Completed [The Cobalt Mountains] Exotic Meat (Ball, Roderick, Aoren)

[Roderick]

As Don disregarded the Pycon's words, Roderick shifted his feet and felt his opinion of the man lowering further. A frown that was desperate to plaster itself across his face lingered just below the surface, while he felt a growing sense of irritation boiling up inside. Turning towards the hunter, their guide told him not to give away their position, calling him 'Green' again. The urge to frown and snap at Don began to become almost unbearable, but by clenching his teeth he managed to keep his tongue from wagging. A slight crunching sound below him made the archer turn his eyes down towards Ball, who seemed to be shedding little pieces of clay onto the ground as his body ground itself together. Descending from his mount the little clay figure marched up to Don and turned himself - at least Roderick presumed the Pycon was male - somewhat, so that he appeared to be looking up at the man. The thickness of what seemed to be some sort of accent, as well as his manner of speaking, made discerning the statuette's words more difficult than it would have been otherwise. Frowning for a few tics the hunter unraveled and pieced together all of the Pycon's growling, crunching words to gain an idea of how Ball was feeling at that moment. When he pointed up at Roderick and said something along the lines of, "Why not use him for bait?" the hunter frowned and bit back a retort. As Don turned about and started making his way into the woods, Roderick stalked after him, catching up to the man with long, quick strides.

[Aoren]

"Too many Captains. Not enough soldiers." He shook his head overhearing the protest being made by the clay Pycon. Aoren was still largely unfamiliar with the earthen race. Thus far he wasn't wholly impressed. That was neither here nor there however. They had a job to do.

"Even if you were "convinced" it would be a grand adventure." He rolled his eyes as more and more tension mounted up between their guide and the miniature squire. At least he thought he heard the clay man say he was a squire. Aoren had a great deal of respect for the Knighthood. The Syliran Knights kept them safe. Without their protection none of them would be afforded the opportunity to take adventurous outings like this in the first place. Every day would have been spent fending for life and limb rather than voluntarily going out on expeditions for...odd requests. He glanced over his shoulder at the Pycon.

"Master...Ball was it?" He blinked at the Pycon for a moment before continuing. "Whether you are a Squire or not has absolutely no relevance in this situation. Don..." He nodded to their guide. "...has been appointed by our current employer to guide us safely through this undertaking. As a Squire I should think you would be used to accepting orders you don't always agree with from superiors. Right now, Don is the man appointed to lead us. I'm certain Master Kale Belmont one of the most prestigious merchants in the city wouldn't place us under the direction of an idiot. Do you?" He arched an eyebrow at the little clay man.

There was an abundant lack of respect being thrown around in all directions. That much was obvious to Aoren. He kept his thoughts on that matter to himself though. There was no sense in adding to the already mounting frustration he could feel building up in the group. He shrugged his shoulders adjusting the quarterstaff draped over them to a more comfortable position.

"I suggest we all shut our traps, do as we're told and then maybe we'll all make it out of this adventure wiser, richer and most importantly alive." He turned his attention forward following their guide with a relatively impassive look on his face. He glanced over his shoulder as apparently there were still questions lingering in the air. He didn't comment on it any further though. It was as sound a plan as any. The Pycon was small. If he was noticed at all it would most likely be by a singular Yukman who simply couldn't override its own curiosity. Ball could easily be mistaken for a moving rock. At least to the Yukman. That alone rendered it safer for the Pycon to approach the simple yet dangerous creatures. If either himself, Green or Don attempted to attract the attention of a Yukman they were more likely to draw the entire horde.

Despite this he kept it to himself. He could see the wisdom in the plan. If the others didn't? Well it wasn't his place to try and motivate them into seeing the logic of it. He'd said his part. There was nothing more to do than tend to the task at hand.

All of that aside, he was looking forward to it.

