Elendor
A life for a life
A deserter pays the price for his actions and meets Umbar's justice
Sort Date: no date set
Location: Lond Daer
IC Time: Evening
Description: Shattered Bazaar
High walls of pale, cracked marble rise on all sides of a great courtyard. Empty windows stand like ruined eyes, silent witnesses to whatever horrors pass under their watchful gaze. Footsteps sound hollow in this ruined plaza, echoing off the distant walls which circle this space. A few empty doorways stand here and there, but the main road alone breaks the cicle: once to the south, leading towards the quay... and once to the northeast, deeper into the ruins.
Bright is the day, and in the sun's light, reflected off the pale marble, all the terrible beauty of this place is lain bare to your gaze. A cool breeze whips through the circle, driven from the south and full of the smell of salt.
Obvious exits:
Northeast leads to Gateway Road.
Small Doorway leads to Empty Room.
South leads to Great Harbour Road.
[+TIME] Middle-earth time is:
Dusk on Trewsday, Day 2 of November.
Execute the +TIMEFRAME command for year information.
Real time is: 15:09:03 MDT on Mon May 03 2010.
Winter is almost here. A bitter wind whips through the wreckage of Lond Daer, and now that the shadows are lengthening and dusk is creeping close there is a distinct chill to the air. The frigid gusts that pass over the jagged edges of buildings and force their way through narrow window-slits give rise to an eerie moaning wail, almost as though the stones themselves were weeping.
Against such a background, the other sound is rather less discernable, and might pass unnoticed save to the sharp-eared - the clatter of pebble against pebble. And there in the maze of ruins, shadow shifts against shadow.
It is days now that the corsair Barjad has gone missing, with neither sight nor sign of him. Some blame the 'ghosts' others, more prosaic, have explanations of their own.
[Tasnim(#16424)] There are more sounds flitting upon the breeze, though they are louder and more discernable then the pebble against pebble. From the direction of the main road, a black-garbed girl appears, inching along the outer ruins that surround the ruined plaza. Her gaze is groundward, and she steps carefully. "It was around this area..if I remember correctly," Tasnim says over her shoulder, speaking to another. "A lot of it is a blur now, but..."
[Alimah(#24218)]
Following along with the girl is a Corsair, garbed and armed for war with a scimitar hanging from her side, scabbarded. She's the Captain of the Variyah for this voyage, and she grimaces, surveying the area briefly. "So he ran here...and then what?" Alimah prompts the girl. Her head, though, tilts to one side as she falls briefly silent to listen, blinking a few times.
The sound of the female voices echoes in the ruins, broken walls taking up and distorting the Haradaic speech. As Alimah's words end, there is .. utter silence. The shadow that seemed to move at the base of one free-standing arch whose graceful curve now stretches skyward in lonely solitude freezes.
For a moment, nothing. And then a seagull takes wing from that high arch with a harsh cry.
[Tasnim(#16424)] At this point the scribe halts, squiting around for a moment with a dark brow knitted in uncertainty. Then she gives a sound of recognition, and points a tan finger toward a pile of collapsed rubble. "There, he ran towards me again. I threw a stone, and it struck his hand." Tasnim shifts her gesturing to indicate a faint weather-faded trail that is now barely visible. "He bled even though he claimed to be a ghost...I don't know more, for he fled afterwards into the ruins."
The girl finishes, taking a breath. But her head turns at the gull's cry, and she pales. "Captain...?" But the question never comes from her dry throat.
[Alimah(#24218)]
"I don't believe in ghosts," Alimah says harshly. She strides to look at the rubble where Tasnim has pointed, looking up again at the sudden silence and the gull's cry. "Don't be a fool," she hisses at the girl, hand on the hilt of her scimitar to make sure the blade is loose in its scabbard. "Come on." She follows the trail.
