Jul 01 05:12:46 108 PA - Helping an ill-prepared Merchant
From Chronicles
The current game time is: Mon Jul 01 05:12:46 108 PA.
During the early evening many of the radios of the city are filled with calls for help. A merchant is calling for help after he has been ambushed by predators of some sort on the way to Kingsdale. He is trapped inside his wagon, and from his distress call the creatures are likely to get into the wagon soon.
Early night. That's a fun time. Everything's just gettin started. Maybe that's why Bella headed out the gates. She likes the city but plays in the dirt sometimes. Knows people out a ways too. Even gotta li'l radio thing not long ago. All that makes it kinda easy to hear all the yellin and stuff. Maybe she don't even have to walk real far to be nosy.
What? A radio call? He must have overheard someone else's piece of equipment, and moves out. Pavel's been around the block a few times, and while he isn't the kind to shy away from trouble, neither is he the type to run in, arms swinging blindly hoping to hit the right thing and accomplish whatever the mission happens to be. To that end, as he approaches the location, he'll attempt to blend as best he can against any vegetation to assess the situation.
Dirai arriving there isn't particularly hard. She'd heard the sounds over the radio in Maria's lab. She wasn't very fast, but it was easy enough to jog there (since she doesn't get tired, after all). Her ectoplasmic body arrives in relatively short order, growing an extra pair of arms as she goes, arriving just as the others do somewhere along the road. Weapons drawn, she's not exactly the picture of stealth or prudence.
As you come over a small hill, on the road to Whykin, you see what remains of the wagon on its side in front of you. About eighty feet in front of you a robotic horse that looked to once be covered in life like skin is lying on its side twitching and sparking. Large claw marks are all over the horse and the wagon. You hear some one calling out in desperation from the wagon, matching the words heard over the radio. Two huge, black maned lions or canines are on either side of the wagon growling loudly at the occupient. At the sudden apperance of others that might interfere with their hunt they turn to face the hill top and let out a rowr to ward you away. Their long bodies bristle with muscle as they tense up.
Giant black puppies? That's kinda new. For Bella. She blinks and pulls out her li'l knife. "Uh. Nice doggies?" She figgers they ain't but maybe if she tells 'em they are they will be.
The very large predators growl and roar at those on the top of the hill. They quiet down for a few seconds before they start bounding at alarming speed at the beings that look like an easier meal then the merchant hiding in his wagon. They eat up the space seperating you from them quite quickly.
He's been around the block a few times, but this is a new block, and even the large Pavel is surprised at the scene. He does little more than continue to "hide" near any available brush, motionless-ish. Whether assessing the situation, or frightened, the man is just not very active.
Dirai is charging into battle with a happy call,"Oh, oh, I'ma throw a stick and if you don't fetch, I AM SO hitting you with a rolled up newsp-" And then she stumbles over a root, crashing to the ground. She's up in a mere moment, but her momentum is lost,"Aaagh. That is SOOO not cool. Everyone pretend you didn't see that."
"Well fack." So much fer nice doggies. Bella tries the other way. "Shoo! Go 'way. Go eat somebodies else!" She waves the pointy end of her knife. Maybe that'll scare 'em off. When somebody else crashes some she looks over. At the blobby uh person? "Got anythin ta feed 'em 'r anythin?"
The large canines leap, and their powerful back legs carry them high up in the air to crash against Pavel and Dirai in a powerful pounce. Twelve hundred pounds of angry predator is a lot of momentum as they attack with and angry roar.
Pavel realizes that being knocked to the ground by a twelve-hundred pound cat sucks, and says something about it for the world to hear. Not angrily, just a flat statement: "Ya lyublyu sobak luchshe." Then, however, even a twelve-hundred pound cat shouldn't provide much of a challenge to simply bench-press and toss off of him. Twelve-hundred? He does more than twice that in the gym. Before the bar snapped.
Dirai is pinned beneath a very large cat, of a sudden. With a wet coughing sound, parts of her body part and break away as she flows to the side and away from the cat. With some concentration, she begins to work on re-settling her body,"Wow, these guys never learned to play nice. No treat!" Bella guesses they listened. Sorta. Didn't try and eat her anyways.
