Not too long after Kadri's arrival, perhaps a fullhand or two of minutes later, Mikal arrives. He immediately climbs back down and starts to help with the work of weaving the ropes between the columns, adding the deadwood, to block off and channel the route the lizards they expect after She sets can take. Once the central area is blocked, as best as possible, he helps grease the floor in front of the two open areas they plan to defend.
As he begins to work he nods to the others, offering a, "Sorry to be delayed", to the group, and a smile and nod to Kadri in recognition of her managing to get the loaded horses away.
"Someone should take Lisica and Talia back to the stable before it gets dark. Don't want them around to be a meal for any lizards." He adds.
Daxia with the Gang, Tashka and Linette in the Temple On The Border
When Mikal arrived, Daxia simply gave him a long, hard look that very clearly said they would have a talk later.
She assisted wherever her strength and height were an advantage, leaving the "butchering" of the Beasts to the Hunter, but helping to move the remains into the corridor.
However, when Mikal suggested taking the two horses back to the stables, she countered with another suggestion.
"Perhaps we could ask Lady Kay if Talia and Lisica would be welcome to keep her horse company for the night. It would certainly save time, and I doubt the Beasts would have an interest in climbing so high when they know their... prey awaits here."
He nods. "Anywhere safe is fine." He returns her look evenly, lip quirking upwards, but continues to work. Hopefully there will be time for a short rest before their company arrives.
[ooc - how many arrows did you two manage to come back with? was it specified? or do I get rambo arrows where I never really run out?]
Darian
She leaves the gathering of more deadwood to Cesare and Celi and returns to the temple below. With help from the others, the carcasses and viscera have been moved to the stairs and down them. The Hunter claimed as much of the blubber as she could, returning to the room where they will take their stand.
There follows in inspection of the windows then she turns to Dazi.
Daxia with the Gang, Tashka and Linette in the Temple On The Border
She looked around, brushing hair off her face with the inner, cleaner side of a forearm.
"Bekkah? Would you and Kadri mind working that out with Lady Kay?"
Then she looked at the spot where Darian proposed to build a fire, and bit her lower lip as she gauged how from the window she would need to stand to see the sky. Finally, she shook her head.
"Darian see open space at end?" She pointed down the long, narrow opening. "Very small..." She made a circle with her hands, thumbs and index fingers touching. "...very long. Line up four Darian, only last one have head out window, yes? Dazi need stand here," she said, indicating where Darian wanted to build the fire, "see Sisters in sky for spell tonight.
Daxia with the Gang, Tashka and Linette in the Temple On The Border
Noting the look on her sister's face, Dazi almost laughed, but grinned and shook her head instead.
"Bekkah, you always used to climb like a spider," she said while Darian was thinking. "Don't tell me you've forgotten all that! Just hike your skirts up like we used to do when we were young." She winked at her sister, and said in faux whisper, "I'll keep Dean from looking."
Turning back to Darian, she said, "Yah... Dazi, fire... same place." She considered the dilemma for a moment. "If fire out, ember move before lizard come... will work. Dazi call Dayala when we hear lizard come."
[OOC: I know not this Diablo of which you speak. Heresy! Foul wizard, speak not of such otherworldly demons!]
"Ember move, aye," she agreed. "Dazi no hot foot...unless want."
The last added with a small smile.
She set to setting up the fire and melting fat, adding the aromatic liquid to Mikal's greasing efforts. She also inspected the arrows brought back and found them decent.
Daxia with the Gang, Tashka and Linette in the Temple On The Border
Shaking her head vigorously at Darian's suggestion, she said with a smile, "No, no... Dazi not need hot feet. No dancing Dazi until Midwinter, ok?"
"I'll bet you still climb like a spider," Dazi then said to her sister, waving her off with a chuckle.
Next, she sought out Mikal.
"Kadri said your rumor-spreading caught the attention of your Guild leaders," her demeanor serious again. "Will that cause you any problems? More importantly -- right now -- will it cause us any problems?"
