I'm in it for the money! {Perun}

[Donovan]

Donovan couldn’t explain it, but the moment he stepped out of the frozen mountains of Ilia he could tell he was home. He’d never thought of Lycia as his nation, being the child of a traveling troupe, but after seeing the icy peaks of Ilia and the hot, terrible wasteland that is Nabata, he was glad to be back in the more temperate nation he was raised in. He was glad to leave the caravan he’d traveled with for so long. Too many bad memories. Too many dead companions. Grev was a shell of his former self. Donovan almost felt bad leaving his family to fend for themselves, now that they were back in Lycia. Almost.

He needed more work. That was the one thing that was clear, money was still tight despite so many months on the road, but Donovan was starting to get a taste for fighting, so he thought that maybe some bandit hunting would do him well. He didn’t care much who it was, so long as they were still alive. Donovan went into the town’s tavern and ordered a pint, hoping to fish up some work.

“Hey, Barman, I just got out of a contract and am looking for some work. Any bounties out there I might be able to get in on?”

The barman looked him up and down. Donovan’s recent exploits had left him looking harder and more feral than when he’d left home. The top of a long scar was peaking out over the top of his shirt, running all the way up to his neck. Before he’d simply been playing the part of a hardened mercenary, yet now he was almost entirely there. Almost, he still liked to have his fun.

“Yeah, I’ve heard of a couple of jobs that the constable’s been talking about. Apparently there’s a nice bounty on the head of a murderer, supposed to be some scary bloke. Man like you might stand a chance though.”

Smiling, Donovan left a handful of coins on the bar, downed his drink, and got up to leave the quaint establishment. He headed over toward the constable’s office. He had to get some money, he had to get home.

[Perun]

Towering over the heads of the little people in this little Lycian town, Perun didn't have to move from his path. Like waves against a rock they shuttered away from the large man, creating a sort of space that moved through the crowd surrounding Perun. The giant, covered in thick orange hair waded through the sea with his usual degree of absolutely-not-knowing-where-I'm-going-please-help. Of course he did it all with a smile on his face. Perun had come from one of these peoples larger cities. He had passed through farms, and rivers, and all manner of natural things like grass, trees, and the like. If it was green, he had seen it. However, his path with no direction had brought him here. To one of those special little towns that manage to be just where you need it when your feet hurt, and you need a stiff drink. Of course, nothing these southerners drank was anything to the friendly giant, it was more of a slightly solid drink. Still, they had a drink he liked the taste of, beer they called it. He could drink about twenty pints and still stand up, maybe not twenty, but a lot, still it was a nice thing to drink for fun.

As Perun was lost in thought about substances that caused you to be lost in thought, he suddenly collided into a black haired man in green. The little man was thrown onto the ground by the bulk of his larger opponent. "Okh moi izvineniya!" Perun spoke as he lifted the man off the ground with one meaty arm. "Oh, soerry, I speak home tongue, not your people lenguege. I'm sorry to move you to ground. I am Perun. Your neme?"

[Donovan]

Donovan didn’t have time to react before his bum hit the floor. For a moment, he thought he’d run into a wall, but upon closer inspection, he saw that he’d actually run into a giant wall of orange hair. Suddenly, the giant was lifting him off the floor and speaking to him in a thick Ilian accent.

“Donovan.” The mercenary looked over Perun. He wasn’t too much taller than Donovan, only 2 or 3 inches, but he was about 3 times as wide. He carried a huge axe and a bow, but maintained a wide grin on his face. “You look like quite the warrior, Perun.” Thinking quickly, Donovan realized that it might not be too bad of an idea to have someone to travel with. Especially someone as imposing as the giant. And if the warrior had any skill with that bow, catching that killer would become a much easier task.

“You look a little lost, oh mighty Giant,” Donovan joked. “I’m not from this part of Lycia, but I’ve done a lot of traveling through the years. I could give you directions, if you wanted…” Donovan trailed off, acting as if his next thought was a fresh one. “You do look a little ragged, though. Could probably use a few extra coins in your purse?” Donovan thought he saw a hungry look come over Perun’s face. “I’m about to get started on a gig, tracking down some murderer who’s supposed to be in the area. It’s always smarter to have someone watching your back, even if it means splitting the profits… What do you think, you interested in making a some coin?” He didn't like making such rash judgements, but Donovan tended to have good intuition, and when he didn't get trust it, he tended to get into a tight spot. Besides, he'd worked with strangers before, and if the Giant tried any funny business, Donovan would just slip away. He had quite some skill in the area of deceit, and part of that was knowing when to get away.

[Perun]

The little man's name was Donovan although he was bigger than most of the people Perun had seen outside of his home valley. The man seemed to be a nice man, and he called Perun 'giant' which Perun liked. It meant incredibly big, and though it was obvious that Perun was rather giant, it was nice to hear it said with a positive tone. He had become somewhat used to people stepping between he and their children when they saw him coming, and he was happy to see his size be perceived as a good thing. Coin, the man mentioned coin. Money wasn't a familiar thing to Perun, in his home they'd traded or taken what they needed. Here money could be exchanged for goods and services. Getting coin would probably be a good idea before Perun tried to find the... what were they called? Libraries? He needed to find a library. Also, someone who could read the common tongue.

