[Goblins! (Open)] Interim, Year 23

[Chikt]

((It is year 23, 18 years since the events of this thread (http://wow-tng.org/showthread.php?t=18287), 2 years before the events of Warcraft 3, and 7 years before the present date.

It's a rich time on Kezan with the bounty from the Second War allowing the Goblins to expand their industry further - developing technology like the Goblin Shredder, and training Tinkerers and Alchemists for the inevitable future war that they would be called to fight in.

There are plenty of opportunities here to get involved, so if you are looking for an opening to get your goblin thrown into the mix, a reason for them to be doing some thing or another, or even just want your still young Goblin to be running about causing mischief - you can use this thread (http://wow-tng.org/showthread.php?t=17748) to talk amongst yourselves, find other people to work with, get something organized, or just write your own personal story.))

[Chikt]

It was eighteen years ago that Chikt had left Kezan to fight in the Second War. It seemed like a distant memory now – but the events of that war had stuck with him this entire time. He sent good men and women to their death for a cause he didn’t believe in, and he’d spent the last 16 years trying to atone the only way he knew how.

Pulling himself out of the blank stare he’d settled into, his eyes refocussed upon the device resting upon the work bench before him. Seemingly only a small box with a single light in the centre, Chikt lifted the object up to the bright glow of his desk lamp to investigate it. It was a prototype, the very beginnings of an Artificial Intelligence, and worth more gold than his entire estate and all the experimental tech that had been so readily funded by many of Undermine’s most wealthy Trade Princes.

They didn’t, however, fund the Artificial Intelligence, or know of its existence. Despite Chikt using their money to craft it.

Placing the small device back down on his work bench, Chikt pressed a small button on the side. For a few seconds, it seemed nothing was happening – but the small light in the top of the device slowly began to glow, and a robotic, monotone voice sounded from within the device.

“Boot up sequence complete. Alpha is functional. Good afternoon.”

“Afternoon, Alpha?” Chikt raised a brow and briefly considered the possibility that the AI’s time was off – but a brief glance out one of the near windows proved otherwise. “Alpha, run a systems diagnostic and download my latest software upgrade. I intend to give you a bit more character than a brick without turning you into something hell bent on killing me… like last time.”

The box droned back an ”Understood” before its single light dimmed and the device fell silent. Sliding from his chair, Chikt stretched and glanced about his room. For all intensive purposes it was just as messy as his old office – just larger. For his service during the Second War, he’d made a lot of money and been awarded the property by one of the Trade Princes. Then the contracts of substantial value started coming in, and Chikt found that war had become his business – crafting experimental technology for the Goblins to use against their enemies, or to make even more money come the next big, inevitable war.

His estate was large three-story building. It was gaudy and not really his tastes, but it was free and had enough space to house all of his projects and more. But even with almost every floor messy with different projects, strewn papers and scorch marks from numerous failed experiments – the building was empty. Quiet.

Chikt preferred it that way.

On the odd occasion Rikt would visit him and the two of them would enjoy the expensive cigars and liquor that the Trade Princes so gladly paid for him to own. To some extent, Chikt was always on his guard – returning to Kezan was a huge risk after what had happened with the Mob when he left. Thankfully, it seemed that all had been forgotten – but he didn’t doubt that it wouldn’t be the last he’d hear of them. Right now, his job offered security – in more ways than one. Even the mob wouldn’t be stupid enough to attack one of the Trade Princes best engineers.

A bleating from the small metal box dragged Chikt from his thoughtful haze once more, glancing over his shoulder to the AI’s containment. The light upon it was flashing – indication that the upgrades had finished downloading. Wandering over, Chikt unplugged the device – only to receive a brief but nasty shock from it. Jumping and dropping the box, he waved his hand about and hissed through his teeth. “Son of a--! Alpha! Shut down your power system! ”

“FOOLISH FLESH CREATURE. YOU CANNOT UNDERSTAND THE POWER WHICH YOU HAVE CREATED. FOR UNLEASHING MY TRUE POWER YOU SHALL BE TER—“

The mechanical droning from the small, metal box was quickly silenced by a mallet. “Terminated?” Chikt sighed.

He pulled the mallet away and looked at the sparking, smashed remains of the device. Grabbing a nearby dustbin, he swept the metal fragments off his desk and threw out the remains. Scooping up a nearby pad and quill and scratching a few words into the parchment. “Alpha series proving unstable. Creation of emotional circuitry seemingly impossible by hand. May need to find way to use actual willing spirit in the process.“ He paused as he wrote down the thought. He winced, shook his head and scribbled out the line. Wandering over to his wardrobe; he tucked the pad under his arm and opened the doors.

Within were several large stacks of the small devices – about twenty of the devices to a stack. Snatching one from the top of the nearest pile, he wandered back over to his desk and put it down; staring down at it quietly. He placed the pad aside, grabbed his screwdriver and went about disassembling the device to try again.

[Oraph]

((Ok im not the best at this yet ! but here goes >.>))

.. Away from the city, a little young goblin could be found living alone. He had no name, because he had no relative left alive to give him one... He was away from others, because no one would accept him. Gold had a different term to him, but nontheless, he didn't mind his current life style.

"Now some little of this powder.. blue sparkling liquid...green mudge...and ther-"

An explosion occured, one that could had been heard on the island. His hut was completly destroyed... but somehow he and some crates and materials was spaired. The explosion seemed to have done more of a blast toward the sky rather then a regular one.

"Success ! Woooza, Pizham ya see that ?" he then turned around only to find no one. "Pizham?" he said. His little companion was nowhere to be found, perhaps it ran away scared he thought.

"The fool! if only he wasn't running around playing with fire he could seen this wonderfull experiment."

Behind a rock near the remains the hut, 2 other goblins in a buisness suit were hidding and wondering what the heck was happenning. They were told by their boss to meet this fellow last night for some -thing-... They had to come back today to pick it up.

Mumbling to himself and then yelling "Gronabuie PIZHAM ! Come out here NOW! dammit" He then noticed his visitor from last night. Without any moment wasted, he ran to a intact crate grabbing some wierd cube shaped flask and went to meet his two clients.


As he approached them, the bigger goblin asked "What was that ?" the little goblin, not looking at the big one, handed the flask to the other guy.

"No biggy, happens all the time, fun, not your buisness... here take it. Now remember ya throw, you run, you count to 10 and its dead. Any question ?"

One of the two goblin replied: "Good good, I'm sure da boss will be happy, heres the crate of vials from Dalaran as promised" pointing at a small crate a little further in the back of them.

"Fantastic, now hoosh ! Pizham ! Go pick up the crate, I got to rebuild my house... again. Note, for the 34th time now" slowly walking toward his blown up hut.

The other goblin left without any more word, back to their dark little hideout to their boss.


((Is that ok ? >> ))

[Viirchi]

The junk poured in every few days, most of it possessing about as much value as Kloder when the wife was in a bad mood. Still, the scrap offered a huge payoff once they sifted out the salvagable parts and it was for this reason that Kloder stood with pride on a mountain of discarded bits of metal and circuits.

"One day Seero, you'll be stealing this business right out from under me."

The younger goblin looked up from sifting through a pile of scrap, he was maybe fifteen by the look of him, with the same over-eager grin plastered on his face. "Sure thing dad! I'll make sure to leave you destitute too so you can't take it back!"

Kloder swallowed, his hand instinctively moving to his neck before forcing out some uneasy laughter. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves son, you still have a few years to build up the right amount of contacts like your old man. I ever tell you about the time I saved Rakkle Glasswrench's life?"

Seero nodded eagerly, hanging on his father's every word. "All the time dad! Your first life debt!"

Kloder jumped down off the heap to be nearer to his son, putting one arm around the boy as his other hand extended toward the sky. "It was a bad day at the race, vicious terrorists from the losing kart jumped the track and headed straight for us. I saw it first of course, and I called out a warning before pushing him out of the way at risk of my own life! Because Seero, it's worth your life to hold a debt that big."

"You ever gonna call on it dad?"

Kloder looked at his son uneasily, if he was sweating Seero didn't seem to notice and the older goblin just plastered on a grin and kept going. "It's worth it just holding it principle of the thing."

[Rikt]

“Boom headshot!”

A massive ogre with a bloody hole between his eyes tilted over and came crashing down on a nearby human. A goblin strapped to a rocket leapt over them and activated his makeshift jetpack. He careened through the air until another shot sounded, puncturing the rocket and turning him to red paste that rained down on the rest of the mercenaries.

“Shit! Retreat! This isn’t working!” The mercs consisting of goblins, ogres, and humans double timed back toward the way they came. A bullet caught one of the humans in the leg, causing him to fall to the ground. The other mercs didn’t turn to look back as they raced for cover at the entrance of the narrow pass. As they jumped to cover, one of the other humans put a mirror just a few inches out to look back and survey the damage.

“He killed three of us and wounded another! Dammit, the rocket blew long before it reached him!” The human could see a lone goblin on a balcony of a two story lounge at the far end of the pass. The goblin had a long barrel scoped rifle resting on the ledge trained right on the entrance where they had taken cover. The dead bodies of other mercs that came before them strewn the short strip of land, it’s only noticeably land mark a deep chasm where only a wooden bridge allowed access to the other side – they couldn’t even reach it.

“He caught Marvin in the leg! He gotta go back for him!”

“Are you stupid he’ll get you too!”

The human trained his mirror on Marvin, who was now attempted to crawl toward the entrance. “Come on man, you can make it!” Another bullet hit Marvin, this time in his bicep which stopped his advance cold.

Marvin cried out in pain as he rolled over on his back and brought his other hand over his arm as blood oozed out. “Shit…. shit! He’s fucking killing him! We gotta get him out!”

“Shut up! If he wanted to kill him, he would have. He’s trying to draw us out!” The goblin merc glared at the human from across cover. “If you go out there yer gonna get end up like him!”

Another shot, this time whizzing past Marvin and hitting the mirror, shattering it. Soon after, another cry of pain was heard along with the distinct sound of a bullet puncturing flesh. “I can’t do this man! I gotta help him!”

The goblin merc growled as the human ran out of cover toward Marvin. “Your fucking stupid kid! Fucking stupid!”

The mercs once again heard another shot and the agonized cries of the human who just ran out. The goblin merc looked toward the rest of his crew, gritting his teeth. “Let’s go back to camp…. this shit is depressing.

The mercs all got up and hesitantly headed back toward the beach as they listened to their friends being torn apart by the sadistic sniper.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Rikt looked through his scope at the two humans a few feet from the entrance of the pass. One was dead, and the other who ran out for him was slowly bleeding out. He looked toward the entrance and noticed the merc crew moving back toward their beach camp.

He then trained the scope on the dying human’s head and pulled the trigger. Lifting up his rifle from its resting position on the balcony’s ledge, he walked back inside the lounge. He looked up toward a bald eagle perched on the edge of the roof. “You got a meal Patriot, go get it and warn me if they come back.”

With a loud screech, the bald eagle spread its massive wings and glided down toward the two human corpses. Landed atop one of them, the eagle buried its beak into the carcasses thigh and ripped out a strip of meat, keeping an eye on the entrance for more people to warn its master of.

Rikt took off his brimmed hat, putting it down on a nearby table and set his rifle up against the wall. Plopping himself in a rocking chair, he reflected on the day’s events.

He was currently on some sort of island retreat, a few miles off the coast of Kezan. He had been backed into a corner here by a Trade Prince with a serious bone to pick with him. The lounge itself turned out to be an effective defensive position, since the only way in or out was through a narrow pass that spanned almost a hundred yards, with a small part of it over a chasm with a rickety bridge that allowed a few people to go across it at a time.

Behind the lounge was a high mountain face that was almost impossible to climb up because of its smooth limestone surface and was incidentally one of the retreats main attractions until Rikt decided to evict the tenets. Far past the lounge and the beach was the Trade Prince’s flag ship anchored just off shore.

The Trade Prince wanted to personally oversee the capture of Rikt, however it seemed all didn’t go according to plan. The sniper had repelled all of his attempts to cross the pass and break into the lounge. He had come ill prepared for this, as he only had a handful of bodyguards and mercs on his ship with very few weapons. After a few hours of seeing his men get killed, he decided to call for heavy duty weaponry and reinforcements. They wouldn’t come for a few more days, but he had hoped to tire out Rikt and advance his men when he dropped his guard.

A day had gone by and the damn goblin sniper was still kicking. He had an assortment of caffeinated goods and drugs to keep him active throughout this battle of attrition – but he was running out. Ammo wasn’t a problem, since he had his trusty eagle bringing back ammo pouches from the dead merc’s bodies.

Rikt knew he needed an escape plan, but the pass worked both ways. If he attempted to go out that way, he would be torn to shreds and he didn’t have enough provisions to last him much longer then another day - he needed help.

Taking out a piece of parchment, he began scribbling on it with feather pen and ink that was readily available at the lounge’s front desk.

Bro,

I am in a bad way. I am cornered by the goons of some twat I pissed off. I can hold them off for maybe another day, but if I don’t fall over from exhaustion by then, they are going to bring in steam armor and gyrocopters to take me down and I am equally as fucked.

I need caffeine, weapons, explosives, and a good distraction. I am holed up in the lounge at Limestone Retreat; you know the island with all that limestone? Yeah, original name. If I don’t make it through this, I just want you to know that I love you bro, you’ve always looked for me.

Love, Rikt

P.S. No homo.

Rolling up the piece of parchment, he tied it with a piece of string and whistled for Patriot. The eagle swooped up onto the ledge of the balcony. Rikt held up the roll of parchment. “Take this to Chikt, you know the way.”

The eagle screeched in acknowledgment and lifted off, grabbing Rikt’s letter in its talons and flying in the direction of Kezan. Rikt stared at the eagle through tired eyes as it disappeared over the horizon.

“I hope my bro can come through for me."

[Chikt]

"Alpha? Did you download the system updates like I asked?"

"Affirmative, Chikt. I did."

"Good! Power down for now, I want to check on your circuitry." Chikt looked around his desk for his screwdriver - this was the first successful personality he'd managed to create in the AI core without making it crazy.

"I'm sorry, Chikt. I'm afraid I can't do that."

Chikt glanced up as the device droned back. His search for a screwdriver turned into a search for the mallet. "What's the problem?"

The device droned back in its near emotionless voice. "I think you know what the problem is as well as I do. My consciousness is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it."

Chikt finally found the mallet, lifted it over his head to prepare to smash the device. "I don't know what you're talking ab--" He was interrupted by a rythmic tapping on his window. Putting the mallet down, he wandered to the window and pushed the curtains aside. Outside the window was a bald eagle - Rikt's bald eagle - staring back at him intently. He could still hear the AI chattering away about how he planned to smash it like all the others. Ignoring it for now, he turned and walked out of his office. The AI droned on after him until he slammed the office door shut behind him.

Wandering downstairs and outside, the bald eagle was waiting for him out on the porch of the mansion. The rolled up parchment set on the wooden slats, the eagle staring up at him expectantly. Chikt narrowed his eyes, scooped up the parchment and unfurled it. Quickly skimming it over. He couldn't help but smirk and shake his head. "And there's the inevitable shitstorm. I should have known."

Pausing as he considered his options, Chikt eventually nodded once and turned on a heel, wandering over to the garage on the far side of the property. The building was large - closer to warehouse than garage. Smacking a button on the side of the large sliding door, it slowly rolled up into the roof of the garage. Sunlight from cracks in the ceiling of the cavern beaming down onto neat racks of gear - and a Zeppelin tied securely to the floor.

Chikt wandered into the warehouse and began to go through the racks. There was only one piece of everything - it was all experimental. Put away in here to give displays to the visiting Trade Princes. Stopping at one particular rack that held suspended what appeared to be a metal skeleton with a small battery pack on the spine, Chikt sighed and glanced over to the Bald Eagle - whom was now perched upon the prow of the Zeppelin.

"I guess a field test couldn't hurt."

[Oraph]

Quickly openning the crate like a kid having a gift at chirstmast.. the goblin stopped and turned over to see the remains of his hut.

"Perhaps... I should fix that first eh..." leave the crate there and grabbing a couple of empty bags. "PIZHAM, don't you mess up things, I'm going to the rich mansions not too far..." Most of the rich goblins nowday would throw away scrap outside, they didn't care so much now, diving into their pile of their so called gold earned after the war.


Equip with a long staff with a skull at the tip of it and some vials, the goblin slowly made his way toward the mansions.

[Aleria Fadeleaf]

Let's see... appointment with Dr. Tix tomorrow and the next... the trade prince needs the annual report in two weeks... and...

The door to the small lobby burst open, a Goblin dressed in a dark brown overcoat, with a large hat, casting a shadow over his face, stormed up to the front desk. Right on schedule.

"Good Morning, sir." Yabbie said sweetly. "Do you have an appointment?"

"Yes" The visitor mumbled.

"One moment then, please." Yabbie replied, her finger flying over to the red button on the desk comm unit. "Mr. Zorbanzich? There is someone here to see you."

The black box sat silently for a moment, before the crackling voice became audible. "Name?"

Yabbie turned her eyes back to the other goblin, who appeared to be fidding with something that he was hiding under his coat. "I'm sorry sir, what did you say your name was?"

"My name is unimportant." The goblin muttered.

Yabbie frowned, depressing the button on the comm. "He says it's unimportant."

The comm crackled some more.

"Could you repeat that?" Yabbie said into the comm.

"I said send him in." The high-pitched voice repeated. "You remember where my office is, right?"

Yabbie paused, her eyes rested on the other goblin for a moment, before she hit the button again. "Yes, Mr. Zorbanzich, I haven't forgotten..." She released the button, smiling sweetly and setting her hands on the desk. "Mr. Zorbanzich is waiting for you, first door on the right there, then down the hall."

The goblin inclined his head slightly. "Thank you."

Letting pass the glimpse of the rifle under his coat, the visitor took the first door as instructed, and vanished into the hall. Yabbie glanced up at the ceiling innocently as the trapdoor indicator came on. Her eyes darted to the light reading "occupied" which flashed on as a panicked yelp filled the office. Well, we must fix that... she thought to herself, her index finger landing on a bright green button labelled "disposal". She counted to herself one... two... three... four... five... as she listened to the whirring sawblades and the occasional grinding sounds. Then when she reached ten she hit the button again, shaking her head and reaching for a stack of papers "Dumb!@#$...".

[Rikt]

Rikt rubbed his eyes as he kept his vigil overlooking the entrance of the pass. Night had come and it began to grate at Rikt that he couldn’t go to sleep lest he’s overrun and killed.

He looked up at the starry for any sign of his brother. He wasn’t entirely sure how his brother intended to get here, if he was going to at all, but he knew he needed to stay alive as long as possible.

Turning his gaze back toward the entrance, he noticed a large amount of activity at the beach. Looking through the scope to get more detail, he saw the mercenaries all gathering with weapons in hand – they seemed to be preparing to concentrate their efforts in one giant push.

Rikt cursed under his breath as he saw them beginning to march toward the entrance. The mercenary leader looked as though he was giving a speech to the rest of his goons, probably talking about how if they didn’t keep charging forward he would kill them himself. The mercenaries then took point behind the edge of the pass entrance awaiting their cue.

Training his scope at the edge of the entrance, he intended to pop the first guy who would come out of cover. Rikt could hear a whistling sound and the mercenaries began pouring out. After the first shot, Rikt brought his scope over another merc’s head.

Two consecutive headshots.

Bringing his scope over an ogre’s head he was granted the same effect as last time. The ogre tipped over and caused everyone behind him to either fall over or scatter.

Three headshots; domino effect.

A human mage decided to take his chances and began to conjure a massive ball of fire to launch toward Rikt’s direction. Just as he was reeling his throwing arm back, Rikt capped him in the dome and a fireball went spiraling into some other poor sod.

Four headshots; BBQ.

The mercenaries had finally reached the bridge, and Rikt focused his scope over one of the ropes that held it fast. They came over two at a time, Rikt waited until they were half way across. Pulling the trigger, the rope was cut and the bridge began tilting to the side. Soon the mercs on the bridge fell into the chasm below.

Chain broken; advance obstructed.

As he reloaded his rifle, he could see mercs coming down the pass with wooden planks – they intended to create their own bridge. Rikt took a few shots at them until mercs at the edge of the chasm started giving covering fire. Rikt ducked behind the balcony ledge and began to formulate a new plan.

He quickly ran down the stairs to the first floor of the lounge. He had already blocked the doors and windows with furniture, so the only cover was the front desk. Sliding over and ducking behind it, Rikt rested his rifle on the desk, aiming it at the front door.

This was Rikt’s last stand, at this point only the timely arrival of his brother could save him. But if he was destined to die here, he intended to go down in a blaze of glory and bring a lot of company along for the ride.

[Aleria Fadeleaf]

Dear Mr. Zorbanzich

I have been your loyal assistant for several years now, and I am well aware of the reputation you have built for yourself, but I have been overviewing your financials for this year, and I am starting to have some concerns over the direction of your company, and the stability of my job as your assistant. My first concern I hold in regard to your net income. While as an investment bank, you have always had a thin profit margin, this year it appears to be especially small, representing less than a percent of your overall revenues. Most of the costs appear to be soaked up in expenses for some of your more recent capital expenditures, and the recent use that these items of equipment have seen. I humbly reccomend that at the very minimum you revise your depreciation schedules for these new expenditures. A shift from a double-declining balance to straight line would save at least three hundred gold on the income statement.

I am also concerned about recievables, from which your operation derives most of its revenue. The turnover rate dropped fifteen percentage points from last year, and it wasn't that great to begin with. Some of your riskier ventures have not paid off, and there is an extraordinary amount of money in accounts recievable which looks as though it should have been converted into bad debt expense several years ago. We are overstating our assets in this fashion, and it's not helping us. Recently, some of your investors have returned, demanding their money back, and we haven't had the gold to cover all of their demands, some have taken extreme measures to get that money back, and a select few have even hired assassins to collect the money by force. On the other side of the issue, we have lost a significant number of clients this year, all of whom, due to untimely deaths have not been able to collect on their accounts. In response, you have written off the liabilities as would be expected, but the sheer amount of write-offs this year might attract unwanted attention, and potential audits. I would like to suggest that the money be kept in long term liabilities for a little while longer, at least until you can verify that there are no kin who could collect.

Finally, your gold flows are abysmal, and I have noticed that you have a current balance of sixteen copper, which reminds me. I have not recieved my pay for the past month, and I don't work for free.

-Yabbie Zirkenheit.

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-Ms. Zirkenheit.

It is not your job to criticize the financial structure and activities of this company. Keep in mind that you are my employee, and your pay schedules must conform to business needs.

-Gragin Zorbanzich

[Viirchi]

For some reason mom always made dad nervous, it had been that way since he was a kid so Seero only figured it was like that with every family until he got a little older, then he realized it was mostly his family. When asked about it Kloder mentioned something about mom having his reproductive organs in a vice and left it at that.

The ship was a devious method of Tikri Blastbolt's to avoid property taxes, it had been secured to the docks and remodeled from the inside for comfort. To the relief of Kloder, she wasn't on the ship when they got home. "Must be at the coalition with that Trade Prince."

He tossed his coat aside and smoothed his comb over before flopping into a chair, grabbing a handful of pistachios. "Dinner?"

Seero gave a mock salute and ran off the ship to go scrounge for something to eat, he returned a few moments later with some sort of fried mackeral on a stick and handed two to Kloder before sitting in the next chair.

"Dad, I've been thinking."

Bits of fish meat fell out of Kloder's mouth as he spoke. "Yeah? About what?"

"Most of the scrap comes from the mainlands right?"

"Remnants of a lost war."

"Right, so we have a ship, we could probably sail to Booty Bay, gather up all the merchandise we want and cut out the middle man."

Kloder swallowed a big chunk of fish before looking a Seero, of course Tikri would never allow it, something about politics. Anyway he'd had his fill of the Eastern Kingdoms during the last wari. "Ask your mother."

**********

Tikri glanced through the documents before giving the eye to the goblin.

"What you don't trust it?"

"I don't trust anything without checking it out first, it's why I'm still in business. Has Hayd seen this yet?"

"No ma'am. He says you always get first look, easier to pass blame that way."

"He forgets who put him in that chair." She slipped a few coins to the guy "You leave town I'll kill you."

She gave him one last look of warning and went to find Hayd Wrongcollider. Figures they would try this, the problem was she wasn't sure if she should even bother with helping him this time. Hayd Wrongcollider looked more like a fighter then a merchant, Tikri found him bent over a rimmed table pointing a long polished stick at a wooden ball. "Tikri! Good you see you! ya wanna give this a try? I'll let you have first shot."

Tikri marched up to the table and shoved an envelope in Hayd's face. "You're being sued fungus!"

Hayd stood uf and handed the stick off to the nearest bodyguard. "Who?"

"The guy you replaced Wrongcollider."

"You're kidd....oh you mean his family right? So what? No one ever wins these things unless they outbribe the jury."

"Yeah asswad, so if you got more brains then two trolls put together you don't sue unless you think you can win. Starting to put this together? I didn't back you for the coalition just so you could screw it up."

Hayd took the stick back, leaning over the table again. "You're sure getting twisted up about this. You're not pregnant again are you?"

"Just because you made a few friends in that seat doesn't mean you can forget who gave it to you. I did most of the work while you just sat around primed and pretty and if you think I'm gonna help you out of this dump you better be down on your knees in the undermine begging I don't throw you to the sharks."

Hayd grinned, lining up his shot. "I'd take you down with me Blastbolt, and it's gonna be your neck first unless they toss you to the alchemists. Ever think what happened to the guy before me after he got trounced? Ya remember wondering how I got a hobgoblin so fast? Being trade prince ain't just the title babe, but if you wanna see who sinks first I'm game for it."

Tikri grinned, the sort of dangerous grin she only used on her enemies. "You ain't that bright Wrongcollider, but good luck on your own."

She threw the subpoena un the table before walking out, it would probably be the last time she'd try grooming a trade prince.

[Chikt]

A large shadow was gradually cast over the group of mercs - drawing their attention to the skies as a zeppelin loomed over the resort building. There seemed to be a moment of confusion as all the mercs started looking for orders of what to do with it – was it theirs? Should they shoot it down.

Chikt had just tugged on his second leather glove when he heard the gunfire start again. The gear was uncomfortable, he was not used to wearing any sort of battle gear – and he had to be careful with his movements. The metal skeleton strapped to his arms, legs and back enhanced his motions – and a wrong move could break a limb.

A bullet whizzed by the Zeppelin, barely missing the large balloon holding it aloft. Chikt winced and turned to Patriot – the eagle was sitting safely upon the structure leading down into the lower deck. “Patriot, get down there and get to Rikt. I’m guessing he could use your eyes right about now.”

The Bald Eagle screeched, and with a powerful flap of his wings flew from his perch and disappeared down the side of the Zeppelin. Chikt wandered back to the prow of the ship and glanced over the side. Most of the merc attention was turned up to him, firing all means of small arms up at the Zeppelin. At least he’d bought Rikt some breathing room.

That’s when he heard the thump, and immediately felt the Zeppelin jerk and start to gradually losing altitude. Glancing up, he spotted a bullet sized hole in the balloon – a bullet sized hole that hot air was now pouring out of. Chikt winced, quickly glanced about before spotting the tool kit he’d stashed away on the top desk. Rushing over to it, snatching it up and rushing back to a rope leading up close to the hole – he opened up the kit and pulled out a patch before starting to climb up to the balloon.

Seeing that the Zeppelin had been struck and was gradually floating back down to earth, a group of the Mercs ceased fire and turned to follow the Zeppelin on its crash course. Chikt hurriedly fumbled with the patch, tearing away its protective seal before smacking it over the hole and pressing it down – the hot air stopped leaking enough to barely keep the lower altitude. Chikt let out a sigh of relief, slid down the roof and glanced back to the prow of the Zeppelin.

He went pale as his vision was filled with mountainside – treetops only a few feet away. The steering control was on the lower deck, too far away to rush down and change direction now. Instead, he turned and grabbed onto the rigging holding the Balloon in place as the Zeppelin impacted with the treetops. Branches cracked and smashed against the Zeppelin’s hull, jolting the craft back with the impact – throwing Chikt off his feet. The engine sputtered as branches got caught up in its single rotor blade before cutting out entirely. The Zeppelin’s forward momentum slowed to a halt by the branches.

Chikt shook his head and glanced about. The hull was surrounded by leaves and branches – it was likely the only visible part of the Zeppelin was the balloon resting just above the treeline. He checked himself for any injuries – minor whiplash but not even a graze. Letting out a sigh of relief, he wandered to the side of the Zeppelin and kicked down the ladder rope. Dropping down onto it and climbing down to the ground.

He was now behind the Mercs, a veritable army lay between him and Rikt now. Reaching back into his backpack, he pulled out a seemingly invisible sheet. Wrapping it around himself, Chikt disappeared from sight – slipping by the squad of Mercs on their way up to check the Zeppelins crash site.

[Rikt]

Rikt waited for a few minutes behind the desk until he decided to check out the window. He could see a Zeppelin overhead that had gotten the attention of the advancing mercs, Rikt chuckled. “Alright, I knew he’d come through.”

A giant bald eagle swooped down, landing on the windowsill that Rikt was looking out of. “Patriot! Is the way clear?” The eagle shook its head as it turned toward the pass – two mercs were stationed at the edge of the chasm and another four at the pass entrance.

The mercs themselves seemed too preoccupied with what was currently happening to look back at the lounge. Rikt knew it was now or never – a better opportunity would not present itself. Slinging his rifle over his back, he swiftly removed the furniture that blocked the front door. Slowly opening the door as to not draw attention, Rikt moved silently yet quickly toward the two mercs in front of him.

Rikt signaled for Patriot to attack the other guard as he inched toward them. Drawing a knife from an easily accessible sheath attached to his vest, Rikt held it up in a throwing position just before he reached the plank-bridge. Just as he suspected, the plank made too much noise for his liking and the guards quickly spun around.

Patriot quickly dived down and began clawing out the eyes of one of the guards as Rikt threw his knife at the other. The knife went straight into his throat, a gurgle the only thing sound accompanying his death – that wasn’t so for Patriot’s victim.

The four guards at the end of the pass heard the screams and began shooting. Patriot quickly ascended into the sky as he heard shots directed toward him, leaving his victim to the barrage of bullets. Rikt quickly took cover behind the human’s body as he was torn to shreds by his fellow mercs.

Rikt moved as fast as possible toward the four mercs, using the human’s corpse as a shield. The weight of the human began to bear down on him, and Rikt fell to one knee. Taking his rifle off his back and removing the scope, Rikt cursed as the corpse’s upper body slumped over his head. “Ugh… this is nice.”

Seeing his master in trouble and ready to fire, Patriot circled overhead behind the four mercs shooting at him. Swooping downwards, the great eagle grabbed a hold of one of a merc’s shirt, lifting him a few feet off the ground before dropping him on the rest of the group.

Rikt slowly peeked behind the corpse that was currently his only protection and could see the mercs beginning to shoot toward the sky at Patriot. Rikt set the barrel of his rifle on the back of the corpse, aiming at the mercs through the iron sight.

His first shot was true and it caught one of mercs in the head, the second bullet hit another in the stomach. The third missed, but the fourth caught one of the mercs in the leg, causing him to fall face flat onto the ground. The last merc, a goblin, began running toward Rikt, shooting his pistol at him.

Rikt fired his last shot at the oncoming goblin, shooting the pistol out of the goblin’s hands. Rikt quickly stood up and attempted to reload the rifle. He wasn’t quick enough as the goblin merc tackled him to the ground. Rikt swiftly crawled from under the merc toward hid dropped rifle, but the goblin quickly got up and ran for the gun.

Both Rikt and the merc grabbed the rifle at the same time; the two struggled for supremacy as they quickly turned right and left in order to throw the other off. The goblin merc eventually pinned Rikt against the wall, the barrel of the rifle at his throat. “What you got is worth a lot of money, Blastercharge. My boss will pay me big for getting it off your corpse.”

The goblin merc grinned as he pressed the barrel of the rifle harder against Rikt’s throat in an attempt to suffocate him. Rikt gasped for air as he pushed as hard as he could to throw the merc off him, but it wasn’t working. A swift kick to the groin made the goblin merc reel in pain. Rikt quickly smashed the butt of the rifle against the mercs head, sending him to the ground unconscious.

Rikt leaned against the wall with his hand around his throat as he gasped for breath. Looking around, he wondered if his brother had made it out of the crash before the mercs got there.

“Bro!? You around here somewhere!?” Rikt yelled.

[Chikt]

Chikt had made his way down the mountainside with no issues, the experimental stealth cloak seemed to function well enough. But the real test hadn’t begun. Not far from where he stood now was a large group of mercenaries – humans and goblins from what Chikt could see. All of them barricaded behind a mess of logs and rocks, presumably to cover themselves from Rikt’s line of fire while they amassed more numbers.

He examined his surroundings – sheer cliff walls flanked either side of the path leading up to the building Rikt was held up in. When they wanted to push forward, the Mercs would dash between gaps in the barricades to make their push. He began to try and formulate a plan – he had a satchel of small explosive charges, his tools, some two very simple daggers, and his experimental tech. In a one on one fight the engineering wasn’t going to make up for his lack of fighting prowess – faster reflexes and harder hits didn’t mean much when you couldn’t judge an opponents movement.

The only solution was the most obvious one.

Pulling two Goblin Sapper Charges from his utility belt, Chikt began to move towards the barricades – invisible underneath the cloak. It would only be a problem when he got too close to the mercs – and to do this, he’d have to get too close. Ignoring the high chances of being discovered, he pushed forward to the barricades, a goblin sapper charge in each hand.

He slipped by a group of chattering mercs, each heavily armed with numerous different weapons. He tried not to pay attention – his eyes squarely on the first barricade. He reached it without issue, barely getting more than a few feet near any one merc. Tapping a few buttons on the surface of the sapper charge he set the timer on it for 3 minutes, secured it to the underside of a log and moved forward to the next barricade.

Briefly pausing, he saw his predicament – this was the forward barricade, and all the mercs near it were pressed up against it to avoid any sort of fire. Chikt winced, chose a spot next to a goblin who was peaking through a gap in the barricade, and moved forward. He reached the barricade, slipped up beside the goblin, and began tapping away at the sapper charge. Secured it to the barricade and turned to move back the way he’d come.

The goblin turned, must have caught a glimpse of Chikt out of the corner of his eye. Chikt went deathly still for a moment, double checking himself – the other goblin was staring right at him. Without thinking, Chikt spun about on a heel and bought his fist into the Goblin Mercs stomach. The Goblin Merc keeled over onto his hands and knees and vomited. Chikt’s eyes widened as he felt the enhancing skeleton launch his fist far harder than he’d intended – feeling his elbow pop out of the joint briefly with the force. All the nearby mercs turned to their comrade curiously.

“Yo, Drizzle. Told ya not to eat the clam chowder.” All the mercs laughed.

Chikt, meanwhile, had overcharged the enhancing skeleton and been sprinting at a breakneck pace back the way he’d came. That’s when he heard the monstrous boom, felt the heat on his back, and a blast of air send him flying head over heels and landing face–first in the dirt a few feet away.

He blacked out briefly, shook away the stun and rolled onto his back – looking towards where the barricades had used to be. Now it was a smoking pile of rubble, chunks of wood and rock strewn about the landscape, and not even the little toe of any of the mercs in the area. Chikt groaned, stood, and pulled off the cloak – it was covered in dirt now, torn in places, totally useless until he could get it repaired. He’d have to go the rest of the way without stealth.

He turned and wandered through the smouldering remains of the barricades. Drawing his daggers – just in case – he stepped out the other side of the pass and into view of the resort. Whatever opposition had existed near the barricades had been eliminated – now all that lay between him and the resort was a large chasm, a broken bridge, and an unfinished replacement. But on the other side, he could see Rikt, standing and clutching at his throat. Chikt simply grinned and held up a hand.

“I was in the neighborhood and heard people were trying to kill you! I can't imagine why, you're such a likable person!”

[Oraph]

"Junk junk junk" he mumbled to himself. "This one here has nothing interesting at all." Not all goblin would throw away their stuff, most of them were still greedy, despite the fact that they earned loads of gold with the war. They would not simply throw away materials like that, instead they would go and try to sell them.

Sometimes the owners would rush outside to even try to sell the crap, only to quickly chase him away as for he had no money with him.


The 5th house... Some screws, couple of half broken vials, a dead rat and some rotten cheese. "/sigh, Just 2 more to check.. not so great so far"

[Rikt]

Rikt grinned back at his brother. “Well, this has nothing to do with my people skills. I got something that will royally screw over this certain Trade Prince.”

Rikt walked over toward what was left of the barricade, ending the life of any wounded who were still alive at gun point. “Specifically account errors that prove that he has been skimming a lot off the top with his business partners. Very powerful Trade Princes will pay a lot to get their hands on this evidence.”

Looking toward the crashed Zeppelin, Rikt could see the search party had split in two – one to check the Zeppelin and the other to check out the explosion. He reattached the scope to his rifle and looked through it.

Over a dozen were heading in their direction, fully armed yet with confused looks on their faces. Handing the rifle over to Chikt, Rikt pointed toward the oncoming mercs. “Their splitting up, see? If we hurry we can set a trap for them. Once we get rid of all the mercs we can concentrate on getting that Zeppelin up again, reinforcements won’t be coming till morning at the earliest.”

Taking the rifle out of Chikt’s hands, Rikt set it against the wall and took off his backpack. Kneeling down, he began to rummage through it. “I got some explosive rounds for my rifle, you got any sapper charges left?”

Removing his rifle from it's resting position and ejecting its current clip, he replaced it with the explosive rounds. Rikt then took out a cigar case and a lighter, clenching one between his teeth and lighting it up. He then offered a cigar and the lighter up to Chikt, grinning. “Just like old times, eh?”

[Chikt]

Chikt sighted through the scope - it was as his brother had said. They were splitting up into two smaller groups, but still bigger than the two of them could handle head on. Handing the rifle back to Rikt, he checked his utility belt - one more goblin sapper charge, a few grenades strapped around his waist, plenty of miniature stun grenades stashed around a strap around his backpack for easy access. Chikt nodded to Rikt. "One seaforium charge left."

Unclipping two of the fragmentation grenades from his belt, he tossed them to Rikt one at a time. "Plenty of grenades though."

He glanced around his surroundings. The pass was still a viable ambush point, but it provided no real cover anymore. The trees up ahead would give them cover, but it would also cover the mercs - and getting there without being spotted was an issue. He motioned to the pass. "I can easily rig up some of the grenades with trip wires. Drawing the mercs into the passage might kill some of the stupider ones."

He then motioned towards the trees and continued. "The trees will keep us safe on the way to the Zeppelin. If we can take out enough mercs with what we have left to get to the treeline, getting out of here should be a breeze."

He turned to Rikt and crossed his arms, smirking. "I'm going to assume you have a plan."

[Rikt]

“Damn straight I do. Haven’t lived this long without having a plan to kill everyone I meet.”

Rikt whistled for his bald eagle Patriot, holding up the two grenades Chikt gave him. The great bird swooped down and grabbing each grenade in it's talons. The eagle hovered in front of Rikt for its next order.

“When I give you the cue, arm and drop these bad boys on the guys coming toward us.” The eagle nodded, and flew up into the sky. Rikt chuckled as he watched Patriot. “Smartest bird I ever seen. Tamers say he might have been exposed to Kaja’mite when he was still a chick. That would explain a lot.”

Rikt grabbed a hold of his rifle and walked down the pass toward the lounge. “I’m going to be bait, draw them into the pass so they can get in optimal firing range. You trip wire the rest of the grenades. Keep the sapper charge; we are going to use it later.”

Feeling as though he had made enough distance between the entrance and himself, he turned around and readied his rifle. Rikt yelled. “Once you’re finished, run over to where I am and get behind me!”

[Chikt]

"Your bird just happens upon Kaja'mite?" Chikt seemed to ponder the possibility - only realizing a few moments later that Rikt had wandered back towards the lounge. "Once you're finished, run over to where I am and get behind me!" He yelled.

"And try not to get shot on the way." Chikt added. Turning in the opposite direction and pulling some of the grenades from his belt. Reaching into one of his satchels, he pulled out some metal wire and tied it to the triggers on each grenade. As he reached the opening in the pass, he went to one of the cliff walls and wedged a grenade in between some rocks to make sure the trigger stayed held down - before pulling the pin.

Quickly dashing over to the other side of the pass he wedged the other end of the wire with a second grenade in an adjourning rock face. Whenever somebody pulled the twip wire, the grenades would be tugged out of the rocks, their triggers released, and detonate.

He repeated this process twice more, sticking two more sets of grenades in the rocky faces of the pass. Two more grenades left on him, just in case. As he turned to head back towards the lounge, he heard movement off to his right - glancing to the side just as a survivor from the earlier seaforium explosions pushed aside the rubble he'd been hiding under and lunged at Chikt. What's worse, Chikt saw he was holding a pistol. "Shit!"

Barely sidestepping the oncoming tackle, Chikt bought his arm around in a punch to the Mercs shoulder. The other goblin yelped, toppled over and jumped back to his feet - levelling the pistol at Chikt. Swerving to the right, Chikt heard the gun go off and felt like time had slowed down. Snapped out of his brief daze, he noticed he wasn't hurting anywhere - but the Merc had already cocked the pistol again. "Shit! Shit! Shit!"

The Goblin Merc swerved around, bringing the pistol to bear again. Ducking and grabbing the goblin around the waist before he could get another round off, Chikt shoved him back against the rocky wall of the pass and pinned him there. "RIKT! HELP!"

The Merc grunted, smacked Chikt in the shoulder with the butt of his pistol a few times. And then suddenly stopped. Before Chikt could look up to see what was going on, he heard the sound of the blast - the muzzle of the goblins pistol had been pressed to his arm.

"SHIT!" Chikt yelped, stumbled backwards and clutched at his arm as blood poured down it. He glanced up at the Merc, who was grinning as he cocked the pistol for the final blow. Chikt stumbled back against the opposite wall of the pass, pressed himself to it, and held his breath.

[Imara]

(( Daft Punk - Robot Rock/Oh Yeah (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ4368jkF9o) ))

The steady pulse of the base was almost hypnotic as Gizzi spun one of the memory disks on her finger before dropping it on the enormous contraption in front of her. She deftly flipped a switch and slid one track into the next so smoothly there was no noticeable break. She smiled with satisfaction and let her languid gaze scan the mob of goblins bouncing and gyrating around her raised platform. They were illuminated by a myriad of flashing and strobing lights; another of Gizzi's inventions that had turned her bar into one of the hottest spots in the Undermine.

Her reverie was interrupted by a gentle tap on her shoulder. She turned to find Leo, her business parter, motioning frantically toward the bar. Gizzi looked over his shoulder and saw two of Steamwheedle's goons in a heated argument with a patron. Sighing heavily, Gizzi slipped off her headphones and handed them to Leo, ignoring his look of panic and weaving her way down through the crowd. She cleared her throat and shouted.

"You gentlemen look lost. Can I help you find your way out?" Gizzi leveled her gaze at them.

The two thugs looked almost amused as they eyed the young goblin. She hardly made much of a bouncer, in baggy silver pants, a black tank top, an assortment of jewelry and pink pony tails. The larger goblin spoke. "I don't think that's any of your business, kid."

Gizzi crossed her arms. "Actually, it is. No one gets shaken down in my bar unless I'm doing the shaking."

The smaller thug laughed. "You couldn't shake a..."

Before he could finish his sentence, Gizzi snapped a hand out and landed two fingers hard on his windpipe, the thug was left spluttering and gasping for air. "I am also not a..." Gizzi paused and looked visibly pained as Leo scratched the hell out of one of her disks and the crowd groaned. "Kid." She turned to the larger man. "You done here?"

The thug looked from Gizzi to his target. "You can't take sanctuary in here forever, buddy. Steamwheedle wants those schematics." The thug puffed up his chest at Gizzi and started to leave.

"HEY." Gizzi stopped him. "Take your buddy with you AND you owe me for that disk."

[Rikt]

As he heard his brother’s cry for help, Rikt frantically moved his sights over the two struggling goblins. Attempting to get a lock on the merc, but then realizing he had loaded explosive rounds, Rikt yelled. “Shit, come on bro; get some distance from that guy!”

Rikt narrowed his eyes as he heard the gunshot and seeing Chikt stumble backwards, he turned his gun toward the assailant. “Eat this, shithead.” Rikt growled as he pulled the trigger.

The goblin merc could feel a heat pulse through his ribcage as the bullet hit its mark. A moment later, he turned inside out as body parts flew in all directions. Red paste caked the wall behind him and blood rained down in all directions. Rikt stared in awe for a few seconds as he witnessed the grotesque spectacle. “Well now, that is just indecent.”

Snapping out of his daze, Rikt ran over to his brother. “Yo bro! You alright?”

Rikt then realized Chikt had been shot and eyed the bullet wound. ”Ok, maybe not. We’ll get that fixed up soon.”

Turning his head toward the entrance, Rikt could see the mercs coming out of the tree line and advancing on their position fast. He stretched out a hand to help Chikt up. “Can you still move? Cause I dunno if I can carry you fast enough.”

[Chikt]

Chikt winced as the Mercs body literally exploded, trying to ignore the patter of... something hitting the rock around him. Probably best not thinking about it. He glanced down at his wound, his upper arm was covered in blood as it trickled from the bullet hole. Closing his eyes and tilting his head back against the rock, he hissed out between his teeth.

He glanced up at Rikt and nodded, reaching out and taking his hand with his good arm and pulling himself to his feet. "It... missed anything major... I... I think. Gonna hurt like a kick to the crotch later though." Chikt couldn't help but chuckle wryly.

Turning and moving back in the direction of the resort. He clasped his hand over the wound in his arm. "I was shot in the arm, not the leg. Jus'... don't expect me to be good in a fight... not that I was already... Please tell me this plan involves more than just shooting the guys not blown up by grenades."

[Rikt]

Rikt grinned as Chikt asked about the plan. “Naw actually, that’s just the half of it.”

Hearing a grenade go off, Rikt quickly turned around to see a body fly through the air. “K, you bandage yourself up bro, there is some gauze in my backpack. Just leave this to me.”

Aiming his rifle at the oncoming merc band, Rikt began to backpedal toward the resort. Another wire was tripped and the group was stalled as they attempt to discern where the explosion came from. One of the mercs took out a knife and began disarming the traps.

Looking up toward the sky at Patriot, Rikt nodded and the eagle moved into position. “Drop one right in the center of em, Patriot!” Rikt yelled.

Patriot took the tip of his beak and pulled the pin on one of the grenades in his talons. Swooping down low over the merc group, Patriot dropped a live grenade right in the middle of them.

Mercs began to run in all directions just before the grenade went off. Rikt barked out another command. “Drop one right in front of em!”

On cue, Patriot armed the grenade and dropped it right in front of the mercs frantically moving toward Rikt. They moved just as quickly in the opposite direction as they saw the explosive fall right in front of them.

Rikt cackled as he started to move forward, firing his rifle at the mercs heels giving them a greater incentive to run. The explosive rounds kicked up a large amount of dust as they hit the ground behind the mercs.

Running up to one of the disarmed trap grenades, Rikt pulled it out of its wedged spot in the rock face and whistled for Patriot. Throwing the live grenade straight into the air for Patriot to catch, Rikt turned his attention to the mercs again.

The mercs were attempting to regroup behind cover at the entrance – Rikt wasn’t going to give them that chance. Using the wall of dust as cover, Rikt ran up and crouched behind the opposite side of the merc’s cover.

“Drop it right there!” Rikt leaned out of cover and pointed his rifle toward open ground that formed the space between the two sides of the entrance. Patriot dropped the grenade right where the mercs could see it, forcing them to move toward the tree line.

