Raichel had heard about some frequent attacks on people in a neighboring kingdom she had business at, so figured she would kill two birds with one stone and check out these claims while she was there. She would have told her siblings regardless, but it's entirely possible she told a few others.

Mittens of course is happy to come help.  Lucky will help too if he's needed, but may focus on orphans if Timothius is going to be the token healer for the group.

"Hmm... I need a more awesome mount than ye olde horse.  A dragon would be a good start..." Mittens muses aloud.

  "Chirp, how come we never go on any nice business trips?"   "Because our business is violence.  Or the prevention of violence, with violence."  Familiar ask a silly question, familiar get a silly answer.

Used to Mittens' antics (Well... most of the times), Raichel says in a matter-of-fact, almost bored tone, "Nah. Dragons are so last century for mounts. You want the World Serpent for starters."

Timothius looks at Mittens' horse and says, "Don't listen to them. You're a great mount. People just tend to take for granted the things they're used to."

"In this corner!  The Bulldog Raspy Dragon!  And in this corner!  World Serpent Centipede!  Who will win?  But wait!  A new contender!  A horse!  But no ordinary horse... this is MAXIMUS!  Cower in abject horror, mortals, for DOOM has come!"

The horse seems used to it too.

  "How come you never got around to making ME a mount, tweet?"   "Because then you are a viable target, I suppose I could still looking into i-"  "Never squawking mind!"  "Of course."

  On to hopefully more reasonable matters.  "What particular attacks have been made that we know of?  Or is it just a vague 'attacks' we have to work with and not the how or where?"

Raichel says, "Seems to be some kind of stalker who attacks people in the city at random and at night. Well.. so far the only thing that's been consistent is that the people are young. Though everything from young adult to infant."

"Do they have 'victim' written all over them?  'Cause I dunno how well I could pass as bait.  I mean...  as a sword mage, I'm pretty tough without armor on and could possibly handle the gank attempt...  but...  _{myactingskillscouldusesomework.}"

She shrugs.

  Terdisas considers themselves and his companions.  While the usual sort of crazed stalker would consider Raichel more of a 'Victim' just because Girl not = Monk who can punch my skull off to those sort of nutjobs usually, it would be less than tactful to suggest it... On the other hand, the runned up there would be 'Thin man weaing cloth', himself...

  "hmm, in retrospect I doubt even my skill at deception for a good cause would bypass the fact I have a beard in trying to pass off as a helpless youth."

Timothius says, "S'alright... Raichel and I already agreed to be bait."

"You could always shave..." Mittens comments to Terdisas, "Unless the beard is the source of your divine super strength.  In which case, never mind."

She grins at Timothius.

"And such tasty bait you are!  You'll have all the evil fishies drooling over having a bite... wait...  Fish can't drool, can they?  Inanycase.  I'm very proud of you for bravely volunteering to lure out the dangerous stalker!  I look forward to Stabooming them ambush style for great justice!"

  "I suppose I could shave in a world gone mad, but then I would look adolescent at best.  Not that I am particularly pleased with any of us being bait."

  After Mittens's commentary, Superbird asks "Tweet, how can you tell fish are NOT drooling? They are in the water all the time."

Timothius asks, "....why would the world have to go mad for you to shave?"

Mittens considers the questions asked and answers simply, "Hmm... I don't know."

"Figuratively.  Of course if I were a Dwarf, everyone would be too afraid to ask.  Nor would most people suggest you or your sisters shave unless it were likely an insult.  My beard is a victim of society... What the hells am I talking about"

"Tweet, no, no. Go on, this is fascinating.  Now, how do you feel about your mother?"

Timothius says, "I heard a rumor once that a gnome put a fake beard on and claimed he was a starving, emaciated dwarf. And his bluff worked. I suppose if desperate enough, a dwarf may shave and say he's an overweight gnome."

Mittens snickers at where the conversation's gone, but figures Rai's probably getting impatient about now.

"So yeah.  Badguy to lure out.  Let's get to luring!  This calls for my ninja black outfit..."

  "With enough resemblance, impersonating another race is a simple task... Well, until you run into practical problems.   Dwarf claiming to be Gnome, simple.  Gnome claiming to be Dwarf, problems from not having the same eyesight."

