07.09s Ley of the Land

[Joshua]

Past the restaurant, which rapidly clears as you walk through,... The room is large, with a throne (small, relatively plain) on the end. Koschei is a gaunt man, wearing fairly ornate robes and seems to have a slight air of magic about him. His dark, stringy hair is less than kept, and he does rise to greet you.

"You will have to forgive me. This is, perhaps, the fourth time I have had someone walk in here and claim to be able to take down my holdings. Everyone here believes they can build something both new and better." He will grumble. "I will say the same to you that I said to that priest... Show me something better and I will consider adopting it. He was unable to make his system work elsewhere. What power do you claim that's better than what I wield?"

[Spellbinder]

"Nice verbal trap there. Of course I can't just wave my hands and make things better. That will take time and work. I'm willing to do that. Are you? Or are you just content to live off of the suffering of others and convincing yourself that you're doing them a service? At least this priest of yours is willing to try."

"What needs to be done? We need to find ways to help these people find the means to support themselves without stealing. We need a solid code of law and a fair way to enforce it. We need to teach people to respect the law, no fear it. There are probably dozens of more problems I haven't even thought of yet. No one person can fix this all, but good people working together in good faith can make it happen."

"Again, are you willing to work with me or stand in my way?"

[Joshua]

"With? No. Not until you show you have the strength. If your method is a suitable replacement, then we can talk. Otherwise, don't waste my time." He will humph, "If you wish to work with the priest, Father-Confessor* Lane is fairly easy to find. I heard he was attending the festival today. Trying to talk sense into the orcs. Their Church of Amber was not received well; Dworkin himself took offense at it. Made them change the name**. Can you believe that?"

He will shake his head and laugh. "So, hero... This is the part where we fight. Still, it hardly seems fair. You've probably never met your match, and this place is crawling with those kinds." He ponders... "Perhaps an enemy we can both agree on? Six blocks that way***... Fairly bad street gang. No semblance of order except punching and beating up people. They tried holding a few for ransom. At least we protect the citizen's safety. See what you can do, and we'll actually negotiate."
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*: Still creepiest title!
**: More likely, Dworkin made some comment that got Harrune or Oberon to tell them to change it.
***: Right where you left Chance. Cause, ya know.

[Spellbinder]

"This is what I get for not going with the tropes. It set a bad precedent for the day." Spellbinder ponders for a moment. "Okay, I guess you have a point there. Fine. I'll go check out this gang. If they are as bad as you say then they're a good place to start on cleaning this place up. If you're playing me for a fool, well that's an answer too. Either way, we'll talk when I'm done."

With that, Spellbinder turns and strides out of the room. When he is clear of the building, he takes flight again. Safely above the streets he says to himself, "Well, I certainly screwed that up. This just isn't my day. Maybe I should have run when I had the chance, but way too late for that now. These people need me. I'm out of my depth, but I'm not backing down. If I'm going to do this, then I should do it."

He begins to fly off in the direction Koschei indicated. He softly sings to himself. "All around us chaos reigns, buildings crumbling down. Silhouettes in the fiery rain, timbers crash to the ground. Bring my spear, invested with my youth. When the children hear, they must now be told the truth. Old and young and those of foreign tongue, are you ready to fight?"

[Joshua]

Well, the good news is that the gang hasn't decided to mess with Chance just yet. They are, however, in a small group of 8 attempting to lean on the vendor for money. Chance appears to be biding his time to make a move, but is... a little outclassed. Also, these people do seem to be a bit more of a NYC street gang. Chains, tire-irons, and brass knuckles are the weapons of choice.

[Spellbinder]

Spellbinder descends until he is hovering a couple of feet off of the ground. “Leave the good man alone. I am Spellbinder. Get used to it, you'll be hearing that name a lot. I'm here to change things. I'm going to help make this a decent place for good people to live, no matter how many butts I have to kick to make that happen. This behavior doesn't fly any more. Are you going to run now or do we do it the hard way?”

The leader turns to face Spellbinder and sneers. “Only someone with a name that stupid would be stupid enough to mess with us. Teach him a lesson boys.”

“Making fun of my name? Seriously? Fine.” Spellbinder gestures and speaks several words in a language unfamiliar to any of the bystanders. A glow red aura forms around Spellbinder. He points at the closest thug and the aura extends to slap his face and send him spinning. A gesture sends the energy to grab the next and throw him into two others.

A detailed description of the ensuing fracas would take too long to tell. Spellbinder spends the next 5 minutes or so knocking them around. (Yes, he does intentionally draw it out much longer than it needs to be.) He is being very careful to avoid serious injury, but no so careful about avoiding pain. Highlights include leaving one hanging from the sign for a shop by the seat of his pants, wrapping the tire iron around one thug's neck (not tight enough to make it hard to breath, but good luck getting that off), allowing a thrown knife to bounce off of his chest and the obligatory bit of dragging back the guy who is trying to crawl away. During this he makes sure the leader gets as little abuse as possible. At the end of the 5 minutes, the leader and Spellbinder are the only two left able to fight.

“Well, enough of that. How's about we finish this without magic?” Spellbinder drops into a martial arts stance. The leader very nervously advances on Spellbinder, swinging his chain to gain momentum. When he takes his shot, Spellbinder intentionally takes the hit on hit left arm allowing the chain to wrap around his arm. He gives is a sharp yank, pulling the thug closer to him and off balance. A quick punch to the stomach drops him to his knees. “I don't want to see any of you around here again. Next time I won't go easy on you. Understand?” A quick kick to the jaw knocks him unconscious.

“Well, that's that. Oh hey Chance! Everything okay? Meeting with Koschei didn't go as well as I hoped. Once his informants have had time to report I'll have to have another chat with him.”

[Joshua]

Chance will eventually stick his head out from behind one of the overturned tables in the area. "Uh... We're okay?" He will say with less-than-enthusiasm. Eventually, he will emerge with Risk and the vendor... "So... what now?"

[Spellbinder]

'Well I don't think you have to worries about these losers showing their faces around here. They won't want to come back after a public humiliation like that. People are more likely to laugh at them than be afraid of them."

Spellbinder will turn to check on Bob. Once he's sure that Bob is alright he'll start helping to clean up the mess.

"What's next? Well I should check in with Koschei. I really didn't handle that too well. Hopefully I can fix that and get him to... Wait a minute! Of course! That will make a better impression."

He turns smiling to Chance. "Well my local guide, how about if we head down to the river? We might need to go to the docks, but maybe not. I need to gather some information. Once I have that and some time to work out some details I think I can really make a few people sit up and take notice."

[Joshua]

"River? We actually don't have*... I mean, there's one in the Valley of Garnath, it's... uh... South of here... I think... on the same side of the city as Rebma." He will ponder a bit... "The harbor is just downhill. there's one for Rebma and one for Amber, although there's a lot of overlap between them. And the ships are starting to overcrowd. Most of the city-filth just washes along the cobblestones."

Chance will look around. "Well, Risk, let's go show him." He will smile, and lead you back down. "It's where most people arrive. There's also a dock that people have been appearing on now and then. Mostly Amberites..." He will explain a bit of the layout... like how to get to Rebma, although he's never been down there.
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*: For those of you who are not in the know, not having a river by a medieval city is really rare.

[Spellbinder]

"Wow, I should have been paying much more attention on my way in. Yeah, I was a bit distracted and all, but still... Well I knew this wasn't going to be an easy project and there wouldn't be any quick fixes. I'm sure I can manage something though, and then we'll see from there."

While en route, Spellbinder will ask Chance about his home, how he came to be here, how me met Risk and other basic "getting to know you" stuff.