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Mother Krisha

Member

Registered: 2019-05-04

Posts: 504

My Friends,We Have A Problem-Dibbun Slavers TP LOG

The Western Shore, beneath the sweltering summer sun, having decided to leave Keldorn's larger boat behind in favour of the speed of the logboats the party from the Abbey are racing across the estuary of the River Moss. With Mistclaw having a proper headstart on the abbey party Matilda and the GUOSIM used the logboats to catch up with Dora and Xander and got them all back aboard. At least she managed to talk Xander back aboard and had to resign herself to leave Dora to her own devices. The boats then pushed off and headed down river, picking up speed in the current to cover the last final few miles to the shore and give Mistclaw as little time as possible to escape. The smaller logboat has Matilda, Caleb and Oswald aboard and the longer, large one carrying Dora's stuff, Xander and Keldorn.
   
As they shoot across the sparkling water they can see on the northern shore of the Moss a large plume of smoke coming from a campfire and what look like several rats. It doesn't look like enough beasts however but it's better then nothing. Matilda points with the Sword of Martin the Warrior and Oswald changes course, heading for the sandy shore.   

The shrew with bells in his hair curses as he peers at the camp, "I don't know, this doesn't look right Matilda lass, where are the dibbuns? And the rest of her rats?"   

"I don't know," Matilda growled, "This is probably a trap, be on your guard but we need to capture some of them alive, preferably some of her rats, we can make them talk."
   
Oswald nods and drives the logboat toward the shore, leaving Matilda and Caleb to ready their weapons, "Ok.... well this ends today hopefully... may Martin be with us all!"
   
The logboat rides up the sand onto the shore with Keldorn's just behind it and two rats who are standing near the camp draw their bows and fire. Matilda leaps over Oswald brushing one of the arrows aside with Martin's shield. The other arrow is heading straight for Keldorn but the Champion doesn't have time to worry about that as she charges, "Caleb with me."   

Mistclaw is tried, she is grumpy and it took a slight bit longer to make sure the Crimson Tide was ready to sail off, she seriously hates sea beasts but will put up with them if she must. She has 5 rats with her right now as she is not expecting trouble.The hare Donica is not too guarded either, in fact, while the vermin are discussing whatever she has slipped a dagger she had in a pocket out and is slowly managing to cut the ropes,her eyes widen as she feels the ropes break free and she scoots a little ways off preparing to bolt first chance she gets. Then it seems action happens as the hare maid is taking that chance now, Mistclaw's ears flatten and nope no dibbuns in sight and the ship is not seen by the heroes yet it appears"No nO no.......fire at them I need to get to the ship"Yes she cares less of her rats long as she lives, or the hare maid it seems.   
   
Caleb would get off the boat after having prepared his things, the armor clad mouse pulling out his hand made blade. He would probably have talked with the others before they set down so as to know the battleplan. Either way, there was no more time. On the word of Matilda, Caleb charged in with her, keeping his blade ready. He'd see a weasel guarding Oz and keeps that in mind before heading towards one of the rats with the bows. He takes up a slide towards them and comes up with an upward slice.   

Xander has his eyes set on Mistclaw and growls low, let the others face the rats he is after the fox, he draws his blade and then heads right to her!   

A cloaked figure is off to the side and indeed there is a lone weasel guard, guarding a badger cub off to the side and maybe would of been easily missed.The weasel is slightly distracted with the sounds of fighting but was told to stay guard over the cub or else, and or else is usually bad when comes to kurgan.
   
Keldorn barely sidesteps the arrow and slices at the rat with his rapier, the two battle and the rat is soon dead.   

   
DoraRose has been really upset since they left Redwall. She has been barely able to contain her anger this entire journey, and her friends have seen it come out in battle before today. So once they found Keldorn's boat.....and once she discovered it was EMPTY....the Gatekeeper's anger just exploded. She wasn't able to contain it any longer, and she didn't really try. And after being pent up for that long, it can no longer be stopped.   