  He considers his travel companions, and says "Impersonating one of you would on the other hand, be rather more difficult I would imagine...  Do you have a spare in my size Mittens?" probably not, but one can hope.

  Though technically, Terdisas is 'using' camo clothing

Raichel looks over her shoulder at her tail, wagging it some with a smile and looks back at Terdisas. "Making a convincing tail would be hard, yeah. You'd need either an enchanted rope or be able to cast cantrips." She wiggles her ears. "And to fool my race, you'd have to go the step further and have mobile ears."

She then nods to Mittens. "Yeah. But not night time yet. Let's secure a place to sleep the would be ideal for a kidnapper to grab us from."

Timothius says, "Meanwhile, we can also secure a more secure place and boast about how the kidnapper has no chance of kidnapping someone from there. If the kidnapper is utilitarian, he'll go for the easy target. If the kidnapper is proud or doing this for the challenge, he'll go for the "secure" target."

Mittens headshakes to Terdisas.  "Custom made by Tailor Timothius.  Maybe if you ask nicely and pay well he'll make one for you...  between his million other projects."

Mits nods to Rai.  "Good thinking!"

She puts her enthusiastic energy behind getting what needs done done.

  Terdisas nods, "Perhaps later then, in one of those rare moments when lives are not at risk."  He considers the Split Up Gang! plan, and asks "Any particular preference for which location I would be watching?"

Timothius says, "Probably would make life simpler if we just go with Mitts watching Raichel and you watching me."

Raichel nodnods.

Fast forwarding a bit; the four found two good spots. Timothius played like he was a traveler who didn't have the money currently to pay for a room, so he offered to be an extra hand for an hour or so if he was allowed to sleep in the barn for the night.

Meanwhile, Raichel got the most secure room she could find. Night falls and the two squirm a bit initially, but they act asleep looong before they'll fall asleep.

Mittens watches over Raichel intently, ready to signal the others should she be attacked.  Because no way would she allow herself to miss out on action because there's no signal set up to let HER know if Timothius is the one being attacked!  She spends the time pretending she's some kinda super stealthy ninja elf assassin with keen senses and reflexes, ready to gank the target with extreme prejudice... whatever that means.

It probably means something like 'Use of unnecessary force has been authorized'.

Chicken disguise best disguise.  Maybe.  Or at the very least what Superbird is going for outside the barn entrance.  Meanwhile, Terdisas hopes he doesn't fall or something because in hindsight hiding in the barn rafters may not have been the most brilliant of plans.

Raichel pretty well goes untouched. Timothius, however, is being approached by several dark figures wearing their own ninja outfits. It's only because they are almost on top of Timothius and the fact they are moving that Terdisas notices them.

Tim doesn't seem to have noticed them.

However, unless Ter doesn't signal Mittens for some odd reason, she get signal.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:42, Thu 01 Mar 2012.

"There's the signal!" Mittens calls out to Raichel, "Let's get over there!"

Complaints about horses not being epic enough aside, she's happy to have the extra speed right about now.  She hops on the saddle and spurs her horse to a full sprint to the barn.

Hmm, yes.  Lurking so and so's sneaking up on Timothius in their sleep is totally worth using a daily (It's Terdisas's only multitarget, after all).  Hit-On-Miss ice sawblades first, Thunder Wave second, acrobatics fail falling off the rafters third...

Could have done without that last one.

But all the ruckus sure woke Timothius. And Ter thankfully was above the hay Tim was using as a bed, so... soft landing, at least. Timothius throws his blanket off to show he's fully geared. Much as he'd prefer sleeping ungeared (much less in an actual BED), this mission called for instant preparedness. He drops his daily as well. Not often he's surrounded and that's perfect use of the power. Moment of Glory has the would-be kidnappers flying in all directions.

Raichel is not far behind Mittens and once on foot, catches up with and passes Mitts to get into melee. "Gotchya, kidnappers!" she calls out.

Mittens challenges the most dangerous one in the bunch and gets to stabooming!  "Take that, villains!  On a side note...  surrender and be spared.  Life loving cleric present."

