[ We find The Bulk of Our Heroes leaving the inn in the little village near Kenji's ancestral castle. It's still a nice day out, if a bit warm, and it is nearly mid-afternoon by now. ] [ Somene is smoking meat somewhere, and it smells nice. All in all, a good day to be out and about. ] [ Everything seems at ease right now, but you never know what dangers could be lurking about. ] [ Session Start! ] * Istvan walks towards the smithy! With the others, presumably. * Takara weaves through the peasants with ease, though she has a bit of difficulty keeping up with the larger Istvan. * Patrick keeps up with Istvan easy! 'cuz he's tall, and stuff. * Seylin keeps up fairly well. High DEX stat and all. ^_~ * Istvan strides along, trying not to bowl anyone over or fall on his face or otherwise cause an incident. That can wait until he's back on horseback. * Patrick could guarntee it won't take that long. * Istvan glances back at Takara. "Anything we should know about in advance about the lands we'll be passing through once we get going? Any non-obvious major taboos that could cause many angry samurai to come after us?" *pauses* "And, by us, I mean me." * Seylin attempts not to laugh. She mostly succeeds. * Takara hms. Right. No touching. Seylin, remind me to give Tia the 'No- Hugging-Strangers' talk again, okay? Yes. * Takara nods. "" We're dirty and evil and possibly not housebroken. Gotcha. In your case definetly. [ Just as Takara is saying that, Tia, who is paying attention to her, bumps into a samurai walking the other way along the road. ] * Takara looks that way. "" she says calmly. Oh dear. * Patrick grins. * Takara walks over that way, because Tia's going to need her help very shortly. [ Tia apologizes to the samurai profusely, and as she does so, she grabs him and hoists him up, setting him back on his feet. ] ... and the 'Watch-Where-You're-Going' talk and the 'No- Hoisting-The Samurai-Without-Permission' talk. * Takara winces a little. Now things might get messy. This'll be interesting. * Matsu_Tennan_Seiryo jerks himself back, and procedes to brush himself where he was touched, a look of disgust on his face. "" he demands of the group in general, indicating Tia. * Patrick slips into the shadows of not being as noticable as the big Istvan guy. [ Tia blinks, then frowns. ] *glares around the group, pulling himself to his full, unimpressive height of just slightly taller than Takara* ... Seylin, please step in front of me before I do something I really won't regret in the least? * Takara is now right by Tia and bowing to get his attention. "" [ Tia sniffles. Dude called her an *animal*. ] * Seylin nods and moves in front of Istvan. * Istvan glares anvils at the samurai as he lets Seylin get between him and the guy. * Matsu_Tennan_Seiryo settles his gaze on the big foreign-speaking ox as he replies to Takara. "" he spits the word, ... Patrick, would you please step in front of me too? * Patrick can't be found. Damn him for being invisible. * Takara nods once in understanding. "" She looks to the others and says in her absolutely butchered Common, "Niidu ah... ahporliigiou." Pause. "Bou. Talrk." * Takara taps the ground with one sandled foot. "Flooru." * Takara thinks for a moment, then, to make things even *clearer*, says, "Criiu, skreamu. Velly sollii." * Matsu_Tennan_Seiryo eyes his kimono, where the dust from the ground has dirtied it. "" ... Seylin, I'm delegating the decision on this to you, because my ideal response is not a good one. * Seylin has no intention of crying or screaming. Instead, she bows to the samurai. "I apologize for the carelessness of my *friend's* actions. I assure you, it won't happen again." Her voice is very calm. * Takara shoots Seylin a slightly pained look before she turns to the man. "" * Matsu_Tennan_Seiryo is clearly looking down his nose at Seylin, as Istvan is too tall. Just this effort is causing him to almost point his face towards the sky. [ Tia looks about on the verge of tears, now. ] There will be no more "accosting." We'll see to it ourselves. Please forgive her. * Takara grits her teeth a moment and doesn't bother translating Seylin's words; instead, she drops to the ground, dirtying her lovely kimono, and her voice turns clearly pained. "" * Takara bows her head, deeply, and it sounds like she might be crying. "" * Matsu_Tennan_Seiryo