Ragnar
“Halt!” The command came from the slimmer of two towers on the far side of the river. A toad walked from behind the tower. He walked on two legs and carried a sword in one hand. “You are currently being covered by four arrows. So keep your hand at your sides, no funny business. Is it just you?”
“Yes,” replied Ragnar, “just what you see. I’m just passing through.”
The toad walked on to the bridge and gestured with his empty hand for him to come closer. “That’s close enough.” He stopped Ragnar one step onto the bridge. “Are you in any way affiliated with the Red Army?”
“No,” Ragnar said. “I’m a bounty hunter with the Band of the Golden Hand. I have reason to believe that my bounty came this way.”
The toad, who Ragnar saw went by Toadanaga, said “maybe I can help you with your bounty. If they came this way, most likely I saw them. Only a few principles have come across the bridge recently. I make them pay a toll so I’m sure I’ve seen them.”
“You charge a toll!?” Ragnar asked surprised.
“Yeah, for the Blue Army. If you join up, you won’t have to pay,” Toadanaga blinked and shrugged.
“How much to pass through?” Ragnar asked.
“Two gold.” Was the answer.
“I’ll pay five, two for the toll and three for information about my bounty.” Ragnar stated.
“Deal.” The money was exchanged hands.
“I am looking for the principle who goes by gNun45? She wears a black habit, with her face done up like a mime. Have you seen her?” Ragnar asked.
“Why yes, I did. She came across the bridge a few hours ago. She was a Tokener? Is your bounty a Tokener? If it happens to me I would pay to get them. Is that what you do?”
“I paid you for information, not the other way around,” Ragnar answered coldly. He continued, “did you see where she went?”
“Harumph.” Toadanaga said, he blinked slowly. “Well I don’t know. I mean she crossed the other bridge, I can’t see beyond there.”
The door on the bigger tower opened, the roar of voices burst forth. Toadanaga looked at a group of principles exiting the building. “Uh, really that’s all I know. Uh I gotta go. You’re free to cross.” He quickly waddled away towards them. Ragnar crossed the bridge following his new information.
The toad had said that gNun45 had only crossed a few hours earlier, Ragnar picked up his pace, hoping he could catch up. The path between the two bridges was maybe a hundred yards, flat, and without any buildings. Ragnar’s footsteps echoed as he crossed the bridge as he put the Blue tollbridge behind him. Because of her black habit Ragnar felt pretty confident she would have a hard time hiding near the road so he walked even faster.
It didn’t seem to matter as Ragnar walked for what felt like town a long time. Till finally he emerged from the forest and saw a town laid out before him. Before he fully left the forest a single principle burst from the town at a full sprint. A mob of principles followed shouting and jeering. The fleeing principle lifted its head and Ragnar saw that it was his target, the mime face paint gave her away. Ragnar couldn’t believe his luck. Even better it seemed that if she noticed him she didn’t act like it as was running straight at him.
Ragnar put out his arm and clotheslined the running gNun45. When her neck connected with his forearm her feet flew out in front of her and she slammed onto her back gasping. He pulled his axe around into hack, she wasn’t there. She had rolled away and was getting to her knees. She extended her right arm and grabbed it’s wrist with her left hand, pointing her finger. Ragnar brought his axe up and blocked the light that leapt from her finger. The axe absorbed the hit and a rune appeared on one of the blades. She fired three more times with the same result.
With four runes glowing on both blades of his axe, Ragnar swung his axe in a low horizontal sweep, thinking to take advantage of her kneeling position. gNun45 proved to be more spry than Ragnar had given her credit for. She sprang up and then with her habit swilling white and black, she flipped over his swing, barely pulling her back over his blade. She landed on her feet. When she pumped her left hand up and down her right wrist, Ragnar decided it was probably a good idea to not try and block this one, and sprang forward into a dive that pulled him out of her aim.
Upon landing he rolled to regain his feet, he spun at the sound of a crack behind him and saw that her shot had taken out enough of a tree trunk causing it to crash down. This was fortunate for him, as it had come down where gNun45 has been. She was now struggling to her feet, waving a little she took aim and fired twice at Ragnar. He blocked both, the first caused a fifth rune in the middle, where the axe blades meet the handle. The next shot caused the whole axe started to glow and suddenly Ragnar was full of rage.