The Bloodwrath is full upon her at a strength she hasn't felt in a very long time....if ever. The only possible other time when she was this enraged was when she finally met her sister's murderer in battle. But none of her family is here to get her out of it now. And while she and Matilda are good friends, the Warrior doesn't have the same emotional connection with her as she does with her family. As such, when the Champion recalled her to join them on the log boats, the hedgehog got blatantly ignored (if Dora could even hear her through the Rage).   
And so she's been running doggedly along the riverbank all these hours, following the vixen's tracks. She can't go quite as fast as the boats on the river, but she is going way faster than she usually does. But she has also gotten a little lost -- the vixen's footprints, while still there, are a bit invisible to her. So after casting around a bit, she continued to follow the river downstream, feet thundering along the ground as she continues to run. She can't see or hear what's going on up ahead yet, but she's getting closer, the Bloodwrath still fully in control...   

Matilda takes out the rat ahead of her easily enough, the creature didn't even get a chance to loose another arrow. Their partner meanwhile is split in twain by the shrews, the hedgehog shifts left and raises her shield.   

"Caleb, take out the the weasel, secure get the baby," is her order as she moves to assist Keldorn and Oswald.   

The remaining rats are throwing themselves at the two GUOSIM and the hedgehog to try and buy Mistclaw time to flee but well Xander will hopefully have something to say about that! There are slightly more rats then Matilda thought at first where they had only seen the initial five three more are running up the shore, intending to help their boss. Whether they'll attack Xander or try to join forces with the three rats tangling with the Champion and her GUOSIM allies is another thing entirely.   
   
Donica rushes towards her friends, she eeeks as a rat tries to stab her, she kicks the rat hard in the chest sending it onto the sand.

Mistclaw meanwhile narrows her eyes and backs up and...seeing the badger she gulps and turns to flee,but is she quick enough?   

Xander eyes narrow and turn slightly red as he storms after the fox, he slices a rat in two, and another one loses a head cause they are in his way! The one rat screams in terror and runs away! Well least the last rat is smart it seems. Once he catches up to the vixen he right away slices at her,"Where are the dibbuns?" He snarls "And where is my son!!" He didn't see his son, so he assumes the fox has his son with the other dibbuns.
   
Keldorn fights with a rat still and sidesteps another one as he mutters to himself, " Where are they coming from?"   

With a nod, Caleb heads off towards the shadows to make sure that he can sneak up on the weasel. It was pretty easy to seeing as the guy seemed to be absent minded. He'd have to be quick though and make sure no one gets to Oz but his friends and father. After taking a small breath, the mouse heads in behind the weasel and brings his blade up in a swirl, slicing deep through the weasel's back while using himself to shield Oz of any blood splatter.

Oz would just be whimpering and sputtering out some babble but look away at the right time so as not to see the weasel fall, distracted by a bug it seems.   

DoraRose can hear the sounds of battle up ahead, and her speed increases from the slower pace she had settled into. She can't yet see her friends, but she can hear them, and a wordless yell pulls itself from her throat as she readies her axe to join into the fray. She should burst upon the scene any moment now...

The rats pressing in against Keldorn, Oswald and Matilda are forcing them back, another two have run up to join them. The smaller shrew grumbles, "I don't know lad, the stupid fox seems to have an endless supply of the blighters!"   

Matilda growls and side steps two of the rats as they thrust at her, turning their swords on her shield, "One of us needs to go help Oz..." she tries to get around them but the rats fall back, attacking with swords and heavy belaying pins they are clearly trying to buy their boss the time she needs to flee.   

With Caleb tied up with protecting the baby and Xander in the bloodwrath it's imperative they get over there and back Xander up! But these rats are proving stupidly tenacious and smart for a change and it is bloody difficult to break past them.
       
