CH. 11: The Show Must Go On

[HorizonsDream]

"Well, I never said that it was the smartest idea," Kendra says to Gobax before she turns her attention to Tulbas. "It is good to see you well, Tulbas," she says with a light smile. "I had wanted to come see you after I heard about your uncle, but life kind of got in the way," she says. "So I apologize," she adds. Sadly, she isn't blind to the look that he gives her. "I'm one of the prefect's guards, so I don't really have a unit," she admits. "Or you can say the rest of my unit is with the prefect. As for what I'm going to do if there is an attack, the point is to try to lessen casualties. Soldiers won't be the only ones that get hurt," she points out as she motions to everyone gathered. There were soldiers and the people of Haven gathered around for the performance. If there is an attack, any help that either one of you can provide would be appreciated. I'm only one person, after all."

[BishGada]

At the notion, 'life kind of got in the way' Tulbas nods in understanding. Isn't he doing the same thing right now, serving Magnus who murdered his uncle. Maybe he is even worse. Much worse."Maybe you should consider the fastest way to call for backup and notify the prefect in case anything happens? Say having watch out on roof tops that can signal in no time to the prefect head quarters?" Tulbas suggests. Then he returns to the everyday chat, "So how is marriage life? Norris treats you well?" he smiles, remembering his parents in the good old days when they lived in the woods together. The glow in his mother light blue eyes every time she lay them on his father. "Oh! By the way! If you are close to the prefect, maybe you can find out what happened to Gregeddin. We" he gestures to Gobax to include him in the reference, "had visited in his house yesterday and there was a squad of soldiers there that said something about 'evidence'. I think he is in a big, very big, trouble but instead of getting any info from them I got punched!" As he starts to remember all those things he is amazed he forgot them to start with. These training with Magnus had really consumed him completely. Then he becomes a little hesitant, give a look at Gobax, but then makes up his mind and continues very quietly, almost whispering, "One more thing you might help us with. The church is after priests, either of true or false gods. If we succeed helping the high priestess the reward is both money and freedom. Not that I trust this treacherous woman, but if you go that path eyes wide open, it can have benefits and maybe even helping other people. Obviously I'd have my hands off priests who might do good to the people of the town. So if you hear rumors about priests being looked for, either corrupted or good ones, please let me know. We could either distract the church from the good ones and help catching the others. I don't want to mix you in any troubles, but I know we can trust you at least to stand aside if we need to act, well, dangerously. Obviously I hope we all can avoid that." Tulbas breaths deeply after this long lecture. He feels tired, and with all these grave issues back fresh in his mind, his high spirit crumbles. The death cloud above Gregeddin and Gobax heads suddenly takes shape of a five heads black dragon. The image of the murder of his uncle returns to him, his fragile body after weeks of unconsciousness goes limb in his own hands. Helpless he was in front of Magnus, but he was fierce if this is any consolation. He stood in front of his uncle and was prepared to fight this powerful mage armed only with a dagger in his hand and hatred in his heart. What was he thinking? Maybe if he would obeyed Magnus he would have spared Raetmal in the end.... No... it is foolish and naive to think so. He would have killed Raetmal anyway. It was his task given by the Army and Raetmal was a threat to him. The coward was afraid to face him at full strength and used the opportunity to torture Tulbas as well.
It takes Tulbas a moment to recover before seeing again, with some surprise, Kendra and Gobax at his sides.

[TristenC]

Civilians like me aren't exactly allowed to carry weapons, but maybe I could help get some people out of harm's way. Like you said, attacking is not the smartest idea so I doubt we'll have any trouble. Grubnick tries to ignore Tulbas' ramblings at first, wondering if this is a prelude to turning him in. Once the elf finally gets around to the point he wonders if it is Tulbas' way of saying Kendra can be trusted... or of asking her circumspectly...

[BishGada]

Hearing Gobax Tulbas adds to both, "If you need escape route I can conceal us in fog, and add some slippery puddle to stop this mob" he makes face at the draconians gathered, "chasing you."

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(OOC: Looking at the spells Tulbas has compared to those Yelb has I feel so helpless. But I trust god. Err... Jaded... to be merciful. )

[Haahque]

The waiting before the show is the worst part, thankfully ended by Gobax bringing him a sizable amount of coin. To the goblin he replies: “Yes, you should collect from latecomers, you can use your own sack for that and get it to me after the show. Thank you.”

Tulbas, it appears, is still trying to edge himself into the show after being absent for so long… That’s really not going to happen. You don’t practice, you don’t perform. One older travelling performer he had travelled with and learned a lot from had said that to him. Solid advice, at any rate. “No, I’m going up onto the stage juggling, I wouldn’t want that obscured.”

Finally the others leave him, and it is time for the show to begin. Haahqae puts the coin in his backpack and withdraws three of the torches. This show would eventually use all five of his torches to juggle, as well as some well-picked sling stones at a different point, but to start, it was the standard three torches he was most used to. And his bag.