[Radiant]

"Listen to Aoren, he knows what he's talking about." Don shrugged and shook his, both the pycon and the young man were so caught up in their emotions that even Don became slightly worried this trip would end up in a disaster. These two were not warriors, the Pycon may be a squire but with him going all angry like that, even flaunting the fact that he was a squire. "Look, Ser" Don raised an eyebrow, his voice dripping with sarcasm "I don't care even if you're Loren Dyres himself because frankly, Yukmen doesn't care, they will tear all of us apart if you and Green here both keep this all non-sense up. I am not entitled to see you both as my betters before you both prove yourselves in the field. Clear enough?"

He continued walking, sighing as he contemplated his words, sometimes he thought Mr. Belmont's eccentrity went too far, but well... he got the money so he got his way most of the time. "Look here, think, do any of us here..." The muscled man gestured to himself, Rod, and Aoren "...look small and stealthy enough to distract a single Yukman without attracting the rest of those petchers? They never travel alone." He paused, letting his words sink in into the Pycon. "You are the most qualified member to do this, Clay-man. I don't see why you see it as a bad thing." He shrugged, if all things went south, he couldn't guarantee their safety. They volunteered after all so they should know the risks.

.........

.....

...


The trip to the Sukina Geysers was rather uneventful, by the time they arrived, Don hoped the young man and Pycon squire had swallowed their pride. As they got nearer, the sound of bursting water could be heard in the distance, complete with the faint smell of rotten eggs due to the sulfur. "We are close..." Don brandished his bow and readied an arrow, if the rumors were true, the horde should be around the area.

"Yuk yuk yuk..."

Don put his hands up, signalling for the party to settle down and lay prone on the ground "Do you hear that?" All tone of sarcasm left his voice, it was all business and survival from now on.

"Yuk yuk yuk..."

The familiar chant was coming from some distances to their right. Don signaled for the party to move as stealthily as possible until they could see humanoid shapes clattering about in the distance "There they are..." He whispered, the Yukmen were doing nothing in particular, just clawing on the trees and wandering around.

"Alright... Green, take a good sniping spot on a tree or something... Aoren, you help me prepare the net... Clay-man..." He nodded "You can start, don't screw up." After the command was given, Don took out a folded sturdy net from his pack and went to splay them the ground, asking Aoren to assist him. The plan was when a Yukman approached, they would knock it out and quickly trap it within the net and then they would hightail it out of there. Roderick would be the one to keep watch in case there are more of those petchers flanking them.

[Ball]

Ball decided it was probably best to quit arguing, this man was either going to get them all killed or somehow they were all going to get out of this thing alive. Ball had taken the rest of the trip out to their foretold location as told and when the man gave him the command to go ahead and distract them Ball nodded and dropped from his mount. Motioning to it to sit and the dog did just that.

Leaving his supplies with the dog Ball had stepped out of their hiding place and into the wide open area, luckily he couldn’t give off their location by coming out from underneath the bushes and underbrush, he was much too small after all to disturb them. Once out there the squire looked about for the creatures making the ‘yuk yuk yuk’ sound and saw what appeared to be humans with various bits of rock and dirt coming from their body, not exactly children appropriate that’s for sure. He stood stockstill, waiting until he was pretty sure the others were in position, it took several minutes Ball was sure.

Seeing he was as small as he was, Ball had no issues staying still and going unnoticed as it was, he was a three inch figurine made of earthen material, if he just remained motionless they would most likely walk right past him, stepping over his small form as if he was a rock or something. Once he felt that the team was ready he would wave his little arms and try to gain a yukman’s attention, even if he had to smack one in the shin to do it.

Created goes to Euthisa

[Roderick]