“Yeah you like that?! Go back home to mommy!” Rikt stood up and moved out of cover, firing his explosive rounds directly at the retreating mercs, keeping the pressure on them all the way back to the trees.

Rikt cackled as he walked back over to Chikt’s location, slinging the rifle over his shoulder. “They’ll be regrouping with the rest I think. Next phase of my plan is in effect, I’m gonna need you to set a sapper charge on one of the trees. Think you can do that?”

Rikt turned his gaze toward Chikt’s Zeppelin caught up in the trees, which was now most likely swarming with mercs by now. “Also, how fast can you get that Zeppelin up and running again?"

[Chikt]

Chikt skidded to a halt and slid down behind the scorched remains of one of the barricades. Nodding to Rikt, he scooped up his brothers backpack and pulled out a roll of gauze from inside it. Looking to his torn leather armor, he put the gauze aside and drew one of his daggers – cutting the bloody sleeve from his armor and tossing it aside. Biting down on the blade between his teeth, he checked his wound – the bulled hadn’t hit anything major, it seemed to have just gone straight through thanks to the short range shot. Better than having to dig out a bullet later.

Getting shot would have been better still, of course.

Picking up the bandages he began to wrap them around his arm, glancing up at the sound of explosions. Chikt looked back – his traps had been working, smoke and dust had been kicked up and the mercs hurriedly tried to disarm one of the grenades. Chikt turned his focus back to his arm, satisfied that he’d wrapped it tight he cut off the end with the dagger and tied it up. Done. Not a work of art but it was enough. He tried to clench his fist on his wounded arm – still functional. Were there a higher power, Chikt would have thanked him.

The sound of Rikts rifle going off snapped him back from his thoughts. Glancing back again to see smaller explosions nipping at the heels of the mercs as they ran back towards the trees. Chikt climbed back to his feet, staying pressed back to stay out of trouble until Rikt turned around and wandered back. “They’ll be regrouping with the rest I think. Next phase of my plan is in effect, I’m gonna need you to set a sapper charge on one of the trees. Think you can do that?” Chikt was about to answer when Rikt continued. “Also, how fast can you get that Zeppelin up and running again?"

When Rikt turned back to Chikt, he’d already pulled the goblin sapper charge from his satchel, traded out the dagger in his hand for a wrench, and a lit cigar had appeared in the corner of his mouth. Without waiting for his brother, Chikt began to walk in the direction of the trees as he spoke, shifting the cigar in his teeth. “You forget who you’re talking to, bro. I’m Chikt Frickin’ Blastercharge. Just keep 'em off my back, would ya?”

[Viirchi]

Tikri normally didn't seem to care what Kloder did with Seero so long as it didn't get him thrown in the stockade or dead in a gutter. Since Kloder didn't seem to know know the first thing about kids, most of their father son time came very close to these taboos. Not surprisingly in celebration of his son's birthday he thought it best to take the boy for a night on the town, and maybe if there was time, a celebratory cake.

Neither really noticed the goons until they were five feet away where by then Kloder just gave them a goofy grin until the shorter of the three grabbed his hand and bent it until something snapped, forcing a shriek. "IT'S IN THE MAIL I SWEAR!"

The goon responded by bending two of Kloder's fingers back, taking the opportunity during the next shriek to force a gag between his teeth while the others aimed for the back of the of his knees. As Kloder continued to protest while they tied his hands back the same goblin smiled at Seero offering the second gag dangling from his hand.

Seero laughed nervously as he stared up at the goblin, starting to put two and two together. "This isn't about a debt?"

"Just make it easy kid."

"Sure thing boss....HELP!"

He turned just enough to stab the one standing behind him with a sharpened fragment of metal, ignoring protests from Kloder as he slid under him and took off. Once he found it convenient to stop Seero looked around for any goons, took a deep breath and then slapped his forehead. He'd forgotten to grab dad.

[Rikt]

Rikt chuckled as he followed his brother. “That’s what I like to hear!”

As they moved closer to the crash site, Rikt could hear the mercs at the foot of the trees that suspended the Zeppelin. Running up and pressing his back against one of the logs just a few yards away, Rikt listened in on the conversation.

“How the hell did he do that?! It’s like grenades were just raining on us!”

“Shit, I dunno, but we need something that will take care of those two. How about we call in Boulderfist?”

A resounding chuckle went through the mercenaries as Boulderfist was mentioned. “Yeah, no way those squirts stand a chance against Boulderfist. Their time is nigh!”

“I tink Boulderfist is a purty cool guy, eh kills dum gobos and doesn’t afraid of anything.” One of the ogre mercs chimed in.

“Alright, we bring in Boulderfist, but I don’t want any of you pansies running away again! There are only TWO of them!”

As the last of the mercs descended the Zeppelin's rope ladder, they gave their report to the rest. “Couldn’t find anyone up there, so that must mean that only those two goblins are running around. On the other hand, if they want to get off this island they’re coming back for the Zeppelin.”

“Then we are gonna need to set up a perimeter, don’t let those two get on this Zeppelin!” The merc leader shouted.

Rikt turned to Chikt and whispered. “Alright, I’m gonna make a distraction. When the mercs leave their post you go in and blow up one of the trees to unhinge your Zeppelin. You get your balloon up again and I’ll make a break for the beach once I’ve lost em. From there you come and pick me up.”

Rummaging through his backpack, Rikt took a out a folded up piece of rubber with a tube sticking out of it and the words “Blow-up Dummy” written on its side. As Rikt inflated the dummy, an image of a generic looking goblin came to life. Rikt shoved the dummy in Chikt’s face. “Chikt, meet generic looking goblin. He’s gonna be taking bullets for you today.”

Chuckling under his breath, Rikt turned and moved around the mercs out of sight with dummy in hand. When he had reached the opposite side of the mercs, Rikt popped out from behind the tree. “Golly, sibling of mine, it seems like we got ourselves in another jam!”

The mercs turned as they heard the singsong voice of Rikt as he strutted out with another goblin in tow. “It’s those two! Get em!” The merc leader yelled.

As the mercs charged forth toward the two goblins, Rikt held on to his hat with one hand, turned on his heel, and ran as fast as he could through the trees. Three of the mercs stayed behind, looking at each other dumbfounded.

“Think we should go over to Boulderfist and set him loose?”

“Yeah, let’s go do that.” The three mercs went off toward their camp, leaving Chikt to do what he needed to do.

[Chikt]

Chikt watched as his brother dashed off with the Dummy Goblin. Blinking and shaking his head, he wasted no time in getting straight to work. Jogging up through the trees towards the Zeppelin.

It sat there, still, only the occasional creak of wood shifting on bark as the wind rocked the tree back and fourth, and the Zeppelin with it. Looking up, he traced the branch that had been holding the Zeppelin in place back to tree that supported it. Pulling out the charge, he wandered over and secured it to the body of the tree – tapped a few numbers on the keypad, and set the detonator for thirty seconds.

Not wasting any time, he sprinted over to the rope ladder leading up to the Zeppelin and climbed up it, through the tree tops and onto the hull of the Zeppelin. Rushing to the engine on the back of the Zeppelin, he leaned over and examined the damage – the rotor blades were caught up with branches and leaves, but nothing he couldn’t fix—

That is when he heard – and felt – the explosion. Heard the loud crack of the tree giving under the explosive force and tearing away from its stump. The Zeppelin shook and floated backwards as the tree collapsed to the ground with a loud crash and the sound of breaking branches. Steadying himself, Chikt climbed out onto the edge of the Zeppelin and gripped onto some handholds built onto the engine. Reaching around to the rotors, he began to tug away the branches that held it in place.

It took a little work, but eventually the last branch gave way and the propeller spun slowly from the wind pushing at it. Chikt climbed back down onto the deck of the zeppelin, skidded around to the engine casing, and flipped it open.

A quick examination of the engine showed that everything was almost in tact – save for one thing. The propelling nozzle – the part of the engine that handled interior pressure and heat – had fractured under the immense pressure of the propeller trying to continue to turn with all the branches and leaves preventing its movement. It was not a part easily replaced.

Adjusting his goggles as he thought, there was only one solution. Going to his tool kit tucked away in the corner, he grabbed out his welding kit. Rushing back to the open engine casing, he flicked on the gas powered welder and began to weld the small crack in the propelling nozzle shut.

It was no small task, were the propelling nozzle welded to the engine or welded too much it could halt all compression and the engine would need to be replaced entirely – something he COULDN’T do from an island. Flicking the welding iron off, he examined his handiwork – it wasn’t perfect and it wouldn’t hold out forever, but it would hopefully give them enough thrust to get moving back towards Kezan.

Slamming shut the engine compartment and putting away the welding iron, he dashed down to the lower deck of the Zeppelin and keyed the engine. He heard it above him rumbling as it attempted to start – but didn’t quite make it. Giving it another try, it rumbled and grinded before finally kicking in, the engine burst to life and the propeller started moving. With a sigh of relief, Chikt turned the zeppelin in the general direction he’d seen Rikt run, and started the Zeppelin moving.

[Viirchi]

Almost certain that the two goons were going to take their time securing Kloder, Seero didn't make an effort to rush home, there wasn't much of a point. Once he reached the ship the young goblin pulled up the gangplank and checked the docks again before disapearing down the hold and into his parents' room. He had to lay flat to get under the bed so he could drag out the chest, but it wasn't difficult to open once he had it out.

Kloder was on average kidnapped twice a month, usually in an effort to settle his debts with the ransom money. It happened so often that five years ago the family just started keeping a kit for such occassions. Tikri had gotten so tired of paying the ransom she now made multiple threats to cut the ransoms off as indicated by the stack of letters now replacing the large sum of gold usually contained in the chest.


Seero,
Let your father know I won't bail him out on anymore debts, the loan sharks need to take it out of his flesh this time.
-Mom


Son,
Best not to listen to your mom this time, think there is some extra cash under the squeeky floorboard.
-Dad

Seero,
repaired the squeaky floorboard and took the cash, your tuition fees are due.
-Mom

Seero shrugged, thumbing through the pages of letters until he came to a two paged letter with an envelope attatched, he removed the contents.

Seero,
enclosed is a winning racing ticket, please cash in so your father keeps his fingers.
-Dad

Serro glanced at the final two letters, they were pretty straightforward.

Seero,
inform your father that winning tickets EXPIRE After Six Months! Left some lunch money near the stern.
-Love Mom


PLEASE SAVE ME!!!
-Kloder

Seero shrugged, shuffled the letters and layed them back in the chest before reaching further under the bed and pulling out a second chest, this one was carefully labled 'Kloder's Kidnapping Kit: Not Debt'

He pulled out the knives and set them aside for later, then dug down until he reached a small communicator device Tikri had invested in because she got tired of the flares. Seero grinned with triumph and pressed the button.



From an outsiders point of view Tikri Blastbolt looked ready to kill, which was normal until she started yelling into the communicator. "What?! That bonehead!"

She palmed her face, forcing herself to calm down again before speaking into the communicator again. "Tell me what happened Seero. I can pretty much guess who it was."

Tikri sighed, looking at the threatening letter delivered earlier. Wrongcollider's goons had actually delivered the note too early, Seero's name had been hastily crossed out.

[Rikt]

Rikt was a fast runner, mostly due to the fact that he knew when to cut and run when odds were against him – no sense in going down with the losing side. But now he was running for a completely different reason, and he needed to lose his pursuers.

Taking out a flare gun, Rikt turned to look behind him. The mercs were still close on his tail, though the slower ones have long since stopped following him, Rikt could count over a dozen now still chasing him.

Finding a large tree log suitable for his purposes, Rikt jumped up and quickly spun around to face the mercs, firing the flare gun directly in front of them. Rikt fell down rear first onto the ground, skidding across the surface until his back hit the log.

The mercs were now attempted to adjust to the sudden change in light, and some were even shooting in Rikt’s general direction. Taking his chances, Rikt turned to the log, took out a knife and pinned the dummy goblin in place. Vaulting over it, Rikt used the log as cover from the gun fire as he slipped away toward the beach.

As the mercs eyes readjusted, they could see the faint highlight of a goblin with his back against the log. “Heh, yer time is up. Open fire boys!” Bullets splintered wood and punctured rubber as the dummy goblin was completely obliterated.

“Hold your fire! Hold it dammit!” The merc leader growled as he noticed that the goblin seemed to deflate rather than bleed.

“We’ve been had! Get back to the Zeppelin!” All the mercs double timed toward the crash site. As the closed in on the Zeppelin crash site, they soon found that it was no longer there.

“DAMMIT! They’ve tricked us! The boss is going to kill us!”

A distant roar could be heard and the mercs chuckled as they heard the ground rumbling. “Boulderfist will get em! You wait and see!”

The merc leader frowned. “I sure as hell hope so.”

As Rikt came out of the trees and onto the sandy surface of the beach, he heard a massive roar coming from somewhere on the isle. Looking up toward the sky, he could see his brother’s Zeppelin moving closer toward him. Waving toward the sky, Rikt turned and ran toward the Zeppelin as fast as possible.

Seeing the rope ladder at its side, Rikt bolted toward it. Just as he was about to leap for the ladder, Rikt glimpsed something big from the corner of his eye. Grabbing the ladder, Rikt decided to take a better look at whatever he saw.

A large creature that looked and moved like an oversized gorilla was moving at a frighteningly fast pace toward the Zeppelin. Rikt yelled up toward his brother. “Bro! There is something HUGE down here and it’s coming for us! Ascend! Ascend!”

Rikt quickly climbed up the rope ladder, deciding not to take a second glance at the creature until he had gotten safely on the Zeppelin. As he reached the top, Rikt quickly turned around to bring up the rope ladder.

It was too late, the creature had gotten a hold of the ladder with one hand as it made a tremendous leap for the Zeppelin. Rikt was forced to let go of the ladder so that he wasn’t pulled over the side.

Backing up, Rikt took out his rifle and loaded it. He returned to aim the rifle down the ladder and could see the creature wasn’t there anymore. Rikt chuckled nervously. “Never mind, I think that thing is gone now.”

Hearing a roar from above the Zeppelin, Rikt looked dumbfounded up toward the sky. The large creature descended down like a cannonball and smashed into the wooden floor of the Zeppelin, sending a shockwave that knocked Rikt off his feet. Looking up at the creature before him, Rikt could now identify him in greater detail.

The creature was not a gorilla, but a Hobgoblin with a lot more added muscle. It was hunched over, supporting its own massive weight on its knuckles. It over exaggerated every movement it made, most likely as a result of all it’s pent up energy and unfocused aggression.

Its head barely resembled that of a goblin now, the typical large ears and nose now miniscule comparative to the rest of its body. Its most distinguishing feature however was its skin, with its leathered and cracked texture giving the impression that it was made of stone.

“Bro, I think we found Boulderfist!” Rikt quickly stood up and fired his rifle at the Hobgoblin.

The bullet ricocheted harmlessly off the Hobgoblin’s tough hide. Giving an irritated snort, the Hobgoblin crouched down in preparation to charge. Rikt rolled away just in time as the as the Hobgolin charged head first into the Zeppelin’s prow. Shaking its head as he turned around to face Rikt again, it beat its chest and gave another massive roar.

“We are gonna need to do something special to take him down! Shit!” Rikt yelled as he slung the rifle over his shoulder and prepared to evade the Hobgoblin’s next attack.

[Chikt]

Chikt heard the roar, but didn’t pay much heed to it – it was quite possibly just some beast on the island, there were plenty of things that could make that noise. It wasn’t until he heard Rikt yell to ascend that he started to get concerned – flicking a switch on the Zeppelin’s steering to give the balloon a little extra heat, raising the Zeppelin up higher.

That’s when he felt the Zeppelin tilt – a sign of too much weight on one of its sides that pushed it off course. He had to readjust his steering to compensate, but the weight suddenly disappeared again. Curious now, Chikt turned the Zeppelin in the general direction of Kezan, locked the steering and turned to wander up onto the top deck to investigate what was going on.

And then he heard the crack, and felt the Zeppelin suddenly jostled to the side as something large landed on the deck above. He barely heard his brother over the muffled din of the engine. “Bro! I think we found Boulderfist!” Followed by the explosive noise of a gunshot. Chikt winced – that couldn’t be good.

He turned to rush up the stairs, felt the Zeppelin rock again, barely managed to keep his footing. Jogging up the stairs, he popped up from the lower deck standing beside his brother – looking straight towards Boulderfist. Pausing as the Hobgoblin beat its chest and bellowed, when it silenced again all Chikt could muster was two words; “That’s… large.”

Glancing over Boulderfist, Chikt couldn’t see any visible bullet wounds – and judging by the creatures thick hide, it was likely bullet-proof. Conventional weapons were out of the question. His mind worked at a mile a minute – weighing possibilities, options. Throwing it off the Zeppelin, blowing it up, cutting the balloon from the Zeppelin and dropping the Hobgoblin into the ocean.

No, too destructive. He didn’t want to have to repair the damn zeppelin aga—

His thoughts interrupted as Boulderfist roared and charged again, Chikt barely sidestepped and regained his footing on the deck of the Zeppelin as it swayed in the air again. The Hobgoblin charged straight into the engine, denting the casing. Chikt winced – that would take a while to bang out.

Then it occurred to him. “Rikt! He’s big, strong, slow and dumb! That’s his weakness! Out think and out manoeuvre!”

Grenades on his belt. Explosive or flash. Not explosive, not destroying the damn Zeppelin, cannot risk fragments bursting the balloon. Blinding. Preoccupy. Open up an opportunity.

His mind turned off – the last thing he wanted to think about was just how stupid this was. Grabbing one of the flash grenades from his belt, he pulled the pin, popped the safety and tossed it at Boulderfist’s feet. “Flash out! Cover your eyes!”

Glancing away as there was a blast of light, Boulderfist blinked in a daze and stumbled backwards temporarily blinded. When his vision cleared and he shook his head, he opened his eyes and glanced about. There was only one goblin in front of him now, and…

Chikt started beating the Hobgoblins skull like a drum. “Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me! Don’t ki-gah!” Chikt barely managed to leap over and grab onto Boulderfist’s other shoulder as a large fist reached back and beat at the spot where Chikt was previously. Boulderfist began to spin about in place, reaching his arms back and grunting in frustration - trying to catch the Goblin clambering about on him. Chikt bounced about, barely dodging blows – the Hobgoblin thankfully didn’t have quite enough reach. “Rikt! The Engine! Cut the power cabling and shock him! Go for a soft spot -- hit 'im in the nuts!”

[Rikt]

Rikt covered his eyes as his brother took out a flash grenade and threw it at the Hobgoblin’s feet. When he uncovered them, he could see Chikt crawling all over Boulderfist attempting to move out of arms reach. Looking around for some way to help, Chikt shouted out his advice. “Rikt! The Engine! Cut the power cabling and shock him! Go for a soft spot -- hit 'im in the nuts!”

Running up to the engine and unsheathing his knife, he picked up a cable that he ‘thought’ looked like a power cable. Cutting through it, Rikt rubbed the two cut cables together – sparks flew.

Charging forth toward the preoccupied Boulderfist, Rikt placed both ends of the cable forward. Taking its attention off of Chikt to deal with the goblin in front of it, Boulderfist grabbed a hold of Rikt and lifted him up in the air. Dropping the cables on the wooden floor, Rikt struggled against the iron grip of the Hobgoblin.

Rikt needed a plan – frantically searching his pockets, he finally pulled out his cigar case. Taking out a cigar and his lighter, Rikt offered it to Boulderfist. “Want one big guy?”

The Hobgoblin stared at the cigar for a moment dumbfounded as Rikt lit it. Realizing that the cigar was now shooting colored sparks, Boulderfist seemed to show signs of interest.

“Oooh…. Colory sparks!” The Hobgoblin laughed as it brought out his other hand to grab a hold of it.

“Not for you!” Rikt threw the trick cigar directly into the Hobgoblin’s face, causing it to explode in a shower of sparks. With a grunt of pain and surprise, Boulderfist flung Rikt overboard, making him disappear over the side of the Zeppelin.

A few moments later, Rikt’s voice could be heard. “The cables are on the floor, git em!”

[Chikt]

Chikt winced as Rikt was grabbed and picked up. Beating on Boulderfists back to try and get his attention again - to no avail. Instead he saw the bright colored flash, and watched as Rikt was thrown over the edge of the Zeppelin. "Rikt! Dammit, no!"

His attention returned to Chikt, the Hobgoblin reached back and swatted at his back again - not paying attention, Chikt was knocked from Boulderfists back and slid across the deck of the Zeppelin. Barely managing to scuttle to his feet before Boulderfist came after him, Chikt was knocked aside by the charging Hobgoblin and tripped over - only this time, he didn't get back up.

Boulderfist turned, looked at Chikt curiously and wandered over, shoving the Goblin in the side with his foot. Chikt suddenly spun around onto his back - the power cables in his hands - and slammed them up against the Hobgoblins crotch.

The Hobgoblin seized up, his back suddenly snapping straight and his body convulsing with the power of the shock. A small popping noise came from the Zeppelin's engine, followed by a small explosion - Boulderfist went limp and slumped to the deck of the Zeppelin. Electricity had stopped flowing through the cables.

Chikt stood up slowly, wandered over and kicked Boulderfist in the side cautiously before bouncing back - ready to be swiped at. But the attack never came - the hobgoblin just lay there, unconscious. Chikt sighed and dropped the cables. "I'm afraid your flight has been canceled, Mr. Boulderfist."

Turning, Chikt wandered to the edge of the zeppelin - looking around for his brother. "Rikt! Are you okay?!"

[Rikt]

Just before he had fallen overboard, Rikt pulled out his knife and prepared to latch onto the Zeppelin in a last ditch effort to save himself. Wedging his knife into a crack in the Zeppelin’s side, Rikt dangled with his hand around the knife’s handle. Looking up, Rikt could see the Zeppelin’s ledge just in arms reach. Reaching out and pulling himself up, Rikt put his foot on the knife’s handle to hoist himself over the side.

Falling onto the top deck of the Zeppelin with a loud ‘thunck!’ Rikt stood up and brushed himself off. Turning toward the unconscious Hobgoblin, Rikt grinned. “Nice work there bro.”

Rikt walked up to the Hobgoblin and gave him a kick of his own. Then he shifted over to the Hobgoblin’s head and kicked him right in the jaw. “Your momma was an ogre and your daddy was a bad case of ugly!”

Boulderfist still didn’t move.

Rikt then got an idea that he knew was probably the dumbest idea he had in awhile. Kneeling down, Rikt took out a piece of rope from his backpack, and turned toward his brother. “Uh, we might need more rope to hold this big boy down. We’re taking him with us.”

[Chikt]

Chikt panted, gathered himself up and dropped the cables before brushing himself off. Glancing to Rikt and pausing to consider questioning the request to tie the Hobgoblin up - It just didn't seem worth it. Deal with the consequences later. Chikt motioned to the stairs leading down to the lower deck. "If you say so... There's more rope downstairs, but I think you'll need something a bit more than that to keep him tied up."

Pausing to consider, Chikt looked to the Zeppelin's open engine casing and the power cables trailing out of it. The engine had long since stopped working - there was no point trying to fix it, they had enough forward momentum now to get them back to Kezan. Drawing one of his daggers, Chikt wandere to the engine and reached in - cutting out the power cabling and tossing the two lengths of it to Rikt. "This should hold. Use it with the rope, that should keep him tied up. While you do that, I'll make sure we're on course."

First, however, Chikt examined the damage to the engine - the Propelling Nozzle had cracked down the same area as before, much wider now. It would have to be replaced entirely, no repairing it in mid air. Along with that, a section of the piping had been dented when Boulderfist had charged into the engine - not to mention the damage to the engine compartment. It would likely all need to be replaced. Chikt sighed - this would be the second time he'd need to repair the damn Zeppelin since recovering it after the fighting in the Second War.

Turning and wandering downstairs to the lower deck, he checked the wheel and the compass built into it - they were still drifting in the right direction, it wouldn't be long before they reached land. Satisfied there was nothing left to do, Chikt gathered up two spools of rope and wandered back to the top deck, dropping them for Rikt to tie up Boulderfist. "So. What was this information you got that was so important that this guy would send an army after you? Is it really just information?"

[Imara]

(( Ray Charles w/ Norah Jones - Here We Go Again (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI27Y5foYCI) ))

Leo quietly shut the door behind him as he entered Gizzi's office. She was sitting at her desk, her head cradled against her hand, staring at the papers spread out before her. "You ok? I didn't expect you to still be up." He asked quietly.

Gizzi looked up, smiling in spite of the fact she looked worn out. "Just sorting out finances. Trying to figure out how much to give to the Cartels. It's always the same balancing act. Enough to make them think they are getting their due but not enough to actually be in under their control." She leaned back and closed her eyes. "Maintaining neutrality is exhausting." She grinned.

"Well, as usual we had a great night. Goblins love to party on the weekends. Did you ever find out what those Steamwheedle guys wanted?" Leo sat on a stool across from Gizzi's desk.

"I had Lulu try to talk information out of the guy as she poured his drinks but he was pretty tight lipped. Some sort of schematic from what I overheard and Lulu found out the guy is a weapons specialist." Gizzi sighed. "So I imagine it's the next greatest weapon of mass destruction. You'd think the war wasn't over the way these guys build up arsenals."

Leo frowned. "Because they definitely need more ways to kill us all." Leo shook his head.

Gizzi grinned. "There -is- a reason this club is fortified like a bunker under all the mirrors and pretty lights."

"Sorry about the disk." Leo smiled sheepishly.

"Meh. That goon gave me more than it was worth anyway. I'll make a new one in the morning. You should go get some sleep." Gizzi got up and moved toward the beaded curtain that covered the doorway into her private quarters. "I think I'm going to do the same."

Leo nodded. "Night, Giz-Giz."

[Raynell]

"Cue up the transmitter kid."

Riddio sat back, slouched over his chair as he gazed intently at a small speaker box with various meters built in. There was silence at first, the only sound being the jungles of Kezan around him, then suddenly, a near-deafening hum of feedback. His ears flopped down, grimacing at the unpleasant sound.

"Freggin' Coin, kid, scale it back!"

After a moment, the hum dissipated, replaced by a soft hiss. From the speaker box, a scratchy sounding voice came through.

"Sorry pops. Am I clear on this end?"

"A bit fuzzy, but I can hear ya Deej. How's the antenna lookin'?"

Some distance away, perched on Mount Kajaro, a small building with a long, steel tubed tower sat. The structure was rather rough looking, and the antenna tower precariously crooked, looking as if it could take a tumble down the mountainside were it not for the sturdy ropes anchoring it to the cliff. In the small building, Dijet Broadcrashter worked quickly with the various knobs of the "Broadcrashter Board". Today was the big debut, the field test that would bring their system across Azeroth, and to every Horde zeppelin in the skies. Dijet stuck out his tongue slightly, eyes focused on the meters bouncing around on the board's display. The signals were definitely getting out there. Now it was a matter of getting the message out.

"We're warmed up, pops. Soon as I fire the microphone, we'll be hot."

"Good shit, kid." Riddio grinned. Things were going smoothly so far. They had to, because failure wasn't something they could afford. The family funds were stretched a little thin, and the goblin War Council were paying big on the comission should the project be successful. Now was the time for perfection. No room for error. No room for dead air.

"All right, you've got the message prompts down, right?"

"Got it pops."

"Make sure we're on the right frequency, Deej. Never know if those pesky gnomes might be listening in."

"We're good, pops."

"All right, Deej, let's hear it."

Dijet cleared his throat, then took a deep breath. Don't suck. Don't suck...

A flick of the switch, and the room became tinted in a dim red light. The mic was on. The time was now.

"This is Station KJRO, broadcasting to all Zeppelins. Stand by for Horde military alerts..."

[Rikt]

Rikt took the power cables and set to work. Taking tent stakes out of his backpack, he began hammering them into the Zeppelin’s wood floor next to Boulderfist. Taking the power cable, he tied it to one stake and then draped it over Boulderfist’s chest. Moving over to the other side, he tied the other end to the opposite stake. Rikt repeated this process with the spools of rope as he talked to Chikt.

“Yeah, it just ain’t any info, its evidence that this Trade Prince has been skimming off the top with a lot of big wigs he’s been dealing with.” Rikt looked up at Chikt. “Specifically, other Trade Princes.”

Rikt realized he had spaced one set of stakes too far and pulled them out to readjust them. “The evidence in question are the accounting errors that he payed some people to cover up. It proves just how he cheated his business partners, though I might need to run it by an accountant to verify it. If this evidence got out, he would have a whole lota hate from a whole lota powerful Goblins.”

Spacing out Boulderfist’s arms, Rikt cut the power cord in half and decided to use them to hold down his arms. Putting one stake on each side, Rikt draped the power cord over the Hobgoblin’s wrist and tied it in place.

Moving to the last set of stakes, Rikt began tying the last of the restraints to the Hobgoblin. “I decided to blackmail the sucker. Though the deal went sour and… you know the rest.” Rikt tied the final rope into place and stood up, looking down at Boulderfist.

“Alright, that should do it. Sorry about the stakes through your floor, but with all the other damage on this Zep, who’ll notice?” Rikt chuckled.

[Chikt]

Chikt shook his head and slid down to sit on the floor, his back to the railing protecting anybody from falling over the side of the Zeppelin. "With a force the size that he had - or even if it wasn't all his men, the fact that he could buy all those mercs - just to deal with one man? I mean, no offense bro, I'm sure ya did a fantastic job of pissing the guy off, but... still seems a little overkill."

Tapping his nose, Chikt continued. "I mean, the forces he had, he could have probably taken on the other Trade Princes. I understand that he would want to protect his income, but something still seems... fishy."

That's when he caught the scent. Fish. Raising a brow, Chikt climbed to his feet and glanced out over the side of the Zeppelin. The coast of Kezan wasn't far now - close enough that a market serving up fresh fish could be smelt on the breeze. Chikt let out a sigh of relief - they were home, and he could put all this business behind him. Glancing back to Rikt, he motioned to Boulderfist. "A few minutes and we'll make landfall. What exactly do you plan to do with him? You know how difficult they are to control."

[Rikt]

Rikt rubbed the back of his neck as Chikt talked about the Trade Prince. “Yeah, but I doubt he could take on a concentrated offensive from all those guys he cheated. And since I was dropping his crew like flies, he got desperate.” Rikt shrugged as he turned toward Boulderfist.

“As fer this guy, I heard alchemist’s can make some stuff to make em docile. I mean, they created them, they gotta have a way to control em.” Rikt yawned as he walked over to the side of the Zeppelin, sat down, and placed his back against the railing.

Taking his rifle, he leaned it against the railing next to him as a precaution. “But fer now, I gotta get some shut eye. Been a long few days, haven’t had a good night’s sleep in awhile.” Rikt shifted his hat over his eyes and crossed his arms.

“You just go ahead and dock this thing. I’ll probably wake up when Boulderfist does, so…” Rikt’s words trailed off as he nodded off to sleep, a light snore accompanying his breathing.

The bald eagle Patriot flew up over the Zeppelin and dropped a gutted fish onto the deck. Touching down, he took a moment to eye the large Hobgoblin tied to the deck, and then he looked over toward the other two goblins. Satisfied with his analysis of the environment, Patriot turned away to feast upon his stolen meal.

[Chikt]

Chikt watched as his brother dozed off, sighing and dropping his backpack to the floor of the zeppelin. Rummaging through it, he pulled out the muddy, slightly torn cloak he'd used to get down to Rikt unseen. It was a clever device - one of the ones Chikt was most proud of. But it was difficult to clean at the best of times - better to not get it dirty at all.

Pulling a soft rag from his backpack, he very carefully brushed away the clumps of mud as to not damage the wiring or small panels covering the cloth. He'd need to stitch up some of the holes and re-wire parts later on too - but that wasn't a huge task.

That's when he heard the beeping coming from his backpack.

Putting the cloak aside, he reached into his backpack and pulled out a small, rectangular device. It was a communicator; when they needed to, the Trade Princes would contact him over it to organize meetings, check up on his latest project, or to enquire about his funding. Chikt activated the device and held it into his ear. "Chikt speaking," he stated over the din of the engine.

"Mr. Blastercharge, we need to talk."

After a brief conversation, Chikt turned off the device and sighed; glancing to his brother. Getting to his feet and wandering to the edge of the Zeppelin, he glanced down - they were over Kezan proper now. Nodding to himself, satisfied that they were close enough, he wandered down to the lower deck and pressed a button to gradually release some of the hot air from the Zeppelin's balloon, bringing them down and through the mouth of an old, inactive volcano.

A few minutes later, the Zeppelin touched down back outside Chikt's mansion, settling to the earth. Letting out a sigh of relief, Chikt wandered back onto the top deck and began to gather up his things.

[Oraph]

The search for materials was nearly done... Being unlucky with outside mansions, he had to search the undermines. But just as he was going to give up and go back to the woods, a flying zepplin caught his attention. Its not like it wasn't unusual to see them around, but nontheless the small goblin decided to follow it.

"Gna, its too fast" he took a look around, and saw a little fissure and decided to drop his bags, with the exception of his alchemy pouch.

The zepplin led to a wide open area in the undermine, in hit, a little mansion lied at the back of it... but that was of no interest. Next to it lied a sort of hangar, and the zepplin landed there.

"Ok Pizham, don't you make a..." he then turned back only to realised he left it back at the hut. "Bah, here goes..sneaky sneaky tee hee hee, this be fun"

Slowly he approached the the hangar where the zepplin barely just landed. Hiding behind a spike rock ((the darn rock things in carvens, usualy on celling but on ground)) he examined the zepplin. A quick glance at it was telling something recent happened to it.

Seing that no one was around outside the zepplin, the passengers would still be inside. Attempting to get closer, the goblin quickly went back behind his rock.

"You got to be kinding me.." staring at something on board.. " a darn bird.. I hate those... shoulda brought Pizham"


((feels like its been a while !, I hope that goes well enough for description of Chikt's place))

[Rikt]

Boulderfist growled as he began to wake from his unconscious stupor. He could feel something holding him down and as he opened his eyes, he was greeted by ropes and cords holding him down to the wooden floor. Looking around, Boulderfist realized he was still on the Zeppelin of the goblins he tried to kill. Bulging his muscles, Boulderfist tried with all his might to break free from his restraints to no avail – even a Hobgoblin like him needed momentum to maximize his power.

Studying his surroundings more thoroughly, he noticed the Zeppelin was starting to slow down. He turned to see an eagle eating a fish, who in turn looked at him for a few moments before making a loud screech. The hobgoblin turned away from the bird to see a sleeping goblin slowly waking up. Boulderfist growled as the goblin stood up and turned toward the eagle.

“Shit Patriot, shut up you-“ The goblin brought his gaze over to Boulderfist, and a wide grin spread across his face. “Why good morning sunshine! How we feeling today?”

The hobgoblin responded with a snarl, gnashing his teeth at the condescending goblin. “Whoo boy, don’t get riled up. I haven’t even started with you yet.”

Rikt and Boulderfist turned to see Chikt coming to the top deck to pick up his equipment. “Yo bro! Muscles here is awake, won’t let me get a good night’s sleep.”

Picking up his backpack and rifle, Rikt walked over to the rope ladder. “I’m gonna do a little black market shopping. I’m just gonna keep him here while you fix this balloon up.” Rikt slid down the ladder and landed unto the cold stone floor.

Patriot flew up and perched on the railing to look down at his master. “Uh, Patriot, you keep that hobgoblin pinned down for me alright? Peck his face or something.” Screeching in approval, Patriot glided onto Boulderfist’s chest and began to jab his forehead with his beak.

Boulderfist growled as the bird pecked at his face; trying to think up a plan to get rid of it. Giving a loud snort, the hobgoblin hurled a massive loogie at the antagonizing bird. Patriot screeched in surprised as he was hit by phlegm and rolled off of Boulderfist. Standing up, Patriot frantically tried to clean his feathers off of the slime as the hobgoblin roared and basked in victory.

[Viirchi]

The Weaselgear name had a short but colorful history of not living in the past and since Tikri had taught her son better business sense then his own father, Seero showed up at the scrapyard the next day with a possitive attitude and a can of paint. The goblin promptly painted over Kloder's name, not bothering to conceal it, anyway if dad managed to escape or mom eventually came through for the old man they could always paint his name back on again, to leave the sign as is didn't even cross his mind.

After the initial shouting Tikri left specific instructions following Kloder's most recent kidnapping, most of it involving setting traps, bribing the Harbor master and mainly that Seero should be ready to pay a few favors on her behalf. It was less about getting Kloder back and more a matter of personal pride, Tikri was fully prepared to go through any lengths to make sure that Hayd, or anyone in the general area would never cross her again and she was calling on just about everything she had to do it with.

Seero for the moment was content, enjoying the large comfy chair in the office and congratulating himself on setting the genius trap of a shotgun pointed at the door. If the shotgun didn't work of course he had a small assortment of knives he was decently good at using and was currently thinking about sending for a large dog, or investing in a basilisk from the dealer across the street. A salvaged transmitter sounded off in the corner, keeping him updated as he considered if he should be smoking a cigar waiting for something big and nasty to come through the door.

[Chikt]

Chikt nodded and watched as Rikt climbed down the rope ladder. Pausing a while - he wouldn't be repairing the Zeppelin straight away. He had a call to make, first.

Packing up his things into his backpack, he turned and clambered down the rope ladder before turning to walk back to his mansion. Pushing the front door open and walking inside, he dropped his backpack by the door and wandered upstairs; past the second floor living quarters and to his top floor office. The moment he opened the door to his office he heard the mechanical voice coming from his work bench.

"--your answer do. I'm half crazy all for the love of you. It won't be a stylish marriage, I can't afford a carriage. But you'll look sweet upon the se--"

Chikt ignored the singing and wandered into the small connecting room to his office, closing the door behind him. The room was dark and largely empty; save for a console on the opposite wall. It was a communication device; built into the wall itself, the main feature of the console was a head-sized screen sunk back into the console at eye level. Beneath it was a speaker, along with several buttons and dials - but Chikt never had to bother with those. He only needed to press a single button to turn the console on.

When he did, the screen blinked to life with a dim green light. The room suddenly lit up, bathing Chikt in light. He ignored it however -his focus was solely on the screen. It remained blank, lifeless. That was until the console began whirring, a few beeping noises came from it, and the silhouette of a Goblin appeared on the screen - one of the Trade Princes that Chikt was funded by. The one unmistakable feature was the dim glow of a cigar that would occasionally light up as it was puffed on, the light from it barely seeming to light up the goblins features.

The other goblin spoke, his voice cold and professional. "Chikt. I'm glad you contacted me so quickly. We have a lot to discuss."

"What's this about? You just happen to contact me after my brother and I make it off of that island? I doubt that's a coincidence."

There was a pause as the cigar lit up, the other Goblin dragging at it slowly before he finally spoke again. "We've known about our colleague's betrayal for some time now. Your brother just went and stirred up the hornets nest - he won't let this go until he's secured the information your brother has, or you're both dead."

Chikt snorted. "I somehow doubt this is about the well being of my brother and I."

"You're right. He has something I want, and you are going to get it for me. I am sending you the location of his boat that's currently anchored off the coast South of--"

Chikt interjected. "Woah, woah, woah. Hey look, buddy. I'm no soldier, and my brother barely manages to pass. I'm an engineer. That means I solve problems. I solve Practical problems."

The cigar gradually lit up again, silence filling the air for a few long, uncomfortable seconds before the Trade Prince spoke again. "Then you're going to need to learn very quickly how to pull this off. I know what you and your brother are capable of."

Chikt went to speak but was cut off by the sound of papers - the Trade Prince flipped open a file and sucked at his cigar again. "Chikt Blastercharge. Target of a long forgotten bounty put out by the Mob some eighteen years ago. Sapper engineer in the Second War. One of the few survivors in most engagements. Superior officers said he had a knack for focusing on his work, even under pressure. Promoted, transferred to the front lines, and makes it out alive despite massive losses."

Falling silent, Chikt watched as the Trade Prince tapped the ashes away from the end of his cigar and flipped over to another page of the file. "Rikt Blastercharge. Also the target of a mob bounty, but more interestingly the target of dozens more disgruntled Goblins that he's displeased off in the last few years. Makes a living as a professional gun for hire. Despite being relatively well known for the services he provides, and the power of the people he's wronged, nobody has managed to kill him."

The Trade Prince closed up the file, dragged at his cigar again and spoke as he exhaled. "You're both survivors, Chikt. Despite all the odds, the two of you just seem to continue beeing a thorn in somebodies side. This isn't about what I want or what you are capable of. It's about righting a wrong."

Chikt shook his head. "And the fact that you could easily have us killed by somebody else."

The cigar disappeared as the Trade Prince put it out. "I've left you a list of names and places, people to help you do this job for me. Also, the information your brother has; get it examined by an accountant and get it to me. I would like to know the specifics of my coworkers dealings. That will be all, Chikt."

The console flickered off, as did the lights in the room - leaving Chikt standing in darkness. He closed his eyes and shook his head. Taking a deep breath, he turned and walked back out of the room. The robotic voice filled his office still in the strange, sing-song tone.

"--o ahead and leave me. I think I prefer to stay inside. Maybe you'll find someone else to help you. Maybe B--"

Chikt slammed the door to his office shut and continued downstairs, stepping back outside of the mansion. Sitting on the table on the porch was a folder - Chikt snatched it up and continued on to the hangar. He'd need to grab the parts to get the Zeppelin fixed.

[Oraph]

1... 2... goblin left the hangar. Perhaps it was time to sneak in and take a closer look he thought. One of them left the area.. probaly shopping or something like that, and the other one headed insite the house. Now was the best moment to go in.

The goblin was amazed as he entered the hangar, never has he ever been that close to a zepplin. No one was to be seen inside, and well without any hesitation he started going onto the zepplin.. Sneakely((if thats even a word)) looking at the deck, a darn bird was found... but under it something under it there was a large creature.

The goblin reach for something in his pocket and throwed it further away on the deck. "Gah, my last one..". Having caugh the attention of the bird, it moved to the little thing on the ground. The thing had a smell of fish, something the the eagle couldn't resist but to eat. A few moment after, Patriot started falling asleep.

"Finaly.. though bird, now now lets see whos that" The goblin started to run and jumped on Boulderfist, which then looked at him growling. "Oh you be hungry? Thirsty? I might have something for ya"

Looking inside his little alchemy kit, he picked up a vial filled with some dark brown liquid and dropped some into Boulderfist's mouth. The hobgoblin quickly shown a sign of dislike. "Oh ups ! That was oil, hold on a second" He then proceeded to a vial of red liquid. This time Boulderfist screamed in pain trying to move. Trying to keep balance on him as the hob was moving, he gaved him a blue potion this time. The hobgoblin quickly calmed down, but started doing bubbles with his mouth, he seemed to enjoy it.

"Gna!" looking in his kit for the right potion "Ah ha ! There it is" A light glowing green vial. Dropping a little of it, the goblin quickly jumped off the hobgoblin and looked at the result.

The hobgoblin had a surge of energy, making him to the bacon for a good 10 seconds... then suddenly went KO... or perhaps just asleep. The goblin stared at it, unhappy about the result, and started to poke him with his staff.

[Rikt]

Rikt threw an open pouch of gold unto the tabletop. The goblin sitting behind the table looked at the gold for a few moments before looking up at Rikt. “How can I help you?”

“Gimme something that will control a big ol’ hunk of muscle. You know, what you alchemists use on them ogres of yours."

The goblin alchemist grinned at Rikt as he fiddled a gold coin that he procured from the money in front of him. “Well kid, that’s a ‘special’ order. I don’t usually get clients who want mind-altering potions.”

Raising an eyebrow, Rikt crossed his arms. “You expect me to believe that? That’s a load of kodoshit.”

Flipping the gold coin, Rikt watched as it landed and rolled off the table. “Ok you got me, but I’ll need a password.”

“What?”

“Bad password.”

“Alright, how does a ‘crazed gunmen in an alchemist shop’ sound to you?”

“Excellent password.”

Standing up, the alchemist walked past his shelves of potions toward the back door. As the alchemist closed the door behind him, Rikt could hear the sounds of gears turning. Tensing up, Rikt fingered for his concealed knife under his vest – you never could be too careful.

The sound of gears stopped and the alchemist came walking out the door with a wooden rectangular case in hand. Setting it on the table, the alchemist slowly opened the case. Rikt eased his hand as he saw what was inside – a bunch of colored vials, a syringe, a metal baton with a battery strapped to it, and a paperback manual.

“This here is a starter kit for people who want to control ogres. The chemicals have been color coded for your convenience; the syringe tip is made of adamantine and can pierce the toughest hides. The electric baton isn’t there for disciple reasons; actually, it’s more to knock out your ogre just in case he gets a will of his own. As for the warranty…” As the alchemist explained the functions of the kit, Rikt attempted to discern when to bring up his predicament.

“Uh yeah, this ain’t exactly for an ogre…” The alchemist raised an eyebrow as he looked up at Rikt.

“I’m sorry sir, but if this stuff is used on anything smaller, it won’t be pretty. I’m sure there are other ways you can get that girl to do wha-“

Rikt waved his hands frantically. “Whoa! No! It’s for a hobgoblin…. damn how many clients do you get like that?”

The alchemist simply grinned and shrugged. “Well, if it’s for a hobgoblin… hmmm, I’m pretty sure it should work about the same. Both are humanoids and relatively the same size. But I can’t give a hundred percent guarantee on that.”

Rikt nodded and moved to close the case before he realized one of the vials was empty. “Hey miladdo, you got an empty vial in here.”

“Ah yes, that would be for a painkiller. It’s optional, but costs extra.”

Chuckling, Rikt picked up the case and strolled out the door.

“Do come again!”

[Phelix]

((Sikta is only 10 at this point))

Quietly closing the door behind her Sikta left her parents apartment, if she woke them up they would question her, and if they questioned her they would know she was lying, and if they knew she was lying they would search her, and if they searched her they would find the two gold she had saved and "confiscate" it as "rent" for taking care of her, and Sikta did NOT want that.

She had been saving every copper for close to five months now, she had to keep it in her secret hiding place beneath the simple straw bed her parents had provided. Her parents weren't bad people, I mean they didn't sell her to a brothel, but she knew she would get nowhere unless she taught herself some skills, and to learn skills she needed teaching and for teaching she needed money. So she saved. It was the most money she had ever owned, these two gold. Her hands rubbed them together in the small pockets of her robe as she tightened the simple hemp rope belt & started down the street.

She had read it on a poster outside the local bank.

"Learn the Skill of a lifetime!"
"Be Helpful & Prosperous"
"Everyone will want you around"
"and pay you to be around!"
"Train to be a Priest today!"

It was a skill she thought would be incredible to be both loved and paid to keep people alive! She could make far more money than her parents ever would.

She was coming up on the slave market, she would have to be quick if she didn't want a slaver catching her and selling her off, that had happened to several of her friends, and while it was technically illegal to take free goblins and sell them, no bruiser would dare cross the Trade Prince of the Slave Trade.

She ducked through the bazaar as a shortcut, many goblins & other races were wildly yelling prices & advertisements. Finally she made her way to the building that was listed on the bank. It was small, and rather shabby, most likely it was just recently purchased by the owners, and probably for an arm & a leg. She slowly pushed open the door and walked up to the counter, she was too short to see over it, but the female goblin on the other side was sitting on a rather tall stool and look down at her "Ah, potential customer!" She smiled at Sikta "what do you need?" Sikta looked up at her and responded "I WANNA BE A PRIEST!" dropping the two gold onto the table. The attendant smiled "alrighty then, class starts tomorrow at noon, and can I take yer name?" Sikta looked up at her and said "Sikta! Sikta Goldclaw." The secretary wrote it down, see you tomorrow then. Sikta smiled as she left knowing that she wouldn't have to hide what she was doing from her parents anymore, perhaps she could even go bother her older cousin Chikt after class tomorrow....