Haahqae uses his height (or rather lack thereof) and his natural ability for stealth to approach the back of the stage unseen (or so he hopes). His hiding spot wasn’t too far away from the stage and the platform was tall enough for him to hide behind while crouching.

Once he gets there, he slings up his bag onto the stage, and popping up begins juggling the three torches, a standard pattern mostly chosen because it was easy and it would signify him as a juggler. He places one foot in the strap of the bag, and starts spinning the bag around his leg as he juggles, and hop/walks forwards to the center of the stage. I could really use some music around now. Well, it’s not like I could hire a band now is it?

“Welcome everyone. Welcome to a show like you’ve never seen before! I Haahqae the Spectacular have travelled the world, performing for many different peoples and it is a great honor for me to be here today to share my art with you fine folk.”

Haahqae had considered giving himself the title of Haahqae the Hero, but he eventually decided that that title, while accurate, might not be what he wants to introduce himself as to a large group of soldiers who’s egos, especially in combat, is only exceeded by their stupidity and ill temperament. Spectacular was a much more neutral title, reserved for performers and not for soldiers.

Haahqae stops twirling the bag around his leg, letting it fly free (although not very far, given how heavy it is), in his right hand he catches one of the torches and continues juggling the other two in his left hand, as he slowly bends down and retrieves a second torch in his right hand. Soon after he straitens himself and starts juggling that hand too, each hand juggling two separate torches.

“I have performed for desert nomads and for dwarves hiding up in their mountains, but no matter where I went one thing remained the same. Soldiers, wherever they are, are respected for their skill, strength and bravery. As well they should be. And I must say, in all my travels, I have never had the chance for perform for a group of soldiers like this, each one of you highly skilled, exceptionally strong and incredibly brave. That is, each one of you, except for Gregory. Sorry Gregory, not all of us can be awesome all the time.”

Gregory, as far as Haahqae could tell, isn’t a common baaz or goblin name, so he’s pretty confident none of his audience will be offended by this, and even if someone is, it should just make the joke funnier.

Time for a little bit of a trickier juggle, juggling two torches normally, hand to hand, while at the same time juggling the other two torches on their own, each hand juggling one without it crossing over to the other hand.

[JadedDM]

Haahqae, Kendra, Tulbas and Gobax (Grand Market)
The young girl makes a face when Gobax waves to her, and looks away from him in disgust. This is a fairly standard reaction to a goblin's smile, especially from one as scarred as he is.

The show begins, and so far it's going well. The 'Gregory' joke seems to sailed over most of the audience's heads (Haahqae hears several of them murmur to each other, "Who's Gregory? Is he a new recruit?"), but they seem to be enjoying the juggling so far, at any rate. Haahqae has his coin, his show is going well (at the moment, anyway), and he did it all by himself. After all of these weeks in Haven, dealing with failure after failure, finally, at long last, something was going right.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to any attending, a single dwarf approaches the crowd from behind. As all eyes are on the stage, nobody notices him. It wasn't necessary for him to be this close, but he wanted to be close enough to savor the victory. To hear the screams and see the shocked looks on their faces. Slowly, he pulls the scroll out from inside his sleeve. Should anyone notice him, they'd only see a dwarf consulting a grocery list or perhaps some directions.

Arulia Seroth (Thoron's Blacksmithy)
The man shakes his head. "It's naive to think you can save everybody. You have to focus on those that matter. Things would have been better if the Seekers had focused on the people of this city, not the refugees. By trying to help the refugees, they made life miserable for their own citizens. This city didn't have the resources to take in 10,000 people, but tried it anyway. Then you act huffy that they didn't let even more people in? So you tell me, if you were in charge, what would you have done? If it had been me, I wouldn't have let any of 'em in...not unless they had the money and resources to actually contribute to the city's well-being." He snorts. "That's the one good thing about the dragonarmy coming in. They got rid of the refugees. The city never would have survived the winter if they had still been here."

Felran, Ne-Chanz and Shima (North Haven Sewers)
The gully dwarves continue crying, blubbering and throwing tantrums. It's very clear at this point that they don't understand the concept of a countdown or any of the numbers Shima is saying. He might as well be just saying random words in succession, as they can't count higher than two anyway.

[Chris1234]

"..2, 1, ok, you can go with him or die here," says Shima. He looks to his two companions to see if they're going to do anything.

[TristenC]

Grubnick watches the crowd and ,to a lesser extent, the show. I wonder when it will be...

[HorizonsDream]

Kendra keeps a close eye on the crowd and the surrounding area.

[BishGada]

Tulbas, while quiet hurt by Haaques reaction, enjoys the show. Without any combatant training such that Kendra has, he doesn't know what to look for and only checks if they have some alley that might be used as escape route if the need arises.

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(OOC: Can you please explain where is the crowd, the stage, and us standing in relation to each other? And if there is an alley, free enough that going to it will take us away from the soldiers? Thanks.)

[djhyland]

Arulia shakes her head, knowing that she should keep her mouth shut. But once again, she opens it. "Then that's all well and good," she says. "Who decides on which people are the ones that matter? You? Me? The Seekers? If the Seekers had taken your view and decided that you didn't contribute enough to the city's well-being, would you have been happy to go? Leave so the people who do matter have a better chance?"