Donica frowns and stays sort of away from the fighting, her ears droop a little .Meanwhile, Mistclaw gets a cut to her shoulder and about stumbles, she makes the mistake of turning around to see the badger and frowns, this is her worse nightmare come true. She sends a kick at him and goes to get one of her daggers and if able she will stab at him! The slaver ship The Crimson Tide awaits her, she has to get there she is so close!And so in danger as well!. She also will do her best to block any slices at her.
   
Caleb grunts and swishes the blood away like a true swordsman, sheathing his blade to pick up baby Oz. The mouse thinks of something and gets an idea. After shifting things around in his bag, the mouse takes up Oz and swats the bug away that he was attempting to put in his mouth. Instead, Caleb hands the little badger cub a bottle of some juice he had which he fashioned into a little sippy cup. Oz seems to get distracted with it and allows for Caleb to pick him up and place the badger cub in his bag, putting the bag back on and heading off to go find Xander. He makes sure to keep his blade drawn.
   
Xander gets a stab wound in his arm, congrats you made him more peeved off! He blocks a couple of her stab attempts and growls as she blocks his.He sends a slice at her chest so it may be wise to back off! He is also getting real tried of the back and forth fighting and goes to knock her down and if he is able lay his blade at her throat, snarling at her and so ready to slay her on the spot, it appears the fox is very doomed.   

Kurgan had been staying off to the side, he smirks and at first, seems bored "Let her die...not let her die" He grins and raises his crossbow and takes aim"Little to the left...perfect" He then chuckles as he lets the bolt be released and it speeds threw the air...right...at...xander! Oh and it is one of his special bolts too...poisoned.
   
Keldorn manages to slay another rat and starts to head to his other friends.   

In a flurry of flying sand and swinging axe, DoraRose arrives on the scene! Surprise! Roaring, she barrels around the Champion and the shrews to the rats, swinging her axe right, left and center into the enemy. Her eyes are still as red as they were when she jumped off the boat, and her face is an angry and frightening mask that doesn't look very much like the mouse her friends know. She seems to be everywhere at once, engaging in 2 rats simultaneously with the skill that just comes naturally to her. Once they're dead, she'll move on to the next 2 and do the same thing.
   
   
Matilda takes a step back as Dora plows through all the rats, ok that'll do!   

She quickly takes stock of the scene and spots Kurgan spring up and fire a crossbow bolt at Xander. She curses, "Keldorn, Oswald, help Xander, stop that fox!"
   
She then sprints to the right, aiming herself at Kurgan, the sword of Martin the warrior sparkling in the summer sun as she runs straight at him. She can't let him reload that crossbow and use it on anyone else! At least he only hit Xander in the leg, the badger is tough, he can take a bolt in the leg but she is not letting him shoot anyone else.   
   
Xander glares down at the fox, battle noises around him but he seems to of tuned them out right now as his focus is on the vixen Mistclaw "They need you on that ship..."He growls "Without you...it doesn't leave...." Blade raised for a killing blow the vixen would not be able to normally get away from since his foot paw is on her chest. But before he can finish her off he drops his blade as intense pain fills his upper leg and hip.A growl of pain as he stumbles back a couple of feet.He shakes his head and growls again to attempt to try again at stoping the vixen,he catches sight of Kurgan and starts to head to him when burning pain seems to course threw his leg and he takes a couple coughing gasps before falling forwards, he attempts to get up only to fall again.
   
Mistclaw is not letting herself get caught..no way.Her eyes widen when she sees the badger fall and quickly scoots back,stands and ...she freaking bolts to her ship!

Donica gasps and quickly gets to Xander's side.."Xander?!"   

Caleb keeps running dodging left and right and cutting at any opposing forces that might get into his way. He can't stop now, not when his father is as stake. The mouse makes sure Oz isn't being bumped around too much and manages to finally make it to where the main battle is... only to see his father take a good fall. It's obvious that Caleb screamed and tried to speak only for nothing to come out, rushing towards the badger's side and keeping his blade up. He only works to keep Xander awake with anything he could.   

