In the den of the shrieking ship of Shriekpot...
Scott, standing up from his chair regally and brandishing his harpoon, sneers at Sigmund.
"Fine, hopefully my harpoon can find a chink in whatever armor some guards of a bookshop may have."
Sigmund sees that he might need to relate that plan of his now, so that there's no misunderstandings on who gets to be a brave headhunter and who gets to be the distraction.
"Well, the place we are going to raid has two armored guards. One of them is a six-armed blue freak. They live in a building just opposite the shop, so we can't avoid them. What we are going to do is to divide them, and take them out one by one. The guards have a grudge against another bookseller called Wallyn. Unfortunately for them, he is a fire mage and has already killed one of the guards before. One of us is going to ask one of the guards to take us to the bookseller because we need to warn him of something important. Meanwhile, the other two of us break the door of the store, which will cause the remaining guard to get out of the building to see what is happening. We take him out, then. Whoever is warning the bookseller then makes him get to the store, along with the guard. Then we three take them out."
"So, who wants to do what? Scott, obviously, will be the thief, as nobody knows him. But either me or Kevin can be the ones to inform the Bookseller of the supposed dangers they will face. We can change weapons if we need to do so. I think that Kevin's crossbow would fit your job more, in case you need to take the bookseller as a hostage."
Kevin, however, has a question.
"Eh, which bookkeeper are you talking about? Your wording isn't the best..."
Insolent jester! How dare he question Sigmund's impeccable wording! Isn't it enough that he himself knows what he's talking about?
"We want to rob Brenwicke and his guards. It would be very dangerous to even try to fight Wallyn, as he is a fire mage. Speaking of which, I borrowed this little device from Morton," Sigmund explains, showing the magical lighter to his fellows. "It can ignite a fire anywhere, so to cover our operations, maybe we will need to set fire to the store after picking everything we need from the shop."
"So, we lead one guard to Wallyn, break into Brenwicke's store, fight the guard at Brenwicke's, then Scott comes back with the other one and we fight him?"
Sigmund realizes that perhaps he needs to use more straightforward wording so that the more special teammates can understand.
"It would be better if we don't get Wallyn involved, we are just going to blame him. The idea is to have someone, who I think will be me, go and tell one of the guards to take me to Brenwicke, so that I can warn him. Meanwhile, Scott breaks into the store, causing the other guard to get out of the building to go and defend it. Then, while he is fighting Scott, you attack him from behind. I will buy some time and then lead both the guard and Brenwicke back, so that you can use the guard's armor and weapons against the last one. Once we have killed everyone, we loot the store and set everything, including the bodies in fire."
He sighs, hoping that he won't need to repeat this more slowly.
"Is it clearer this way? Anyway, I think that you will need this to take down the guards," he says, giving his guisarme and hooded cloak to Kevin. "Use the hood so that they don't recognize you, in case everything goes wrong. The weapon, as you can notice, has a nice hook you can use, I think, to down people."
"Cool. Alright then. Let's hope Brenwicke doesn't live in his store," Kevin says, handing his crossbow to Scott. "I think this is for you, then? I'd like to have it back after this, though."
Sigmund also turns to Scott, posing a question.
"So, you have a harpoon, right? Are there more in this ship? Because you need a weapon to fight hand to hand, but I also need a weapon to help you."
"I've got four on me and another one's tied around the mast. And I'll need more than the one bolt, you know."
"Oh, right," Kevin says, handing over his 60-bolt quiver as well. They look just about ready to leave for whatever they wish to do, but Morton interjects.
"Er, uh, good Sir Sigmund, I don't mean to pry into your plan but what would prevent the guard one of you distracts from rushing off to go check out the break in of the bookstore? Would that not trump the showing of someone to his boss? I may be misinterpreting your plan however, I do admit."
Sigmund thinks about this.
Meanwhile, Niklas, believing that he might actually be some kind of chairbender, tries to take control of the chairs he can observe! All the chairs shall be his!
He concentrates upon all seven chairs in the room, and he hears a low-pitched whine as the bend, twist and dramatically detach themselves from the floor, then fly into him! They form crude arms and legs that join seamlessly with Niklas' central chair. Now he has arms and legs, yay! He's now... a chairman!
Erin looks a bit surprised by this turn of events, taking several steps back and turning to the others, who also turn their heads. Or their entire bodies, in Morton's case.
"Um, guys? I think something may've happened to the guy while he was out."
Niklas, though, can't really hear anything. Well, anything that he couldn't before he hadn't become a chairman.
"Awesome! Was that magic, dad? Are you a wizard now? You think Kruub could teach me how to do that?"
"Calm down, Torkel. I'm sure daddy would like to have a moment to... process what's happened to him, I guess? Wouldn't you, my love?"
All in all, things are looking up. He still can't hear other people, but he can walk and punch things now. Maybe he can even cook!
In a jail cell...
Mark, supposing that being limbless is terribly boring and that he could use a story to cheer him up, nods as well as he can, which he does by bending his spine to align his inarticulate tree head in a vaguely affirmative motion.
"Great! I'll be back in a minute. Gotta find a book. And a chair."
The sergeant leaves in a moment, leaving Mark alone with his thoughts.
On the outskirts of the City of the Dead...
Darren, rather than say anything or cough to attract attention to himself, looks for an escape route.
He comes to the conclusion that he most certainly isn't surrounded in any way and could leave at any time. That's nice. Meanwhile, the squabble continues. The decapitated woman head seems to get pretty angry at the shape.
"Get out of here already, Stephen. You're being pathetic."
The shape seems to have been pushed a little too hard by this remark, and suddenly snaps back.
"You know, I don't see how my habits of spending time are any of your business! Stay out of my business, dammit! I go where I please, and you can't stop me! What're you gonna do, anyway, glare at me?"
The head's face becomes rather grim, pausing a moment, and she looks at the man disapprovingly.
"Just leave, please. You stalking her isn't going to help. She's already afraid to leave the house, and I think she might be going stir crazy in there. And you being out here is only likely to unsettle her more. I mean, look at yourself."
"What, you want me to give up?"
"I want you to move on already. She has... in her own way."
"I can see that," Stephen says, turning... three? Yeah, three bright yellow eyes in a glare toward Darren. "It still hurts, you know."
The head also turns to Darren. "Wait, who is this? Haven't seen him around," she says to Stephen, then addressing Darren directly. "Uhm, hello? Who are you? You look like you belong here, but I don't recall seeing you in the outskirts. I'm sure I'd remember someone like you."
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Topic: Life Begins At Death - Epilogue: We Live And Live Again (Read 562223 times)