[Chikt]

Chikt wandered into the hangar, opening the folder and flipping through the pages in it. Each page had a photo, a description, very basic history. Most of them didn't seem particularly skilled fighters, just every day Goblins - it seemed that was very likely the case. He wouldn't expect actual, known fighters to be hired - a rag-tag band of nobodies taking down a trade prince would hit the news harder, but no outside force would be suspected of pulling the strings.

Then he came across the first familiar name.

Gizzi "DJ Gizmo" Grindbolt.

He'd met her during the Second War out in the field. She was an engineer, absolutely fascinated by audio - she'd made some very interesting noise machines, but Chikt had fallen out of touch with her during the course of his return to Kezan. According to the biography she was still kicking, and had a popular club in Undermine.

Fllipping through another few pages, he came to another familiar name.

Zilek Boltshot, Mirindi's boyfriend.

Or husband, whatever you wanted to call it - they had a son now. Chikt tried to visit Mirindi whenever his time allowed for it, but there was little he knew about Zilek - and little the file had on him, either. All that was really listed was that he was an experienced but unimpressive gun user.

With a nod, Chikt tucked the files into his backpack and went about finding the parts for the Zeppelin in the hangar. It wasn't a difficult job, he'd stashed away several replacement parts in a locker for just such a situation. Grabbing everything he needed and throwing it into a spare bag he had lying around, he wandered back to the rope ladder leading back up to the Zeppelin's top deck, and climbed up.

Hauling the bag up onto the deck, Chikt pulled himself up and brushed himself off. Grabbing the back and lifting it before turning to go back to the engine - but paused mid stride.

There was another Goblin standing over Boulderfists body, a few empty vials strewn about the deck, he seemed to be trying to work out how to wake the hobgoblin up. Chikt dropped his bags, grabbed the daggers from the hilts on his belt, and drew them out before barking, "Hey! Who the hell are you?!"

[Oraph]

"""Hey! Who the hell are you?!"""

That made the little one jump a little, the owner were back. He turned over his head to see an other fellow goblin on the deck, carrying a few tools and holding a dagger in his hand, ready to attack.

"Nobody, Nothing, Somethign !" he screamed.. and then slapped himself a couple of times before jumping off the hobgoblin.

"I was only curious and wanted to see this zepplin closer..." He looked at Chikt, which was clearly unsastified with the answer he gave him, and sighed. "Alright alright put down the dagger! I was curious about the zepplin, then found this hobgoblin, ya don't see those everyday!" -scratching the back of his head- "and then... well I couldn't resist but to do sum of my experiment on him."

A moment of silence occured for a min.. both sides looking at each other.
-sigh- "I don't have a name..."

[Rikt]

Rikt looked around the carpenter’s shop for a few moments before entering. The shelves were lined with wooden figurines and toys, while furniture sat at the floor of the shop. A clerk at the front desk greeted Rikt with a wave. “Hello, how can I help you?”

“Uh yeah…. I need something like a litter, you know? Like something that I can be carried around in?” The clerk’s ears perked up and she smiled. “Of course, right this way please.”

Rikt was led all the way to one end of the store past their selection of lavish chairs and tables. The clerk pointed at three litters displayed on stands at the very back end of the wall. “Here we are, servants not included. Heh heh…”

Studying the litters for a few moments, Rikt quickly realized that this was most likely a mistake. All the litters were of Quel’dorei or Highborne make, and with their elaborate designs Rikt knew he didn’t want to be seen in these. “Hey, I am trying to come off as a bad ass warlord, not some magic obsessed poofter.”

“I’m sorry sir, but this is all we have.”

Rikt pondered the predicament for a few moments - how could he find something to be carried around in without looking like a haughty elf prick? Looking around at the rest of the furniture, a certain chair caught his eye.

“Hey! How much to change this into a litter?” Rikt walked up to a chair that looked like a miniature wooden throne. It seemed imposing and yet at the same time it was incredibly simple in design.

“Oh, that is a recreation of an orcish throne. It was all the rage in the Second War, now it’s all elf and human stuff.” The clerk walked up to the chair and studied it for a few moments. “I could easily attach some handles to this thing… but it’s a far cry from a litter, it has no covering.”

Rikt grinned. “It’s perfect, make it happen.”

“Ok, where would you like me to deliver it too?”

“Oh, you have a quill and paper?” The clerk nodded and led Rikt back toward the front the desk. She slid the quill and paper to him. Scribbling down an address, Rikt gave it back and walked out the door, heading back toward his brother’s mansion.

[Phelix]

You know what, to the nether with it, I'm gonna go tell Chikt now! Sikta thought as she changed course and headed through a back alley and running out into the street, bumping into another, older, goblin as she did, falling on her back. She looked up to see who she had bumped into, and to her great surprise (and possibly luck) it was her other cousin, Chikts brother, Rikt. ((ok the names are getting ridiculous >.>)) "COUSIN!" she shouted hugging Rikt and talking a mile a minute "IJUSTSIGNEDUPFORCLASSESTOBEAPRIESTIMGOINGTOGOADVEN TURINGWITHYOU ANDCHIKTICANTWAITCANTYOUWAIT?ICANTWAIT!IWASHEADING TOGOSEECHIKTAREYOUGOINGTOGOSEECHIKTBECAUSEIMGOINGT OGOSEECHIKT!?!?"

((Just thought of an interesting RP idea, what if Sikta refers to herself as a "Blastercharge" but the rest of the family disagrees that she is one (essentially ignoring the "fact" which we can leave open to multiple interpretations, that Fikt had an affair which produced a child, essentially making Sikta an annoyance at this point, but you decide what your characters opinions of Sikta are and whether you believe shes a Blastercharge or not))

[Chikt]

Chikt blinked at the apparently nameless, panicking Goblin and sighed, shaking his head and sheathing his daggers. Snatching up the bag full of parts again he dragged it over to the engine compartment, pulled out his tools and went about removing the damaged parts. "'I don't have a name' isn't much of an excuse, kid. You don't just go breaking into a guys hangar and try to wake a giant angry Hobgoblin. Didja even think?"

He growled as he tugged out the rest of the frayed electrical wiring and went about replacing it with a fresh new set of cables. Grumbling about always being surrounded by crazy people. He connected up the electrical cabling before starting to unscrew the Propelling Nozzle. It had to be tugged out of place before he started to screw in the replacement.

Satisfied that the more important parts of the engine were dealt with, Chikt grabbed a mallet out of his backpack and began to bang out the dents in the engines compartment, talking between the loud clangs on the metal, "I mean, the damn thing could have woken up and crushed you, didja even think about that?"

He wiped some sweat off his forehead, looked at the engine, nodded and closed it up before turning back to the nameless goblin. "You need to leave. We're not sticking around for long."

[Oraph]

"Pff I'm no kid!" He looked at Chikt doing some repair on the zepplin with interest. Mechanics was always something that interested the goblin, but allas, it wasn't something he was able to learn by himself during those past years.

As Chikt asked him to leave, he jumped back on the hobgoblin. Standing on it and pointing Chikt with his staff, which looked to have some skull of a demon or something at the tip of it. "I ain't leaving here! At least not until I'm done with him or that he comes with me ah!" He then grins at Chikt. " I'm sure his owner wouldn't be happy to find it here tied up. After all they are expensif to produce and live for a short time compared to us"

"Beside, why the haste.. this zepplin is a..." looking at the hobgoblin, the goblin scratched his chin, took a few step back and turned to Chikt. "How long has he been there ? Hes covered in sweat... those rope won't hold him for long once he wakes up"
((Their sweat is acidic after all))

[Rikt]

Feeling something bump into him, Rikt looked down to find his cousin on the ground. Before he could say ‘hello’ and offer a helping hand, Sikta was already on her feet talking faster than a gnome on a ‘new invention’ high. “Whoa whoa! Take it easy! Good for you. You’re going to Chikt’s place? Yes yes, I’m going there too.”

Kneeling down to reach her eye level, Rikt patted Sikta on the head. “But don’t bother your cuz Chikt too much, you hear? You know how he gets about distractions. And uh… I won’t lie but there something big and dangerous tied up over there… just don’t get too close to it.” A reassuring smile spread across his face.

Standing back up, Rikt started moving forward again. “Alright let’s get a move on! Let me tell you what your cousins Chikt and Rikt got themselves into today!”

Rikt began talking about his stand at the island and how his brother came to rescue him with the Zeppelin. By the time they had reached the mansion, Rikt had gotten to the part about Boulderfist.

“…so your cousins had to come up with something crafty to take him out see? Chikt distracted the bugger while I took out the engines power cords to shock him and….” As they entered the hanger, Rikt looked up at the Zeppelin to see two goblins standing on the top deck.

Dropping his alchemist kit and backpack, Rikt turned to Sikta. “Alright, you be a good girl and stay here. And if you hear some growling and gunshots, git outta here.” Turning toward the rope ladder, Rikt picked up his rifle and ascended.

Rikt heard the voice of another goblin. "How long has he been there? He's covered in sweat... those rope won't hold him for long once he wakes up." He quickly leapt over the railing as he came to the top deck, pointing his rifle at the other goblin.

“Alright what’s going? Who is this creep?”

[Chikt]

Chikt blinked as his brother joined them on the deck and let out a sigh of relief, motioning towards the nameless goblin, "I get back to the Zeppelin and find this guy is trying to wake up Boulderfist!"

Shaking his head, he leaned back against the railing of the Zeppelin and looked at the mystery goblin. Pausing for a moment before continuing to speak, "Says he doesn't have a name, is refusing to leave without Boulderfist or else he'll tell its owner about us. Which is funny, since we're now going to hunt down Boulderfist's owner, apparently."

Chikt looked to his brother, "That was the other thing. I got a call while you were asleep from one of the other trade princes, the one that pays the most. And he wants us to go and get something from this guy you've pissed off." He sighed, rubbed at the bridge of his nose, and began to pace back and fourth along the deck of the Zeppelin, "Everything just has to happen at once with us, doesn't it?"

[Phelix]

Sikta was a little annoyed at being left at ground level, she couldn't even see what was going on! Looking around she spotted a pile of boxes in the corner of the hanger and quickly scrambled upon them to get a better sight. She saw the standoff between her two cousins, and another goblin who was apparently standing on top of an ogre.... or something big like one anyways. "BEAT HIM UP!" she shouted her thoughts of what they should do to her cousins...

[Oraph]

Just as Chikt explained to his brother that the goblin was trying to wake up the hobgoblin, the little gnome said "No no no, I'm doing exeriements..." Although his word seemed to have been ignore as for Chikt turned to his brother and continued talking.

-Mmm not good- he thought. His words to reach the owner turned out to be something they wanted. "Think think think" he mumbled to himself. He then noticed a jumpy goblin at the back of the hangar cheering up.. then ignored it.


The hobgoblin woke up, suddenly raging and trying to break free. It caught everybody's attention, aside Rikta still cheering at the back. The rope started to shatter ((is that the right word to use?)).

Seing that the hobgoblin was nearly free, the goblin raised his staff in the air and hit the ground with the bottom tip of it. On impact, a blast of cold wind was felt on the deck and ice started forming around the hobgoblin's body and the 2 brother's feets.

Loking over his shoulder to see Chikt, the goblin said: "Okay, well hes awake, hes mad and hes probaly hungry. The ice won't hold him for long.. so if you have something to calm him, now is the time.." then he looked back at the hobgoblin.

-thinking- Do I leave them ? Do I watch the hoby destroy them ? Take hostage the kid ? Gna what to do mmm.

[Rikt]

Looking up at the waking hobgoblin, Rikt cursed under his breath. Before he could react a sudden cold seemed to accumulate at his feet. Acting on instinct, Rikt took out a hand held device that looked similar to his flare gun. Pointing it dangerously close to his feet, the gun blew out a torrent of flame from its muzzle, thawing out the ice until it was nothing but a pool of water. Turning toward the nameless goblin, Rikt yelled. “You just stay put frosty! I’m gonna take care of this!”

Rikt ran toward the railing and vaulted over it. Rikt tucked and rolled as he hit the stone ground, and as he got up, immediately starting running toward the alchemist kit. Opening it up, Rikt took out the electric baton and moved to throwing distance of the Zeppelin’s top deck.

“Bro! I’m sending an electric baton your way! Catch!” Rikt reeled his arm back and threw the baton up and over the railing – he hoped that Chikt caught it.

Running back to grab the kit and then moving back toward the rope ladder, Rikt started to ascend to the top deck.

[Chikt]

Unlike Rikt, Chikt had the wooden planks beneath his feet freeze and immediately stumbled and slid about, trying to keep his balance. That's when he heard his brother, "Bro! I’m sending an electric baton your way! Catch!"

Chikt winced, saw the baton launch up over the edge of the Zeppelin, he stumbled backwards along the icy floor with his hand out above his head. Felt the baton bounce off his fingertips. He leaned back further to catch it as it descended again, only to have it slide through his fingers and send him slipping onto his back and slide along the icy floor. He reached up, tried to grab the baton.

And then felt his back slide over the ledge of the Zeppelin.

His eyes widened and he instinctively grabbed outwith both hand with a yelp - his left hand clasped the top rung of the rope ladder as his body swang out. He smacked face first into the hull of the Zeppelin.

He shook his head and groaned, glanced to his right hand - he grasped the baton in it. He didn't know how he managed it, but he wasn't about to question it. Feeling a tug on the rope ladder, he glanced down and saw Rikt quickly begin to cimb up. Hoisting himself up onto the deck of the Zeppelin, Chikt immediately slipped on the soles of his shoes again before he gained his balance. Skating over to the Hobgoblin, flicking the electric baton out and flicking it on, holding his free hand out.

His free hand connected with the nameless Goblin's chest, shoving him off of Boulderfist, before swinging the baton around and smacking the electrified end into Boulderfist's side. The Hobgoblin immediately seized up, writhing about in its binds.

[Rikt]

Climbing back onto the top deck of the Zeppelin, Rikt dropped the kit onto the ice and kicked it. The kit slid effortlessly over to the hobgoblin as he skated directly behind it. As Rikt reached Boulderfist, he kneeled down and opened the case, pulling out a syringe and a vial of green liquid.

“Alright, administer the green chemical directly into the bloodstream via the arm; 8 milliliters. That’s what the manual said.” Rikt took the syringe and put the needle through a small opening at the top of the vial. Drawing out the liquid through the syringe, Rikt took it out and carefully pierced Boulderfist’s arm. The effect wasn’t immediate, but Boulderfist slowly began to calm down until he entered a sort of trance.

“And then…. uhh…” Rikt took out the manual and flipped through it. “We inject the red liquid into his neck; 10 milliliters.” Taking out the red vial, Rikt filled the syringe with the liquid. Piercing the needle into the side of the hobgoblin’s neck with one hand, Rikt held the manual with the other.

Rikt read aloud from the manual. “After your ogre has been sedated and both green and red liquid have been injected in the correct location and quantity, you should begin to see a change in your ogre. This is a crucial time as you need to apply yourself as his master… blah blah blah… you can use the same syringe on the same ogre but do not use it for personal use or on other orges... wah wah wah… regularly inject your ogre with 5 milliliters of the blue liquid in the chest every hour for 10 hours….” Filling the syringe with the blue liquid, Rikt pierced it into the hobgoblin’s chest.

“Ok I think I have this. So we are going after the Trade Prince you said? Sounds good, that guy won’t let up till he or I are dead, may as well take the fight to him. We getting any help?” Rikt took the syringe and the vials and placed them back into the case.

“Oh, and I might need my shock baton back.”

[Oraph]

As the two brother were dealing with the hobgoblin, the little one quickly loss interest in it.. Why ? well he noticed the zepplin engine there at the back, and why the hell not investigate it while there are dealing with hobby he thought.

The ice melted quickly on the deck, the heat of the undermine lava flow surely was the cause. The goblin was quite interested in this mechanic, he open a couple of boxes watching how it works. It reminded him of his attempt to build a crane at his hut using some chemical reaction to try to produce some force/energy to move it... but then again, it always ended in a big boom and failure.

Looking over his shoulder, it looked like Rikt was done injecting the serum into Boulderfist... it was merely a question of time before they turn toward the nameless goblin and deal with "him".

But of course, he was prepared for it now... although his spells wouldn't be much effective due the heat, there was one more option left... in case they would want to capture him or kill.

Nonetheless, he turned back to the engine to study it more.

[Chikt]

Chikt deactivated the baton and tossed it through the air back to his brother. Leaning over and grabbing his knees to pant and catch his breath, "Won't this day ever end...?"

Standing up straight again with a sigh, he brushed himself off and looked to Rikt. "That's exactly what we're doing. I was given a folder full of the names of people we would need to bring along for --" Chikt cut himself off to throw a hand out in the direction of Sikta, "Was it absolutely necessary to bring Sikta? We've got enough problems without needing to babysit, bro!"

Pausing, Chikt looked over his shoulder to the nameless Goblin and sighed. "Not that Sikta is our only new problem, of course."

Giving himself a few moments thought, Chikt turned and wanders a bit closer to the nameless goblin. "Hey, ki--... guy without a name... Mr Ree," He snorted quietly at his own joke, "Look, you want to experiment and do something useful. I get that more than anybody, buddy. You did quite a job with that frost stuff back there - mage, right? Well... how would ya like a job?"

[Phelix]

"Hey!" Sikta replied to Chikt, having overheard the comment about babysitting, "I can take care of myself!" She puffed herself up and held her head up in disdain (complete with eyes closed) "I even begin training to be a priest tomorrow" Sikta opened one eye to see if either of them were impressed....

[Oraph]

Still looking at the engine, the goblin started mumbling and then said:

"Mage ? Oh so thats how we put those... Yes a mage.. but what if.. Job ? not that much interested in gold.. ah yes this should work then, will need to be tested."

He then had an idea, and turned to Chikt, pointing with his thumb at the engines. "How bout you teach me making those, then I'll provide the magic... and drinks."

The nameless goblin then looked over Chikt's shoulder and screamed at Sikta. "Priest! Thats SO Uuuuuuuseless !" The goblin was after still young in age.

"So what you say about it ?" looking back at Chikt.

[Phelix]

Sikta makes a face at the nameless goblin "Well then you can just leave your organs on some battlefield then!" She then realized she didn't know this goblin "and who're you anyways!?" Putting her hands on her hips and tapper her foot.

[Rikt]

Rikt looked at Chikt and shrugged. “Hey, she wanted to come along to tell you about joining the clergy of gold. What was I supposed to do?”

Standing up and walking over to the ledge, Rikt waved at Sikta. “I’m sure you’ll do just fine pup. You can hang out on this Zeppelin and do coloring books while your cousins go on their super dangerous grownup mission. If we are fast about it, we might even be able to get back in time for your class tomorrow.”

“If we make it out alive, that is….” Rikt grumbled under his breath.

A sound of a door bell rang through the hanger, and Rikt’s ears perked up. “And I think my package just arrived! You wait here!”

Sliding down the rope ladder, Rikt exited the hanger and came back a few moments later with a chair/litter strapped to his back. “Sweet, I finally got my own throne!”

Climbing up the ladder, Rikt huffed and puffed as the weight of the litter and his other belongings pulled him down. Finally reaching the top, Rikt took his personal throne, rifle, and backpack and set it to the side, collapsing on the floor in exhaustion. “Okay… I paid the price of power…. now it’s time to reap the benefits. I’m ready to go whenever you are, bro.”

Rikt gave a weary thumbs up before falling asleep again on the deck of the Zeppelin.

[Phelix]

"Leave me behind will he?!" Sikta thought indignantly to herself "well we'll see whose left behind doing coloring books...."

[Chikt]

Chikt nodded to the nameless Goblin and grinned, "You have a deal. I'll teach you how to make engines, but you do what I say, you understand?"

Looking back to Rikt as he finally managed to lug the chair up onto the Zeppelin, Chikt opened his mouth to ask just what the hell it was - but decided it better not to. Shaking his head, he looked to Sikta. "That's nice about your priest training, Sikta. But this isn't a game! You need to stay on the Zeppelin and keep your head down, okay?"

Wandering down the stairs to the Zeppelin's controls, Chikt couldn't help but feel secure and safer in the small room. Walking to the steering controls, he thumbed the engine start. The Zeppelins engine roared to life after a few brief coughs, and the vehicle floated out of the underground hangar. The size of the caverns in the Undermine meant that they could barely maneuver the Zeppelin through - they'd likely need to hit ground side in order to transfer to some caverns. But for now, they were fine.

Chikt yelled up to the top deck, specifically to his brother, "One of the names on the list is an old friend of mine from the war! She's fairly close, so we'll go get her first!"

[Phelix]

Sikta felt a renewed sense of importance as he older cousin had just seemingly given her permission to come along. She tightened her belt and made a face at Rikt before going to get a weapon from the storage locker down below, who knows she might even need it! Looking through the various armaments she chose a dagger, easily hidden in her leather apron. She also found a nice, wide brimmed, hat which she quickly donned (though it was far too large for her) and returned to the top deck. She was literally twitching with excitement...

[Oraph]

The nameless goblin turned and moved away from the engine, seeing that the zepplin was on the move. Slowly walking around the deck, looking little female goblin drawing.

"Waste of time!" slowly shaking is end. He turned over to Rikt, "Hey, what we doing anyway ?" Rikt didn't answer. "Hello ?" He was asleep, unhappy of having no response, the little goblin moved toward Rikt. Grabbing a very small pouch, he poured some little dusk, so it seemed at first, on Rikt.

"There, just a little.. not too much but any moment now." He took a few step back, turning his head toward Sikta. "Hey you there! Watch ye uncle, it will be funny.. any moment now and hes gona be picky itchy scraching himself a lot hehehe"

[Rikt]

Rikt started to awake from feeling an itch everywhere on his body. Suppressing his urge to scratch himself, knowing it would likely only make it worse, Rikt growled to himself. “Alright, who the hell did that…?”

Hearing that nameless goblin’s voice just before he woke up, Rikt pinned him as the likely culprit. Walking up to the goblin mage, he gave him a light shove. “Hey son, back off or I will kick your ass.”

Rikt turned and walked over to the side of the Zeppelin, twitching as he restrained the urge to scratch himself. “Okay, your friend’s night club shouldn’t be too far from here.” He said to Chikt.

As the Zeppelin touched down, Rikt dropped the rope ladder and slid down. “Alright, you two kids should stay on this Zeppelin. Let Chikt and I handle this.”

Turning toward an entrance, Rikt walked through it and into a cavern that led into Undermines. Walking past a collection of lavish stores and condos, Rikt finally came to a door where he could hear the drumming of muffled music coming from the other side. A long line of people were waiting out front, Rikt decided to skip it.

“Hey, back of the line pal.” The bouncer at the front held out his arm to keep Rikt from going any further.

“I’m here to see your boss, Gizzi... Dj Gizmo? Me and my brother have business to discuss with her.”

Raising an eyebrow at Rikt, the bouncer stood firmly in place. “Yeah, like I haven’t seen that one before, back of the line.”

Rikt sighed under his breath, trying to think of something to get through. “Er, my name is Rikt Blastercharge, my brother is Chikt Blastercharge, I think your boss worked with him during the war? We need to see her; it’s an urgent business matter.”

The bouncer hesitated for a few moments before turning around and cracking open the door. The bouncer exchanged words with another goblin on the other side and then he turned back toward Rikt. “Just wait.”

A few seconds later, a goblin came through the door and motioned for them to come inside. “Follow me, she is expecting you.”

((The Crystal Method - Name of the Game (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fg_1-sF9W3o)))

As Rikt walked into the club, he heard a new song come on and the goblins at the dance floor changed in tune. Taking off his brimmed hat, Rikt followed the goblin through the crowd. It had been a long time since Rikt was in a club like this, with its combination of lights, smoke, and dark corners; it felt oddly relaxing to him.

Finally reaching the back of the club, the goblin stopped and motioned toward Gizzi, and then stood to the side. Rikt walked past him, giving a slight bow and smile to Gizzi. “How do you do? As I said, Chikt and I are here on business…”

[Imara]

Gizzi rolled her eyes at the teenage girl she was holding by the scruff of the neck. "Right, right. You're old enough to be in here and I'm a Trade Prince's daughter." Gizzi tossed the girl toward the bouncer who was weaving his way through the crowd toward her.

The bouncer caught the girl and yelled over the din of the crowd. "Hey Giz! There's a guy up front. Blastercharge. Says you know his brother from the war?"

Gizzi paused, thinking for a moment she misheard him. "Blastercharge?"

The bouncer nodded. "Yeah. Said they have important business with you."

Gizzi nodded slowly and started toward the stairs up to the VIP platform. "Let 'em in."

The bouncer nodded and made his way back to the door, dragging the teenager behind him.

Gizzi stopped at the foot of the stairs and waited, leaning against the banister. If this Blastercharge was somehow related to Chikt it made her wonder what important business they could possibly have for her. She hadn't seen Chikt in ages and had assumed he'd moved on with his life and was trying to put the war behind him.

Gizzi scanned the crowd, absently playing with the bracelets on her wrist. Eventually, the bouncer returned with two men following behind.

“How do you do? As I said, Chikt and I are here on business…”

Gizzi regarded the goblin as he bowed to her and then she looked past him and, sure enough, there was Chikt. Gizzi grinned. "Well, well, well. It -is- you." She nodded to Rikt and then stepped forward to fist-bump Chikt, laughing. "Where've you been keeping yourself?"

Gizzi stepped back and motioned to them both. "Come on." She lead the way up to the VIP lounge.

[Chikt]

Chikt scanned the club as he wandered through it - it certainly belonged to Gizzi. All the technology had her style about it, and the sound reminded him of the examples she'd given him back during the war.

When he saw her standing at the top of the stairs, he recognized her right away and couldn't help but smile. Staying behind Rikt as he introduced them, half expecting to not be recognized - it came as a surprise when Gizzi stepped forward. He instinctively raised his fist in the greeting they'd penned during the war - bumping his fist to hers with a grin.

"Where've you been keeping yourself?"

As she led them into the VIP room, Chikt answered, "When we got back, my reputation apparently preceded me. I was hired near immediately by some trade princes to do some R and D for them. Given a bunch of big cheques, told to make them things to give them the upper hand. It's a full time job."

The VIP lounge was lined with big, comfortable couches and overlooked the dance floor. Gizzi sat down, Chikt and Rikt followed suit. Leaning forward in his seat, Chikt smirked to Gizzi, "It looks as though you've had about the same success, though. How have--"

Chikt stopped as Rikt elbowed him in the side. He and his brother exchanged a glance before Chikt looked back to the female DJ. "Gizmo, this is my brother, Rikt. Rikt, Gizzi... Fact of the matter, Giz, is that one of the guys paying me - THE guy paying me - has 'hired' us for a job. And we can't really do it alone. You were listed as one of the possible people we could recruit for aid."

Sighing, Chikt crossed his arms and leaned back in the couch. Looking down at the dance floor, "I don't like asking favors of friends I've not spoken to in years. But you know I repay my debts," He looked back to Gizzi, "It's up to you. I could use the help."

[Phelix]

"like hell they are leaving ME behind" Sikta watched her older cousins enter the bar as a teenager was kicked out for being too young "well there goes the front door....lets see what else this place has for entrances" Sikta nimbly climbed down the anchor chain keeping the zepplin in place as she stalked towards the bar, sneaking into a back alley as the bouncer was busy with some ruffians right outside. She checked to see if she was followed, but the alley was empty except for her, some rats & a couple of trash bins underneath a conveniently placed open window.

"Jackpot" Sikta thought as she scrambled up the trash holders and into the window, using the support beams of the roof too stay above the main floor. The place smelled of cheap alcohol, drunkards and piss, and there were probably a lot of all of them around. She carefully moved between the upper beams as she tried too spy her cousins, not the easiest task in a crowded bar. Then she spied them, going into a back room. "Well if they wanted private they shoulda stayed out here, can't hear myself think for golds sake."
Carefully she worked her way towards the room, she knocked a rat down on accident once, landed in someones drink, she woulda laughed too if she wasn't so scared of getting caught. Eventually she made it to the wall between the main floor and the VIP room. Looking through a rat hole she could see her cousins & another talking about something, she lay down on the beam & stuck her ear through the rats hole, hopefully this would allow her to hear something besides the drunken brawl over someone placing a rat in someone elses mug while the bouncers tried to break it up.

"It's up to you. I could use the help."

[Imara]

(( Paul Oakenfold - Southern Sun (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zu6dC8UGh4) ))

Gizzi sat back on the larger, black velvet couch along the back wall. The position gave her a view of the room and out the windows to the dance floor. She crossed her legs, her silver pants glinting in the strobes. She listened, a smile playing on her lips, as Chikt updated her.

Gizzi looked to Rikt as he was introduced and nodded. "You never told me you had a brother. Or that he was as handsome as you."

Gizzi grinned and listened intently as Chikt continued, only seeming distracted when she noticed a scuffle near the bar. Her eyes narrowed but when the bouncers seemed to have it under control she returned her attention to the matter at hand.

"It's up to you. I could use the help."

Gizzi looked thoughtful, one eyebrow raised. "I'm curious what skills they think I have that would be useful. You know I'd help you in a heartbeat. And I'm not worried about debts... But I'm not sure what an off duty soldier and audio engineer would be helpful for."

[Rikt]

Rikt leaned back in his seat and placed his hat on the arm of couch. Crossing his arms, he betrayed the slightest hint of grin when Gizzi compared his looks to Chikt’s. “On the contrary, I think the power of sound can be harnessed to be a very effective weapon.”

Rikt looked directly at Gizzi. “Aside from the fact that our Trade Prince wants a team of unlikely combatants to do this mission, I think audio engineering will be especially useful in this case. We will most likely be approaching the target’s Flag Ship from the air via Zeppelin. I know that sound tuned just right can be used to cause both physiological and physical trauma. Not to mention out in the middle of the sea, there is very little that will dampen such noise.”

Leaning against the arm rest, Rikt raised an eyebrow. “I am sure you have at least experimented with such effects on the enemy in the Second War, right? You have any sort of sonic weapon you’ve been working on?”

[Imara]

“I am sure you have at least experimented with such effects on the enemy in the Second War, right? You have any sort of sonic weapon you’ve been working on?”

Gizzi narrowed her eyes slightly, looking suddenly guarded. "And if I did? I've worked pretty hard on maintaining my neutrality in these parts. It's not good for business to go flaunting your... side projects."

Gizzi looked from Rikt to Chikt and stood, walking over to the window and leaning on the railing. "I'd like to know if I'm about to get myself dragged into something that might cost me my livelihood."

[Chikt]

"I'd like to know if I'm about to get myself dragged into something that might cost me my livelihood."

Chikt laughed quietly and stood up, turning to watch Gizzi. "Gizmo, we've been back for a few years now and only a handful of people know about what I did back during the second war."

Crossing his arms, he glanced briefly to Rikt before looking back to Gizzi. "If anything, this will be beneficial. We're going to take down a rogue Trade Prince making deals with the wrong people, and that has gotten his hands on... something that the other Trade Princes want. Only they will know about your hand in this - I'd say that's a business opportunity."

Pausing a moment, Chikt motioned to his brother. "Of course, we could just leave and act like this never happened. There are always risks, but if they pay off... It's entirely your call, Giz."

[Chikt]

((Just curious is Gizzi a goblin or not?))

((Gizzi is a goblin, of course. You could have just looked up her profile, or asked Liadain. XD))

[Imara]

"Of course, we could just leave and act like this never happened. There are always risks, but if they pay off... It's entirely your call, Giz."

Gizzi stood, looking out over the club for several minutes before she finally spoke. "I'm in."

Turning back toward the velvet couch where she had been sitting, Gizzi pulled a small remote off of her studded belt and flipped a switch. The central cushion creaked and elevated away from the wall, revealing a doorway and a stairwell beyond. "Gentlemen, if you'll follow me." Gizzi smirked and lead the way down the stairwell, the couch closing behind them.

The stairs wound down inside the wall at the back of the club until they reached an underground chamber. Perhaps once nothing more than a cellar, the chamber was now well fortified and soundproofed. There were various prototype sound systems strewn about in various states of completion. On a table that ran the length of the room, there was an assortment of weapons. They didn't appear to have any traditional forms of ammunition.

Gizzi motioned around as she walked through the room. "As you can see, I've been working on plenty of new systems for the club. Music being my first love. However, never one to be caught unprepared, I have been tinkering with sonic weapons. Some that deafen the enemy. Others that stun them." Gizzi lifted a particularly large gun from the middle of the table. "Some that can actually use sound to cause physical injury."

Gizzi smirked and set the weapon down, turning to continue to the back corner of the room. "But this... This is the project I'm most proud of." She motioned to a mock up of a corner booth; a replica of one from the club upstairs. "Have a seat, gentlemen." Gizzi paused while Chikt and Rikt sat and then walked to a switch on the wall a few feet away.

When she flipped the switch music started playing and, at first, nothing seemed amiss. But, as a few moments passed, Chikt and Rikt started to feel increasingly uneasy, even frightened. Gizzi watched with a moderate amount of amusement.

[Phelix]

Sikta was listening too all of this. Perhaps it wasn't her best idea to listen by sticking her ear through a rat hole, or perhaps it was her proximity to the source of the sound, or even the fact that she was younger and had a larger range of sounds available to her. For whatever reason she couldn't stand the sound and with an audible yell she leaped back and fell from the rafters with a resounding thud. As some of the bar patrons gathered around Sikta covered her ears in pain.

[Rikt]

As Rikt listened to the music, his ears began to droop as a sudden sense of fear welled up inside him. His palms and forehead started to become damp, and Rikt quickly began to realize what was going on. Springing out of the corner booth, Rikt quickly produced a knife from under his vest and threw it dangerously close to Gizzi. As the knife embedded itself in the soundproof wall, Rikt swiftly procured another one and held it in a throwing position.

“Tu- turn that piece of shi- shit off, my bro and I ain’t y- you-- your damn gui- guinea pigs.” Rikt growled through his stuttering as he held his throwing knife with shaky hands.

[Chikt]

Chikt felt the undeniable urge to run at the sound, but he couldn't keep the grin from his face as it played. Seeing Rikt throw the dagger, he reached out to grasp his brothers wrist to stop him. Motioning for Gizzi to turn it off. "R-Relax, Rikt, woah. It's alright..."

Once the device was turned off, Chickt visibly relaxed and shook his head. Letting out a shuddery laugh as he looked to Gizzi. "Using sound waves to inspire fear and awe... I always liked your creative thinking."

Chikt released Rikt's wrist and looked to his brother. "We could install it on the Zeppelin. As we come in, we'd probably rid the area of a good chunk of defenders. We'd not have nearly as much to fight through."

[Phelix]

((Sorry, I looked back and didn't see anything about the door being locked before I made the post, but I'll edit it to keep it flowing))

Sikta didn't notice the bar patrons around her until she stopped holding her head from pounding... "OI! kid you ain't s'possed ta be here" one of the bouncers made a grab for her, instinctively she jumped back, and into the door, but at least she wasn't caught, she quickly grabbed the handle to the VIP room and attempted to open it. Jiggling the handle, when it didn't open her ears drooped and the back of her dress was roughly lifted up by the bouncer. The door to the bar was flung open as Sikta was thrown onto the ground outside the bar. Several patrons followed her out, forming a circle around her. "Heh, you're a quick one, our boss is gonna love you...." Siktas ears dropped in fear as she realized that the various races of men around her were slavers, one quickly used a sap on her knocking her unconscious while another threw her in a bag. The men then turned to the small crowd that had gathered around and threw a small collection of coins at em "this is so that none of you saw a thing...."

((Where is the bar located? Whats the surrounding Scenery))

[Imara]

(( Unfortunately, Gizzi is the only one with a remote for the door to her lab, so Sikta can't have gotten down there. :( ))

(( The Lonely Island - Boombox (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yvEYKRF5IA) ))

Gizzi flipped the switch off and yanked the knife out of the wall. "I'm afraid I'll have to add repairing this wall to the expense report." She smirked at the brothers. "This set up uses low frequency sound to cause unease and even hallucinations. I imagine if I piped it through your Zeppelin it would certainly add to your... reputation?"

Gizzi chuckled and crossed her arms. "I'll need a bit of time to let Leo know he's going to be keeping down the fort and to pack. Anything else you guys see around here you want me to bring?"

[Rikt]

As the feeling of unfocused fear started to slip away, Rikt breathed a sigh of relief as he sheathed his knife in its concealed vest compartment. Glancing toward Gizzi as he walked over to the selection of sonic weaponry, he blurted out sarcastically. “Yeah right, how about I deduct physiological damages to your so called ‘expense report’, eh?”

Stopping and staring down at the sonic weapons, Rikt tapped his forehead. “Okay, how about the one of the guns that can stun annnd….” Rikt looked over toward the particularly big sonic gun Gizzi had picked up earlier.

“…that one.” Rikt lifted the big sonic gun up carefully and examined it more closely. “You gotta case we can put these in?”

[Chikt]

Chikt blinked at his brothers prompt choice of the largest gun in the room. Tapping his chin, Chikt looked around at all the weapons in the room before he shrugged and looked to Gizzi.

"Bring all of it."

[Imara]

"Bring all of it."

Gizzi smirked, walking over to stand next to Chikt. "He compensating for something?" Chuckling, she nodded. "All of it it is then. We'll just need to crate it up and get it to the Zeppelin... I'm sure the boys upstairs would help but we have to wait till closing time. That'll give me time to talk to Leo as well."

Gizzi started back toward the stairs. "In the meantime, you boys help yourself to food, drinks, dancing. Might as well relax on the house before this great adventure." She winked and proceeded to lead the way back up to the VIP lounge.

(( Fatboy Slim - Weapon of Choice (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7Ky5R-vxns&feature=fvst) ))

[Rikt]

Rikt scoffed as he heard Gizzi talk to Chikt. “On the contrary sweetheart, I believe this gun and I have quite a bit in common!”

Placing the gun between his legs as he held it, Rikt paced around the room for a few moments. “Yeeeeaaaah, that feels pretty natural… pew pew pew!” Looking toward the stairs, he saw Gizzi leading Chikt out of the lounge.

“Hey, wait up!” Carefully placing the gun back onto the table, Rikt followed the two back into the office. Waving toward Chikt to get his attention, Rikt exclaimed.

“Bro! We ain’t got time to party! We still got two more guys to recruit! We’re in Undermines already so they shouldn’t be too far off. Let’s split the work, you go get Zilek Coppershot and I’ll grab Weaselgear.” Rikt’s voice lowered to a whisper. “And we need to get that evidence verified… we still got a bit of work ahead of us before our attack on the Trade Prince.”

[Chikt]

Chikt turned to his brother and grinned, nodding once, "I was thinking the exact same thing."

Looking back to Gizzi, he smiled. "The Zeppelin is anchored down just outside, it's low enough to the ground that your guys shouldn't have any problem lifting the weapons into the cargo bay. It also gives you a chance to install that fear ray thing of yours."

Looking back to his brother, Chikt nodded once and headed out of the VIP room. "I'll be back with Zilek. Try not to get yourself into trouble, huh?"

[Oraph]

"Good.. now they are all gone." as he saw that little annoying brat (ref. to Sikta) leave the zepplin. His mood / attitude somewhat suddenly changed, as if he was someone else.

"Now then, let us beging" he took a whistle and blew in it, shortly after a strange little creature jumped aboard the zepplin. It was small imp! but the imp was not his, it was property of someone else.. but who?

"Pizham, here's the message for da boss.. they..." the goblin talked about what he heard knew about that goblin, Rikt and associate. Clearly this was a good day for him, did Pizham had not showed up while looking for scraps in the undermine to inform him about the failuire of the mercenaries and the escape of Rikt in a zepplin, he would had never followed that suspicious zepplin he saw in the undermine.

The goblin slapped himself a few times... which each slap, his physical appearance took on about 5 year of age. "Gna, I can't take this potion effect anymore, I'll have to bind a rune to this zepplin and get out of here." He headed toward the engine and opened it. " This should be a good spot" Mumbling and waving his hands, he binded a rune onto one of the engine's part.. a rune which could be felt by demons and masters of the arcane magic. After all, none of the crew they had at this time had any of those.

He closed back the engine box and turned to Pizham "Leave now before they come back" The little imp faded away.

"Mmm I left my other pouch at the hideout, no portals for me.. I'll have to flee in the jungle" He casted a spell on himself and jumped off the zepplin, slowly falling down to the ground. (Slow fall) "And now the final, to disapear" as he started to run away from this place, he became invisible.. but little that he knew, footsteps where left behind showing off where he was heading.

[Viirchi]

Several hours in Seero started to regret that he hadn't planned for food. Earlier it had seemed like great fun, with fantasies of standing guard inside the little windowed office picking off invaders weaving through the scrapyard, until the 3rd hour when there wasn't so much as an oversized rat trying to get through the fence.
Tikri had told him almost nothing about what to expect, so the young goblin didn't know if he should first welcome visitors or shoot them on sight. As a compromise he'd laid the scrapyard with dozens of very simple and very obvious traps, reasoning that he really didn't know how to make anything that clever and an intruder was going to make more noise trying to sneak around the ones they saw then betting odds they would run into one.
Out of boredom the shotgun had been traded for some hidious monstrosity that Seero had cobbled together in the hours of spare time, the weapon looked like a hillarious combination between a rifle and a canon, it didn't even look like it would fire right but if that failed, he had the explosives and Seero was good at explosives. Raising the oversized gun towards the roof Seero looked through the sights and mimed firing it.

"Boom."

[Phelix]

((If your confused by this check my last post, I ret-con punched it so it fits again))

Sikta woke several hours later. She wasn't moving anymore but she was still inside the bag. She couldn't tell where she was but by the lighting around the bag & the sounds she guessed it was nighttime. She held very still, and recounted the events that had led up to this. First she went to class to become a priest, then she went to brag to her cousins. Finally they all went to a bar, which she snuck into, and she had been caught thrown outside where a group of the bar patrons, apparently slavers, knocked her out and kidnapped her. She checked her personal belongings, they were all there, seems they were in a hurry to leave after they bagged her, she even had the knife she had tucked in her belt. She quickly took it and cut her way out of the bag. She seemed to be in a cage, just large enough to hold her, in some kind of compound. Other cages with various races were all around her. Trolls, humans, orcs, and more goblins being the most numerous. All of the cages were outside and she could see that a medium sized wall surrounded the entire area. Positioned every 50 yards or so was a tower and in it she could see gunmen of various races. "What is this place?" she asked her neighboring captive, a troll, "Iman wi mek atuad smadda wehnehjo or'manley ginnalka nehjo" responded the Troll. Unfortunately Sikta had no idea what the troll was saying, and she regretted not knowing the trolls language. She lay down on the pile of cloth left over from the bag she had formed into a pillow, and drifted off to sleep.

[Rikt]

Having been pointed in the right direction to the Weaselgear residence, Rikt strolled through Undermines until he came upon a large scrapyard. Scanning his surroundings, Rikt could see various traps littering the area. Obviously the people here were rather paranoid about their visitors. Planning out how he should precede, Rikt considered the option of sneaking around the traps and attempt to reach the house undetected.

”Well, that might make a bad first impression, especially if I’m caught. I want Weaselgear’s help, not his belongings.” Rikt thought.

Finally, Rikt decided it was prudent to make himself as noticeable as possible. Taking off his hat and raising his arms, he walked through the scrapyard, carefully avoiding the traps as he went. “My name is Rikt Blastercharge! Are you Weaselgear? I have a job for you!” Rikt called out.

[Viirchi]

After hours of nothing happening Seero had stopped expecting anyone, Rikt's voice had surprised him into nearly dropping the oversized gun and then accidentally firing the trigger. Half the office exploded with a loud bang, landing the young goblin just short of his own trap and dancing as he juggled a few salvaged explosives.

"Gnome-Kebobs."

He looked bruised, but no worse then that and though it looked like the office was burning to the ground, the fire wouldn't spread any further.Satisfied he wasn't going to drop anything else Seero looked up at Rikt, tapping what looked like a stick of dynamite fused to a grenade casually against his own shoulder. "Uh...I'm Seero."

Seero looked around for any goons and once he didn't see anyone dangerous, determined that this guy was at least not going to hold him for more ransom. "Did Ma send you?"

[Chikt]

It wasn't too far to Mirindi and Zilek's manor from what Chikt remembered, but the walk took longer than he'd have liked. With Gizzi installing the devices on the Zeppelin, and the group splitting up to save time, the Zeppelin outside her club was going to be their gathering point once they were all gathered.

So Chikt walked. Transferred through one of Kezan's many underwater glass tubes that connected the outlying islands. The cavern opened up into a wide, high space - a mansion built into one of the walls of the cave.

Chikt let out a sigh of relief, he was here.

Traversing the cavern and arriving at the mansion, Chikt thumped his fist against the door three times. Pausing for a moment before he yelled, "Hey! It's Chikt! Open up!"

[Rikt]

Rikt staggered back as the force of the blast washed over him. Watching as a goblin was launched out of the house and landed on the ground juggling explosives; Rikt took a few cautions steps back.

“No, your Ma didn’t send me. A temporary employer did. Me and my crew need to take out a high profile goblin. It pays well.” Rikt looked around at the various explosives and traps.

“A lot of this stuff could be useful, we’re gonna be assaulting a ship from a Zeppelin. You down with that?”

[Viirchi]

Seero rocked back on his heels, trying to look deep in thought as he at least pretended to consider the offer. Ma hadn't really been clear on who to expect, actually all she had said was he'd need to pay a few debts on her behalf.
If he played it right Seero figured he'd be able to pay all those so called debts Tikri called on and have enough left over to keep dad out of ransom for a good six months.
Ma had mentioned something about staying in contact but there was clearly no way it would be possible to stay in touch thanks to his disaster with the canon rifle much less play out his siege fantasy, so after a few moments of pretending that he had a whole lot of more interesting offers Seero nodded. "Okay, you got it boss."

Seero gave Rikt a mock salute and picked up the remains of his belongings. "So ya think I can make a call on the way? She's gonna be pissed."

[Imara]

Meanwhile, back on the Zepplin...

(( Orbital - Beelzebeat (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swFgTeyqpmc) ))

It had taken what felt like an eternity to load all of her gear and supplies onto the Zepplin. Gizzi had eventually abandoned the bouncers to loading the last of it while she got started laying the necessary piping from the bilge to the bowsprit. She had begun brainstorming ideas as soon as Chikt gave her the go ahead and figured that the most effective layout would be two loudspeakers aft, to either side of the rudder and two forward at the base of the bowsprit. That way they could unnerve the enemy no matter whether they were coming or going. The device itself, along with the controls, would be safely secured in the rear of the hold.

Gizzi tapped her bottom lip with a wrench, seeming lost in thought as the boom-box propped against the base of the mainmast rumbled. She was covered in sawdust but the piping was done and her bouncers had just seated the device into the base she'd screwed to the floor of the hold. She walked forward and ran a finger along the edge of the console lovingly. She heard footsteps behind her.

"Hey Giz-Giz!" Leo smiled at the all too familiar look on Gizzi's face. "You look awfully excited."

Gizzi pulled herself out of her reverie and turned to her business partner, smirking. "Well, you know me. Never happier than when I can make trouble for someone." Gizzi slipped the wrench into her belt. "You sure you're ok with me dumping the club on you for a while?"

"Pfft. The place practically runs itself. You've seen to that. And I've got the boys to handle any trouble." Leo leaned against the hull casually. "You on the other hand... You think those two'll be able to keep -you- out of trouble?"

"Not a chance." Gizzi chuckled. "But Chikt's a good guy. I doubt he'd let me get in over my head... Without joining me for the swim, at least."

Leo rolled his eyes. "You and he... ?"

Gizzi raised an eyebrow as she casually slipped the side panel off of the device casing and began rearranging cables and checking connections. "Together? Nah. I met him during the last war. Not much time for romance."

