usir | [Closed] Wolf Liberation Mission

Entry tags:

[Closed] Wolf Liberation Mission

Character(s): Rocket, Daud, Billie, Shura, Strange, Kylo, Dany, & Jon.
Status: Closed
Location(s): The City of the Free Peoples/Defenders' Warcamp
Date(s): February 1st, pre-kidnappings
About: A small team of riffraf break into the Defenders' Warcamp, steal an abused wolf, and then try to figure out what the fuck they do next.
Warnings: Animal abuse and the team kills some people.

They have had weeks to figure this plan out, the team spread across the cities during it but in contact via courier. Daud had used Mercy to get an idea of the routines they were dealing with and all that they had needed after forming a plan was the distraction to kick it off. That distraction came somewhat unexpectedly on the first of the month when the orcs belonging to a group that called themselves Tsekour's Stormers made a heavy return.

With a quick word passed between the members of the team, they gathered not far from the warcamp, avoiding the fighting going on between the two armies outside the city, and set their plan in motion.

As luck would have it, the city's resistance had decided to take the same opportunity and so they had had a surprisingly simple time rescuing the chained and caged wolf, cutting down any defenders that got in their way on the way out and leaving no survivors.

The only problem? The wolf is in a state that healing alone can't fix and the team is left trying to figure out what to do with a starved wolf that members of the team suspect may either be the missing captain or related to him in some way.

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With the grand theft of wolf and skirmish out of the way, Billie's ended up settling the wolf — for now — in some agreed upon basement in a currently abandoned building. The building itself had been burnt down in the first orcish assault but the stone cellar itself, she found, is sturdy enough. It'll do for a night or two, it's out of sight, and they can light a few lanterns without too much worry.

Getting the wolf settled somewhat comfortably is her first and foremost task. It seems content to sleep after its long incarceration back at the camp, making it a heck of a lot easier than expected. That done, she leaves people to look the wolf over and goes fishing around in her own supplies for a map of the city and its surroundings.

That's the other reason she's picked this building. It's far enough from the warcamp and in a unique enough spot for her to be able to tell whether her shiny new trinket is working or not.

"Alright, move over," she tells whoever is closest to the wolf before settling down to sit by it. She leaves enough room to lay the map out, placing rocks on the ends to keep it from curling before she pulls the necklace out. It isn't her style to wear jewelry usually but she's made an exception for this. To anyone with a decent eye for magical artifacts, that pendant there? That is definitely a scrying stone.

Rocket doesn't like being shut into the cellar with the wolf. Big predators like this one had always made him nervous. But that's exactly why he shoves Lylla into a corner and sets about making sure the wolf is actually sleeping, checking it over for anything that might tell them what or who it really is. He refuses to believe it's just a wolf.

When Billie speaks he looks up, catching sight of the impressive jewel and moving out of the way. The map takes his attention away from the wolf and he takes a better look at it. It's the first one he's seen since coming back from the dead for the first time. The differences are interesting, though not as interesting as the stone. He didn't like using much magic himself, but he did know a valuable trinket when he saw it.

"Where'd you get a fancy toy like that?"

"A little bird dropped it off for me," Billie answers cheerfully like she finds it funny somehow. She does, of course. The whole concept of some god's birds just dumping treasure in people's laps sounds like a flawed one, considering how people are. In this case, though, it's useful.

Although at the mention of a bird, Deirdre -- the tern sitting back on Billie's gear -- makes an indignant sound. She looks her way.

"What? Don't be jealous of some dumb crow." Well, Raven. She knows. Whatever. Anyway, she switches back to looking over the map, necklace held up so the pendant swings down over it. "I'm hoping I can pinpoint the captain with it. If it points here, then we'll have our answer."

Having taken a good look at the wolf and the brand on his paw, Shura has kept to the back of the cellar. It was all good and well that they got him out and in one piece, but that brand...

Well, Shura had used silver in the past, but removing it was different. Wounds could heal and they could feed him, but the silver would kill him before they could get that far. The bird's sound is a welcome distraction from Shura's thoughts, and she'll cheerfully chime in on the conversation.

"Hm? Must be holdin' a grudge or something like that~" Not like Shishi had forgotten the incident, but that was another matter entirely.

Rocket would love to put some distance between himself and the wolf but he is far too determined to see whether or not the stone is the real deal. He knows Billie is clever enough, but he still speaks up.

