Thwarted Escape

Sometimes Club: Empire of the Rising Sea — 07/15/12

• Notch, Gage, Punch, Saxifrage, Viddick, Peridiscus; Rona [Gage], Dangeon, Saxhorn (and other guards) [Viddick]

• Isle of the Unforgiven: Western Coast

After the altercation at The Knothill bar, Punch, Dangeon, and Notch make their escape. Gage stumbles from his suite, awakened by the noise, to find them mid-getaway. Having heard word of the fiasco afoot (and thinking his head could be the next to roll), he joins their flight. As the trio makes for a back corridor, they run into Saxifrage, who, in a fluke of poor judgement, also tags along. The group pilots the Knothill family sailboat, docked at the hotel's private pier, a short distance up the coast, until the craft becomes grounded on a shoal, at which point they disembark...

"Ya bloody well be sure about this, ain't takening my chances with you lot for nutin', " The youth [Notch] speaks maybe a bit too loudly for being on the run, having made sure to be at the lead of the group. He's been pursauded to part with his smelly/filthy covering by the others, and slows to wait for the rest of the group, "Bloody slow you lot, some escape."

Gage and Rona bring up the rear of the fugitives, intentionally as far away from the royal brat as possible. Though there's been no sign of anybeast following them, they both have weapons drawn and are conversing in quiet tones, throwing careful glances back the way they've come.

Punch, by contrast, hovers a short distance behind Notch, poised between his well-ingrained deference and seething rage. "N-n-nearly there, sir," he says placatingly. From the rat's paw dangles a lantern that exaggerates the scalloped shadows of the beach. "A-are we just going to l-leave the boat th-there?" he says as loudly as he dares, craning his head to see Gage behind him.

Having abandoned her attempt at striking a deal with the imperial guards, Saxifrage left them to the workers' devices, and fled to unite with more rational comrades. She traipses along, in close proximity to Punch and the queen, dodging rocks and beached chunks of driftwood as they come into view by lantern light. "What else are we to do with it?" she asks. "Burn it? Sell it to a wandering crab?"

Notch snorts and giggles, "Aye, that's an idea, the crab not so much the burning. Ain't that I don't like a good burning."

Gage steps up towards the head of the column, looking over the beasts at his disposal with some fairly obvious distaste." We don't happen ta have a plan other than 'run like hell', do we?" he asks. Rona has given him a quick bfeifing on the situation.

Punch's mouth pinches into a frown. "S-soon as th-there's light," he says, "I s-say we sail, far as we can. There's no place to s-s-stay hidden on this ac-cursed island." A look of immediate regret seems to wash across his face, but he stanches it with clenched jaw.

"The family dinghy isn't likely to get us far," the jill grunts. She stops walking, and turns to squint at the craft. It sits just off shore, but is strangely stagnant for something on the water. "Maybe our most neighborly island--but I wouldn't trust it, should weather hit." Saxifrage drags a hand through her hair, which has been rudely tangled by sea winds, and continues: "Besides, I, er--I think it's stuck in the sand."

Notch paces unnervingly as the group weigh their options, "Ol' Punchy could dig it out then, since he wants to go sailing!" Notch laughs, "Or I suppose we'll have to figure somethin' else out eh?"

Gage glances towards the boat in question, clicking his tongue disparagingly, "Well, it's not exactly a flagship..." he says, "But if it's all we got I guess we'll have ta make do." he returns his sword to it's sheath and Rona, after doing her best to cover their tracks, comes up behind him and stands to his left.

Punch turns sharply upon the laughing prince. "Watch your t-tongue, child!" he snaps, finally goaded beyond tolerance by Notch's teasing. "We owe you no sp-special treatment. Your father would sh-shower us with riches if we b-brought him your head!" His nostrils flare and catch the lamplight, so that they appear as gold rings against the blue cast of the beach.

A firm palm lands upon the architect's shoulder. "Calm down, Punch." Saxifrage winds to face him from the front, leans to his ear, and says in a low voice, "The last thing we need is a reason to send the kid running." Her eyes fall over Punch's shoulder to Dangeon, then flick back to meet the rat. "When the king regains his right mind, I would not like to be the party responsible--even remotely--for any harm that comes to the prince."

There it is, what Notch had been waiting for and he laughs and grins amused at poor Punch, "Ya wouldn't, and she's quite right. Ya need to calm down ol' feller, ain't no sense getting all in a fuss eh?"

