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Comments
Ahem.
When medieval weapons are the topic, Alex should be approached with extreme caution. It's like he switches into Saruman before anyone can notice. Personally, I don't fully know what kind of proficiency we can expect our heroine to have. I'd count on here doing well with a short sword. It'd be like a long knife in practice, and she's hardly buff enough to make large weapons efficient. But then, after the recent rooftop showdown, I can't really force my previous perception of her onto anyone.
Umhm... I have no specific idea as to how approach a guard suspected of taking bribes.
laughingfechtmeisters.jpg
Last time I checked, there was that part about striking with all of your heart. 'Course, I do admit our heroine seems now just crazy enough to run around with a weapon as long as she is tall, but she still seems to me the kind of character that'd feel more natural with something short and handy. Could call it messer, if we're that much into German terms.
Okay. I have one vote for a staff, one vote for a longsword, and one vote for a shortsword. I also have no votes for how to deal with the guard.
I guess I need a tie breaker and someone with a vote for the guard.
[i'm dumb]
No idea on the weapon issue, but my suggestion for bribing the guard: pickpocketing Lien in front of her.
Note to self: If commenting on something more than twelve hours after reading, RE-READ IT. Dumbass.
Sounds like it can work.
[A bunch of incredibly confusing posts; Alex's vote for a longsword wins, if only because he seems to put have the most effort into it. Clockwork's suggestion for the bribery issue also wins.]
You reach into your cloak and pull out two pouches of coins- your pouch and the pouch for Ari.
"I want a longsword," you tell him. "Go over and examine a smith's wares, but don't buy anything until the guard gets close to you. I'm going to pickpocket you and steal one of the pouches. Once I do that, buy the weapons and meet be back at the constabulary's. Okay?"
Lien nods and takes the two pouches. You wait for him to head over to the stall, before you settle in to wait.
Fortunately, it does not take too long; it would have seemed suspicious if Lien had stood there for half an hour. About ten minutes later, when Lien was embroiled in a discussion with the blacksmith who owned the shop, the guard began strolling down the street.
You averted your eyes to the ground, then begin casually walking down the street. As you pass Lien, you casually reach into his pocket- you barely feel him tensing at all, he really does a remarkable job at making himself look stupid enough to not notice your incredibly obvious thieving attempt- and pull out the pouch.
You make it about thirty feet down the road before you notice the guardsman heading in your direction. You try not to let on that you see her until she is almost upon you.
"Excuse me," a smooth voice interrupts you. You turn your head and widen your eyes upon seeing the guardsman. "Would you please follow me?"
The baton lightly tapping against the hollow of your back makes it clear that she isn't actually making a request of you. You swallow and nod. She nudges you to turn around, then begins tapping you back towards Lien.
You wet your lips. How do people even bribe guardsmen? You really have no idea.
"Guardsman," you say softly, "surely this is not necessary."
Ari looks at you from the sides of her eyes. "I think it is," she says dryly. "And the law agrees with me, so off we go."
"Surely we can come to an arrangement," you argue. "I-" You cut off as she taps you in the back, rather harder than necessary.
"Bribery is also a crime," Ari says coldly. "I would suggest not making your sentence any harsher than it already is, hedgewitch."
You nod. When you get back to Lien, Ari taps him on the shoulder. He spins around.
"I believe this is yours, sir," the guardsman tells him. Lien affects a look of shock.
"Oh, thank you!" he says, a relieved grin spreading over his face. "I hadn't even noticed it was gone!" You are sure that twinkle of laughter in his eyes is faked. You don't even have to fake a scowl at him in return.
"Come on," Ari reprimands you, tapping you again. "Follow me."
---
The constabulary's office is becoming far too familiar to you, really. Sir Rory's office in particular.
"Thank you, Urien," Rory nods gratefully. You bite back a smile at Ari's look of confusion.
"May I go?" you ask politely. "I believe I still have to visit three more guardsmen before nightfall."
Rory nods at you. "I would suggest using a bit more subtlety in future," he says, the corner of his mouth twitching.
You pout.
You still have to visit the other three guardsmen. Who will you visit next?
[A] Visit Feila Tachsten next. She is patrolling the slums, around fifteen minutes away.
Visit Uva. He is patrolling a district some half an hour away from you now.
[C] Visit Osten Veristel. He is patrolling a district some several blocks away from you, a bit under an hour's walk.
A; let's get it all over as quickly as possible.
Most effort my ass.
Hey, he gave four reasons!
[A]
[Two votes for A; A wins.]
Lien is waiting for you downstairs. He raises an eyebrow at you. You smile faintly, then gesture for him to follow you as you step outside.