"Make sure it doesn't start too close to where we are." It is less out of a distrust of Billie and more out of Rocket's own innate distrust of magical trinkets and the tendency of fortune magic users to play fast and loose with magic vs coincidence. It's the trinket he doesn't trust.

He does, however, use a foot to carefully edge Lylla back away from the wolf as his too compassionate otter tries to edge in to comfort the wounded animal again. He shoots her a look and she matches his stare with a similar look, making a soft but indignant noise.

Daud’s kept in touch with the rest of the group from a distance, notifying through simple courier message — mostly text, though voice when he judged it safe enough as well — of the movements Mercy observed from her post in the sky. Luckily, the Defenders were too occupied with other matters to notice an osprey that seemed to swoop a bit too frequently around their camp.

The tiefling has primarily kept his own counsel, despite his own part in arranging this to happen. Those assembled will know his name after introducing himself earlier, though at the time he’d also been wearing a scarf loosely wrapped around his head, horns further shrouded with a hood. He’s pulled both back now, and he’s examining the wolf quietly. Mercy perches in a corner, beak idly worrying a hunk of dried meat.

“He’s been starved,” he comments, neutrally. “He’ll have to be fed carefully, if he wakes up. They did a lot of work to guard something they were killing slowly.” Which makes him wonder why they didn’t just do that in the first place.

Edited 2019-02-10 05:29 (UTC)

"That's assuming they wanted to kill him in the first place," Strange idly remarks. "It's possible they were simply incompetent. Considering how easily the spell and the lock was broken, that makes sense to me."

Since he doesn't know precisely how much or little a wolf eats, it only makes sense that others might not know as well.

Strange is standing near the middle of the room, giving everyone a little space but focusing on Billie all the while. If her trinket was anything like the scarf that raven gave him, the results would be interesting. He wanted to see it.

"...wouldn't surprise me," Billie mutters in reply to Shura. For being what amounts to a fancy seagull, Deirdre was awfully picky. She'll tilt her head a little if only to indicate she's listening to what else is going on in the room, but when she looks up again it's only to glance over at Rocket.

"Yeah, I plan on starting on the opposite end," she assures him, then she settles into looking down again and focusing on who she's looking for. Even if she didn't bother to get to know the guy, she did care enough to figure out who Captain Lykos was and what he looked like way back after they first ended up in the city.

"Killing him immediately might not be the goal." Competent or not, there were all sorts of things they could do with a wolf like this.

But for right now, watching Billie scry for the captain is worth her attention. It might not give them the answer they're looking for, but it would at least knock out one possible theory as to who and what the wolf was.

It takes a few seconds to kick in but once Billie has a good picture of Lykos held in her mind's eye, the pendant gives a tug, pulling in a direction entirely on its own. When it starts doing that, only then will she slowly move her hand, letting the stone guide which way she moves it across the map.

It stops at one spot in particular and, after confirming where, she returns to the point she started before. This time, the pendant continues pulling hard back towards where it had ended up. She moves it back that way, reaffirming that, yes, that really is where it wants to point so badly.

During this, the wolf has stirred to watch her go about this, though otherwise motionless. When she looks up to meet his gaze, he just settles back down to sleep again and that's that.

As soon as the magic starts, Strange stops talking and takes a few steps closer, awkwardly looming over Billie and the wolf as the pendant starts moving, repeatedly lingering over the building they're in.

"So, for clarification's sake, this means that the wolf is our missing captain." Pause. "Or, he's somehow invisible and snuck into the building with us. Obviously, I'm more likely to believe the wolf theory."

Which opens up a billion more questions that Strange doesn't have answers to.

"If that's the captain why ain't he changing back?" Rocket voices his immediate primary question. Maybe the wolf was just too tired. Maybe the wound was some kind of curse or something he was chained with was. If this wasn't a form he already had, then it was obviously a curse in his mind, but there was also the possibility he was a shiftling, a shapeshifter, or under a curse he had already had before the orcs.

"We can't exactly take him back to the camp like Here you go, one missing captain found. If any of them even believed us and wasn't in on this I don't think they'd take kindly to us or him." Which left them with a very hungry, very sick, large predator animal on their hands and no idea when he might be well enough to change back or even if he could.

"Don't think any of them in town would believe us or a shiny rock either, even if it told them a hundred times that wolf is their fearless leader." And then there was the little problem of how they have undoubtedly pissed off the current leaders of a large military force. Sure their hands were full now, but what happens when the undead army has been dealt with if they still don't know how to change Lykos back.