Gage sighs, burying his face in one palm. He looks up at Punch, "Oi, rat, I get that the brat's possibly the most annoyin' beast ever ta walk this earth, but right now, i'd rather have to deal wit' him than be killed by an insane king, so do try not to kill each other please." he starts towards the small boat, "Now, i'd appreciate some help 'ere. We need ta know if we can get this thing unstuck an' sailing."

Punch testily pushes Saxifrage's paw off his shoulder and stomps forward. "Somebeast n-needs to put him in his place. That's all," he says harshly, then glances at the fleet captain. "D-do you think he m-means to sail ton-night?" he asks Sax, suddenly calm.

As the rat swats her hand away, Saxifrage folds both arms over her chest. "Our beloved skipper--so foolhardy," she hums, and turns to address Gage; the jill echoes Punch's question, "Captain? Are you suggesting we sail tonight?" Her brows knit. "With no victuals, fresh water? Blind?"

"I know my place ol' Punchy, don't'cha forget yours, " That rat prince response is perhaps as mature as can be expected, "Ways I sees it, we can stands around until its bloody daylight or we can sail or do somethin' else. Ain't no sense taking forever to decide which it is or isn't gonna be." Notch resumes pacing.

"Oh, i'm sorry, my lord," Gage turns to Punch, delivering a sarcastic bow with his reply, "Would you rather wait 'ere another day or until Darkfur kin find us an'..." he trails off as he hears Sax's more logical reason for not leaving now. "Damn it, why me?" he mutters to himself. "Is there even a warrant out fer me?" he asks, adding softly to himself, "Yet..."

As if it's own answer to the polecat's question, torches are seen in the distance, held up above at least five rats, in a linear formation. Viddick is visible front and center, without a torch, one free paw holding a pink-stained cloth to his forehead, the other gesticulating as he shouts directions at the other rats. He pulls away the cloth to inspect progress on the stain, briefly taking advantage of the other paw to dab at the wound directly, and replacing the cloth. "Cut off the beach; Saxhorn, go relay descriptions to those at the docks--mark my words, they'll /try/ to get off this island..." He grimaces, "Punch. What have you done, mate..."

The cries of the approaching contingent are enough to dispel any doubts that Punch may have entertained about continuing by boat. He hustles down the beach and sets the lantern in a divot of sand. "C-can't your brother hold onto one stupid r-rat for more than five m-m-minutes?" he says in a voice inflected with panic. "Come on! You t-too, ladies. Help!" He heaves his weight against the wedged bow of the vessel.

Saxifrage shares in the architect's burgeoning panic. With the hostile fireflies' fast approach, the jill vaults for the water. "I think her majesty is best left to land for now." A glance is thrown back to the queen, who remains pitifully intoxicated--distracted by various shells, bugs, and celestial objects. "We'll fetch her once it's freed." The water tugs at Saxifrage's billowy garments; she loses her footing to the current several times, but manages to drag herself back to the effort. "C'mon," she grunts, heaving. "The tide is too low!"

Notch looks on as the urgentness of the situation, but finds himself moving towards the hare, "I'll stay with the queen, ya' put your backs into it now! That's a good Punchy!"

Gage glares menacingly at the lazy heir, but turns and wades out to assist Punch, pushing as hard as he can. He grunts with exertion, "Rona, if they get too close, you know what to do," he calls to the vixen, who draws her axe and slips into the shadows, slinking towards the column of guards.

Viddick squints down at the beach, instantly spotting the fleeing assembly in the distance, aided by the generously luminous moonbeams whitening the sand against their silouettes. "There!! There, Saxhorn, change in orders; go back and get us reinforcements from the docks. Bring them to us! They'll be at least a few minutes with that vessel trying to get it adrift! Hah! We have them.." The team assumes a fast trot.

The bark breaks free with a lurch, guided by the paws of the two polecats and the young builder. Instantly, it forgets the pull of gravity and discovers the hungry seduction of the lapping waters. "Get in!" Punch cries, rather more loudly than he's permitted himself previously--heedless now of the peril. They've been sighted. Nothing to be done now. He offers Saxifrage a steadying paw. "C-mon, Ess," he says more gently. "In you go."

Saxifrage, extravagantly drenched, whips to watch the dutiful egress of the fox. She catches just a glimpse, really; the white tip of a vulpine tail, as exits the guttering corona of lantern light, and vanishes among blanched brush. With sodden hair plastered over her features, the wide-eyed jill yelps, "You've bid her to her death! The royal leash is hardly long enough to hold bloodthirsty soldiers at bay out here, captain--our carcasses will be fodder for fishes before our loved ones discover us gone!" Her cries abate when Punch hefts her into the boat, but only for a minute. "Captain! Collect the prince and her majesty!"

