Fantasy RPG Forum - Standing Trials

The expression "Cold Cycle" had yet to earn its title in the still scorching streets of Nashaki. Even with only a single sun in the sky, it's oppressive angle on this part of Idalos had citizens' tempers as short as their shadows. Eddrick Brodon was not a citizen, but there was enough variety of dress that the absence of his usual red leather Athartian Slave Raider armor was sufficient to render him as nondescript as any other non-wealthy individual.

He had not come for banditry this trial, however. He still sought clarification regarding his status as suspect in the murder of a Qi'Oran diplomat several arcs ago. It had happened in Athart, and had led directly to his desertion from the raiders. He had heard that he'd been reduced to simply being a "witness of interest". But he knew how easily this could be a misleading title, one used to lure him in with the suggestion of relaxed suspicion.

He was meeting someone halfway in a den of wagering; someone with ties to the council who would be able to alert him to his current standing on the charges. Naturally, he had the wit not to entirely trust the man. So he'd taken up a position of surveillance down and across the street. It came as no surprise that the man he was awaiting arrived with a half-dozen men-at-arms at the gambling pit.

Well, this certainly served to answer his question regarding Nashaki's assessment of his guilt. He did not wait to see if the official who was betraying him had the smarts to assume his target had been watching for just such a tactic, and to immediately search any and all businesses with a line of sight to the gambling pit. Eddrick immediately exited the alley he'd been loitering in and hurried down the road to slip into a tavern many city blocks away.

He had not even found a seat before a tap on his shoulder brought him face to face with a young dandy. The only thing missing from his air of wealth and entitlement, was the arrogant confidence. "Sir? I apologize for this request, and the unorthodox approach, but if you are not connected to one of the major families, do you think you could help me?"

Eddrick took a quick look around before adopting a pose and expression indicting that he was listening. The young man did not appear to get the hint, so Eddrick rolled his hand in the classic "...go on" manner. The fancy fellow took a deep breath and leaned forward, "I seek the hand of a girl from a family above mine. She loves me, but her father thinks she can do better."

Eddrick displayed no sympathy, knowing this was a typical family concern. He knew as well that this was just the lead in, as he encouraged the follow-up with a combination shrug and nod of the head. "If I may assume you do not take this as an insult, you look like a rough fellow, well acquainted with skills of street fighting. I would like you to threaten my girl, so that I might come to her rescue. I will pay you well."

Eddrick took only a moment to decide. But he played the part of being confused to make the young man feel the pinch of time. "You're going to pay me to let you give me a beating?" He would not be doing something like this for a single payment, there were better ways to be compensated for letting a merchant's son beat you up. His eyes narrowed slightly, "And you'll pay me well?...Very well, I'd say."

He saw the young fellow's eyes glance over his shoulder, and said quietly, "It needs to be seen, but not where I'm liable to be arrested. Go for a walk in a few bits." He then staggered back, adopting a slur with suddenly increased volume, "Yeah? well, y-you only talk to m-me like th-that because you'v-ve got all your..f-f-friends here!" Eddrick swung around, feigning a loss of balance and stumbling a few steps towards a woman that appeared in the direction the young merchant had been looking.

He straightened and let his eyes swim briefly as if he was having trouble focusing. Then gave an appreciative growl and whistle to signify that his focus had locked on her. He had plenty of lines to choose from, but this was a case calling for crude innuendo and outright degradation. "Imp's jewels, sweet thing! let me help you with those. They must be heavy." he leered, reaching for her breasts.

She naturally shied away in horror and disgust as Eddrick just missed a grope, snorting derisively, "Fine then! You probably cost more than you're really worth anyway. You good lookin' sluts all think you're the greatest lay in the world, and shouldn't have to work for it!" he slapped her ass as he stomped by. "But then, I suppose carryin' all that top weight's gotta give ya a back ache. Tell ya what, I'll give you a back rub, you give me a front rub."

Several of the men were now rising to their feet, as the girl ran to her lover's protective embrace. Eddrick snarled back at the room, "Gah...sit yer fancy asses back down; I'm leaving! Shit, even a pack of silk pansies like you have numbers on yer side." He tumbled out into the street, feigning shock at the bright sun, while actually listening for the sound of following retribution.

