05-31-2017, 02:52 PM
Carmelita bit her lip to prevent herself swearing, painstakingly searching the belongings of an absent Scar. She pulled out a drawer under his bed, rifling through the clothes she found there. Shirts. Weapon polish. Bloody bandages. Underwear. She screwed up her face and used a small stick to lift up the clean clothes, wary of lice. No dice.
The bandit leader didn’t keep the vault key on his person, she’d deduced that much: that was why he’d had to leave to fetch it when Foureyes needed to access the vault, after all. The man’s room, however, had no hidden compartments, no secure safe or drawer. After all her searching, she’d found nothing.
She replaced the items of the ransacked drawer and felt under the bed, where something might be secreted. She got nothing but a woodlouse for her trouble. Getting inventive, she got down on her hands and knees and tapped the earthen floor, hoping for the sound of a hollow hidden with earth. Still no luck.
On top of her lack of success, there was a deadline closing in. It was nearing supper time, and Carmelita knew that if something went wrong with Malon and Sera’s plan she had to be ready. If only she knew where the damned key was.
Checking nothing was out of place, Carmelita slipped out of the door, closing it silently behind her and carefully resetting the thread that had been placed across to record the presence of a snooper. The singed scent of her cloak mocked her muzzle, growing distractingly strong the longer she puzzled over where Scar might have hidden it. The tunnel she paced down back towards the kitchen was silent as she swept down it. Her presence disturbed some loose dirt and she automatically swept across it with her boot to hide the evidence. Carmelita thought furiously, ideas of potential locations discarded as soon as they were brought up until she remembered a little wooden box, covered in blue sigils.
The lockbox.
In the stone hut, the one that had acted as Scar’s office and the same room she had already scoured looking for information had been the one item she hadn’t dared touch: a small lockbox with glowing runes. Magic was undoubtedly involved, and she’d decided that it would be too risky to try and open it for no perceived gain.
Mierda.
Carmelita jogged through the mine to the main entrance, emerging into the cavernous bowl that formed the main chamber. A bandit, likely just relieved from the wall, walked nervously past the spot where the lionesses had been brought down, ignorant of her presence. Across the cavernous expanse, candlelight flickering from gaps in the tightly shuttered windows, was the hut she needed to revisit.
Sneaking across the cavern was easy, with the reduced foot traffic now that several of the bandits were bedridden or six feet under. The door itself lay open as she crept round the corner, and candlelight shone from within. Carmelita peered round the corner. Scar, the bandit leader himself, was sitting at the writing desk, comparing some scrolls with a large map that lay across the surface
“Let’s see,” the man was muttering to himself. “There’s the Red Gull Pass, but that’s the obvious place for an ambush. Besides, we’ve used it before, and they’ll probably be running north which puts them… there.” A pin was pressed into the wood through the parchment, and he stroked his chin in thought, before putting in three more pins at other points on the map. “Hmm…”
Carmelita waited, both impatient to get to grab the glowing box that lay visible on the shelf above the desk and interested in what the man’s plan might hold. No doubt he was planning on recruitment straight from behind bars, the prisoner transport that the girls had told her about. Soon the man got to his feet, pushing the chair back and giving the map he’d been staring at a grim look.
“We’ll need to push the horses, but it’ll be worth it.”
He wrote some notes down on a couple of scrolls as Carmelita narrowed her eyes. Perhaps the man intended to leave before supper, maybe having an early meal with preserved meats and fruit. If so, that might mean there would be a few men not eating the meal… and furthermore, people who might be leaving soon.
She pulled back as Scar blew out the candle and left the hut, pulling the door firmly to behind him. The bandit put the door on the latch and headed towards the wall, no doubt to talk to the guards. Carmelita’s chance to act had arrived.
A plastic card to quietly lift the latch was all she needed to do it silently, and she carefully opened and closed the door. The blue runes glowed in the dark, but she didn’t dare try and grab it here. Instead, she took a small felt bag from within one of her pouches and wrapped it around her hand.
The felt pouch was a marvelous piece of kit for any burglar or spy to have on them. In addition to being innocuous, the importance of having a way to muffle metal items or a spare way to touch things that might leave fingerprints or react to body heat was easy to underestimate.
The lockbox was quickly hidden in the felt pouch, and she checked carefully that Bentley’s stealth device did in fact hide the box from outside. With the same subtle smoothness of her entry, she eased open and closed the door on her way out. She ghosted through the tunnels, heading for the one place that it would be safe to open an unknown magical box, not coincidentally the place where the other key lay, the valves she needed to close stood and the first fight she’d need to engage in would occur: the workshop.