The women's approach is watched. Should either of the pair look down, they would note that the spots of dried blood marking out the fugitive's path wind this way and that, and then abruptly stop - perhaps when a bandage was applied? Closer they come, and still the silence is unbroken. But then, as 'near' becomes 'too near', the nerve of the corsair known as Barjad suddenly snaps. A blot of shadow breaks from the shelter of the arch and starts to back away. Barjad stays crouched, using the cover of fallen blocks as best he may, and for a while it is hard to spot his brindled head. But then his foot catches between the bricks and he stumbles to one knee, out of the shadow and into the light. There is the sound of metal against metal as his rusty scimitar is drawn.
COMBAT - Wielded: Scimitar
[Tasnim(#16424)] Slightly reluctantly, the girl follows after the Corsair lady, staying quiet now as they step onward. She gives a few nervous glances around the encompassing debris but merely pulls her black clothes tighter about her. At the disturbance of ringing steel, Tasnim's dark eyes flicker up, and she freezes. This time there seems to be a cause for her gasp, and the girl stares forward. It seems she has not yet recognized the man for who he is.
[Alimah(#24218)]
The Corsair Captain does not need to recognize the man--all she requires is the sound of steel being drawn to unsheath her own blade. "Show yourself!" she demands, but at the same time, Alimah steps forward into the rubble and toward the man himself. She snorts in recognition. (re)
The dusk and the shadows make it hard to see facial expressions, but from the way Barjad's head jerks as his gaze shifts from the black-clad Tasnim and her Eye medallion to Alimah, there is surprise there. The scimitar is held before the man defensively as he regains his footing, but no attack is forthcoming. Rather, words in slow, nasal Haradaic. "What do you want?"
[Tasnim(#16424)] Unlike the others, Tasnim bears no blade, and she lingers beside the Haradrim captain. She takes no paces closer. Instead her fingers move down to fiddle with her beads but now she blinks -- while she might not have discerned his face through the dim light of dusk, there is the odd nasal voice..
"You." It comes out more as a hiss of breath, and a glare mixed with fear passes over the scribe's countenance.
[Alimah(#24218)]
"You, yes," Alimah echoes the girl. "You are a deserter," she hisses the word. "From my crew. And I have come to collect either you or what you owe me for deserting. Now--which will it be, you coward?"
The glare is not returned, rather Barjad gazes at the younger girl coolly, and when he speaks there is an undertone of pity to the nasal words. "Just a child ... your Eye sees not, here. There are other Gods ..." A long pause. "Ask her." His brindled head jerks toward Alimah.
For her, more words, almost wondering. "I did not think to see /you/." His voice, awkward or no, hardens. "I ..owe.. no thing. Weapon, clothes were taken from me, these I take back. If you wish them, take them." Challenge made, the scimitar angles up in a blocking move.
[Tasnim(#16424)] "Desertion?" the girl's regard shifts to give a brief sidelong glance to Alimah. "Is that all? He is the one who deceived me and led me away. He is the one who wanted my life for retribution, or so he claimed. The 'ghost' comes again." And Tasnim points anew, now straight forward for the man.
She frowns at his words. "...other gods?" The inguiry is meant more for the Corsair lady, despite how the scribe's stare remains fixed on Barjad and his weapon.
[Alimah(#24218)]
"Don't change the subject!" Alimah sneers to Barjad. "You came on this voyage voluntarily--you don't get to just walk away and desert the crew and Umbar and all that your tower stands for. Not without answering to your Tower Lord, or in her absence, my blade. And...what?" Turning her attention partially to Tasmin, Alimah squints. "He wanted your life? Deceived you and lured you how?" Though she talks to Tasmin, her scimitar is ever-present, threatening toward Barjad.
"
High walls of pale, cracked marble rise on all sides of a great courtyard. Empty windows stand like ruined eyes, silent witnesses to whatever horrors pass under their watchful gaze. Footsteps sound hollow in this ruined plaza, echoing off the distant walls which circle this space. A few empty doorways stand here and there, but the main road alone breaks the cicle: once to the south, leading towards the quay... and once to the northeast, deeper into the ruins.
Bright is the day, and in the sun's light, reflected off the pale marble, all the terrible beauty of this place is lain bare to your gaze. A cool breeze whips through the circle, driven from the south and full of the smell of salt.