The more Don spoke the more Roderick felt the urge to smash his face in with the nearest rock. Half of the trouble was the disparaging, dismissive way the mercenary spoke to him and the Pycon, treating them both as inexperienced idiots. While he didn't know of anything in particular that the small clay figure might have done, he imagined it had been involved in more than one dangerous situation in his life - just as Aoren and Roderick had been. To dismiss him as a naive recruit grated on his nerves. Pushing his anger down the hunter decided the best way to prove himself to the man wasn't trying to kill him - it was showing that he could do his part in this hunt, and that he could do it well. Without giving any kind of confirmation to Don Roderick promptly left him alone and went off in search of a good perch to wait around on. Finding one proved to be relatively easy, given there were places to choose from all over the area. Something of particular interest to him was a slight incline that lead up onto a rocky outcrop. It was made of several different layers of rock, and it would be difficult to reach from down below without walking around and up onto it, during which time Roderick would have a clear shot of everything around him. Carefully making his way upwards he reached the top and grabbed for the nearest ledge, pulling himself up onto it with a slight grunt, and then moving on to the second. Stopping when he was standing up above the ground he quickly surveyed the area and heard the sounds of the Yukmen - Yuk, yuk, yuk. The noise made the hairs on his head prickle in agitation. Finishing his climb quickly he hauled himself up on top of his chosen perch and pulled his bow free while he crouched down to the ground. There were a few shrubs and bushes that had sprouted up all over the place, providing a layer of cover which, while thin, would at the very least give some measure of camouflage for him. He slid an arrow free from his quiver and laid it out across his bow, edging closer to the edge of his position so he could get a better look at the group of Yukmen that were lingering nearby. For now they appeared to be wandering aimlessly in the area nearby, but as a small earthen shape began moving around below the hunter knew that the peace would soon be shattered. Hopefully the Pycon would only attract a single Yukman, rather than the entire horde.

[Aoren]

Aoren could tell that Don's dismissive attitude didn't sit well with the other members of the party but it wouldn't do to argue any further. When they finally arrived at the Sukina Geysers it was not hard to tell that there were Yukmen present. The telltale din of garbled grunts heralding the arrival of an earthmen horde was all around them. It sent shivers down Aoren's spine. The Yukmen were primitive but they were dangerous. There was no denying that.

As they came upon the main group of Yukmen, Aoren swallowed the slight lump in his throat that formed at the sight of them. There were those that were just standing around marveling at the geysers. There were Yukmen wandering around aimlessly. There were even Yukmen gnashing their teeth and brawling with each other. Needless to say it was a beautiful mess. There had to be dozens of them. Aoren estimated that the number had to be near fifty or above. Given that he wasn't prone to assessing large groups of predators that may have been off but that was all he could see.

Net? Oh great. That was not something that was in Aoren's repertoire of skills. He would certainly do his very best though. Stepping up to the side of the hired henchman he planted the butt of his staff into the ground resting it against a nearby tree.

"So what exactly are you planning to do should the Pycon not succeed in attracting only one of the Yukmen?" He hated to think about fighting the entirety of the horde. While it didn't seem that there were a massive amount of them it was certainly more than just the four of them would be able to handle by themselves. There was something to be said about nervousness in the face of simplistic but savage creatures that would sooner rip your face off than poke you just simply out of curiosity.

"I'm not entirely sure if you noticed but this group isn't really equipped to take on an entire horde of Yukmen. If we're lucky we'd get killed quickly. If we're unlucky..." He shrugged his shoulders. He hated to rain on their parade but he wasn't willing to put all of his eggs in one basket. As sound a plan as making the Pycon-Squire be a distraction was it wasn't a surefire plan by a long shot. He cast a glance over to Green. The hunter. He was supposed to have the Pycon's back.

"I certainly hope he's a good shot."

Without much more fuss Aoren set to work on helping Don with the net. It would be quite an achievement to capture a living Yukman. The fact that the Yukman would be made into...dinner...aside there was a certain thrill in the hunt.

NoteMy thought are probably all over the place with this post. I apologize for the mess.

[Radiant]

They made their position and Clay-man was heading into the horde, most likely targeting a Yukman that strayed rather far from the rest. As the Pycon did his work and Green perched up high on a tree, Don regarded Aoren. What if the Pycon failed? They would high-tail it out of there of course. "If things go South, then we'll run as fast as we can, we are rather far away from those petchers and I imagine Clay-man would be seen as a mere lump of rock by those dumb petchers." Don answered simply, simple yet effective plan according to him.

"I know that, Aoren. Kale Belmont won't pay for a whole group of mercenaries just to get him a single Yukman, bad for business, y'know?" Don and his group were just the 'doers' and Mr.Belmont was the 'payer'. Naturally, payers determined how the doers should do things. "Like I said, we'll run, don't be so pessimistic, look here." Don took out a curious looking gray-colored stick. "This is called a smokestick, if we ignite this, it will create a whole blanket of smoke, confusing those petchers while we got the petch out of here. Dunno where Mr.Belmont got this. You will have the honor of burning it with your magic stuff, but we all hoping this wouldn't be used, yes?"

