• Graded • He Ain't Heavy

[Darius Baer]

A continuation from The Road Is Long.

Arc 721, 103rd of Ashan

Leather boots thumped against the wooden planks of the dock as Darius jumped down from the gangplank, his thick fur coat flowing around him like a protective robe. One hand rested on the pommel of his sword as his dark grey eyes scanned the area and, though he didn't feel the cold, his breath escaped his lips in small, misty clouds.

It was the first time the bearded blond had set foot on the docks in Almund since he had encountered Faldrass and Saoire, and they had tasked him with helping establish a new settlement on the volcanic island that stared at the capital city from the other side of the Hollow Sea. It was for one of his settlers, Mai, that he had made the journey. The man's brother, Kerik, was a brewer who, it seemed, had made a business deal that had fallen through, and, as it turned out, the business contact was less than pleased. The brewer had disappeared, and Darius intended to track him down.

Another set of footsteps could be heard making their way down the gangplank and Darius turned to see Nael Devlin joining him. It was his information that had told them where to find Mai's brother; information that had yet to be tested. But the man had insisted that his contact had agreed to meet with him once they were in Almund.

Nael looked nervous, and well he might, given this was not his town. He knew the lanes and back alleys of Scalvoris Town, just as Darius did, but Almund was not a familiar city to either of them.

Joining the pair was Jarad Bathrild. The builder had been brought over from Hopetoun and though he was not martially skilled, he was larger than most people, and cut an imposing figure - especially when he was adorned in a large gambeson and armed with a pair of axes that were held in place by a belt. In truth, they were wood axes, which the man had used for chopping firewood, but the combination of the gambeson and his large frame made them look like fearsome weapons.

The last person to join the group was Mai. He was a rather unassuming man, who farmed the lands around Hopetoun, but it was his brother who was missing, and the group needed him to identify the man once they located him.

And so Darius, Nael, Jarad, and Mai - the brain, the ears, the muscle, and the eyes - stepped off the dock and made their way into Almund.

It was time to find Kerik.

[Darius Baer]

The group of four had not long left the dock when Darius caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye. It was a flash of black; a concealed face and the flutter of a headscarf as it caught in the wind. He turned to look just as it disappeared into a side alleyway, and as he turned to get a better look, he heard Nael's voice behind him.

"That's her," he whispered, and within moments the man was following the black material away from the main street, though he did so in a much less stealthy manner than that of his quarry.

Darius looked at Jarad and Mai, as if one of them might know what to do, but he only received shrugs, and so he had to improvise. The Scalvorian paused in the street for a few trills, before feigning a conversation with the other two men as if he had intended that to happen all along. He chose a benign topic - the price of wares he had seen being sold down by the docks - partly because it would not raise suspicion by passersby, and partly because he lacked the time to think of anything more interesting.

As he spoke, he occasionally took glances over his shoulder towards the alleyway, which appeared empty the first few times. But eventually, his gaze was met by Nael, who looked more confident than Darius could recall him ever being. The weaselly-eyed man had sent furtive glances in every direction since their encounter in Scalvoris Town and throughout their sea voyage. Seeing an air of confidence in his facial expression seemed to suggest that the man trusted his contact and felt safe in her presence.

Darius hoped the information would be as good as Nael's shift in mood.

"Wait here," he said to Jarad and Mai. "Keep talking."

The two men nodded. There was uncertainty in their eyes, but they resumed the discussion of how much vendors were gorging their prices as Darius, hand on the hilt of longsword, crossed the street and stepped into the alleyway.

[Darius Baer]

The first pair of eyes that Darius saw when he entered the alleyway did not belong to Nael. An almond-shaped, grey-green gaze fell upon him, their eye colour contrasting against olive skin and beneath dark, shaped eyebrows that matched the woman's red-brown hair, with a single braid resting over her shoulder. None of her other features were distinguishable, for a black head scarf was pulled up around her nose and mouth.

When she spoke, her voice had a hint of an accent that Darius couldn't quite place.

"You are Darius Baer?" she asked, her eyes narrowing as if to ascertain his forthcoming truthfulness.

Darius initially wasn't sure how to respond to the exotic stranger, but after a brief pause, he slowly nodded.

"So Nael was speaking the truth, then," she said, glancing ever so briefly over her shoulder.

Darius followed her gaze, and for the first time took in their surroundings. The alleyway was narrow and covered in shade from the surrounding buildings. It only carried on a dozen or so feet behind the figure before taking a sharp turn to the right, and it was from that corner that Nael appeared, as if the woman mentioning his name had summoned him. His confident gaze remained, but he was once again lurking in the shadows, just as Darius had come to expect of him.

"You seek Kerik, the merchant?" the shrouded woman asked.

Again, Darius paused briefly before responding with a nod.

"He has a brewery a couple of streets away from Mad O'Rourke's," she continued, her lilting accent hanging from every word, "but you won't find him there. He is hiding."

"From who?"