First, though, she headed to the prisoner pens. There she found Sera quietly returning from preparing the evening meal. Carmelita waited for her to enter the room with the rest of the prisoners, readied her shock pistol at the side of the jailer’s head and held the trigger.
The first warning any of the prisoners had that something was happening was the sudden muffled scream of surprise and the bright flashes of light coming from outside the cells. There was the sound of something hitting a surface hard, and there was a sudden silence.
“Wh… what was that?” one of the kids whispered nervously, before letting out a small squeak of fear as their jailer appeared in the entrance to their cell. There was a moment of flinching, expecting his gruff voice. Instead, the unconscious man was dropped to the floor, the sound of someone dusting their gloves off emanating from a slowly appearing figure behind him.
“That would be me, valiente niño. My name is Inspector Fox-Cooper, I’ll be staging your escape this evening. Please remain as quiet as you can while we unlock everyone. Oh, and if someone could gag this lout so he doesn’t give the game away, that’d be wonderful.”
There was a moment of stillness before Sera took the keys from the jailer’s belt and began undoing manacles and chains. Carmelita let the prisoners begin freeing themselves, taking a few other keys and releasing the prisoners in the other cells.
Soon, all the hostages had been gathered in the largest cell. The eldest and most feeble still needed a shoulder to lean on, but Carmelita could see that Sera and Malon’s efforts to increase their vitality had not been in vain. Speaking of which…
The fox leant over and whispered to Sera. “Where’s Malon?”
“She’s with Snake. There was a thing.” Sera gave a small frown as she said this, looking at Carmelita worriedly. The inspector bit her lip.
“I’ll find her once everyone else is safe. Here,” Carmelita picked up the jailers mace that lay on his belt, “I need you to bring up the rear. We’re going to be moving as quickly and quietly as we can, but if a bandit spots us delay him until I can get to you.”
Sera nearly dropped the mace, the weight unfamiliar in her hands, before securing it tightly and clutching it to her chest.
Giving Sera a pat on the shoulder, Carmelita led the way quietly through the tunnels towards the mine. It seemed fortune was with them, and no bandits appeared to block their path to the vaults. As she began to walk down the stairs, she gestured for the hostages to wait halfway down, and she activated her cloak for the first proper showdown of the evening.
---
Carmelita entered the workshop near silently, carefully looking for Four-Eyes. The boiler furnace’s dull roar seemed especially loud to her ears as she crept through the room.
For some reason, the light from the stones around the room had vanished, leaving only the flames beneath the boiler to light the room. Carmelita swore quietly, looking for the centaur and praying she hadn’t made an error of judgement.
In the mild panic she’d worked herself into, Carmelita failed to notice the rug-shrouded lump on the floor that lay in her path. A boot came down on the hem, caught, and sent her flying.
She landed with a soft thud. Thankful that the sound of machinery falling over hadn’t sounded throughout the whole tunnel complex, the feeling of a soft warm coat beneath her hands finally prompted her instincts to catch up with the situation. She slowly raised her eyes to come face to face with a now wide awake centaur.
A grab at the Fisti-cuffs on her belt was thwarted as the centaur shot to his hooves, sending her flying onto a nearby workbench. The fizz of her cloak breaking was only made worse by Four-eyes clapping his hands twice.
“Desert Sun!” he commanded, and the lights of the workshop each shone with the intensity of the Endless Dunes midday sun. Carmelita swore loudly as she rolled off the workbench, eyes near blinded by the swift change in ambient light. Her tail felt the air pressure of something passing through the space she’d just occupied.
Hooves sounded as they trotted swiftly over to the weapons racks. Carmelita took the opportunity to begin working her eyepieces to reduce the intensity of the light. At the sound of a snorted curse, she decided to play for time while her eyes recovered behind makeshift sunglasses.
“Mister, I am a member of law enforcement. We have taken over the camp-” here her hands found a STAPLER on her belt and began setting it up, “- and you would be well advised to surrender and come quietly.”
“Keep talking, fox,” came the biting reply. “I’ve spent too long working on my equipment to give up now, especially-” the sound of steel chain snapping interrupted his speech. Carmelita surreptitiously activated her cloak. “Especially when I’ve got access to my own toys to play with.”
Carmelita rose from where she had been hiding to see Four-Eyes level a crossbow at the workbench she’d taken cover behind, sword in his off hand. The centaur circled round cautiously, and she took the opportunity to begin shooting her shock pistol.