No dailies for her.  Much as she'd love to, already impossible to use the big kaboom without hurting her allies.

  Terdisas is glad Mittens can tell which one is the most dangerous one, because it was a little tell which freaking NINJA was which from above, while Mittens is at eye level (and Ter has gone from well above that to below it).

  The sorcerer stands back up, and fires off an Ice brick at the closest Ninja to Tim...  yeah, that probably would have been better to do to the one behind himself.  He's not having good stratermagy tonight
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:16, Thu 01 Mar 2012.

But then, that's why it's good to have a team. Raichel rather suddenly materializes behind Terdisas, back-to-back with him and smacking that ninja on the head with her staff. "Got your back, Terdisas."

Timothius says, "Thanks, Ter!" as he employs some debuffs to the enemies. There was no "most dangerous" of the bunch, so Mitts was guessing. However, ALL of them were minions, so... all of them are KO now before they even had a chance to surrender.

"Glad to see you're ok, you two," Mittens comments, tying up badguys, "Wasn't expecting a whole group of ninjas, though.  Makes some sense, though."

Once everyone's secured and goodguys are rested, she'll get to questioning one.

  It's a good thing he can't read the narrative, or Terdisas might now feel somewhat silly for using a Daily on a bunch of minions <.<

  "A rather surprising amount of effort to kidnap random youths."   A chicken wanders into the barn,  "Bawk, I'll bet it turns out the ninjas are more of the missing kids and they are lead by a guy covered in sharp objects!"

Timothius says, "So let's get these guys to the local authorities and question them."

The Bat-symbol spins toward the screen and then away.

At the guard station, the group has gotten what they're going to get from the ninjas. Despite how very cool it would be that they were wayward teens being trained by a sharp-objects-covered man named Shredder, this doesn't seem to be the case. These ninjas aren't even teens and they seem loyal to the money their master payed them. Granted, these aren't the tougher style ninjas. Just the ninja horde style minions. Poor saps.

They relatively easily give up the location of their "master" and where he's keeping the other captives. Apparently, there is a cave near the town that most people avoid because it's "haunted".

Once Mits has detailed directions to the cave from the frightened locals, she goes to the mish door and uses recall friend. heads for the cave.

"Hostage situations...  No I'm NOT going to surrender if he threatens to harm captives.  I'm going to blast 'em all!  Fortunately, that'll just KO the captives."

  "Even with such assurances of lives, I am again reminded why I've skimped on my wholesale devastation capabilities."  Which can be somewhat tricky as a Sorcerer, let alone a Storm/gimmick picking up Ice powers Sorcerer.

  "Of course, some would dread a parent's complaining more than the fight itself, tweet."

Timothius says, "As long as they'll be fine."

Once inside the cave, it takes a little exploring and bonking a few baddies in the way, but soon the group gets to a classic villain set up. There are some teens dangling over a giant pot of bubbling green stuff. Laughing maniacally, is a tiefling man who gloats. "Surrender! Or these two die!"

He has a wand pointed at the rope that is holding the kids up.

"More like, surrender or YOU die!"

As promised, she attacks!  This time using her daily!

  Terdisas uses a different form of 'shoot first, make insults later' attack as he fires off a Thunder Slam at the Pot.  Harder to drop people into pots if the Pots aren't where they used to be.

  "She's going to kill you! Kill you to death! Chirp!"

The hilarity is; size and weight don't matter on thunder slam. The tiefling's readied action of shooting the rope is activated and the kids fall, but there's no pot under them. Instead, there's a Raichel under them, jumping and tumbling to break their fall before turning and zapping at the tiefling.

But said tiefling is a boss fight. So he laughs. "FIRE?! Against me?! How quaint!" as he grins through the flames, apparently on fire and enjoying it.

Note: Even if Mitts is a pyromancer, the result is the same. What? The guy IS on fire.

Timothius puts an astral seal on the tiefling. "You *did* see the lightning. Right? And now the holy sign placed on you?"

The tiefling laughs. "Your petty gods won't save you! They'll watch you die and let you down just like they did for me!"

