[Docks] Why is money never free? (CLOSED)

[Antar]

'Ah... the good old nights of Sunberth. Never a dull moment.' thought Noth as he gazed down at the ramshackle mockery of mugging going on below.

Antar was currently situatued on the 'high road' as he liked to call them, the rooftop where any thief or assassin could roam and wander in the midst of the night. It seemed to him there were some new persons in town, and it was always good to venture what talent might come into play about the city. Especially amongst the docks by the Seaside Quarters. For a moment it seemed a cheeky thief had the upper hand over a few stragglers in the night air.

Then the pair went and turned the tables on the blighter...

Judging it might be worth some fun sticking around, Noth traversed closely towards a position near a chimney and unlimbered his longbow and pulled the string taut. For a few moments wondering if he should feather one or two, or maybe all three through the gut. But then he got the better of himself and decided to wait a bit to see how things panned out. It was always a good thing to observe fresh blood to see if the scum amidst the city were gaining anything. It was frankly that simple, so for now he was going to watch and wait... from afar.

He wasn't foolish enough to close with a trio as deadly as this, not at least without some backup. That odd thought made Noth wonder just where any of his group were at the moment. After all, this little flock of pidgins scratching at each other below might prove ... entertaining.

[Bob Barton]

Bob was walking down the docks contemplating if he should get out of Sunberth. Though there were many chances just sitting waiting for him to reach out and grab them, he found it far too dangerous for him to stay long term if he valued his life. Hes no longer the young daredevil risk taking gambler he was years ago after the event. As to testament to how dangerous Sunberth was, here on the docks itself there was yet another brawl going on. Eventhough it was night and dark, the noise gathered a lot of attention as Bob soon found himself drawn to witness the brawl at the crates. There were others watching too but at a safe distance, a few sailor and dock workers finishing up their work for the night the brawl probably so sudden as some even still held on to their crates.

One group caught Bob's eye in particular. A shady and sleazy looking opportunitist was probably taking on bets as Bob would assume seeing how much coins were changing hands. "Ahhhh, a man after my own heart. If Sunberth was not so dangerous I would stay here a lot longer" Bob cheerfully said to himself. With that, he went up to the group and headed to the leader trying to squeeze through the burly sailors in between. Gasping as he broke through he clicked the coins in his hands to get the man's attention "T-T-Two! Two silver Mizas on the masked one!" while still catching his breath, putting his hopes that if a man had to hide his face he would probably be dangerous enough to win.

[Tuic]

Tuic turned around, growling in anger as the sickle drew a gash across his cheek and ignored the taunt from the so called undead creature behind him, he had to either take out this guy first and then get to work on the other one or at least get them all on the same side, he didn't want to get backstabbed by one of the bastards! He grabbed the masked nuits arm that he was holding his weapon with, with his free hand before he struck with out with his dagger, hoping to ram it into the man's stomach. Regardless of his dagger cut a hole in his assailant or not he gave him a hard yank on the nuits captured arm together with a hard shove, hoping to get the guy away from him long enough to get enough time to pick up his axe again. oochey lets get a posting order going, If everybody is just going to post whenever he feels like it when people are fighting its goign to get confusing fast. So Tuic -Roek- levictus - antar - bob good for everybody? It is in the same way you guy's entered the thread.if anybody else enters just put yourself in the posting order at the end.

[Tarelde]

Tarelde was lying comfortably on the ground next to the water, relaxing, when all the commotion started. She got up and thought to herself *ahhh was going to enjoy some relaxation but obviously that's not going to happen* she immediately, upon coming to the docks, saw 2 Nuits, things that she despised, preying upon a Human Male.

She hadn't had any excitement yet so she drew her Longsword and, from the water, approached the Nuit behind the Human and said as she drew a fighting stance "If I were you, Nuit, I'd stop what I was doing and quietly run off. Now, we can do that the easy way, or the hard way. Your choice but make it quick." Now all Tarelde had to do was wait for his decision.

[Reok]

Reok noticed Tarelde right as she was coming up to confront him.

Still not showing any signs of lively emotion he said, "Look at our situation. If you were around long enough, you would know that I was getting mugged about a second ago. Now, my only purpose of being in Sunberth is to get a ship to Sahova: away from people like you and him (notioning to Tuic). Now, if you could be so kind to help us?"

He dove for the axe that Tuic had just dropped, hoping that he was distracted enough by the masked man to take it.