gets a self-satisfied and malicious grin on his face. "" ... oh, no way in hell. * Matsu_Tennan_Seiryo snorts in derision. "" * Takara shakes her face, keeping her eyes shut against the dirt, and says, quietly, "" * Seylin whispers, "Istvan, no. Let Ide-san handle this." * Istvan holds his right hand up and waves it to get the samurai's attention. Meanwhile, he turns so his left side is obscured behind Seylin's back, reaches back, and touches the end of the pick handle. [ A mouth of land rises up and swallows the angry Matsu almost too fast to see. ] * Istvan blinks, and actually looks genuinely surprised. "Holy shit..." * Seylin blinks, then blinks again. "What in the world just happened?" * Takara starts and jumps to her feet. "" She turns and glares at the group - yes, glares - through dirt and tears, and her gaze settles on the man who just swore. "" * Seylin turns around. "Istvan?" * Istvan blinks. "Do? I was waving to get his attention. I was going to reach into my haversack and offer him my old magical pick as payment to get him to shut the hell up." (There are onlookers, aren't there?) [ Only two; they are currently saying something about the wrath of kami. ] * Takara wipes tears from her eyes. "" She looks to the others, steadily. "" * Takara , for the record, isn't crying. At least, she isn't crying any longer. I dunno. None of us really use magic. Sey knows a few spells, but nothing like that. * Seylin shakes her head. "Nothing that... severe, no." * Takara fixes her gaze on Istvan again. * Patrick appears and smiles at Istvan. "Yeah, might as well." * Istvan eyes Takara back. "My pick is supposed to be able to manipulate the earth a little, but it's sentient, and thus far it doesn't like me enough to do more that move a couple of handfulls of dirt. If you want, I could try and see if the pick will help me find the samurai." * Istvan nods. "For your sake, I'll give it a shot." *pauses* "*Only* for your sake." * Istvan draws his pick from his holster, and holds it upright in two hands in front of him. He closes his eyes for a moment, whispers something in dwarven, and then rears back and strikes the ground with the pick. [ With an audible *ptooie* the ground spits the samurai back out; he lays on his back and gasps for air for a bit. ] * Takara moves over to the samurai, crouching. "" * Istvan holds out his pick for a moment, nods at it, then re-holsters it. * Matsu_Tennan_Seiryo picks himself up, slowly, obviously a bit pained. "" he begins, obviously getting ready to go into full offended-rant mode. As soon as he catches his breath and gets that dirt out of his eyes. * Takara replies soothingly, "" * Matsu_Tennan_Seiryo pauses, mouth half-open to start speaking. He eyes Tia, mouth still unmoving from its half-open gape. When he finally gets it moving again, all he seems to manage is, "" * Takara nods slowly. "" * Patrick grins. * Matsu_Tennan_Seiryo coughs, and oh-so-carefully picks himself up, joints audibly cracking with stiffness. "" He bows, deeply from the waist, to Tia, for just a moment before rising again. * Takara stands fully and bows, herself. "" We're very sorry for all the trouble we have caused. We hope that you don't suffer any ill effects. *coughs up some dirt* [ Tia seems confused, but happy. ] * Takara glances back, then shakes her head. "" * Matsu_Tennan_Seiryo manages a stiff grin back at the young earth dragoness. "" He turns, and strides swiftly away. Was that something about putting his kimono on display in a place of honor he muttered as he left? * Istvan says nothing. Really, what could he say? He knows nothing of these dangerous kami that caused this horrible incident. * Takara smiles pleasantly as she goes, and then she turns to the others, the smile dropping. "" she says as she strides off, dirt and all. * Matsu_Tennan_Seiryo is now known as Seg Understood. * Istvan nods. "Normally, I would've apologized in a heartbeat. But the things he said... I gotta say, he really deserved that kami attack." * Istvan shrugs. "Point." *smirk* "But who am I to question the kami?" * Istvan starts whistling a dwarven drinking song as he walks along towards the smithy. * Seylin sighs. * Takara looks steadily at Istvan as he passes her with his long legs. "" she says, quietly. [ And so they went on to the smithy! Session End! ]