"I got you a sword," he says, holding up a bundle wrapped in cloth. "It's made of iron- the silver one's price was just ridiculous."
You take it from him and unwrap it. It's not particularly a long sword- it's longer than your arm, but if placed point-down on the ground, it would probably only come up to the bottom of your ribcage. It's still impressively long, though.
You wrap the belt the sheath is attached to around your waist, then head off towards the slums.
[A] How do you wish to approach the bribery this time?
[A] You're the messenger of a big criminal ring operating outside the city following a caravan carrying [Item of Value X] that the criminals want to steal cause secret reasons, the caravan will be traveling late at night along this street and it would be great if the guard just happened to have taken his break at the time. You're carrying a down payment, if he makes sure that he's the guard on duty at the time and he's unavailable between [Hour X] and [Hour Y] he gets the rest.
If he doesn't believe you show him Lien, what normal non-criminal person would be hanging around a changeling?
Seems excessive to me. Guards that would take bribes to look the other way wouldn't necessarily take bribes to do this.
However, I have no idea what we should do, and I need to sleep :c
As a general rule, though: keep it small.
Also a bad idea.
Look, here's the thing: someone who will accept "here's some money, so don't arrest me for that minor crime" might not accept "I'm willing to pay you for some criminal mercenary work."
How about we go to where the guard is, look around, and then decide? Anyone for that?
Sure.
When you arrive at the slums, you begin looking around. You can learn a lot about an area if you just sit and look around.
The streets of the slums are uneven and messy. The rain pushes the dirt around them over the paths, and little bits of it stick, caking it. In the better areas of Farever, people are hired to walk along the streets and wash the dirt off, but nobody bothers in the slums.
The houses are all off, slightly. It's barely noticeable unless you look- but once you see it, it's damned near impossible to unsee. The houses are built so that alleyways are everywhere. The bricks and planks in the houses are off, ever so slightly- as if the builders, sick and tired of being in the slums, didn't take the time to make sure the bricks were properly positioned before moving on to the next.
The smell hanging around the slums is awful. You can smell sweat, animals, rotting food, human waste. It's all you can do to not crinkle your nose at the smell, to not cover your nose with your sleeve so the stench is lessened.
But it's the people in the slums that you notice the most.
You notice the way people crowd the alleyways on the side streets of the area, how you can see people crouching in bushes in gardens, on depressions in roofs- anywhere that offers a bit of shelter. You notice the way people avoid the alleyways on the main street- except for those who don't.
You notice the children, scrambling around, laughing and smiling and lifting purses out of people's pockets when nobody is looking. You notice the couples walking around the slums, hand in hand, occasionally leaning against walls, sloppily kissing. You notice several couples, entering their houses as you walk past. You notice the dead looks in some of the women's eyes.
You notice the way people shy away from some of the people walking down the streets. You notice how they are big and muscled and scowling and tall. You notice the cudgels tucked in their belts- little dried stains dotted along their lengths, remnants of the blood caking them that their owners couldn't quite wash off. You notice the blue cloths tied around their arms, with a design of a line, spiraling around an eye.
You notice the looks on people's eyes around you. Defiant, resigned, angry, lost.
You notice the way everybody here is skinny. You notice the dirt caked on everyone, the way their hair hangs around their heads, greasy and limp. You notice the blackening of their teeth- sure signs of icepowder addiction. You notice the bags under their eyes, and the way their arms hang limply at their sides.
You notice the guardsmen, striding down the street. You notice the blue band tied around his arm.
Ask around about the blue bands. If the slumdwellers act reserved give them a bit of money (within reason of our budget) or whatever.
You know what, I'll check tomorrow if Alex was genuinely interested in this thread, or just came in for some preachin'.
Supporting the blue band, I'd also try to learn and observe as much as possible about the current situation. I wouldn't like to rub the local street gang the wrong way.
WHERE'S SCARECROW
WHERE IS HE
...
...er, I mean. Ahem. Ask them politely.
He was posting before I asked about weapons, so I imagine he was genuinely interested.
Posting at some point today, anyway.
I've been away from a stable internet connection for the past two weeks. I decided to post more at length on the weapons thing because I know the topic well enough to push this down a collectively beneficial path if it comes to drawn steel (unless Nova is a cleverpants and gets us jailed for killing a guy and then being found guilty of murder after evidence of our self-defense was removed from the scene).
Anyway, now I'm back on my normal connection and with less stuff to take up my time. And also the format has moved away from "what" and towards "how", which might necessitate longposting at some point.
Stay tuned.