Arulia looks up from the furnace and looks Bear in the eyes. "You can think that I'm huffy over this all you like. But I'll bet that every one of the refugees mattered to somebody. And if we're letting somebody decide on who's worth it and who isn't, then I think that we're walking down a very dangerous road."

[Haahque]

It appears, that no matter how little intelligence Haahqae assumes the Baaz have command over, they constantly prove that they have even less. He however does have a fair amount of jokes, baaz proven, that he’s used in the inns and taverns to advertise the show. Of his audience, it’s likely that all of the audience has heard some of the jokes, but none of the audience have heard all of them, so if he picks out a few of the better received jokes and delivers them while juggling this pattern.

Next is the juggling with spins. This involves a standard juggling pattern, where Haahqae is currently using four torches, but in the brief time when all four torches are in the air, he does a quick 360 degree spin, fast enough that he’s back in place to catch the torches and continue juggling. He does three spins in this fashion, mostly just to show off, as he doesn’t want to get himself dizzy by rapidly and repeatedly spinning in circles, then he progresses to a simpler pattern.

The new pattern is to juggle four torches normally, except for the forth torch gets caught and tossed up behind his back, where it arcs over his head and gets caught in front of him, like usual. While this move was rather tricky to master when he started out, by now he’s just going through the motions doing it, so he has time to resume cracking jokes.

“I heard a theory once that dwarves grew up to six feet tall once upon a time. But after one of them annoyed a Baaz he hit him on the head so hard that the dwarf became shorter.”

So far, Haahqae’s guessing that the best jokes for Baaz involved them hitting things. Really, a primitive form of humor, but where there’s money a gnome can’t complain that much. He had a chance to estimate the profits before the show; probably around 250 silver, which would be pretty close to how much he spent on the show. Hopefully with a little bit of profit. That would be good. If he managed to get 2 steel profit, it would cover the cost of the inn, which would mean that he would have actually made some progress towards his goals for once. Not much progress, but some. Right, next juggling pattern now.

Next, Haahqae switches to tossing the torches up from between his legs, catching them off to the side. As he juggles he also hops from foot to foot, partially for dramatic effect, partially because it was easier to get his legs high enough to not interfere with the torches this way.

[JadedDM]

Haahqae, Kendra, Tulbas and Gobax (Grand Market)
Haahqae stands on a stage about five feet off of the ground, giving everyone a clear view of him even if they are in the back of the audience. The stage is flanked by two security guards, both baaz, that the gnome hired. The audience of 54 baaz sit in front of the stage, while the dwarf is around 30 feet behind them.

Gobax, Tulbas, Kendra and Camilla stand between the audience and some buildings, including the cobbler's shop. There are also a handful of residents going about their business in the market. Some are drawn to the sight of the performance, but none dare get too close to such a large crowd of draconians.

The performance goes fairly well. Haahqae tells some jokes and continues juggling. He seems far better at the latter than the former, but the baaz seem to enjoy the performance nonetheless.

The dwarf begins reading from the scroll. When he's done, the scroll suddenly catches on fire and burns away to ash. Another fire, much larger, springs into existence about 15 feet in front of him. That flame grows and takes the shape of a person, an ogre-sized person!

Fire Elemental.jpg (44.83 KiB) Viewed 5034 times

The audience, their eyes on Haahqae, don't even notice until one of the local residents screams at the sight of the hulking brute made of flame. Haahqae sees it easily from his vantage point, as can Kendra, Tulbas and Gobax. Without a word, the elemental starts to move forward, toward the draconians...

Haahqae's Performance 01.jpg (69 KiB) Viewed 5034 times

Arulia Seroth (Thoron's Blacksmithy)
The man chuckles. "You're evading the question, though. If you had been in charge, would you have let in all of the refugees then? What would you have fed them? Where would you have put them? Would you have displaced our own citizens to make room for them, taken food from our mouths to feed them? Once word got out that Haven was taking in unlimited refugees, how many more thousand do you think would have shown up at the gate? Real life is messy. You have to make sacrifices sometimes, make hard choices. If you try and save everyone, you'll wind up saving nobody."

Felran, Ne-Chanz and Shima (North Haven Sewers)
It's only when he gets to 'two' do the gully dwarves seem to realize he is counting down. In a panic, they all try to run away. But there is nowhere to go, so they all wind up crowded together in a heap on the western side of the room, practically trampling each other to get further from their would-be murderers.

Underground River 06.jpg (37.56 KiB) Viewed 5034 times

[Chris1234]

"There you go, guys. You want the sewers cleared. How do you want to handle this? I'm only here to help you," Shima says to Felran and Ne-Chanz.

Then he tries one final time, "Oi! King! You want to get your lot to safety?"

[TristenC]

Gobax stares at the being of pure fire, stunned to the core. Holy smokes... he breathes, in awe and wonder.

[Ooc: wow. I was kind of hoping for one of those . Grubnick has to be thinking 'cha-ching!]