Notch gives the queen's paw a tug, "Come on ya highness, we royality need to get in da boat!" Notch is already moving and pulling the hare behind him as quickly as he can.

"I call.. bally boat quee-CAPTAIN! I call *hic* captain, wot!" Dangeon tipsily exclaims.

Gage was just about to crawl up into the boat himself when he hears Saxifrage's overly dramatic, at least in his opinion, words. He sighs and slips back into the surf, wading towards the shore and the two members of the royal family. "They better not have archers..." he grumbles.

Across the darkened beach, Saxhorn's progress is halted as a razor-sharp axe blade slices across his throat. Unfortunately for Rona, there is another rat nearby, and she is soon engaged in a paw to paw scuffle with him, though she does seem to be getting the better of him.

Punch steadies the fleeing boat with one paw planted firmly on its bottom, the other dug into slurry of sand at the water's edge. "Hurry!" he barks at the running royals. "Look wh-what all those r-r-rich bloody b-banquet meals have wrought," he says, his mouth twisting cruelly to address Saxifrage, already seated behind him in the rocking craft. Still, the young rat waits, paw held out in a gesture of impatient encouragement toward Dangeon and Notch.

Saxifrage cranes over the edge of the boat, arms extended to help the hier and his custodian board the craft. Hefting Dangeon, rather limp from libations, into the boat is a task best left to Punch and Gage, but the jill does manages to grab Notch by the scruff of his heck. She hauls him, none too gently, over the side.

The queen mutters something again about being captain as she falls into the boat headfirst, but rather than lifting herself she seems content to get comfortable where she lays and is soon sleeping drunkenly as ungracely as any queen. Notch meanwhile yelps as Sax grabs him, but doesn't resist and breathes heavily as he's deposited onto the boat, "Thanks, " He breathes and rolls onto his back, "Ya lot ain't too bad after all. Even ya Punchy!"

The rats encroaching upon the vessel finally hit sand underfoot, though there's a good several minutes of running to catch up to the boat. Two archer rats get ready to dip night arrows into torches, but are given a suppressive paw from Viddick, "No. Stay your paws - we go at them full speed, we're too far out for those. Use your heads!" He draws his sword and starts running at breakneck pace!

The figure of a young polecat cuts down the beach at a rapid sprint, chasing after the trial of the armed contingent of rats. Unhindered by armor or weapons, Peridisicus had made good progress since he had uncovered the disaster as he returned to the hotel. He halts abruptly as he hears and sights the skirmish proceeding ahead of him. "Oh hellsteeth?" he breathes as he skids to a sandy stop. The hob scans ahead to see the larger procession of torches still up ahead, just about to charge the boat. "Oh my dear sister, what have you gotten yourself into?"

Saxhorn runs up the beach and PEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!

Gage sees that everyone is in the boat except himself and the vixen, who finishes off the rat guard she's fighting with a swift knife thrust to the gut. "Rona, we are leaving!" Gage yells as he uses one paw to pull himself up into the boat.

Rona starts running towards the boat as fast as her paws can carry her, sand kicking up each time her feet hit the ground.

Peridiscus races down the beach at a breakneck pace toward the boat, not knowing what he expects to do unarmed and completely untrained in fighting; he hasn't so much as thrown a punch since he was very young. His heart is in his mouth, his feet pounding of their own volition, panic crowding out all rational thought.

Horror-stricken gaze pinned to the events on the beach, Saxifrage barely discerns a spindly, but familiar, figure galloping into view. "Peri," she mouths, though her utter shock prevents any actual vocalization. The jill whirls, grabbing for Punch. "Punch! It's Peridiscus," she cries, jutting a finger at his approach. "What the hell is he doing? He's supposed to be the smart one!"

Viddick's group is almost upon them and he orders the fire arrow-capable rats to fall back and barrage the boat... meanwhile three emboldened rats, albeit fully armed, try to stop the boat drifting off. "Do... you have ro... rope?! G...ive it to me!" Out of breath and swordarm searing with pain, Viddick looks disappointedly at the length of rope (if it can be called that), brought along to tie up the convicts. "Nevermind. Charge them!!"

Notch rolls over and squints as he looks over the boat to see who Saxifrange is talking about, "Who dat', someone important?"

Peridiscus's eyes grow wide in terror as he sees the archers readying their arrows. His mouth agape, the polecat trips and tumbles into the sand heavily, but he quickly stumbles gasping and screaming, "Wait!! They have my sister! Don't shoot!"

Too late. One of the archers lets loose just as Peridiscus cries out. Both of them look behind them and one puts down his bow to draw a sword, "Halt right there, cat!!"

