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[IamanElfCollaborator]

"Some of our travelling companions moving around inside. We're quite anxious to get a move on, given the Cult's presence in this area; moving in a wagon like this is all we could scrounge up."
Not entirely a lie. They WERE anxious, and they wanted to get a move on; the two were just not quite linked.

[Blade Master Model 42]

"That would appear to be a genuine royal seal." Burhardt's brow furrowed. Was it possible that he'd simply been unaware of this particular edict? "Not exactly cargo, no. The roads are dangerous, of course, so we have some guards with us." Burhardt said, stressing the plural ever so slightly. "Cocytus? Would you mind coming to the fore of the wagon for just a moment?" And maybe bright ideas here can be dissuaded from drawing a weapon.

[Praefectus Screptum]

Considering how badly Cocytus wanted to step forward and solve things with his own hands, Burhadt didn't need to repeat himself. The armored figure moved forward with the massive hammer on his hands.
"Oh, I am here, alright..."
Instead of standing still, he continued to move forward until he was towering over the stranger, with that cold aura only growing stronger by each second.
"NOW then...Do we have a PROBLEM here? I could swear I heard some funny nailhead tryin' to block our path. You know, the kind who loooves trouble and lyin', the kind that is better off under a hammer. That wouldn't be you now, would it?"

[Blade Master Model 42]

Burhardt chuckled nervously as he felt his blood turn to ice. This hadn't quite been what he'd envisioned. "Er, Cocytus, if you please, that's really quite enough. The man has proper documentation. Even bearing the royal sigil." He stressed the last two words, hoping to deescalate the situation.

[GodofGamingRWBY]

“I understand that, truly I do, but orders are orders lady” the guard continued with a shrug, folding the letter back up and slipping it back into his satchel,


“You and your companions have to follow the same rules everyone else had to. We can’t be giving special treatment to just-” he continued shortly after, only to pause when Burhardt began speaking.


“Wait… Did you just say-” He never got a chance to finish, as Cocytus stepped out of the wagon, walking up to the kid with his hammer raised, and while he wasn’t exactly towering over him, it was clear that if he didn’t have a horse, he’d barely be able to reach Cocytus’s shoulders. The result was the guard staring at Cocytus, all of his calm quickly having evaporated once in front of the man.


“...”


“Oh shit” was all the guard could say after a few seconds, before clearing his throat, doing his best to keep his horse from bolting from Cocytus,


“N-Not at all. In fact, I… Don’t think there ever was a problem to begin with. I’ll consider the inspection complete, er… Have a good day, stay safe!” he said quickly, somehow managing to keep his voice still for how clear he was panicking, before turning his horse around and flat out galloping back to the rest of the figures, and away from the man in armor that had just threatened to smash him into a bloody pulp.

… Looks like aggressive negotiations worked.

[Blade Master Model 42]

Burhardt stuck his head back into the wagon and addressed the royals. "That man was carrying paperwork bearing the royal sigil. I didn't have time to read it in full, but the sigil was accurate. Are either of you familiar with the procedure he mentioned at all? I certainly wasn't."

[SirAston]

"Call me pessimistic, but there's always the possibility of forgery, Burhardt. I've heard something about them using the name of the deceased king? That's good for getting you emotional. Maybe someone here is fluent in the language of formality and diplomacy, to decipher the order."

Then, Tanec dropped a heavy implication. He was always good at making his comrades anxious during tense moments, making them wary when there is a possibility to connect two distinct events together.

"Alternatively... What was his name again? Fersand...? I wonder if he carried a royal seal on his person..."
"Ah. Don't mind me, just rambling to myself. I have no evidence for anything..."

[Praefectus Screptum]

"Yeah, that's what I HEARD, nailhead. Now get movin'."
Cocytus waited for the guard to flee before his attention turned to Burhardt.
"There, how's that for diplomacy? Also I ain't buyin' that procedure he was talking about, the moment I heard him babblin' I knew something was off. Dunno where he got the royal sigil though, do we have people on the black market makin' those things now?"

[Blade Master Model 42]

"Loathe though I am to say it, I expect it is likely to be a forgery of some kind. I'd not heard of any such policy, and I expect I would have if it had come from the king..."

[ctsun]

Emilia titlted her head slightly in confusion. Apparently, those are real guards and they were waving around a real seal. Well, real enough to fool Mr. Burhadt anyway, which is real enough for her. She wished she had gotten a chance to take a better look at the thing. She'd seen her father handle enough royal orders to be able to recognize one on sight. Oh, well. It wasn't as though she'd ever paid much attention to court intrigues, anyway. Most boring things in the world, in her opinion.

More importantly, this meant that the trouble was over and they were free to go.

"Whether it's real or not, we don't have any proof either way. Besides, these sorts of things have a way of sorting themselves out eventually anyway, right?" Emilia points out before thrusting a fist into the air energetically. "So, c'mon, everyone! Shall we get going? Pernrith isn't going to come to us, y'know!"

[Chevaleresse]

Morgan watched the proceedings with a vague interest, eyes moving from the brutish armored man to his prospective victim and back. It was hard to tell what exactly the mage was thinking; it wasn't really unusual for Morgan to look slightly confused, which is all the more expression they wore at the moment.
"So they were sword inspectors?"

[ctsun]

Emilia turns to grin at Morgan.

"Yes, actually. Pity they weren't hammer inspectors or we may have been in trouble. But, nope, sword inspectors. They don't inspect hammers. Or scary armour people. Or magic glowing eyes. Just swords. Very narrow occupation.", came her answer, with a slight giggle.