Mai had told Darius that his brother was in some kind of trouble, but neither of them had much in the way of details.

"I do not know his name," came the reply. "But if you have come to help Kerik..."

The woman's voice faded into silence and she said nothing else for a few moments, eyes narrowing, as if assessing whether or not she could trust Darius with her information. She hadn't provided enough to enable Darius to find Kerik, and they both knew it. The Scalvorian contemplated her motives, and wondered what it might take to persuade her to part with the remaining information. Was it nels? That seemed unlikely...if someone was after Kerik, and she knew where he was, she could have sold that information to them. So the man's wellbeing seemed to be relevant to her. Something else had to be presented as a bargaining chip.

"Wait here," Darius finally spoke, and he stepped out of the alleyway and back into the street.

A few moments later, he returned with Jarad and Mai in tow.

"This is Kerik's brother," he spoke quietly, pointing to the shorter of the pair. "It was he who asked me to help find Kerik."

The woman's eyes visibly widened at the sight of Mai.

"There is a likeness," she said as she looked at the man, the tone of her voice betraying a hint of a surprise before she offered a curt nod. "I will take you to him, but you must cover your face."

Darius furrowed his brow in confusion, but Mai nodded, and pulled his hood up.

And with that, the woman turned away, the flash of black material stepping further into the alleyway and around the corner, and Darius, Nael, and the Hopetounians wasted no time in following her.

[Darius Baer]

The quintet made their way through a series of alleyways. They spread themselves out a bit, so as to not draw too much attention to themselves, with the scarfed woman leading the way. Behind her followed Darius and Nael, while Jarad and Mai walked together at the back. For his part, Darius tried to remain calm, acting as if he knew where he was going, as opposed to following a virtual stranger at a distance.

"You're sure we can trust her?" he asked Nael under his breath as they walked.

"I'm sure," Nael replied just as quietly, and there was a firmness to his tone that his childhood friend was not used to hearing.

"You know I can't pay you if I get killed," Darius quipped, with a grin teasing at the edges of his mouth.

Nael chuckled aloud at that, and it not only helped to ease the tension between the pair, but also propagated the impression that the two men were in Almund doing any reason other than seeking out a man who was in hiding.

After a walk of a ten or so bits, the group followed the woman into what appeared to be another blind alley. Two large buildings lined either side of the walkway, and a wooden fence blocked the far end. Darius' pace faltered as his eyes scanned the dead end, one hand instinctively resting on the pommel of his longsword, lest he need to draw the blade. If the scarfed woman saw his caution, she paid it no heed, instead casting a glance over the Scalvorian's shoulder and into the street beyond, before turning to face the fence and pulling at it.

To Darius' surprise, the wood shifted, and a pair of boards swung to the side. The woman waved the group through, and they all complied, though it was Jarad who struggled most to fit through the gap. Wooden planks creaked as he tried to force his way through, cursing all the while, only to be hushed by the rest of the group. But after receiving some assistance, with Darius and Mai pulling him, and their scarfed guide pushing from behind, they were all soon standing on the other side and the fence boards were being pushed back into place.

Darius turned to take in their new surroundings, and discovered that they were standing in the small, messy backyard behind a dilapidated house that had been built out of the hull of a ship. Based on its size, the mariner guessed that it had once been a sloop, but it had clearly seen better trials, as it now had boarded up windows and a portion of the roof was missing at one end.

"This is the place," their guide said. "We go in."

[Doran]

Darius:

Knowledge:
Skill Knowledge:
Etiquette: Even alleyways and those who dwell in them follow a code.
Leadership: Make sure everybody knows what they should be doing.
Psychology: Gauging the motives of another person.
Socialisation: Finding the right bargaining chip to persuade the other party.
Stealth: Acting like those around you will help you to blend in, even in plain sight.
Tactics: Assemble the right crew for the job.

Non-Skill Knowledge:
Almund: Location
Almund: Layout
Location: Mad O'Rourke's

Loot: -
Lost: -
Wealth: -
Injuries: -
Renown: -
Magic XP: -
Skill Review: Appropriate to level.
Points: 10

- - -

Comments: I like that you introduced us to the people that came with Darius at the beginning of the thread. This made it feel like some sort of great adventure to me. I’m a bit surprised to find out that Mai is a man. When I reviewed the first thread, I thought that he was a woman since his gender was never mentioned!

And I thought that Nael’s contact was a man for some reason which amuses me in hindsight. The scene where Darius followed her was quite exciting to read, and the subsequent conversation deepened the mystery. I wanted to know what exactly was going on with Mai’s brother!

I like that you ended this thread with a bit of a cliffhanger. When Darius and his companions arrived at the house that had been a sloop once upon a time (I like that!) and prepared to go in, I decided to claim the third thread as well because I wanted to know what happens next.

Anyway, enjoy your rewards!

P.S.: I would have added “Detection” to the list of skills used as Darius noticed a flash of black at the beginning of the second post, for example.