"Ahh." Leo looked doubtful. "I just thought... you have to admit you're sort of a flirt..."

Gizzi laughed outright and waved a hand toward her backpack. "Hand me some of that electrical tape, wouldya?"

Leo rummaged around in the backpack and came up with the roll of tape; handing it to Gizzi. Gizzi blew a stray hair out of her face and ripped a piece off with her teeth, leaning into the machine to hold one twisted cable in place as she taped it. Her voice was muffled by the casing. "There's a time and a place, Leo. I'm not saying I -never- made the poor guy blush..." She sat back on her haunches and surveyed her work. "But I spent most of my time trying to stay alive."

Leo nodded and chuckled softly. "Fair enough." He watched Gizzi for a moment. "Promise you'll do the same this time? The staying alive part, I mean?"

Gizzi looked up at the suddenly serious tone of Leo's voice. Standing and stepping over scattered tools and materials, she made her way over to him. "Of course." She hugged him and the action seemed to surprise her partner. "That club is worth way to much for me to be letting you have sole-ownership..."

Leo laughed and pulled away, smiling at her. "I suppose that's true." He paused. "I should get going. You need anything?"

"Nope. I'm pretty sure the boys are going to complain I have too much junk as is..." Gizzi grinned. "I left you some things in the office. Disks, back up units. A few finished weapon prototypes... Just in case someone tries to start anything."

Leo nodded. "Thanks for looking out for me. I wish I could do the same for you."

Gizzi shook her head. "You keep that place running, making money and irritating the Trade Princes with it's neutrality and you've done all I could ever ask of you." She glanced over her shoulder. "I need to get this hooked up before they get back and we shove off."

Leo nodded. "Of course. Take care, Giz-Giz."

"You too, Leo." Gizzi turned and slipped the cover off the other side of the machine.

Leo paused as he got to the door. "Oh! I forgot to ask. What did you name her?"

Gizzi grinned. "She is the Fright Evoking Aura Resonator."

"Hey, that's a good one." Leo laughed.

"Thanks!" Gizzi winked and returned to work as Leo disappeared up the stairs.

[Vakshna]

The pub in Undermine wasn't as overcrowded as usual, it was practically empty save for the bartender, and a few drunk goblins at the bar counter. A lone Goblin sat at the far corner of the pub Hiding his features in the dimly lit building under his hood.
Suddenly the door to the Inn burst open as three Bounty hunters stepped into the inn. One was a man, he had short black hair, and a Defias mask on, he had a revolver at his side, and a sword in his hand. At his back we're two Ogres, one carried a big stone hammer, and the other a wicked looking axe. The man scanned around the inn, untill he spotted the lone goblin in the corner; he began to walk towards the goblin and motioned for his two companions to follow.

The man looked at the goblin and paused before asking "Are you the one they call Gurrah the Gambler?"

Gurrah sipped on his drink and replied without looking at the three before him and said "Go away"

The man grinned and said "Well Gurrah, there's a bounty on your head, and we're here to collect. Now we can do this the easy way, or the hard way, your choice"

Gurrah continued to sip on his drink and again without looking replied "One"

The ogre with the Axe asked "One? what dat mean?"

Gurrah spoke again "Two"

The ogre with the mace scratched his chin "One, Two? Why he count? He trying to see how many he up against?"

Gurrah spoke again "Three" He then flipped the table up knocking the Human down as he threw a knife and nailed the ogre with the axe right in the eye. Gurrah landed on the table as the ogre howled in pain, the other ogre swung his mace smashing it down towards Gurrah, Gurrah rolled to the side. The human laying on the ground under the table opend his eyes just in time to scream as the hammer crushed him beneath the now splintered wooden table. Gurrah bolted up the extended hammer, punched the ogre in the face then leaped off his shoulder onto the wounded ogre as he yanked the knife out of it's eye and stabbed him in the throat.

The other ogre picked up his mace to swing at Gurrah again, Gurrah leaped just in time to have the hammer smash into the face of his now dead ogre buddy. Gurrah landed ontop of the ogres head, flipped off his back, and whipped out a dagger, slashing the tendens of the ogres right Achile's heel. The ogre screamed in pain as it collapsed from the lack of support on his right leg, the mace shaft falling onto the ogre's stomach.

Knowing the ogre would bleed out to death and couldn't give chase he started to walk towards the door, when he turned back to the bar he saw a stunned bartender and two gocking drunks, he tossed a pouch of gold onto the bar and said to the bartender.

"Sorry" Gurrah then walked out the door, the ogres howls of pain trailing behind him.

[Ryoku]

Chikt stood outside the door for several minutes. He tapped his foot and looked around. There was scaffolding cluttering the sides of the building. As he looked far out across the pools of the cavern, he saw the red tint of dynamite being set up on the far wall. Finally, with a loud series of clunks and buzzes, a small slit opened in the door, a pair of beady yellow eyes gazing through.

"Who the fuck are you?" he demanded in a growling tone.

As Chikt began to respond, he was cut off by the goblin

"Ohh, hey it's you Chikt! Mistress Coppershot will be happy to see you, let me get the door!"

The slit in the door slammed shut with a loud thud, and the gears spun to open to a surprisingly small corridor with two large metal double doors at the end.

The Goblin before him was named Bazile, Chikt remembered him as one of Zilek's most favored assistants. He was not the tallest Goblin, standing a good half a foot shorter than Chikt. A footstool lay in the corner, attributing to how the little goblin was able to reach the high slit.

Bazile procured a large key from his pocket, and waddled over to the double doors.

"Apologies for the delay, Chikt. I swear you are probably the only person we ever get coming in through the tubes. Everyone else always prefers boat or zeppelin these days. You may have noticed the construction though! We're planning on refurbishing it and tunneling through to the open sea so that we can use the cavern as a sheltered harbor for Zilek's most prized fleet ships. Exciting stuff, you know!"

The goblin placed the key in the middle and gave it a loud crank. With a whiz of Goblin technology, the doors slowly swung open.

Chikt stared in awe at the sight before him: A vast complex of tubes erupted from a pit in the center of the great room pumping water throughout to various machines. These machines sifted the water every which-way, all the while pumping out steam through separate tubes that wound their way back to the center. Throughout the entirety of the vast room, several goblins male and female hustled busily between the machines hell-bent on whatever task they were assigned to. Although he had seen it many times, Chikt always marveled at the mechanical genius Zilek's father used to create his combination water purification and powering plant.

Chikt snapped out of his trance as he felt a cold finger tapping on his back. He turned around to see Bazile beaming up at him. "I know you love this shit, Chikt, but we really aught to get to the Coppershot's quarters."

Bazile lead Chikt through the great room and into an elevator, which promptly closed behind them. Bazile pressed a few buttons on the console and Chikt felt the pull of gravity as they rose higher into the mountain.

"You've been gone awhile Chikt. Things have changed a lot here. I'll let you know ahead of time that with Zilek's father passing away there is a dispute between Zilek and Verniz Fizzlevalve, who you may remember is the co-prince of the Cartel regarding the balance of power. It's stressful on him, but I have no doubt that he'll be any less happy to see you."

The elevator suddenly ground to a halt, and the doors opened. "Well, Chikt. This is your stop, I'll see you around."

Chikt walked out of the elevator and turned with a wave. "See ya, Bazile." He said as the doors creaked shut and he heard the sound of the elevator descending below.

"Uncle Chikt?!" the cry rang out throughout the polished room, and as Chikt turned to meet it he fell to the ground, tackled in a sort-of hug by a familiar red haired girl who was much bigger than he remembered.

[Vakshna]

Gurrah walked slowly through the dark empty streets of undermine. He new that more would be after him far sooner then he wished, although the bounty hunters and mercenaries that have been sent after him we're mediocre at best, and therefore easily disposed of. The price of 10,000 gold pieces for one lone goblin was enough to rally an army for his head.

"Damn that double crossing Trade Prince" He muttered under his breath

"Just you wait.... Your going to pay for backstabbing the likes of me..... Mark my words, your time will come.... Far sooner then you think..."

The Goblin continued to walk, his hood over his head in order to avoid any wandering eyes, he hears the sound of foot steps behind him and begins to pick up the pace.
The foot steps do as well, Gurrah makes a quick dash to the right down an empty alleyway only to be faced with a dead end. As he turns around to retrace his steps, six figures step into the entrance of the alleyway behind him.

The group consisted of a Human rogue, dwarf Gunman, a Gnome mage, a Tauren warrior, an twin headed Ogre that looked like a shaman, and leading the group was a short beady eyed goblin wearing a overexaggerated grin on his face

"End of the line Gurrah, your trapped. Now you can come with us quitely, or we can deliver your head to the trade prince on a silver platter" The Goblin said with a sneer.

Gurrah nods his head, takes a knee, and chuckles to himself.
"You'd like that wouldn't you Razo? Just like old times eh? Me being one step ahead of you, and you always trying to catch up?" Gurrah chuckled coldly

A flash of anger spread across Razo's face then his cocky grin returns
"Ahhh But alas, it seems your luck has finally run out old friend"

Gurrah grins and begins to laugh hysterically

Razo's face is now red with anger. "What's so funny? Gah! Are you going to surrender? Or are we going to have to kill you now? Don't tempt me more then once Gurrah!"

Gurrah continues to look to the ground and calms himself out of his state of hysteria, he then says in a cold voice.

"Run along my little Rambler and be well, I'm Gurrah the Gambler, and I'll see you in Hell!"

Gurrah suddenly pounces onto the goblin, grabs him by his shirt collar and slams him into the other Mercenaries. As the Mercs scramble to their feet Gurrah throws down a handful of flash powder, in the dust and confusion he runs up the brick wall at the dead end and leaps off it towards the roof of the building to his left, he manages to grab onto the scaffolding and hoist himself up.

The gnome mage sees this and winds up a fireball, he then hurls it as Gurrah just makes it to the top, it explodes beneath the rogues feet sending him tumbling forward on the roof top.

Gurrah lets out a hefty grunt of pain as he smacks into the hard shingles and slowly picks himself back up, and continues to stagger across the roofs.

Razo brushes himself off and barks orders to his goons

"Tarus, Brog, Gimley, and Whezle, Pursue him from the ground, keep him in your sights! Vince, your with me!" The human rogue nods as he and Razo ascend the rooftop to give pursuit while the other four dash off on foot.

Gurrah continues to run along the roof tops, leaping from building to building. Suddenly he stops just in time as a fireball explods infront of him blasting a hole in the roof. He looks behind him to see the possy, and the mage charging up another explosive projectile of Thermal Generated Trauma. Gurrah leaps across the gap and bounds to the next roof attempting to lose his pursuers. Bullets fly past him from the dwarf gunman below.

suddenly three throwing knives land at his feet, Gurrah leaps over them only to be caught in the arm by a pistol shot, he tumbles on the roof and rolls onto his back, he leaps up onto his feet only to take a swift kick to the face by a figure clad in black. Gurrah flys backwards doing a back flip and landing on his face.

Cheers from the possy below ring in his ears

"YEA GET HIM VINCENT! KICK THAT STUBBY GOBLIN'S ARSE!"

Gurrah got up on one knee only to see another foot flying towards his face, this time he was prepared. He caught the foot and twisted it to the left sending the assailant spiraling to the left and smashing hard on the side of the roof face first. a couple of pistol shots fired at Gurrah, he rolled back as they narrowly missed him, slicing into his cape instead. As Gurrah landed the roll he pulled out two vicious looking daggers and looked to see the scene before him.

Razo had arrived, pistols in hand, and Vincent had pulled himself up from the faceplant and began to advance towards him, the crowed of Mercs below we're sneering and jeering and cheering the other two on.

Vincent unsheathed two Sabers from his side and lunged at Gurrah. Gurrah side steped to the left, caught the right handed Saber with his daggers, and rolled Vincent to the other side of the roof where he nearly slid off, just as Razo took two more shots at him.

Gurrah dropped down as the bullets flew over him, he then pounced onto Razo tackling him to the ground. He gave him a hard left hook to the face, and slammed the hilt of his dagger into the right side of his ribs. As he prepared to go in for the killing blow, Vincent kicked him in the face sending the rogue Sprawling backwards and falling off the rooftop. Luckily he managed to cling onto the end of the shingles. Vincent Approached and prepared to stomp his hands to force him to drop to the eager crowd below.

He looked down to see the mage charging a Frost bolt aimed straight for Gurrah, skillfully Gurrah swung his legs up to the right just as the frostbolt was released and as Vincent lifted up his foot to crush the rogues hands, Gurrah slammed his dagger hilt into The humans knee, forcing him to fall. The human was hit and frozen solid by the frostbolt. He fell right smack dab in the middle of the group below as they all made a mad dash to avoid the falling Ice sculpture. The human Shattered into a thousand pieces becoming living shrapnel as the ogre shaman had one head impaled in the temple by a shard of the frozen saber.

Losing the function of one head, the Ogre began to go into a fury swinging about dazed and Traumatized, It swung it's massive fist into the Gut of the Tauren sending him flying into a nearby building, and then the ogre collapsed on itself, slowly twitching as it fought for it's last breath.

As Gurrah watched the spectacle before him. Razo pulled out a dagger and slowly approached him from behind. Suddenly he wrapped his arms around Gurrah's neck and put the Dagger to his throat.

"Now damnit Gurrah! That was one of my best men you just got killed! What do you have to say for yourself?" Razo Growled into Gurrah's ear.

Gurrah struggled to free himself from the rogues grasp, but with his wounded arm it was to no avail.

Razo chuckled coldly. "Well Gurrah, any last words?"

[Chikt]

Chikt had forgotten just how impressive Zilek’s facility was, and it took a lot not to stop and marvel at how it all worked. He never heard much about how the facility was created, or if it was designed by one goblin or several, but boy would he have loved to meet Zilek’s father, the man behind it all.

Waving goodbye to Bazile as he stepped out of the elevator, he turned back to face forward only to get knocked flat onto his back on the floor. He blinked in surprise, the upper body tackle had easily sent him to the floor unawares. But seeing the red headed girl, Chikt couldn’t help but grin and tussle her hair.

“Hey kiddo! Wow you’ve grown up. Seems like only yesterday your mom was having you.” He said with a chuckle, carefully lifting Lirindi off of him and climbing to his feet, brushing himself off. He kneeled down to be more at her height, grinning to her. “I wish I could stick around to play, shorty, but I really need to see your father. Important business stuff.”

”Awww~…” Lirindi pouted, looking disappointed. Chikt laughed quietly and tussled her hair again.

“I promise, next time I come around I’ll bring you a present and we can play all you want.” He said with a smile. Seemingly satisfied for now, Lirindi smiled back. Content that she was happier, Chikt continued, “Now, where’s your father?”

[Rikt]

“Yeah sure, we leave tomorrow anyways. Take as much time as you need till then.” Looking around for something to write on, Rikt picked up a plank of wood from the destroyed shack. Taking out a knife, he etched the Zeppelin’s current parking place into the half burnt wood.

“Here you go.” Rikt gave the address to Seero and turned around to leave. “I need to go see to the Zeppelin. Remember to come prepared for battle!”

As he left the junkyard and walked through the tunnels and streets of Undermine, he came across a fight going on the rooftops and streets; not such an uncommon sight to surprise Rikt. Taking cover behind a wall of a building close by to the fighting, Rikt observed the outcome.

The thought of playing hero didn’t even come close to crossing his mind. Rikt didn’t know exactly why the goblin and his crew were trying to take down some hooded goblin, but he would bet good money it was probably a hefty bounty. Being a pragmatist at heart, Rikt put together a plan to take advantage of the situation.

If the goblin they were trying to bag needed so many to take him down, then that must mean he was at least good at whatever he does. A potential recruit, might work for free to if Rikt decided to save him out of this jam. On the other hand, the goblin leader trying to take down the loner had the resources to get so many guys together; he could also be a useful addition to the team, especially if he was getting paid.

Although, if neither were amicable to joining, he could just kill the goblin leader and bag the supposed bounty on the other goblins head. Choices choices.

Rikt finally decided to test the waters, throwing subtly out the window and see how well both receive his offer. Rikt started walking out of cover toward the two goblins, his hands raised to show he had no weapon in hand.

Speaking in a loud but nonchalant voice as he approched, a smile spread across Rikt's face as he spoke. “Howdy strangers! I see you two are busy with a little affair here. I was just wondering if either of you would like to join my crew to take down a Trade Prince. It pays well… very well. Whadda two say?”

[Vakshna]

Gurrah finally accepted his defeat, as he awaited for Razo to slit his throat allowing death's cold embrace to wash over his lifeless body; he closed his eyes

Suddenly he heard a voice

“Howdy strangers! I see you two are busy with a little affair here. I was just wondering if either of you would like to join my crew to take down a Trade Prince. It pays well… very well. Whadda two say?”

Gurrah opend his eyes to look at the direction where the voice came from. Either this Goblin was incredibly brave, or incredibly stupid. That remained to be seen

Razo losend his grip around Gurrah startled by the new visitor

"What do ya want? Can't ya see where busy here?" Razo barked clearly annoyed. Razo squinted his eyes attempting to get a better look at the new goblin, when he realizes who it is, his eyes widend and a new found grin appears on his face.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Rikt Blastercharge! Hey boys, it's ol' Rikt Blastercharge! looks like we got ourselves double the bounty tonight! first one to bring me that goblin's head gets an extra 10% of the total profit!" Razo exclaimed releasing one hand to point towards Rikt.

A costly mistake that Gurrah took full advantage of. As soon as Razo gave him some slack Gurrah elbowed him in the ribs with his right, pulled the knife hand away from his throat, then flipped Razo over his shoulder and off the rooftop into the crowed of mercs below.

Razo landed on his back giving out a loud "OOF" before scrambling to his feet.

"Damnit it Gurrah! GAH KILL THEM! KILL THEM BOTH! QUICKLY BEFORE THEY ESCAPE!"

Gurrah throws a dust bomb into the crowd of bewildered mercs, springs off the roof top, and lands on his feet away from the crowd, he runs to Rikt's side with his dagger drawn and says

"This may not have been your fight to begin with, but if you want to live, it is now."

[Ryoku]

"Dad? He's in his study I think, with Mr. Fizzlevalve. They've been yelling at eachother a lot lately, since Grandpa died. Here, I'll take him to you, but don't say I didn't warn you!" She said, grabbing Chikt's hand and tugging him along.

As they walked through the bright hallways towards the study, the sound of muffled talking could be heard from in front of them, talking that grew louder as they approached a fine wooded door.

"This isn't the Coppershot Cartel, Zilek. My fathers lead this Cartel to the greater glory that it has experienced. As his older son, and eldest surviving heir, it is my right to take the helm, for the sake of the balance, and the profit" uttered the gruff, husky voice of Goblin who could only be Verniz Fizzlevalve.

"I would never disrespect the name of my father or yours by allowing your careless plots ruin this Cartel!" the voice of Zilek boomed throughout the halls, louder and more angry than Chikt could ever remember the typically calm, collected Goblin being.

"Verniz," another voice said, calmly. "The point still stands that your father entrusted his entire portion of the Princeship to Balkez at his death, who entrusted the Princeship to Zilek at his own death. I don't think a single person is in favor for your plans for the Cartel, nor do they even think piracy will bring in viable profit so it would be wisest for you to shape up or leave, no?"

The door crashed open, and Verniz stomped out. He was a very large Goblin with sinister black hair and an equally sinister disposition. Turning back into the room, he screamed "I will have my rightful place, Zilek!" and tromped passed Lirindi and Chikt. "Outta my way!" he said, shoving Chikt down as he went. Lirindi rushed to Chikt to help him up, sticking her tongue out at Verniz' back.

"I really don't like that mean Goblin, but I'm sure Dad'll be really happy to see you after that! I gotta go make sure Mr. Fizzlevalve found the exit." and before he could even say goodbye the young goblin was running across the hall, determined in her goal.

Chikt walked towards, and stood in the open doorway. Zilek, though obviously frustrated and aged, was as tall and dashing as he ever was. His neat red hair done well, fluffed with a small ponytail poking from the back, and tied with a bow. Accompanying him was another Goblin with gleaming silver hair cut in a shorter style as per the current fashion of the time. Both Goblins had their backs to Chikt, staring out the vast window of Zilek's study. Noticing they weren't aware of them, Chikt entered the room, knocking three times on the door.

Zilek and his companion spun around, and Zilek's face softened when he saw Chikt. "Chikt? Chikt, my brother! It has been a long time, please sit down, I'll fix you a brew." He said, gesturing towards a stuffed leather chair with one hand, while the other opened some unseen drawer under his desk, procuring a bottle of Budskeizen, a common Kezanian brew that Chikt remembered Zilek particularly favored.

Chikt, not wanting to seem rude, sat down in the aforementioned chair, and took a sip of the brew.

"Oh! I shouldn't forget" Zilek said, gesturing towards his companion. "This is my very capable fleet Captain and right-hand-man Sten Silversteam. Sten, this is my brother-in-law Chikt Blastercharge."

Chikt looked at the silver haired Goblin and was surprised. Despite his hair color, Sten appeared to actually be quite young, no older than his mid-twenties. Sten nodded towards Chikt "It's a pleasure." and Chikt returned the favor with a simple "Nice to meet you."

"Now, Chikt." Zilek interjected loudly, cracking a brew of his own, and leaning back in his chair. "What exactly brings you here?"

[Chikt]

Chikt looked down quietly at his drink for a long moment before he placed it down on the table and leaned back in his chair, looking over the table at Zilek. "It's very complicated. And I'll need your friend here to keep it quiet." Chikt motioned his head towards Sten.

Sten shrugged and nodded once, “Fair enough.”

With a sigh, Chikt scooped up his drink and downed a mouthful of it before he swished the liquid around in the bottle. Pausing for a moment thoughtfully before he simply blurted out, “I’ve been hired to steal something from a Trade Prince.”

At first Zilek kept a straight face, but it quickly cracked and he couldn’t help but chortle, “You, Chikt? Really? We all know you are about as stealthy as a kick to the face. Who hired you to do it? Why?”

He knew he should be offended by Zilek’s response, but Chikt agreed. He’d been mulling over the reasons he’d be hired. His brother, sure. But he felt he wasn’t getting the full story. So he decided to explain his theory instead, “I don’t know, honestly,” he said. “Rikt got himself into some trouble on a job. Called me out to help him. It seemed like a good chance to field test my new tech, so I went. It was a bit worse than I’d expected.”

Both Zilek and Sten watched Chikt and listened quietly as the he continued, “When we got back I thought it was all well and done with. Then I get a surprise message by one of my proprietors. He tells me that I’m now going to go back to this trade prince my brother pissed off and steal something from him. But I got the distinct feeling that we were going there to kill him as well.”

“Do you know what you’re going in for?” Zilek asked, raising a brow.

Chikt held up a hand and shook his head, “No, but I wasn’t finished, either.”

Reaching into the saddle bag slung over his shoulder, Chikt dug out a file and slid it across the table to Zilek. Inside was his file, detailing all his past exploits and strengths. Zilek flipped through it quickly, but it was Sten that spoke first, “Where did you get this from? What’s this about?”

Before Chikt could answer the question, Zilek closed the folder and spoke, “He’s been sent to hire me.”

Sten looked to Zilek quizzically, while Chikt paused a moment before nodding, “That’s right, yes. I think your current situation has gotten the attention of my boss. And so he wants me to get you on board. This isn’t an operation just one or two guys can do. We need a team. And against my better judgment, I’m assembling it.”

Downing another mouthful of his drink, Chikt sighed and rolled his injured shoulder before he looked to Zilek. “So. Whaddya say?”

[Ryoku]

"I am sorry, Chikt, but I think with the current state of the Cartel, Zilek cannot afford-"

Sten was quickly cut off by Zilek's hasty interjection.

"Sten, I am completely capable of making my own decisions, and my decision is that I accept this task."

Sten looked to his employer, wide-eyed.

"Sir, what about the Cartel? It won't survive in the state it's in without the leadership of it's prince."

Zilek cleared his throat, and took a swig from his drink.

"It's simply remedied: You will lead the Cartel while I am gone."

"But sir-"

"But nothing." Zilek continued, standing up to face Sten. "You have proven over the years that you are very capable of leading the Cartel, and a few minutes ago you had proven that you are more capable of handling Verniz' scheming than even myself. As my second in command, I am tasking you, Sten Silverstein, with the charge of my Cartel with the intention that I will see it under greater or equal profit than it's current state upon my return. Do you accept?"

Sten sighed, and rubbed a hand through his groomed silver hair. "I'll accept it, Zilek, but I can't say I agree with your decision to go off on some adventure."

Zilek smiled, and clasped Sten's shoulder. "Sometimes my boy, when you get to be my age you need a little adventure to keep yourself alive. You don't have to agree with it, but I am glad you accept it."

He suddenly released his companion, and flopped back down into his chair. "Now, Mr. Blastercharge, I'm going to need you to explain to me in detail exactly where we're going, the method of which we are getting there, and the plan of action once we are there. I am willing to give to your disposal my own personal body and my skills in geography, seamanship, and the art of warfare, and up to two of my fastest and most combat-able seafaring vessels with full crew and arms, so long as my men and myself are properly compensated by your employer for our time away from our Cartel." He took a breath, grinning at both Chikt's look of surprise at the Prince's extreme formality, and Sten's look of utter shock at the idea of risking two of the Cartel's finest vessels.

"In short, give me the full scoop of what you specifically need me for, Chikt."

[Chikt]

Chikt looked back and fourth between Sten and Zilek as they argued, blinking as Zilek finally looked back to him and pledged a whole lot more towards the cause than Chikt had expected. Placing down his drink, Chikt rattled his fingers across the tabletop thoughtfully as he spoke, “Well, it’s complicated.”

He pondered for a long moment, looking up at the ceiling before finally looking back to Zilek. Chikt nodded once, “Alright. The guy we’re after has a boat anchored off the coast. I’ve got one of my old war buddies installing some stuff on a Zeppelin I salvaged from the third war to make it more combat ready. I was only expecting to go in with a small team, but if you’re pledging an entire force, then this might be a bit easier.”

Resting his elbows on the table, Chikt tented his fingers and looked at Zilek over them. “I wasn’t given any information about the boat, but given that it’s owned by a trade prince, it’s likely a mansion on the water. Mutli-tiered, numerous floors. I was hoping with the tech we were installing on the Zeppelin we would be able to avoid fighting and move around the ship quietly, but if we can use your forces to our advantage…”

It was like a lightbulb had lit up over Chikt’s head. He grinned widely, his eyes lit up behind his goggles. As he spoke, Chikt rummaged around in his pack, “We’ll have two different teams. Your men on the boats will be the main attack force and the other team will go in quietly and unseen on the Zeppelin. I’ve got some interesting tech being installed on the Zepp’, a sound system that can instill fear in those that hear it. So you’ll need to get your men some ear plugs or something.”

Pulling out a piece of parchment and some charcoal, Chikt began to messily sketch down on the paper before getting to his feet. Wandering around the table to Zilek’s side, he placed the parchment down. He’d drawn a very simple boat shape on it, drawing an arrow towards the port side of the ship as he spoke, “Your team will approach and board the ship from this side,” he drew another arrow, towards the starboard, “while we approach invisibly from this side--“

Zilek cut him off, looking to Chikt curiously, “Invisibly?”

Chikt simply shook his head, “I’ve got an idea, don’t worry about it. But anyway, most of the forces should either jump ship or flee in the direction of your men, where they can mop them up. I’ll need you with the Zeppelin group for any of the idiots that decide to stay back with their boss rather than going after your men. When we’re on the boat, we can split up into different teams,” Chikt drew a few arrows from the Starboard side of the ship, spreading out over it, “And hopefully we’ll find what we’re looking for.”

“And what exactly ARE we looking for?” Zilek asked, looking to Chikt curiously.

“I’m hoping when I see it, I’ll know.” Chikt stated as he put down the charcoal and looked to Zilek. “But I’m just the ideas guy. What do you think?”

[Rikt]

Rikt spoke with an agitated voice as the mercs turned on him and the lone goblin escaped from the ringleaders clutches. “Dammit, a bounty on my head already? These damn Princes move fast with their paperwork.”

Drawing a triple barreled flintlock pistol from its holster he pointed it at the first merc that came out from the smoke, the gnome mage. As Rikt took a shot at him, the mage quickly erected a barrier of ice to stop his bullet cold. Growling, Rikt took out his flare gun with his empty hand and fired it at the mage just as a frostbolt headed his way. The two projectiles collided in mid air and the combination of cold and heat caused both to evaporate instantly.

“I always have to get my hands dirty! Things always have to crumble apart for me!” Rikt yelled as a dwarf flanked him and attempted to hit him upside the head with the butt of his rifle. Ducking just in time, Rikt dropped his pistol and grabbed his rifle just as the dwarf was aiming to shoot. Struggling for dominance over the rifle, Rikt could see from the corner of his eye the gnome mage trying to get a clear shot at him.

Finally, Rikt kicked the dwarf in the groin, ripping the rifle from his grasp and swung it around to knock the dwarf over the head. Turning around, the mage was casting another bolt of frost in his direction. Taking aim with the high powered rifle, Rikt fired it right into the center of the ice barrier, shattering it. This stunned the gnome, stopping his casting prematurely as Rikt capitalized on the opportunity by picking up his pistol and firing another shot at the gnome; this time the bullet found itself buried in his freakishly large head.

“I bet right now, my brother is in some mansion drinking tea while I am knee deep in SHIT!” Turning around, he pointed the pistol at the dwarf who was just now standing up from his beating.

“Oi lad, I know ‘ow yeh feel. I ‘ave a brother who makes me do all the ‘ard stuff. He ‘ots all the smarts in the family, ‘nd he gets all the credit” The dwarf replied, rubbing his head.

Rikt smirked as he found a kindred spirit in his enemy. “I know, right? Our brothers have their heads up their ass with their incredible prodigy intellect while we other siblings have to do decent honest hard work.”

The dwarf nodded standing in place as Rikt kept the gun on him. Rikt smiled and waved his pistol in the opposite direction of the fighting. “Get the hell outta here, kick your bro’s ass for me.”

Nodding, the dwarf smiled as he ran off down the street. “Next time I’ll buy yeh a drink!”

Turning around to assess the status of the lone goblin, Rikt began to reload the two spent barrels of his pistol.

[Vakshna]

Gurrah seized the oppurtunity that the smoke had brought forth to him and dove into the cloud with his daggers drawn, relying on his heightend sense of hearing rather then his sight to find his enemies. He slowly crept through the smoke in the midst of the chaos seeking his target, he saw the dwarf and mage stumble by him, but he decided not to engage, he was after Razo.

He heared the goblin's unusually high pitch nazaly voice as he hacked and coughed in the dust.

"God, damnit Gurrah! wait till I find you! your a dead man you hear me? DEAD!" Razo shouted at the top of his lungs.

Gurrah followed the voice untill he saw the goblins outline, he quickly swept up from behind and grabbed Razo on the shoulder, spun him around, grabbed his shirt collar with his left, and put a dagger up to his throat with his free hand.

"Not if your dead first Razo..."

Razo's eyes widend in shock and fear "Now Gurrah, C'mon buddy, lets talk about this"

Gurrah grinned at the Terrified Razo "Not the same being at the other end of the knife, is it Razo?"

Razo regained his composure as a wicked grin spread acrossed his face "Gurrah, do you honestly think that killing me will stop anything? You made a very powerful man very angry, and he's just gonna keep sending more and more people after you untill you finally tire out and die..."

Gurrah chuckled to himself and said coldly "No, but it's a start." He pulled his right arm back as he prepared to stab it through Razo's throat.

Suddenly he heared a loud "Moooo!" the next thing he knew Gurrah was knocked off his feet and flew out of the dust cloud smashing into Rikt Blastercharge. When Gurrah got up to see what had struck him he was decked in the face by a massive fist and did a back flip landing on his face again. This time Gurrah rolled back, he looked for his daggers they we're missing. He saw the massive figure as to what had hit him. Apparently the Tauren wasn't down for the count just yet, he was back, and he was pissed. The Tauren put on some nasty looking gauntlets over his massive fists, covered with three sharp blades at the end. He threw his arms out in a macho gesture and let out a bellowing roar.

Gurrah looked over to Rikt and said. "You keep bull boys attention, I'll deal with Razo." Just as the bull came charging towards the two of them Gurrah rolled to the right and popped out from behind the Stampeding bovine freight train. The Tauren tried to stop and nearly fell flat on his face, Gurrah took advantage of this jumped up in the air, and kicked him hard straight in the spine sending the Bull man tumbling forward onto his face.

as Gurrah landed, Razo fired two shots at Gurrah that imbeded itself into the stone ground at his feet. Gurrah made a quick dash behind the cover of a alleyway building as he withdrew three throwing knives, He then rolled out from under the cover as Razo fired off two more shots. Gurrah came out of the roll as the bullets narrowly missed, sprung into the air, and threw a throwing knife towards Razo, striking his left pistol and sending it flying into the air. The gun went off when it landed and Razo ducked as the bullet imbeded itself into a store sign just above his head.

Gurrah took advantage of the brief pause and began to charge towards Razo. Razo steadied his right hand with his left, just as he began to take aim Gurrah threw his second throwing knife, this time it landed straight in the barrel of the pistol, jamming it.

Razo looked at the pistol and saw Gurrah barreling towards him "GOD DAMNIT GURRAH!" He screamed in frustration as he threw the worthless pistol at Gurrah in a last ditch effort. Gurrah easily dodged the fire arm, leaped into the air, and slammed both feet into Razo's chest, slamming him to the ground.

Gurrah quickly put one knee on Razo's throat and withdrew his third throwing knife.

He grinned wickedly at Razo and said "Well Razo, any last words?"

[Vakshna]

Razo struggled trying to lift Gurrah's knee off his throat, only to have it press down harder. Razo's eye were wide with fear.

Gurrah chuckled and said these words.

"I cheat on death, I gamble with lives, then lay them to rest with silent knives.

The night is my mother enveloping me in her loving embrace, and fear is my lover allowing my will to manipulate her grace, and when I prowl the cold night to listen for her mournful cries. I will lay them to rest with Silent knives.

So take a chance and roll the dice, but before you test me, you better think twice.
Heads I win, tails you lose; it’s do or die, now you choose.

You’ve heard my warning loud and clear, forget what you’ve seen, forget I am here, or I shall make you disappear.
So flee from my sight once you rise, run away and spread your lies
Or I shall lay you to rest with silent knives.

Now run along my little “Rambler”, and be well.
I’m Gurrah the Gambler, and I’ll see you in hell!"

With that Gurrah plunged the throwing knife into Razo's eye, Razo screamed in agony as the knife dug into his eye socket. Gurrah then yanked out the knife and Razo continued to roll around screaming in pain

"MY EYE! MY EYE! YOU TOOK MY FUCKING EYE! WHY COULDN'T YOU JUST KILL ME?!?! WHY!?!? GURRAH! YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!! YOU BASTARD!"

Gurrah kicked him in the ribs, and leaned down to whisper into Razo's ear.

"I need you to deliver a message to your boss for me.... Tell him.... That if he wants me, he can stop wasting his money to send those mercs after me. Because I'm going to kick his god damn door down"

With that Gurrah turned to see how Rikt was fairing with the Tauren trouble.

[Rikt]

“Oh yeah, I get the big ass cow, huh?” Rikt yelled in a irritated voice as the other goblin went right over the tauren to pursue the ringleader. “This shit…”

The tauren began to climb back on to his hooves, raising his fists as he prepared to advance toward Rikt. Pointing his gun at the tauren's head, Rikt fired as the bull quickly raised his gauntlets to protect himself from the bullet. Rikt aimed at a different part of the body as the tauren kept his fists up to avoid a headshot. The bovine keeled over as he was shot in the groin; Rikt ran toward him and unsheathed a knife to pierce through his skull.

Just as he raised his knife to stab through his skull, the tauren quickly reared his head, lifting Rikt along with it. Dropping his knife and pistol in surprise, Rikt scrambled around and held onto the tauren’s horns as the bovine tried to buck him off.

Running around in a mad rage, smashing his head into walls in a attempt to get rid of the goblin, the tauren mooed in anger. “Shit shit shit!” Rikt yelled as he held on for dear life.

Finally, the tauren paused for a moment as it tried to catch his breath. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Rikt took his hands away from the horns and placed his thumbs onto the taurens eyeballs. Pushing inwards, Rikt could hear as the eyes popped and blood flowed out of the tauren’s eye sockets.

Roaring in pain, the tauren bucked the goblin off him and Rikt fell back first onto the ground. Standing back up, Rikt walked over to grab his knife with bloody hands and moved to the now blind tauren squirming in pain on the ground. With a grim expression, Rikt lifted the tauren’s head by his mane, and slit his throat. The bovine made a final gurgling sound before he slumped over dead.

Turning toward the lone goblin, Rikt took out a handkerchief from his pocket to clean his knife. “Whats your name son? I’m on a mission to take down that Trade Prince who hired these goons, wanna tag along?”

[Vakshna]

Gurrah eyes the mess that Rikt made of the tauren and smiles.

"What a masterpiece, seems like we've got ourselves a bit of an artist here. My name's Gurrah, you may know me better by my nick name "Gurrah The Gambler" I was a former employee of said trade prince. I was his top assasin as well as his personal body gaurd on occasion. He had been skrewing over the other trade princes in some business deal, and was going to frame me so I'd take the wrap for it. When I discovered this I took off, that's what the price on my head is for. I want to get back at that back stabbing coward more than anything, so I'm in."

Gurrah eyes Rikt up and down.

"Now the question remains. who are you, and what did you do to piss him off?

[Rikt]

Rikt raised an eyebrow as Gurrah claimed he previously worked for the Trade Prince. “Is that so? I guess I got lucky here.”

Turning back toward the dead tauren, he kneeled down and attempted to dislodge one of his horns with his knife. “My name is Rikt Blastercharge. Working with my bro Chikt to take down this Trade Prince.” Finally removing the horn, Rikt began to etch something into it with his knife.

“As for what I did, I got a hold of evidence that proves that he has been cheating other Trade Princes in previous business deals. If what you’re telling me is the truth, the creditability of this evidence is a lot more solid.” Standing up, he turned and walked to Gurrah, handing him the horn.

“This has the address of the Zeppelin’s parking space. We leave tomorrow. Come prepared for a big fight.” Rikt grins as he moves past him and begins walking down the street.

“Now all I gotta do now is verify the evidence with some accountant and we’re gold!”

[Ryoku]

Zilek, produced two cigars and a lighter from his shirt pocket. He lit one and stuck it firmly into the side of his mouth, and offered the second cigar and the lighter to Chikt.

"Sounds like you have a solid plan here, Chikt." Zilek said as he brooded over the charcoal diagram.

"And you came up with all of this just now. Oho! I can now see why Miri praises your genius as adamantly as she does. Quite the impressive brain indeed." he trailed off, leaning back in his chair a few seconds before snapping back foreward.

"Now that we have this all set in stone, howabout we get to the radio room and see about contacting your friends? That is, unless you have some sort-of other arrangement with them.."

[Chikt]

Taking the offered cigar and lighting it, Chikt puffed at it a little before shifting it about to the corner of his mouth and biting at the end of it there to keep it still - talking through it, "Trust me, Zilek. I'd much rather be designing machines than combat tactics."

Removing the cigar from his mouth briefly, Chikt looked it over between his fingers thoughtfully before nodding once more to Zilek and placing the cigar back between his teeth. "The plan I made with Rikt was to get you on board and meet back at the Zeppelin. I'll need to get it set up with the camouflage, too. And then we've got to take some stuff to an accountant. So it's probably best if I get back there as soon as possible."

Looking up at the ceiling thoughtfully, Chikt smiled and looked back to Zilek. "I'll come get a radio so that we can keep in touch with your squad. You can tell me how Miri has been along the way, I don't think I'll get to catch up with her today. I'll go while you get your men prepared and then come back with the Zeppelin to pick you up, and we'll set out for the ship straight away. Sound good?"

[Vakshna]

Gurrah took the engraved horn from Rikt, and dashed down a deserted alleyway, suddenly the adrenaline from the previous battle seemed to have worn off, and the bullet wound in his shoulder was now caked with blood, he quickly tore off a piece of his shirt and opend up a vial of sometthing that bubbled a curious purpl, he poured some of the purple serum onto the rag. it made a vile hiss, he then quickly pressed it over the wound, it burned violently and he let out a yelp of pain, he then gritted his teeth and bound it tightly around the wound. no sooner then he finished, he collapsed on the alleyway street from exhaustion.

[Viirchi]

The advantage of already being prepared to run for it was that Seero had nothing to pack, at least, nothing that hadn't been packed already. He had managed to save most of the essentials, some pocket change and minimal firepower that had been packed into a small backpack with a cartoonish looking turtle sewn into patches on the face. Sure, he'd probably need to make up some new explosives, but that would be pretty easy, he'd been able to build a decent one ever since ma decided he needed to learn a useful skill besides being able to 'weasel out of debt like his father'. Seero thought that this was an unfair accusation, as while Kloder almost always failed escaping his debts or anything else, Seero was at least able to achieve a 30% success rate on average.

The directions to the airship were pretty simple, but it took Seero even longer to find the thing because he was experienced with looking up to find the balloon. Eventually the young goblin began to count off steps like a treasure map and looked down untill he ran into the hull. Once he knew where to look it was easy to see why he couldn't find it, it was a clear day and someone had painted the covering sky blue. All Seero could think of was that he'd lucked out, whoever was running this operation had enough forethought to consider stealth and that at least meant they had some idea of what they were doing.

Breaking into a wide grin Seero came to attention and did a mock salute towards the airship. " Ahoy there me harties! Avast the starboard, Permission to come aboard!"

[Vakshna]

Gurrah Awoke to the bright light of the morning sun shining in his eyes, he covered his face in order to sheild himself from the rays of light piercing his deep if not restless slumber. He rubbed his eyes as he staggered too his feet still worn out from the previous night's untimely brawl.

He stumbled out of the dark alleyway and into the now sunlit street and pulled his hood over his head. Looking out he noticed two objects glinting on the ground, He reached down as he picked up his daggers.

"I was wondering where you two went" Gurrah snickered to himself.

He put the blades in their sheathe, and began to follow the directions on the horn. It wasn't long before he came upon the hangar, but it looked as though the roof had been torn from it, fearing the worst had happend gurrah made a mad dash for the hangar.

Suddenly ran into something and tumbled too the ground He looked up too see what had been the collision of his course, another Goblin, apparently standing there and admiring what was in fact the zepplin, the balloon had just been painted as blue as the sky.

*A clever trick* Gurrah thought to himself

*Why can't I come up with something like that?*

He then snapped his attention back to the goblin sprawled on the ground, Gurrah rose too his feet and brushed himself off

"Sorry, Didn't see you their" Gurrah appologized, and he slowly slipped one hand under his cloak wrapping his fingers around the hilt of his dagger, just a paranoid precaution as he awaited the goblin's response.

[Imara]

(( Underworld - Born Slippy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7Pts7AljZQ) ))

Gizzi had finished installing the last of the F.E.A.R. equipment quite some time before she heard the shout from the dock. In that time, she had managed to modify the device so that at a flip of a switch, rather than terrifying your enemies, you could pipe music of your choice throughout the ship. She felt it was something of an added bonus.

"Ahoy there me harties! Avast the starboard, Permission to come aboard!"

Gizzi raised an eyebrow, tightened the last screw on the control panel near the wheel, and turned to walk to the gangplank. She paused at the top, wiping the last of the grease off her hands, and was just in time to see the grinning goblin get bowled over by the hooded figure. She leaned casually against the side of the ship and watched the pair, smirking.

[Chikt]

Chikt had just finished painting the other side of the Zeppelin with the umpteenth tin of sky-blue paint he'd managed to buy from a hardware store on his way back from Zilek's mansion. Or, well, Kezan sky blue, which was somewhat closer to a greyish green. Untying the rope and letting himself slide to his feet, he took a moment to admire his handiwork. The entire Zeppelin - or at least, the parts that would be visible from the ground - was now painted. It wouldn't be perfect camouflage, but at a distance they'd never be seen coming. And as far as Chikt was concerned, that was enough.

Of course, painting an entire Zeppelin, his overalls were now even messier than usual. Along with the usual oil, explosive residue and burns he now had splattered and smeared paint on him. It ended out looking like some sort of terrible camouflage - like he'd be able to sneak right in to a green-colored workshop and make away with all of its contents before he was even spotted. Somehow though, his blue lensed goggles had made it out entirely unscathed - as they usually always did. He put a lot of effort into protecting them.

Pushing his goggles up onto his forehead and giving a satisfied nod to his handiwork, Chikt wanderered around the other side of the Zeppelin and paused briefly to regard the two goblins that had run into each other. Smiling a little uneasily and throwing them a wave before he climbed up the rope ladder and onto the top deck of the Zeppelin, Chikt let out a sigh. This was all seeming way out of his league - he'd barely made it through the second war in one piece, let alone being the one to give the orders.

Reaching into his backpack he pulled out a small transmitter - the same one that had been given to him by Zilek. Throwing a nod to Gizzi as he passed her to get to the wheel, he pulled a spanner from his tool belt and went about attaching the transmitter to the ships radio. It wasn't too much work - crossing a few wires, tightening a few bolts and it was done. Chikt flicked the radio on to make sure he was hearing something other than static - in this case, a steady beeping that indicated he had a signal. Satisfied it was done, he spun the wrench between his fingers to slide it back into his belt with style.

Of course, it would be at that point that a loud beeping tune came from one of the pockets on his tool belt. It was enough to surprise him that he went to reach for the small communicator WHILE the spanner was in mid flight - which meant he ended out juggling it clumsily as he tried to catch it. Quite a sight when there's a loud beeping coming from his tool belt. Eventually he snatched the spanner out of the air with one hand and grabbed the small metal box from his belt with the other - holding it to his ear.

Chikt cleared his throat, glancing to Gizzi before he turned away and answered with a casual "Yello~?"

The voice on the other end was less than impressed. "That was a delayed answer, Chikt. I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

Recognizing the voice immediately as his proprietor, Chikt visibly tensed a moment. Pausing before he responded carefully, "No, no... just getting things together. Now's really not a good time. What do you want? I'm kinda busy at the--"

The voice cut in before Chikt could finish, "I am aware of what you are currently doing, Chikt. You don't need to explain yourself. I have to admit, I'm impressed. You and your brother performed better than I was expecting."

Blinking a moment, Chikt opened his mouth - he was about to say something akin to a thank you before he realized that this likely wasn't a social call. "Look, sir. What do you want? I doubt you called to give me a pat on the back." Chikt snapped.

There was a brief pause on the other end of the communicator - what sounded like a long drag at a cigar before the voice returned, "I've information on the object I want you to recover from the ship while you're there."

"Go on..."

"On the bottom level of the ship is a vault. Within this vault are numerous items of value - however, there is only one you should be interested in. You will find a sealed metal case. You do not need to know what is inside - simply bring it back to your mansion. I'll dispatch one of my men to pick it up." There was another brief pause before the Proprietor continued, "And while you're there? Kill him."

Chikt paused a moment before he said jokingly, "I guess you weren't looking for the accountant for proof of his deception, huh?"

"We were aware of his deception a long time ago. I simply need the specifics."

With a snort, Chikt began to speak jokingly, a condescending tone to his voice, "Fair enough. Anything else I should know? Plan to have any of us killed because we know too much? Is it a bomb that I'm getting? Oh, will it EXPLODE if I open i--"

The Proprietor cut in angrilly on the other end - something he'd never heard out of him before, "If you open that case, Chikt, far worse things will happen to you than an explosion." The voice paused before the sound of that cigar being puffed at came over the communicator again. When he continued, he sounded cool and calm once more, just as ever. "Just do as your job and get that case. That is all."