There was none, and now his snort of disdain was genuine. The thought that none of those merchantmen would come after him for his behavior struck him as cowardice. 'Didn't any of them even have any contracted men to take up such a task?' He shook his head and took up another vantage point to watch for the man and his prospective fiance to wander out into what would be his "ambush". As he waited, he wrote down the details of what he wanted in exchange for this impending painful embarrassment.

It was no more than half a break before they appeared, the young man looking around, probably for Eddrick. They began talking, laughter punctuating whatever subject matter the sons and daughters of rich men exchanged as they walked "their" streets. Eddrick felt a moment of indecision whether to go through with the facade, or maybe to actually beat the 'pretty' out of his smooth and handsome face.

They strolled into one of the many parks. Eddrick trailed them at some distance, the note crumpled into his left fist.

Eddrick approached the couple, the note secreted in his fist. he went over it one last time in his head:

A nel payment would be difficult to complete in front of your woman; or any other witnesses. I will instead take my payment in jobs that will benefit us both. Give me dates, times and locations of your competitors' caravan routes, when you can learn them, and I will see to it that they are plundered. If you agree to this, send a message to the Waterhole corral, with a message for Zaheed of The Hunter's Guild. The mistaken destination will confirm your agreement. Otherwise, I will take this beating as a lesson in one merchant's inability to see potential for profit at his competitor's expense.

He strode in front of the pair, seeming only to notice them when the woman gasped. He turned with a look of mere curiosity, which quickly turned to one of anger and malicious anticipation. "Well, well, well. Who do we have here? The same pretty bitch and her powdered pansy. I may have to take you both to bed to see which one of you pisses standing up." He turned to the woman, "But first we can see what you can do on your knees, shall we?" His leer was accompanied by a genuine reach to take her by the arm.

She screamed, and her beau slapped Eddrick's arm away, standing indignantly, "Now see here, sir! I held off on giving you the thrashing you deserve only because you were leaving. But you should have taken that opportunity to go home and sleep off this drunken binge. Now you're going to learn what happens to brutish louts that cannot behave themselves in cultured company." he removed his cloak as he spoke, setting aside other stylish accessories that clearly were not to be risked in fisticuffs.

Eddrick exploded in rough laughter, "You? You're going to teach me a lesson?" he fell back into a brawling pose, and looked around to see what scattered elements he might use to add legitimacy to what was going to essentially be a "thrown" fight.

The girl was having none of it however. "Kalid'hi! Don't fight him. Just call the guard! I don't want you to get hurt!" She turned to Eddrick, suddenly rifling through her purse, "Sir please, I will pay you. please leave us alone. Kalid'hi is only trying to defend my honor. He meant nothing with those words."

Eddrick sneered and slapped aside the woman's bag. "And what honor do you have, bitch? You go straight to your money to buy off mine." He thought about groping her a bit, just ensure his opponent's justification to swing on him. But opted to grab her roughly by the arms instead. He wanted this fellow's cooperation in a scheme, ultimately. If he went to such a disgraceful extreme, the youngster may just call the guard after all.

He was going to pull her close to threaten a kiss, but he could already hear the footsteps of the impending first swing. It would have been so easy to swing the girl into the path of her fiance's approaching fist, and he would have, had this been a genuine fight. But he reminded himself that he needed to lose. If he tricked the boy into slugging his own girlfriend right off the bat, the boy would be so shocked and demoralized it would be impossible to fake being outfought by him.

So Eddrick did the next best thing; he shoved the girl roughly ahead, seeing peripherally that she fell safely into some shrubs, and ducked the punch, letting himself lose his balance to avoid being in too good a position to slug the over-extended kid in the gut. He made the swing, nonetheless; crediting the kid silently for having the agility to fall back and avoid the contact.

The two men began to circle each other, Kalid'hi assuring his lover that he was not afraid to 'fight this brute' giving her decent sounding assurances that his formal training would more than make up for the size advantage that Eddrick held. The deserter knew that there was far more to effective brawling than formal training. It was odd that he was going to have to use these details to ensure that he lost, rather than won.