Kurgan grins as he walks forwards, as the badger falls he smiles coldly "Little trouble..walking? In some..pain?Oh no worries it will go all numb soon...."He looks up as he sees the mouse and snorts"Ohhh good....ya know what you can watch someone die before..you die...sound fun?"
   
Keldorn slices a rat's chest and gets to where most are, he points " The fox is...." He then sees Xander and kurgan
   
Yay, the rats are all (or close enough to all) taken care of! See, all you need is an enraged mouse to turn the tide of a battle DoraRose turns, barely registering that all her friends are headed elsewhere. But where is her quarry? The Gatekeeper sees the vixen in the distance, growls deep within her chest, and takes off after her, dropping her axe and drawing her bastard sword to help her go faster. And it works, too, as is evident with how the Warrior speeds by the ferret and badger at a much quicker pace than she arrived on the scene with.   

As Kurgan gloats suddenly there is Matilda.   

The hedgehog looms up behind Kurgan and the sword flashes, it catches the light and gleams with a bright silver flash, "For Redwall....."   

Her battle cry is simple but loud and with a single sweep Kurgan's head departs his head, sailing off to land with a splash in the surf, leaving his corpse to slowly collapse to the ground at the hedgehog's feet. She has had enough of these vermin, she has had enough of trying to take them captive, they have stolen their children and thus...  shall go to the Black Forest.   

Donica examines Xander and frowns "I don't know if...should remove the bolt or not....."She blinks and then starts to get something out of her pack she almost forgot about.   

Oz was seeming to try and get out of the pack now as Caleb came close to Xander's fallen form. He was going to help his father but Kurgan stood in front of him. Taunting a young boy who could lose his father who had just recently adopted him? It was crossing a line. He would raise his sword and be ready to fight.... but in reality he only needed to keep them distracted. Making sure Oz's eyes were diverted, he would hear the slash and nothing more. After, the mouse would simply keep his sword sheathed as he looked towards Donica and wrote something down on his pad. "Just... tell me what to do. I am not losing another parent."
   
Xander is in a lot of pain, and only half conscious right now and likely has no clue where he is, what is going on.He also starts shivering and the wound where the crossbolt entered is swelling and looking very bad rather quickly.He tries to say something only to cough as he starts having trouble breathing, this can't be good. His breathing and pulse are starting to not look good either and its very clear that wasn't a normal crossbolt. Another wound is on his arm where the fox cut him and some other cuts in a couple places as well.
   
DoraRose is very much unaware of the peril her badger friend is in. Otherwise she might give up chasing the vixen. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?), she doesn't know, and so she continues to chase after her enemy. "GET BACK HERE, YOU!" the mouse shouts, continuing to race after the fox, sword held at the ready to engage.   

Matilda stops by Xander for a moment, stepping over Kurgan, she glances down and frowns, "Oswald.... stay here with Caleb and Donica," she places a hand on Donica's shoulder, "Help him as best you can I will be back when I catch the vixen..." she then shoulders the perfectly clean sword of Martin and takes off after Dora.   

Donica frowns, she nods as she gets out the mixture of herbs she had "This...only slows poison....it doesn't...."She will go to try and get him to swallow some, "Maybe try and..keep him awake"Yes she knows he is semi conscious but if there is a chance to keep him awake longer that would help too. Meanwhile Mistclaw rushes past two ferrets, "Outta my way!" The ship..the ship! She races to it and grabs the rope ladder "Pull up ankor...go go go!!!!"
   
Caleb nods and thinks of something before smiling as he pulls off his bag. Out comes Oz and the mouse shows him to Xander, signing for Xander to show that Oz was okay. Of course, though the baby starts to wail and tries to speak, babbling about some nonsense but it was loud enough for everyone around there to hear.   

