical to any other along the hall, this was the one identified as the abode of Jin. Siolen, in a fit of optimism, tried the handle. Unsurprisingly, it turned out to be locked.

"Does anyone have any suggestions for getting in quietly?" she asked. It didn't need to be said that smashing their way in would probably draw attention from downstairs.

"Bribe t'innkeep t'open t'door for us?"

Assassin was about to speak up, but his main solution for the problem would have involved breaking the door down, or some other, similarly noisy method.

That in mind, he kept his mouth shut and simply waited for someone else to suggest a method.

"That's probably pushing it," Siolen said regretfully, trying the handle just on the off-chance. Unsurprisingly, the door was locked. "I suppose we have no choice." Drawing back a fist, Siolen concentrated briefly and then sent it flying at a carefully selected spot on the door. There was a loud crack as it connected, leaving the wood around the lock split apart. Apparently the quality of the doors was no better than the quality of the inn as a whole.

Not waiting to see if anyone had heard, Siolen shouldered open the door to reveal an empty room. Her face was suffused with a look of sheer frustration until the sound of faint voices from somewhere within the room became audible to everyone.

Upon hearing the voices, Idran glances around the room, trying to find the source of the voices, while attempting to come up with something he could do in the event a combat does break out in the room.

Assassin was about to comment. He managed to restrain himself from doing such, however, and instead also searced for a source of the voices.

He also performed a quick look around the room to see if there was anything seemingly valuable or vital laying about.

The room was tidy, with a small desk on one side, and a bed against the other, with a curtained window above it. Opposite, a large closet stood, next to a rack containing a sword, bow, and quiver of arrows.

There were a couple of papers lying on the desk, and four drawers in it. A few moments' listening revealed, strangely, that the voices were coming from the closet.

While the door was being taken care of, Jaeko began working on loading his twin barreled shotgun, the Grand Dream. Making his way into the room, and listening to the voices, he simply snapped the chamber shut, and made to listen a bit more, preparing himself to use the gun, if needbe.

Taking his axe in hand, Petty followed Jeako into the room, making for the papers on the desk. Since his "rival" already had the eavesdropping covered, he might as well see what he could dig up in terms of documents.

Having kept back until now, Silvanus took a fast look and listen around the room, putting his hands on his regular sword and heading over to the closet.

He leaned back a bit, trying to signal that he fully intended to break open the closet when everyone was ready.

Not really fit for combat in a small room like this, Idran goes over to help Petty with looking for any possibly important documents or whatnot.

Noting that the matter of the desk was being well-covered, Assassin took a stance by the closet, next to Silvanus.

His blade was at the ready. All he needed now was for something to happen.

From the looks of the top papers, they were a list of names and dates. The majority had a line struck through them. A brief examination of the list found the name Siolen Ceris on the list, with yesterday's date next to it.

Another sheet seemed to be a faqirly straightforward list of supplies, with such items as arrows, bandages, and 'replacements'.

Otherwise, there seemed little to be learnt from the papers. Careful listening at the closet door, however, revealed the threads of a conversation.

"You can always find more men. Doubtless there are many who would jump at the opportunity." The voice was cultured, definitely upper-class, if not nobility, though with an unplaceable accent.

"How can you be so calm about this?" This voice was rather more familiar in tone, having a clear Doman accent. "It's not just the men. They know our methods now, and they may have prisoners."

Edited by: [url=http://pub30.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=kelne>Kelne</A]&nbsp; at: 2/10/04 7:22 pm

Silvanus looked around the room, noting that some of his allies were searching through the papers on the desk and others were waiting on his cue.

Thus, Silvanus opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. Instead, he telepathed to his allies while his mouth kept moving, as if he were really speaking, "Whenever you're all ready."

Idran winces very slightly on the telepathic contact, but turns to Silvanus and nods at him. After such, he continues his searching while keeping an eye on the group of people preparing to open the door and most likely attack, in case his help may be useful after all.

Looks like t'ey've got t'is banditry all planned out. Done t'eir homework, and writ up a nice schedule...

Glancing at the others, Petty continued to examine the list, checking for any future targets.

Assassin simply nodded to Silvanus, remaining in the same position he had previously adopted.

He had no doubt in his mind about whom the two inside the closet were discussing.

Of course, any questions could be asked after the inevitable 'capture the budding criminals' task.

Perhaps not the best of plans, given that most closet doors open outwards. Nevertheless, kick anything hard enough and it will break, and the door wasn't exactly reinforced. The doors fell inwards with a crash, revealing a rather unexpected scene.

The closet apparently opened into a sunny courtyard, featuring a large fountain with a dragon statue looming over it. Two men sat at a table with a chess board between them, staring at the source of the commotion. One was wearing an ornate blue robe, whilst the other wore a rather scruffy looking black coat.

It was the scruffy man, presumably Jin, who recovered from the surprise first. "Don't just sit there - close the damned portal!"

The other man nodded and began an intricate series of hand movements.

Edited by: [url=http://pub30.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=kelne>Kelne</A]&nbsp; at: 2/17/04 3:33 pm

The names on the list thus far not crossed out were Lonnie Berack, Inverse Stanovich, and Emile Kirosin, Presumably merchants. Each would apparently be targeted over the next two weeks.

"Perhaps," the cultured voice said, "Certainly you are free to cancel our agreement. After all, I have what I want. Check."

Silvanus felt he'd been waiting long enough. The talking between the two behind the door had driven him into a silent fury... that could no longer be held back.

Without hesitation, Silvanus wound a leg back and kicked the door, just hoping he could break it open in a single swift strike.

Oh no you don't.

Silvanus quickly glanced around, then stepped closer, winding back his head. This wasn't going to be easy for him, he figured. If the man was dealing with portals he had to end it now.

(Silvanus is using his Ice Breath on those two men. Assuming the breath can reach both, of course.)