Obvious exits:
Northeast leads to Gateway Road.
Small Doorway leads to Empty Room.
South leads to Great Harbour Road.
[+TIME] Middle-earth time is:
Dusk on Trewsday, Day 2 of November.
Execute the +TIMEFRAME command for year information.
Real time is: 15:09:03 MDT on Mon May 03 2010.
Winter is almost here. A bitter wind whips through the wreckage of Lond Daer, and now that the shadows are lengthening and dusk is creeping close there is a distinct chill to the air. The frigid gusts that pass over the jagged edges of buildings and force their way through narrow window-slits give rise to an eerie moaning wail, almost as though the stones themselves were weeping.
Against such a background, the other sound is rather less discernable, and might pass unnoticed save to the sharp-eared - the clatter of pebble against pebble. And there in the maze of ruins, shadow shifts against shadow.
It is days now that the corsair Barjad has gone missing, with neither sight nor sign of him. Some blame the 'ghosts' others, more prosaic, have explanations of their own.
[Tasnim(#16424)] There are more sounds flitting upon the breeze, though they are louder and more discernable then the pebble against pebble. From the direction of the main road, a black-garbed girl appears, inching along the outer ruins that surround the ruined plaza. Her gaze is groundward, and she steps carefully. "It was around this area..if I remember correctly," Tasnim says over her shoulder, speaking to another. "A lot of it is a blur now, but..."
[Alimah(#24218)]
Following along with the girl is a Corsair, garbed and armed for war with a scimitar hanging from her side, scabbarded. She's the Captain of the Variyah for this voyage, and she grimaces, surveying the area briefly. "So he ran here...and then what?" Alimah prompts the girl. Her head, though, tilts to one side as she falls briefly silent to listen, blinking a few times.
The sound of the female voices echoes in the ruins, broken walls taking up and distorting the Haradaic speech. As Alimah's words end, there is .. utter silence. The shadow that seemed to move at the base of one free-standing arch whose graceful curve now stretches skyward in lonely solitude freezes.
For a moment, nothing. And then a seagull takes wing from that high arch with a harsh cry.
[Tasnim(#16424)] At this point the scribe halts, squiting around for a moment with a dark brow knitted in uncertainty. Then she gives a sound of recognition, and points a tan finger toward a pile of collapsed rubble. "There, he ran towards me again. I threw a stone, and it struck his hand." Tasnim shifts her gesturing to indicate a faint weather-faded trail that is now barely visible. "He bled even though he claimed to be a ghost...I don't know more, for he fled afterwards into the ruins."
The girl finishes, taking a breath. But her head turns at the gull's cry, and she pales. "Captain...?" But the question never comes from her dry throat.
[Alimah(#24218)]
"I don't believe in ghosts," Alimah says harshly. She strides to look at the rubble where Tasnim has pointed, looking up again at the sudden silence and the gull's cry. "Don't be a fool," she hisses at the girl, hand on the hilt of her scimitar to make sure the blade is loose in its scabbard. "Come on." She follows the trail.
The women's approach is watched. Should either of the pair look down, they would note that the spots of dried blood marking out the fugitive's path wind this way and that, and then abruptly stop - perhaps when a bandage was applied? Closer they come, and still the silence is unbroken. But then, as 'near' becomes 'too near', the nerve of the corsair known as Barjad suddenly snaps. A blot of shadow breaks from the shelter of the arch and starts to back away. Barjad stays crouched, using the cover of fallen blocks as best he may, and for a while it is hard to spot his brindled head. But then his foot catches between the bricks and he stumbles to one knee, out of the shadow and into the light. There is the sound of metal against metal as his rusty scimitar is drawn.
COMBAT - Wielded: Scimitar
[Tasnim(#16424)] Slightly reluctantly, the girl follows after the Corsair lady, staying quiet now as they step onward. She gives a few nervous glances around the encompassing debris but merely pulls her black clothes tighter about her. At the disturbance of ringing steel, Tasnim's dark eyes flicker up, and she freezes. This time there seems to be a cause for her gasp, and the girl stares forward. It seems she has not yet recognized the man for who he is.