The centaur took the first ball of electricity to the chest and gave out a surprised cry of pain that sounded awfully like a neigh. Carmelita was forced to duck as a slew of crossbow bolts began flying in her direction, solid copies of the one in place on the enchanted crossbow.
Galloping hoof-beats to her right prompted Carmelita to roll round the left corner, charging a shot on her shock pistol and readying the Fisti-cuffs in her off hand.
“Where’d you go now? When I find you-”
The centaur’s words cut off as a near point blank charged shot deprived him of his sight. Snarling angrily, he charged blindly forwards, swinging wildly. With a click the STAPLER triggered and the blinded centaur was wrapped in loops of titanium alloy. As he blindly fought the snare, Carmelita dodged the immensely slowed weapons and clamped the Fisti-cuffs to his wrists.
As repeated shocks quickly pushed Four-eyes into unconsciousness, Carmelita breathed a sigh of relief.
---
Climbing up into the scaffolding took a hair-raising five minutes. The hostages, having descended the stairs at the end of the fight, alternated between breaking their manacles and magic dampeners and spitting on the unconscious, trussed up centaur.
Hidden in the ceiling was the glass case she had spotted before. Carmelita deftly swiped the key and dropped onto a workbench.
“Sera, catch.”
The girl looked up in time to catch the incoming key in her frying pan, giving a startled squeak. Scolding herself for unprofessional conduct, Carmelita opened the vault with Sera turning the second key.
As the door rolled away, Carmelita turned to address the hostages properly for the first time.
“Hello. I am Inspector Fox-Cooper, of Suprapol. I’ll be your police extraction this evening. Behind me is a secure location for you to shelter in as I apprehend the bandits who trapped you here. If you wish to take a more active role, the top of the stairs is a good chokepoint to hold off any bandits who wish to regain control of the gates-” at this she shut off the valve leading to the gates steam controls, and the pipe runes’ blue glow faded, “- and their leverage.”
The women who had had magic dampeners on them headed for the stairs, as did Sera and a few other hastily armed prisoners. The rest traipsed into the vault, marvelling at the treasure and armoury that lay within.
Carmelita asked two of those headed to the stairs to instead wait by the vault, to shut it in case the bandits made a concerted push. Giving a tight nod to Sera, she slipped back into her cloak. With the hostages safe, it was time to hunt bandits.
The bandit leader didn’t keep the vault key on his person, she’d deduced that much: that was why he’d had to leave to fetch it when Foureyes needed to access the vault, after all. The man’s room, however, had no hidden compartments, no secure safe or drawer. After all her searching, she’d found nothing.
She replaced the items of the ransacked drawer and felt under the bed, where something might be secreted. She got nothing but a woodlouse for her trouble. Getting inventive, she got down on her hands and knees and tapped the earthen floor, hoping for the sound of a hollow hidden with earth. Still no luck.
On top of her lack of success, there was a deadline closing in. It was nearing supper time, and Carmelita knew that if something went wrong with Malon and Sera’s plan she had to be ready. If only she knew where the damned key was.
Checking nothing was out of place, Carmelita slipped out of the door, closing it silently behind her and carefully resetting the thread that had been placed across to record the presence of a snooper. The singed scent of her cloak mocked her muzzle, growing distractingly strong the longer she puzzled over where Scar might have hidden it. The tunnel she paced down back towards the kitchen was silent as she swept down it. Her presence disturbed some loose dirt and she automatically swept across it with her boot to hide the evidence. Carmelita thought furiously, ideas of potential locations discarded as soon as they were brought up until she remembered a little wooden box, covered in blue sigils.
The lockbox.
In the stone hut, the one that had acted as Scar’s office and the same room she had already scoured looking for information had been the one item she hadn’t dared touch: a small lockbox with glowing runes. Magic was undoubtedly involved, and she’d decided that it would be too risky to try and open it for no perceived gain.
Mierda.
Carmelita jogged through the mine to the main entrance, emerging into the cavernous bowl that formed the main chamber. A bandit, likely just relieved from the wall, walked nervously past the spot where the lionesses had been brought down, ignorant of her presence. Across the cavernous expanse, candlelight flickering from gaps in the tightly shuttered windows, was the hut she needed to revisit.