He pointed the axe at her and released the rage. It poured out of him and in a thin solid beam into and through gNun45. As quickly as it had come the rage left, the beam vanished,gNun45’s body collapsed. 1 TK + 2 xp. Ragnar walked to the body and looted it, taking five gold and the Token. At the moment he pulled the Token out he felt a vibration in his own wallet. When he reached in he found that it was his Token. He pulled it out and when he brought his hands together he felt as much as saw the energy show and his Token consumed gNun45’s.
As the energy disappeared Ragnar looked at his Token and saw that he now could use her magic bullet skill, this gave him a thrill as this now gave him a range attack. He looked to his axe and saw a black ribbon now hung from the heft, his Token item. A murmuring startled him from his revery and he turned to see the mob from the town in a loose semicircle around him and the new head stone. Maybe thirty principles, too many for him to get information from any of them.
A knight with a silver helmet covering his head stepped forward, Ragnar immediately focused.
L4NC3L0T
Level 2
Wallet 3AU
“You killed her?” L4NC3L0T said.
“She was my bounty.” Ragnar said squaring his shoulders to the knight.
“Then you Tokened her?”
“Yes, I’m a bounty hunter for the Band of the Golden Hand. A bounty was placed on gNun45 by Pices3318 for the Tokening of BigBass13110. The bounty is now complete.” Ragnar said then started to turn away.
“Tokening is repugnant,” L4NC3L0T said. “I hope you guys can put a stop to it. If I knew someone who wanted to take out a bounty how would they?”.
Ragnar wasn’t ready for this question. “Uh, the Band of the Golden Hand has an office at CampOut. You can commission a bounty there.” It sounded good as he said it.
“Where’s that?” Was the obvious next question and it was asked by more that just L4NC3L0T.
“Take out your map.” Ragnar said, then he that map with his. “Here, now go and share that with everyone else who wants it.”
“Thanks.” L4NC3L0T said as Ragnar turned to walk away. “Oh yeah, good job getting that Tbag mime faced creep!”
Ragnar waved then walked away thinking about how clever the term Tbag was. He then went back to Norca to work his shift a the bank. The time at work seemed to crawl, but when it was over he could hardly think of what he had done. Happy to put the bank behind him, Ragnar headed south out of town.
It wasn’t long before he was entering the friendly CampOut’s common area. “Ragnar returns!” He heard as he pushed through the door. MoProbs, the speaker, stood from his chair and with a smile gestured Ragnar over.
The room seemed bigger and now sported two half-doors. One radiated light and from where Ragnar stood looked to be a store. There was no light coming out of the other door, but writing above the door told him it was the new office of the Band of the Golden Hand. Most of the tables, there were now five, were empty. One table held the three principle Ragnar had met when he had first stumbled on CampOut. MoProbs sat at another table with a women dressed in tight black clothing. As Ragnar walked to that table, Pisces3318 got up from his table and walked over to the one Ragnar was approaching. He held a mub in one fin when he reached the table he lifted it in greeting. MoProbs and the lady in black responded in kind with their goblets.
“How did it go?” Pisces3318 asked when Ragnar reached the table.
“I caught up with her outside of Orup. Get this, before I even got to the town, a mob chased her out. She ran right at me. It was a good fight, I won.”
“Well good, but how do I know that you actually did it, do you have any proof? I’m happy to pay up as soon as you can show me some proof.” Pisces3318’s catfish whiskers twitched as he spoke.
You can see my Token item.” Ragnar held out his axe, then gestured to the black ribbon, “If you need more proof, you can find the headstone near the road to Orup's western gate. But if you are going to question my word, you better be on your way to that headstone before you say another word.”
“No! No I don’t doubt you at all.” He opened his hand revealing thirty gold, he handed the money to MoProbs. “I just wanted to know if there was some memento of the moment. I don’t doubt you for a minute, you’re a hero, man. In fact just knowing that you guys are here, makes me feel like I can head back out there.You know what my first escurtion will be? A pilgrimage, that’s right a pilgrimage to the headstone. I’ll leave right away!But first! Let me buy you a drink!” With that he spun away rushing over to the bar.
“Well he is excitable.” Ragnar said, “what is this drink he's buying me, should I be worried?”
The lady in black smiled then took a sip from her goblet, MoProbs laughed. “No, you don’t need to be worried.” He said, “it’s what we are drinking. It actually tastes great. When you drink it, things slow down, or your brain speeds up. It’s like you have the ability to examine everything completely in an instant.”
