IC Story Thread: Ch.1,Ad.1 - A Sensitive Matter

Duinhir's words do little to calm the children, they remain rooted in place by fear, the younger lad crying and the older girl just clutching her brother with her eyes closed. Meanwhile, you can only imagine the actions that are beginning to swirl outside the warehouse...

Seonaid let's her arrow fly and the woman, about to heft the bar on the doors, ceases her frantic screams for help with a brief shriek of pain before falling silent and collapsing to the ground in a quickly spreading pool of blood.

Cirion is able to find a fire source nearby with little trouble, torches, candle, he has his pick, and there are ample barrels and crates and sacks of grain and things to start a fire upon. The blaze begins to take hold where he wants it.

The Corsair in the shack runs out of it to kneel by the side of the woman and begins to gather her in his arms.

The watchman outside moves further down the roof tops continuing to raise the alarm.

The Corsair gathers up the body of the woman and stands, staring at you all with wild eyes as you come for the door next to him. It's the kind of wildness that comes from a fear of not knowing whether one will live or die in the next few moments.

Once Eothain lifts the bar, the Corsair shoulders open the other double door and staggers into the street with her. Walking backwards away from the warehouse, so that he can keep his eyes on you all, he goes to the ground in the shadow of a nearby building many paces away lays her down and starts gasping a word in Southron, over and over - still staring at you all - that Eothain knows to be 'fire'.

As you all emerge into the street, you can see that lights are being lit inside of a couple scattered rooms, and window shutters are creaking open here and there, and even a few faces poking out of door ways. The cry from the rooftops is still 'attack'.

As you all move away from the warehouse, some of the faces turn into full bodies emerging from door ways - some with knife or baton in hand. And a group of such bodies even accost your group! Stepping into your path and making demands, speaking angrily in their tongue, and although Eothain can't put their words together into full sentences, he can catch singular words like 'hey' and 'who' and 'you'.

But quickly their eyes look beyond your group as they see the flickering orange and yellow lights radiating from the warehouse door and high windows. And then they spring into a different kind of action, quickly the cries turn from 'attack' into 'FIRE, FIRE'!

As you look back you see that some have went inside and are emerging with buckets, some have headed straight for the waterfront, many are banging on doors trying to rouse the burrough from their midnight slumber, even the Corsair from inside is going from door to door, pounding and screaming, 'FIRE, FIRE', 'FIRE'!

As your contingent moves beyond the bounds of the loudest shouts and exits the streets of Easterly Rock, a bell begins to toll - loud and clear and deep and resonant. It is an emergency bell, much like you've heard only very rarely in Gondorian cities.

Be it for the good or not, you each know that what you have done will be considered a grievous crime in the eyes of the city of Umbar, and at least two men have survived the encounter who have seen your faces and heard the Westron tongue you spoke in the warehouse...

The small boy soon stops crying, and indeed a seeming few moments later, he is asleep in his bearer's arms. It is after all well past midnight, and the two must have been roused from their sleep to get them off the ship, and are generally probably just completely emotionally and physically overwhelmed and exhausted.

And perhaps the warm and gentle embrace of even a stranger is the most compassion he's received in some time, and so gives him the small comfort needed to let himself collapse.

The little girl's bright eyes are wide open, she must be 9 or 10, but she is largely just staring at nothing ahead in the distance as she is borne along.

Just as you reach maybe a hundred paces beyond the last streets of Easterly Rock, another emergency bell begins to toll. And then soon after that, another. And then another. And then the clamorous alarm is so great and intermingled that you cannot tell if even more join in, as more burroughs and more people are roused to contain the fire.

There is a city gate not all too far from here now. And you can reach it within perhaps 20 minutes of having left the warehouse behind. Certainly faster than words might travel with any specificity of the fire, you must think?

Yet when you reach the gate, you can see that it is closed.

This isn't abnormal for a city at night. Perhaps they'll open it for you? Or perhaps they have a foot-gate? But whatever they do or have, it will no doubt be guarded and watched...