The Medicine Show.

[Fight OH]

Acellya’s beautiful face flinched at the sight of all the blood. She clenched her teeth together and curled a lip back in disgust. Boy Striker new had to knock a man out. Ugh, the man’s face wasn’t even there anymore. She put a hand over her stomach feeling a wooziness coming on.

“ Here,” She groaned quietly. “ Take the key. I’m going outside for fresh air.” She dangled the key to Silas with her head turned the other way. Already the smell of iron in the blood was reaching her nose.

As quietly as she’d come in, she exited the jail house through the front past the sleeping guards who were one short. No, two short, she reminded herself passing the lifeless corpse she’d created. At least he could be identified. She almost felt pity for the remaining guards, if they weren’t killed tonight they’d wake up to find their comrades dead. But, as disgusted as she was by Striker’s method of rendering unconscious she didn’t feel the slightest tingle up in her spine waiting next to the first guard’s dead body.

It’d only be a matter of time before she’d either see her two escapee partners come hurrying out with arms full of weapons that weren’t theirs but they’d take anyways, or hear some more violent noises that would mean they wouldn’t have to be so quiet anymore.

[Silas]

Silas watched in wide-eyed horror as his partner tore apart all the gaurds in the jailhouse. He felt the bile rise up in his throat, and thought he might add the color of vomit to this modern art piece of gore. The key was taken when offered, but his movements were mechanical, almost automatic. He couldn't take his eyes off of the bloodsoaked room, and his sore-covered arm started to ache and burn.

After a few moments of stunned silence, he regained the use of his limbs and stumbled to the locked door behind where the gaurds once sat. He held up the keyring he had been given and sifted through the keys, trying to find the right one. His hands trembled, but he had to work fast. He tried the first key, and it didn't work. The second didn't help either. He took a deep breath and tried a few more keys. The fifth one was inserted into the lock and twisted, and the lock slid open.

He grabbed onto the metal handle welded to the iron door and pulled it open slowly, trying to minimize the creek of the rusted metal hinges grinding on each other. He considered the door for a moment. Why did it have to be metal? If someone really wanted to get in, they could just ram hard enough against the brittle brick walls surrounding it. However, he didn't have that kind of time, so he just picked up a gas lamp from the blood-drenched table and dove into the dark evidence locker.

Items were tossed out as he found them. He wanted to just grab everything in the place. There was so much. There were bags of gold, likely from extortion. There were all kinds of weapons piled up near the bottles of bloodwine from a bust on a vampire cave. There was everything illegal or crime-linked that one could dream of, and it would all fetch a pretty penny. However, they did not have the time for that. He could only take their confiscated items. He took his bottle of pain medicine off of a shelf that held jars of human hands and, after taking a swig to calm the burning in his arm, hefted Striker's halberd and tossed it through the door.

After picking up his knife and returning it to his belt, he stepped out. "Time to..." he stopped talking and looked to the door that the small army of gaurds poured out of last night. The knob was turning. Silas looked to Striker and yelled the rest of his sentence. "RUN!"

In a moment, he was crashing out of the door with Acellya's weapon in his hands.

[Striker]

Striker caught his halberd, and bit his thumb at the drunk tank. Maybe next time, Nelson. Giving his hated foe one last look, he smashed the lantern illuminating the guard's desk and dashed out the door.

Outside, it was all chaos. Dozens of guards, armed with short swords and lamps on sticks, were flowing out of the barracks like beer from the tap. They were running toward the jail, around the jail away from the jail - it seemed they were convinced that there was some kind of escape plan going down. Striker hurled himself as hard as he could at the cart. They had been blessed - it was still there. It shifted weight rather dramatically as he leapt into the back. The beast waved his arms, ready to help either or both of his comrades get in just a little bit faster. They had some hard travelling to do, and if they didn't start soon the trip would be rather shorter.

[Fight OH]

Acellya cursed loudly. None of this was supposed to happen. What had these guys done? Just a second ago things were going smoothly now she was running as fast as she had earlier, out of a swarm of prison guards. Their escape was to be all accredited to the darkness, since the moon was a new moon that night. If it’d been light enough to actually make one person out from the other they may not have been able to even make it out of the door.