Bella guesses they listened. Sorta. Didn't try and eat her anyways. "'S workin! Keep 'em busy!" Since they ain't buggin her she goes for the wagon. "Anybody still livin' in there?" If she gets close she even taps on the thing. Sorta like knockin.
One predator lets our a frustrated growl as it gets tossed off of Pavel. It pivots in mid air to land on its legs. Quickly it launches back at Pavel clawing at the large man. The other big cat looks confused as the creature it had pinned flows away from it. It turns to swipe twice as Dirai reforms.
The man in the wagon cries out as he hears the voice of Bella. "Oh thank the gods. Yes I am in here. I managed to keep those things from getting to me. Thank you. Oh Thank you."
Seeing as how the thing has attacked him like that twice, and having been basically unable to avoid them, Pavel attempts a new tactic. His massive hammer is dropped, the larger of his two silver blades is drawn from his belt, and he plunges it directly toward his attacker's eye. Either one works just fine for him.
Dirai finally reforms, brandishing the blades, and one of its lower sets of arms draws a revolver of some sort, brandishing it at the creature. The other one, already holding a vibro-knife, waves it ineffectively in the direction of the beast,"Aaagh! Stay still!"
The predators keep growling loudly as it seems they are easily winning this battle. They strike out with their claws at Pavel and Dirai's form.
The man inside the wagon is weeping with relief. "Are they still there? Are you taking care of them?" He calls out to Bella.
Dirai discorporates in a puff of steam and a pained cry as the cats' claws rake through her.
"Yep. They're still 'ere." Bella looks back. Sees the blobby thing discomblobulate. "Uh. Sure. We're takin care of 'em. 'R somethin..." She dunno what it was they just clawed up. Or even what the clawed things are. Other 'n mean 'r hungry. "Hey! Go 'way! Ain' nothin 'ere ta eat!" It's serious now. She pulls out her li'l pistol. Even points it the right way before shooting it.
It's a miracle that Pavel somehow managed to throw his attacker off his aim this time. Keeping his single blade in one hand, he lunges to plunge the point into that special place at the base of every creature's throat, hoping to end this before he gets beaten to death, being now outnumbered.
The cat that Pavel is trying to stab with his puny knife easily swats aside the clumsy blow and swipes at Pavel in return. The other cat that was struck by Bella's pistol starts sprinting after the woman in long strides that eat up the distance quickly.
Bella got one's attention. Sort of. Maybe. "Said Go. Somewheres. Else." She hits the shoot button on the gun between those. Bella ain't a reall good shot but it worked last time.
Having been completely abandoned by one who may be either smart or cowardly, Pavel has nothing more to do save to go into overdrive and picking at strange choices of attack. He flicks a finger toward the nearest cat, then brings the huge hammer down on it immediately afterward.
The cat doesn't seem to catch very well on fire. Its mane smolders a bit and tries to burn but the giant cat caught in a blood rage seems to ignore the smoldering fur. What it doesn't ignore is the giant blow that catches it in the side making it whimper in pain. It looks back to Pavel a little more wary as it swipes twice at the large man. Its mane starts burning a little better, but the cat doesn't seem affected by the heat. The giant cat that is pursing Bella leaps in a powerful pounce using all its momentum to try to slam into the woman.
Bella was hopin ta stop the thing. Or slow it. "Fack." When it don't and jumps at her she jumps too. To the side and outta the way. Comes up shootin again too. "Go eat somebody else!" She ain't real tasty.
A little progress is better than no progress at all. Perhaps the animal is thrown a little off its game, or perhaps Svarog, Highest of the Gods, is smiling down upon one of his Kuznya because the big man manges to quite expertly swing it away at the last moemnt. In either case, Pavel just grabs the shaft of his hammer and pounds away like he's trying to break a mountain in half.