"He's tired? He's cursed? Something else is wrong? Could be anything," Billie says grimly. She doesn't like answering the one big question they had and getting about a dozen new ones in return but for that part, there's only so much she can do. She pulls the scrying stone away and pockets it before finally looking away from the wolf, back to the others.

"We need to figure out food and shelter first. Like Daud said, he's been starved. We can't just dump a pile of meat in front of him and expect him to get better, nor is this exactly the most secure location to keep him. Those orcs are going to come looking eventually."

"Feedin' him boiled chicken and eggs should probably work for food." Easy enough to obtain, and he probably wouldn't be eating too much at first. But shelter? "Got no idea on where to keep him, though. We can hide him in plain sight and hope that they won't be able to sniff us out with all the chaos, but I still wouldn't know where to take him from here."

It was possible that Lykos knew a good spot, but communicating that in his current state was unlikely. Shura moves from her spot against the wall, moving to kneel beside the wolf and inspect his leg.

"This thing has to be taken care of. I ain't an expert, but this could kill him before we get too far."

"They may have addled his mind," Daud suggests, as another unappetizing theory. "You can't change back into something you don't know you are."

But that, again, might be giving the orcs too much credit. The tiefling frowns at the wolf again.

"The Defenders were already on edge, even without a city revolting under them," Daud offers. "Some of them may have their own suspicions on what happened." Without knowing the extent of their involvement in this, he'd feel a damn sight better about bringing Lykos to them once he's standing on his own two legs.

As for shelter ... "We can find a cellar and someone willing not to ask too many questions. Or--" he glances at Billie, who's probably familiar enough with Daud's ability to occasionally see through walls-- "Find a place that's been too damaged in the previous attacks for anyone to want to bother with." Not the most ideal, in this weather, but considering they're harboring something they probably shouldn't even have... at least Mercy's a source of heat.

Edited 2019-02-14 20:14 (UTC)

"I don't know about that," Billie has to disagree with Daud on that one, if only mildly. "Shapeshifting is kind of like flexing a muscle. It would take a hell of a lot longer to forget how making a fist works."

Which isn't a fact she cares to air with all these other people around but it doesn't necessarily mean anything beyond that, at some point, maybe she knew shapeshifters or read a book on them. Of course, it could be a different story with actual werecreatures. Related or not, she isn't really one of them.

Well, whatever. She gets the map rolled back up and finally climbs back to her feet, giving the wolf some space back by a few steps.

"But yeah, finding another place soon really is the best move." She shoots a look back at Daud, meeting his own glance. He'll leave finding one to him, then. "This place is fine for tonight but it isn't exactly sturdy. Someone's going to need to go out and grab a few things, too."

She says that last part while turning towards Shura.

"You said chicken and eggs, right?"

Edited 2019-02-17 18:56 (UTC)

Shapeshifting wasn't something Shura had been interested in. Maybe Billie was just a huge nerd on the inside, maybe she had a companion who specialized in that kind of thing. It could be a lot of things. Whatever it was, Shura is asked a direct question, and not answering it would be weird.

"Yeah, something like that. Something he won't have to chew much and should be easy on the stomach. Shouldn't be much different than trying to feed a regular person who's been sick."

Or so she thinks. She could be completely wrong about this, she was neither a doctor nor a veterinarian.

Shapeshifting is something that Strange also isn't interested in. He gives Billie a quizzical look as she mentions shapeshifting, but goes back to focus on the wolf instead.

"We should also set up shifts. It'll be damn suspicious if there's a large group of people hanging around a specific building. Likewise, some of us have things we already agreed to do. It would be equally suspicious if we missed our obligations."

Granted, Strange's obligations are more along the lines of 'get down to Didymos for a day or two to research' and less 'anything pressing.' But as much as he wants to help the captain, he's not going to completely abandon his own goals at the drop of a hat.

"Now you're just making it sound like you're important," Billie chimes in about Strange and missing obligations. She crosses the room again, tucking the map away back with the rest of her gear and offering Deirdre a pet on the head while she's there. Following that, she'll scoop the bird up to take with her with minimal complaint.

"Anyway, I'm going out to pick up food," she adds now that she has her animas in tow, turning back again to head for the rather suspect stairs leading back up into the burnt out husk of a building. "I'm sure I can find something as simple as chicken and eggs."

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[Closed] Wolf Liberation Mission

scrying megathread, post-rescue (one big thread, anyone tag in whenever)

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