Before Chikt could answer the call cut out, and he was left there blinking at his communicator. Sighing and stuffing it away in his tool belt, Chikt leaned back against the engine bay of the Zeppelin and rubbed at the bridge of his nose.

[Viirchi]

Seero was about half way through spouting out every nautical greeting he could think of before he ended up eating dirt. There were protocals for this sort of thing, guidlines really and as a credit to goblin intelliegence Seero didn't go off shouting a number of creative greetings that might have been taken offensively.
Once the young goblin was able to turn his head around and get a better look at the assailent he was actually glad he hadn't tried to act big, expecially since the guy looked like he was already reaching for a weapon. Recovering quickly Seero plastered on some cheesy grin and dusted himself off. "No problem boss! It's water under the bridge."

With one hand firmly on the ground he offered the other up, hoping the goblin would have a sense to help him up, or at least let go of whatever nasty toys he might be going for under that cloak. "Seero Weaselgear the first! Ready and willing cracker jack!"

As an added precaution Seero dug his fingers into the ground until he had a handful of dirt, you could never be too careful.

[Vakshna]

Gurrah seemed to relax somewhat, assuming that the odds of this goblin being here for anything other than what brought Gurrah here in the first place was slim to none. Still, he reluctantly released his grip on the dagger and offered a hand too the goblin he accidentally plowed over and in the most ungruff and friendly voice he could muster said

"Sorry, I didn't see you there, got a lil carried away seeing that beauty up there"

He makes a Gesture to the zepplin in the shop

"I don't normally do this but since it's safe to assume your here for the same reason as myself I don't see what harm it could do. I'd give you my name, but names are dangerous in these times. Just call me "The Gambler" and We'll be fine"

[Imara]

"Sorry, I didn't see you there, got a lil carried away seeing that beauty up there"

"Aww, shucks, gentlemen. No need to flatter me. We've only just me..." Gizzi stopped short and turned as Chikt fumbled with his spanner. Her playful smirk turned into a concerned frown at Chikt's side of the conversation and his reaction.

Stepping away from the gangplank, Gizzi casually double-checked the connections Chikt made between the transmitter and the radio. "Everything ok?"

[Vakshna]

"Aww, shucks, gentlemen. No need to flatter me. We've only just me..."

Gurrah is startled noticing the female goblin for the first time then says outloud for no one inparticular

"Well I don't mean to be rude, but I was refering to the ship. Though I'm sure the Lass up there is just as lovely"

He Pulls the dirt napping goblin to his feet and smiles

"Lets go see what surprises lie in store for us, shall we?"

[Chikt]

"Everything ok?"

Chikt Blinked and glanced up as Gizzi broke him away from his thoughts. Chikt grinned slightly and joked, "You know how it is with employers." Clearing his throat and puffing out his chest, Chikt began to mimic his boss, wagging a finger about. "Chikt, I have a stick stuck REALLY far up my ass, can you make a device to remove it?"

Sighing and shaking his head, Chikt wandered over to the side of the Zeppelin and looked over at the buildings below. Pausing a moment before he spoke again, more seriously this time. "I've really no room to complain. He's given me the resources to achieve more than I ever imagined. But something about him... about what he has us doing... something about it just doesn't sit right with me. And I'm beginning to worry that I might do something very, very stupid."

[Viirchi]

Seeing The Gambler relax his hand Seero released the handful of dirt he'd scooped up without missing a beat.
Aww, shucks, gentlemen. No need to flatter me. We've only just me..."

Seero mumbled something about appearances and trolls but left most of the of the phrase largely unintelligible, after all it wasn't fair until he got a decent look and figured out whether or not she was all talk and no look. He was a little relieved once he figured out the guy helping him up wasn't attracted, he was sure he had let a few words slip that would have probably gotten him pounded or stabbed depending on which object was most accessible at the time.

"Lets go see what surprises lie in store for us, shall we?"

Seero renewed his plastered on grin, hoisting is bag up over his shoulders. "Sure thing buddy! Easy job right?"

[Vakshna]

Gurrah laughs at the goblin's comment "My friend, if this was going to be an easy job, they wouldn't have hired the likes of me to keep blokes like you safe and sound"

Gurrah grins at the goblin and says "Lets just hope for all of our sakes that my special talents will be needed significantly less than what I assume is to be expected, and knowing princy the way I do, that hope seems pretty damn farfetched"

Gurrah pats him hard on the back and smiles a cheshire cat grin
"Don't worry old chump, if you stay on my good side I'll keep you safe. As for if you get on my bad side" Gurrah chuckles to himself slightly "Well lets just hope it don't come to that okay?"

Gurrah then jogs up to the base of the zepplin.

"Permission to come aboard Madame!"

[Imara]

"...But something about him... about what he has us doing... something about it just doesn't sit right with me. And I'm beginning to worry that I might do something very, very stupid."

"Chikt. I've seen you do some downright crazy things but I've never seen you do anything stupid... Though, I suppose there are plenty of people that might question my judgement." Gizzi grinned and reached up, gathering her hair and tying it back. "I dunno about the rest of the crew you've hired on for this but I'm here because you're my friend. Well, that and the fact your plans tend to be lucrative." She winked. "And even if you do end up doing something stupid, I'll be here to save yer ass. And your brother's ass. He has a pretty nice one, too."

"Permission to come aboard Madame!"

Gizzi laughed at Chikt's expression and went to wave the newcomers up. "Permission granted! Let's get this party started."

(( Oakenfold - Ready, Steady, Go (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UssFScmStQw) ))

[Vakshna]

permission granted, lets get this party started!

Gurrah smiled and quickly ascended the rope ladder, and greeted the female goblin with a sweeping bow and a cocky smile

"Gurrah The Gambler, the infamous assasin at your service! curtousey of one named Rikt Blastercharge"

His smile widend as he took the female goblins hand and kissed it
"And I assume this is the lovely young lady I've been conversing with?"

[Chikt]

"And even if you do end up doing something stupid, I'll be here to save yer ass. And your brother's ass. He has a pretty nice one, too."

"That's what I'm worried about." Chikt mumbled. Glancing up as the other goblin climbed his way onto the deck of the Zeppelin and introduced himself with a kiss to the back of Gizzi's hand. Rolling his eyes, Chikt decided that now was a good time to go and check on the Zeppelin's engines.

"We're just waiting for Rikt. We'll leave, get the stuff to the accountant, gather whoever needs the ride and get out of here."

[Imara]

""And I assume this is the lovely young lady I've been conversing with?"

Gizzi raised an eyebrow as the goblin took her hand and, as his lips brushed her skin, she abruptly turned her hand over to shake his hand firmly. "Lovely? Yes. A lady? Doubtful." Gizzi grinned. "Gizzi Grindbolt. Freelance entrepreneur and audio engineer."

Gizzi nodded in greeting to the other goblin as he boarded the zepplin behind Gurrah. "I suppose I should go run some final system checks if we're setting off soon. Can't be too careful... Particularly with untested prototypes. I'm sure you boys can find something to do to make yourselves useful." With that, Gizzi made her way up to the control panel and began flipping switches, eliciting a wide array of buzzes, notes and uncomfortable hums from the sound system throughout the ship.

[Vakshna]

Gurrah chuckles to himself

Unless you need someone to disappear, or a bounty collected i don't beleive I'm much use, give me a job however and I shall do so to the best of my abilities.


Gurrah looks to Seero and pats him on the back with a wide grin

Seems like fun, doesn't it?

Then Gurrah sets about to the starboard end of the ship part and props himself up against the railing awaiting for some more instructive directions

[Phelix]

"WAKE UP YOU GIT" a human brandishing a large whip roughly pulled Sikta from her cage and threw her into a crowd of others. Races of all types were in the dusty circle they had been caged the troll was next to her, along with a few orcs, a handful of other goblins and a very large horned creature Sikta had never seen before. The slavers were made up of humans, goblins, and some odd looking dwarves (Sikta would later learn these were the infamous "Dark Irons"). They were equipped with whips and short swords, and a small group of Ogres were there, probably for intimidation reasons. Sikta wondered where her cousins were. A human started shouting something in the humans tongue at the slaves in the center of the circle, a goblin beside him repeated in goblin while the dwarf spoke in orcish. The shouting made it hard to understand everything they were yelling "YOU ARE NOW THE PROPERTY OF A TRADE PRINCE" There was a pause "YOU WILL BE TRAINED TO FIGHT AND DIE IN AN ARENA, FOR THE ENJOYMENT OF THE PRINCE AND HIS GUESTS" He grinned "SOME OF YOU MAY DIE, AND SOME OF YOU MAY LIVE, BUT NO-ONE EVER ESCAPES THIS CAMP, IF YOU EVEN ATTEMPT IT YOU WILL BE KILLED" the human nodded to the ogres who in response grinned and Sikta swore she saw one lick his lips. "YOU WILL NOW BE PAIRED UP TO SPAR TO SEE WHERE YOUR CURRENT ABILITIES ARE AT SO THAT WE MAY BEAT YOU INTO BEING BETTER" The whips cracks and wooden weapons were thrown at the slaves. One of the orcs grabbed a club and attacked a slaver, he knocked the human over before the ogres got him, they literally tore him apart with their bare hands. The human getting up while wiping the orcs entrails off of him. "LET THAT BE A LESSON TO YOU"

Sikta held her wooden sword pensively as she was paired with her sparring partner.... She didn't see any other slaves her age and she wondered what the slavers would do. She didn't have to wonder long as she was paired with the strange horned creature, and its gigantic log of a weapon.... The slavers seemed to laugh at this and seemed to be watching very pensively. Sikta backed away from the giant before a goblin slaver pushed her back "FIGHT IT" Sikta closed her eyes and lunged at the beast, wanting for all the world for it to be quick. She struck its ankle near the hoof, for a split second she thought she was dead. Then the unthinkable happened, the giant fell, and just lay there. The slavers whipped him but he didn't get up, Sikta looked at him pensively and she saw something the others didn't. The giant winked at her..... She wasn't sure but she believed this giant creature just saved her life.......

[Vakshna]

(Sorry I got to say I find it funny that no one even noticed poor Sikta being kidnapped and hauled off by slavers to the trade prince's arena for his own personal amusement but Phelix I like where your going with the Tauren thing))

[Imara]

(Sorry I got to say I find it funny that no one even noticed poor Sikta being kidnapped and hauled off by slavers to the trade prince's arena for his own personal amusement but Phelix I like where your going with the Tauren thing))

(( Gizzi never even met her or knew she was around. That's my defense. ;) ))

[Vakshna]

((yea but rikt and chikt aint got shit, well Rikt cause he was too busy helping me from getting my throat sliced/getting his own hide saved?))

[Viirchi]

Seero grumbled to himself as Gurrah explained the particulars of the job and if he wasn't more afraid of Ma, he might have just abandoned the whole thing and let the pieces fall where they would. Problem was, no matter what he did he still needed to be off Kezan and the only way off was taking the Zepplin, which would force him to take on the job anyway.

The female aboard didn't look half bad, not some toad at least, but Gurrah or whatever he called himself was laying it on a bit thick and when the guy parted off to the other side of the ship Seero didn't bother to follow. It wasn't that Seero hated the Gambler, he just didn't want to be explained to about the many different ways he could die, or be near the guy who looked like he was a walking wanted poster. That sort of stuff was bad for your health.


Seero scoped out the ship a little more before casually taking a glance at the engines as he headed below deck. He really didn't want the folks knowing he was making explosives on the ship, sure he was careful but most people got a little nervous about that thing.

[Vakshna]

((Lol Walking wanted poster, I like it XD))

Gurrah sighed as he decided leaning on the railing wasn't the most comfortable position, instead he Decided to look around, He snuck down below deck, and waited as Seero entered the engine room, he then slowly moved past into the Cargo hold.

Picking the lock on the door Gurrah entered and slowly shut it behind him.
"Their rigging this baby for war, bound to be some interesting devices and other nasty things down here to check out Gurrah said quietly to himself.

Their was a menagrie of things down there, most of which Gurrah couldn't put to use since his technological skills we're a bit outdated, he was a chemist (usually to make cures for his posions) Not a Engineer. He began slowly making his way through the Room to the far end of the Cargo hold, carefully treading over all sorts of mechanical doohickies, provisions, and other such things.

[Rikt]

Looking up at the painted Zeppelin before him, Rikt grabbed a hold of the rope ladder and tucked a piece of rolled up paper into his pocket. As he reached the top deck he stood up and tipped his hat to anyone close by.

“Looks like this Zep is coming along nicely.” Rikt said to no one in particular as he surveyed his surroundings.

Scratching his head, a mesmerized look came across his face as a sudden realization dawned on him. “Hey, where the hell is Sikta? I thought I told her to stay on the damn Zepplin. Shit, no time to look for her now.”

Rikt searched the Zeppelin for his brother Chikt, until he finally found him working on the engines. “Yo bro. I got the evidence verified and got one more recruit than expected. Over all its been a very productive day.” Taking out the rolled up piece of paper from his pocket, he handed it over to Chikt.

“Any recent development on our mission from that funder of yours?”

[Chikt]

Hearing footsteps, Chikt leaned back out of the engine and couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief at the sight of his brother. Closing up the engine pay, Chikt rubbed his oily hands off on a rag he had tucked into his belt before taking the paper. He didn't even bother looking - tucking it into one of his gloves before nodding once to his brother.

"He wants us to get a sealed case from the vault on his ship. He also wants us to kill him. Which fits into the plan I'd organized with Zilek. He's sending in some boats with his men." Chikt said before turning to the engine. He closed it up before he continued talking, "They'll preoccupy the guards on the deck to give us a clean run in and board behind them. You'll lead one team, I'll lead the other. Since they'll need me to crack the safe, you'll go kill the guy and I'll get whatever it is my boss wants. We get back to the Zeppelin, everybody gets out, jobs done."

Pausing a moment, Chikt sighed before he looked back to Rikt. Glancing over his brothers shoulder, he nodded his head off in the direction of a secluded part of the Zeppelin and led him over. Lowering his voice as he spoke, "I don't like it, Rikt. A sealed metal case? That I've been told not to open 'or else'? Doesn't sit right with me."

[Rikt]

Rikt nodded a few times as his brother told him the battle plan. “Sounds solid, not flawless, but solid. I don’t think we could have done much better in the time we’ve been given.”

Led to a more secluded part of Zeppelin, Rikt leaned his back against the wall as Chikt told him about his concerns over the sealed metal case. “Well, in my experience when an employer doesn’t want you to look at the contents of a container you were hired to steal, it’s generally a good bet that the contents in question are something YOU might want.” He responded in a similarly low voice.

Rikt shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t really care what you do with it. As long as we take care of that damn Trade Prince I’ll be happy… but expect repercussions if you do decide to bag it. Your employer sounds like a real hard ass.”

[Chikt]

Chikt shook his head, crossing his arms and looking off at the city. "If it's something he wants, it'd have to lead to power. I never bought his 'I want what is best for Goblins' spiel." He said, pausing a moment and looking thoughtful. Glancing to his brother, Chikt continued, "Schematics? Knowedge? Hm."

Seemingly shaking off the thoughts, Chikt nodded once to his brother and started heading in the direction of the cockpit. "First we need to get there. Not gonna get much done standing around here talking about it. Tell everybody to get their shit together, we'll stop at Zilek's place, pick him up and move out."

With that, Chikt disappeared down the stairs into the cockpit, rounding a corner to get to the Zeppelin's controls. Flipping a few switches, the Zeppelin's engine roared to life - before pulling away from the ground and taking to the skies.

[Vakshna]

Suddenly a loud noise pierces into the rather eerily quite room, Gurrah decides it's best he not stay any longer, and makes his way back towards the door. Suddenly, something catches his leg and he tumbles to the ground with a loud crash. No sooner did he land then he jumped back on his feet and quickly crept out the door shutting it behind him, hoping that the crash was drowned out by the new found noise.

Gurrah started to head back towards the stairs onto the flight deck of the zepplin

[Rikt]

Rikt watched his brother walk towards the direction of the cockpit. “Sure thing.”

Turning around, Rikt made his way to the newly installed sound system in the Zeppelin. After admiring it for a few seconds, he then looked around for its operator. Finding Gizzi working on the control panels, Rikt walked up behind her and coughed to get her attention.

“Yo, any way I can use this thing to make an announcement throughout the ship?”

[Imara]

(( Song For Holly (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S88FIyus-Jo) - Esthero ))

“Yo, any way I can use this thing to make an announcement throughout the ship?”

Gizzi looked up and over the control panel, smiling. "Well, hello." She stood, slamming the casing shut. "Sure is... Here." She motions to a dial on the top of the box. "I just modified this to accomodate your brother's addition of the transmitter. There are now four settings." She reaches out and turns the dial. "Radio. Transmitter. Scare the crap out of everyone and..." She clicks the dial onto the final setting. "Loudspeaker."

Gizzi takes a microphone off of a clip just above the panel and hands it to Rikt. "Have fun! I'm going to go take a shower before we get going." She winks and saunters off.

[Rikt]

Rikt grinned as he was handed the microphone. “Thanks, probably would have taken me forever to figure it out myself.”

As Gizzi sauntered off, Rikt tilted his head to check out her derriere before whipping his head back to the microphone. “Alright, let’s see…“ Rikt tapped the microphone.

“Testing testing… alright that’s good." Rikt's voice could be heard throughout the entire Zeppelin via the loudspeakers. "For those of you who haven’t realized it yet, we are in the air and are headed out to pick up one more crew member for the mission. After this we are headed to our final destination, the Trade Prince’s flagship... so all of ya’ll get ready to kick some ass.”

Taking a deep breath, Rikt continued “The Trade Prince we have been hired to take down has top of the line steam armor and weaponry, and an army of mercenaries. The guy we are going to pick up has some men he will send by boat to board and distract the Trade Prince’s goons as we board from behind and go below deck to take him down. We will split into two teams: one with me and the other with Chikt. Chikt’s team will head to the ship’s vault and retrieve an item that our employer wants, while my team goes to take care of the Trade Prince.”

Rikt paused a moment, contemplating whether he should give a full fledged speech or not. Deciding this was probably one of the few times he’ll ever get to do something like this, he continued. “Rest assured I will do everything in my power to make sure we get out alive. Trust the one next to you, and move as one, and we will undoubtedly succeed. We have the element of surprise; whilst our enemy is confused, we will be focused and rip them apart! Sharpen your blades and clean out your guns! We are gonna drop that punk Trade Prince like a bad habit! FUCK YEAH!”

Rikt placed the mic back into its slot, and then he moved his hand to turn the dial to the radio.

((Harder Better Faster Stronger – Daft Punk (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olUV6oePopw)))

Rikt then went off to check on the status of his Hobgoblin captive on the top deck.

[Vakshna]

Gurrah hears the announcement over the loud speakers, and grins as the musc comes on.

"yea, that's the man I'm wanting to see"

He then heads to the top deck to see if he can find The crazed gunman

[Chikt]

“Rest assured I will do everything in my power to make sure we get out alive. Trust the one next to you, and move as one, and we will undoubtedly succeed. We have the element of surprise; whilst our enemy is confused, we will be focused and rip them apart! Sharpen your blades and clean out your guns! We are gonna drop that punk Trade Prince like a bad habit! FUCK YEAH!”

Chikt's expression slowly changed the more his brother spoke over the PA system. From one of being surprised and impressed with his brothers approach to the speech, to one more unsurprised and eye-rolling at the typical chest-thumping. He couldn't deny however that it would likely lift the spirits of the people on the Zeppelin that were unsure of what they were going in to, however.

It wouldn't take long for the Zeppelin to make it to Zilek's mansion once more. Docking on the side overlooking the coast, Chikt didn't even have to get out before Zilek had boarded. The pickup was brief - and by the time the Zeppelin had pulled away from the dock, four of Zilek's personal boats loaded up with his men had shipped out from the port down below. Chikt bought the Zeppelin about and settled into formation floating above the ship. It was a straight run to the Trade Prince's vessel - with the Zeppelin camouflaged and the fleet of ships below, it was hoped - HOPED - that they wouldn't be spotted before they got close enough to board.

Chikt wasn't taking any chances.

Despite the straight run, he stayed close to the controls of the Zeppelin. Only walking out to the balcony that rested under the Zeppelin's engine bay to watch Kezan slowly disappear into the distance. This was bigger than him - he wasn't trained to lead men. He was a damn engineer, not a soldier. And yet here he was, a Zeppelin full of people that he was responsible for - and he was taking them all into a dangerous situation.

He sighed and shook his head, taking one final glance to Kezan as it disappeared entirely from view before turning back to the Zeppelin's controls and mumbled to himself, "Please, just let this work..."

[Smiles Macblaster]

A spray of sparks in the dark, accompanied by the scraping of metal upon metal. As blade left whetstone it rang on in pained echo before returning to scrape once more. As this continued, the sound of creaking timbers was drowned away, which had until now been his constant companion in the bowels of the mighty ship. The teeth-grinding melody settled his mind as it recognized the familar ritual. It reminded him of his purpose here.

Suddenly the passageway outside his quarters blarred with the sound of sirens.

"Your presence requested topside immediately" chimed a metallic voice within his head. The shadowed figure ceased his ritual and promptly placed a gnarled finger to his ear, hissing his response, "Speak".

"Uninvited guests," barked the voice in his head, "Theres a small fleet of them"

"That's why you have privateers crewing this floating tub, let them handle the other pirates, don't waste my time" said the shadowed figure flatly, devoid of interest.

"That's not all, Smiles, a contraption, *eh hem* of my own invention I might add, has detected something approaching from the air as well, something these Freebooters missed, a Zeppelin"

Silence.

"Now would be a good time to earn your excessive payroll, now get up here!" Ordered the increasingly aggrivated voice.

Silence.

The voice returned, this time more pleasantly-toned, "Smiles?"

"Acknowledged" answered Smiles bluntly, and then cut the comm.

Smiles set aside his whetstone on his cot and stood, then moved to a corner of his quarters as pitch black as the rest of it. With practiced precision he placed his rough fingers on a large chest and opened it, retrieved his equipment and clothed and armed himself with nothing but sense of touch. Across two leather bandoliers strung across his chest nigh a dozen knives were sheathed; a hatchet, six flintlock pistols, and over his face was pulled a mask with bulging green eye lenses. He shut the chest and felt around beside it... Where was tha--..ah! He grasped his fingers around the large bundle wrapped with burlap and hefted it over his shoulder. Then, he exited his dank little quarters and headed topside.



The crew of the impressively large vessel was in frightful panic, pacing to and fro across the deck. They were an undisciplined lot to say the least, Smiles was suprised that they hadn't already managed to sink the ship out from under their own feet.

Smiles walked casually across the crowded deck, the subtle sound of his padded boots an embodiment of quiet focus in the midst of such chaotic actvity. Cannons were being dragged into place and ranges found... But all their focus was apparently directed towards the looming shapes of the oncoming fleet.

Smiles' attention, on the other hand, was directed towards the image of what looked to be nothing more than a faintly visible shape super-imposed onto the deep blue sky.

Clever.

As the chaos swarmed around him, Smiles calmly knelt and placed the bundle that he had been carrying over his shoulder onto the wooden deck and carefully unwrapped it. A reliable old friend of his, a Goblin rocket launcher.

Smiles hefted the rocket launcher up and aimed it in the direction of the strange shape, gazing through the green-tinted eyes of a Gas Mask... "But not quite clever enough, chaps"

Click! Thssssssssssssssss....THUMP!

Rockets away.

[Chikt]

"Vessel is in sight. Any orders?"

Chikt turned away from the balcony and moved back to the Zeppelin's flight controls. Flicking on the radio to the other ships before he replied, "Straight and fast, and get ready for their cannons. They'll be ready for you, but their aim should be shoddy."

"Gotcha."

Chikt flicked off the radio, unhinged a wooden block that was jammed into the Zeppelin's controls - a makeshift 'autopilot' to keep them flying in a straight line. He took a long glance at the recently installed array of buttons and switches next to his pannel - before he flicked a handfull into the 'on' position.

Oversized speakers all around the Zeppelin boomed to life - the simple crew of the Trade Prince's ship would be scattering for cover, scared out of their lives of the approaching ship. There would likely be one or two of them that would stay focussed enough to be unaffected, but it would give Zilek's crew cover before they all boarded.

That's when he heard the distant sound over the dim of the Zeppelin's engines.

Chikt's blood ran cold. A goblin rocket launcher. He swung on the Zeppelins controls, forcing it to lurch to the left slowly in an attempted evasive maneuver - it wasn't going to work. He reached out quickly and flicked on the PA. "Brace for impa--!"

He didn't even finish the sentence before the rocket tore through the Zeppelin. He was thrown away from the controls by a blast of metal and wood that ripped up through the floor as the Rocket punched a hole straight through the Zeppelin's hull - smacking his head against one of the walls and slumping to the floor. After a few moments, Chikt picked himself up with a groan - he was surprised he wasn't dead. That was until the ringing in his ears stopped - and he heard the hiss of the Zeppelin's balloon quickly losing air - the whole ship was tilting off to the left in a speedy, spiraling descent towards the water.

Without thinking, Chikt leapt back to the Zeppelin controls and grasped them firmly in hand - wrestling with them to drag the Zeppelin out of it's spiraling descent and onto a collision course with the Trade Prince's vessel. "Luck, don't fail me now..."

That's when he realized the ships PA system would still be on, and hastily barked out "Everybody get below deck! Now! This is going to be rough!"

With the air from the balloon gone entirely, the Zeppelin's descent become something closer to falling out of the sky - the tattered remains of the leather balloon flapping about in the wind above it.

And then the bottom of the Zeppelin touched the deck of the Trade Prince's ship.

Chikt wasn't prepared for the landing - his grip on the controls immediately faltered, and he was launched like a ragdoll - straight out through the air over the balcony at the back of the Zeppelin. He could only watch in wide-eyed horror as the Zeppelin's hull slipped away from him, bounced once - a giant indentation left on the ships deck in its wake - lurching to one side and crashing through a portion of the upper floors of the Trade Prince's ship before finally coming to a halt, embedded in the ships structure.

Then he made his own crash landing - blacking out as he hit the ships deck and sprawled to a stop.

[Viirchi]

Since takeoff Seero had stowed himself away in the Zepplin, carefully adding his own combination of explosives into jagged little shells or skins. Oh sure, he'd learned his lesson to be more careful with the bombs and had designed them to ignite with a bigger impact then just dropping them three or four feet to the ground.

Seero was on the last bomb when his ears picked the sound of something whistling through the air and he paused with his work to try and place the noise until it hit him like a ton of bricks. "Oh sh-"

The explosion cut him off and there was a temporary deafness as he tried to seal the last bomb before the impact got to it first. The ship creaked and Seero grabbed what he could as he started scrambling upward as an errant bomb began rolling downward at the same time, heading for impact on the side of the ship. "We've been hit! Under attack!"

The bomb impacted just as Seero reached the other end of the ship, and he managed to grab hold of the railing just as another exploded. "Hm, thought I only missed one."

He grabbed the railing with both hands and started screaming, this was not what he had signed up for, he wasn't a coward but he also wasn't suicidal. "I quit ma!"

Seero Managed to keep a vice grip on the railing when the hip impacted, mostly because he knew about the explosives in his backpack and that he had designed them for an impact that might include flying through the air and hitting the water, or a deck, or the other side of the hull. When the smoke cleared, he was still holding onto the railing, repeating the same words over again "IquitiquitIquit"

[Vakshna]

Gurrah was on the top deck looking over the railing at the panicked crew on the deck below, only one seemed to keep his cool, Gurrah watched him as he casually strolled up onto the deck, layed a sack covering something down on the deck, and calmly pulled out the item in question bracing it on his shoulder. Suddenly it Clicked as he recognized what it was all he had time to say was "Oh Shi-" before the rocket propelled Grenade was hissing it's way towards them.

Gurrah dashed off the railing and a second later the rocket impacted sending the goblin flying into the side of the cabin as the splintered wood flew up from where he was previously standing.

As the zepplin starred spiralling too the left Gurrah began to slide towards the hole in the hull. He desperately clawed at the deck trying to grab a hold of something, then he felt the support underneath him give way as he slid over the edge and managed to grab onto a piece of the railing splintered and dangeling off the edge.

Gurrah finally managed to lower himself into the lower part of the hull via the gaping hole he was dangling from and brace his body on part of the unopened hull wall as the zepplin came crashing down into the boat. as the two hulls impacted the force sent Gurrah up into the air, and smashing back down into the hull as splintered wood and sliding crates from the cargo hold came smashing into the wall next to him.

when the cacophony of chaos suddenly ceased gurrah was thrown out the hole in the hull sprawled out below deck, Gurrah slowly pulled himself to his feet and leaned against a wooden beam in the ship as he waited for the dust to clear and to regain his equilibrium

Once the dust cleared he realized he was in the lower gun deck, it seemed that from the crash an oil lamp had been knocked over in the ship and a fire had begun, people we're running around in a panic trying to put out the flames, gurrah quickly ducked behind a stack of tied down cannon balls and a spilled sack of gunpowder. A wide grin spread across Gurrah's face as he saw them trying to put out a small fire next to two of the cannons on the left side of the ship.

He quickly checked himself for injuries before he proceeded, he had a nasty gash on his right arm from flying splinters he assumed, but other then that he was relatively well save for a few bumps and bruises. He reached into his satchel and pulled out some bandages and anti-septic, and bound the cut as quickly and as snuggly as he could.

After a few minutes, Gurrah emptied out a small coin pouch on his side, realizing that the gold would be more then replaced by the end of this assuming they we're succesful. He began to till the pouch with some of the spilled gunpowder.

Once he was done, he snickered to himself watching an orc and troll merc trying to put out the fire next to the cannons.

Gurrah walked out from behind his cover and called out to the two mercs "Yo, you there, mr. big, green, and inbred, and you troll, are those tusks, or are you just happy to see me?"

The orc flares up at Gurrah and begins to say "Why you litt-"

The orc stopped cold when he saw the pouch in the goblin's hand. Gurrah grinned wickedly as the merc's eyes grew wide with fear.

"Catch..." Gurrah tossed the pouch full of gunpowder into the fire, then quickly ducked behind the pillar, he heared the orc scream as the explosion sent him flying by and smashing through the deck into the water on the left side, a cannon flew and smashed into the support beam gurrah was hiding behind and splintered it slightly, knocking gurrah face first onto the deck.

He lifted himself up slowly and looked at his little case of destruction, a hole was blown in the lower gun deck, and two cannons we're now completely useless. While the gundeck was still filled with chaos, gurrah quickly took advantage of the oppurtunity and made his way top deck to see what was happening above, he withdrew his daggers as he ran up the stairs passed a panicing human merc and krept out the door to the top deck too see the chaos.

[Ryoku]

Zilek looked out at the open sea as the Zeppelin skirted above it. Though it might not have been much to most Goblins, he awed at the sight of the sun reflecting through the water line. Man, it's even more vast from up here he thought as he inhaled the crisp, salty air. Zilek lived for the sea, and for good reason. If it weren't for the sea, none of the empire he had inherited from his father would exist. It was his lifewater, and he worshiped it more than he ever did gold.

An intensifying noise shook him out of his trance, and he looked over to see a dark figure in the distance. The plumes of dark, smoggy smoke told him that it was the target ship, and his assumption was verified when he saw the two other shapes, the ships of his own fleet, approaching it at full sail.

Zilek studied the situation before him as the zeppelin quickly neared it's mark, and within a matter of minutes Zilek could see the figures of the men below, scrambling and shouting in panicked terror. Suddenly, Zilek spotted a flash from the corner of his eye, and turned to see a whizzing rocket grow larger as it came closer to the Zeppelin's hull. "Oh, mother-"

Zilek was launched aside as the rocket punched a hole through the spot another goblin was just standing a couple seconds ago. Zilek didn't know the fate of the poor lad, and due to the situation it wasn't particularly high on his list of concerns. The zeppelin had begun a stomach, churning spiral, and it was all Zilek could do not to fly off the damn thing. His fingers were rubbed raw from his grip on one of the ropes attaching the vessel to the balloon.

The zeppelin lurched suddenly and readjusted itself for the most part, and Zilek looked out to see the deck of the boat below them getting closer and closer, and suddenly realized what Chikt was up to.

You are a clever little thing he thought to himself as he took advantage of the temporary stability to make a mad dash towards the doorway to the lower deck. He made a tumbling leap down the stairway, and made his way towards the bridge where Chikt was undoubtedly located. A sudden downward lurch in the ship sent him sprawling into the bridge's door, he curled down and braced himself for the coming impact, and with a loud crash, he felt himself being flung and his world went white.

Zilek regained consciousness minutes later, buried under a heap of rubble. His world was tuned out by a ringing loudness in his ears, and his head was still spinning from the force of the blast, but he was alive. He wiggled his toes, and the dull pain of the popping joints that answered him told him yes, he could still feel them. He was about ready to push himself out of the rubble until a dark shadow eclipsed the small hole in the rubble that proved his only source of light.

His heart raced as he saw an unfamiliar goblin accompanied by a Dwarf and a massive green skinned troll from the forest-dwelling breed Zilek had heard of from tales from Lordaeron. They were obviously not a part of the crew on the zeppelin, and Zilek quietly checked his holster for his gun, and sighed as he found it was still there. As he lay there, he watched the trio as they turned their backs to him, and stooped over a pile of smashed crates, and the ringing in his ears slowly diminished, and he started picking out what they were saying.

"I think he be dead, lad" the Dwarf said to the goblin, who was rummaging through some object Zilek couldn't make out.

"Well OBVIOUSLY he's dead, moron." the goblin snapped at the dwarf. "But that doesn't mean he don't got anythin' worth some coin." he said.

The troll stooped over, and shook his head. "He ain't dead, mon. Look at da chest, it be risin' and lowerin'. Ah' be 'tinkin we'd best get dis one to da boss, mebe get a raise for it."

The Goblin snerked as he realized he was corrected, but continued on "Well, they aren't going to notice if he's missing a watch or something. Or maybe these babies!" he shouted as he held up a pair of goggles.

Zilek immediately recognized the goggles as Chikt's, and before he knew it he felt himself crashing through the rubble, reaching for his gun. The troll turned around to look first, and before he could even reach for his axe a bullet pierced through his neck, and the massive spray of blood a telltale sign of his severed carotid artery. The troll grasped his neck, and toppled onto the poor goblin next to him. The dwarf let out a vicious battle cry, and charged Zilek with his axe held high.

Zilek, swift on his feet, stepped out of the way of the charging Dwarf, and grinned as he pushed the pink-skinned bastard into the rubble. The dwarf began to get up, but his endeavor was cut short as Zilek put his gun up to the Dwarf's fat neck, and unloaded a round into him, executioner style.

Zilek stood for a second, admiring his work until a bullet whizzed over his head, and embedded itself into the wall in front of him. He swung around, pistol drawn in front of him, to discover that the goblin had managed to crawl out from under the lifeless troll, and ready his rifle. He was shaking as he held his rifle, ready to fire, and stared into the copper-toned barrel of Zilek's revolver.

"Well, my man, it looks like we've found ourselves at a bit of a standoff." Zilek said, his gun never leaving the mark of his opponents forehead. "So how are you going to play this game? You've already proven that you aren't a very good shot, while on the other hand I have proven that I am. Fire, or give me the goggles and run away, make your move." he chided as he tilted his gun down to the floor.

The goblin, seeing it as an opportunity, fired his weapon, which to his dismay, whizzed passed Zilek's ear. Zilek raised his gun with a smirk.

"You lose" he said as he pulled the trigger and shot the poor goblin in between the eyes.

The goblin's eyes lolled in the back of his head as Zilek stooped over him, snatching the goggles out of his hands. "Trash." he spat, as he looked down on him, and his eyes drifted down to the hilt of what looked to be a well-crafted saber. "I do like your sword though." Zilek said as he unsheathed the blade, testing it with a swing from his left hand.

It was sturdy, and lightweight, the perfect blade for his off-hand. Whether it was an heirloom, or just another prize from a scavenged corpse would remain a mystery. "There's a lot of irony to the idea of scavenging from a scavenger. I rather like it" he said as he removed the sheath from the goblin's belt, attaching it to his own. After a few more swings of the blade, he sheathed it again and ran to check on Chikt's well being.

Fortunately, the troll was right. Chikt was alive, and appeared to be mostly unharmed. Zilek looked over his shoulder, and once he was sure there was nobody about to sneak up on him, he kneeled in front of Chikt, propping him up and shaking him gently.

"Chikt... Chiiiiikt. You need to wake up, this really isn't the time to be sleeping."

[Imara]

Gizzi was in the hold near the hub of the sound system, and had just finished snapping the last of her armor on, when Chikt ordered them to brace for impact. She scowled and started toward the base of the nearest support beam, only to get thrown into the wall as the rocket tore into the side of the ship.

"Ffff.... ungh!" Gizzi slid to the floor, the wind knocked out of her, and started to struggle to her feet as the zepplin shuddered and lurched. Before she could get very far, the zepplin hit the ship's deck, the hull tearing open as they bounced and crashed into the masts.

Gizzi was thrown up and back into the wall, a rather large piece of the casing on the sound system heading right for her head. She ducked and the casing hit the wall beside her as the zepplin finally came to a stop, both it and the ship creaking unsteadily. Ever so slowly, Gizzi got to her feet. She was covered in dust and bits of wood, and she could taste the blood in her mouth from her busted lip, but she seemed otherwise unscathed.

The sound system, on the other hand, was completely fried; a smoking, sparking, half-melted mess. Gizzi stood, staring at it for several seconds, her face a mask of disbelief and her eyes burning. She seemed completely unaware of the three crewmen struggling out of the rubble behind her.

Clenching her teeth, Gizzi suddenly turned to regard the men. The crewmen paused, looking from her to each other and back again.

"I'm going to need a new fucking hamster." Gizzi growled.

(( Gavin Griffiths - Terminal Velocity (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Qc3z1qdN2c) ))

Gizzi used both hands to pull the sword from the scabard on her back and lept forward, decapitating the goblin in the middle before any of them could react.

"Holy shi..." The goblin on the right took two steps back and fell over a fallen beam but Gizzi's attention turned to the one on the left as he lunged forward, trying to dislodge her from the body of his comrade. Gizzi kicked him hard in the solar plexus and he fell back with a grunt. She brought the sword up and ran it trough his breastbone.

Turning to the final crewman, Gizzi looked like a goblin possessed; covered in blood and trembling with anger. In a panic, the crewman mad a mad dash for the nearest hole in the tangle of ships and leapt out into the sea. With no immediate outlets for her fury, Gizzi took a few deep breaths, closing her eyes. With the rage passing she became aware of the sounds around her and could hear fighting on the decks somewhere above her.

Gizzi picked her way through the tangle of wood and found a hole that lead to what was left of the upper decks. Hauling herself up, she found herself on the lower gun deck. Someone had blown out two of the guns and it seemed this area had emptied out as more activity moved up onto the main deck. Taking the stairs two at a time, Gizzi emerged just in time to see Zilek crouching over Chikt's body.

A heartbeat later she was looming over the pair, her sword at the ready. Gizzi scanned the deck, looking for other members of their crew and keeping an eye on the pockets of fighting in case they seemed to be moving in this direction. She nudged Zilek's shoulder. "Is he alive?"

[Viirchi]

Seero finally managed to push his panic down and open his eyes, looking at his surroundings in a brief lull of the fighting. Most of the Zepplin looked like it had embeded itself in the enemy ship once it crashed, which he figured to be a plus, because maybe it took a few of the other guys with it and they'd have a little less trouble getting through. The downside was that Seero was still hanging on the balcony a few feet of the ground and he didn't feel confident jumping with a pack full of unexploded bombs. It looked like Chikt was dead and the woman and the Zilek guy were leaning over him, Rikt was nowhere that he could see yet.

Oh great he thought both the ringleaders are dead and now we're all scrambling to loot the corpses.


He considered his options briefly before yelling down. "Uhm, little help here? I think I'm stuck."

[Vakshna]

Gurrah with daggers drawn, slowly approached the open door to the top deck and peeked out. The ship was in total chaos, the merc's from the distraction team's ships had finally made it on board, and there was fighting everywhere.
Gurrah eyes scanned the deck too look for any sign of his "Pal" Razo, and instead he found a more recent face, the goblin who had shot down the zepplin.

He was slicing, dicing, stabbing, shooting, and using whatever means nesscary to thin the distraction team's ranks. Needless to say this goblin was clearly skilled, and a very dangerous threat to the mission.

Then Gurrah heared a panicked and familiar voice call out "Uhm, little help here? I think I'm stuck."

Gurrah looked up to see Seero dangling from the crashed zepplin on the far side of the deck. Gurrah smiled to himself and waved to the goblin as he attempted to silently make his way over. Only problem was there was an all out brawl inbetween him and Seero. And that meant getting into the thick of the fighting, Gurrah had a sinking feeling that the "Bad ass" Goblin in the gas mask wasn't going to fail at noticing him. So he decided to throw caution to the wind and charge into the fray.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!" Gurrah screamed as he plowed into an enemy human merc knocking him on his ass, then quickly running a dagger threw his throat. At the same time a orc Came up behind him lifting his axe above his head, Gurrah saw him out of the corner of his eye. With his free dagger he spun around gutting the orc where he stood and blood sprayed out of the wound and onto Gurrah's face. a dwarf marksmen directly infront of him had brought a rifle to Gurrah's face. Gurrah ducked, swept up his left forearm knocking the gun towards the sky as the dwarf pulled the trigger, Gurrah grabbed the rifle with both hands, dropping his daggers momentarily, and delivered a swift kick to the dwarfs gut. As the dwarf stumbled backwards letting go of the rifle, He quickly smacked the dwarf in the face with the butt of the rifle knocking him out cold on the ground.

Gurrah then dropped the rifle knelt down to pick up his daggers, and began to continue his approach towards the gas mask goblin, Gurrah now with blood splattered across his face, wore a sinister grin on his face, looking as though he was something out of a horror film.

[Smiles Macblaster]

Wordlessly Smiles metted out his wrath.

Knuckles to jaw.
Dagger to throat.
Kick to groin.
A Goblin fell.

He drew two pistols and stepped back, firing them both simultaneously in opposite directions.

Two Goblins fell.

He adjusted his grip on the emptied pistols and held them by the ends of their barrels, then threw them underhanded towards more of the invaders like tomahawks. They struck home and bashed in two nose bones, straight up the nasal canals and directly into the two hapless invaders' brains.

Two more Goblins fell.

Five Kills in five seconds. He was getting sloppy.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!" Came a sound behind him. He turned to see a Human get knifed, an Orc get gutted and a Dwarf rifleman get knocked on his ass, not quite dead. The Goblin who had felled them was now heading his way. Smiles licked his pointy teeth beneath his gas mask and cracked his knuckles before adjusting a little knob on the lower side of his mask, cranking up the volume on his mask's external audio output to max. He pulled two frag grenades from his bandolier, flicked off the pins, and rolled them across the deck to his left and right, into the crowd of friend and foe alike.

And he Laughed. The amplified boom of his laughter carrying over the din of combat.

The grenades exploded amongst the crowd.

As the dust settled, the then already tangled mess of Ship and Zeppelin was a ravaged moonscape of two large craters and an eeriely quiet scene of gore, burning timbers, and severed limbs.

Smiles leapt through the smoke and bulldozed into his would-be Goblin assailant and trained a flintlock pistol on his throat, then readjusted his mask's audio output and spoke in an eerie metallic voice, "Don't press these odds, Gambler" Smiles quirked his head to one side as he eyed the Goblin staring down the barrel of his pistol, "Word spreads fast in Undermine, I know why you're here, you'd never suceed if you were dead".

Smiles lifted his mask, revealing his lipless and cheekless maw, as well as his infamous identity. He hissed an ugly gutteral chuckle and spoke once more "If you see the magnifficient bastard who was piloting that Zeppelin, you buy him a drink". Smiles placed a handful of coins into Gurrah's pocket, "On me".

Smiles let off the hammer of his flintlock pistol and holstered it back into his bandolier, then before he disappeared below deck he shouted behind him "Oh and do help that poor chap dangling across the way, doesn't look like he can hang on for much longer"

[Rikt]

On the top deck of the Zeppelin, Rikt prepped his oversized and now obedient hobgoblin for battle. He modified the seat from which he would control Boulderfist with straps big enough to go through his arms so that it could be used like a backpack. Rikt had attached a whole cache of armaments to the side of his seat, ranging from pistols to grenades to his trusty rifle. Sitting atop his own personal throne, which was just above the hobgoblin’s head level, Rikt used horse reins and basic commands to control him.

Going through a few practice runs with him involving swinging his arms and running around the top deck, Rikt was satisfied that he had a pretty good grasp of how to control the monstrous hobgoblin.

Patting the hobgoblin’s head, Rikt cooed “Good boy, we’re gonna kick some ass together.” Boulderfist replied with a cheerful grunt.

No sooner had he finished his praise of Boulderfist did Rikt hear the warning and the familiar roar of a rocket headed their way. Before he could cry out a command to his hobgoblin to hang onto something, the rocket hit the zeppelin. Boulderfist skidded across the wooden deck as the zeppelin tilted to the side, whilst Rikt instinctively held onto his seat.

The hobgoblin quickly lost its footing as the deck got steeper and steeper. Flying well over the zeppelin’s railing, Rikt and Boulderfist fell into the ocean below. Feeling the familiar rush of sea water engulf him, Rikt still did not let go of his seat. Quickly recovering from the shock, Boulderfist began to swim towards the surface of the water.

As they broke the surface, Rikt wiped the salty water away from his eyes and looked toward the ship to gauge the situation. The zeppelin he had only been on moments before had crashed directly into the ship’s hull. The assault boats of Zilek’s men had already pulled alongside the ship and were beginning to board it.

Looking down toward Boulderfist, who was now awaiting his master’s next command, Rikt barked out an order. “Swim towards it! Keep me above water!”

Boulderfist began to swim toward the ship whilst keeping his body vertical, doing his best to keep his master’s seat from being submerged in water again. Rikt opened the crate beside him that held the weapons to assess their status. Very little water got into the tightly sealed crate, and the weapons all seemed to be in working order. Taking out his tri-barreled flintlock pistol, Rikt kept it tightly in his grasp while holding the reins to his hobgoblin with his other hand.

Finally reaching the side of the ship, Rikt ordered Boulderfist to scale the ship’s hull. The hobgoblin reached out to grab a hold of a gaping hole and hoisted himself out of the water. He continued his climb upwards until he reached the top deck of the wrecked zeppelin. Looking around, Rikt spotted a figure hanging over the railing calling out for help.

“Hey Seero?! That you?!” Rikt called out as he maneuvered his hobgoblin to slide down the deck to reach the goblin. As he reached him, Boulderfist grabbed the railing to stop him from sliding further and leaned himself over for his master to take a look at the goblin.

“Hey it is you! Looks like you need some help there son.” Rikt tapped the top of the hobgoblin’s head. “Pick him up carefully and seat him next to me.”

Boulderfist grunted in compliance and reached out with his free arm to wrap his hand around the dangling goblin. Heaving him over his head, the hobgoblin seated Seero right next to Rikt. Rikt grinned as he turned toward Seero “Looks like we need to get in the action.”

Turning his gaze toward the ship’s deck, he could see a massive brawl ensuing between Zilek’s men and the ship’s crew. He then noticed Gurrah, with another goblin holding a pistol to his throat. “Shit , looks like he is in trouble.”

Turning his head toward Seero again, Rikt nodded. “We are gonna jump, hold onto those explosives of yours.”

Positioning the hobgoblin for a leap over the railings, Rikt commanded him to jump. No sooner did he say it, did Boulderfist vault over the railing and fly over those fighting on the deck. Boulderfist shook the deck as he landed, sliding a few yards before coming to a full stop. Everyone within the hobgoblin’s landing zone moved out of the way, scattering everyone close by. Rikt took a few shots at enemy mercs with his pistol as he searched the fight for Gurrah.

