Solo A Bump In the Night (Part 1)

[Stye]

Read Me : This is a solo skill training thread. Length: 1800 words. Scenes: 3. Skills: Acrobatics, Stealth, Unarmed Combat, Observation, either Investigation or Intelligence. Or ... whatever you see . The 18th of Spring 515 A.V. Scene 1: A Bump In the Night Something woke Stye up. From his perch on top of the tall, narrow hutch that occupied one corner of the room, he swiveled his head first to the left and then to the right. He was alone. The single window frame cast a moonlight shadow across the floor. Another thump, followed by a scraping sound. He turned his head to one side to triangulate on the sound. “Damn it, Hector. I said hold it still,” came a man’s hushed whisper, in Vani. It came from outside and nearby. Another man replied, also in Vani, but heavily accented. “I thought you said ‘push it through’.” The sounds of the lyrical, almost musical language, translated Stye to another time, another place. It was a new dig, a dig not previously discovered, a dig of unknown archeological value. Bhani Skyglow was determined to do enough preliminary work to establish a claim to it for future investigation, even if it meant venturing two days travel from Novallas, into the great Boreal forest alone. Well, not quite alone. She had her Kelvic bondmate with her. And Stye, unable to talk her out of the dangerous journey, was determined to protect her from harm. He was hunting, soaring over a small lake formed by a beaver damn, when he heard Bhani’s shout. He wheeled around in her direction. She was not alone. She was waving her arms and yelling at two men in proper Vani, while one of them yelled back in barely recognizable broken Vani. A sense of panic fell over Stye as he started toward her, but he was too far away to get there in time. One of the men raised his staff and struck her on the head. She collapsed in a pile on the ground. Rage overtook panic. Stye dived at the man with the staff, emitting an ear-splitting shriek as his wings spread to their full four-foot span in a blustering breaking action. His talons crashed into the man’s face. He latched on and squeezed, beating his powerful wings as though to lift the man off the ground. His victim screamed as his cheek bones were cracked and crushed by the bird’s powerful grip. Blood spurted from one of his eyes. One of his ears was a mass of loose flesh and blood. The man waved his arms around trying to grab hold of the monstrous creature that was ripping his face to shreds, but couldn’t see him. Finally his partner caught hold of Stye and tore him off the man’s face. Stye took a fair amount of flesh with him. The man fell to the ground, hands covering his face. Stye found himself on the ground a few feet away, where the man had thrown him. He changed into human form, and charged at the second man. The man drew a shortsword and executed a wide, arcing swipe at Stye’s midsection, as if to cut him in half. Stye danced to the left, letting the blade miss him by a few inches. This left the man off balance, and when Stye’s head plowed into his, they both went tumbling down a small hill. Stye used his momentum to power a forward roll, which should have brought him to his feet. Unfortunately, he misjudged how much momentum he had, and continued forward, tripping over a small boulder, and landing flat on his face. He pushed himself up, turned, and advanced on the man, who was shaking his head, trying to get to his feet. As Stye closed on him, he managed two clumsy thrusts that forced Stye to dodge first to the right and then to the left. He grabbed the man’s sword hand, and rotated it over his head as he turned under it. This had the effect of bringing the man’s hand up behind his back. Stye placed a knee in the small of the man’s back and forced him to the ground, while putting upward pressure on his arm. A loud, satisfying popping sound told him he had at the very least dislocated the man’s shoulder, possibly even broken it. The man cried out; the sword fell to the rocky ground with a clatter. Too late Stye sensed a third man. Where had he come from? Stye tried to launch into a forward role over the top of the man with the injured shoulder, but an explosion of pain burst in his head as something smashed into it. Everything went black. Another thud brought him out of his reverie. He was in his room in Riverfall. The past has returned to the past where it belonged; he was back in the present where he belonged. Purchase : Hutch 5gm, Padded Arm Chair 4 gm.

