Private Tales Criminal hunt

[Nikaia]

Nikaia stood with a scowl on her face. The destroyed cart was looted and burned, the drivers were nowhere to be found. These bandits had become quite a problem over the past few weeks, and they had even raided a village recently. She was absolutely pissed and she was not going to meditate to calm herself, she was going to see these bandits flayed. But she couldn’t do so without her guard, which had been dispersed across the state to defend the villages. She needed a mercenary band. And she’d try to find one.

Back in the city, she wrote and posted a number of bounty posters, calling for mercenaries to come by and assist in the hunt for the criminals. After obtaining the Senate’s approval, they were placed around the state. Calling for mercenaries to aid them. Now they only had to wait.

 

[Nikaia]

Uvogin

 

[Halul]

How many years was it now? Since Uvogin, once the Captain of the feared Immortals of Amol-Kalit, fell from his station? Where had it gone wrong, he often asked himself. It was now the second time he left his past behind, the peripatetic nature of freelancing taking him far from the lands he knew. Work was scarce in the foreign lands; his reputation limited to that of the deserts of the west. Still, though, the man salvaged a pittance through odd-jobs. Though his most glorious days were behind him, the skills and tools he gained during that time were more valuable than ever before.

It became routine, plucking posters off bounty boards. And so, after reading over the details, Uvogin folded the paper, stowed it away, and hiked through one village after the other until he reached the prosperous city. He approached the guards on foot with all the comportment of a mercenary. Stowed away in a leather sheath was a metal bow, intricate carvings spanning its limbs. Oddly enough, he did not have a quiver. A longsword with a ring-guard hung at his waist, and the man was clad in dark colors. An unruly beard had grown out over several weeks.

One look at the man with the flash of the pamphlet, and the guards gave Uvogin access and gave him directions to his potential employer.

 

[Nikaia]

Nikaia was leaning over a table, covered in written reports and a local map. Her hoplon and spear rested against the table, left and right respectively, but her xiphos remained at her hip. She wore little armor so as not to impede movement, and a lot of armour just wasn't necessary with her huge shield, so her midriff and thighs were bare as we're her upper arms. There were broad strips of leather to protect her shoulders, vambraces for her forearms and demigreaves to protect her shins. She seemed to be working on ascertaining the locations of the criminals, when he came in.

She looked up, her face sporting a no-nonsense expression. "Am I to assume that you are a mercenary?"

 

[Halul]

The poster that he held out to the woman sufficed as an answer. In a flash, Uvogin glanced over the woman's figure. Even in Amol-Kalit, he hadn't seen warriors that scantily-clad (save the courtier, Medja), nor had he seen such a large shield.

"Are there others?" He hadn't seen any sellsword-types as he'd made his way inside. Perhaps they were sent elsewhere after some sort of screening? The less that he had to work with, the better, Uvogin figured.

 

[Nikaia]

"A couple. You're the fifth one, so we have plenty for a team. I don't think that I have to explain the job, though simple as it may be we have numerous places to go and a small army to arrest or kill." She pulled out a list and a quill and inkwell and set them in front of him. Sign your name, afterwards I will submit a copy of the list to the Senate, and I will report back to them when the job is done, and depending on who did what they will split the total reward money amongst you based on your actions. Keep honest and fight well, and you'll get your fair share of the spoils."

Once the list was signed, she set it aside to let the ink dry then tossed a small coin pouch on the table. "Those are your lodging expenses. Sleep at whichever inn you choose, there's enough for a meal as well. We meet outside the south gate at daybreak to begin our task. If you don't show up, your pay is forfeit. I'll see you then." After these words she returned to her work.

Uvogin

 

[Nikaia]

(Boop)

 

[Halul]

As the woman spoke on, Uvogin attentively listened on as he signed his name.

He roughly scratched Uvogin Hill at the bottom of the list of names. After the small purse plopped down in front of him, the wayfarer weighed it in his hand. He tucked the pouch away and nodded before silently exiting the room. The man, clad in colors of the night, slept in the streets that night.

He woke well before daybreak and ate a meal at an inn closest to the city's southern gate. After scarfing the meal down and leaving a pair of coins in his wake, Uvogin made his way to the gate to wait for the others, wrapped in a tattered black cloak.

 

[Nikaia]

The others hadn’t quite arrived, but Nikaia, as her discipline had taught her, was there for fifteen minutes already. Her shield and spear in hand. The massive shield covered her up to her shoulder and down to just above the knee when she stood upright, which explained her lack of armor. Her helm, a fully encasing bronze-wrought piece of metal with two large cheekplates and a noseguard, a horizontal crest of red horsehair was atop it. Her face was recognizable while in it, though it was well protected. Around her shoulders was a red cloak that reached her ankles. One corner was pulled up across her chest to the opposite shoulder, affording her a little bit more modesty than before.

“It’s good to see that one of you mercenaries are punctual. The others should be along shortly.”

 

[Halul]

The cloaked silhouette of the man subtly rose and fell in a nonchalant shrug. Time was money, after all.