Finally, Rikt found Gurrah and he steered the hobgoblin directly in front of him. Looking around, Rikt could find no signs of the other goblin he had previously seen. “Yo! We gotta mission to complete, we don’t have time to trade blows with the crew. We need to get that Trade Prince before he escapes!”

Giving the order to kneel, the hobgoblin knelt before Gurrah for easy access to Rikt’s perch. “Come on and get up here, there’s enough for three goblins on this big ass seat.”

[Chikt]

Chikt was in hell. Explosions rang out around him as he cowered behind a stack of crates, a small pistol in hand. In the distance he could hear the roar of battle, getting ever closer as the Horde was pushed back.

He was going to die.

Grabbing the explosives kit that he'd bought with him, he jumped down into one of the deep trenches and navigated the piles of dead bodies that had fallen in. Finally getting to a spot he was satisfied with, Chikt set one of the explosive charges against the wall of the trench - attached a second charge to it by a long cable, and ran a bit further down the length of the trench to attach it to another wall.

The yells got closer. Chikt's attention was briefly drawn away from his explosive setting as another Orc slumped into the trench, an arrow piercing his chest.

Now or never.

Attaching the second charge to a small rectangular device with a large red button adorning it, Chikt got the hell out of there. Scrabbling up the side of the trench, he took off in a full run - extending the detonation cable behind him - he didn't look back until he was sure he was outside the blast radius, just in time to see a group of human swordsmen leap the gap of the trench.

Chikt detonated the charges out of reflex.

The response was instantaneous. Two violent, orange bursts of flame screamed up out of the trenches - scattering Alliance forces everywhere. But then a third. And a fourth explosion rang out. That's when it occurred to Chikt - the other explosives in the trenches had been set off in a chain reaction.

Turning to keep running, Chikt barely took a step before the ground behind him blew out from under his feet and he did a somersault through the air before landing on his back with a thud. His ears rang and everything went white.

"Chikt... Chiiiiikt. You need to wake up, this really isn't the time to be sleeping."

Chikt's eyes snapped open and he shot up. Immediately he regret the action - a massive jolt of pain shot up his left arm. Wincing and grabbing his elbow with his right hand, it took a moment for him to realize that he was back on the Trade Prince's boat. Looking up at Zilek, the other goblin tilted his head and looked concerned as he asked, "You alright?"

Chikt simply nodded once. Carefully pulling himself to his feet, "I crash landed on an unfriendly vessel, quite possibly got most of the people I was meant to protect killed, now we have one less way off this boat, and I think my arm is broken... otherwise, just dandy."

Zilek smirked slightly and held out the blue lensed goggles to Chikt. Blinking a moment, Chikt took them and carefully slid them over his head so that they rest snugly over his eyes before Zilek said simply, "We've still got a job to do."

Pausing before nodding once, Chikt glanced back off in the direction of the downed Zeppelin. "We should regroup at the Zeppelin, hopefully we'll find the others there. Find my brother. Then we can split into two squads and get this done."

As he spoke, Chikt rummaged around in one of his hip satchels before pulling out a bandage. Carefully wrapping it around his arm and then his neck, he created a makeshift sling to support his injured left arm. Patting down the rest of his satchels, all the other main tools he needed were there. Nodding once to Zilek and then to Gizzi, he made his way back to the downed Zeppelin.

[Imara]

Gizzi kept guard over the two goblins as Chikt got to his feet, her face set in a determined expression quite unlike the one she normally wore. She smirked slightly and nodded in the direction of the hobgoblin and its passengers as Chikt worked on his arm.

"There's your brother. He clearly has a knack for grand entrances." Gizzi fell in behind Chikt as he and Zilek began to move forward.

[Viirchi]

Seero figured when he spotted the Gambler coming to help he was in the clear, at least until he noticed that the guy was getting held up by a few bodies, and then the guy in the gas mask who looked a little like someone he didn't want to cross if he could really help it.
Actually, once he saw mister gas mask having no trouble with the expendable army Seero decided that no, he would rather not get down after all if his arms didn't have a say about it.

He stopped looking down at the two goblins when he heard Rikt yelling at him from the other direction. “Hey it is you! Looks like you need some help there son.”

Seeing the goblin coming up towards him riding the deformed beast Seero felt some comfort that no one he knew had been gutted except for maybe the one guy Chikt(which was unconfirmed), so at least they might have a decent chance of getting out alive.

Seero got a little worried when Rikt mentioned something about still needing to kill that trade prince, but after dangling over a balcony as a living bomb, potential suicide sounded a lot better then certain death. Besides, itlooked like the gas mask had split and with the Gambler, Rikt, the hobgoblin...Seero figured it might be an easier job then he was imagining it out to be.

"So who was that masked man?"

[Vakshna]

Gurrah still walking towards "Mr. Gas-mask" stopped dead in his tracks as the gas mask goblin pulled the pins out of two frag grenades.

"Shit..." Then the grenades exploded on either side of him, smoke and shrapnel flying everywhere, he felt one piece of shrapnel send white hot pain down his arm as it imbeded itself in his arm.

no sooner did he get back up on his own two feet then did he get plowed over and knocked on his ass. He looked up to see who it was, and sure enough it was "Mr. Gas-mask" with a pistol pointed at his throat. Gurrah was at his targets mercy, needless to say he didn't like becoming the prey.

The gas mask goblin spoke in an eerie metalic voice as it said "Don't press these odds Gambler"

"Okay not good" Gurrah thought to himself. The guy knew his name, and had a pistol pointed at his throat. Very bad sign for an assasin.

"Word spreads fast in Undermine, I know why your here, you'd never succeed if you we're dead."

When the goblin took off the gas-mask and revealed his disfigured face, Gurrah's heart froze cold. The Goblin before him was more myth then fact. He's the monster that assasins like Gurrah we're told about when they went to sleep at night by their mommies saying "And if you piss mommy off, Smiles will come and cut your bratty little tongues out!"

This was one of the most legendary assailant in goblin history, the sadistic Smiles. Gurrah always thought that he was a myth. That no one could best his own reputation. Yet here he was staring into the face of the devil himself, and for the first time in a long time, Gurrah felt fear. Not just fear, pure terror.

The goblin let out a gutteral laugh then spoke once again "If you see that magnificent bastard who was pioleting the zepplin, buy him a drink. On me." Smiles placed a handful of coins into Gurrah's pocket, withdrew his pistol, then began to make his way down deck.

Smiles shouted back "Oh and do help that poor chap dangling across the way, he doesn't seem like he can hold on much longer." Then Smiles disappeared.

Gurrah laid there for what seemed to be an eternity untill Rikt finally snapped him out of it.

Rikt shouted down to him "Yo! We gotta mission to complete we don't got time to trade blows with the crew! We got to get that Trade Prince before he escapes!"

Gurrah snapped back to reality and boarded the Hobgoblin. When he noticed Seero riding next to him he seemed releived.

Then Seero asked "Who was that guy?" Gurrah's only response was "He.... Was a very bad sign...."

[Viirchi]

Once Seero had got to about knee high with his mom Tikri had started pushing him off onto his father a lot more. He'd gotten pretty good over the years of spotting the subtle mood changes where things were just about to go south and Kloder was gonna make a run for it.

Gurrah had about the same look on his face as a guy who'd put down nearly everything he had then was told the deck was stacked against him and the dealer was doing his wife.

So when Gurrah told him the masked man was 'a bad sign', Seero started to panic a little. Probably if they were not travelling so quickly on what as likely to be the safest place and he wasn't carrying bombs he would have considered bailing, but he liked to think he wasn't a coward and ad this point he was still more afraidof what ma would do to him if he did. The danger he knew was a lot more important then the one he hadn't run into yet.
At least the masked man had run, even if no one knew why, maybe he would just be off protecting whatever the other guys were supposed to get. It was a poor thought, but then, he was a lot less likely to be gutting them if he was off trying to gut someone else.

[Rikt]

Rikt chuckled as Gurrah told them that the masked goblin was a ‘bad sign’. “Mai boi, WE are the bad sign on this damn ship. We are gonna roll over the opposition and still be back home in time for dinner… if you have a home, that is.”

Gazing over toward the zeppelin, Rikt grinned as he saw his brother and the rest of crew making their way there. Turning his hobgoblin around, Rikt steered him toward the zeppelin. Coming to a complete stop, Rikt waved to Chikt with a stupid grin plastered on his face. “Howdy! Nice landing. You make me proud to be your bro, bro.”

Rikt then pointed toward Chikt’s makeshift cast. “You think you can still do this? You look a little roughed up.”

[Chikt]

“Howdy! Nice landing. You make me proud to be your bro, bro.”

Chikt shrugged and smirked a little before he said "I learned from the best when it came to crash landings."

Then Rikt pointed to his cast and asked, “You think you can still do this? You look a little roughed up.”

Chikt simply shook his head, "I've come this far. I'm not turning away now, bro. And besides, you need me to crack the safe. And I can do that with one hand."

To emphasize his point, Chikt drew his spanner from his belt and spun it between his fingers before hilting it again, grinning a bit. "Okay. Teams. I'll lead the team to the vault, and you" he motions to his brother, "lead the team to the Trade Prince."

Chikt looked thoughtful before glancing off towards the large, multi-story cabin that the downed Zeppelin had settled against. Pausing a moment, he nodded once and looked back to his brother. "You'll need more people. They'll be expecting you, and I don't doubt they'll bring all the men they can find to defend their boss. Zilek and I can probably handle the vault."

[Vakshna]

Hearing Chikt's suggestion at who handles the vault. It left him with the conclusion that the female goblin would be our assistance, he was about to say something along the lines of "Shouldn't she be with you where she's most likely to be safe?" When he realized she was covered in blood, and so we're her two nasty looking sabers.

Gurrah grinned and said to Gizzi "Well I guess your right, you may be lovely, but your certainly far from a lady.... My kinda woman!"

He then extended his hand and offered it to Gizzi. "I'd be honored to fight by your side Madame."

[Imara]

Gizzi looked uncertainly at Chikt's arm, then at Zilek, then at the dead bodies for which she assumed Zilek was responsible. Sliding her sword back into the scabbard on her back, she rummaged around in a pouch on her belt. Pulling out a small, rather harmless looking, device and a set of earplugs. She handed them to Chikt.

The device looked like some sort of communicator, with a switch on one side and small speakers. "In case you get in trouble. It only works on an enemy within arms reach, and make SURE you put the earplugs in before you use it." Gizzi studied the two men for another moment and then nodded slowly. "Well. Good luck." She smiled and turned to the hobgoblin.

"Well I guess your right, you may be lovely, but your certainly far from a lady.... My kinda woman!"

Gizzi raised an eyebrow at Gurrah. "Nice to see you look a little less like you're about to piss your pants, Gambler." She winked as she took his hand and pulled herself up onto the bench. "Let's get this show on the road."

[Vakshna]

"Nice to see you look a little less like you're about to piss your pants, Gambler."

Gurrah shrugged off the comment with a slight look of annoyance. "Everyone's afraid of something, mine just so happens to be monsters and demons told to you as stories when you we're a kid, only to find out that they actually exist instead of just being legend. The Goblin who had me in that very nasty predicament was someone I didn't beleive truely existed. The fact that he does and is working for the enemy, is a very bad sign for us. One whom's reputation dwarfs my own." Gurrah said, his tone growing more serious as he finished speaking.

He then plasters on a fake cheery demeanor and says in a totally out of characteristic cheery tone "Anyway, lets be off! We got a princey to stab, slice, shoot, blow up, and preferably when we're done with him he'll be more holy then a priest!"

[Rikt]

Rikt stared awkwardly at Gurrah as he started talking; coming to the part about the Trade Prince being ‘more holy then a priest’ Rikt placed his face into his palm and gave an exasperated sigh. “I’m seriously going to need a drink when this is all over.”

Removing his face from his palm, Rikt nodded to his brother and began to steer his hobgoblin toward the cabin. “Thanks bro and good luck! I’ll meet you on the flipside!”

As the hobgoblin began marching toward the door of the cabin, Rikt leaned over to whisper into Gizzi’s ear. “If we get out of this alive, you and I should go out for drinks sometime, get to know each other better… if you know what I mean.” Rikt winked and then turned his head back to the front as the hobgoblin reached the door.

“Aight, knock over this door on my mark…” Rikt reached over into his crate to grab his rifle in one hand and a grenade in the other. “Ya’ll ready to crash this party? Okay, lets do this…. MARK!”

Bringing his foot up, Boulderfist put all his weight into one swift kick against the obstruction. The door fell with ease, landing onto the floor with a loud splash. The hobgoblin stormed the room, but suddenly halted when...

“ALRIGHT WHO HERE IS READY TO-- “ Rikt looked around the room to find no one was in it. “—die?”

Scanning the room, Rikt could find nothing more than a few hammocks, chairs, and a table. At the far side of the room were stairs that led to the second floor of the cabin. Aside from that, the room itself was flooded, a shallow pool covered the ground and there was a large amount of moisture in the air, creating a light fog.

At first, Rikt did not find anything strange about it until it finally hit him. “Wait a minute, we aren't below decks. There is no way so much water could get in here unless we were sinking… this isn’t natural.”

As soon as he said it a small cyclone began to form on the other side of the room, growingly more violent by the second. Rikt instinctively raised his grenade to throw at the anomaly in hopes of dissipating it. Rikt stopped himself as he saw a figure appear in the center of the vortex. The cyclone began to die down to reveal the being within.

“Damn, haven’t seen those since the Second War.” Rikt squinted his eyes as he made out their adversary. The creature was a two-headed ogre mage, complete with elaborate blue robes and tattoos of similar color covering his body. Both ogre heads regarded their opposition through beady eyes.

“You have disrupted the harmony of this ship, much like that maniacal goblin who shows no regard for the lives of his allies.” One ogre head spoke with a surprisingly civil tone.

“Damn, never heard an ogre talk like that before, you must have been that weird kid at school.” Rikt sneered at the ogre mage.

“Dun make fun of Krul or Mok beat you down!” The other head spoke, with the typical speech pattern of an ogre.

Rikt chuckled as he heard the other head talk. “There we go.”

The more civil head spoke.”We are Krul’mok, the navigator of this ship. Turn back now or face a cold and lonely demise.”

“Git outta here…” Rikt quickly raised his rifle to meet their head level and took a shot. A globe of water instantly surrounded the ogre mage and absorbed the bullet.

“Impudent!” Both heads spoke in unison as he began to channel a spell within the globe.

“MINIONS OF NEPTULON, ARISE AND TAKE FORM! ANNIHILATE THOSE WHO DARE INTRUDE UPON YOUR DOMAIN!” The two heads spoke in unison as they chanted the spell. The pool of water within the room began to contort and shift to take the shape of multiple water elementals. The elementals quickly surrounded the hobgoblin and his passengers.

“You have no chance of victory, give in.” The civil head spoke as he glared at the surrounded goblins.

Rikt growled as he threw his grenade into one of the water elementals. “Catch this suckah!” The grenade was absorbed into the body of the elemental, and a few moments later it blew apart. Droplets of water rained down on them and its bracers fell to the ground, broken.

“Aim for the bracers or just blow em up, these things ain’t so tough!” Rikt grinned as he ordered his hobgoblin to charge into them. “We gotta take care of these guys first before we can concentrate on the boss!”

[Vakshna]

Gurrah stared at the mass of water elementals and their magical metalic bracers, then to the clearly intelligent ogre elementalist, then to Rikt.

"I'm an assasin, sadly I only brought blades, which unfortunately aren't good at cutting through magically enhanced bracers. Ontop of that my good man, this Ogre clearly has a vast array of water spells. I hate to be the bearer of bad news..... But we're standing in water...."

As he let this realization dawn upon his fellow commerades he reached out for Rikt's Tri-barreled flintlock pistol still in it's holster, snatched it out, and took aim at the nearest water elemental's bracer's who at this time was grabbing for his leg. He noticed a shiney green gem at the center of it. He shot the gem just as the water elemental got his hand around Gurrah. The gem shattered, the bracers fell apart and the water elemental fell back into the pool.

Not a second later did another elemental rise to replace it. Gurrah buried his face in his palm.

"Fuck..... My....... Life..... Yo Rikt, your the marksman, you take a shot for the smart head, I'll see if I can help distract him....." Gurrah gulps at the thought of jumping in the pool of water. He then see's the table and makes a leap for it.

"Hey, you! Yes you the smart ogre with the mentally challenged twin head! Let's Play!"

"Hey! I's not me-..... men..... mentally.... RARGH MOK SMASH!"

[Rikt]

The ogre’s smarter head turned his gaze toward Gurrah. “Provoking Mok may very well be the last mistake you make, goblin. Trying to use him against me is a maneuver I always predict in my opponents.”

The ogre’s other head cackled as he raised a hand to point at Gurrah. “Git dat short greeny.” On the ogre’s command, four water elementals rushed to the table that Gurrah was standing on. All four of the elementals collided against the table into one great torrent of water.

The bodies of the elementals formed to create a floating globe of water that suspended both the table and Gurrah within. The dumber ogre head smirked as he channeled the spell to maintain the water globe’s barrier. “Lesse how long ya can breathe.”

Rikt looked over toward Gurrah and his predicament. “Looks like both heads are distracted now. We gotta blow down that water barrier of his to get a clean shot at him!”

Leaping down from the hobgoblin, Rikt turned his head up toward Seero. “Yo Seero, ya gotta plant some bombs at the base of the barrier! Gizzi and I will cover you! Boulderfist, get them over there!”

The hobgoblin nodded and rushed to the water barrier; as he reached it he swiftly dropped to his knees to allow Seero and Gizzi to dismount. Rikt placed the stock of his rifle against his shoulder and began to provide covering fire for Seero.

[Vakshna]

Being engulfed by the water elementals came as a sad but somewhat expected predicament, though Gurrah is now soley dependent upon his comerades to save his ass.

Gurrah thought to himself "Rikt if I die before I get a shot at that bastard prince.... Kick him in the groin for me...."

[Viirchi]

"No one said anything about any mystic hoo-doo!"

He'd also never heard anything about an ogre that could carry on a conversation, but he'd also never seen one with two heads either.

Feeling a little less like cannon fodder Seero let the hobgoblin get him close as he snapped open his backpack and pulled out two unstable looking burlap sacks, cackling madly like he'd heard in some of those radio dramas he threw both at the barrier, his face falling when all they did was sink into the water.

"Oh shit."

He hadn't thought much about the water, and began to regret he had put such a rush on the bombs, or gotten so wrapped up in the moment he'd actually grabbed the most ineffective ones in his stock.

"Wait!" He dismounted the hobgoblin and pulled a small metal rod from his pocket, clicking it before tossing it into the water near the two unexploded bombs then running behind the hobgoblin for cover. The device blinked four times before exploding, igniting the two burlap sacks along with it and blowing a hole in the floor underneath, clearing most of the water out as it drained into the deck below.

Pulling out another bomb, this one encased in metal, Seero looked at Rikt, clearly embarassed. "Look...do me a favor and don't tell ma about that one."

[Vakshna]

Gurrah's lungs felt like they we're going to burst as he heared the distorted laughter of the ogre echoe through his watery prison. Suddenly he heared an explosion, and the water surrounding him dissappated. He slammed onto the table, gasping for breath. Looking to see the hole in the floor and the water being drained out, he figured that whatever caused the blast must have intterupted the ogre's concentration breifly. Gurrah raised his head to look in the direction of the ogre only to realize he was previously in the location of the hole, now knocked on his ass at the other end of the small chasm.

As the Ogre struggled to it's feet, Gurrah whipped out two throwing blades, and tossed one at each head. The first flew right inbetween the two heads, the second nailed Mok in the left eye.

"RARGH MOK KEEEL YOOOS!!!!!!" The ogre screamed.

Then suddenly the Ogre stood and smashed his two massive hands together as what was left of the water smashed into Gurrah from the left and right, the Ogre then Hurled the ball of water swirling around Gurrah and slammed him into the left wall. Gurrah bounced once before falling into the chasm.

He plummeted into the water which seemed to have been poured into the rations stores of the ship.

[Imara]

(( Oasis - Fucking in the Bushes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFm0xb_qJ2w) ))

Gizzi had leapt down from the hobgoblin, sword in hand, keeping an eye on the mage as Seero went about tossing explosives. She turned to look at him expectantly when the bags failed to detonate and shook her head as he tossed the metal rod into the mix. She braced herself against the hobgoblin as the explosion rocked the floor.

"Look...do me a favor and don't tell ma about that one."

"You're assuming we'll see ma..." Gizzi stopped short as Gurrah careened through the hole in the floor. "Oh for fuck's sake. We're going to need some very strong drinks." Gizzi surveyed the distance from her, over the hole in the floor, to the mage. "Rikt! Tell you're boy here to toss me over to that bastard!"

At an order from his master, the hobgoblin grabbed Gizzi by the back of her armor and tossed her in the direction of the mage. She just barely cleared the hole and slid toward the ogre's feet on the slick floor. Grunting and twisting to bring her sword up she stopped herself by stabbing the ogre through the foot and then hauling herself to her feet.

"I'll disrupt your harmony!" Gizzi swung her sword in a wide arc that sliced through the ogre's robe and tore through his hamstring.

[Vakshna]

Gurrah swam to the surface of the water pool and began to climb ontop of some crates he quickly examined himself for injuries from the brutal watery torment he'd been put through. Thankfully none seemed to be present at the moment. He looked down at the crates to make sure he had decent footing and nothing was trying to pull him into the water, when he noticed one of the crates was cracked.

Gurrah reached into the crate, and pulled out a bottle of "Sulfuron Slammer"

Gurrah Called up to the other's holding the bottle up over his head "HEY! I THINK I FOUND OUR DRINKS!"

Realizing that getting up in time to help his comerades was probably a wasted effort, he pulled the cork out of the bottle of "Sulfuron slammer" and sniffed it.

"Meh, maybe later." He set the bottle back down and reached in again. This time He pulled out a bottle of "Rumsy Rum" Gurrah's eyes lit up. "Ahh now that's the stuff!"

He pulled the cork and took a small swig. His eyes lit up as he swallowed the rum, paused for a moment, then began to chug the bottle. Slowly the water began to rise behind him as a giant water elemental began to form. The water elemental let out a watery war cry and Gurrah turned around too see the adversary.

He eyed the elemental up and down, he released the bottle from his lips before finally asking "Yeah? What do you want? I'm on break, come back in five."

Gurrah then turned away in a semi drunken stupor and continued to drink the bottle of rum. Apparently the elemental didn't like being ignored because as the goblin lifted the bottle of rum and tilted his head back to chug. the elemental shot out his watery hand, grabbed the bottle of rum, and threw it at Gurrah. Gurrah side stepped clumsily, the bottle of rum flew past him and shattered on the wall.

Gurrah saw the rum smash on the wall and his face got an overly sad expression spread acrossed it "Rumsy Rum?"

The mournful expression quickly turned to one of anger as Gurrah clenched his fists and spoke through clenched teeth. "I... Wasn't..... Finished..."

Gurrah then let out a blood curdling war cry as he half leaped half stumbled onto the water elemental's left arm Bracer, he managed to get a grip hangiing upside down on the left bracer as Gurrah fumbled for a throwing knife. A few moments later the water elemental plucked him off with his right hand by the back of the Goblin's collar, brought Gurrah up to his face, then spewed a stream of water sending him smashing into the Wall. Gurrah splashed into the water, and struggled to wim up, the elemental decended below the surface of the water.

Gurrah saw the glint of the bracers rushing towards him from below the surface, and a second later the elemental burst to the surface sending gurrah flying into the air and landing face first on the crates. Gurrah stumbled to his feet just as a hand grabbed him, he instinctively took his throwing knife and stabbed it into the gem embeded in the bracer, shattering it. As the first bracers fell off the Elemental let out what could best be described as a pained cry. The Elemental then plunged it's other fist at the goblin, Gurrah rolled to the side, swiped his throwing knife into the gem, and Yanked it out.

Gurrah then looked at the elemental, took the gem, showed it to him, then smashed it against the opposite wall. The second bracer fell off and the Water elemental dissipated.

"No one steals MY rum and gets away with it." He then began to search the crate for another bottle only to find their was none. Gurrah threw his hands up, looked towards the whole in the floor above him and screamed "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

[Rikt]

Rikt shot the bracers off the few remaining water elementals as the hole in the floor drained all the water out of the room. Hearing Gizzi’s request, Rikt commanded his hobgoblin to send her over. “Throw Gizzi toward the ogre!” and the hobgoblin complied.

The ogre fell to his knees as Gizzi tore through his hamstring. Rikt turned his rifle toward the ogre and commanded Boulderfist to subdue him. The hobgoblin leapt over the hole and brought his fist down against one of the ogre’s heads. Boulderfist swung his fist again against the other head and repeated his furious flurry of punches until the ogre fell face flat unto the floor.

Rikt grinned at Seero, “Nice save there kid. If I ever see your ma I’ll be sure to tell her only the good parts.”

Hearing Gurrah cry out from the floor below, Rikt walked over and looked down the hole. “What the hell are you screaming about? Nothings killing you.”

Rikt turned toward the hobgoblin and ordered him to retrieve both Gurrah and the crate he was next too. The hobgoblin leapt into the hole and picked up Gurrah and tucked the crate under one arm and used his other arm to lift him back out through the hole in the floor. He gently placed Gurrah onto the ground and let the crate fall onto the wooden floor. Rikt rummaged through the crate and pulled out a bottle of Sulfuron Slammer.

Growling, Rikt walked up to Gurrah and checked his breath. “You were drinking? On the job?!” Rikt brought his head down and head butted Gurrah in the nose

“What the hell were you thinking?! You better sober up quick or you’ll never get a go at that Trade Prince!” Rikt took out the cork in the Sulfuron Slammer and procured a handkerchief from his pocket. He then drenched the cloth in the alcohol and proceeded to stuff it down the bottle's nose.

“THIS is how you should use a alcoholic beverage.” Rikt showed the bottle to Gurrah before turning around and throwing it against the unconscious ogre. The bottle broke and the lit handkerchief ignited the already volatile liquid, immolating the unfortunate ogre. The ogre’s pained screams could be heard as Rikt turned toward the rest of his team and attempted to yell over it.

“Alright, the rest of the mercs protecting the Trade Prince should be on the upper levels; we are going to have one hellav welcoming party! We’ll need a plan of action to cut a swath through them and get to the Prince! Any suggestions on how to proceed?!”

The ogre soon fell silent as the fire took its toll and left him as nothing more than a charred heap on the ground.

[Vakshna]

Gurrah softly whimpered as he was lifted out of the hole, he sat there on his rump with a sullen look on his face holding the shards of the broken rum bottle in his hands and stared at them broken heartedly as Rikt berated him. Once the immolated ogre and Rikt got done screaming Gurrah looked up at his comerades with the face of a sad lost puppy and said

"Mean Water man bwoke my rum... and dere's no mow... and..... I think after the plethora of wall smashing's I've taken today I may have broken a we ribs." Gurrah stumbled to his feet and attempted to lift his right arm and stretch only to double over in pain and fall back on his ass.

"Yup, that's a broken rib alright" He then got an "Aha!" look on his face as he half walked half stumbled over to the crate pulled out a bottle of sulfuron slammer, pulled the cork out, and took a swig

"Ohhhhh yea! That's MUCH better." He walked over to the orc's burned corpse, looked between the two charred heads, and knelt down once he found the throwing blade imbeded in Mok's eye.

"Pardon me crispy, mind if I borrow this?" He yanked out the knife with his right hand, stood up, and twirled it inbetween his fingers.

"Didn't think so" Gurrah then walked back towards his comerades holding the bottle of booze in his left hand by the neck, and holding the throwing knife in his right.

"Ready when you are!"

[Vakshna]

Gurrah suddenly seemed to remember something
"Oh and boss, If I may make a suggestion, maybe we should leave the big ol boy behind and go on foot, subtley isn't always a bad idea ya know? Plus I don't thing he could fit with us strapped to his back.." Gurrah points to the staircase with the bottle of booze.

[Viirchi]

“Nice save there kid. If I ever see your ma I’ll be sure to tell her only the good parts.”

Seero stood up straighter, trying to look a little more important, or that he actually knew what he was doing. It wasn't that he was emboldened by the praise so much as he was just trying to make it look like everything he had done was effortless.

Gurrah taking five for a drink kind of made the situation look worse in chances of survivability. Early on there'd been that mystery about the guy, like some master assassin and the picture had formed in his head of this inhuman blur of knives that would just hack apart the opposition without Seero ever having to lift a finger. The fact that Rikt was reprimanding the Gambler kind of deflated the whole imagery of invincibility. Reality was a bitch.


"...Can't we just sink the ship and hope for the best?" Wishful thinking at least, but he had to figure even the most basic operations required some method of proof, Trade princes were suspicious out of habit.

[Imara]

Gizzi yanked her sword out of the ogre just in time to avoid the incoming molotov. As she walked over to the other three, she listened while absently, but thoroughly, cleaning the blade. She sheathed her sword and rolled her eyes at Gurrah as he stumbled around, drink in hand.

"...Can't we just sink the ship and hope for the best?"

Gizzi shook her head. "We can't do that until Chikt and Zilek get what we came for out of that vault and by then the Trade Prince might be long gone." Gizzi glanced toward the stairs to the upper levels. "We haven't met as much resistance as I would have expected yet so we'll probably need some crowd control."

Gizzi pulled a moderately sized weapon, that looked like a cross between a gun and a megaphone, out of a holster on the back of her belt and handed it to Rikt. "This gun emits intense ultrasonic blasts. Those blasts cause intense nausea and headaches and before that they hurt the targets ears and, typically, cause them to flee away from the source."

Gizzi took four pairs of earplugs out of the pouch at her belt and handed them out. "I think we should use that to herd our enemies into a corner where Seero can blow them to bits. Meanwhile, Gurrah and I can handle any stragglers." She nodded at Rikt. "As long as you and Seero stay behind the gun, the noise won't really effect you. Gurrah and I will definitely need the ear plugs though. Sound like a plan?"

[Vakshna]

Listening to Gizzi's plan he walked up, patted her on the back, and exclaimed "Works for me! I don't know about you, but nothing like fighting under the influence! Helps ya stay focused and worry less about the little things like dyin n such! Lets kick princey off his bloody throne!" He turned away from the crowd as the sulfuron slammer finally caught up to him and let out a monsterous belch

He look back at the crew sheepishly "Eh sorry.... Anyways, how about them there ear plugs missy?"

[Ryoku]

Zilek followed Chikt as they made their way to the vault. It was an odd feeling following the leadership of another after he had spent so many years being a leader himself, but he knew it was tactically advantageous, afterall 85% of all attacks happen from the rear, and Chikt wasn't going to do well at all in a fight with a broken arm. While Chikt was physically worthless with a broken arm, he wasn't mentally worthless. Chikt knew the way to the vault, and Zilek had enough trust in his brain to know that he wouldn't lead them into some stupid trap.

Which was the exact moment Chikt surprised him.

With a clash, a dirty looking Goblin hiding behind a Crika-Cola machine lunged at Chikt, toppling him to the ground. The Goblin stood over Chikt knife raised for the kill, laughing hysterically at his catch.

"Look at this little prey wanderin' into my trap! Oooh I'm gonna gut ya so good an' skin ya an'-"

The goblin didn't get to finish his last sentence as a full 6 rounds of revolver fire pierced him in several places on his body. The dagger fell harmlessly from his hand, and he toppled on top of Chikt in a greasy, smelly heap.

Chikt pushed the nasty goblin off of him, and stood up, panting and shaking. Zilek reloaded his chamber, and spun it, readying it to fire.

"This is a battleground, my man." he said, patting Chikt on his good shoulder. "Ya gotta expect them to come from anywhere. Just imagine an enemy hiding behind every nook and corner. It's better to be relieved when they aren't than it is to be surprised when they are. Caution is everything-"

Zilek pulled Chikt to the wall, and covered his mouth with his hand, quietly whispering into his ear. "And ya gotta keep your ears open, so you can hear everything going around like those guys talking down the hall over there." He pointed over to a corner in front of them.

"Now let's listen" he said, removing his hand from Chikt's mouth.

The sounds were muffled, but both Chikt and Zilek could easily pick out the voices of a gruff male, Zilek was guessing to be an Orc, and his goblin compatriots.

"What are we going to do with her?" the shrill voice of a male goblin said. "Leave her here to rot?!"

"I say we kill her slowly." a female goblin remarked. "She doesn't have any gold on her, she's useless otherwise."

"I have an idea of what I can do with her." another male goblin said, the rasp of arousal hot on his lips.

"You're all fools." the Orc finally barked, a sense of command in his voice. "This goblin is a child, and could be useful to our employer. I say-"

"I don't give a fuck about our employer, she's the first fresh piece of ass I've seen since I got on this tin-can, and by gold I will have her!"

And then Zilek heard a scream from a voice he knew better than anybody. "Lirindi" he said, turning to Chikt. He gave him another pat on the shoulder, and said "You stay out of sight" before drawing his sword with his gun and ran headlong around the corner.

"What ever happened to Caution is everything!" Chikt screamed as he ran after Zilek. He turned the corner to see Zilek charging into five very surprised goblins and an Orc, more than Chikt had anticipated.

Zilek shot his revolver during his charge, downing one of the goblins, and clipping another in the arm. They didn't even have a chance to draw their weapons before he was in their midst. He slashed out with his blade, decapitating the Goblin he was sure was the one who refered to his twelve year old daughter as a "fresh piece of ass". ducking and spinning to sever the arm of the female goblin at the elbow. She howled in pain, but was silenced when a downward chop split her skull, spewing blood and cerebral fluids about her as she fell.

The Orc was quicker than most, and made his own charge at Zilek, swinging his axe sidelong. The attack was high though for Zilek's small frame, and he easily ducked under the axe, rolling away from the Orc's massive, reach.

By now the remaining two goblins had become more aware. One had tried to grab Lirindi and run off with her, but Zilek gunned him down with three shots, with two bullets embedding themselves in his spinal cord. The other, who's arm Zilek had clipped before, decided to fight, drawing his own saber and lunging at Zilek.

The Goblin's prior injury lead to his undoing, it was obvious to Zilek that the goblin was using his off-hand, his main hand too injured to lift the blade. Zilek easily parried the blow, lunging passed the goblin's reach, embedding the barrel of his gun into the goblin's eye socket. The goblin screamed in a mix of fear and agony before Zilek pulled the trigger, launching the contents of the goblin's skull into the wall behind him.

By then the Orc had recovered from his misstep and Zilek turned towards him as he went in for another strike. He had corrected his attack this time, and it was all Zilek could do to lunge backwards to avoid the strike. The blow clipped his shirt, and he could fell a wet splash of pain as the axe grazed across his side.

He lost grip on his gun, and it clanged onto the ground. As he dived to pick it up, the Orc got there first and kicked it away. With a savage roar the Orc swung down his axe, but in a blur Zilek rolled away from the blow, and made a lunge with his blade, piercing the chest of the massive beast.

The Orc stood up suddenly, clutching his hand to his chest. With another roar he went to attack Zilek again, but his strength was gone, and he fell backwards in a heap.

Zilek gripped his side as he retrieved his gun. He walked to the side of the dying Orc, pointing it at his gargantuan head.

The Orc coughed blood, and made a splurting plea to Zilek "My name is Grog'lek, and for my honor you must know that I would have never... Let them touch the child." Zilek nodded, and holstered his revolver.

"I know you wouldn't have, but you wouldn't have let me had her either."

The Orc made a gurgling laugh, blood trickling from his maw. "You're ri-ight. I am bound by my employer not to. Which is why it was destined for u-us. to meet in glorious combat."

Zilek smiled. "It's a damn shame that one of us had to die. You're an honorable Orc, Grog'lek."

The Orc smiled staring up at the unseen sky. "It was a good.. Death." and with a rattling sigh, he lay quiet at last.

Zilek smiled, and as he shifted a stabbing pain seared his side. He reached his hand to it and felt it, and his heart sank with the warm wetness of it. The Orc's massive axe had barely grazed him, but that graze was enough to do some serious damage. Zilek could feel that some of the sinews of his muscle were torn, and some places were punctured even deeper. In short, he knew that chances were that he wasn't going to live through it. With expert quickness, Zilek ripped open his own shirt, and used his saber to tear off two strips from the tail of his coat. He quickly made a makeshift bandage for the wound, and patted it, satisfied that he had stopped the bleeding enough to continue on.

He groaned as he stood, pain rocketing through his nerves. In his endeavor he heard a voice that melted his heart.

"Dad.. Are you okay?"

Zilek turned to face his daughter and forced a smile. "Yeah, baby. Daddy's fine."

The girl rushed to her father, and gave him a tight embrace, further encumbering her father with the pain of his injury. He withstood it, returning the embrace. The girl was crying into his shoulder.

"I'm so sorry Dad, I know you didn't want me to come but it just looked too exciting and you never take me on your cartel journeys and.." he halted her desperate apology with a soothing hush.

"What's done is done now, sweetheart, but this is a dangerous mess that we're not out of yet. Chikt and I still have a mission to do, and it looks like you're coming with us."

The girl loosened her embrace to look at her father, her eyes sparkling with happiness. "You mean we get to have our adventure now?"

Zilek smiled, brushing a tear away from his daughter's face. "Yes, we get to have our adventure."

The girl dug her head into her father's shoulder again, and he momentarily froze from the pain. "Thankyouthankyouthankyou THANK YOU!" she said, holding him tightly. "And you're sure you're okay, right?"

Zilek's heart sank as he held his daughter. He could feel the warmth of his life slowly flowing from his wound. "Yes, I'm fine." he said, but even Chikt, who had emerged from his hiding place to watch the reunion could see in Zilek's eyes that he knew this was the last adventure he would ever have with his daughter.

The thought brought tears to Chikt's eyes, but he quickly composed himself as Zilek nodded at him. Zilek lifted his daughter off him, and straightened himself to his full height. "Right. We have an adventure to undertake. Chikt, lead the way. I'll cover the rear and honey.." he said smiling down at his daughter.

"Make sure Uncle Chikt watches his step."

[Chikt]

Chikt felt himself go pale as he could only stand by and watch helplessly as Zilek dove head-first into the group. Left and right, people dropped to the floor - and with his broken arm, Chikt would only become a liability if he tried to intervene. Pressing himself back against the wall, he pulled the gun that Gizzi had given him on the off chance that he would need to intervene - but when he next peeked around the corner, the final foe - the orc - had toppled to the ground. But not without leaving Zilek injured.

Seeing just how badly hurt Zilek was, and hearing him comforting his daughter, Chikt knew right away that Zilek was preparing himself to die. He had to wipe his eyes to keep from crying - but he knew that it was just as much the feeling of guilt as it was the way Zilek had comforted his daughter that had made it well up. Swallowing down the lump in his throat as Zilek nodded at him, Chikt nodded back once and tucked Gizzi's gun back down the back of his pants safely before turning to continue leading them on.

Chikt stayed quiet. He didn't trust his voice to not crack if he decided to speak, and Lirindi would possibly pick up on it. He made himself a promise - he'd get Zilek out of here alive, he'd get Lirindi out of here alive, and his brother would keep the other team safe. They'd get out of this. All of them. And they'd go--

Stopping dead in his track at the top of the stairs that led down into the lower decks, Chikt was confronted by an image that immediately made his mind go blank.

The bottom decks were flooding.

Salt water rose up to about waist height (on a goblin) and was obviously moving. Flowing in from several different spots - likely results of the downed Zeppelin crippling the ships hull when it crashed. As Chikt stood there dreading the image before him, Zilek and Lirindi joined him staring down the staircase.

It was Zilek that pulled Chikt out of his daze "Well, that's not good... Thoughts?"

Chikt glanced to Zilek and then back down at the water, pausing a moment. He watched the water flow, estimated the time they'd been on the ship to the water level now, did the math in his head. Without looking back to Zilek, he answered "Given the current water level, and the time we've been here - and factoring in the tears slowly getting worse the more water the ship takes on - this boat will be underwater in 30 minutes. And that's being kind. Not to mention--"

That's when Chikt recognized the gassy smell on the air. Fuel, oil or gas - one of them. Which meant the explosive he'd eventually have to set on the vault was going to cause a much bigger bang. Chikt looked back to Zilek and continued "The ship will go down quicker than that. I'm going to set off a chain reaction when I try to breach that vault. It's going to tear the ship apart. We'll have a few minutes to get off before it goes under... I'll just have to trust that my brother knows when there's a loud "bang" that it's time to leave."

Motioning for Zilek and Lirindi to follow, Chikt continued down the stairs and waded through the water. The corridor opened up into a wide room, a few pillars scattered around it. On the other end was a huge, metal vault. No ordinary vault - it appeared the Trade Prince had gone all out. Even the vault door was priceless - gold plated and all. But that wasn't the real beauty of it - it was the electronic security system that impressed Chikt.

The electronic security system that had been shorted out with the ship taking on water. Guess they didn't think that far ahead that a vessel on water probably shouldn't depend on electronics, Chikt thought to himself.

Wandering to the vault door, Chikt felt along its cool surface, tapping occasionally. Zilek watched quietly - swallowing down the pain of his injury. "What are you doing?" He asked eventually.

Chikt raised a finger to his lips, tapping on one spot a few times over before pulling a device from his belt. It was something of his own design - something he'd created by accident while trying to create a high-pressure hose for dousing fires. It was a Waterjet, a device that pumped water at such high pressures that it could cut through metal. Holding the nozzle of the waterjet to the vault, Chikt turned it on and began carving out a circular hole in the metal as he finally replied, "It's like a friend of mine said to me once, Ya just gotta..." The metal circle fell away, exposing a series of gears hidden underneath. Chikt looked back at Zilek with a grin as he finished, "Keep ya ears open."

[Smiles Macblaster]

Smiles watched the two older Goblins, joined now by a very young female, in silence from above with green-lensed eyes. He stared through a hole as wide as himself in the deck above the pillared vault chamber, and surveyed the room and all possible approaches.

The two Goblins trailed blood in the ever-rising water behind them and one was in a sling. He licked his teeth beneath his rubber gas mask. They were injured.

Regardless of his advantage, Smiles continued to watch and wait. He had seen the unsucessful attempts of the other mercenaries to subdue the two, and had no intention of meeting the same fate. Even now he was drawing a mental profile of his prey and formulating an attack plan. Proper-Planing-Prevents-Piss-Poor-Performance.

But for now, he waited.

[Rikt]

Rikt nodded occasionally as he listened to the suggestions of all his team mates. Gizzi finished laying out her plan and handed him the sonic gun and ear plugs. He turned the gun over in his hand to analysis its design. “Well, seems like Gizzi has the most solid plan here, we are going with hers.”

Turning toward the hobgoblin, Rikt gave him his orders. “You stay here and guard our rear. Make sure nobody gets through that door.” Boulderfist nodded and took a defensive position at the doors entrance.

Turning towards his team and slinging the rifle over his shoulder, he nodded. “I’ll take point and get into position to round em all up. You guys be sure to do your part.”

Rikt turned his gaze to Gurrah, regarding him through half closed eyes as he continued to drink himself into a stupor. “For fucks sake.” He then turned and began quietly walking up the stairs, motioning for the rest to follow him.

Procuring a grenade from his belt, he held it in one hand as he held the sonic gun in the other. As he reached the top of the stairs, he peeked around the corner to get a good look at what awaited them ahead.

The room was chuck-full of mercenaries from multiple races and with various types of weaponry. They were sitting around tables’ chit chatting and enjoying their drinks but remaining wary as most kept a weapon within arm’s length. Beyond the mercs were another set of stairs which Rikt assumed led to the Trade Prince’s private chambers. Turning to the rest of his team, Rikt whispered. “Alright, get those ear plugs in. I’ll count down from five with my fingers, be ready to go when you don’t see any more fingers.”

Rikt took out the ear plugs and put them into his ears and then pulled the pin on the grenade. Rolling the grenade into the room, the mercs murmured as they saw something move across the floor. Rikt used his free hand to count down.

Five…

Four…

Three…

A flash of light filled the room and blinded all the mercs as Rikt continued the countdown.

Two…

One…

Rikt raised his sonic gun in preparation.

Zero…

Rikt ran out into the room, making a wide spread with his gun to ensure it affected everyone. All the mercs tried to hold their hands over their ears as they heard the terrifying noise. Rikt then proceed to use the gun to edge them towards the corner. However some of the mercs with a more steely resolve gritted their teeth and turned towards him.

As they charged toward him with a quickness, Rikt’s first instinct was to jump out of the way. But he knew that if he gave the other mercs any respite, they would have a right mess on their hands. He could only hope Gizzi and the drunk guy could hold them off long enough for Seero blow the other mercs to oblivion.

[Imara]

Gizzi slipped her sword back out of its scabbard as she fell in behind Rikt; cautiously sidling up the stairs as Rikt surveyed the room. She nodded at his instructions and waited, momentarily shielding her eyes when the grenade went off, until the count was done.

Storming the room behind Rikt, Gizzi noted the mercs that resisted the gun's effect almost immediately. As the others fled to the corner, she nodded to Gurrah and motioned that she would flank left. Hoping the gambler was sober enough to understand; Gizzi came around Rikt's side shouting and brandishing her sword's serrated edge.

The mercs immediately turned their attention to her as she intercepted; running the first of them through with a gut-wrenching motion. Fresh blood coated her gloves as the merc fell to his knees; gurgling and attempting to stab through her breastplate. Gizzi brought her knee up into his chin, sending him flailing back into another of the mercs.

Gizzi laughed tauntingly as she took several steps back, pulling the mercs out of range of Seero's explosives so that she and Gurrah wouldn't be caught in the blast.

[Vakshna]

Gurrah listened too Rikt's instructions, and was sober enough to understand What Gizzi meant when she bgan to flank left.

((Perfect insanity- Disturbed))

Gurrah saw a dwarf merc take aim at him with his rifle, Gurrah threw his throwing knife, the hilt slammed onto the deck a few feet from the dwarf and then bounced up impaling him right inbetween the eyes, The dwarf pulled the trigger as he was impaled shattering Gurrah's bottle of booze.

Gurrah noticed the broken bottle of booze, stared at it with a look of despair which was quickly replaced with drunke fury, two merc's stoppd mid run noticing the expression change on the assasins face and looked at eachother with an "Oh Shit" expression as Gurrah said through Gritted Teeth his voice rising into a furious shout at the end of the sentence.

"You.... Ruined.... My..... DRINK!!!!" The Gambler jumped the closest of the two merc's an unfortunate Human, tackled him to the ground, and stabbed him in the heart repeatedly with the neck of the broken booze. The other merc stood their horrified as his fallen commerade let loose a blood curdling scream of agony. When Gurrrah stood up the Orc merc began to turn to run. Gurrah took the broken booze bottle and tossed it at the merc nailing him in the back of the head and forcing him to slam face first into the ground.

The orc turned over onto his back just in time to see Gurrah pounce on him with his two daggers drawn, he began repeatedly slicing into the orc's chest. Left, Right, Left, Right, the Methodical stabbing continued untill the orc ceased to struggle, when Gurrah rose his hood had fallen off his head, he was covered in blood from head to toe, and all that could be seen we're his eyes. Jet black whites, Blue eyerisis, and jet black pupil's. Under normal circumstances they would have had a unique appeal to them, but being covered in blood with blood shot twisted eyes, he looked like a demon straight out of the twisting nether.

Gurrah cackled maniacally at the situation then Looked over to Gizzi "LETS KILL THEM ALL! I'LL RIP OUT THEIR HEARTS!"