"Oh so you're a zombie Tiefling," Mittens concludes, "Even better!  Well guess what!  You're about to get a repeat performance of your previous disappointments!  'Cause you're going down!"

Mits proceeds to STAB the badguy!  Good old fashioned steel.  Solves so many problems.

---

(Was going for hybrid sword mage / wizard for this version of Tens.)

  Worth the 'waste' of one of his heavy hitters if it meant less boiled children.  Of course with all the commentary on Fire going on, it would be silly not to attempt the traditional makes-no-sense-but-there-it-is result of being on Fire, and FROZEN at the same time.

  He's sure Mittens and Raichel will not mind the Reflex debuff Frostbind causes either, if this hits.

Frostbind and the stab both hit. The tiefling hits 3/4th hp and says, "Ha! Impressive, whelps! Now let's see how you deal with THIS!" He explodes in a ball of fire that fills the room, dealing a lot of ouch to everyone. Kids included. Yes, him commenting at certain hp level was a blatant CoX reference. What of it?

Timothius meeps. "We need to get the captives out of here! Or get the bad guy out."

Raichel says, "Was working on it!" as she drags the now singed kids to behind a wall of some kind.

"It's been a long time since I've had the pleasure of fighting a villain who uses the proper villainous catch phrases," Mittens comments, not yet bloodied so unable to add shifter snarls, "Thanks!  Now for the next part..."

WHAM!  A swing of the sword and a wave of force slam into the badguy!  Mittens puts on her best "hero voice" impersonation.

"KIDNAPPING YOUNGSTERS AND DIPPING THEM INTO BOILING POTS!  HOW COULD YOU, YOU FIEND!  Psst.  This is where you explain your evil plan."

  Terdisas is totally bloodied, these things happen when you are a scrawny sorcerer.  "To put it a bit less diplomatically than I am prone to, his plan is being an asshole.  Just keep stabbing him."  Dragon Frost ice fist coming right up.  Knockback optional.

  As much as Mitten's abandonment of cloth and staff methods are played up, stick beats sword in raw PAAAAAAIN.

Mitts heals up a bit for hitting the tiefling thanks to the Astral Seal. Timothius heals Terdisas right up. Then maintains the Astral Seal. He figures the big fireball was this guy's biggest trick. Hopefully.

Raichel goes to close distance, flanking with Mittens and smacking him with her stick.

The tiefling hits 1/2 hp and says, "You fools don't know what you're dealing with! When my minions bring these people as a sacrifice to Gee'nos, I will be the most powerful being in the world! And by now, my minions have already taken them to the ritual circle! You're too late!"

Mittens blinks in some surprise.

"Wow.  He was so focused on gloating, he didn't even attack.  There's a flaw in your plan, villain.  It's called SWORD TO THE FACE!"

And ice fist.  And stick upside the skull.  And holy debuff...  but who's counting.  STAB!

"Oh... and where is this ritual circle so we can arrive there too late?"

  "All these beings token sacrifices are made to seem awfully generous, considering the usual claims.  Excuse me."  It could be leading to a vicious one side beatdown in someone else's favor on Terdisas's skull, but he rushes off while Mittens and Raichel deal with the ranting teifling to screw with the mentioned ritual as soon as possible.

Timothius looks torn. On one hand, powerful tiefling vs Tim's sisters. On the other hand, Ter going to possibly certain doom and children about to be sacrificed. "If you need me, scream! I'mma keep Terdisas alive! Don't forget your healing potions!" He runs after Ter.

Speaking of whom, Terdisas comes upon a ritual with a bunch of people strapped to tables. Coming out of a portal is what looks like a tiki mask with arms and legs (We're looking at YOU Banished Pantheon). And echoey african-style voice speaking a foreign language can me heard coming from the thing.

Back to Mittens, what she didn't know was the guy used last action to activate second wind. So nobody hit him last round and he got some HP back. This round, however, he creates a blazing sword and looks like he's gonna swipe at Mittens. Instead, he stabs it right through his own gut in order to stab Raichel behind him.

She squeals, widening her eyes.

And this would be part of the reason Mits went with sword mage!  Damage reduction when enemy attacks her sibs!  Woohoo!  Nevertheless...

