Jammers:Chapter 4, Turn 5 Summary

Comments, criticism, and flames always welcome and in fact are requested. I
crave feedback:)

Past turns and further information (such as who's who) can be found at the
Jammer's webpage:
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Jungle/3001/jammers.htm

To subscribe as a lurker to the Spelljammers Onelist (used to run the
Jammers PBEM game) go to the following URL:
http://www.onelist.com/subscribe/Spelljammers

-------------- =storyline break
*************** =time break

IC:
Once on the ground, Billy looks up at the floating rope and nods
appreciatively.

"Alright, get to your places.  The gods willing we'll be taking the ship
within the next twenty minutes. Act natural and don't look too hard at
anyone." Ferric
tucks his plumed hat under the tattered cloak he wears, "I just hope we fit
in well enough in Elrohir's clothing to get us across the to the docks."

Billy nods a look of determination on his face. Taking a deep breath he
says, "OK, then. Whoever's with me, just follow me. Try to act nat'ral ok?
And don't follow to close!"

Robert nods and follows Billy.

Billy saunters off towards the edge with his crossbow casually slung over
his shoulder.

As Billy and his followers wander off, Grigree turns to Nilaroo and says,
"We better go an catch some fish.  I'm getting hungry again."

Italapate looks toward Leera.  "I believe the 'plan' as they say, is for me
to be invisible?"  He grins.  "Ready whenever you are."  He adjusts his
Shou hat at a roguish angle, then spreads his hands in a gesture of
acceptance.

Leera smiles, and then rests her hands on Italapate's shoulder. She murmurs
a few arcane phrases and he disappears from sight.

Elmarelena holds her cloth-wrapped sword and pack out to Raken asking
"Would you kindly hold these for me?"

"My pleasure," Raken responds, taking the items Elmarelena hands him. He
straps the sword to his side and slings the pack over his shoulder. Feeling
the weight, he shifts the pack slightly and smiles, happy with the
distribution of the pack.

She winks at him then drops the cloak she's had wrapped around her since
the party changed clothes. Her outfit consists of little more than a
G-string, a v-neck cutoff top that only comes down to the lower swell of
her breasts, stockings, and light boots. With her hair untied so it covers
her ears and some garish makeup on her face, she turns to Ferric and the
rest saying "I love dressing for the occasion. If anyone stops us before we
get to our destination, you've paid Leera and I to escort your group for
the evening. Ready when you are."

Ferric's eyes narrow, "Put a cloak on.  All I need is for some amorous
sailor to try to proposition you before half way there.  He'll either call
attention to us or get mad that you are too good for him.  Either way its
trouble for us.  When we get to the dock you can advertise your...wares, as
much as you like."

"Uh, that's why I said 'you hired us for the evening'. Hey, you guys are
the ones who put us up to this; I'm sure we'll look real inconspicuous
walking though town completely covered in a cloak and hood." Elmarlena
answers.

>From empty space, Italapate's voice is heard.  "Don't pay tall, gray, and
gruesome any mind, El.  We don't pay him to _think_."

"Yes, I'm on the payroll because I make people look like holed cheese. It
may be useful to keep that in mind later when I can see you. This is the
last time I come up with a plan where you get to be invisible." Ferric
shakes his head.

>From another area, Italapate's voice is heard once more.  "Hmmmm, but I _like_
plans where I get to be invisible."  His path to the top side of the rock is
traced by his playful singing to himself.  Although, cleverly, the singing
stops before he gets near the gravity plane.

Elmarelena stoops and puts the cloak back on. "My point is that we have to
walk through the town to get to the ship. Two hooded, cloaked figures will
attract more attention than a group of sailors walking with a couple of
'ladies' they've bought the services of." She smiles grimly, "While I
wouldn't mind having a run-in with the scro, when I'm half-naked, unarmed
and unarmored wouldn't be the ideal time."

"Uhhh, right...lets hope you don't catch a cold..." Raken manages to
mutters, his eyes wide for a second.  "Assuming we don't get mobbed on the
way there..."  He drops his head and shakes it in defeat.  "Let's keep ye
ladies cover, er, protected until we arrive at our destination."  He takes
a position in the lead, muttering to himself, something about elves and an
unhealthy amount of exposed skin.

Kain blushes furiously, looking away from the Barre Sinister.  "I.. I..
I'll.. ahh.. wait about five minutes then follow the main.. uhh.. group
out," he manages to stammer.  "I'll mingle in with those.. pirates," Kain
says, the loathing apparent in the edge to his voice and the set to his
jaw.

Holland says as he is removing his headband, "Talus, come here."  Once
Talus is close enough, Holland places a hand on his shoulder and says,
"Let's try to stay together and be as quiet as possible.  I do not want us
to lose track of each other.  It will be difficult to keep contact while on
the dock, but if we take our time we can make it to the ship and still be
together." Holland asks, "That sound good to you?"