[Stye]

Scene 2: Curious Going-On Stye dropped to the floor from his perch and transformed into his human form. A few minutes to grab his clothes off the arm chair and put them on, and he was out the door. He wore his sandals instead of his boots; they were quieter. He thought about bringing the bakh nakh, but decided against it. He wanted to see what was going on, but he had no intention of getting into a fight. He padded lightly down the hallway and out the main door. Rather than continue down the path to the street, he made his way along the stepping stone path that wound its way through the gardens surrounding the Windswept Condo. His night vision, while not as good as in his animal form, was nonetheless quite good. He watched where he placed each foot to avoid stepping on twigs that would alert the men to his approach, and carefully pushed stray branches out of the way as he passed through the dense but well-kept gardens. By the time he reached the window to his own room, he could see the men. They were two rooms down, wrestling with a crate that appeared to have gotten stuck half way out (or in) a window. A voice, female, from inside the room, spoke in perfect Vani: “In the name of the many wonderful and beauteous gods, Bartik, do you think perhaps you can find a way to be a little more clumsy?” “I apply my best efforts, Cleo. Alas, the object of our shared interest is both weighty and awkward.” This from the other native Vani speaker. The lyrical prose of the language pulled at Stye’s heart. The crate finally disappeared through the window into the room with a thud. A woman’s head appeared in its place. He long single-braided hair swung free of the window as she leaned out. “Your part in this story has reached its reasonable conclusion,” she said. “T’would be best for the two of you to find your way back to the boat and to set sail for our agreed upon meeting place, where I will surely join you in two days time. “Yeah, yeah,” said the other man. “Why don ya just say what ya mean?” His Vani was truly awful. The woman scowled. “It would be wise for you to leave here quickly and quietly, lest the big blue boys of Riverfall happen upon you as you wander around the city in the middle of the night.” Fearing they might come his way, Stye dropped to the ground and crept as quietly as he could under a cluster of rhododendrons that pushed against the side of the building, which put him in shadow. The two men passed within touching distance without noticing him, and disappeared around the corner. The sound of the window being closed brought silence, except for the forlorn song of a night bird in the distance.

[Stye]

Scene 3: A Walk in the Park Back in his room, Stye sat in his padded armchair, and stared out the window at nothing in particular. He was pretty sure he had witnessed something not entirely on the up-and-up. Why else would they be sneaking around at night? And why else would the woman be so insistent that they get out of town? Two of them spoke flawless Vani. That didn’t necessarily mean they weren’t residents of Riverfall, but it was a definite possibility. Was that significant? And what was in the crate? It wasn’t especially big. More wide and flat, making it awkward to handle. It did, however, take two men to lift it up and on to the window frame. So it was heavy. And then there was the meeting planned in two days. After the woman had taken care of some business. Presumably something to do with the crate. Was he blowing this out of perspective? Maybe it was all perfectly innocent. Maybe he was letting his imagination get carried away. A door opened and closed. Quiet footsteps made their way down the hall and past his room. He couldn’t know if it was the woman, but he was willing to bet mizas to donuts that it was. Stye drew lazy circles on the canvas of the moonlit sky. Far below walked a woman with a single, braid extended to her waist and beyond. It had not been difficult to catch up with her; she was making no attempt at stealth, nor did she seem to be in a hurry. She walked past the Cora Apartments and a butcher shop, and crossed the river just above the waterfall. An Akalak met her midway across, and they exchanged a few words before departing in their opposite directions. Probably a member of the volunteer watch. Just past the Labor Aid office, she turned and passed through the Blue Bull Tavern’s outer courtyard, and into the Lapis Sculpture Park. Stye glided over the park and then back to the tavern, where he came to a rest on the roof. From here he could see most of the park. The woman strolled along a path around a pond, and sat herself on a stone bench looking over the pond. A moment later, a man — at least, Stye guessed he was a man — came out of a shadow Stye hadn’t even noticed. He made to walk by the woman, but paused in front of her for a moment. Then he continued on his way, and left the park. Stye couldn’t sure, but thought that either the man had given something to her, or she had given something to him. The woman waited for several minutes, and then retraced her steps to The Windswept Condos. Stye perched on a tree branch outside her window and waited. She came into the room, and promptly put herself to bed. Stye returned to his room and thought about what he had seen. Who was the other man? What had they exchanged? Had he given her something? Or had she given him something? And did it have anything to do with the mysterious crate? He didn’t know. In fact, he didn’t really know anything. But he was going to find out.

[Aoren]

Stye

Experience

Skill	XP Earned
Observation	+2 EXP
Stealth	+2 EXP
Investigation	+2 EXP
Tracking	+1 EXP

Lores

•	Lore Earned
•	Stealth: Importance of Quiet Clothing
•	Investigation: Following A Suspicious Series of Events
•	Unknown Figures: Two Men, One Woman
•	Investigation Clue: Two Fluent Vani Speakers, One Awful

Notes :

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