He shrugs. "Hard to say. The more I think about it the more I think I was being used. It would have been hard for Donner to have said anything else that would have ensured I'd do what we're planning than he did. It was almost like he wanted to make sure I didn't back out at the last minute."
He pauses. "Still. If he follows through on his threat, he has a lot of power. I might find myself pretty outcast from the support of my Guild, or at least any support here in Bordertown."
He looks at Daxia more directly, shrugging again. "Nothing to worry about. I have worked alone for years. If I have to keep doing it I will. It's not like I was looking to join his Troop or anything."
"As for us. That's the hard part. He has the power to come down here with a squad and stop us from doing what we're about, but I don't think he will. In fact I think he is depending on us doing it. Mohlkavin wanted to call a 'Thing' for the town, and I suspect they want to present this as a 'done deed' in order to force the rest to go along. Perhaps to take care of the problem in the forest they've had to deal with for years."
He shrugs one last time. "Not exactly sure why he couldn't have said that straight out, if it's true. Although this way he can blame it all on me, us actually, and say with a straight face he warned us not to do it. If it all goes sour we become the scapegoats and his hands are clean."
Last edited by Zeim; Tue 29/05/1222:05 UTC. Reason: spelling
"Of course, I can say that at least one who is in his troop has less brains between his ears than a head of cabbage has beneath its leaves. If that is the extent of his ability to judge people, then that man is going to get himself in severe trouble one day."
Daxia with the Gang, Tashka and Linette in the Temple On The Border
She listened closely, and was silent for a few moments after Mikal finished his report.
"Interesting," she said simply.
"The patterns of politics don't change much, no matter if Nobles or Guild leaders are involved, it seems."
Shrugging at Kadri's comment, she said, "It's not really a matter of bravery or intelligence, Kadri. Politics is mostly about appearance; occasionally about accomplishing something. Donner has to be seen dealing with someone of his Guild agitating about town, though I can't speak to the intelligence of the man you dealt with. Still, if he has any rank, he can't have been a complete idiot; stupid soldiers don't live long. Something you said or did must have given him a good enough excuse to let you be on your way, nyeh?"
Daxia sighed and crossed her arms. "I suppose it's possible that Molkavin has an inkling of what might be the reason for the Chaos Riders' existence in the Forest of Roth... assuming Verchovai Dandelion knows more tales of the Temple this once was, and for some reason I suspect she knows almost as much as we do," she said with a wry smile. "It's a fair bet she doesn't know about the Priestesses themselves, but she'd know there was once a Dayalan Temple here as surely as I did the moment we rode into Bordertown. Stories of what happened here..." She trailed off, looking down the corridor for a moment, jaw tight. She shook her head before looking back up at Mikal. "Well, they don't tell Initiates everything," she said softly. "For good reason... it would be impossible to get any of them to leave the Vale. Dayala knows I'd have thought twice about leaving if Gilly had bothered to tell me anything about Cragside!"
She paused again, chewing at her lower lip, then shook her head. "No, I don't think Donner will interfere either... at least, the majority of the Paths I can see leave him, his Swords, Molkavin and his Heavy Horse safely behind the walls of Bordertown tonight.
"Tomorrow?" She snorted. "There's far too much chaos to sort through tomorrow's possibilities, and we don't have the time for me to sit and let the chaos settle into order, as Lord Kisa likes to put it.
"Besides, it's best if we focus on tonight's problems before inviting tomorrow's, which will arrive soon enough."
She grinned slyly. "And why would you want to join Donner's Swords, anyway? You strike me as the sort to join Koromov's Wild Horde, Mikal."
While Derian built the fire with proper draft and spacing, Celi brought wood tirelessly, then provided additional utility when she proved expert at flensing tallow from the remains, optimizing the collection time. Her kukras were optimally designed for such tasks, and she had taken apart many of stormrunner's prey in their life together. She paid close attention to the Hunter's bow prep, lest she be given the task of prepping or retrieving arrows while she fought lizards.