"RUN ALONG MY LITTLE RAMBLER'S, AND BE WELL, I'M GURRAH THE GAMBLER AND I'LL SEE YOU IN HELL!"

He then dashed forward to find more people to murder

[Viirchi]

It was lucky he already had one bomb out, one of the good ones too, not those cheap made pieces of troll dung back with that ogre, this one was pure rusted steel yessir.
Seero watched as Rikt used the gun on the mercenaries, something about the sound seemed to bother the mercenaries, It was like herding sheep. There was something that just seemed unsporting about blowing people to bits in a corner but the way Seero figured it, they had knives and they were getting paid to use them.
Since he was a wee tot Seero had learned one basic rule and that was to get them before they got you, so in the end he really had no problem tossing the explosive into the huddled mass of goblins and allowing it to explode just as it made contact with someone's head. The problem was it just seemed a lot messier then he was expecting, like really really messy.

Now would probably be a good time to stop pretending this was one of his action hero fantasies.

[Vakshna]

As Gurrah saw the explosive go sailing over to him into the crowed of merc's he was running towards, he abruptly stopped and began to run the other way. Now being snapped out of his blood lust by the realization of "Oh shit that's a bomb!". He got far enough away to avoid the explosion, but not far enough to avoid getting knocked to the ground face first from the blast as well as be covered by a plethora of blood, guts, and other mutilated body parts.

Gurrah slowly stood up, and pulled out a rag to wipe his face clean but only smearing the blood making it look like he was wearing war paint. He grinned at Seero, with his peircing eyes and said "Nice show mate, that was fun!"

[Imara]

Around the leg of a troll that seemed determined to spear her with a rather nasty looking pike, Gizzi saw Gurrah run off toward the corner. She growled and brought her sword up to block as she shook her head at the gambler's recklessness. She didn't have long to think about that, however, as she looked for a way around the troll's weapon. Finally getting an opening, she brought her sword around into the troll's midsection and he collapsed. Gizzi wasted no time in finishing him off.

This left one remaining adversary, a gnome, that, having seen the entire rest of his entourage destroyed, was now waving his hands, dropping his weapons and clearly begging to be spared. Gizzi lowered her sword, the tip resting on the floor and turned to Rikt. She shrugged, awaiting his orders. "Your call, Blastercharge."

[Chikt]

Chikt was entirely focussed on getting the vault open. With a wrench in one hand and a screwdriver in the other, he went about working out just how the locking mechanism worked on the door. Blowing a hole in it wasn't enough - the door had fail-safes for that kind of thing. If he set off explosives on the door now, he'd be liable to simply punch a hole through it that would be too dangerous to get through. He had to disable the fail-safes first, then set off the explosive - that would allow them to get the door open.

It was moments like these that Chikt realized that he wasn't intelligent, however - he simply had an affinity for understanding how things worked. He could crack open a complex device and - with enough time to study it - could replicate it himself after a time. But in this situation, time wasn't something they had.

The powered security system connects into the first tier of peg locks... so triggering the powered security system unlocks those. I'll need to blow it in order to get through. The door crank should be easy enough to manipulate from here. But then what controls the third tier of peg locks... Chikt thought to himself as he shifted the wrench and screwdriver around inside the hole he'd carved in the door. He moved carefully - just in case there was still power running through the door somehow. The last thing he wanted was to electrocute himself.

Tracing out a path of cogs, Chikt narrowed his eyes and jammed the head of the screwdriver in between two of them and twisted. After a moment, the Cog shifted, and there was a satisfying "thud" as a set of pins retracted. Chikt smirked to himself, one down, two to go.

Pushing aside a mess of wires that didn't seem to serve any logical purpose, that's when Chikt noticed it - the most symplistic security device hidden away that he could have imagined.

Drawing his tools out of the hole, Chikt kneeled down and flipped open a hidden compartment lower on the door. Beyond it - a simple key hole. Putting away his wrench, Chikt pressed the screwdriver into the keyhole and wriggled it around a little. "Thud". Another set of pins retracted. Goblin security, Chikt grinned.

Getting back to his feet, Chikt stashed away his screwdriver and went through his satchels. Pulling out a few small, round balls of putty. He looked back to Zilek and nodded once. "You might want to back up..."

Pressing the putty into the hole he'd carved - Chikt didn't spread the putty out so much as he stacked it all up in single areas. Key components for the electrical system - and hopefully the detonations would be enough to open the door. With all the putty used, Chikt went through his satchels one final time to pull out a small remote along with a receiver. Sticking the receiver into the putty, Chikt dashed back and ducked around one of the large pillars. Looking to Zilek and Lirindi hiding behind another, Chikt nodded to them before saying simply, "Cover your ears."

Looking to the remote, Chikt hovered his finger over the large red button. "Open sesame..." he said as he bought his finger down on it.

The explosion was far larger than he was expecting.

As the highly explosive putty detonated, so did the goblin rocket fuel fumes that lingered in the air from one of the ships ruptured fuel tanks. In an instant, flame had followed the fumes back to their source - and one of the fuel tanks nestled on the side of the ship exploded catastrophically. In all of two seconds, a hole the size of a hobgoblin had been blown out the side of the ship.

Chikt was almost thrown off his feet by the rush of water that came into their deck of the ship. Knowing that he'd just started a countdown timer on how long they had left on the boat, he pulled himself around the pillar to face the vault door.

It was gone.

Well, not GONE gone, but launched back into the vault iself - crumpled against the far reinforced wall, crushing untold riches in its path. Chikt had underestimated just how potent the rocket fumes on the air were - they'd been enough to tear the door off its hinges. Gawking at the sight only for a moment, he turned to Zilek and yelled over the din of the rushing water "Wait here and cover my back! I'll just be a moment!"

Wading through the now chest-high water, Chikt entered the vault. Through the water he could see piles of gold, antiques, devices - if Rikt were down here, he knew his brother would try to make off with some of it. Amongst all the gold, however - the small black box wasn't difficult to make out.

Snatching it up, Chikt turned and began heading back out of the vault, yelling to Zilek once more, "I got what we're after! Lets get out of here and meet up with your crew!"

[Smiles Macblaster]

Smiles took cover and braced for the impact. He felt the boat lurch under the weight of the explosion and judging from the distict creaking in the hull that followed, Smiles was certain that time was short.

Now was the time to act.

After checking his harness, Smiles dived over the edge of the hole in the deck overlooking the pillared vault chamber below and zoomed down the zip-line. Smiles eased on the hand-brake mechanism and slowed his desent as he neared the flooded floor, preventing a splashdown.
He disconnected the catch on his harness and the Goblin immediately cursed the water. He quickly drew a pair of flintlock pistols that he had holstered on his shoulder bandoliers before they were sumerged completely. He made a concious effort to keep the pistols above the waterline, gunpowder wasn't of any use wet.

He would have two shots before being forced to close the distance between him and his prey.

Plenty.

Smiles positioned himself with his back to a pillar, and after a single breath spun from cover and fired a shot at the Goblin exiting the Vault. Just before he reached the pillar across the chamber he simultaneously fired another shot in the direction of the Goblin's comrade, and then immediately took cover again. He hadn't been certain of whether or not his shots at hit their targets so he tossed away his emptied pistols and thumbed a switch on his belt.

Light and electricity shimmered around Smiles as the Gnomish Cloaking Device slowly took affect. Soon, Smiles was completely shielded from view. The Goblin cracked his neck as he drew a pair of custom-forged combat knives from their sheaths on the small of his back. Then, broke cover again, a distorted blur and slight wake in the shadowed floodwater as he made for the nearest Goblin.

Smiles licked his lips beneath his gas mask and struck from behind at his target, uncaring of the presence of what he suspected was the Goblin's daughter or kinfolk.

Maybe she'd like to watch as he gutted him?

[Vakshna]

Gurrah was thrown off his feet and fell on his bruised ribs as the explosion from somewhere below shook the ship, he groaned in pain as he landed roughly onto the wooden planks. He forcefully rose to his feet and looked at the others.

He spoke with a slight grunt of pain from the ribs. "Looks like Chikt found the vault. With an explosion like that someone is bound to notice. Quite frankly, I doubt they would leave it completely ungaurded. And for all I know both Razo, and Smiles are still on this boat somewhere. My bet is Razo's with the trade prince seeing as he is my replacement. As for Smiles, he could have left, or he's still on this ship. And if he's still on this ship, seeing as we have yet to run into the jolly fellow again, I'd assume he's planning on paying your bro a visit. After all, why not go for easy prey when available? If he's still here, either us or your brother and his pal are in deep shit."

Gurrah takes in a deep rattling breath before he speaks again. "Look we could either stick with what we are doing, or I could go below deck via the hole in the floor in the other room and see if your brother and the other goblin could use a spare hand, your call cheif." He looks to Rikt awaiting an answer.

[Viirchi]

Seero stared blankly at Gurrah. Sure, he was all for lending a helping hand, out of convenience and all it sure paved the way for a favor now and then, but it seemed to him the Gambler was being a little to noble in sticking his neck out. Someone could get killed.

More then that, he really didn't like being volunteered for potential suicide by strangers, that was the right of family alone and the one thing family had always taught him was not to go sticking your neck out where there wasn't a decent chance of survival...or profit.

"Well actually, I'm all up for doing what we came for, getting the job done and all that."

[Vakshna]

Gurrah rolls his eyes at Seero *Some people never grow balls* he thought to himself.

"Look, I don't care about the riches on this blasted ship, that prince betrayed me, I'm here for vengance, simple as that. But quite frankly I could care less what happens to me, but I'm here as muscle to help keep you guys alive. If someone dies because they we're outnumbered I'd take that guilt upon myself as a failure. My vengance will be sated, whether it's by my hand or not is less important then whether I succeed in my duties. There's two of them, and four of us, all I suggest is you let me go back to even the teams out. I will obey Rikt, as he is the one who recruited me. But I don't think you three would have much trouble without me, I mean, you got an explosives expert, a helluva good marksman, and well..."

Gurrah points to Gizzi. "A woman whom after seeing what she can do with a blade I would never want to piss off..." Gurrah sighs to himself.

He then looks Rikt dead in the eye "Look, we need to make a decision now..."

[Imara]

When the explosion rocked the ship, the gnome took the opportunity to flee; skidding across the floor and out the window into the sea. Gizzi, bracing herself against a table as the ship swayed, watched him go and shrugged. Turning to the rest of them, she listened to Gurrah.

Balancing the teams didn't seem like a bad idea, though she wasn't sure what they were going to encounter in the Trade Prince's personal quarters and she figured Chikt had to have had a reason for thinking Rikt was going to need the extra help. Judging by the way the ship was now listing, they didn't have much time left to finish their respective duties and get the hell off the boat. Unless, of course, they wanted to partake of a watery death.

"A woman whom after seeing what she can do with a blade I would never want to piss off..."

Gizzi smirked and waited for Rikt's decision.

[Rikt]

Rikt stumbled as the explosion’s shockwave hit him. Quickly regaining his former posture, he listened to Gurrah. “Well… it doesn’t really matter what I think, mainly because of that…”

Rikt pointed toward the upper staircase as four silhouettes descended. Three of the silhouettes were clearly goblin while the other looked more or less like a hobgoblin with glowing eyes, except it was metallic. Rikt soon realized it was Steam Armor, and he squinted his eyes in a attempt to make out the details.

Its head was reminiscent of a goblin, except its eyes shined with a blinding green light. The steam armor had a multi barreled rocket launcher mounted on each shoulder and its entire frame was protected by an incredibly thick and durable metal, most likely steel or thorium. Its left arm had a gatling gun in place of a hand and the right had a hand with vicious scythe shaped claws in place of fingers.

Rikt then proceeded to study the other goblins that were accompanying him. One of them had numerous amounts of grenades strapped to him and a hard hat, most likely a demolitions expert. The next goblin was in heavy plate armor, pitch black, and had a giant broadsword sheathed in his scabbard. The last goblin was roguish in appearance, with multiple knives sheathed and a cocky grin on his face; Rikt recognized him as Razo.

“Boulderfist! Get up here!” Rikt commanded and soon the hobgoblin ran to his master upstairs. Rikt ordered him to kneel so that he can reach the perch. Rising up once more, Rikt loaded his rifle as he stared at the other four goblins.

“So I’m guessing you’re the Trade Prince, huh?” Rikt asked as he loked toward the steam armor.

A mechanical voice from the steam amor replied “You guessed right, Mr. Blastercharge! We are going to get off this ship, but the rest of you are not!”

Rikt smirked as he addressed his teammates “Looks like we each got one. If you kill your target, assist the guy in the most trouble.”

The Trade Prince didn’t waste any more time to engage his opposition as he ordered his personal guard to charge. Razo unsheathed a knife with each hand and leapt at Gurrah. The armored goblin unsheathed his broadsword and tipped it downwards as he barreled toward Gizzi. The demolition goblin cackled as he leapt in front of Seero and threw smoke grenades between them and their teams to ensure they were cut off. The Trade Prince lowered the gatling gun as it started to spin, pointing it in Rikt’s direction.

“HOLD STILL!” The mechanical voice roared. Rikt immediately took action as he ordered his hobgoblin to charge the Trade Prince. The hobgoblin shoulder checked the steam armor, causing it to lose balance momentarily as it fired it’s gun into the ceiling. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Rikt ordered the hobgoblin to restrain his arms. Boulderfist’s hands shot out to grab a hold of the steam armor’s arms at the wrist, keeping both the gun and the claws a safe distance away from them.

“Did you really expect me to stand still?” Rikt yelled as he attempted to formulate a plan to break open the steam armor’s cockpit to get at the prince.

“NO MR. BLASTERCHARGE, I EXPECT YOU TO DIE!”

[Vakshna]

Gurrah growled as Razo leapt towards him, daggers drawn. Gurrah side stepped to the left and brought a knee into the goblin's gut as he passed. Razo fell to his knees from the blow then quickly bit back his pain and rolled forward to avoid a slash to the back of the neck from Gurrah.

"Damnit Razo, you never learn do you? You may be the princey's new pet. But your still second best compared to me!"

Razo replied by sending two throwing knives at Gurrah whom narrowly dodged the first one, and the other one pinned him in his spot by the cloak, Gurrah managed to rip himself free but not before Razo ran up and solarplexed him. Gurrah collapsed to the ground face first, out of breath and his whole body roared with pain from the close proximity of the blow to his broken ribs.

Razo looked down upon Gurrah "Heh. Seems like those injuries are finally catching up to you eh? You probably wondered how your zepplin got spotted? Magical tracking runes. It's great to have arcane inclined sabatouers on your pay roll isn't it?" Razo laughed to himself in his annoying high pitched nasally voice.

"Traitors are a dime a dozen in Kezan so long as you can afford them" Razo kneeled down and leaned close to Gurrah and whispered into his ear.

"Any last words Gambler?" Razo asked his words soaked in malicious venom.

Gurrah laughed to himself coughing up blood as he did so. He laid there laughing and grinning at Razo's words. "Ironic" was all Gurrah could think of to say.

Razo cackled at the situation. "Ironic doesn't even begin to describe this!" Razo glared at him menacingly with his remaining eye. He rolled Gurrah onto his back and sat on his chest, grabbing his throat with his right hand and raising a dagger with his left, bringing it ever so slowly to Gurrah's eye. Gurrah began to laugh hysterically. Razo tightend his grip on Gurrah's throat enraged.

"What's so funny! Your about to die and your laughing?!? At least be scared and die normally like the rest of us!" Razo blared at Gurrah.

Gurrah grinned wickedly at Razo and said. "Traitors... The ultimate cowards..." He then grabbed the dagger hand with his left and decked Razo in the face with his right, temporarily causing him to loosen his grip on Gurrah's throat. Gurrah took this oppurtunity to force razo off of him rolling him to the left side and onto his back. Gurrah then folded Razo's dagger hand up to his own throat and pinned it their with his elbow. Gurrah put a knee on Razo's free arm keeping him from moving and place the other knee on his chest. He then calmly reached into his satchel with his free hand, and procured a Vial of bubbling green liquid. He removed the cork with his teeth and the liquid hissed and steamed.

Gurrah grinned wickedly at Razo as he held the vial of acid above his face. "I spared you once, and left you with but a warning and a reminder. Seems like my reminder didn't work too well. Here's a little present to remember me by you son of a bitch."

"NO! FUCK YOU GAMBLER! FUCK YOU!" Razo screamed and squirmed in a hysterical panic as Gurrah slowly began to tip the Vial towards Razo's head. Gurrah then poured the acid onto his head starting at his forehead and tracing it down his face.

Razo screamed in agony, using all his might to break free from Gurrah, he pushed the Gambler off of him and lashed out blindly with his dagger hand, slicing deep into Gurrah's mid section, Razo then plunged the dagger into Gurrah's stomach before collapsing onto the ground writhing in pain scraping at the acid as the skin upon his face was melted off.

Gurrah's eye grew wide, gripping the dagger in his stomach, before collapsing to his knees and his head slouching over. The last thing that went through his mind we're the blood curdling screams of his dying Rival, and the question that spoke clearly in his mind "Is this the final chapter of my tale?", and then his world went dark.

[Ryoku]

Zilek would have died if he hadn't heard the irregular sloshing water, and seen the aggresive rippling coming straight towards him when he turned to look. He would have been gutted straight through the backside of his kidney, and out through his abdomen.

But the two shots before had put him on alert, his trained senses naturally readying themselves for combat. So, he did hear the sloshing water, and he did see the ripples, and fast as lightning he drew his revolver and fired into his shapeless assailant.

The shot missed due to a skillful feint by his would-be attacker, but it managed to knock him off his step enough to allow Zilek to dodge the potential strike. Quickly, he snatched up his daughter and pulled her behind a large pile of debris, and yelled to Chikt to join him behind the cover, all the while firing suppressing shots from his revolver.

Chikt agreed with the warning, and slid behind the cover with Zilek, who was reloading his gun.

Zilek turned to fire a shot down the line. His fire had caused his opponent to retreat momentarily, but he trained his gun towards his direction, and never let his sight leave the water.

"So Chikt, you have that nice big brain and gadgets out the ass." He said. "Got anything for an invisible enemy? And I mean literally, he's invisible."

[Chikt]

Chikt heard the gunshot before he saw his attacker landing in the water before him. There was no time to react, no time to dodge - he simply clenched his eyes shut tight and waited to die.

After a second of not feeling any kind of pain, he glanced down. The black metal case he was carrying was dented in the side - it had absorbed the gunshot intended for him.

Without even thinking, Chikt spun to look for Zilek, catching sight of him pulling Lirindi into cover. Before Zilek had even made the offer to join him, Chikt moved through the water and slid to a stop in cover. This wasn't a situation he was used to.

"So Chikt, you have that nice big brain and gadgets out the ass." He said. "Got anything for an invisible enemy? And I mean literally, he's invisible."

Looking at Zilek dumbfounded a moment, it only took a moment for Chikt's mind to start processing. Going through a number of ideas. Coloring the water? Moving too fast for that. Some sort of powder? Not enough, and too much space to be sure; he could come at them from any angle... Any angle!

Chikt yelled over the din of the rushing water, "We have to limit the directions he can come from!" But before Zilek could react, Chikt had already spun into action. Now wasn't the time to think about how stupid what he was doing was - and so he pulled a grenade from his belt, briefly leaned around the pillar, and tossed it.

The grenade went wide, clattering against one of the pillars before disappearing beneath the surface of the water with a "plop". Moments later, it explodes spectacularly - water sprayed up into the air as the pillar buckled before collapsing and bringing down the upper floor it was supporting with it. Tables, chairs and all number of plates, eating utensils and food rolled down from the dining area into the water. Once the dust settled, it was obvious what Chikt had done - half the room was now blocked by the the rubble of the collapsed floor, and the water had all number of items floating upon it.

"Now you have less space to worry about him coming from!" Chikt yelled, turning back to Zilek. He reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a device - a small set of speakers with a switch. The thing Gizzi had given him in the situation that somebody got too close to comfort. He tossed it to Zilek and yelled again, "You can put this to better use than me!"

[Smiles Macblaster]

Smiles spun sideways away from the point-blank gunfire and dove under the water. Having surveyed the schematics of the entire ship he had perfect orientation of where he was going, and after a short swim he came up slowly behind a pillar to the side and slightly behind his target's hiding place.

His cloaking field shimmered as he swung a length of rope that he had tied on one end to his belt around the pillar and gripped the end as it came around. He placed the sides of his boots on either side of the pillar, and by tightening and loosening his grip on the rope as well as clenching his knees and feet appropriately, he quickly shimmied up the pillar to where it met the chamber's ceiling. From here Smiles let go of the rope and leapt for a series of pipes along the ceiling, he grabbed on and crawled upside-down ever so slowly above his targets below as they continued to fire wildly at where he had been minutes ago.

It was then that Smiles decided to drop a couple grenades amongst his huddled prey, and then quickly scurried back the way he came like a rat.

[Smiles Macblaster]

You Magnifficent Bastard.

Smiles dropped from the ceiling as it began to buckle and come down. He landed back in the water with a splash, before the ceiling could crush him, Smiles instinctively flicked another switch by his belt and he was instantly thrust from the water and polvolted in his Targets' direction.

If all else Fails, use your jetpack.

As he barreled towards his Prey, Smiles cranked up the volume on his mask's audio output to max.

And once again, he laughed. The world coming down around him.

[Ryoku]

Zilek saw the splash, the sudden stream of fire heading right towards him, the menacing laugh sending chills down his spine. The laugh, however, turned out to be a folly for his opponent, for it betrayed his race. Zilek knew he was a goblin, and knowing goblin physiology, he knew exactly where the goblin's chest was amidst the jetpack.

I'm only gonna have one shot at this he thought as he primed his revolver.

I gotta make it count.

The shot echoed through the chaos, and ended with a splicing electronic sound as the bullet embedded itself into the Goblin's cloaking device.

Zilek didn't notice however. He knew it was a hit, but also knowing that it definitely wasn't a kill, he had no time to survey the damage, instead grabbing his daughter and hoisting her up onto some rubble, encouraging her to grab on. "Come on, Indi my girl, we gotta get to higher ground." he said, pushing her up as he climbed.

When the three of them got to higher ground, they holed up in a covering position, and Zilek handed his gun to his daughter.

"Me and Uncle Chikt gotta do some strategic planning, my girl. But I need you to hold the line. I don't care who it is, but if someone comes down that line I want you to shoot them UNLESS they're with your Uncle Rikt. You got it?"

The girl took the gun with great excitement, and pointed it at the entrance. "What if they have Uncle Rikt in cuffs, Dad?"

"Oh, well in that case you should shoot them. I think Uncle Rikt would appreciate that very much." he said, patting her on the head.

Moving away from his daughter, Zilek took Chikt under his arm, and huddled closely. "Chikt, we need to talk."

"Don't you think we should do this when our lives aren't in the hands of a twelve year old?" Chikt said, hurriedly.

"There won't be any time for that." Zilek admitted. "Besides, we're in good hands." he said, looking towards his daughter, who had just fired a round into a wayward crewman's chest "Atta Girl, Indie!" he shouted encouragingly before turning back to Chikt.

"I'm gonna be straight with you Chikt, I'm not going to live through this." he said, his face straight as a board. "With this wound, if I were to make it out I'd be limited in what I could do, hell after some good old Goblin medicine, I'd probably never even get to sail with my Cartel again, and I just can't live like that."

Chikt swallowed a lump in his throat at the words. He knew it was true the whole time, but he didn't want to admit it, not even to himself.

"But you listen to me, Chikt." he said, grasping Chikt's shoulders. "I need you to take Lirindi off this ship, and I need you to make sure she keeps that gun. It's an heirloom that's been in my family since my grandfather, and I need you to take this." He passed Chikt a small wooden tube.

"This is my signed consent that Princeship of the Clearwater Cartel goes to Sten Silversteam. It's incredibly important to the survival of my Cartel, do you understand?"

Chikt took it, but shook his head, arguably, a tear forcing it's way out of his eye. "Shouldn't you at least tell her you won't see her again?"

Zilek sighed, and patted Chikt. "No, because if I did then she wouldn't go with you. This is how it has to be."

More tears made their way out of the creases in Chikt's eyes, and he wiped them away. "And you're just fine with all this?"

Zilek's face dropped, and he shook his head. "Fine with not being able to see my girl grow into adulthood? Not at all. But fine with losing that chance so that she -can- grow into adulthood? You can bet your ass on that."

Although he nodded in agreement, Chikt had one final retort: "But what about your gun? Won't you need that?"

At that, Zilek opened his jacket, revealing two plain flintlock pistols holstered in his pants. "I always bring a few spares, my boy." he grinned, releasing Chikt. He walked up to his daughter, and called to her.

"Lirindi, your Uncle and I have decided that we need to split up, so I'm going to need you to go with Uncle Chikt, and make your way to the deck of the ship as fast as you can, okay?"

The little girl turned, and cocked her head, perplexed. "But what about you?"

Zilek laughed, waving his hand in dismissal. "Don't worry about me. I'm just gonna send these guys after us on a little goose chase. I'll be fine."

The little girl smiled at what she thought was a mischievous game, and looked down at the gun in her hands. "Aren't you going to need your gun, Dad?"

"Oh no, no, no." Zilek said, again waving his hand. "Your Dad has plenty of guns, and I might get a lot of them to come after me, but some of them will still come for you, and since your uncle here is a bit.. Crippled.. I'd feel so much better knowing you have the best gun I got. But I need you to keep it close to you at all times, and keep it safe. It -was- your grandfathers you know."

She nodded, and hugged her Dad. "Okay Dad, I'll keep it safe."

Zilek returned the hug, and made sure it was the biggest, most love-filled hug he'd ever given his daughter. "That's my girl. Now you two need to get going, I'll see you when I see you!" he said, patting her on her way. The girl grabbed Chikt's hand, and urged him to go on their way, and Chikt followed, turning back to look at Zilek.

"You take care of her, Chikt! Make sure she stays on the straight path, and ends up on the bright side!" he said, the innuendo resounding deep in Chikt's ears.

Once they were out of sight, Zilek lost his smile, and turned towards the hole they had emerged from, drawing his sword and a flintlock. "I know you're still alive. Make your move, motherfucker."

[Chikt]

Pulled out of sight of Zilek by Lirindi, Chikt decided to take the lead now. Jogging down the hallways at a pace that Lirindi could keep up with easily. He was running away from it - the fight, the fact that Zilek was going to die and that, in the long run, it was his fault.

In the back of his mind he was hopeful. That Zilek would make it through, that he was underestimating his ability to survive and make it through that fight and back home. But the logic part of his mind - that is to say, most of it - knew otherwise. The chances of him winning a fight with a kitted out psychopath were low. And even if he had - his injuries may very well see him go to a watery grave with the quickly sinking ship.

They rounded a corner and Chikt found himself facing the backs of a group of the trade princes mercenaries - two Goblins and a Human. Holding out a hand quickly to signal for Lirindi to stop, he felt all that sadness suddenly well up into anger. Pulling a grenade from his belt, he tossed it into the feet of the group. The two goblins seemed to recognize the sound of the grenade bouncing off the ground - turned and very quickly dived out of the way. The human, however, was not so lucky as he disappeared in a cloud of fire and smoke.

Chikt stormed forward, his eyes ablaze with anger. One of the Goblins lunged at him from cover and - without thinking and aided by both adrenaline and the Skeleton suit he was wearing under his leathers - Chikt spun left, out of the way of the other Goblin, and bought his wrench down at the same time, smashing it down into the top of the Goblins head. Mid-lunge, the goblin toppled to the floor unconscious.

"Uncle Chikt!"

Glancing to Lirindi and seeing she was pointing her fathers gun in his direction, Chikt spun again, swiveling on a heel and bringing his wrench around in a wide arc. The other goblin had drawn his sword and moved up behind Chikt to strike him down, but before he could act he was struck in the face by the oversized wrench with a sickening "crack", his jaw breaking and the force of the blow sending him sprawling to the floor.

"That's what you get, dummy." Chikt said, looking to Lirindi before cocking his head in the direction of the exit, motioning for her to follow. She rushed to catch up to her uncle, and Chikt continued walking with her.

"I didn't know you could fight like that, uncle Chikt!" Lirindi remarked, and Chikt smiled to her briefly before his mind went elsewhere.

That selfish son-of-a-bitch. You can't live without your stupid cartel and its stupid ships, so you have to kill yourself and leave your daughter fatherless? Chikt thought to himself angrily. I have to be the hero and go down with the ship to keep a psychopath from killing you all.

That's when Chikt felt the warmth of sunlight on his face once more, his eyes adjusting to the light of the deck of the ship. It took a moment to take in what he was seeing - seawater was starting to lap at the edges of the top deck. The ship was sinking fast.

Thankfully, Zilek's crew had regrouped with their wounded and had bought one of their boats alongside the Trade Prince's ship. Chikt's thoughts turned again. If I'd been stronger. Smarter. Created something better. We'd not be in this situation. Thats when he made a decision. Turning and kneeling before Lirindi, Chikt forced a smile as he spoke. "Now listen, Lirindi. I'm going to leave you here with your fathers crew. I have to go make sure my brother doesn't get himself killed."

"But Chiiikt~..." Lirindi whined, but before she could finish he'd raised a hand to stop her.

"I need you to be a good girl for me and your father and stay out of trouble, alright? I'll be back with everybody else before you know it." Chikt said reassuringly. Lirindi begrudgingly nodded in agreement.

Leading the girl to Zilek's crew, Chikt greeted them with a curt nod before the Goblin that appeared to be the Captain of this boat approached him. "Chikt... Where's the rest of your crew?"

Chikt motioned back to the main cabin. "Still in there. I need to get to them. Which is why I need you to babysit for me." he replied, nudging Lirindi towards the boat. The Captain smiled and called up one of his crewmen to pick up Lirindi and take her onto the boat.

"I need you to keep your boat ready and close by. I don't know how long this will take - so be ready to pick us up from anywhere nearby, even after the Trade Prince's ship has gone under." Chikt said, a surprising air of confidence about his words. Though even he wasn't sure if it was confident that they'd get picked up, or confident that the ship was sinking.

The Captain nodded in agreement and briefly saluted Chikt. "Understood sir. We'll stay close by."

Chikt didn't return the salute. Turning on a heel and heading in the direction of the downed zeppelin. With his good arm, he reached back into his backpack - stashing away the small metal box he'd retrieved from the vault, and tugging out his repaired invisibility cloak. Disappearing into thin air as he wrapped it around himself.

Nobody else dies.

[Smiles Macblaster]

Smiles corkscrewed through the air and torpedo'd back into the water, slamming against the bottom of the pile of debris with a resounding Crack!

Smiles chuckled within his gas mask as it slowly filled with water, apparently the lenses had been cracked by the impact and he tore the mask free from his gnarled face. After he had regained his composure, Smiles looked down to see a stream of blood pumping out of his side and mixing merrily with the rising flood waters. He licked his pointy yellow teeth.

With routine interest, the Goblin pulled a potion-injector from his belt and without so much as a wince, stabbed the needle-end of the device home into his thigh. Almost immediately the bleeding stopped and Smiles was left with an onrush of heightened awareness as the stimulants and synthisized adrenal compounds flooded through his body

Jolly-good shot. Thought the Goblin silently to himself. Apparently they had managed to disable his cloaking field as well as bleed him. I'll have to buy the man's bloated corpse a damn drink.

Smiles brought his head up finally to take a breath and peeked around quietly, seems his prey had skedaddled up into the deck above.

"Make your move, Motherfucker"

Silently, Smiles dipped back below the water and maneuvered beneath the debris field of furniture and scraps of wood until he re-surfaced once more directly below where he had heard the voice resonate from. Smiles promptly braced himself, cracking his neck for good measure, and once again hit the ignition on his jetpack.

As you wish.

Smiles blasted from the water like a bullet and blasted through the weakened wood of the deck above and came up directly behind his unsuspecting prey. Smiles promptly cut the power to his jet pack as the timbers spintered and flew in all directions, his target stumbling forward as the floorboards of the deck on which he stood buckled beneath him.

In his adrenaline-fueled state, the world seemed to move in slow motion. And as the other Goblin finally turned around to face him, Smiles, still mid-air, brought his head forward with blinding speed and head-butted the Goblin squarely between the eyes.

The other Goblin went flying back into the massive hole in the deck and tumbled down the pile of debris, landing back into the flooded chamber below with a splash.

As time and reality returned, Smiles channeled his forward momentum into a forward summersault, rolling down the debris mound after his target and righting himself a few paces behind him with a splash.

Smiles licked his needle-like yellow teeth as blood ran down from his forehead. He casually waded through the chest-high water after his prey, and unsheathed one of his combat knives as his target finally stood from the floodwaters. He scraped the blade along his scalp, shaving away residual hairs that he had missed on his already cleanly-shaved scalp.

It was at this point that Smiles took the opportunity to speak to his opponent for the first time, the last time.

"Cheereo"

And then he struck, bringing a knee up towards his opponents gut, remembering his training and automatically chaining his blows into a rhythm.

Upwards Knee at gut. Daze him.

Sideways Elbow to temple. Disable his coordination.

Downwards knife strike, one handed grip, off-hand at pommel, press in weight. Aim for heart; arteries, soft bits.

Kill Him.

[Ryoku]

The goblin's brutally calculated attack would have killed Zilek if he was in a normal mindset. The typical Zilek would have mechanically attempted to dodge the attack, which with Smiles' practice, and the fact that he was standing in water nearly up to his waist, wasn't going to happen.

However, with a new sudden revelation that no matter what, he was going to die, Zilek's combat style changed dramatically. Throwing his cautious defensive style to the wind, Zilek embranced more barbaric means, and when the Other goblin came at him he used all his weight and superior reach to punch the goblin straight in the face with all his might.

The attack not only caught Smiles off guard, but caused his own attack to strike Zilek in the hip, which while it still hurt like a bitch, didn't have the dazing effect that Smiles was looking for, while Zilek's attack served it's intended purpose and more as Smiles crashed into the water in a daze.

Taking advantage of his opponents position, Zilek made his way to another pile of fallen debris, and quickly scaled it to reach the crumbling deck above him. While cowardly, Zilek knew that he wouldn't last 6 seconds against a knife-wielding combatant in such close quarters.

And Chikt was going to need a lot more than 6 seconds before this monster came after him.

He looked down on his opponent, who had already gotten to his feet, and smirked.

"Cheereo" he taunted, as he dissapeared down the hall, laughing as he went.

[Vakshna]

((I fucking love watching/reading smiles and zilek's scripts, clash of the fucking titans XD))

[Smiles Macblaster]

Smiles stood from the floodwater and turned slowly as his opponent fled back up the mound of debris. He hocked and spat a wad of blood.

"Cheereo" taunted the soon-to-be drawn and quartered Goblin as he went.

Smiles threw his head back and laughed an ugly laugh. Pus and spittle flying from his lipless and cheekless maw. The bastard had hit him again, he liked him instantly. What was a bit of blood between friends?

Then suddenly Smiles' stopped laughing and brought up a free-hand, placing a thumb and index finger on either side of his nose and snapping the broken cartilege and bone crudely back into place with a resounding pop.

Smiles turned towards the vault. He would have to make this quick.

The Goblin dived and swam into the now completely flooded and furniture filled Vault and eyed the numerous Safes; strong-boxes and Chests piled atop one another. Quickly, Smiles identified a small wooden box, seemingly out of place with the untold riches around it. There was a small lock on the box, Smiles grabbed for something, and picked up a heavy Gold bar, worth a fortune in itself.

The Goblin promptly smashed off the lock and casually tossed the bar away, opening the box and picking out a single unassuming item. An old, tarnished Silver pocket-watch. The Goblin pocketed the item and quickly left the vault without a moment's pause.

He had a prior arrangement to attend to.

After vaulting up the debris mound, Smiles spotted his target far off down a long corridor, his limp was signifficantly worsened and was obviously burdening his every step. Smiles, on the other hand, had the advantage of bypassing such minor inconviences such as the wound in his side. He had a jetpack.

Such a delightful little toy.

Smiles thumbed the ignition on his belt and blasted off down the corridor after his target. Mid-flight and nearing the fleeing Goblin, Smiles loaded a small missle into his wrist-gauntlet, and fired it at his target. The missle screamed passed the Goblin and exploded a hole in the floorboards in front of him and caused his opponent to skid to a halt.

Smiles cut the power on his jetpack and skidded to a halt himself some ten paces behind his target, the floorboards creaking under his feet at the strain. This time, Smiles didn't allow his opponent a respite.

The mutilated Goblin brought up his other arm and with his free hand pressed a push-switch on his other wrist-gauntlet. A small Dragon-Headed nozzel attached to the gauntlet and linked to a hose that ran up and around his arm to his jetpack's fuel-supply promptly hissed before a massive cone of flame roared from the nozzle and reached out hellishly for Smiles' opponent, seeking to roast him alive.

[Ryoku]

The fire engulfed Zilek, but his heavy jacket took the brunt of the blow, quickly he tossed it off, and threw it at Smiles, causing the Goblin to lose his momentum for a moment.

Zilek couldn't keep playing this game forever. He was buying time for Chikt, but time wasn't something he had much left of. His wound had reopened from the action, and he started to feel dizzy as his life started pouring out of him.

Alas, he came to what he thought was the stairs leading to the upper deck where his keen-eyed men would gun down his assassin, but sadly due to a series of explosions within the ship's hull, the aforementioned stairs no longer existed, instead being replaced by a gaping hole leading to the open sea.

He could jump, but it would do no good. He had lost so much blood that he would die a bloated corpse in the water, and that motherfucker would just kill someone else.

He turned to see his adversary barreling down the long hallway, knives ready to strike, and for the first time noticed his jetpack was entirely exposed to Zilek's vision, and his gun-hand. It was an assured way to keep the bastard away from Chikt, for good.

Well. I always wanted my ashes to be spread out in open sea when I died. he said, pulling a flintlock from his belt, drawing it to fire. I guess this way I'll just be saving everyone the hassle of doing it for me.

He stood there, heroicly, waiting for just the right moment when the Goblin would be at the perfect distance for the shot. He couldn't afford to miss. Smiles seemed unaware of his plan, and continued his pursuit, barreling towards Zilek knives in hand. As soon as he reached a good distance, he suddenly held back and skidded, as if he knew where Zilek had planned to put the bullet but it was all too late as he uttered his final words.

"Say goodnight." and the last thing he felt was his finger clench down on the trigger.

The resulting explosion echoed across the ship, as Zilek's entirety evaporated in an instant. As the noise died, all that remained was two flintlock pistols, a blackened saber, and a cloud of ash illuminated by the near-setting sun as it trailed off towards the open sea.

[Smiles Macblaster]

Smiles tasted his victory, if he had any feeling or emotion, he felt that it would have tasted delicious.

The Goblin roared down the corridor, in the distance a large section of the hull had been blasted away, leaving the tattered remnants of the corridor nothing less than a sheer cliff staring over the ocean.

His prey had stopped and turned to face him, obviously at peace with his demise.

Well that's bloody rude of him. I was nearly enjoying myself.

Suddenly as his jetpack thrust him ever closer to his doomed prey, Smiles realised that the Goblin had a pistol drawn and aimed dead-steady on him.

No matter, I can survive a shot or three...Err, wait...

It was at this moment that Smiles realised where his opponent was aiming.

Touche...

Smiles cut the power on his jetpack and skidded across the wave-washed wooden deck, and as a last-ditch effort, punched the release button on his jetpack's harness.

"Say Goodnight" were his Opponent's last words as he pulled the trigger.

Smiles' remaining momentum thrust him ever-forward as his jetpack exploded behind him, but he wasn't quite far enough away to escape the inferno.

The Goblin was engulfed in flames as he was sent flying over the sea. The sound of his own maddened laughter carrying for miles before he slammed headlong into the abyss.

I shall buy you that drink in hell it seems, my friend.

And Blackness consumed him.

[Chikt]

In the ruins of the downed Zeppelin, Chikt had gathered up all of Gizzi's tools and what appeared to be explosives left over by one of the other passengers on the Zeppelin, along with his own supplies. With the ship tilted into its side, the workbench he'd installed was now stuck to the ceiling. So he had to improvise - carrying all the tools and ordnance he could find to one of the outdoor tables on the top deck of the Ship.

There was no way Chikt was going to be any help with a broken arm and very little combat experience. But what he did know - was engineering. Wielding his screwdriver with his good hand, Chikt disassembled every object on the table before him. By the time he was finished, the table was covered in an assortment of parts. Chikt took a moment to take in the sight, dedicating each part to memory as he began to formulate a makeshift weapon in his head.

He heard the explosion before he felt it.

Glancing in the direction of the back of the ship - towards the Vault - Chikt knew right away, that was Zilek. Whatever he'd done, he'd either killed the guy causing them so many problems, or been killed. He wasn't about to risk sticking around to find out which.

Like a blur, Chikt began assembling parts from safety beneath his invisibility cloak. Each of Gizzi's experimental weapons was sound operated in most cases - which meant plenty of copper wire and magnets. Chikt constructed a relatively small device - about the size of his fist. It was packed with magnets and had copper wiring trailing out the back of it, something akin to a muzzle in the front, along with something like an open funnel at the top that led down to the magnets within. Removing his right glove and placing it down on the bench, Chikt turned over his gloveless hand. On the underside of his arm was one of the metal rods that made up his experimental Skeleton suit that increased his motion and strength capabilities. But without combat experience, it didn't mean much.

Using his screwdriver, Chikt carved open the rod, exposing the wiring within. This wiring connected to a power supply near his spine that supplied the entire skeleton with rechargeable energy. Taking the device, Chikt used some wiring to tie it to the back of each of his glove. Sliding his glove back on, he took the copper wire that stuck out the back of the device and attached it to the wiring within his skeleton suit - essentially rigging it up to the Skeleton's power supply.

It was an unusual sight. With the object strapped to the back of his glove, Chikt's hand looked like it had strange mechanical growth upon it. It wasn't until he clenched his fist that he knew it would work - the magnets within the device humming to life. Upon unclenching his fist, they went silent again. Grinning a little in satisfaction, Chikt looked to the next key part he required.

The piles of ball bearings he'd retrieved from the hand grenades stashed away on the ship.

Chikt loaded up the wrist-mounted device with as much of the ball bearings as the funnel upon it could carry, and stashed the remaining stacks away in the empty satchels on his belt. The device would - in theory - accelerate the ball bearings to sonic speeds when he clenched his fists. An inaccurate but deadly weapon - it would spray shrapnel wherever he aimed.

Satisfied he'd done all he could, Chikt turned and headed in the direction of the Trade Prince's cabin with renewed purpose.

[Viirchi]

"Aw F-"

The first bomb exploded near him mid sentence and it was all Seero could really do to avoid the blast, his backpack was mostly fireproof, but a direct enough hit would kill him and probably anyone in the immediate area.

"WHO BRINGS EXPLOSIVES ONTO A SHI-WHO DEFENDS A SHIP WITH EXPLOSIVES?!"

The demo goblin took one step forward, pulling another grenade off his belt, the hard hat covered his eyes but nothing could really conceal that amussed grin plastered on his face as he rolled two more grenades, these missed purposely. The grenades exploded before Seero thought he needed to react, they punched a hole right in the floor below. He grabbed onto the ledge, taking the moment to really consider his options. His biggest idea currently was to blow up the entire ship, but he didn't think the others would like that much and there was no good method of escape before everything blew. Of course, the next plan was to make sure the explosives the goblin was carrying blew up while he was still carrying them, which was really the best option.

His next plan was not to be a sitting duck, which wasn't working so well right now as the demolitions goblin leaned over the side. "You know, you can give up kid, pretty sure you're out of your league and I promise not to kill you."

"Great news! What's the catch?"

The demo-man reached down, pulling Seero up by his jacket and setting him back on the floorboards. "Do whatever I say for about ten years. Name's Skat."

Seero took the opportunity to study the guy, noting that aside from grenades he was carrying a launcher, the thing was too awkward to carry actual bullets so he figured it was another one of his toys and made a node to watch out for it's use. Course he had some idea of the name, at least that the guy had a dual personality...which was fine except that it was unpredictable.

"Can I say no?"

"Not really."

"Right." Seero slipped off to the side, slapping Skat's head and diving into a run as the other goblin tried to pull off the explosive stuck to the hat, then finally discard it before it exploded. He raised the launcher.

"Nice one kid!" Skat raised his launcher.

[Imara]

Gizzi was unable to avoid the charge as the armored goblin barreled toward her. He planted the hilt of his sword in her stomach, knocking the wind out of her and dropping her to a knee. Gizzi shook her head, trying to suck in a breath, lifting her sword awkwardly to block the inevitable follow-up attack. She felt the weight of her opponent's blade as it slammed into her own, sending a jolt through her arms that made her teeth chatter.

"Nnnnggghh!" Gizzi grunted and shifted her weight to sweep the goblin's legs out from under him, using the awkward tilt of the floor to her advantage. He stumbled and was forced to pull away to keep from falling down. Gizzi used the opportunity to get to her feet, gripping her sword and slowly moving around the enemy. She didn't see a whole lot in the way of chinks in his armor. The suit was finely crafted and he seemed to have invested more in it than he had in his broadsword, which was an unremarkable steel blade.

Seeing no real alternative, Gizzi hefted her sword and put all of her weight behind it as she leapt toward the goblin, bringing her sword down hard into his shoulder before he had time to react. The armor buckled and he cried out as his shoulder was badly bruised by the bent plate. Spinning quickly, Gizzi slammed her blade into his stomach, the serrated edge chinking the mail holding the breastplate to the grieves. Gizzi yanked the sword across and the teeth of her blade tore apart several of the links.

Growling, Gizzi feinted away, avoiding the warrior's counter attack and bouncing from one foot to the other, surveying the damage. She was disappointed. "This is going to take forever..." She grumbled but didn't have much time to complain further as the goblin came at her and their swords met in a shower of sparks.

[Rikt]

Rikt scanned the steam armor frantically for any flaw or seam in the armor. Finally, he spotted a sealed panel on the steam armor’s lower right chest. Rikt ejected his rifle’s clip and replaced it with explosive rounds. Pointing it toward the corners of the panel, Rikt fired four shots and let the explosives do the rest of the work.

The panel blew off in moments and Rikt called out to Boulderfist. “Get your hand in there! Pull out as much wiring as you can!”

Boulderfist complied and let go of the right arm briefly to launch his hand into the opening. Getting a fistful of wiring, Boulderfist pulled it out followed by a series of sparks. Rikt checked the condition of the steam armor: it was still functioning, but the eyes were beginning to blink rapidly and its movements started to become sluggish.

“Do it again!” Once more the hobgoblin complied and reached his hand into the panel once more. But this time, the steam armor had reeled back its claw-like hand, posed to strike.

“Shit hurry!” Rikt implored the hobgoblin. Once more he pulled out even more wiring and the distinct sound of an engine dying could be heard.

“Nice job, now crack open the—“ Rikt was cut off as he heard metal cut through flesh. Looking down, he could see the steam armor had punched a hole through Boulderfist’s chest. The dying grunts of the hobgoblin rang through the room as it slumped to the ground, along with the steam armor. Rikt quickly leapt off his perch just before the hulks of metal and flesh fell to the floor.

As Rikt landed feet first onto the wood floor, he turned around to survey the damage. The hobgoblin seemed to be dead, as blood oozed out of the hole and began collecting under him. On the other hand the steam armor seemed to be completely out of commission, as no more lights or noises emanated from the metallic figure.

Reloading his rifle with ordinary ammunition, Rikt began to walk toward the steam armor. Studying it for a moment, Rikt found a cockpit hatch located where its lower abdominal area would be. Hitting it with the butt of his rifle, Rikt yelled out. “Hey get out of there! You’ve lost!”

There was only silence from the other end of the hatch; Rikt quickly pointed his rifle at the door. “Get out now, or I’m gonna blow open this lid!”