[Alimah(#24218)]
The Corsair Captain does not need to recognize the man--all she requires is the sound of steel being drawn to unsheath her own blade. "Show yourself!" she demands, but at the same time, Alimah steps forward into the rubble and toward the man himself. She snorts in recognition. (re)
The dusk and the shadows make it hard to see facial expressions, but from the way Barjad's head jerks as his gaze shifts from the black-clad Tasnim and her Eye medallion to Alimah, there is surprise there. The scimitar is held before the man defensively as he regains his footing, but no attack is forthcoming. Rather, words in slow, nasal Haradaic. "What do you want?"
[Tasnim(#16424)] Unlike the others, Tasnim bears no blade, and she lingers beside the Haradrim captain. She takes no paces closer. Instead her fingers move down to fiddle with her beads but now she blinks -- while she might not have discerned his face through the dim light of dusk, there is the odd nasal voice..
"You." It comes out more as a hiss of breath, and a glare mixed with fear passes over the scribe's countenance.
[Alimah(#24218)]
"You, yes," Alimah echoes the girl. "You are a deserter," she hisses the word. "From my crew. And I have come to collect either you or what you owe me for deserting. Now--which will it be, you coward?"
The glare is not returned, rather Barjad gazes at the younger girl coolly, and when he speaks there is an undertone of pity to the nasal words. "Just a child ... your Eye sees not, here. There are other Gods ..." A long pause. "Ask her." His brindled head jerks toward Alimah.
For her, more words, almost wondering. "I did not think to see /you/." His voice, awkward or no, hardens. "I ..owe.. no thing. Weapon, clothes were taken from me, these I take back. If you wish them, take them." Challenge made, the scimitar angles up in a blocking move.
[Tasnim(#16424)] "Desertion?" the girl's regard shifts to give a brief sidelong glance to Alimah. "Is that all? He is the one who deceived me and led me away. He is the one who wanted my life for retribution, or so he claimed. The 'ghost' comes again." And Tasnim points anew, now straight forward for the man.
She frowns at his words. "...other gods?" The inguiry is meant more for the Corsair lady, despite how the scribe's stare remains fixed on Barjad and his weapon.
[Alimah(#24218)]
"Don't change the subject!" Alimah sneers to Barjad. "You came on this voyage voluntarily--you don't get to just walk away and desert the crew and Umbar and all that your tower stands for. Not without answering to your Tower Lord, or in her absence, my blade. And...what?" Turning her attention partially to Tasmin, Alimah squints. "He wanted your life? Deceived you and lured you how?" Though she talks to Tasmin, her scimitar is ever-present, threatening toward Barjad.
Alimah's sneer is met by a shrug. "She will not.. not ..." pausing with a frustrated scowl, Barjad eventually settles on, "think of me. And-" Another of those awkward silence, then with a wordless growl he slips into the Common speech, rapid and clear if still with a nasal undertone. "And I will not stay to serve the murderers of folk kin to mine. So, I will answer your blade."
The two women are close now, and he does not attempt to run rather he stands with feet planted stolidly and battered scimitar upraised, gaze focused on said blade as he awaits its challenge.
Tasnim receives no word of affirmation or denial, though every now and then his gaze flicks to her, the lesser challenge, lest lesser become greater.
[Tasnim(#16424)] "He told me there was water further out in the ruins, and I followed after him, explains the scribe, at last sparing another look sideways to where Alimah stands. "Wanted to take me in repayment of the life of the girl Anouar took--" Tasnim pauses, for Barjad's last statement prove thus.
Bearing no weapons herself, the girl watches warily, hovering on te edge of te scene but as of yet taking no steps forward nor backward.
[Alimah(#24218)]
Scimitar already drawn, Alimah now takes a menacing step forward, threatening with the blade. "Surrender now, Corsair,a nd you still may remain so. I know not of what you speak of murder and of folk kin to you. I know only of the oaths you have sworn to your Tower. Are you now an oathbreaker?"