[Darik]

Darik was taking his leisurely stroll of the streets when he noticed a large fight break out. On one side were two nuits, while a human stood alone trying to defend against their attacks. Everyone knew if you even touched a nuit it would faint instantaneously, so the human’s chance of winning was high. Nuits were disgusting things, they didn’t eat, sleep, or even try to act like humans. In a human ruled city, they really should respect the rule, they needed to at least put on a effort to be like humans. Darik didn’t enjoy fighting, because he always ended up losing, so he didn’t even consider trying to insert himself in the brawl. I mean sure nuits were wimps, but you never know when someone may get a lucky shot on you. There was something of interest to him though, a man with pitch black hair stood waving a few silver miza’s in the air. He was standing by a group of sailors that were watching the brawl. They didn’t seem like they were paying attention to the man, which would make Darik’s job easier. He didn’t look like much trouble if he was caught in the act either; he was short and didn’t even look like he had an ounce of muscle on him. If the sailors were looking however, he would be beaten up and maybe killed. They were all bulky men; the sea had toughened them up and made them resilient against all challenges. Those weren’t the kind of people you would want chasing you. Darik took a back alley route to meet up with his next victim. He did so at a slow walk, he didn’t want to waste his energy. If he was caught, he would need it all for a quick escape plan. Not that he doubted he would get caught; the munchkin had seemed preoccupied with the brawl. The final back alley connected with a wooden dock. When he stepped out the alleys he saw how the battle was proceeding. A Konti had joined the fight helping the human out. See, if you don’t help people everything works out in the end! He was faced with a predicament; he had to walk across the loud creaking wooden dock while being silent. He lowered himself to the ground; because he had seen other thieves do that when they crept on their unsuspecting victim. The crouching technique didn’t help at all; each step he took made the boards protest in agony. He hoped the fight’s noise would hide his obvious sneaking attempt. Only fifty yards to go…

[Aberdon]

Sunberth, a sore in the body of Mizahar. The longer it festered, the more filth crawled form its streets. Years ago he'd been here, branded and imprisoned. Nothing had changed, and it likely never would. Still...there was a certain satisfaction to walking free of chains now, and though the cuffs of manacles still circled his wrists like black snakes, they could bind him no longer. He was short, but tall by his people's standards. Night seemed to wrap around him, blow past him, and coil elsewhere.

He did not walk, but swaggered, letting the quiet embers of his rage fuel the confidence in his steps. Sunberth operated on a simple code. Weak were food for the strong. Even the cunning could grow fat off the foolishness of the naive. Personally, Aberdon had seen little of Sunberth save from the window of his master's forge. Day and night he watched the murders and the cutpurses and the swindlers cavort in their playground of miza and flesh. He never wanted to join them, although his body had yearned for freedom. Instead he imagined lands beyond them, people beyond them, kindness even.

Zeltiva was far away in those dreams, but he couldn't return there yet.

This city harbored the rats that dined on his flesh during imprisonment, the cold eyed merchants and their iron hearts, blackened and hard. Not a few days had passed since he'd arrived and already it was familiar. Two faced smiles and poverty.

Thinking about it, about them, about his tormenters only brought fresh fire to his mind and a rigidness to his gait. Normally Isurs were stalwart stoics, controlling emotion at a whim. But then, Aberdon had never been a usual Isur. His yellow arm, his slavery...what was he now? No Isur, surely...his life in freedom seemed distant compared to this path of revenge he trod.

Cries of pain and turmoil rose near the docks, black water placid beneath the struggles of those above it. Pausing near them, near the dock, Aberdon watched the combat. They were all untrained, no one moving with the grace of body he had seen in the ring, especially from the stronger combatants. There was desperation here, hatred perhaps, but more like the struggles of the weak searching for the flesh of the strong.

It wasn't his affair.

Still, the longer he observed, the more seemed to take note...as though this sort of thing was not usual among the cut-purses and brigands. What was so special about them? Two were painfully thin, one wearing a strange mask. The other side seemed to consist of a pale faced human and a woman with a longsword. Perhaps the matchup seemed atypical, but violence was almost currency...language...culture.

Frustration bled from him, seeping into curiosity that drew him closer to the match. Behind him, in the dark of the alley, a boy skulked from the shadows and slipped by him, unaware of the Isur in the shadows. His path seemed different, targeting the group of sailors watching the combat.

He certainly didn't look like an assassin. His body moved slowly, but with the tension of a rabbit. A thief more like, using the commotion to capitalize on the unwary.

If he was caught, he would drowned...who would stop them in a place like Sunberth?

"Boy," Aberdon snapped, curt and cold, "Pick your battles with more prudence. How will you escape if they are faster? Do you intend to run on water?"

He would not intervene himself. If the child wanted to test his luck with the merciless or if those already in combat wanted to bleed themselves to death, it was none of his concern. To be caught up in senseless violence or the calling of a vigilante would end, invariably, in death.

One could not stop the violence in Sunberth.

How could one stop what gave the city life?

