Kingsroad Campsite

[Barley]

“I am hearing an awful lot of complaining, and criticism, and not a lot of good ideas coming from you,” Barley said, looking at Richard. “What would you do then?”

[Lucas of Brindlewood]

"Perhaps it wasn't clear the first time I said we should ambush them on the road, but I suggested we should ambush them on the road." Richard responded sardonically. "We scout for a secluded part of the road with suitable terrain, we rig a few trees to fall on the road in front and behind them as they enter the part of the road we pick, dig a few holes in the road and cover them with leaves so we can break some horses legs if we are lucky and increase their confusion. Then we hit them with a volley of arrows to lower their numbers and then hit them from all sides before they can form ranks defensively. Typical ambush. It has worked a hundred times before and will work again if you lot know how to handle a blade."

[Sigfry Deddings]

Sigfry was getting anxious as he heard the group arguing with one another over the plan, looking up at the sky as he looked for the suns position. They were wasting time, but considering the group, there wasn;t really a rank to pull as he sighed. He looked to one of the people who he'd signed up with, Richard, suggesting their plan as he spoke up.

"Fell some trees? Do I look like a Woodcutter to you?" Sigfry asked as he brushed aside his cape and moved to show off the metal appendage he sported, "and I'm not sure how much of a Volley we can pull off, considering some of us can't or don';t know how to use a bow." The man said, laying out a simple flaw of the plan.

"We might not have the time to do that kind of plan, and we might not have the time to clear out a whole tavern either in a town. We need to find someplace where the works been done for us. A narrow spot on the road where they're forced to travel more restrictively, or a inn in the middle of no where. If we try to force the situation to come about we might very well just exhaust ourselves by the time they actually arrive."

[Lucas of Brindlewood]

For a moment Richard stared at the speaker, his jaw dropping slightly as if the man had told him he enjoyed sex withcows. Then his expression turned to a scowl. Was this some kind of joke at his expense, being set up with the most incompetent group of bandits the Riverlands could possibly muster?

"If you're too stupid to use an axe you're too stupid to be a part of this group." Richard informed Sigfry dismissively, after wrapping his head around what had just been offered. "I was going to say you're not that stupid, but then I just heard you suggest we wander around until we either come across them and then attack them there if nobody is around, or find a spot we like and sit on our hands playing children's games until they show up. That's even fucking stupider than her plan. At least she's trying to give us the advantage, even if her's is a terrible way of doing so full of possible complications." He scowled, gesturing at Vex. He scanned the group seeing if anyone else had a bow on them.

"Look, you have the right of it that the fact only...three people hired to do this job know which end of a bow is which is a gods damned travesty. But I'll tell you what, I'll take three shots at unaware targets rather than none, which is what you're offering. As for setting up an ambush taking too long, the fuck are you on about? You're proposing the same thing as me, except without the things that make it an ambush, like actually using the terrain, and shooting at them. Clearly you've never ambushed anyone before, but since you didn't listen to what I just said about doing it, it isn't exactly cyvasse. We scout the road for a good spot, rig the trees, dig a few holes. All told after we find somewhere we like, we're talking a matter of bells. We're not sowing seeds and waiting for the fucking harvest."

[Vex]

Richard, Vex found, was once again someone that talked way, way too much. "I don't know what to say," she said, taking a step away from Harlan now that she'd dropped her hand from his shoulder. "You'd think Simon and Augie were professionals. You'd think they'd send us someone that would figure out a party tasked with delivering 1200 gold dragons would recognise your run-of-the mill ambush the second they saw the fallen trees. You'd think they'd send a man that's aware two archers don't make for a volley of arrows, let alone give us an edge against armored guards on horses."

She turned to look at the man in question. "Yet they give us an oaf with his head so far up his arse he is blinded by shit, unable to see how posing as tavern folk and travellers would give us an advantage against guards that we would also happen to be serving drink and food to."

She was silent for a while. "I'm disappointed," she finally said, as if passing a severe verdict.

[Lucas of Brindlewood]

If these words were supposed to hurt Richard in some way, Vex was very unaware of what kind of person he was. He took a bite of food and stared at her while he slowly chewed it some time.

"I know nothing about robbing or killing in taverns." Richard eventually responded cooly, lying. "Thing is I don't know anything about acting either. I am who I am, and I have a face people who meet me tend to remember. Unless you're a troop of professional mummers, you're not going to be able to keep up the pretense of being 'tavern folk' and 'travellers' for long. See unlike you I clearly know a thing or two about knights. They're not the idiots you seem to think they are. You think they won't notice how poorly cooked their food is? No offence old man." he said, not taking his eyes off Vex as he insulted Boros. "You think it won't strike them as odd how quiet the place is, not ask why everyone is wearing armor as they eat? Not to mention how careful they will be with anything they are consuming, drink or diner. See, you're telling me they will be competent enough to recognize an ambush when they see it. Well no shit, that's why we fell the trees as we are striking. And it don't matter that they realize it is an ambush at that point. But you think this same competent group will be stupid enough to just walk into a tavern, not look around at all, and then just blissfully eat and drink whatever they are given, no questions asked, no precautions taken?" Richard snorted. "If they're that dumb, then they aren't as competent as you're claiming."