That final question is considered, and the upraised blade glints in the fading light as the man's hand moves ever so slightly, so that he can gaze past it toward its irate wielder. Now that he has used the Common, he stays in that to answer. "Say rather I hold to older oaths, those of my own folk. You know well that I am not of Umbar. The place from which I was taken was much like this. Now, by one road or other, I will go home."
There is a brief pause, then his eyes narrow and he hisses to the Corsair woman, "If you wish to strike, then do it. I will /not/ be brought down by a blade to the back."
The hovering Tasmin draws just enough of his attention that he demands of her, "So? No threats from your mouth?"
[Tasnim(#16424)] "Taken from?" Tasnim echoes, tongue shifting likewise into Common, though it still retains its Southron lilt. "You were taken there against your will, then?"
She takes a few inching footpaces closer, but quickly the curiosity turns into a rare scowl as the man addresses her. "I shall give you threats if that is what you wish -- we shall see how long this 'ghost' lasts...you bled before..."
[Alimah(#24218)]
"Ah. Taken by force, perhaps. And here all along we thought you were loyal to your tower and that -they- had become your people. But now you whine like a frilly serving girl over the spilling of blood," Alimah says, spitting out the answer. "Well, we have a way with dealing with whiners and cowards and deserters." And, very calmly, she slashes with her blade, aiming for Barjad's face.
Alimah attacks you with her Scimitar!...
...and she hits! Ouch!
ARB: You've been injured for 26 hp's by Alimah's attack...
...you have 60 left. Please RP this injury accordingly.
Tasnim's words bring a soft snort of breath. "A ghost of what I once was. Perhaps with blood I can become a man again." And then no more words can be spared, for Alimah's blade comes whistling forward. He blocks - of course he tries to block, swinging the scimitar up with no more grace than a woodsman's axe. He fails.
The blade flashes crosswise and down, a slice springing from beneath his right eye twin to the one already marring the left that right eye itself is pouring blood. He staggers blindly, but momentum itself carries him forward, his scimitar blade hacking forward toward Alimah's chest.
You blindly attack Alimah with your Scimitar...
Alimah dodges your attack.
[Tasnim(#16424)] Blood graces the dirt and stones of the ruins, and the scribe grimaces once -- but then it is gone, and she watches onward with a carefully impassive face, though it is noticably paler. Tasnim says nothing, but her eyes do however flicker down for an instant, searching for the closest rocks should she need to make use of them as projectiles. It worked once, perhaps it would work again.
[Alimah(#24218)]
"Too late for words, deserter!" Alimah sneers, twisting out of the way to avoid Barjad's blade. Her's comes down again, seeking the back of the man's knees, to cut him down.
Alimah attacks you with her Scimitar!...
...and she hits! Ouch!
ARB: You've been injured for 24 hp's by Alimah's attack...
...you have 36 left. Please RP this injury accordingly.
Too late for dodging, also. With the world seen through a red mist, Barjad is sluggish in moving away from the bright blade, and it catches him behind the left knee, biting as an axe might a tree. He stumbles, weight now entirely on one leg whilst the other, dragged and twisted, will bring him down at any minute. His breath comes in ragged gasps.
Incredible, then, that those torn lips should try to speak. But try he does, mouthing words in slurred Common. "The .. short .. road .. home." Jerking his chin up, so that Alimah must perforce look on that ruined visage, he forces the scimitar-blade sideways, aimed to cut and crush.
You blindly attack Alimah with your Scimitar...
Your attack against Alimah badly wounds her!
[Tasnim(#16424)] The Haradrim girl is silent, still as another collumn of rock amid the destroyed city but as the man's scimitar strikes, her mouth parts at last, the words rimmed with concern. "Captain--" starts Tasnim, but she hesitates, uncertain of what she can do.
