OOM: Arkngthand, 8 First Seed, 3E 428

[moonandstar]

They emerge from the bar onto an ancient bridge, made of a metal that Ibani won't be able to identify - but clearly the work of an advanced and accomplished civilization. It bridges the foyada, high and deep on each side.

They won't have time to admire it, however. Because there's a bald Imperial in an iron cuirass standing at the other side of the bridge. He conjures a skeleton warrior, who charges toward them as its master launches bolts of lightning at them.

Comments

[last_kallig]

"A new uniform indeed. It suits you." Ibani LIKES as Garyn can surely tell.

[moonandstar]

"Well...I know it's true if you say it, love."

[last_kallig]

"Such faith in my taste when you KNOW I'm incredibly biased," she teases.

"Only one more stop to make?"

[moonandstar]

As Garyn is about to answer, a voice calls out from across the room.

"Ah, Knight Balvadares! I'm glad I caught you!"

A uniformed Imperial steps toward them.

"If I could have a word, please?"

[last_kallig]

Ibani is annoyed when the uniformed Imperial steps forward, but she hides it well.

"I suppose I can wait here a little longer." she tells Garyn. And if the Imperial so much as twitches in a way she doesn't like, he'll be sorry.

[moonandstar]

"Certainly, Captain Varro, I'd be happy to discuss business with you."

Varro nods his head in the direction of his quarters. "Not here."

Garyn raises an eyebrow. "I see...I'll follow you, then."

Varro clasps a hand on his shoulder and walks alongside him, as much to block others from watching too closely as anything else.

"You see, Balvadares, I've got a little story I'd like to tell you..."

[last_kallig]

Ibani leans against the wall somewhere out of the way and moves her awareness into spectra that even mages in Nirn haven't dreamed off. In the Force, the walls obscure nothing at all. Garyn's presence is bright, and she can read emotions plain as day.

And if things become TRULY desperate, she can likely act THROUGH Garyn long enough to buy time for her to rescue him.

[moonandstar]

Once Larrius Varro is convinced there is no one close enough to make out their words, he begins his story.

"Once upon a time there was a bad magistrate who took gold from criminal organizations to reduce the sentences and fines of criminals. Everybody knew he was doing this, but nobody could prove it. Because even if it could be proved, the bad magistrate had important friends, and proof is not as powerful as important friends.

"At the same time there was a good officer who enforced the laws because he thought laws made people happy and safe. And it bothered the good officer that enforcing the laws did no good, because the bad magistrate let the criminals go as quick as the officer caught them.

"And even better, the good officer suspected that the bad people who were bribing the bad magistrate were probably criminals themselves. So the good officer decided that it would be good if the bad people who were bribing the bad magistrate should go away. Forever.

"So that good officer made a little special prayer that there would be a little bloodbath to wash the bad people away. There. Isn't that a nice little story? Maybe not a perfect story. Because it ends with a prayer, and not a bloodbath. But maybe the story isn't over yet."

Through his entire story, Garyn listens in stony silence. He answers slowly, not raising his voice.

"These...bad people in this story of yours...they wouldn't happen to be Camonna Tong, would they?"

Larrius Varro shrugs theatrically. "You said it, not me. No one will tell me, because I am an officer. And it is against the Code to tell officers things. But I do know that there are five of them. I know they are a scout, a pawnbroker, a savant, a thief, and a smith, and that they are in Balmora.
Unfortunately, I don't know their names. But maybe you can find their names. And where to find them. And then maybe my story could have a happy ending. With a little bloodbath, instead of a little prayer."

Garyn's lips tighten into a grim smirk. "You know, I've heard a little story myself that the Thieves Guild doesn't like the Camonna Tong very much. And another little story about where I can find Thieves Guild members in Balmora. Perhaps the parts of the stories that I know could help to finish yours."

"Oh, I certainly do hope so. I'd hate to leave it unfinished."

[last_kallig]

Ibani keeps her senses on Garyn through the Force until he's where she can see him with her eyes.

"Something worth our time?"

[moonandstar]

Garyn strides out, walking hand in hand with Ibani.

"How would you feel about ambushing and killing five very bad people?"

[last_kallig]

Ibani chuckles. "Sounds better than my usual missions from my superiors."

Her heart flutters a little at him walking hand in hand with her in HIS world, in public, which is ridiculous!

[moonandstar]

"I know they're Camonna Tong, and I know that the Council Club is where they like to congregate. I don't know their names, or when they'll all be together, but I know some people who can help us case the place."

Garyn pulls a couple scrolls out of his bag.

"These will get us to Balmora quickly."

[last_kallig]

Ibani feels SOMETHING from the scrolls, but it doesn't make much sense to her. "How are they going to do that?"

[moonandstar]

"Read from it and you'll appear outside the Temple entrance in Balmora."

[last_kallig]

Ibani raises an eyebrow. "Just like that?"

"Might be best if you go first, so I see how it's done."

[moonandstar]

"Certainly."

Garyn unfurls his scroll and focuses hard on it. He mutters a few words and then, with a sparkling WHOOSH, he vanishes.

[last_kallig]

Ibani copies what he does quickly, not feeling him in the Force now making her anxious.

The transportation is....deeply unpleasant. The Force feels like it TEARS around her as she's whirled into nothing and everything all at once, senses screaming at the overload of input!

It is only great effort that keeps a scream locked behind her teeth as she finds herself at her destination. If she were a cat, ALL of her fur would be standing on end.

[moonandstar]

Garyn had been smiling as he waited for her outside the Temple in Balmora. But the look on her face makes him grimace.

"Are you...alright, love?"

[last_kallig]

Ibani unclenches her jaw. "I've been better," she replies, her voice sounding a little strained to her own ears. "It felt like the Force tore, and then my senses were overloaded by everything and nothing simultaneously."

"I'm presuming that's NOT what's supposed to happen?"

[moonandstar]

"No...it's, uh...not."

Garyn frowns.

"I certainly would have heard something of it from mages and mystics."

[last_kallig]

"It must just be me being what I am, then."

She forces herself to breath in, then out. "I would greatly prefer to never do that again, please."

[moonandstar]

"Should be easy to arrange that, love," Garyn says.

"Now...to find the South Wall Cornerclub. We'll find plenty of volunteers there."

[last_kallig]

She wraps an arm around him, briefly. "Good."

"People not friendly to the ones we're looking to kill, I presume?"

[moonandstar]

"Very unfriendly indeed," Garyn says. "The first time I came to Balmora, I was nearly jumped for asking where the South Wall Cornerclub was...right outside the Council Club, which is where we'll be hitting."

They walk down the street together. The architecture shouldn't be entirely unfamiliar, depending on how much time Ibani has spent on the Outer Rim. Only one sun on this world, though.

[last_kallig]

"Useful, for our purposes. I'm glad you didn't get jumped, then."

"There's a familiar feeling to the architecture here; not a copy but an echo of things I've seen before."