• Solo • Hardcore Wagoneering (Graded)

[Gangui]

Rule 1: Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.

An abandoned shack in the Etzori countryside.
Evening time. Mid-Ymiden

Duck. Dodge. Counter haymaker. Bing. Conscious still, but everything was dark and nearly impossible to see.

Blood trickled from a thick brow. Wild jab. A deep breath. A grab and a throw and a tumble. A dagger. Hands clamps on wrists. Struggling. Sweat dripping from the tip of a nose. A hand grasps frantically -- Nothing.

Gangui’s face. A primal yell and push from deep within. Nothing. Nails dig into flesh. A low rumbling grunt. Steel skitters across the dirt. The match of strength fails. A fist grabs at a beautiful moustache. Rip. A scream. Blood. Anger. Fingers grasp more facial whiskers again. Rip. Gurgling laughter.

Grasping hand finally grabs steel. The point pokes through fleshy neck. Anguish in the man’s eyes. The steel sinks. Dead.

A pause… Then.... Gangui pushes the corpse off of his body.

He was exhausted, almost too tired to move. His upper lip was profusely leaking blood and his fingers alone could not stop it. He could feel the swelling already occurring and chunks of flesh missing.

No more time to waste. Rolling over on his stomach, the warrior tried to spot something for his wound inside of the tiny hovel he was in. Crawling over the remnants of his glorious mustache, he found a discarded dishtowel to compress his open wound with. When bleeding began to stop, he could finally try to relax and get his wind back.

He tried to curse Al’Angyryl and their cheap assassins, but found that he couldn’t speak from the injuries suffered. He felt extremely destitute now; no moustache and no more voice.

Eventually, he was able to regain his feet and stumble towards the door. There was a turnicite tied around his face like a mask to keep the wound from bleeding. Thankfully, there was no one outside for him to deal with. Dragging his ass towards a fallen horse, he dropped to his knees with grunting effort. Quickly, he retrieved the saddle bag from the dead animal and his bastard sword.

He had to move and move now.

More Al’ Angyryl bastards would be coming soon and he knew they wouldn’t be satisfied with sacrificing their lives just for the Turkey’s mustache. As the warrior trudged away from the scene, he imagined Cuckoo in his mind: a maniacal megalomaniac with bile encrusted red eyes, dark rotten feathers, and a dreadful smell. This infuriated him. The fact that Cuckoo wanted him dead was not something he worried about, but the fact he was sending bird-shit-for-brains-low-life-minions to dispatch him on the high road was what actually got him angry. Only tyrants had scores of stupid minions to fight their battles.

Cuckoo's scumbagery indeed was an annoying thought, but it was time for Gangui to punch back. It was time to go fuck with Al'Angryl and take revenge for the murder of his traveling retainers and the forced removal of his mustache.

===

One would not survive long in the Etzori free market, if they identified as victim to a bully.

[Gangui]

Rule 2: All that can go wrong, will go wrong.

One trial later.

Bloody rag still masked his face. Determined eyes stare down the tree line at Al’ Angyryl’s sleepy camp. No one moved. There weren’t many of them and they slept with no campfire for it was a hot Ymiden night. Still he wasn’t strong enough to kill them all alone, but he would be damned if he allowed himself to allow AA’s progress to go unimpeded.

As bold as a box of brass screws, Gangui crawled forward very slowly and silently in the grass. He had removed the noisy parts of his suit of armor earlier to keep the noise to an absolute minimum. Luckily for him, the Ymiden heat brought forth loud nights of a million buzzing insects humming in unison.

The warrior struggled as he inched forward silently with a large rock in his arm and a thick wooden branch on his back. His plan was a ludacris one, but if executed it would change the flow of everything towards the Sons of Justice’s favor.

Finally in place, he gingerly placed the large stone under the rear axle of their supply wagon and crouched in front of it. He held his breath and waited to see if anyone heard him, but they didn’t. Success.

Next, he slowly reached in his pocket and produced a wagon-wrench he had in his saddle bag. Putting it on the nut, he slowly started to unscrew the single thing that held on the wheel. It made a slight creaking noise as he did this. Of course stupid Cuckoo minions can’t grease their own equipment… Despite this, the undercover Turkey was able to remove the lug nut without waking up any of the AA men, nor their horses. Success.

