Hawaii:Sessions:19910216:The Arrival
THE ARRIVAL
The team appeared in a decrepit alley in a medieval-type city. As the team moved to the end of the alley, an ugly old woman staggered toward the group. When she got close, she grabbed Jake and gave him a big sloppy kiss. Just on the other side of the street was what was obviously a garbage pit. Jake turned the woman around, pointed her in that direction, and gave her a slight push. She staggered to the pit and promptly fell in. The team then turned and started heading down the street. After going a short distance, they began to hear the sound of a bar. They turned down a side alley and came up to the building's front door. Jake immediately opened it and strolled in. There was a barroom brawl in progress between most of the bar's patrons, who just happened to be orcs and goblins.
When Jake started straight across the room, Rathbone started down the left side wall to provide Jake with cover fire if it was needed. Cartwright headed down the right side wall with a similar thought. Trey began to slowly follow Rathbone down the left side. Both she and Rathbone had drawn their weapons. Black, Jessica, and Two-Leaf stayed in the doorway entrance. Whitetop, after his advice to not enter was ignored, stayed right outside the entrance to provide retreat cover if it was needed.
Jake crossed the entire room and only had to push one goblin out of his way. By the time Jake reached the right end of the bar, Rathbone had reached the left end of the bar, taken up position, and ordered an ale. At about that time Whitetop heard some orcs in the next-door building make some noise about going over to join the fight. Whitetop relayed this information and told everyone to disengage. At that moment, a goblin decided to go after Jake. Jake decided to cut the rope holding up the room's chandelier. He threw a knife but missed the rope. Cartwright, seeing this, decided to help, and took three shots at the rope but missed with each one. Trey followed Whitetop's advice and began to leave. Black went out the door to join Whitetop by a side alley. Jessica moved a little closer toward the bar.
At this moment, an orc came through a door next to the left end of the bar, and took a spot next to Rathbone, telling him to get out of the way in a most impolite manner. Rathbone tried to backhand him with the mug of ale but missed. Just then Jake went over the bar and cut the rope, sending the chandelier crashing to the floor, hitting and pinning several fighters under it. Jake then started after a goblin who had fled up the stairs at the right end of the bar. The orc dodged Rathbone's blow and returned one that he barely dodged. Rathbone then shot him point-blank with his .45. Jessica skirted the fallen chandelier and reached the bar close to its left end and a little behind Rathbone.
Outside, Trey had taken up a covering position at the street side of the bar. Whitetop and Black still heard these orcs talking about joining the fight, so he decided to give them a tear gas grenade to remove the thought from their minds. This it did, as they left the building with tearing, burning eyes. Whitetop once again called for the group to leave.
When the gunfire went off inside, Kathy went into an epileptic fit. Two-Leaf immediately did what she could. Cartwright saw what had happened and went over to try and help her, but got too close and was hit and knocked out momentarily by one of Kathy's thrashing arms. Black, who had gone back in to urge them out, flipped Cartwright off of the top of Kathy. Jake had cornered the goblin at the top of the stairs and had bounced it off of the door just as the second call to leave came. He told Jessica and Rathbone to go on, he would catch up. Jake then began to try to open the door. Jessica motioned Rathbone on out, and she moved toward the stairway to urge Jake to come on. The orc trying to lift the chandelier off of the others then noticed his shirt was on fire, dropped the chandelier, and ripped off his shirt. Rathbone reached Kathy just as Cartwright wished whatever was wrong with Kathy would go away. It did. So Black and Rathbone picked her up and started out. When Jake saw he couldn't open the door and that Jessica was now close to the stairs, he decided it was time to leave and vaulted over the railing to land beside Jessica. Then arm-in-arm they left by walking along the right-side outside wall of the bar. The team then proceeded to the street side of the bar.
The team slapped the generic Black Hole up on the side of the building. They then carried Kathy in and placed her in the autodoc. She was fatigued and just needed to rest. Two-Leaf stayed with her. Black went to take a nap. Trey went to get some food. Whitetop and Cartwright stood guard outside the Hole, while Jake, Jessica, and Jason went to examine the pier. It turned out to be nothing unusual. No boat was tied up at it, and they could see none out in the harbor. While they were out on the end of the pier, the general cry of 'fire' went up. They all went in to see what was going on. It seems that Whitetop's tear gas grenade had caught the other building on fire. Cartwright and Whitetop had already joined the bucket line when the three from the pier got there. Rathbone joined the line in hopes of hearing something. Meanwhile, Jake and Jessica headed down the street to further investigate the town.
After about thirty minutes the fire was out. The tavern was saved, but the other building was a total loss. The 'guy' next to Rathbone was not very talkative. Jessica and Jake crossed over the river and moved down to the main city wall. They passed several barracks-type structures. Meanwhile, the autodoc had disgorged Kathy and she had been resting. Once the fire was out, Rathbone hustled the rest out of the Hole and Whitetop removed it. Cartwright had struck up a successful conversation with a goblin. Upon coming out and seeing this, Rathbone attached himself to the twosome while the rest went to catch up with Jake and Jessica. As Rathbone, Cartwright, and the goblin went into a bar, Rathbone informed them which one it was. As the others investigated the town, Rathbone and Cartwright tried to pump the goblin for information. They did discover that the city was home port to two pirate ships using two rotating crews each. Neither one was due in for at least three weeks. Cartwright, pretending to be a sailor, tried to get him talking more but didn't really succeed. As Cartwright and Rathbone left, Cartwright told the dog-man bouncers at the door that the goblin had said nasty things about them. They then rejoined the rest of the team, and everyone made their way back to the city's main wall. It was about 4:00 am and the gates were closed for the night. And the guards wouldn't open them. The team moved around to another gate which was guarded only by orcs.
Cartwright, grabbing an empty bottle from somewhere, started staggering and heading for the two orc guards at the gate. In an obviously drunken cadence he began to ask his way in, saying he was to meet Sasha. The guards would not buy any of it and just told him to go away. When it became obvious to Rathbone that he was going to continue to try and that the guards might lose their patience, Rathbone stepped in to take his drunk friend home. Cartwright allowed himself to be led away.
Meanwhile Jake, seeing a set of stairs leading up to the top of the wall, headed up them. However, at the top was yet another in the long list of ogre guards. Rathbone, seeing this, tensed, as did Jessica. However, Jake just briefly talked to it and returned back down the stairs. The team then went back to the main gate, found a place to put up the Black Hole, and caught a couple of hours' sleep while waiting for the gate to open. Jake and Whitetop got no sleep, as they both stood watch.