Talus' voice issues from the thin air in front of Holland, "Sounds good to
me. Try keeping your hand on my shoulder or belt. I will be trying to keep
on the outside of any groups and walk on the edge of any paths of the dock.
Be careful as you place your feet on any loose ground, the noise or sight
of gravel moving is a sure sign. Nobles don't keep neatly raked gravel
paths around their residences just because they look pretty."

Holland replies, "Then, let's move out."

Kneeling on the asteroid, Kain keeps his hand on his shortsword as the
large group departs.  He checks his equipment, the backpack and crossbow
worn under his cloak, and then departs a few minutes after his companions.

As they begin to move off, Elmarelena adds, "I think the plan is an
excellent one; I'm wondering if maybe we couldn't get Ferric or Raken
aboard under the pretext of being our pimp/bodyguard. The rest of you,
having drifted off when we get to the docks so Leera and I look available,
can board as planned but at least we'll have a swordsman and my weapon
already onboard."

Raken's head drops into the palm of his hand.  "Oh, Celestian has a
wonderful sense of humor.  I wonder how many pimping priests have there
been in service of him?  The irony is almost hystarically laughable."  He
shakes his head, almost laughing. "Well, given the, ah... beauty of our
'charges,' we might be able to
convince the sailors that ye have at least two bodyguards and a pimp.  That
would be almost expected," Raken says, thinking. "That's how it worked back
ho..., um, back at Bral."

Elmarelena nods, "Well we wouldn't want to make them suspicious by trying
to get three armed men onboard but maybe our 'pimp' can board whilst the
two 'bodyguards' loiter at the ramp. As far as the pimping priests-- that
sounds like a missionary position to me..."

"I believe it is customary for bodyguards to keep close to their charges in
case of trouble," Raken responds.  With a puzzled look he asks, "Missionary
position?  Celestian keeps no missionaries; at best, we maintain a few
taverns and inns across the Spheres so that we may meet and exchange
stories.  In most cases, all of those positions are filled..."

As the talkative company makes its way through the vines of the asteroid's
underbelly, Deigatt remarks, "Hit's hodd that they would leave this harea
so hunguarded. These pirates must be very confident hin their security
here."

Billy looks for a path and follows it to  the gravity plane. At the plane,
Billy lies flat on his stomach and peeks over the edge to see if anyone is
nearby. He sees no one nearby. As only an experienced spelljamming sailor
could, Billy flips  himself over onto the other side and gets up off his
feet.

Everyone makes the flip with little or no problem, though few do it as
gracefully as Billy. On the otherside the buildings can be seen, already
doing a rousing buisness as sailors start to filter ashore.

Billy waits for his companions to flip sides. Once they're there he
comments, "Try to act nat'ral ok? And don't follow to close!"

Billy saunters off towards the docks with his crossbow casually slung over
his shoulder.

Seguld trails after the others and struggles to cross the gravity plane due
to his injury.  On the other side Seguld proceeds though once again he
begins to fall behind. As he approaches the docks he is already far behind
and separated from the others. As he continues forward on pier he looks up
to the stars as he taps his nose with a finger from his left hand. His
mouth continuously moving as he mumbles something about steam generated
from coal ovens and waterdrums causing pressure build up which can be
harnassed to create an effect not unlike that of smokepowder in as far as
generating propulsion for a missile object. As he walks and speaks to
himself his right hand is crossed under his left arm and his hand rests
casually on the handle of a pistol.

After waiting a little while, Kain begins to make his way after the others.
He crosses the plane with little difficulty, and catches up to Seguld and
Robert as they stop near the docks.  "Hey there," he says lowly as he falls
in step, munching on a bit of dried meat from his pack.  "Nice place, eh,"
he laughs.

The various groups easily mingle in with the sailors, no one gives them a
second glance.  Soon they are filtering down near the docks. As they do,
they see several groups leave the docks and head for the scro vessel.

>From the RAMPAGE comes a slender man in tighting fitting leathers wearing a
red bandanna.  Beside him is a large man in chainmail with a two-handed
sword slung over his back.

>From the SPECTRAL HAND comes a tall man in bone-white platemail with a
small woman dressed in mouse -colored robes.

>From the TEMPEST comes an old man with wild white hair and beard. He is
accompanied by four or five pirate warriors.

>From the Imperial Tauran Hammership comes by far the most impressive
display.   20 Minotaur warriors march out in full legionaire regalia. Each
carries two javilins, a large square shield, and a shortsword scabbered at
their side.  Their armor banded, and magnificently polished. In their
center marches an old minotaur in a red robe, a minotaur in a uniform
similar enough to the legionaires that he must be an officer, and a
minotaur in black leather armor.