A couple of test jabs revealed that Klaid'hi tended to duck down to his right in response. It was what Eddrick predicted he would do, given that "formal training" would cause him to keep his left up for his approaches and follow-up combinations. Ducking to his right would ensure that his left was in a good position.

Eddrick let a snort of mild contempt slip out. He could so easily exploit the knowledge of his adversary's tendency, but would instead have to fail to capitalize on it. He did so with a near miss that Kalid'hi properly stepped around to tag his cheek with a jab of his own. "You're going to have to do better than that pretty boy!" he grunted, pulling back from the following right, but then stepping in again and over extending another miss to leave his ribcage open.

Kalid'hi took full advantage with a right that Eddrick exaggerated by doubling over. His instinct would have been to slam a back-handed elbow into his opponent's face. But instead he left himself open for the knee to his own face. He managed to rise with it sufficiently to avoid a broken nose. The split lip he received would be injury enough to lat Kalid'hi win "defender" points with his sweetheart.

He roared in "drunken" fury and fell to a wrestling clench with Kalid'hi, concentrating more on planting the crumpled note in an inside pocket of the kid's tunic, as he let himself appear to slip to open himself up to another pair of punches as he let the impacts send him tumbling to the tiles.

It was not as easy as he had assumed it would be to fake a fight. He had to be constantly finding objects to stumble over, to account for how often he was set-up for a blow that he'd be out of position to either block or absorb in order to throw an even worse one back at Kalid'hi. He'd had to remember to keep his curses and promises of a bloody victory slurred to maintain the helpful impression that he was drunk.

The real problem was that Kalid'hi was clearly getting tired. The buffoon had probably never been in a real fight in his life; or never had one go long enough to experience this before some family retainer came along to rescue him. Eddrick recalled a theater bout in a street play that had gone on for several bits. He'd shaken his head then and did so again now. But he had a new inspiration, and started gasping as well, "Get - - gettin'...tired? P - - - pretty...boy? Ya...give up?"

He hoped to make it sound as if he himself was no longer sure he could win, and wanted to call a face-saving draw. He added a staggering swoon to his balance for effect and was rewarded by the woman's own triumphant encouragement to Kalid'hi to "Finish him, my stallion! Teach the brute a lesson!"

Eddrick cast the woman a furious snarl, which he hoped she would figure to be born of desperate frustration, and then he charged Kalid'hi, as if he was putting everything he had left into this one last bull rush. For his part, Kalid'hi played it well, standing his ground long enough to absorb the charge standing up and bring a last solid knee into Eddrick's face.

Eddrick flailed back, nose legitimately streaming blood, arms wind-milling, to fall into a stack of crates. Kalid'hi now displayed some wit and stepped up to kick him in the ribs a couple times, as Eddrick rolled with them to tumble across the tiles, groaning and grimacing in only partially exaggerated pain. He finally backed himself, sliding on his butt, away from Kalid'hi, holding one hand up in a surrendering position, begging the youngster to stop.

A look of profound gratitude flashed across the kid's face, replaced immediately by a look of barely restrained fury as his woman ran across the courtyard to fall into his arms. Eddrick bowed his head in feigned shame as Kalid'hi promptly delivered a quick sermon on how "It is only the presence of my beautiful Chanutti that stays my hand from beating the rotten teeth from your foul mouth, dog! Go now, and never let my eyes be sullied again by your wretched visage, lest I give in to the extremes of justice to which your mean behavior tempts me."

Eddrick had to make an effort not to grin at the eloquence of Kalid'hi's empty words. But he nodded in quick agreement, wiping blood across sleeve and leggings alike as he slowly crawled to his feet and muttered something that he hoped would sound like an attempt to avoid the final indignity of an apology.

"Excuse me? I did not catch that. If that was a promise to curb your behavior I would have it voiced so that all might hear it!" Kalid'hi was clearly enjoying his 'victory'. Eddrick could not, in honesty, blame him, and he blurted in a spray of bloody spit that he was sorry that he'd acted that way; and even went so far as to give an angry verdict of having deserved worse, bowing to his betters' judgment. He kept his head lowered as he slunk away, his back receiving the laughter of several onlookers.

Now he would wait a few trials and see what turned up at the Waterhole. If nothing did, he would come back and carve his name into Kalid'hi's ass.