Meanwhile...

"Yuk yuk yuk!"

Ball was getting nearer to the horde, he targetted a lone Yukman, waving his arms to gain its attention. It didn't work and the Yukmen simply continued to mindlessly claw at a tree bark, then the Pycon kicked its shin. That got its attention and the Yukman stared curiously at the Pycon, it tried to grab it. If Ball moved away, it would keep chasing the Pycon.

As the Pycon moved back to lure it, another Yukman saw him and curiously walked after it as well. Two Yukmen were chasing the Pycon now, the rest of the horde unaware. If it had been the humans who did the luring, the whole horde would rain down on them.

"Tch... two? We only need one." Don grumbled and looked upwards to Roderick. He gestured 'need one, kill other one, quietly' with his hands. Hopefully, the archer was smart enough to understand, Divines be damned if they failed today, Kale Belmont would complain endlessly to him.

[Ball]

As the Yukman tried to swipe down at the squire, the pycon hopped over the claw and stumble backwards before hauling himself off the ground and in a scrambling hustle went at first in the wrong direction, gaining the attention of the second yukman before he came to a stop and turned around on one leg and started to hustle back the other direction, right towards the rest of the group.

It was Roderick’s job to take out the unnecessary target, but Ball knew he was probably going to have to resort in kicking out something’s shin before that happened. It appeared this brain-dead creatures were simple-minded and simple-minded creature required specially simple methods to handle.

Unfortunately, Ball never does things ‘simple’ even more the most simple minded. Slipping into the coverage of the underbrush he disappeared from sight for but a second, his three inch form coming to a standstill as the first one went barrelling past him. The second yukman’s form loomed over Ball and that is when Ball took action. Bringing a balled up first of clay into a compact form he threw the first punch at the ankle bone closest to him.

A successful attack would result in a most likely angry yukman, but his attention would be diverted and therefore the others could capture, in whatever fashion they had planned, then come to Ball’s aid. A successful attack also meant he would probably alert the other yukman, unless Roderick got his shot off in time before it could rise any alarm to the rest of the horde.

Unsuccessful attack, well... Ball didn't want to think about that.

Created goes to Euthisa

[Roderick]

The Pycon moved forwards, soon standing before a Yukman that was ten times bigger than him. Down below Don and Aoren had started up some form of conversation with one another - hopefully something relevant to the current situation. Roderick's fingers opened and closed on the string of his weapon, his heart slowing as he calmed his breathing and let the events before him play themselves out. Ball's movements down below were only vaguely careful; considering he barely reached up to anyone's knees, he was an utterly inconspicuous sight - a barely visible brown shape that moved. It seemed the small figure was trying to get the attention of the Yukman, but he was failing miserably; the monster simply stood by and ripped away at a nearby tree trunk, stopping only when the Pycon made some sort of physical contact with it. At that point the mindless creature turned around and stared down at the little thing before it, bending over in an attempt to seize hold of the Pycon. There was some movement from the slight figurine, and then it was safely away from its far larger opponent, which promptly began following him. A second Yukman took notice of the retreating Pycon and began to follow after the first. Turning towards Don for instruction, he saw the mercenary gesturing with his hands; a single finger raised, vanishing into a clenched fist to show they would seize it; with the other hand he held up one finger and then drew it across his throat. One dead, one alive. Turning his attention back to ball the hunter saw the little figure making a swift retreat from the two Yukmen. Vanishing for a few tics he reappeared, one of the monsters swiftly looming over him while the other went bumbling off back in the rough direction of the horde. Setting his fingers more strongly to his string, the archer rose to his full height and spread his feet evenly, exhaling and clearing his mind before breathing in deeply and drawing the string straight back to his cheek. For a moment he held it there as he eyed his target, lined up at the end of the shaft. Letting his aim waver slightly he unclasped his fingers from the string and felt the familiar thrum of his bow launching the arrow off through the air. Whizzing off without pause, Roderick watched as his chosen target crumpled to the floor like a sack of potatoes, an arrow firmly lodged through its brain. The urge to celebrate arose, but he pushed it away and instead raised a brow at Don, then knelt once more and knocked another arrow as he returned his attention to the main horde. Now was the time for Aoren and Don to react; they would capture the Yukman and the group would withdraw from the area before the main horde was alerted to their presence. If things went poorly they would have trouble dealing with the main force of the monsters; Roderick had forty arrows with him, enough to kill off a fair number of the things - if he could just avoid being ripped apart by them. Had there been a few other men with them the threat of being killed would have been far less prevalent. As it was the archer knew that he would likely only have a chime or two at most before he would have to turn and flee. He decided that, if things went badly, he would buy the others a little time to run by killing a few of the Yukmen - but he'd make sure he got away himself. He felt the need to aid them out of a mutual understanding - they were all working together, and the trust they placed in one another was built on each of them doing their part out of interest of successfully completing the job. Despite that they were strangers to him, and he wouldn't die for them.