"Looks like my allies have already discerned the location of your ritual circle, villain," Mittens retorts, "And without the chickens you counted before they hatched ritual, you'll fall by my blade soon enough!"

She swipes at his wrist!

  Terdisas kind of stops short at the whole giant... uh...  Wut.  "... I am at a loss for words."   Superbird steps up to the plate, "Chirp, Your head are huge! That means you have huge face!  Zap and Freeze! Zap and freeze your Face!" Thank you, superbird.

  The sorcerer mans up and heads to get between giant FACE and victims while firing off more Dragon Frosts.  Sure, only push 1.  But every little bit helps.

  OOC Style: Mentions of Blazing sword in turn, always Remind me of 'why don't they start with the sword?' which in turn reminds me of Voltes V.  Where IN SHOW the Pilots ask themselves this, and the enemies go to efforts to screw with 'Sword = The Win'.  "Why aren't we using the sword?"  "Giant Samurai monster, duh" commence side trip for bare hand blocking training montage that will somehow translate to the giant robot.

The enemies also had several 'screw with transformation sequence' plans.  And that's all within like the first 12 episodes.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:29, Sun 18 Mar 2012.

This tiki-masked Gee'nos dude seems to take the frost to the face like a champ. But he also doesn't retaliate. One of the captives, a 5-year-old boy, says, "He's not here yet! He just looks like he is! Free us and he can't come!"

Timothius gets to work on setting the people free.

Meanwhile, back at the tiefling, when Mitts slits the tiefling's wrist, Raichel grabs her own wrist with a wince and drops her staff. On the bright side, it hurt the tiefling too. "Hahahaha! Whenever you hurt me, you hurt your sister!"

However, Raichel hadn't been healed yet. So she is now bloodied. Hello, psychocat mode! "Then I'LL hurt you and I!" Raichel growls while hopping onto the guy's back and unleashing all kinds of electricity, making both of them shriek in pain.

Back at tiki room, Tim gets nervous. "I heard them scream..."
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:41, Sun 18 Mar 2012.

"That... was... AWESOME!" Mittens cheers, "You make me so proud, Raichel!"

She knows Rai's tough, but it's still hard to stab the guy knowing it'll hurt her.  Ah well.  Slash where he's open.

  "Professionals in danger compared to kidnapped children, this is the Adventure at least one of your sisters should be aware of."  Terdisas is going to pick up thievery training one of these days.  For now high Dexterity will have to hopefully cut it if anything more complicated than ropes are involved.

  "Out of professional curiosity, where did you come across this knowledge?" It just might be a method something more convenient than making Arcana checks considering the shown results so far.

The child replies to Terdisas, "Because the bad man said when the demon arrived, he'd eat us. We're not eaten yet."

The moment the last captive is set free, the demon vanishes.

Meanwhile, Raichel and Mittens defeat the tiefling. Raichel is taking a deep breath before collapsing against a wall and sliding down.

Mittens does a quick first aid check on Rai to make sure she's not dieing.  "Think you can handle tie-up of badguy?" she asks hurriedly, "I'll go help Terdisas with the kids if you can."

(( OOC: From what I remember, Terdisas and the kids are in a different room.))

  "Ah, deductive reasoning.  Anyone who says children are not smart is clearly missinformed.  Timothius, if you would be so kind as to make sure no children are harmed more than they appear while I give the place the arcane onceover" Arcana checks are go.

  Superbird flies off back towards where the shifter sisters were.  No 'Visual information' sharing, but Parrots are still much better at instant information sharing than a Scout Homunculus who has to come all the way back to their owner.

OOC Style: Yeah, Ter and Tim are in diffrent room with freed kids.

Raichel doesn't even answer as she closes her eyes.

Timothius nods and agrees as he is quickly checking the health of the children.

Obviously, Superbird can see whatever happens in Mitts' post.

"TIMOTHIUS!" Mittens shouts, "Raichel unconscious!  Badguy defeated!"

She does her best to perform first aid on Raichel to make sure she doesn't die before Timothius shows up.  Just because she and Rai were sure to be non-lethal on the baddie doesn't mean the baddie's "shared pain" magic won't kill Rai.