Of course Acellya had been standing outside alone when she saw the guards start pouring out. That meant she had a head start, but the tiger had passed her easily. Damn cat. Acellya’s slender body cut through the air in a wild leap into the back of the cart. She caught on Striker’s good arm, wrapping her left arm around the tiger’s broad shoulder. Once steady in the cart she turned to help Silas in, if he needed it. Which he would, especially with those weapons.

[Silas]

Silas tossed Acellya's sword to her as he leapt into the cart. His eyes were wide, and he kept making small screaming noises which sometimes sounded like half-formed words. He snatched up the reins and snapped the horse into action. The horse was ready to go anyway, as Silas discovered when the animal started to move as soon as he picked up the leather reins. The cart was moving fast from the start, with the horse immediately taking off at a gallop that nearly freed the horse from the cart.

A cloud of dust formed behind them, and the horseless soldiers could only run after them, throwing spears and shooting arrows, most of them missing. A few hit, but were so poorly aimed that they found themselves lodged in the wood rather than the flesh of his companions. All Silas wanted to do was close his eyes tight and wait until everything was over, but that would likely get them all killed, maimed, or re-imprisoned at this point, so he kept those peepers open wide. Wide enough to look like a madman.

"Are they still there? Are they still following?!" he yelled at either one of his companions. He didn't really care who answered, he simply wanted an answer. He took a glance behind the cart himself, and was met with the frightening sight of two armed gaurds galloping after them on horseback. "Ack! That's no good!"

He put his eyes back on the road. He couldn't worry about those guys. Well, he could, and he was, but he couldn't let that keep him from paying attention to what he was doing. He'd let the other to worry about what to do with their aggressors. It was also a good thing that he brought his eyes back to the front, because it was just in time to see the low-hanging branch in the road. "DUCK!" he cried before following his own orders. The gaurd, who was either drunk, half-asleep, or stupid, did not notice the branch, nor did he heed Silas's warning. And so, one agressor was taken care of, knocked right off of his horse.

The other rider, however, did not share his companion's mental difficulties. He dodged the branch, and took the initiative to gallop up beside the cart, poking his spear at the driver. Silas scooted out of the way, batting at the sharp speartip with his bare hand to keep it at bay.

He couldn't take this stress. He was going to snap. He let loose a battle cry and yanked a bottle out of one of the crates in the back. It was labeled "Green Thumb Tonic". He looked at the bottle and his battle cry faded into a groan. What the hell was he going to do with that? Well, he'd have to make do. He wound up and pitched the bottle into the path ahead of the spear slinging rider. A baby tree happened to be growing in a patch of grass, and it grew explosively to trap the rider and take him and his horse into the sky, trapped in the branches of the rapidly growing tree.

Their cart bypassed the tree, and no one else followed. Silas didn't let his horse rest until he could see the sun begin to edge into the horizon again. Now, hours after there had been no pursuit, the high-strung alchemist was able to relax. He changed course, taking the cart into a sparsely wooded area, and parked it. He took a deep breath, let it out, and calmly reached behind him, picking up the seemingly heavy wooden chest.

"Well now, lets see what we were nearly killed for," he said as he opened the clasp locking down the lid. He gently pried the chest open and, in the golden light of the dawn, gazed upon the reward that caused so much blood, sweat, and tears. A few tears formed in Silas's eyes, and a lunatic's laugh began to rise in his throat. The man had finally lost it, and the reason why was inside that chest.

The chest held three gold coins, and two bricks. That was their reward.

[Striker]

Striker hauled the woman in, glancing over his shoulder and hurling little more than obscenities at the guards chasing them as he collapsed on the floor of the cart. A days worth of blood loss was catching up with him, and he found himself curled around his own arm as the knives of pain shot up the hand he'd broken made a savage return. After everything he put into today, he was nothing short of punch-drunk, and high on adrenaline. Looking up at Acellya, he grinned toothy before bursting into short, coughing laughter.

"Some day, huh?" he managed, before sinking into sleep's lovely arms.

When the cart came to an abrupt stop some six hours later, a small box of glass vials fell painfully onto the sleeping cat's tail. Cursing the gods and everything below, Striker lashed out at the box itself until Silas' shocked expression brought the tirade to a standstill.

He was looking into the box. Striker peered around his shoulder, and he himself was transfixed. At some point, Acellya joined them. Time, suddenly, had no meaning, and they stayed transfixed for what felt like hours.