[Aoren]

“He’s better than a good shot. That was dead on.” Aoren managed a half-smile at his morbid joke. Such was his habit. Never truly filled with mirth but certainly humorous enough to enjoy the irony of entertainment. He picked up the net that Don and he had worked on getting into position. He cast the mercenary a steady glance. They would only get one shot at this before the entire horde was alerted to their presence.

The problem that would arise, and Aoren knew this, was that the moment that they seized the singular Yukman he certainly wouldn’t go quietly. The moment that the net fell down on him he would flail, he would yell, he would writhe about trying to get free. Their cover would be blown at that point which only meant that they needed to knock the yukman out nearly as soon as they captured it. As soon as that was done they would have to high-tail it out of there because there was no way all that rukus would not be noticed by the rest of them. Their dimwitted curiosity would compel others to come in search of the source and before long two or three yukmen would turn into the entire horde.

The rustling of bushes and leaves alerted Aoren to the arrival of their miniature companion, the squire called Ball. Aoren just barely managed to make out the little Pycon as he darted through the underbrush. He really did look like just a lump of rock scurrying about on the ground. If Aoren had not been paying attention he would have just assumed it was a large rock rolling through the dirt and grass. But where the little Pycon was so too was the yukman that had been following it.

“Yuk! Yuk Yuk!” The grumblings and gurglings of the pursuing yukman reached Aoren’s ears before the earth-man did. The wild creature burst through the bushes stomping on the ground in a fashion that was similar to a child throwing a temper tantrum. That was when it dawned on the yukman that instead of a strange scuttling rock it was now faced with two grown adult humans. There was a look of curious confusion on the yukman’s face as it paused in its heated tantrum to stare at Don and Aoren. The young Drykas swallowed hard then nodded to Kale Belmont’s henchman.

The moment that Don gave the signal Aoren threw the net forward. It soared through the air with as much speed as Aoren could give it landing atop the confused yukman who immediately began to flail and growl getting louder and louder as it grew more and more frustrated with that net that had ensnared it. Kneeling down Aoren grabbed his quarterstaff then rushed forward to where the yukman was wrestling with the net. It was only entangling itself more and more. Without a moment’s hesitation the young Drykas gripped the shaft of his quarterstaff on the opposite ends with both hands. He twirled it with both hands before angling it slightly to connect with the side of the yukman’s head in a very forced blunt smack to the side of its face.

The yukman seemed to be taken aback at being struck so bluntly in the face. It lessened its warbling to stare at Aoren before howling in rage. Aoren wasted no time in connecting the toe of his boot with the side of the creature’s face as hard as could. The angry howl ceased. Aoren’s heart was pounding. He looked from Don, to Green, to the little Pycon. The yukman was unconscious. For how long? Aoren had no idea about how strong the constitution of a yukman was. The more important question though was whether or not the rest of the horde had been attracted by this singular yukman’s outcry. The young man turned his gaze toward the Sukina Geysers with only a single question on his mind.

“What next?”