As they finished the wood collection up top. Cesare thanks Celi for her help and watches over her climb back down, playing out the rope just in case. Before returning, figuring that he will get called if anything urgent occurs, he wants to spend a few minutes tidying up obvious signs of their work and presence here.
And whilst doing so, alerted by sounds from the well, he'll assist Kadri and Bekkah to climb back up.
"You going somewhere?"
He doesn't expect folk to be leaving now, time is drawing close and they still have much to do.
He shrugs. "No interest in joining the Swords. I am a cavalry type. Silly to walk everywhere if you can ride. So maybe Mohlkavin's if anything."
He tilts his head, musing for a moment. "The Horde is an interesting thought. Lots of freedom of movement there. Not pinned down to one town."
He smiles slightly. "But I haven't been a joiner for a while now. I have come to value the freedom being an independent provides, even if the pay is haphazard."
He looks closer at her. "But Donner does have the power to make my life miserable, and to close the resources of Bordertown to me, at least in practice if not in principle."
Daxia with the Gang, Tashka and Linette in the Temple On The Border
She regarded him, serious and practical.
"I know. And if he does, I don't have the resources to make up for the loss," Daxia said, not teasing him any longer. "It would be at least a double handful of years before I'd even consider something as ambitious as my own troop, and even then I'd be more likely to ask Dandy to take me into the Horde... though, to be honest, I have a feeling Lord Kisa has her own plans for the Paths I travel, Paths that may or may not coincide with Verchovai's Dandelion's Path.
"But that's why I suggested it for you. The Horde has its own resources, not beholden to the Jvrillian Guild. Though, right now, she'd probably tell you the same thing she told me... come back when you've learned a bit more." She blinked, blue eyes dark and unreadable.
"I'm not going to worry about tomorrow or next week or next season, certainly not while we've got all this going on," she said as she inclined her head back towards the Chapel.
"But Contract or no Contract, I'm grateful you're here now."
"Where else would I be?" He asks in a tone that combines honest surprise that anyone would consider he'd not be where his contract calls for him to be, and a gruff acknowledgement of the feeling behind Daxia's comment.
"To be honest, as I said, I'm not much of a joiner at the moment. But the one constant in life is that things change. It's possible I might find the need for a Troop one day. If so, I have a much different impression of the Horde than I had before meeting them."
He grins. "Though Barris may not want a 'fishwife' joining him."
Daxia with the Gang, Tashka and Linette in the Temple On The Border
"Mmmmm..." Daxia didn't quite smile, but her features relaxed from the Noblesque control this day was increasingly placing on her. "Where else you would be is a philosophical question best left for another time... perhaps over tankards of ale on Midwinters Night?
"And after a handful of sparring sessions like I had with Barris, he'll have the 'fishwife' beaten right out of you," she said, rubbing the shoulder of her swordarm at the memory.
Nodding in the direction of the Chapel, she said, "Let's discuss the best deployment of our troops. I'd also like to find out how Tashka and Linette can contribute. Bekkah's role is clear, and we can work Kadri's skills into the mix when they return." A brief look of concern crossed her features. "Kadri's skills are not close-in fighting, that much is certain."
"Hmm." He muses. "I might suggest this", he begins to point as he talks. "Let two swordsmen stand inside this room, at the edges, such that only a single lizard can enter the small 'L' shaped alcoves. You take the right one Dean will take the left."
"Then we will have Kadri, Darian, Cesare, and I with bow, crossbow, and throwing knives standing a few feet behind, 2 supporting each of the front line."
"I will stand in the middle, using my crossbow but prepared to drop it and step up to take your's or Dean's place if you should fall or to block the middle if the lizard manage to break past the blockade."
"Behind us will be Bekkah and Celi. They will be ready to step forward and drag any badly wounded back out of danger where Bekkah can heal them. Celi will be Bekkah's bodyguard and helper."
Last edited by Zeim; Fri 01/06/1215:23 UTC. Reason: was told I was being inadvertantly rude
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- but these things can often lead to interesting inter-reactions & so I like to play them in character. 
]