Finally, from the NIGHT PROWLER two dark haired men exit the ship and walk
towards the Scro Mantis.  That leaves five men and a dwarf on the galley's
deck, they are clustered by the aft ballista playing dice.

As Billy walks towards the docks he starts eying the layout. "It's about 75
yards from where we started to the docks," he mumbles. "So I should be
close enough when I reach the first buildings."  Billy heads for the
building to the immediate south of the guard tower. Reaching the south-east
corner of the building, he stops and leans against the southern wall. Billy
waits.

Seguld posiitons himself near to Billy. As he stands nearby he continues his
conversation with himself.

Nilaroo and Grigree make their way to the docks, taking up a position some
twenty feet past the target vessel at the end of the dock.  From a large
duffel, Nilaroo, wearing his chain mail, pulls a thick rope and one of
Elrohir's grapples.  A thick piece of meat is quickly impaled on the
grapple.  A length of chain connects the grapple to the rope.  "I hope our
captain, hoom, doesn't mind, or miss, these pieces," Nilaroo mutters.

Nodding to Grigree, Nilaroo flings the bait out into space.  The near end
is made fast on one of the pilings and the pair of simians settles in to
wait, passing a skin between them.  Nilaroo has both his bow and sword
within easy reach.  Casually watching the scavver field, Nilaroo also
examines the near ship and its crew. The RAMPAGE is quiet, however, with
just a few pirates standing watch.

"Grigree, how much do you weigh, and hoom, how high do you need to get
before you can glide?" Nilaroo asks, watching his line.  "Hoom, when
everything begins, if you step into my hands and I throw you into the
air..."

Grigree looks, over towards the ship, then back at Nilaroo with his lips
stretched into a smile.  "Should work," he says.  "I get there fast and
guard you."

>From the base of the longer dock, Deigatt watches Nilaroo and Grigree
pretend to hunt scavvers. He looks to the shorter dock as the Tauran
delegation reaches the asteroid and begins its trek to the scro's mantis
ship. His eyes narrow as he tries to identify the three leaders surrounded
by the twenty minotaur legionnaires.

"Ya lookin fer somethin up thar?" a whiny voice asks suddently. With a
start, Deigatt looks down to see a dark-haired, barefoot human dressed in
ragged grey shirt and britches. A stripped of dark black cloth encircles
the man's head to hold in place a thick bandage across his nose.

"I ham surprised to see a military presence here," Deigatt says flatly. "I
did not realize the hasteroid owed tribute to the Taurans."

"Ya're not Tauran, then? But I were sure ya were." The dirty human paused
and scratched his bandage. "What ship are ya riding?" he finally asked.

"I haven't passage hoff the hasteroid hat the moment. There har more
pressing matters." Deigatt takes a gold piece from his belt pouch and holds
it before the wide-eyed human.

"You look like han hobservant fellow," the minotaur says. "Have you seen
hin the last week han hattractive half-elf woman hand a male hurwaet
traveling together?"

The human wrinkles his nose: "'Ere on Barre Sinister, you mean?"

With a sigh of frustration, Deigatt grasps his coin in his fist. "Wait!"
the human cries. "I di'n't say I 'adn't seen 'em, did I? I di'n't say that.
A wench an' a wiggle, huh? I can't promise they're still 'are, though, no.
But they might be, mightn't they?"

"Was the hurwaet missing one hof his hands?"

"Yas," the human says slowly. "I believe 'e was, missing one, I mean."

"Which one was hit?"

The human bites his thin lip, then says, "the . . . right one, his right
hand . . ."

"Yes!" Deigatt says and hands the man the gold piece. "I was hafraid you
were trying to rub me, but now I see the truth hof your words. Hif you're
hinterested, there's five more gold for you hif you can find hout where
they har for me by noon today."

"Oh, I can do that, I can do that, yas. I'll meet ya 'are then, an' I'll
'ave 'em for ya, I'll 'ave 'em. Mark me!" The human scurries off.

Deigatt sighs as he watches the man go, then he looks up again to see that
the minotaur procession has already made its way to the scro ship. Turning
to look behind him, he sees Robert and Kain among the asteroid's buildings.
Determinedly, he moves toward them, then he slows and attempts to saunter.

"Seguld," he says when he reaches them, "would you be more comfortable hon
my shoulders?" To everyone present Deigatt says, "we should hurry down to
the dock so that we can be hon hit before Leera hand the hothers start
their way down. There's enough traffic hon the dock hitself that we
shouldn't raise  suspicion."

Date/time: 9:45 am 22nd day of the 6th Month, 5049 OC

Paul Westermeyer,  westermeyer.3@???.edu
Phd Candidate, OSU Dept of History
Adjunct Professor, Columbus State Humanities Dept