Peridiscus slowly struggles to his feet, sand sliding off his torn, wet clothing. The hob holds his empty hands aloft in a gesture of surrender, still coughing and gasping.

Viddick looks in horror as a badly-aimed arrow, interrupted by the cries of the cat, flies much lower than the sail of the boat. "Damned rat archers! Train them as much as you w... want!! Aaaaargghh!!! Don't h..hit the queeen or prin....ce!!" He doggedly runs onward toward the vessel, almost upon it..

In his struggle to keep the boat from drifting away, Punch has hopped off again, the better to plant both paws in the sinking sand. His arms are thrown over the edge of the hull, but even this effort now fails him. Amid the splash and the strain, weighed upon by the threat of a sword in the gullet, he flops over into the seawater. Even as the wood flies out of his fingers, his eyes fly backward in a panic, to the crowd of advancing rats.

Rona is about twenty feet from the boat, her pace slowing from having to fight against the current, when the archers fire. Flaming arrows fly past her towards the boat, a few close ones singing fur, but she still keeps going, though the three rats that were sent to try and stop the boat are right behind her.

Gage yells encouragement from the deck, but has to duck to avoid being skewered. The polecat captain looks down in anger as he sees that Punch has failed and the boat is drifting away from shore.

Peridiscus gulps air alternately between his desperate pleas, "Peridiscus-- Knothill. They-- have my sister she's -- a hostage. -- Don't fire -- we're friends -- of the king."

The archer rat still with bow in paw pulls off another shot, this time well-aimed; the arrow flies straight and embeds in the lower part of a forward sail. Viddick grins approval, and mutters under his breath, "Keep up that fire, you two..." He approaches Rona and splashes into the shallow water, "Capture her! Hold her hostage, quick you fools; before she's able to swim!"

Saxifrage hollers an unbecoming string of obscenities as the architect's tenuous hold on the gives out. The jill bends fully over the edge of the boat, splashing impotently at the water in an attempt to grab the fallen rat. "Punch! Punch!" A streamer of orange sails through her periphery, and Saxifrage reels just in time to watch the burning arrow lodge in a beam overhead. This awkward twisting sends the jill, too, over the side and into the sea--backward--where she retches and hacks and splashes, hysterical.

Peridiscus's lightly muscled chest, slick with sweat and seawater, visibly heaves up and down under his torn clothing as he struggles to keep his arms up, having pushed himself past his physical limits in the desperate chase. He states at Viddick with pleading in his eyes. "Please sir... bring my sister back safely..."

Peridiscus sees Saxifrage falls into the ocean and starts forward a few steps out of sheer terror. "S!" he screams. However, one of the soldiers takes a few menacing steps forward, brandishing his sword, and Peridiscus grinds again to a hesitant stop.

Punch struggles upright, gasping in air amid the thick ropes of water that pour off his head and shoulders. Turning about to face Viddick and his crew, he wobbles. The water grasps at his upper thighs and pulls his cloak tight against his torso. He raises both arms, as if fending off the attack by force of will! "I t-t-tried my best!" he manages at last, stutter exacerbated by a chill. "Tried to s-st-stop them!" he hollers, advancing with belabored pumps of his legs.

Rona wades a little farther out before she sighs, her shoulders slumping. She turns, weapons drawn, to face Viddick. She's breathing heavily from running, and already has a few minor wounds to weaken her, but she'll be damned if she is captured without a fight.

Gage, meanwhile, is flattened out on the deck, the only beast left on the boat aside from Notch and the intoxicated queen. And to make matters worse, the sails are now aflame, and the rest of the boat looks likely to follow.

Viddick pauses over Punch, but it's the other two rats that are in pursuit after Rona, the Captain of the Royal Guard staring down at his pitiable peer. "We'll see about that, when you're properly questioned. On your paws!! Now!" He points the sword at him directly, "We'll see if these crazed fools really care to strand their own, but I doubt it. Nevertheless, they won't get far." He laughs, as another fire arrow flies overhead and sets a second sail alight. "What did you think you would do, eh? Tell them to stop? Drag the queen and prince back yourself? Hahah.. stupid builder rat.."

Peridiscus exclaims, "Sir! My sister! She's drowning! Someone must help her!"

Punch snarls at Viddick, "You sh-sh-should be grateful I s-stalled them, while you were n-n-nursing your little head!" Hearing Peridiscus, he looks around, frantic. "S-sax!" he yelps, ignoring the officer's command and plunging back into the sea.