"Don't get me wrong." He said, still holding his glare at her. "You get points for trying. But I'm not risking my life needlessly just cause you are overly attached to a bad plan. My impression is that I'm not the only one who has reservations either."

[Vex]

As the words "unlike you I clearly know a thing or two" passed Richard's lips, Vex pulled a knife from her belt and threw it in Richard's face in one swift motion.

(68 Small Blades)

[Lucas of Brindlewood]

It was not the first time a thin skinned person had taken exception to a comment Richard had made, and he moved as quickly as he could, trying to throw himself out of the knife's path.

(Agility 10, also using this action to ready his hammer if possible, but don't want to post that IC yet in case Vex hits)

[The Gambler]

As Vex draws her knife, intent on taking the bond villain approach to mouthy henchmen management, Richard dodges faster than a man his size had any right to. Rather than burying into the middle of his face and silencing his tongue, it instead sliced a jagged slash across his cheek. It would likely leave a nasty scar, but the injury was largely superficial.

(Richard takes a Light Wound for -5. Richard gains +4 Agility)

[Lucas of Brindlewood]

Richard lived by a code. That code was people who tried to kill him did not live. It had served him well up to this point and he did not intend to deviate from it in this moment of crisis. Nevertheless, the fact that nobody had spoken up about the one eyed woman's psychopathic assassination attempt suggested she might be supported if he settled this with arms at present. Richard liked to fight when the odds were in his favour, not when he did not know what the odds would be.

Springing to his feet, he passed up the opportunity to rush her immediately, opting for a diplomatic route out of their impasse. "If you so much as reach for another weapon, you're a dead woman." He said, sounding remarkably calm for someone who had narrowly escaped death by knife to the face, but the whiteness of his knuckles as they grasped his hammer showed the fury he was outwardly suppressing. "Here is what is going to happen. You are going to slowly place your weapons on the ground, and back away from them. Then everyone else is slowly going to place their weapons on the ground and step away from them. Then I am going to walk to the horses and leave. Anyone who doesn't want to follow this crazy bitch is welcome to come with me. If something I have just said does not occur, she dies, as does anyone who wants to stand with her."

Richard slowly moved toward the seated group as he spoke, keeping his eyes on Vex, but trying to position himself behind them if she went for another knife.

[Taero of Myr]

"I signed up to follow Longinch." Daven says quietly, "Not his whore." He says getting to his feet eyeing the both of them warily. "And seems to me you are the only one here that is not suicidal." He says with a nod to Richard before making his way to stand by the man.

[Lucas of Brindlewood]

"Happy to have you." Richard said with clear false cheer, trying to ensure Daven wasn't positioning himself behind him while keeping his eyes on Vex. He suspected the man was truly on his side based on what he had said up to that point, but having just had Vex try to kill him, he was taking no chances.

[Harlan]

Harlan, could not believe his eyes. Where had Simon found this man? And Daven, a coward, he could hardly believe it. Attempting to diffuse the situation now boarding on homicide, Harlan stepped between Vex and the mutineers.

“Now listen here, because you’ll be dead before I have a chance to say it again. This devious yet unconventionally attractive cyclops behind me is the boss. She make’s the decisions, not you. There won’t be any more discussion about changing the plan, and there definitely won’t be any more talk about leaving. You lot signed up for this job, and I’m not going to stand by and let your poor judgement stand in my way of that much gold.” He wagged his finger disapprovingly in Daven and Richard’s director. “I’ve met lordlings that whine less than you. It’s time to cull your egos. Once we have the gold, we can live the rest of our lives on opposite ends of the world for all I care. Yet right now, in this moment, we are going to do the job. There might not be another one, should this go south.”

[Sigfry Deddings]

Sigfry looked between Richard and Vex, going to his feet the moment the dagger was launched and his hand on the hilt of his sword when the bearded compatriot. Of course the outlaw had resorted to violence in order to solve the dispute, it was what they did, and how they managed to survive in the harshness of life when not favored by the lords of the land.

What struck him more was Richards apparent desire to leave, and that there was another who was willing to join him. The wheels of Sigfry's mind began to turn as let the hand off his blade, knowing full well that if it came to it, he still had a weapon to deal with this man.

"Let's not do anything stupid, Richard..." Sigfry said, trying his best to remain calm himself though he could hear his own heart beating like a drum in his ears, "You signed up for this job; Your face is known to us, and to our employer, as our faces are known to you. You do this job, and you can walk away afterwards and never seen any of us again. You walk away now, and you'll be nothing but a witness that Augey will know all about...you're a smart man, you can see the odds as they stand here."

[Vex]

Vex looked to Daven as he joined Richard, finding his lack of faith... disturbing. "Longinch always did call you the runt of the litter," she said.

She backed to her horse and picked up her spear. "As for you, cowering there behind my companions," she called, addressing Richard again. "If you think for a second I am just letting you leave with even one of our horses, you're even thicker than you let on." She chuckled. "A hard feat."

She twirled the spear once for good measure and circled around the group with the intent of positioning herself between Richard and the horse nearest to him. "They are right, of course. Clearly you've never ran a job before if you think you can just walk away from this without owing Augie and Simon their ten percent."