The women in black spoke. “It makes fighting so...Beautiful.” She had a pretty face framed in black hair the same shade as her clothing.
Ragnar didn’t know what to make of that so he accepted the mug that Pisces3318 offer with some reservation. He still drank with everyone else when they tipped their glasses. The purple liquid went down cool and smooth, with a dry finish. He finished his mug and put it down, there was a slight metallic taste in the back of his throat.
“Ragnar, I want you to meet aSTARTe. She is our newest bounty hunter.” MoProbs said gesturing to the women sitting at the table. From what Ragnar could see she dressed in a black skin tight bodysuit, covering her skin up over her neck. Her face was beautiful, framed in her dark hair, tightly cuaffed around her face. As he watched the fabric seemed to move, twisting twining around her body.. She reached out a hand to shake, the cloth on the arm moved, he was sure of it. Maybe it was the tonic, his head was spinning a little, or something. He shook the offered hand, the fabric did move, it twined around her arm like it a snake. It was then Ragnar realized we was looking at hair. Her hair covered her like clothes.
“Please, call me Ash.” her voice was low and husky.
He looked into her eyes for the first time, the irises were a very light blue in stark contrast to her pupils which were dark like her hair. Dark and big, he could get lost in her pupils. He was lost. Then she smiled. It was a radiant smile, lighting up her face, lighting up her eyes. He didn’t see the eyes look past him, he saw the smile, the dark hair and light eyes. He was lost.
“Sit down,” MoProbs spoke breaking the spell. Ragnar looked to him stupidly. MoProbs laughed and gestured to the chair that Ragnar was holding on to. Ragnar looked down at the chair and shook his head, he pulled it out and sat down.
“Don’t worry. It’s the tonic.” aSTARTe said comforting him.
“You like this?” Ragnar asked.
“Yes,” aSTARTe said, “it gets better.” She shrugged. “Just wait till you get in a fight, I can’t even explain it.” Her eye’s flashed.
Ragnar swallowed, then copied her shrug, “I’m sure you’re right.” He was lost. Lost in this place in this room, this table, this chair. Full stop. Lost in her eyes
“I’ll vouch for it man. The stuff is bonified.” Ragnar feeling like he was waking up, turned his head and looked at MoProbs who had just spoken.”
“Sure,” Ragnar blinked his eyes.
“Good, good,” MoProbs said. “It looks like you’re getting your focus back, yes? Good because we have five new bounties.”
“Five!?” Ragnar exclaimed, thrilled at their early success.
“I know, right?” MoProbs nodded proudly. “So I want to get all three of us out there as soon as we can,”
aSTARTe jumped up, “I’m ready! I leveled up like you said I needed too.”
MoProbs turned to Ragnar, “You just got here, are you ready to leave or do you want to chill or check out the store over there?”
“I would like to see if there are any armor upgrades in the store. Let’s deal with the new bounties now, that way you guys can get started.” Ragnar suggested feeling like his mind was really working now, the world seemed clearer.
“That’s a great idea,” aSTARTe said, “So Probs sweetie what do you got, let’s see.”
“Okay, okay,” MoProbs unrolled his map on the table. Ragnar could see that MoProb had revealed the road from CampOut south and there were two bounties marked near a town,
“Have you been down south?” Ragnar asked,”to this town, what is it? Sorka?” He pointed on the map.
“No not yet. I got that and the bounties from RicoCast, the proprietor of the store over there is from there.” MoProbs gestured to the lit-up doorway. “He came here to flee the Tokeners, They got him twice, which is why we have the two.”
“I would like to go south, would it be okay for me to take both of them?” Ragnar asked, then looking at aSTARTe shyly. “Unless you were already planning on going there?”
“No, that was what I was going to suggest. This way Ash and I can work the her first bounty together. The other three are near the road running between Norca and Orup. One thing you should know is that the bounties you're going after, RicoCast1815 commissioned them. We are doing that for a discount in his store, if you get both we’ll get a better percentage. You might want to keep that in mind when you’re shopping. You might want to wait till you come back, just a thought.” MoProbs stood up after speaking, held a hand out to aSTARTe, helped her to her feet. “I think we’re going to get started. Good luck on your hunt. Cheers” He held held up his glass, they clinked the rims together, they all drank.