The other two rats, meanwhile, advance upon Rona, "Here, foxy foxy... heh, 'ees gonna take da bowl'd approach, eh? Face us two, 'uppose 'ees as skillewd as unses is! Leds ged 'er, mae!!" They splash toward her, brandishing their swords...

Saxifrage, having lost all sense of reason or order, simply flounders about in the water until the waves roll her ashore--before help has the chance to arrive. The jill rises, a proper mess, with seaweed in her hair and unsteady legs. Despite the dishevelment and fear, she, when fully erect, just does what she knows best: Saxifrage smiles, and offers the approaching guards a drenched curtsy. The only indication that this is not some sumptuous formal is the slight quiver of her bottom lip, but she hides it with a flip of her head, slinging beads of saltwater from her matted gold hair.

The archer rat guarding Peridiscus looks back at the boat briefly, "Huh! If she don't burn ferst! Wot, she fell off her liddle boat, uh? Mae', hold yer fire, they ain't likely with that blaze ta get any furda' out. Don't wanna shoot our own, ye know?" He turns back to Peridiscus, "Suppose we take you an' her in... ye know she'd abettin' criminals, eh?" He winks, "She /still/ ya sister? Hm?"

Peridiscus, arms still upraised, watches the scene in pure agony and at the threshold of tears. He lets out a sob both of relief and angry exasperation as his sister announces her safe return with a curtsy.

Rona's violet eyes flick angrily back and forth between the two, her body tensing for combat. She hopes that the two armored warriors will be significantly slowed by the fact that they're waist deep in water. She takes the first move, swinging her axe with one paw towards the bigger one's neck.

Gage, back on the burning boat, gets to his feet and, encouraged by the halt of the fire arrows, tries desperately to put out the spreading fires on the vessel, though he knows for sure that the sails are gone.

Peridiscus closes his eyes briefly at the rat's comment, enough to gathers his wits about him. He sobs, "Sir, I have no idea what you mean. Abetting criminals? A Knothill? We're one of the oldest families in the empire, and the most loyal. What reason would our sister have to aid criminals? How can she possibly help them anyway? They kidnapped her!"

Punch feebly comes to Saxifrage's belated rescue. Though she's already composed enough to curtsy, he grabs her paw in his, then cups his other paw on top.

"Where's those slow-witted reinforcements?! Arghh!" Viddick keeps his sword near both of them, "Up on shore! If the queen and prince burn, we will tell His Majesty the imposters commited suicide before capture like the cowards they are! And what are your stories, eh? Who else is on that boat??" He briefly looks past them and sees Gage going to work on the flames, "Fool!" Still, he's worried; they hardly have a foolproof means of transporting seven prisoners..

The guard rats on Rona fall back into the water at the first axe swing, one quickly losing his sword underwater but managing to grab for it and hoist it up again, splashing back a few steps. The other provides a diversion, trying to come around to face the vixen's left flank but finding the water there increasingly difficult to wade through...

Peridiscus thinks quickly and calls out to Viddick, "Captain! Thank you for your courageous rescue of my sister from those terrible kidnappers. After you apprehend that vixen, I am sure my father will want to thank you /most handsomely/ after you escort us back home."

Saxifrage turns her head to the architect when he envelopes her hand; she has a short smile for him, different from the one she gave to the guards, who seem, for now, to be distracted by other events. But the jill looks away, attention towed by a yelp or a burning kajigger or something squirting blood. "I knew you'd be the end of me, Punch," she says dryly, as if presently resigned to the gallows. "Papa was right about you."

Rona dosen't fall for the diversion, slicing at him with her khukri and backing away some. She hears what Peridiscus says about aprehending her and yells some rather uncomplimentary remarks about his lineage toawards the shore.

Gage is still playing firefighter, and not doing a very good job, despite his best efforts.

Viddick looks at the stalemate of the overpowered vixen and two melee rats and Peridiscus up the beach, barely hearing his offer, and at the mess of a boat, and nods his head behind him, "Come on, you two, make tracks back to the archers..." Within earshot of the idle archer, Viddick calls out, "Bratsche, go get those reinforcements from the docks, and see what's become of Saxhorn. Hurry, mate, before the vixen gets too confident or that boat drifts out of reach."

Even though it takes the lives of two rats, Rona finally is knocked unconsious and tied up, carried onto the beach and laid down on the said next to Peridiscus, Saxifrage, and Punch, all four of them bound and gaurded closely. As the charred sailboat drifts out on the the surf, still bearing a Gage, Notch, and a drunken queen Dangeon, Viddick orders that the prisoners be taken to the dungeons, deciding that they can catch the beasts on the boat later.