Sneaking across the cavern was easy, with the reduced foot traffic now that several of the bandits were bedridden or six feet under. The door itself lay open as she crept round the corner, and candlelight shone from within. Carmelita peered round the corner. Scar, the bandit leader himself, was sitting at the writing desk, comparing some scrolls with a large map that lay across the surface
“Let’s see,” the man was muttering to himself. “There’s the Red Gull Pass, but that’s the obvious place for an ambush. Besides, we’ve used it before, and they’ll probably be running north which puts them… there.” A pin was pressed into the wood through the parchment, and he stroked his chin in thought, before putting in three more pins at other points on the map. “Hmm…”
Carmelita waited, both impatient to get to grab the glowing box that lay visible on the shelf above the desk and interested in what the man’s plan might hold. No doubt he was planning on recruitment straight from behind bars, the prisoner transport that the girls had told her about. Soon the man got to his feet, pushing the chair back and giving the map he’d been staring at a grim look.
“We’ll need to push the horses, but it’ll be worth it.”
He wrote some notes down on a couple of scrolls as Carmelita narrowed her eyes. Perhaps the man intended to leave before supper, maybe having an early meal with preserved meats and fruit. If so, that might mean there would be a few men not eating the meal… and furthermore, people who might be leaving soon.
She pulled back as Scar blew out the candle and left the hut, pulling the door firmly to behind him. The bandit put the door on the latch and headed towards the wall, no doubt to talk to the guards. Carmelita’s chance to act had arrived.
A plastic card to quietly lift the latch was all she needed to do it silently, and she carefully opened and closed the door. The blue runes glowed in the dark, but she didn’t dare try and grab it here. Instead, she took a small felt bag from within one of her pouches and wrapped it around her hand.
The felt pouch was a marvelous piece of kit for any burglar or spy to have on them. In addition to being innocuous, the importance of having a way to muffle metal items or a spare way to touch things that might leave fingerprints or react to body heat was easy to underestimate.
The lockbox was quickly hidden in the felt pouch, and she checked carefully that Bentley’s stealth device did in fact hide the box from outside. With the same subtle smoothness of her entry, she eased open and closed the door on her way out. She ghosted through the tunnels, heading for the one place that it would be safe to open an unknown magical box, not coincidentally the place where the other key lay, the valves she needed to close stood and the first fight she’d need to engage in would occur: the workshop.
First, though, she headed to the prisoner pens. There she found Sera quietly returning from preparing the evening meal. Carmelita waited for her to enter the room with the rest of the prisoners, readied her shock pistol at the side of the jailer’s head and held the trigger.
The first warning any of the prisoners had that something was happening was the sudden muffled scream of surprise and the bright flashes of light coming from outside the cells. There was the sound of something hitting a surface hard, and there was a sudden silence.
“Wh… what was that?” one of the kids whispered nervously, before letting out a small squeak of fear as their jailer appeared in the entrance to their cell. There was a moment of flinching, expecting his gruff voice. Instead, the unconscious man was dropped to the floor, the sound of someone dusting their gloves off emanating from a slowly appearing figure behind him.
“That would be me, valiente niño. My name is Inspector Fox-Cooper, I’ll be staging your escape this evening. Please remain as quiet as you can while we unlock everyone. Oh, and if someone could gag this lout so he doesn’t give the game away, that’d be wonderful.”
There was a moment of stillness before Sera took the keys from the jailer’s belt and began undoing manacles and chains. Carmelita let the prisoners begin freeing themselves, taking a few other keys and releasing the prisoners in the other cells.
Soon, all the hostages had been gathered in the largest cell. The eldest and most feeble still needed a shoulder to lean on, but Carmelita could see that Sera and Malon’s efforts to increase their vitality had not been in vain. Speaking of which…
The fox leant over and whispered to Sera. “Where’s Malon?”
“She’s with Snake. There was a thing.” Sera gave a small frown as she said this, looking at Carmelita worriedly. The inspector bit her lip.
“I’ll find her once everyone else is safe. Here,” Carmelita picked up the jailers mace that lay on his belt, “I need you to bring up the rear. We’re going to be moving as quickly and quietly as we can, but if a bandit spots us delay him until I can get to you.”
Sera nearly dropped the mace, the weight unfamiliar in her hands, before securing it tightly and clutching it to her chest.
Giving Sera a pat on the shoulder, Carmelita led the way quietly through the tunnels towards the mine. It seemed fortune was with them, and no bandits appeared to block their path to the vaults. As she began to walk down the stairs, she gestured for the hostages to wait halfway down, and she activated her cloak for the first proper showdown of the evening.