[Darik]

"Boy, pick your battles with more prudence. How will you escape if they are faster? Do you intend to run on water?" Darik turned around slowly when he heard a voice full of roughness and wisdom. At first he couldn’t see anything; the night had started to obscure Darik’s vision. Then he saw the outline of a stout figure, which happened to be short. Either it was a really short muscular man, or an Isur. Neither one mattered, because he thought that they were both trouble. Darik was caught in the act; he could probably walk away from this whole situation right now, or try to get the money. The money one was the favorable option, but if you died you wouldn’t get to spend any money you happened to posses. He decided to continue on with his previous plan of stealing from the short man. He took a few steps till he remembered the Isur’s tone of voice. The man had almost sounded pleading, like he didn’t want Darik to go rish his life. A man like that could maybe be taken advantage of. So he had to turn around and retrace his steps. The intention of the dock must have been a warning system so the sailors couldn’t get snuck up on, because the noise of the wood rubbing against each other was loud. And the battle probably didn’t block out the noise, if the Isur had been attracted by the noise of the wood, who else had notcied? Too many thoughts for his actions was starting to hurt Darik’s head. It seemed like if you thought realistically you would almost never end up making any money, because realistically your chances are slim. But Darik didn’t want to fall in that pessimistic pit, so he just focused on his foot work instead. He stopped when he was close enough to the Isur that he could whisper. There was still a chance that he hadn’t been detected by the sailors, so he wasn’t going to ruin it by loud conversation. He decided to harass the Isur for his previous comments. No one makes fun of Darik without a lecture! “I am a boy? I am taller than you by like a head look.” He held out his hand to the top of his head and moved it in a straight line. It cleared the top of the Isur’s head with lots of room to spare. “Secondly you aren’t my mom or dad. Thirdly, or is it Fourthly, I can escape easily. I can ahh” Darik said as he tried to rack his brain for a good answer. “I can swim. Ya, I can swim away. I am one of the faster swimmers in all of Sunberth.” he said starting to expand the lie. He had never swam before but it couldn’t be too hard. Darik had people swim before and all they did was flail there arms in legs. And those people ended up drowning. Hmm… maybe that’s not how you swim? Darik then looked at his hand. Maybe in a pinch this tattoo could help him float. Sadly, it didn’t feel very attracted to the water. It felt more whimsical, like the flowing of the breeze. Then again an air man did give it to him, so it had to do something with the air. The air man did look mad when he gave it to him, and that’s why the colors didn’t look pretty at all. What does grey and yellow swirled together form? Puke.

[Tarelde]

Tarelde raised an eyebrow and though Does he think I care? Ah well, the hard way it is Tarelde rolled gracefully in between the Axe and the Nuit, owing to her quicker reflexes and his slow ones. "Going Somewhere?" she said, she then brought her short longsword to a Långa Svärd Makt Strejk stance and then threw several quick, powerful strikes at the Nuit and then dropped back into a guard stance in case the Nuit had a weapon. During this the Human had come maybe a bit close and had possibly caught the sword pommel in the head. In addition after dropping back she managed to kick the Axe farther from the Nuit she was fighting. oocI apologize that this is a bit out of the posting order.

[Antar]

'Oh dear, the poor nuit was being pressed soundly by the warrior women.' She was definitely one to keep an eye on as well as the human thief.

He had to say the view was almost comical as he sat there and observed. If the nuit had any smarts it would run, using the cover of the docks. He personally held nothing against Nuits, but taking a look at the hulking Leviticus he thought he might make an exception in the giant killer's case. The one who looked blue and frozen and just wanting to get out of Sunberth was on a different level. Noth couldn't help but pity the poor wretch, trapped in a body for no reason then looking like he sucked on the wrong end of an icicle too long. Truly a shame the wretch hadn't been reincarnated already, and was instead locked in a body that was so hideously distorted.

Shame though, he thought the nuit if allowed to change bodies might become something horribly wretched to behold in the future, but Noth held out the bare hope the creature wasn't that type.

Looking around he spied the wiry advances of a sneaky thief slowly bridging the gap between a gambler he'd known from a bar and he wondered what the man's angle was. It seemed like the man was one to always want to be in the know; an altogether amusing... and useful trait, maybe one day they'd work a job together. Who knows- the gambler might make a good con man eventually. Noth would watch that one carefully as well.

But he was glad the thief had stopped, otherwise since the gambler was one he was keeping an eye on, noth might have had to put a feathered arrow in his back, but at least the thief was talking to a rather large fellow.

Maybe there was talent here enough to get a job done... the thieves and brutes warrior women and the tall guy especially. He leaned back and wondered a moment as he continued his observations, whom it might be best to approach first... all this fighting of each other was so downright... disappointing.