The cat that is striking at Pavel seems much more hesitant as it gets another heavy blow from the large hammer. It whines a bit but strikes out again at the big man. It looks like it is getting close to fleeing though. The giant cat attacking Bella on the other hand doesn't seem to be much diswaded by the sorched marks that cover its hide from the blasts. It strikes out with two fierce blows trying to take down the small woman
Bella's better with the bitty blade than the bitty gun. She waves it to keep the claws and things away. Now't it's close she pokes back with it too. "I bite back ya stupid whateva ya are!" Poke poke.
Pavel's attention remains focused on the task at hand - killing an attacker. Focused in that special way that blacksmiths can do, with the ability to simply pound away, over and over and over and over, but with a perfect eye for detail as well. This seems to be one case where pounding over and over is more useful than being sneaky. The big hammer comes up-down, up-down twice, attempting to smash the beast with its massive metal head.
The cat attacking Bella seems quite surprised at the vicious attacks that cut deep into its flesh. It whimpers loudly and it lets out a loud barking noise. The cat attacking Pavel returns with the same barking noise and both cats turn quickly to flee into the light woods surrounding the road.
"Didn' like that didya?!" Bella calls out. Since they're runnin away. "Bout time." She puts her gun back in her coat. Then the knife. Then looks over at the big guy. "Have fun gettin chewed on?"
Pavel stoops only long enough to collect the blade that he'd dropped, then hefts his hammer over his shoulder and runs to the fallen wagon. As his English is failing him in the heat of the moment, he's making a wide variety of hand gestures in an attempt to communicate, "Is someone alive?" When reaching the cart, he'll pound and inspect and rip metal aside if need be to get to he man - all the while ready, because you never know when the person you rescued might be an asshole.
As the remains of the wagon are taken apart. The merchant lets out a loud sigh of relief. "Oh thank you thank you. Those two came after my horse out of nowhere. Then discovering it was just a robot they apparently wanted to eat me. Thank you so much for helping me." He says in a voice of relief as he looks to survey what is remaining from his wagon.
Bella goes back to the wagon too. "They ran 'way. No more eatin nobody 'ere." She eyes the sorta horse. "Bet it don' taste good. Got anythin left in that thing?" She points at the wagon.
Still being a little wary, Pavel does allow himself to relax a little as the man inside the erstwhile trap seems to be genuine enough. He extends what is a catcher's mitt of a hand and does his best to get himself across, enormous Russian accent the only thing getting in the way. A big thing. "Pavel heer sze tahlk on macheen, cohme to hyelp. Yoo ees no hoort? Ees good?" He pats his own body all over, pantomiming motions of, "Is it all there?" Bella may be more of a get-right-down-to-business-and-reward type of person than he is.
The merchant lifts a few wooden boxes that remain untouched from the damage caused to his wagon. He loads them on a dolly that seems to have also survived. "Yes it looks like at least my cargo is mostly intact. It will be expensive, but I at least won't be entirely broke. I will of course reward you for your bravery. If you would be so kind to escort me the rest of the way to Kingsdale. I will be able to pay you from my accounts there."
The big man looks as the merchant loads his mysterious boxes onto a dolly, but it's not his business, and asks no questions. Only smiles and shrugs, announcing proudly but softly, "yavlyaet-sya horoshim podspor." Rather ironically, words that in English have only three short syllables. There's no accounting for language. Before the man has moved too far off, he asks a question as politely as he can. "Pavel cahn look sze vahgon and.. myetahl horse? Tehke sze szeengs cahn tehke for Pavel, ahlso get rewahrd een ceety? Cahn syel vaht faheend ahnd tahke? Ees okahy?" He moves his hands through a variety of motions, using his various blade and fingers to ask if he can take everything apart to sell as salvage in addition to whatever the man would be nice enough to award.
"I was going to send men back to take the horse and wagon. I am afraid that I will be the one to salvage them. I will reward you with credits, not with my property. If that is ok with you sir." The merchant replies to Pavel. JOBS: Job 57 has been assigned to Ninsun by Ninsun.
Pavel stands to his full height and smiles pleasantly, clearly not perturbed in any way. Just didn't hurt to ask. "Ees good, ees good. Pavel szehnk yoo. Now go to ceety, ees sahfe veeth Pavel." He glances at his relatively tiny companion and adds, "Bella, too." Then is prepared for the trip home, with some dinged armor.