[SirAston]

After the situation has been resolved somehow for now, Tanec looks at Morgan and Emilia, then towards Gunvald while pointing towards the former two. His voice had a bit of a jester's charm to it now.

"If I need to babysit twice as many people than planned, I expect to get paid twice as much, dowahahahaha!"

[GodofGamingRWBY]

As soon as Cocytus had scared off the guard, Eydis had actually smiled a little bit, while Gunvald remained indifferent to the ‘aggressive negotiation’ tactics that were being deployed. Still, they both had clearly heard the talk… Specifically about the ‘toll’ that was put into place by their own father. Sure, they weren’t entirely familiar with their father’s work half the time, but they knew enough to know that it wasn’t something he had ordered before his death.

But having a seal that Burhardt admitted was accurate? That was enough cause for suspicion.


“No, not at all. It doesn’t even sound like something the King would’ve done in the first place. It probably was just a forgarey. It certainly is odd though…” Gunvald replied after a bit of thinking, taking into account Tanec’s suggestion on a potential connection with Fersand. He couldn’t rule out a potential betrayal, but it was more likely that Fersand had gotten ambushed himself, and they had managed to take a seal for their own purposes. Regardless, when Tanec let out his comment about ‘babysitting more people than expected’, the Bastard Prince couldn’t help but smile a bit as he continued,


“I’ll send word back to Alovine once we find somewhere to hide, to inform them about the tolls, and let them send the appropriate forces to handle it. For now, Emilia is on the right track. The matter can be handled without us, for now we’ll continue to Pernrith. Volker, let's get moving-"

Just as the order went through, a sudden ball of fire shot into the sky, originating from the group of guards on the road. While it was not aimed at anyone in particular, the fireball was still rather large, creating a large flash once it reached its maximum range that would quite clearly be visible for miles. If that wasn’t enough, the group was clearly organizing themselves, with the guard that had gone to greet them situated in the back. While the signal could’ve stood for any number of messages, the movement of new figures getting into position across the river ahead said otherwise.

They were ready to stop them from passing through.


“That’s the cue. Come on!” Eydis shouted as soon as she saw the fireball, wasting no time as she jumped to her feet, already bounding out of the wagon to release her own mount from its personal wagon. By the time Gunvald had gotten to his own feet and to the back of the wagon, the wyvern was free, with his master already on and ready for combat, resting an imposing axe on her shoulder.


“Dammit Eydis…” Gunvald muttered while rubbing his eyes. They were supposed to be keeping a low profile, and she had literally just agreed to it. Just because they were potentially fighting bandits didn’t give her an excuse to let off some steam. But, complaining was the only thing he could do at this point, as it was too late to stop her. She had already gotten her wyvern out, and nothing was going to sway her from getting her battle in. At the very least… They could simply not recognize her.

… If only.

“I suppose I’ll get to moving the wagons. Be safe out there miss” Volker commented to Emilia as he went to work on moving the caravan back, if only to keep it out of the crossfire in the likely ensuing chaos.

~~TURN ONE~~
PLAYER PHASE

“Looks like the kid’s got himself some trouble. You three, go and see what the problem is.”

Reinforcements!
Two Cavaliers
One Thief

Spoiler: Map Info (click to show/hide)

Players:
Eydis (B6): 24/24 HP, Killer Axe (30/30), Vulnerary (3/3)
Gunvald (A6): 19/19 HP, Iron Sword (40/40), Heal (30/30), Mend (25/25), Vulnerary (3/3)
Fionn (A5): 20/20 HP, Iron Knife (40/40), Vulnerary (3/3)
Tanec (B8): 20/20 HP, Hatchet (40/40), Vulnerary (3/3)
Morgan (B4): 17/17 HP, Fire (40/40), Vulnerary (3/3)
Renee (B5): 18/18 HP, Slim Sword (40/40), Vulnerary (3/3)
Burhardt (C7): 18/18 HP, Worm (40/40), Vulnerary (3/3)
Emma (A7): 18/18 HP, Worm (40/40), Vulnerary (3/3)
Odette (A4): 20/20 HP, Flash (40/40), Vulnerary (3/3)
Cocytus (C6): 20/20 HP, Hatchet (40/40), Vulnerary (3/3)
Emilia (C5): 20/20 HP, Slim Lance (40/40), Vulnerary (3/3)
Flavius (B7): 17/17 HP, Heal (30/30), Vulnerary (3/3)



Enemies:
"Guard" (G6): 22/22 HP, Slim Lance (40/40), 500g
Soldier 1 (F5): 23/23 HP, Iron Lance (40/40)
Soldier 2 (F7): 23/23 HP, Iron Lance (40/40)
Soldier 3 (H10): 23/23 HP, Iron Lance (40/40)
Soldier 4 (K3): 23/23 HP, Iron Lance (40/40)
Mage 1 (F6): 18/18 HP, Fire (40/40)
Archer 1 (I9): 20/20 HP, Iron Bow (40/40)
Archer 2 (I11): 20/20 HP, Iron Bow (40/40)
Archer 3 (J4): 20/20 HP, Iron Bow (40/40)
Archer 4 (L4): 20/20 HP, Iron Bow (40/40)
Thief (K14): 19/19 HP, Iron Knife (40/40)
Cavalier 1 (L13): 21/21 HP, Iron Lance (40/40)
Cavalier 2 (L14): 21/21 HP, Iron Lance (40/40)
Bandit Leader (N13): 30/30 HP, Hatchet, Concoction (3/3), 1,000g

Battle information

[Praefectus Screptum]

"HAHAHAH! That's what I was waitin' for!"