Striker was the first to break free. He laughed harder than he had been swearing just moments ago, loud enough that a flock of formerly sleeping ravens somewhere in the forest took angry flight. His knees gave, and he fell to the floor, rolling in a seizure of genuine merriment. Tears streamed down his eyes as he fought for air. He was like a thing possessed.

Struggling to compose himself, he fought up to the box, under his comrades damning stares. Snatching one of the three filthy gold coins, he stuttered "Well - hahah - well that's my third of the gold, but - agahahaha! But how the hell are we going to split up two bricks among three people!?"

Completely undone by his own joke, Striker fell to the floor again, clutching his single piece of gold in his hand. What a day, what a day. All that work for a bunch of damned flowers and a piece of damned gold.

Oh well. He had gotten his third, and that was more important than how big it actually was.

[Fight OH]

Acellya greedily inspected her sword, making sure nothing had been done to it. She held it like a mother would hold a baby before she resheathed, never feeling more complete. She was sitting on her knees but had to move her legs out from under her to sit flat while the cart took a bumpy ride moving faster than she thought a cart like this could move. From her short time with these two she decided Silas was probably scared enough to keep that cart moving until they were halfway around the world. It was fine by her, she had no where particular to be any time soon.

The tiger man looked a little bit out of shape… well more than a little bit. He also looked unconscious, poor fellow. The cart slowed finally and Silas reached back, taking the chest of their troubles in his hand. Before she could even turn around to join Silas and Striker, who had been rudely awakened, she saw hysterical tears start first on Silas, then on Striker. Acellya dared to peer over the chest’s edge into the box. Three golden coins. Two bricks.

Her new companions laughed like maniacs while she reached in, following Striker’s example, and took her piece. It was good for a meal or two. She pocketed the coin and waited patiently for the men to calm down. She could understand their hysterics, but then again, they’d risked a lot more than she had. Really, she never expected to get paid any amount to rope a few innocent bystanders into breaking her out of jail. In her eyes, she’d made a profit here.

Acellya broke the silence and threw her arms on the back of her new companions. “ You two can have the bricks.”

[Osato]

Introduction: 3
Striker and Silas: You both had a very good intro because of the way you played your characters more then anything. The only thing that brought this down, significantly, was Striker’s rather lackluster first post. Luckily first posts are not the only introductions, especially in a quest this big.
Fight OH: Good intro, interesting and drawing right from the beginning.

Setting: 6
Did you all forget about it? I saw good use of it in the beginning, but towards the end all that came of it was a mentioning of the sunset. But I added a point for references to the Scourge and such, well done with the addition of SB’s current gangs in power.

Strategy: 6
Very good use of both your weapons and the setting in the beginning fight and the fight in the jail

Dialogue: 5

Character: 7
Silas: Very good about keeping your character’s attention on the flowers, especially during the fight. And the fighting bit, slapping and such, that was very well done.
Striker: Your descriptions of how your character acted, what the thought of what was happening, and the like was all very well done.
Fight OH: Good at staying in character

Writing Style: 4
I didn’t see much wrong, but there was nothing particularly impressive with it either. The only thing I noted was that Striker used ‘I’. When writing in a third person POV continue in third, don’t put sentences such as: “I mean, what if they could pull it off?”

Rising Action: 5

Climax: 5

Conclusion: 5
Well done with the reward and whatnot, but very little was given besides that. Where did you three flee? What happened after you split the reward? Anything? The reason your score was higher was because I was intrigued and interested, and want to see where this goes…

Wild Card: 4
Be careful about bunnying each other. I did not see a ‘permission granted’ note and unless I see one I’m a stickler for no bunnying. That’s why I docked the score here.

SCORE: 50

Rewards:
-- Silas bags himself a rapier and upon a closer look it was made of Damascus and not steel and a 50 gold off the dead guards
-- Acellya and Striker collected 200 gold from the dead guards

Silas: 700 exp
Striker: 680 exp
Fight OH: 645 exp

Mod Notes: Ah what a long ass quest! I have to say that I thought it would be bad at first, but it turned out pretty good despite it's length. If you have any questions PM me or IM me. Congrats!

[Thoracis]

Rewards Added!