---
Carmelita entered the workshop near silently, carefully looking for Four-Eyes. The boiler furnace’s dull roar seemed especially loud to her ears as she crept through the room.
For some reason, the light from the stones around the room had vanished, leaving only the flames beneath the boiler to light the room. Carmelita swore quietly, looking for the centaur and praying she hadn’t made an error of judgement.
In the mild panic she’d worked herself into, Carmelita failed to notice the rug-shrouded lump on the floor that lay in her path. A boot came down on the hem, caught, and sent her flying.
She landed with a soft thud. Thankful that the sound of machinery falling over hadn’t sounded throughout the whole tunnel complex, the feeling of a soft warm coat beneath her hands finally prompted her instincts to catch up with the situation. She slowly raised her eyes to come face to face with a now wide awake centaur.
A grab at the Fisti-cuffs on her belt was thwarted as the centaur shot to his hooves, sending her flying onto a nearby workbench. The fizz of her cloak breaking was only made worse by Four-eyes clapping his hands twice.
“Desert Sun!” he commanded, and the lights of the workshop each shone with the intensity of the Endless Dunes midday sun. Carmelita swore loudly as she rolled off the workbench, eyes near blinded by the swift change in ambient light. Her tail felt the air pressure of something passing through the space she’d just occupied.
Hooves sounded as they trotted swiftly over to the weapons racks. Carmelita took the opportunity to begin working her eyepieces to reduce the intensity of the light. At the sound of a snorted curse, she decided to play for time while her eyes recovered behind makeshift sunglasses.
“Mister, I am a member of law enforcement. We have taken over the camp-” here her hands found a STAPLER on her belt and began setting it up, “- and you would be well advised to surrender and come quietly.”
“Keep talking, fox,” came the biting reply. “I’ve spent too long working on my equipment to give up now, especially-” the sound of steel chain snapping interrupted his speech. Carmelita surreptitiously activated her cloak. “Especially when I’ve got access to my own toys to play with.”
Carmelita rose from where she had been hiding to see Four-Eyes level a crossbow at the workbench she’d taken cover behind, sword in his off hand. The centaur circled round cautiously, and she took the opportunity to begin shooting her shock pistol.
The centaur took the first ball of electricity to the chest and gave out a surprised cry of pain that sounded awfully like a neigh. Carmelita was forced to duck as a slew of crossbow bolts began flying in her direction, solid copies of the one in place on the enchanted crossbow.
Galloping hoof-beats to her right prompted Carmelita to roll round the left corner, charging a shot on her shock pistol and readying the Fisti-cuffs in her off hand.
“Where’d you go now? When I find you-”
The centaur’s words cut off as a near point blank charged shot deprived him of his sight. Snarling angrily, he charged blindly forwards, swinging wildly. With a click the STAPLER triggered and the blinded centaur was wrapped in loops of titanium alloy. As he blindly fought the snare, Carmelita dodged the immensely slowed weapons and clamped the Fisti-cuffs to his wrists.
As repeated shocks quickly pushed Four-eyes into unconsciousness, Carmelita breathed a sigh of relief.
---
Climbing up into the scaffolding took a hair-raising five minutes. The hostages, having descended the stairs at the end of the fight, alternated between breaking their manacles and magic dampeners and spitting on the unconscious, trussed up centaur.
Hidden in the ceiling was the glass case she had spotted before. Carmelita deftly swiped the key and dropped onto a workbench.
“Sera, catch.”
The girl looked up in time to catch the incoming key in her frying pan, giving a startled squeak. Scolding herself for unprofessional conduct, Carmelita opened the vault with Sera turning the second key.
As the door rolled away, Carmelita turned to address the hostages properly for the first time.
“Hello. I am Inspector Fox-Cooper, of Suprapol. I’ll be your police extraction this evening. Behind me is a secure location for you to shelter in as I apprehend the bandits who trapped you here. If you wish to take a more active role, the top of the stairs is a good chokepoint to hold off any bandits who wish to regain control of the gates-” at this she shut off the valve leading to the gates steam controls, and the pipe runes’ blue glow faded, “- and their leverage.”
The women who had had magic dampeners on them headed for the stairs, as did Sera and a few other hastily armed prisoners. The rest traipsed into the vault, marvelling at the treasure and armoury that lay within.
Carmelita asked two of those headed to the stairs to instead wait by the vault, to shut it in case the bandits made a concerted push. Giving a tight nod to Sera, she slipped back into her cloak. With the hostages safe, it was time to hunt bandits.