  On the off chance Timothius doesn't notice Mittens All Caps due to medical distraction, Terdisas passes if along "They have beaten the tiefling, but Raichel is down.  I suspect she may need you more then the children at this point.  Though I shall stay with them."

Timothius rushes to Raichel to check on her, uses some of his healing powers and gets her back to a decent level of health.

Raichel blinks a few times and rubs her forehead with the side of her hand. "...thanks, Timmy." she says with a cute smile before getting up and going to tie up the badguy.

Fast-forwarding a bit, the heroes have the kids all cared for and the bad guy tied up and in the wagon.

Mittens is doing some figuring on her fingers, mostly gazing at the sky as she relaxes.

"Ya know...  if you count the number of years of life that we've salvaged from the grave between the three of us, it'd be well over four digits," Mittens concludes, "Thats over a thousand birthdays.  Then if you figure in weddings and children, the number could expand to 5 digits before we reach old age.  No idea what Terdisas' rescue count is, but I'm sure it's comparable.  Just think of all the generations of folks who'll get to see sunrises and summer flowers because we put up with a few bruises, cuts, burns and such.  Totally worth it, wouldn't ya say?"

She lets out a satisfied sigh with a big smile.

  "It does feel good to use the term 'Totally worth it' outside of a self depreciating pyrrhic victory.  Though I had not considered trying to keep a counted tally of potential lives saved."  Or even current lives saved.

OOC Style: My leading usage of Totally Worth it! in TF2.  Any time both me and the guy I'm fighting die at the same time, usually from poorly thought out use of explosives on one of our parts.

Raichel smiles at Mittens and says, "Well yes. It'd be worth it if we only saved one life, but the fact we have rescued so many makes it feel especially rewarding." After all, there are movie plots based off doing a whole quest throughout the movie just to save ONE person. Or the classic "fight a dragon to save a princess".

Timothius says, "Hey wow. Mitts looks kinda relaxed." he grins and reaches over to pet the hair out of Mitts' face.

Mits chuckles and smiles, reaching out to pet her bro back.

"Of course for me, the action is the juice.  But it never hurts to reflect on the other benefits of being a hero.  Such as bounties!  We're due some gold, aren't we?"

  "I do believe we are Mittens.  The 'Heroic' lifestyle can get rather costly despite not frequently spending on things such as fancy meals and the like."  Mmmm, RATIONS.

Timothius looks up to see Ter. "Yeah. Hopefully we can treat ourselves today."

The group makes it to town without incident. The town is, of course, very happy to have its kidnapped youth returned and reward the heroes with free room and food. Along with a monetary compensation. The sun is heading for the horizon, preparing to set.

Mits of course enjoys the hard earned free food, boisterously recalling the details of the adventure to those who happen to care to listen.

"And the rest is recent history!" she concludes.

  "I am of course, thankful that the children were able to make rescuing them easier.  So much better to have them free without dealing with a Demon than to fight one with captive nearby, after all."

Raichel leans her head on her hand in an interested manner as she listens to yet another Mittens take on the latest adventure. With the story told and the day coming to a close, Raichel says, "Thanks for that nice rendition of what we went through, Mitts. I think we should all get some rest."

Timothius is glancing at the fireplace. When he hears Raichel calling for bed time, Tim looks over at the others. "Sleep sounds good." he then looks at the people present and says, "Remember... when it seems like stopping evil will get you hurt, in trouble, or worse, it is worth it in the end. NOT stopping evil will get you and the ones you love hurt worse than if you had stopped it. So when you find yourselves scared, remember our tale and press on."

"Of course if there are professionals like ourselves handy, it wouldn't hurt to hire 'em," Mits says with a smirk, "But yeah.  As the frog strangling the stork trying to swallow him might say, 'Never give up!'"

Of course, in the Monster Bug World, struggles are often in vain.  Mittens heads off for a well deserved rest.

  "On a more cynical note, just because something is doomed if nobody helps does not mean you can force people to help.  It can end up somewhat like making the Pyromaniac watch the lamp oil supplies just because he's good with matches."

(Drawing a blank on what to run. But figured I could at LEAST have this one come to a close)