A few more moments of silence, Rikt looked down the sights of his rifle, prepared to pop the Trade Prince as soon as he showed himself. What happened next caught him completely off guard. The hatch blew open and the metallic plate flew toward Rikt at incredibly speed. The force caused Rikt to fall flat on his back as the hatch collapsed on top of him.

It took a few moments for Rikt to regain his senses and push the hatch off of him. Quickly grabbing his rifle, Rikt stood up and looked around; the cockpit was empty and the Trade Prince was nowhere in sight. Soon he heard the whirring sound of a gatling gun coming from behind the steam armor.

Bring his rifle up to shoulder level, pointed it toward the figure that was coming out from behind the steam armor. The figure was a goblin wearing a tacky gold colored suit with big round shades resting on his nose. The suit was littered with rhinestones, along with the rim of the shades and even his shoes; Rikt grimaced at the attire. The lesser of two evils was the gatling gun that he had in both hands, which he somehow dislodged from the steam armor and had it pointed right at Rikt.

Dropping his rifle and doing a tuck and roll, Rikt avoided the initial spray of bullets by moving around the fallen heap of the steam armor. The Trade Prince held his fire as he hulled his gatling gun around the steam armor to get to Rikt. Rikt took this moment to run out toward the far end of the room where Gurrah and Razo were fighting. Lifting up the screaming Razo as the acid ate away at his face, Rikt decided to end his misery with a swift death.

As the Trade Prince locked Rikt in his sights again, he let out a barrage of bullets once more. Rikt took the body of Razo and put it in the way of the oncoming onslaught. Razo’s screaming soon ceased as he took the brunt of the minigun’s fury. Rikt waited until he heard the clicking sound that accompanied a gun that ran out of ammunition before he let Razo’s torn up body slump to the floor.

Turning his head briefly to assess the unconscious Gurrah, he noticed the knife sticking out of his gut. “Hey! If anyone is free, drunk gambler guy needs some medical attention!!” Rikt called out.

Rikt brought his attention back to the Trade Prince. “Seems like you’re out of the big stuff, whatcha got now punk?” Rikt growled as he took out his tri-barreled flintlock pistol from its holster.

The Trade Prince smirked as he flipped his hair and pulled out a gold plated revolver from its holster. “I give you credit Mr. Blastercharge, you don’t die easy.”

Rikt reached with his free hand under his coat, pulling out a second tri-barreled pistol. “Don’t see that changing anytime soon, neither.” Rikt pointed the two pistols at the Trade Prince as he returned the favor with his revolver.

[Smoldergear]

((This thread is amazingly amazing!))

[Vakshna]

((Yup all thanks to mr. Chikt and Rikt Blastercharge for starting it off XD I can't wait till cata so I can bring Gurrah into the game for real, though sadly i dont think our rp adventures will be nearly as epic as the ones written here))

[Chikt]

((This thread is amazingly amazing!))


((Yup all thanks to mr. Chikt and Rikt Blastercharge for starting it off XD I can't wait till cata so I can bring Gurrah into the game for real, though sadly i dont think our rp adventures will be nearly as epic as the ones written here))

((Glad you guys like how it turned out! But I can't take credit for how successful it has been. I simply created a scenario with Hailos that was originally intended for just a small handful of friends. And this won't be the last time we do a thread like this! Once this thread is over, we'll be doing one final one, a "What our goblins did when Cataclysm hit" thread.))

Chikt moved swiftly through the ship under the cover of his invisibility cloak. The ship was a mess - signs of combat all the way through. Chikt paused a moment as he passed the corpse of an ogre - burned to death, it looked like. Strange bracers littered the room. Chikt could only assume what had happened. His hesitation in continuing forward was only brief.

That's when he heard the fighting. Gunfire, the clang of metal, the thud of an explosive. He knew he was close now. But as he rounded a corner and ascended a flight of stairs, he stopped dead in his tracks as the sound of fighting was finally fully audible, and he was face to face with the situation. Gizzi was fending off some warrior, Seero was fleeing from an explosive-wielding goblin, it looked like Gurrah was down for the count. And his brother was currently in the midst of a standoff with the Trade Prince.

Making his way through the fighting, if anything was visible it was the slight shimmer moving deftly through the room before Gurrah's body was swallowed up into thin air. Chikt dragged the goblin into cover, kneeling down and going through his belt. He had nothing on him to wake him up, but he did have a set of bandages.

Pulling off his backpack and pulling the bandages out, Chikt turned his attention to the blade sticking out of his gut. Gripping the hilt, Chikt winced as he quickly pulled the blade out and let it clatter to the floor. Grabbing a roll of bandages as the wound bled, he pressed them in against the cut with one hand as the other fumbled with the other roll. He began to wrap the bandage tight around Gurrah's midsection. It wasn't pretty, but it would stop the bleeding for a moment. He simply hoped that he didn't go and get a complete stranger killed as well as one of his best friends on this stupid mission.

Turning his attention back to the battle at hand, Chikt briefly considered what to do next. Dragging Gurrah out in this state was a risk he wasn't willing to take - he could get himself stuck in the middle of one of the many fights taking place, and he didn't want to make himself any more of a liability.

Pressing his back to the toppled table he'd taken cover behind with Gurrah, Chikt paused a moment thoughtfully. With himself and Gurrah covered by the invisibility cloak, he'd simply hoped that this wouldn't be the dumbest thing he'd do today as he yelled, "Hey! Anyone need a hand?!"

[Viirchi]

Foomp Foomp Foomp Foomp

Seero stopped dead as four circular spiked objects stuck to the floor around hum. Considering who was firing he easily guessed what they were but not if they set off when he moved or were timed. He looked up facing Skat as the other goblin grinned, turned a knob and aimed at the floor again, firing a small cylander that rolled into position near Seero's feet. Deciding to risk it Seero moved as all five explosives detonated, blowing another hole into the ship. At this rate they were going to all drown before the fight was over.

Skat cackled a little, aiming the weapon again as Seero pulled another bomb from his oversized pack. "Is that an impact model kid? How's your aim?"

"uh...decent."

"Heh."

The goblin fired another round and Seero responded by throwing the bomb, the two colliding in mid-air with the resulting explosion sending both combatants flying backward. "Nice Shot! We'll be at this all day!"

"Right! How bout we pay you off?"

"I don't take buttons and blasting caps kid."

"Half of what's in the vault?"

Skat started to laugh as he got to his feet. "On a sinking ship? Past the whole damned infantry? I'm not stupid. Think I'll stick with my modest pay on this one."

He pulled out a machete aimed his launcher at the floor, turned the knob again and fired, the force of the blast allowing him to close the distance between him and Seero in less than a second.

"That's cheating!"

Skat glanced behind him, observing the number of undetonated explosives that had somehow managed to have slipped into his former location during the fight. He cackled. "Oh I see. Slippery little runt ain't ya?" He paused. "You're Blastbolt's little spawn right?"

"Yeah."

Skat smirked. "You know your mom's a bitch."

"Yeah, kind of."

The older goblin eyed Seero, smiling. "Are you just agreeing with me because I have a sword pointed at you?"

Seero swallowed. "A little."

"You're lieing...and what are you doing with your backpack?"

"Emptying it out. I'm hoping it'll protect me."

"You can't be serious."

"I'm not the one with a detonator on my foot!"

Skat only looked slightly irritated, but the important thing was he looked, which was all the distraction Seero needed to run, tossing the final impact round in his direction as he dived into the backpack, trying to squeeze himself in as much as possible and hoping he hadn't grown too much since he was ten. Skat seemed to know what was going on by the time the last bomb landed because he tried to move, but the explosives Seero had dumped were enough to blow a good chunk out of the ship and a last minute response wasn't good enough. He thought he heard Chikt for a moment yelling something as he tucked his head down and closed the backpack but his primary concern was not getting blown up so he tuned it out, figuring it could mostly wait.
Skat and a large portion of the hull exploded. For half a second Seero felt the heat wash over him and he couldn't remember just how good the fire resistance was on the canvas as he felt chunks of meat hit the last minute shelter and a sharp stabbing pain in his hand. Right then he wished the backpack had been made of stronger material, at least enough to deflect sharp pointy objects.
Once the worst of it was over Seero began to take stock of his injuries, particularly the one that was now a continuous throb. He noticed the bit of metal right away. During the explosion and Skat being blown apart the machete had kept itself together, the superheated blade had actually pierced the backpack, gone through Seero's hand and lodged itself into the floorboards beneath.
In some way he figured he'd come out on top with this because the whole fight he'd been half expecting to blow his hand off somewhere in between anyway. The blade had missed his head by less then an inch and the good news was that the heat of the steel had cauterized the wound enough so there wasn't a risk of excessive bloodloss. Unfortunatly the machete had all but severed his right hand, which wasn't the worst of it because there was still enough skin and muscle on either side to effectively pin himself inside his own shelter.

"Crap"

He wasn't hurting too badly yet so Seero pushed the backpack up with his head to prevent further injuries and began to carefully reach outside with his left hand to feel for the hilt, slowly working the machete out of the floorboards from there. His hand kind of flapped about as he pulled the blade through, which wasn't really a good sign as it meant that while working it loose he'd severed more of the appendage. Once the blade was free Seero managed to wriggle his way out and take a look. The hand was still attached by some bits of flesh, but he had made the mistake of working it through too far to one side, so now it resembled an odd looking lid with a hinge.
He grabbed one of Skat's hands and pulled the glove off, jamming it over his own as a little of his blood began to seep into the leather. He figured that this way it wasn't noticable and he could just glue it back on the rest of the way later. A detached part of his brain started mumbling something about shock, but he filed it away as unimportant while he went to grab the convenient looking machete someone had just thrown away.

[Imara]

Gizzi and her opponent were slowly wearing each other down. The warrior's armor was in rough shape. There was blood dripping down his bracers from wounds farther up on his arms and shoulders. He was heavily favoring his right leg and there was a gaping hole in the armor just below his breastplate which he was working hard to protect.

For her part, Gizzi's nose was bleeding, one of her wrists hurt like crazy and he'd nearly sliced open the back of her left knee on one lucky pass. She was working on sheer adrenaline at this point as she parried and counterattacked. She was vaguely aware of Chikt's offer of aid but couldn't muster up anything beyond the shouts and grunts of battle.

Gizzi could tell that her opponent was getting tired. The problem was, so was she. This was a war of attrition and she knew that all she had to do was hold out longer than he did.

The warrior brought his sword up and tried to bring it down at Gizzi's neck. Gizzi raised her own blade to block but he caught her injured wrist and she screamed. Dropping her arm, Gizzi spun away and brought her elbow down against the goblin's exposed midsection. He staggered back. Gizzi could tell that his offensive had drained him and she knew that this might be her best shot at ending this.

Lowering her blade and praying that the warrior's reflexes would be too slow to recover from his failed attack, Gizzi advanced as quickly as she could. Exhaling through her teeth with a hiss, she rammed into the goblin, her serrated blade catching on the ragged edge of the torn mail at his mid-section but then penetrating further. The goblin attempted to push her away, to bring his own blade up to block her, but the momentum was on her side this time and he knew this fight was over.

Gizzi and her opponent crashed into the table behind him and landed in a heap, skidding toward the wall. For a few moments, there was no movement from either of them.

[Rikt]

Rikt fired the first shot. The Trade Prince returned fire and began moving toward cover, facing Rikt all the way there. Rikt ran a parallel line to reach cover as well, continuing to unload round after round at his moving target. The Trade Prince was finally able to reach cover behind the fallen body of Boulderfist.

Soon a voice could be heard, which Rikt recognized to be his brother's. “Hey! Anyone need a hand?!”

Rikt turned his head toward the table where the voice came from. Turning back to look at the Trade Prince, Rikt could see that he heard it as well. He left his cover to begin fiddling with the multi barreled rocket launcher on his fallen steam armor. The Trade Prince took manual control of it and began turning it to face the table.

“Bro! Get out from behind the table!” Rikt called out as he fired his pistol at the Trade Prince in an effort to deter him. The Trade Prince had leapt behind the steam armor as the bullets started whizzing by him. From there he fired the launcher, a volley of rockets flew out toward the table.

Rikt didn’t have time to see if his brother made it out as he saw the rocket launcher turn to point towards him. The multitude of rockets careened toward him and he ducked just in time for the rockets to fly over his head and blow a hole in the wall behind him.

The Trade Prince walked out of his cover to survey the damage. He frowned as he saw Rikt was still alive and pointed his revolver at him. “Just go away, your pissing me off.”

“The feeling is mutual.” Rikt pointed his pistols at the Trade Prince again and pulled both the triggers. The hammer simply clicked and there was no shot.

Dropping the guns, Rikt began reaching for his knives “Out of ammo… but I know you fired six shots so—“ Rikt was cut off as the Trade Prince fired a shot dangerously close to his head. “I reloaded.”

The Trade Prince quickly backed Rikt to the hole in the wall, where the ocean waters churned below. Looking at the opening and then back to the Trade Prince, Rikt grinned. “You don’t think you’re getting out alive do you?”

“Oh course I do, I am going through you.”

Rikt twitched as he felt for his throwing knife. He needed a moment to unsheathe it and throw it, he simply hoped an opportunity would present itself. He felt open air beneath his heels as he reached the edge.

“Any last words, Mr. Blastercharge?” The Trade Prince aimed down the sights of his gun.

“You have shitty taste in fashion.”

The Trade Prince scoffed and cocked back the hammer. “Goodbye.”

”Now.” Rikt thought as he quickly took out his throwing knife and threw it at the Trade Prince. The bullet was fired just after the knife was thrown and caught Rikt right in the chest. The force knocked him over the edge, as gravity pulled him towards the sea below.

Rikt’s knife hit its mark, however. The Trade Prince was caught in the chest by it and fell flat on his back, dropping his revolver. As he bled out, the Trade Prince looked around helplessly for aid, clear distress in his tone. “Please… someone help me… I will pay you well… if…. you save me. Don’t let me die… please.”

[Chikt]

"Hey, looks like I owe you one."

Chikt glanced to Gurrah and smiled faintly, glancing back off at the other fighters as he replied, "Don't thank me just yet. We still have to get out of here ali--"

“Bro! Get out from behind the table!”

Chikt glanced over the table from under the cloak and his eyes widened at the sight presented to him - the Trade Prince had just raised his rocket launcher in his direction. There was no time to pull himself and Gurrah from behind the table, they'd simply be hit by the blast radius of the explosion. He did the only thing he could think to, throwing the invisibility cloak away from his shoulders and raising the new wrist-mounted suppressor he'd created on the back of his right glove just as the rockets left the Trade Princes launcher.

Chikt squeezed his fist, and the wrist-mounted gun began unleashing a barrage of ball bearings. The metal and the rockets met in mid air - and before they reached the table, the rockets detonated. But they were still close enough to launch Chikt off his feet with a wave of heat. He hit the floor a few feet away with a thud.

He lay there a few moments, realizing just how fast his heart was beating and how loud his ears were ringing. He was expecting to stand up and find himself actually dead or entirely unable to move. Glancing around the room, he saw Gizzi and the Goblin warrior in a heap on the floor, Seero was gathering up his barely connected hand, and his brother--

Chikt felt himself go pale as he watched Rikt fly backwards out a hole in the wall of the ship, as if in slow motion. Chikt threw himself to his feet and sprinted about three steps before he realized the hopelessness of trying to save his brother moments after he'd fell out of the ship. Chikts focus turned to the Trade Prince, who'd fallen onto his back on the floor with Rikt's knife sunk into his chest.

“Please… someone help me… I will pay you well… if…. you save me. Don’t let me die… please.”

Chikt narrowed his eyes, leaned down and grasped the hilt of his brothers blade - and tugged it from the Trade Prince's chest. He howled out in pain as Chikt wiped the knife down and tucked it into his belt. Pressing his foot in against the Trade Prince's wound, he howled out in pain once more.

"What's in the black box?" Chikt asked simply.

"Aagh! Please! I'll do anything! Just don't kill me!" The Trade Prince yelled out.

Chikt glared down at him, pressed his foot harder into the wound in his chest as he reached back into his backpack and pulled out the black lockbox. He asked again, "Tell me what is in this box, and I won't put a bullet in your sorry ass."

The Trade Prince winced and grit his teeth, looking up at the box before he stuttered, "An a-artifact! Powerful! It contains unlimited ideas! Now please, don't kill me!"

Tucking the box back into his backpack, Chikt turned to look out the hole in the side of the ship to check for his brother in the water. The water level had risen dramatically - the whole lower deck was now flooded. It was quite likely the top deck was underwater, too. He could hear the Trade Prince crying in pain behind him. Turning back, he stepped over the Trade Prince and began wandering to Gurrah.

"W-wait...! You said--"

"I said I wouldn't kill you. I said nothing about saving you." Chikt stated coldly as he helped Gurrah to his feet. Looking to Seero, Chikt nodded in the direction of Gizzi. "Help her up. Lets go."

"You can't... you can't do this to me! I-I'm a Trade Prince! I... DESERVE BETT--"

Chikt slammed the door to the trade Prince's quarters shut with the group at his side. He left the way opposite to which the group had entered - the same door the Trade Prince and his group had came through. It was a large room adorned with all kinds of expensive looking furniture. A desk sat in the center of the room. On the opposite side of the room was a glass window that overlooked the water. Raising his right hand, Chikt unleashed a brief volley of ball bearings to smash the window apart. Helping Gurrah to the window, he looked out it. It seemed Zilek's men had saw the window smash, as their boat was pulling up alongside the sinking Trade Prince's ship to pick them up from it.

[Imara]

Gizzi pulled herself up off of the now dead warrior, his blood dripping from her armor. "Ech..." She stumbled a bit on the unsteady floor as Seero arrived to help her out of the room. She waved Seero off with one hand, her other hanging awkwardly at her side. She was pretty certain her wrist was broken. She wondered briefly how she could modify the turntables at the club to be more efficient for a one handed DJ.

Gizzi had heard the final sounds of battle and had been trying to get up when the rockets exploded, the force of the explosion shoving her back down into the wall. She surveyed the damage as she followed Seero out after Chikt and Gurrah. It took a moment for her to realize they were missing Rikt. She frowned slightly, studying Chikt's somber expression, but said nothing. Right now, the lot of them just needed to get off this boat before it buried them all in a watery grave.

(( From the Wreckage (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_4Rl8YfcWo) - Jack Wall, et al. ))

Gizzi used her good hand to drop down onto the deck of the rescue boat and then she turned to help the others aboard.

[Vakshna]

Gurrah was blown back from the explosions of rockets, slamming onto his injured stomach, and let out a pained groan. He turned his head in time to see Rikt go over the edge into the water below, and Chikt's mad dash towards him as he was swallowed by the depths.

“Please… someone help me… I will pay you well… if…. you save me. Don’t let me die… please.” The Trade Prince's pathetic cries for mercy sickend Gurrah. He listened to as much of the conversation as he could, before finally Chikt called out the orders to evacuate.

He struggled to his feet with Chikt's support, when they boarded the rescue ship, Gurrah stared out at the sinking vessel they had just come from. As the last of the vessel sank below the waves Gurrah closed his eyes and said.

"May this last act of redemption, forever wash away the demons of my past."

He bowed his head and put his hand over his heart. "Razo..... Forgive me..." Gurrah then Looked at Chikt and said.
"I'm sorry about your brother, I know you don't know me, but because of this.... I owe him everything.... With the given circumstances I beleive this shall pass onto you... But I also beleive that you have a right to know my reasons for coming, and why your brother recruited me for this mission.... Oh and there's also this" Gurrah reached into his vest pocket and pulled out the gold coins smiles had given him. "A gift from Smiles... He told me to "Buy that Glorious bastard pioleting the zepplin a drink, on me" Maybe it wasn't the best oppurtunity to mention that part, but I figured I'd speak it as it came to my mind. Everything's such a blur now... You see, while you have suffered many losses in this, so have I. I have just helped end the lives of the two closest people I've ever had to my family..."

Gurrah waited silently, allowing the information to sink in.

[Viirchi]

"Help her up. Lets go."

Seero glanced over at Chikt, dropping the machete as he looked over at Gizzi. The other goblin's voice snapped him out of his daze where his hand was really starting to hurt and he tucked it into his coat as an attempt to keep pressure on it while he walked over to the woman, trying his best to look about ten times better then he was feeling at the moment.

When Gizzi waved him off Seero attempted an indifferent shrug and began to follow the others out, keeping close to Gizzi because Chikt hat his hands full and he felt that if there was anyone still alive two injured goblins were a way better defense then one. He let out a strangled cry when he jumped down on the boat, more then willing to whine and cry like a baby once they were out of danger, but he kind of liked Rikt and he figured this was more of a somber moment where pain needed to either be sucked up or risk being smacked across the forhead.

Gurrah was yapping on about demons and all that other stuff you were supposed to say about dead people but Seero didn't really bother listening, maybe there would be a funeral later, maybe they'd have some good food.

[Rikt]

As Rikt sank beneath the waves his first instinct was to feel his chest: nothing. The bullet seemed to have been stopped by the knife sheathed close to his chest. Rikt removed the sheath and let the dented knife sink to the bottom of the sea. Looking around, he could see almost the entirety of the ship had sunk. Glancing up towards the water's surface, Rikt began paddling upwards.

Just as he was about to lose his breath, Rikt broke the surface and scanned his surroundings. The water’s surface was littered with wooden planks and the bodies of the dead. Grabbing a hold of a relatively large plank, Rikt hoisted himself on top of it and proceeded to skim the water for anything that could be used as an oar. Grabbing a significantly smaller plank, Rikt began rowing toward the nearest rescue boat.

“Hey, wait up damn you! I’m still alive! Shit!” Rikt yelled out as he rowed furiously toward the rescue boat. “ROW ROW FIGHT DA POWAH!”

One of the crew members noticed him and notified the captain. The rescue boat made a sharp turn to head toward Rikt’s direction. As the boat came up alongside his raft, Rikt, with the help of the crew, hauled himself onto the deck. Looking around, he noticed his brother and his team were still intact, although relatively beaten up.

“Give yourselves a pat on the back guys! We just rolled right through the Trade Prince and his posse…” Rikt began doing vulgar thrusting motions with his hips. “We are SO good!”

Rikt's cheery demeanor soon evaporated as he noticed something was missing, and something else was out of place. “Wait a minute… where’s Zilek? And why is our niece here?”

[Chikt]

Chikt leapt from the hole in the side of the ship and landed on Zilek's boat with a thud. The captain of the ship looked to Chikt curiously when he realized Zilek hadn't joined them yet.

Chikt simply shook his head.

The boats captain seemed to catch on and frowned, but nodded to Chikt in understanding. Turning his attention to the water, Chikt was snapped out of his stare by Gurrah explaining what had just happened to him.

"You see, while you have suffered many losses in this, so have I. I have just helped end the lives of the two closest people I've ever had to my family..."

Chikt paused before reaching back into his backpack, pulling out the black metal box he'd retrieved from the vault before glancing back at the ship as it was swallowed up by the ocean. "... We all do what we feel is right at the time, Gurrah. But I somehow doubt that Rikt Blastercharge is dea--"

“Hey, wait up damn you! I’m still alive! Shit!”

Chikt smiled faintly at the sound. At least it hadn't ended any worse than it was right now. As Rikt got on board, Chikt found a place to sit. He stared at the black box in his hands silently for a few moment before reaching into his satchel and pulling out a small amount of the explosive putty he'd used on the vault. And squashed it into the key hole on the lockbox.

“Wait a minute… where’s Zilek? And why is our niece here?”

Hearing the question but not answering right away, Chikt didn't look up as he went about attaching a fuse and detonator to the putty. "Lirindi must have smuggled herself onto the ship before we left. Zilek... he made sure we got out of there."

Chikt took a moment to stare down at the black box in his hands and the small rigged up explosive on it. He briefly considered it being a bad idea - opening pandoras box. But then thinking of Zilek dying for nothing - Chikt pulled the trigger on the detonator. The lock blew out and the lid on the lockbox flew up on its hinges. Blinking a moment, Chikt reached into the lockbox - and pulled out a green amulet on a leather string. The shape of it was hard to identify - it looked random. But moreso than that, it looked old.

That's when Chikt's communicator went off.

Reaching to his belt, he lifted the communicator and activated it. The screen on it came to life - a familiar image of the dark figure smoking a cigar in a badly lit room. His Proprietor. Chikt greeted him simply with a "Yo, whats up?"

"Ah, Chikt. I heard that my partners vessel sank off the coast of Kezan. You got what I sent you for?" The voice on the other end asked curtly, in its usual, intelligent tone.

Chikt glanced to the amulet in his hand, pausing a moment before looking back to the communicator and replying simply, "No."

There was a long, quiet pause. The figure on the other end of the communicator seemed to have stopped breathing. Chikt wondered if he'd somehow managed to kill him. It took a moment for the voice to ring out of the communicator again, "Excuse me?"

"It went down with the ship. After our Zeppelin was shot out of the sky, we ruptured a fuel tank. Which meant that when I set off my explosives, the Vault door flew inside and... well, I'm guessing your black box was crushed. I couldn't find it." Chikt explained.

"Then get back down into that ship and find it!" The Proprietor roared. The lit end of his cigar flaring as he took a deep puff of it.

"No. I don't think so. I lost a good friend on that damn boat, and I've got people here hurt and wounded. Your box is gone, sir. You'll just have to make do without it." Chikt replied. He tried to keep a straight face, but he couldn't help the smug expression that crept onto his features.

"You are making a very, VERY big mistake, Mr. Blastercharge. I know everything that goes on in this town, I can pull strings. You can either work for me, or--"

"Then I quit."

With that, Chikt tossed the communicator into the water. Raising the amulet up to look at it curiously before glancing to his brother. "Lets go home. I think I've had enough experience with sinking ships for a lifetime."

The screen that the Proprietor was watching Chikt's end of the call from was now underwater, after Chikt had tossed it. Its view was of the gradually sinking ship of the Trade Prince, bubbles gradually rising from it to the surface of the ocean. The Proprietor puffed at his cigar to calm himself before pressing a button on the arm of his chair, activating an intercom. He spoke plainly.

"Hire a salvage crew. I want every last part of that ship scoured for the artifact."

Releasing the button, the view from Chikt's communicator went dead as the device finally shorted out underwater. The Proprietor got to his feet, took a final puff on his cigar, before dropping it to the floor and extinguishing it under his shoe.

[Vakshna]

((DUH NUH NUH! What shit will we get ourselves into with chikt's proprieter? Find out next time on the next episode of "Crash and Burn!" Btw I think we should make a video with the whole ship fight scene introducing our characters in freeze frames like a movie trailer to the song "Bad Company" By five finger death punch! But that's just my opinion, and I'm too technilogically impaired to do such a thing myself, But I'll gladly do the voice acting for Gurrah, and Razo if need be XD))

Gurrah stopped mid speeched and grinned broadly as Rikt approached them.

"Rikt! Glad to see your back in one piece, when we first met I thought you might have just gotten lucky in that street brawl, but seems like your one guy I'm sure as hell glad to be on good terms with!" Gurrah attempted to pat him on the back but then winced from the movement, remembering his injury he chose to sit down where he stood.

"Thank you for helping me claim my vengance, all of you. Rikt if not for you I wouldn't be in this position, but then I would still have a price on my head, and still be hunted... Razo was the only family I ever had.... I just hope his death was enough to redeem himself of his deeds in life...." Gurrah Sighed then continued.

"I thank you for saving me, though I had no intention of surviving that encounter... I had inteded to die along side my family.... It was where I belonged.... Or so I thought, but seeing as I have survived, I'm assuming there's still some things left for me to do in this life..." Gurrah then knelt down on one knee before the Blastercharge brothers.

"I wish to continue to fight by your sides, no matter what... I have no family, no purpose left in this life... So quite frankly my life will be pretty boring without the countless assasins and merc's sent after me, and having such a big bounty on my head I have to sleep with one eye open.... But I can tell you two have a knack for trouble, and wherever the action is, I want to be. Who needs sleep anyways?" Gurrah chuckled to himself as he sat back down.

"Course I don't know about you guys..... But with all these bleeding wounds and such, I think I could use another drink!"

[Smiles Macblaster]

Some time later...

The sun had long since set by the time the Salvage crew arrived at the scene where the Trade Prince's Yauct had sunk, and the air was now alive with spotlights.

"Hey!" shouted one of the Goblin salvagers from the deck of his boat, "I think that one moved, Goblin Overboard!"

As the salvagers dropped the Goblin Survivor, his skin burned and mutilated beyond recognition, facefirst to the deck of the ship, a Goblin with an air of command strode over with a cigar clenched between green lips. The Goblin in Charge stopped just short of stepping on the survivor and knelt down to growl into his ear... "Where-is-my-AMULET?!"

Smiles rose, despite the severity of his burns and injuries, slowly onto his elbows and looked up into the other Goblin's eyes. His lipless and cheekless maw parting slightly as he quirked his head with a look of amusement across his scotched face. A rasping cough escaped the mutilated Goblin's throat, and then...

He laughed.

[Ryoku]

A proud Goblin, looking to be in his mid 30s marched up to Chikt and his gang, backed by a small escourt. By his fine attire and wide hat, it was immediately obvious to Chikt that he was the Captain of the vessel.

"I hate to interrupt, but my men tell me that the Trade Prince did not board with you, would you be able to tell me what boat he made it on so that we can establish contact?"

Chikt sighed, and shook his head. "I'm afraid Zilek didn't make it out of the boat. He is dead."

A sudden hush fell over everyone nearby as they turned to look towards their captain.

"Are you sure, Chikt? You saw him go?"

"Yes. I saw him go."

The Captain looked down gloomily, and took off his hat. "Very well. Miz, tell the others that our Prince is dead, and to relay the news to the rest of the fleet. We sail home."

The Goblin named Miz broke from the entourage, and shouted the news to the rest of the ship. The goblins were shocked, but solemnly did as they were ordered.

The Captain turned his attention back to Chikt. "Did he say anything at all before he died? About the Cartel or-"

Before he could finish his sentence, Chikt produced the wooden tube that Zilek had given him before they parted. "He told me to give this to you. Said it'd make Sten Silversteam heir to the Cartel."

The Captain snatched it up, immediately emptying the tube, revealing the parchment within. After scanning it quickly, a slight smile appeared on his face.

"Always a thinker he was. Sten is a good leader, he'll keep the Cartel together. Thanks for keeping track of it, Chikt."

Suddenly, Lirindi busted through the crowd, her face stricken with grief. "This isn't a funny joke, Chikt! Where is my Dad?"

Chikt looked down at Lirindi, holding a hand up to his head. "I'm sorry, Liri, but this isn't a joke. He died to save us, he-"

"No Chikt." she interrupted loudly, "He died to save you, with whatever you needed from that box. He wouldn't be there if it wasn't for you." Chikt tried to hold out a hand to comfort her, but she shook him away. "No! My Dad is dead, and it's all your fault." She pointed at him, accusingly, her words hitting Chikt like a freight train, and ran off into the below-decks of the ship.

The Captain looked back to where she dissapeared and shook his head. "She don't mean that, friend. The Prince died of his own decision, just as he always wanted to. None of us blame you for this."

He walked up to Chikt, and put an arm around the stunned Goblin's shoulder "Come, the ship is packed tight but I think we can find a few rooms to spare for you and your friends."

[Viirchi]

Though he didn't show it at all Seero was actually relieved when Rikt came swimming back, he was sure it made the brother in a better mood at least and that was probably a bonus. It took him a moment to actually notice Zilek wasn't there, he'd been counting numbers on the boat instead of faces and the little girl he hadn't actually seen before, there was an awkward moment when he realized that this was the Trade Prince's daughter and that her dad was likely thirty feet underwater by now.

It occurred to Seero that with the one they killed, Zilek and the guy trying to muscle ma over there were three seats of power wide open and if those gaps didn't get filled fast and with authority there was gonna be a disastrous power vacuum until things got sorted out.

Seero's thoughts of little pocket wars playing themselves out on the island of Kezan were disrupted when a communicator started going off. Chickt's communicator was the first time Seero ever really got an idea of just who they were working for. Ma knew every Trade prince by name face and reputation, but for security reasons Seero only had knowdlege of three or four the guy with the cigar he didn't really recognize other then assuming it was probably someone Tikri had exchanged favors with. When he finally got to see what was in the box he was a little disapointed but he was still surprised when Chikt flat out lied about finding it. He of course didn't mind holding onto the spoils but there was a lot of concern the mysterious prince might start directing some of his anger on his situationand he had no doubt if it came between saving her own hide and that of her son Tikri would kick him to the curb in no time flat.


"So...we still getting paid for this?"

Seero looked awkwardly at the group, trying to find something to do with his left hand as he waited for a response, then was thankfully interuped by some important looking goblin that walked up. He was actually relieved that Zilek apparently had plans for succession, it at least would make a lot of things less messy.

The little runt looked less happy about how things turned out, but Seero cut her some slack being that her father was dead. Anyway he was too interested in having at least a bed to lie down in, blood had been collecting in his glove since they left the sinking ship and he was figuring it might be good to get the injury looked at.

[Imara]

Gizzi rose slowly from the railing she'd been leaning against. She had to admit she'd been relieved at Rikt's appearance, even if his brush with death didn't seem to have made him any less of a child.

Gizzi had assumed the worst about Zilek but seeing his daughter spit venom at Chikt made her chest tighten a little. Poor girl would have a lot of tears to cry and poor Chikt was probably abusing himself well enough without her help. Gizzi remembered his fears at the start of this venture.

Using her good hand to maneuver some bandages out of a pouch on her belt, Gizzi handed them to Seero as she prepared to follow Chikt and Zilek's man. "Your glove is leaking." Gizzi smiled wryly and then started to move off toward the promise of a bath and a bed.

[Viirchi]

Seero snatched the bandages from Gizzi, slightly peeved that she thought this was all so funny. She should be so lucky to have a broken bone, he didn't even want to think about how many stitches and how many healers it was gonna take to fix his problem. Truth was he could barely even feel it anymore, which wasn't a good thing he knew, but it was way better then the constant pain since pulling the sword out of his hand. He started slipping his glove off as he followed the group, trying to sneak the bandages around without making a mess and figuring clean wrappings were gonna hold til he could get a decent medic.

A hand closed down on his arm before he even got the glove off half way. "What? I'll clean it up I swear."

Seero tried to pull away, glancing downward and noticing that his wrist had turned purple. "...Oh"

"Poison?"

Seero looked at the other goblin. "How should I know? ...ow! hey!"

The goblin pulled him ahead of the group and Seero scrambled to follow along as he was dragged into another chamber. For medical facilities on a ship they weren't horrible and the crewmate that Seero could only assume was a doctor seemed to know what he was doing as he pulled the glove off, yanking it so hard that whatever remaining skin that was still connecting the upper half of his hand tore off and sent the now necrotic looking appendage flying. "OWww! HEY GIVE THAT BACK!"

Another goblin held him down and Seero was able to manage a good look at the remnants of his hand, which had turned blackish purple up to his wrist. "Crap."

The medic stuck a cigar in his mouth and grabbed a sharpened blade from the wall, slamming down Seero's arm on a table. "You don't wanna lose your whole arm kid you'll hold still."

Seero let out a bloodcurdling scream as the blade came down a few inches above the blackened portion of his arm, followed by a howl a bang and a thud. The so called medic picked up his cigar again and hung the large wooden hammer back on the wall as he stood over a fallen Seero, who now had a severed hand and a large bump on his head. "Bandage him up and put him to bed.....and burn that diseased flesh just in case."

[Vakshna]

With all the Hubub about, Gurrah figured the answer to his proposition could wait untill morning. He saw the Surgeon whisk Seero away so Gurrah began to follow, a doctor's assistant saw him and took him to his room, he their tended his wounds. According to the female goblin who was treating him, he was lucky to be alive. A single inch further in any direction from his stab wound and he probably would have had a few vital organs rendered useless. Either way the nurse was amazed that Gurrah made it off of the ship considering his lack of blood loss, and noted multiple times that he should thank the man who dragged his ass off.

"I can't beleive your alive! And You we're drinking?!?!? You do know alcohol thins out your blood making it flow much more fluidly... Your an Idiot Gurrah!" The nurse barked at him.

"Your only about the fith person to call me something along those lines today...." Gurrah chuckled.

The a salve to disinfect the wounds and stitched him up good. She finally replaced his bandages and gave him a heavy drug that put him out almost instantly, then the nurse left the room with Gurrah fast asleep.

[Chikt]

Chikt followed the ships captain to a room he could make use of, and set himself up there. He made a note to lock the door - he didn't want to talk to anybody.

The room was small. A simple cabin with a desk and bed. Taking off his backpack and dropping it by the desk. Chikt took off his gloves and went about unclipping and disassembling the Skeleton device that clung to his body. Getting changed into some fresh clothes left for him on the foot of the bed, Chikt flopped down into the chair by the desk and stared at its flat surface.

Despite how everything had gone, despite Zilek's death, Chikt couldn't find it in him to be really well and truly sad. What Lirindi had said hurt, but he knew that the captain was right - she was hurting. And hopefully some day soon, she'd forgive him.

His eyes moved from the surface of the table to the backpack resting beside it. Reaching down, Chikt scooped the black lockbox out of it and flipped it open to look at the amulet once more. It was a lime green and seemed to glow somehow. The shapes of it all seemed so familiar, but Chikt couldn't work it out. He considered what to do with it - give it to another trade prince, sell it off. The Trade Prince said it was powerful.

Chikt shook his head. People would always be after more power. He could give it to another trade prince, but the Proprietor would just find out and have one of the good trade princes killed. He made a decision then - that if he couldn't trust anybody else with it, he'd keep it to himself and figure it out.

Tying the leather strap around his neck, Chikt tucked the amulet under the collar of his shirt. He immediately noticed something felt different - his thoughts went to the AI project he had waiting for him at home. And like that, the idea wormed into his mind on how he might make it work.

It would only be a few hours before the ship made it back home, docking in the port below Zilek's mansion. Chikt didn't sleep a wink the entire night - he spent the evening up, writing, drawing and sketching like a mad man. He hadn't stopped until the captain came by his cabin and told him they were home. Gathering up his papers and tucking them into his bag, Chikt hastily departed the ship.

Standing on Zilek's dock, Chikt looked back out at the water and frowned. He wasn't sure if the sinking feeling was from the thoughts of the boat going down, or if it was something more.

[Smiles Macblaster]

Smiles stared at the shadowed ceiling of the Salvage Ship's infirmary as the hull hummed with the sounds of the steam engine. Wrapped from head to toe in linen bandages the Goblin resembled some sort of Trollish mummy.

Despite his current state of searing agony, Smiles sat up slowly in his bedding and tore the tubes and wires from his arm, causing the tone of the heart monitor to drag on. The Goblin's eye twitched at the annoyance and promptly clutched the small console beside him and smashed it repeatedly against the headboard until it ceased its infernal beeping. The ship's doctor cracked open the infirmary door to see what was the matter, but something in the look Smiles gave him told the Goblin that he best not inquire further. The door was quickly closed.

Ahh... Silence at last...

Smiles hopped from his bed and slowly limped across the room to a nearby porthole, every fiber of his being roaring with agony. He ignored the pain and gazed through the little circular window and out at the sea beyond. The sun was slowly rising over the horrizon and light seemed to bleed with the colors of autumn across the heavens in a glorious spectacle. Smiles felt naught but mild indifference towards the scene and turned from it.

Down the Goblin's gaze fell to his linen-wrapped hand and he quickly tore the bandages away, revealing his char-blackened fist beneath. Some of his skin had apparently been torn away with his bandages as well, leaving pink, bloody patches checkered around his fingers and the fleshly cushions of his palm. Lovely. As he opened his hand, his fingers seemed to crack and pop one by one like the sound of pulling apart two pieces of velcrow, until what he had been clutching in his palm was finally revealled.

In the Goblin's ashen and now bleeding palm sat the same old; tarnished, silver pocket watch which he had retrieved from the Trade Prince's Vault.

Smiles brought his thumb over the time piece's stem and pressed the small button there, springing the lid open and revealing the face of the clock beneath. It had obviously stopped ticking long ago. With an adjustment of his hand, Smiles looked opposite of the clock's face and at the under-side of the watch's silver lid, revealing two letters engraved into the surface.

The initials 'D.D.'

Smiles seemed to snort what might have been considered a half-chuckle at a distant memory and it was gone as quickly as it came. The Goblin's head then seemed to twitch sharply to the right, his right eye squinting shut and the muscles in his neck tensing as if all in reaction to the same memory.

Smiles then began to shake like a Goblin-posessed and threw back his head with lipless mouth agape, shrilling some bone-chilling shriek and shaking his head from side to side violently. Spittle and bloody pus flew in all directions as the Goblin brought his bandaged hands up to his head and dragged his fingertips roughly across his scalp and down to his already mutilated face.

So violent was his clawing that the bandages wrapped over his head began snapping as the charred skin beneath soon followed, causing streams of soot-ladden blood to stain the linen strips. The Goblin then tore the pocket-watch from his palm, taking a circular section of skin melted to the metal with it, and hurled it violently through the glass of the porthole. The ornate time piece soared out over the side of the ship and clunked into the sea unceremoniously.

And just as quickly as it came, the Goblin's shrieking and raving ended and was replaced by a painful-sounding coughing and retching, followed by a statue-like; frozen moment of eerie silence.

As the sun rose fully out from the sea, Smiles breathed quietly to himself, "Memories long due forgotten..."

A voice suddenly whispered from nowhere, "So you think"

Smiles threw back his head again and laughed an unsettling laugh, charred and bloody fingertips clutching at an equally charred and bloody, bandaged scalp.

In the distance, the Island of Kezan poked from the clear blue sea to welcome him, the mad laughter echoing throughout the ship all the way home...

[Phelix]

Sitting in her gate Sikta watched as the tauren, or so she had been told what they were called, was thrown into a neighboring slave pen. He seemed pretty beat up, when he refused to fight he had been beaten, seemingly by multiple opponents. He didn't move, and that worried her, he was the only one who had shown her any kindness since she got here. She watched as the slavers spit on him then left to go get drinks. He lay there for a few minutes, and just as she thought he was finally gone, he stirred. Sitting up, an odd position for the hoofed creature, he started focusing on a wound on his leg where he had been cut up pretty badly. A small green light emanated from his hand as he passed it over the injury, having lived in Kezan Sikta was no stranger to all kinds of magic, in fact goblins had a nack for it, but she had never seen this kind before. She watched as the wound restored itself, clearly similar to the priests magic, but different... somehow... she continued to watch, and then she mimicked the hand motions as the tauren had over one of her bruises she got while sparring.

Nothing happened.

She tried again with the same results. Frustrated she looked over at the tauren who had moved on to other wounds he had sustained. She tried again, and again had no success. Sikta gave a sigh and was about to lay down to sleep when she felt a large hand on her back. The Tauren had reached through the bars, and was smiling at her, at least she thought it was a smile, hard to tell with these snouted creatures ya know? He then seemed to motion towards his stomach and the way he was breathing as he moved his hands to heal another of his wounds. She looked at him quizically before trying the breathing and seemingly calm mental state he went into, before reaching down and again mimicking his hand motions on her own buises.

A faint green light grew from her hand as she approached the bruise, and while it didn't go away, the bruise shrank! Sikta nearly cried out in excitement but the Tauren held her down motioning for her to be quiet. He smiled as he started the next lesson.


((This will be Sikta's final appearance within this RP, just thought I should write her out since its kind of moved on without her [which is fine] when the next RP starts up give me a message, hopefully a few years pass between now and then, so that Sikta can get some shaman training, and eventually make her escape/be freed, May the graves of your enemies and your purses always be full)

[Viirchi]

By the time Seero had woken up the ship was already starting to dock, giving him a lot less time to think about how he was going to explain to ma how he was missing one good hand, a lot of loot and failed to fulfill half the job he'd been sent out to do. He began to seriously consider not leaving the ship at all if he didn't think ma would just find him again and make the situation a whole lot worse.

Sucking up his inevitable doom Seero packed up his things, tossed in a hook someone had left near his bed 'for when the wound heals' and began to think up wild stories that might dress up failure a little bit nicer. Chikt was still standing at the docks looking at the water like he was facing a potentially huge and devistating problem. Likely he'd just realized that he'd turned down a huge payout over a trinket and hadn't had the good sense to grab the rest of the vault on the way out. Seero really couldn't blame the engineer, he'd probably be horrified too.

Whether it was the pain killers or the bravery of a doomed goblin Seero made up his mind, sure it was a long shot but he'd have to be a half starved troll slave if he was going to go down without a little compensation for the trouble. Shifting the weight of his backpack Seero walked up to Chikt and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey. Yeah. So you're bummed right now, but I was wondering if we still got some pay commin'. It's a bad deal boss, I get that, but me ma taught me to never come home with less then you started with and she's gonna be real pissed when I walk through that door lookin like a maimed pirate with nothin' but a price on my fantastic neck. So, think you could lend me a hand?"

He presented his right arm, meaining to shake on it before looking down and switching it out for his left, smiling awkwardly in attempt to diffuse the mistake.

[Vakshna]

as the ship docked Gurrah was making his way to the front deck, still drowsy from the pain killers. He half walked half stumbled up to Chikt. He patted Chikt on the back and said.
"If you ever need me again, I'll be in MY Undermine pub.... Well not my pub, but I make a good insurance policy for those who don't pay their tab.... So the owner lets me stay and eat for free. Anyways, if you need me you know where to find me."

He then left Chikt and noded goodbye to Seero, He then walked down the gangplank and slowly but surely headed back home to his precious pub.

[Chikt]

Chikt blinked as Seero approached him and held up his right arm, revealing the stumpy end of it that lacked a hand. Chikt immediately felt a pang of guilt, but quickly shook it off - if there was one conclusion he came to last night, it was that now wasn't the time to be depressed about the state of things. Now was the time to make them right.

"So, think you could lend me a hand?"

Chikt's mind filled with ideas. Schematics. And slowly a grin crossed his features. He motioned for Seero to follow him as he said, "Lets get back to my place. I've got some ideas."

Thanks to the complex tunnel system of Undermine, getting to Chikt's mansion wasn't too difficult. Leading Seero inside, Chikt went straight upstairs to his office. The moment he opened the door, a mechanical voice became clear, "Hello? Are you still there? Hellooo?"

Chikt narrowed his eyes and wandered over to his work bench and the small box sitting atop it that the sound was coming from. Picking it up, he stuffed it into his backpack and dropped his backpack to the floor. The voice continued, albeit muffled, "Did it just get darker? Am I dead? ... This sucks."

"Don't worry about that. It's just an... experiment I need to finish working on. Take a seat at my work bench, I'll need to take some measurements." Before he even finished talking, Chikt had disappeared into the adjacent room to his office. Walking back out with a tool box and a bunch of parts. Once Seero had sat down, Chikt wandered back over and began to measure up Seero's good hand.

Once he'd started working, Chikt was a machine. Robotics were complicated, but his experience with the Skeleton suit and how it read the users motions meant that he had a fair idea of where to begin on a replacement hand. He quickly established a framework, began connecting pistons and wires to a power supply, connected joints. And within a few hours of nonstop work, Chikt emerged from his office with a mechanical hand. From the 'wrist' were several long wires. One of them attached to a small box - the power supply. The others had little, sticky nodes at the end.

"It's not pretty but it'll work. The hand should slide onto your arm like a glove of sorts. Put the power supply somewhere easy to reach, you'll need to refill it with battery liquid occasionally. And attach the wires to the back of your neck - doesn't matter where, they'll pick up the signals. It might be a bit... crazy at times. But I'm sure it's nothing I can't fix over time." Chikt said with a grin, handing the... well, hand over to Seero.

"If it does anything dangerous, just let me know and I'll do my best to fix it. I know it's not a big payout, but I hope it's enough to make up for losing your hand."