He let out a deep breath now and paused in his prone position while he collected his strength. The next part would be difficult. Using the branch and rock he had dragged with him, he began to pry at the wagon’s axel in order to lift the cart up. All he needed was half an inch and he could remove the wheel. Using all his might he pushed down on the lever, but alas the wagon was too heavy and the branch broke loudly. Failure.

The Al' Angyryl men immediately began to shout.

Grabbing the lug nut, Gangui immediately began to sprint away and they began to chase him. Deep breathing and sweat began to drip after awhile in the Ymiden heat. It was very dark though and the forest covered him like tall stone walls. He hid behind a tree and waited. He moved again and waited some more. He sensed they were still about, but there was no chance they were going to find him. Jumping from tree to tree he finally escaped, chortling in his joy.

Despite failing at his goal, he had their lug nut and that meant their wheel wouldn't stay on the wagon.

Stupid minions. Tyranny and evil only created half brain dead monkeys, freedom and good created leaders. One Sons of Justice soldier was stronger, faster, and smarter than a score of AA men.

Gangui knew that things would go wrong. This was inevitable. Thus, he focused the intent of his willpower on a lofty goal: stealing their wheel. This goal was a complete failure, but he still successfully sabotaged AA: he had made a "return" on his "investment". The investment being his bold move and the return being he made out with a critical piece for AA to keep their wagon of stolen items moving.

===

One would not survive long in the Etzori free market, if they didn't understand how to balance out their actions in regard to rule number 2.

[Gangui]

Rule 3: Men are not Beast, nor Immortals.

Two and a half hours later.

The sun was finally shining and the Al' Angryl minions were stuttering around in the mire behind him. Everything was looking great as he marched towards the Southwood river. He felt a sense of euphoria, a lightness in his step. The trees sung harmonious praise in the breeze and the birds hailed the morning with chirps of reverberating melody. Life was good! With each passing moment that AA wallowed in the mud without their wagon-wheel, was an extra moment that Gangui could get ahead and defeat his enemies.

The realization of these thoughts coupled with the jubilant countryside, made Gangui erupt with laughter. Slowly and first, but eventually a deep-belly, whole-hearted laugh that shook the air around him.

All the pain was worth it! He thought to himself as he strode forward. It would all be worth it in the end... wait.... Something was wrong though. Things were not adding up. Perhaps it was shadow of a puffy white cloud covering the sun came over the land? Nay, that wasn't that, Gangui suddenly remembered! I need to find a horse as soon as possible!

For the past couple days he had been fighting valiantly with AA. That was normal... but...now for the past couple of hours since his escape (with the precious lug-nut in hand) he was simply walking and enjoying his victory! By now AA had already sent an outrider to find some new hardware.

Taking this into consideration and the fact Gangui was on foot, AA would have already gone back, repaired their wagon, and been half way to the shore line.

Hi-tailing out of his euphoric trance, he realized he had been wasting his time reveling in the victory of a mere tide of a battle that would continue on for many weeks, in a war that would consume his entire life. Despite him not acting expertly he didn't beat himself up though, he simply recognized and began to jog away.

Next stop, the Westride river, the highest volume area on the Free Market!

Suddenly, Gangui laughed out-loud, "Who am I kidding? The stupid minions are probably still debating about what happened last night!"

===

One would not survive long on the Free Market if they allowed themselves to fall into the trap of complacency. Nor would one survive long is they tried to be perfect all the time.

[Oberan]

Review Rewards

Yosemite Sam

Points awarded: 10

Knowledge:

Endurance: Rough Whiskers
Unarmed Combat: Death Grapples
Detection: Movements in the dark
Blades (Dirk): Killing blow
Blades (Dirk): Knife in Mouth
Stealth: Moving in the dark.

Magic: No magic exp

Other: - 1 glorious stache , +10 fame for killing Assassins Anonymous, + the assassins' scalps? Hands? Toes? Tongues? Pickled cocks? Idk what kind of war trophy you want there, Gangman?

Notes:
And the Gangui struggles on through his quest to destroy evil. Very nice thread giving good insight in Gangui's --ehm... let's call it unique, shall we-- unique thought process and view of the world.

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