Xander shivers still, he does manage to get some of the mixtures down as he coughs and gags a little, he is still shivering but as kurgan said the burning sort of turns numb after a while, though that's not a good thing as he opens his eyes slightly having had then closed from serious pain like he never had before, he tries to focus on Oz...and Caleb as his breathing and pulse rate get a little worse...he takes a struggled breath as he manages...a word.."s...s...s..sorry...."His eyes remain half way open but are not totally focus on much at all.   

Oh, the vixen is pulling up anchor, is she? DoraRose sees this, and it does nothing to improve her temper! "NO!!" She comes up to the ferrets, and if they get in her way, she'll try to decapitate one and stab the other in the chest in a single, fluid movement. "GIVE ME BACK THE DIBBUNS!!"   

Matilda is quite a ways back from Dora having had to stop and kill Kurgan, she keeps running though, charging toward the surf where Dora is dealing with those ferrets. The hedgehog will glower at the ship as it starts to hoist anchor, "No.... no no no!"
   
Mistclaw climbs onto the Crimson Tide and looks back at them and sneers, ha she won.She pants as she is tried now and sits on the ship, she glares at the crew "Stop staring and get this ship going faster morons!" The ship does manage to pick up some speed best it can, she smirks"Bye Losers!!!" The ferrets? They are dead thanks to Dora.
   
Donica stays beside Xander and frowns, "I am unsure what else to do...if we remove the bolt it has to be done carefully and maybe...just pack bandages around it for now."   

Caleb nods and digs around in the pack while Oz just crawls up to his father and hugs to his head, just kind of there for Xander to help keep him up. Meanwhile, the mouse takes out some bandages and starts to pack it around as Donica had said.   

Xander does try and stay awake best he can, but the poison coursing threw his body fights back.His eyes flutter shut and he slips into unconsciousness and as the night goes on he will slip into a very dangerous deep faint.   

DoraRose starts to head out to the boat, wading until the waves are lapping her armpits. But there's no way she can reach the ship, and this just makes her more angry. She screams in rage, slapping her paws down on the water, which, combined with the pounding of the surf, makes her drop her sword like an idiot. It sinks below the water to be lost forever, and this does not help her calm down. She would throw a tantrum of sorts, but when she picks up a paw, a breaker crashes over her, knocking her off her feet. The cold and the wet and the shock of the water break the spell of the Bloodwrath, and when the mouse rolls onto the sand, she is back to her normal self. Still very upset, but not in a Berserker's Rage. She crawls up the beach, then pounds her fists on the ground, her scream of anger turning into sobs.   

Maltilda looks down at Dora as she rolls out onto the sand, the hedgehog offers her a hand, "Welcome back Dora, we need to get back to the others, Xander got shot and it looks bad." she then seems to zone out and turn away from the mouse and stare to the south, "Yes.... ok I understand," she would haul Dora back to her feet.   

"We do not have time to waste feeling sorry for ourselves Dora, she out smarted us, but we must get Xander to Salamandastron or Martin says we will lose him."   

Donica makes sure xander is comfortable as she waits on the others to return, she will do her best to keep him alive till they can get help.   

DoraRose is roughly dragged to her feet, but she nods and jogs back the way they came, wiping away her tears. Retrieving her axe from where she dropped it, she feels waves of exhaustion crash over her. But if the Spirit of Martin says they need to get Xander to Salamandastron as quickly as possible, then that means she can't give in! She will stay awake, which will get more and more difficult as the day and night wears on. But she won't give in. She'll barely eat, refuse to sit, until they finally reach safety at the Mountain. But until then....she will stay awake. (Although increasingly incoherent.)   
   
With Xander stabilized the best thing the party can do is lift him between them into the larger log boat. Once he's aboard they can float it out into the surf, far enough out from the shore to float but not too far out the party can't stand up.
   
Once in the water they can start floating it south, the party moving together to try and get Xander to help at the mountain whilst Donica strives to keep him alive. It will not be an easy journey but with two of the GUOSIM, Matilda and Dora to guide the boat Caleb can care for Oz in the Oswald's logboat whilst the hare tries to keep the badger alive.