Not long after Uvogin arrived, a lanky, rough-around-the-edges elf approached. He wore a gambeson left open down the middle in a rogueish flair and a low-collared shirt that exposed an array of tattoos. An arming sword hung at his side, and unlike most elves Uvogin has seen, his blonde hair was long enough only to tuck behind his ears. Uvogin couldn't see in the twilight of morning, but the elf's hands were covered in small scars.

The former soldier figured the rest would be soon to follow.

 

[Nikaia]

Soon follow they did. One was a lumbering landmass of a man, carrying a sword longer than Nikaia was tall. He looked pretty dumb but he was quite obviously strong. Another, a human mage, wore robes and a cloak that hid everything, even his face, he was just a little taller than Nikaia. The archer/crossbowman was a dwarf with a huge black beard and a long mail hauberk. Once all of them were together Nikaia summed up their first assignment. A group of bandits had been making a nuisance of themselves by attacking travelers on the road not too far from the city. They were going to eradicate them.

Uvogin, being the worst off and most road weary looking, would draw them out, then they’d kill all but one and Nikaia would use her “enhanced interrogation” skills to ascertain the locations of his/her friends and kill them. Simple.

 

[Halul]

It was actually a first, posing as a decoy. Uvogin had always been large, an individual that demanded respect with his presence. Though, now, he had slimmed considerably but retained a fit physique. They had arrived to their destination after some time of traveling.

“Give me that,” Uvogin grumbled and took the sack slung over the dwarf’s shoulder before he could protest. He looped an arm through it and went ahead of the group, trying his best to appear vulnerable. His sword and, most importantly, his bow were hidden under the cloak.

He could see as the silhouettes of men formed ahead, and the undergrowth around him rustled from movement. Under his cloak, his hand rested on the hilt of his sword. Whether the others actually helped or not, he was ready to explode into action at any moment.

 

[Nikaia]

The team followed closely behind, but not so closely as to be seen. The dwarf, being the smallest and stealthiest of them, was the one keeping an eye on Uvogin Hill. He would signal them to move forward when it was time. Once the trap sprung, Nikaia and Landmass as she had taken to calling him, would assist Uvogin while the dwarf and the mage would take care of any stragglers. It was simple, but tested before and had proven effective.

It was when Uvogin was close to the bandits that they surrounded him, and it was after that that Nikaia and the others swiftly descended upon them.

 

[Halul]

"Wot's this?" One bandit snorted, holding a spear confidently over his shoulder. The spearhead gleamed under the sunlight.

"'Chu got there, friend?" Another cackled.

The others circled him. The spearman approached, free hand extended towards his pack. "Looks heavy. Let me help ye-"

The bandits hadn't even the opportunity to call out for the ambush when a crossbow bolt met its mark in one man's neck.

The spearman's arm, still outstretched, appeared to be a burden for its owner. Uvogin drew his sword with practiced efficiency, throwing his cape wide open as he did so, like a giant raven spreading its wings. He drew his sword and immediately slashed at the spearman, severing his arm and causing him to stumble and fall back. His screams were fleeting; Uvogin wasted no time in thrusting the point of his sword into the man's throat as his allies came down on the rest of the bandits.

 

[Nikaia]

A bright bronze tipped spear found it's way into the knee of another man, too soon for it to have been thrusted there. Nikaia had thrown it. With Uvogin already in the fray, the bandits were Ill prepared for the rest of the group to talk on them. Though a few tried to flee, the mage and the dwarf took care of them. The fight was a quick one, due to the bandit's lack of training. Soon only corpses and one maimed man were left.

Nikaia wasted no time in seizing the maimed man and ripping her spear from his knee. "Where are the rest?"

"The rest? Their ain't any others." He said to his immediate regret.

Nikaia drove a knife into his knee, perpendicular to where her spear had gone. "Wrong answer." Then she twisted the knife.

The man howled in pain, "alright! They're further west, into the wooded hills. They're well hidden they are, but you can probably track them back to the group. Course that's the only one I've been to. There're others no doubt."

"Thank you." Nikaia says politely before ripping her dagger out, then shoving it into his chest.

 

[Halul]

Uvogin wiped his bloodied sword clean on one of the corpse's shirts as the group's employer finished her enhanced interrogation. The elf, his thin sword resting on his shoulder, whistled at the sight but did not remark on it.

With a grimace, Uvogin rose and sheathed his sword. He hadn't the experience in hilly woodlands as he did with the expansive deserts to the west, which he had a lifetime's worth. Thus he opted for attentive silence and waited for the spearwoman to bark orders (as she'd proved competent in doing).

Uvogin fell somewhere in the middle of the group as they walked to their next destination, the rogueish elf taking up the rear.

 

[Nikaia]

Once given a direction, and once the criminal was dispatched they began their march west, and to the enemy. Nikaia had been paying attention to her group, and was aware of how each person felt about this, generally speaking, most just wanted pay, one, the mage, disapproved of Nikaia's methods but never spoke up about it. They were off to kill more bandits, but they were interrupted by a non-bandit problem.

A monster, twice as tall as the big man among them, with the front half of a lion, the back half of a goat and a scorpion tail, emerged from the forest. A Chimera. Nikaia, though she showed none of it, was worried. She didn't think that she'd have to tell the group to kill it.

 

[Nikaia]

(boop)