Then suddenly, she is stooped, and when she straightens back up, a rough broken stone is clasped in ink-stained fingers. She flicks her arm, purposing to aim the rock for Barjad's weapon hand -- the same trick she had used before, though this time the darkness is a hinderance to accuracy.
[Alimah(#24218)]
Barjad's blade finds armor and beneath that, flesh, and Alimah gasps in sudden shock at the pain of it, blood seeping out and onto the floor now. Still, her resolve is not broken and she again sweeps out with her blade--with Barjad stumbling to retain his balance, her swing goes to his neck as if to chop off his head.
Alimah attacks you with her Scimitar!...
...and she hits! Ouch!
ARB: You've been injured for 17 hp's by Alimah's attack...
...you have 19 left. Please RP this injury accordingly.
It is Barjad's own injuries that save the blow from becoming a fatal one, for as he falls forward, the left leg giving way completely, the scimitar-stroke parts air where his neck would have been, travelling on to strike his shoulder with lesser force. Lesser, yet not none, for his grip on the scimitar loosens and it clatters groundward. The rock that might have struck his weapon-hand insteads slides past, grazing the arm down which fresh blood is now pouring.
Weaponless, almost visionless, the man still does not yield. His teeth are clenched tight shut against the grunts of pain his left hand finds a stone and blindly pounds it toward the place where Alimah's ankles might be.
You blindly attack Alimah with your Bare Hands...
Your attack against Alimah mildly wounds her!
[Alimah(#24218)]
The grasp of Barjad's hand is easily kicked away, and two-handed, Alimah brings her blade down to try to end this, cursing as she does so. "Stupid wasteo f a life over supposed honor," she mutters angrily.
Alimah attacks you with her Scimitar!...
...and she hits! Ouch!
ARB: You've been injured for 18 hp's by Alimah's attack...
...you have 1 left. Please RP this injury accordingly.
Barjad stirs, as though Alimah's speech were heard. And as her scimitar comes swinging down, in the instant before its blade bites deep into the place where the leather of his jerkin gives way to a tangled mane of brindled hair, he utters something in a hoarse murmur. Perhaps to some it might seem a cry of pain, but any of the fisher-folk lingering in the ruins could identify that harsh, guttural sound as a word: "Free."
And then the blade strikes his prone form jerks and is still. Blood soaks the brindled hair and pools on the ground beneath, an offering to the Gods of this place. A life for a life. And Barjad the corsair, who once walked under another name and bore a rank far greater, is no more.
[Tasnim(#16424)] As the final blow fulfills its intention, the scribe glances away, greying a little further as if she might be sick. "Not a waste of a life," mumbles Tasnim in a wavering voice, and she begins her habit of pulling her fingers through her necklaces one hand brushes against that Eye medallion. "A sacrifice for the Dark Lord, perhaps..."
[Alimah(#24218)]
Gingerly, Alimah nudges Barjad with the booted toe of one foot, trying to turn the body over. "A waste of a warrior," she frowns, turning to Tasnim. "I worship the Heroes and make no sacrifices for any Lord. If you wish to claim this for your Dark Lord, then you may do so. But for now I need help getting back to the ship." And she staggers toward the girl, one hand clutching her abdomen, from which blood seeps.
[Combat(#13388)] Alimah unwields Scimitar.
[Alimah(#24218)] Alimah quickly wipes her blade on Barjad's clothes, then sheaths it.
[Tasnim(#16424)] The girl peers after the Corsair woman, and then takes a glance back to the lifeless form. She shakes her head, making the beads around her neck clink together. "I know nothing of how I could do so..I am no priestess, and generally do not observe the sacrifices. They make me ill," admits Tasnim, and she makes a face as if she were disgusted at herself. "Besides, I don't know if He would want a body that is already dead." Not wishing to look upon the limp man any longer, she too turns to follow in the wake of the first lady.
[Alimah(#24218)]
"Ask the High Priestess, girl," Alimah replies irritably. "I've got other problems on my mind." Mainly the blood seeping through her fingers. She limps out
Players: Barjad, Tasnim, Alimah
Located in: Haradrim