Perun considered the man's proposal. "It is good to have other fighter with you. I think this plen good. If we kill men no one will come and try to trap us yes? I fouwght bendits in city a while ago and a group of guards told me if I stay they would put me in big cage. You must see a little coin does not help if I am in cage."[/color] Perun thought for a moment more. Donovan had a sword, which most warriors outside of the valley seemed to prefer. It would definitely be good for Perun to have a swordsman at his back, and someone who knew more about the outside world. "Bah, I accept! Let us go and kill murderer so that we can get more coins. I hope you are good at finding people, because I get lost anytime I turn my head in this strange place." Perun extended his right hand to the mercenary. [/font]

Ooc: www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQpc0QfBaMc

[Donovan]

Perun extended his hand to the mercenary and they shook on their newfound partnership, which made Donovan feel like they’d be able to catch the murderer with no problem. “I don’t think anyone’s going to be putting you in a cage, friend. Let’s go to the constable’s, should be right over there. He should give us the details on the job.”

The two men start to walk over toward the constable’s office, Donovan was glad for the company, the Giant was friendly and funny. Entering the officer’s establishment, Donovan took a second to appraise the building. There were two men, probably the Constable and his deputy, as well as a older woman, who looked more intimidating than both of the other two men combined. Donovan approached the older of the two men and was struck by the fierce smell of alcoholism.

“Excuse me… Lawman? My friend and I are interested in helping to hunt down that murderer that was supposed to be in the area… Sir? Constable?”

“Don’t bother.” The strong, rough voice of the woman traveled over from across the room. “That ugly idiot won’t wake up for another year. And that’s if your lucky. Come over here, I’ll sort you out.”

Donovan looked up at Perun and laughed at the situation. He wondered if whatever small village the Giant came from had the kind of bureaucratic idiocy that was so common in Lycia. Clapping the warrior on the back, they walked over to the woman.

“My name is Donna, I’m unofficially in charge here. You actually trying to go after this guy? If you’re serious about it, we can give you all the information we have on him, but I’m gonna warn you, he’s not exactly your typical killer, you might want to get some more help before you get out there.” Donna spoke quickly and decisively, she was in charge and made sure the rest of the room knew it. As she spoke, she began to gather a small bundle of paper from off of a small wooden table that was probably all the information that they had on the murderer.

[Perun]

Perun allowed Donovan to lead him to the constable's office. It was strange, this man seemed somehow an outsider like himself, but not as far outside. He seemed to understand the structuring of the little town, as if it were familiar to him. Perun had not been to many towns, but if all of them were like this one, it must be very confusing. If the bakery in one village were next to the carpenter, just like the village you grew up in, you would walk into the bakery and expect to talk with the man who made your bread at home. Or maybe these people weren't as daft as they seemed, they probably weren't in fact. Perun had to remember that most of the knowledge he had of them wasn't fact, just opinion.

The big man laughed along with his new friend at the joke made by the woman. At least he thought it was a joke, he might have misunderstood her words. Though if it was the joke he'd thought of it was a good one, the man did look a bit like a badger eating pudding. The woman implied they would need more help, Perun stepped forward and looked at the documents she shuffled on her desk. He couldn't read these outside words, but there were one or two illustrations. "Duno-ven and Perun can hendle this. All the help we are needing is to be each other yes?" He smiled at the woman, who probably thought he was arrogant, or stupid, or both. That was the way out here, people wanted you to think you were worse than you were. Perun believed that on any given day, he could be killed by a farmer with a stick who'd never held a weapon before. On any given day, Perun could kill a Dragon. At the end of the day, more men around him simply gave him less room to string his bow and swing his axe.

[Donovan]

Perun was looking over Donovan’s shoulder at the papers, and the mercenary wondered if the giant could read the common tongue. The first thing Donovan noticed was the price on the killer’s head. Suffice it to say, that the young mercenary didn’t realize that one job could have that many zeros attached to the end of it’s salary, it was more than he’d made traveling months on the road with Grev. Even after splitting the profits, he could buy a horse and still have enough to help his mother’s inn stay afloat. But high prices come with higher stakes, everyone knew that. Leafing through the handful of pages in the small dossier, Donovan saw why the bounty was so high; the murderer killed with magic, an acolyte of some sort.

“Well, Perun, we definitely will have a lot of coin on our hands when we kill this guy. Have you ever fought someone who uses light magic before?” The giant looked a little surprised by the question, even though they’d been “reading” the same page, which pushed Donovan to guess that he wasn’t totally literate, if at all so.

“Wait. This psycho killed 7 people before anyone knew what he was up to? How many people are even in this town, for no one to notice that many missing?”

“We’re not too small a town, and besides, 4 of those 7 were a family, he took them all together. Everyone thought that they’d just gone hunting, no one even realized they were missing until they’d been gone for nearly a week.”

Looking over the descriptions of what had happened to these poor people, Donovan was suddenly very jealous of his friend’s illiteracy. “What is happening to the world?” Donovan asked to himself as much as to the room. The mercenary was not quite as confident that they were going to be enough to take this killer out on their own as Perun was.

“Who knows. My question is how a man like that can claim to be holy. When our two other deputies went to the temple to arrest him, he hurt both real bad, Mart is still spending most of his days in bed, and Clyde hasn’t woken up yet…”

Donovan looked up at his giant friend. Perun was confident. Even the worry in Donovan’s voice didn’t appear to cast any doubts on the giant’s mind. Alone, Donovan wouldn’t stand a chance against a killer like this. But together, the two warriors might be able to come up with a plan that could remove this maniac. Luckily the bounty didn’t change whether the acolyte was taken in dead or alive.

“Alright, Donna, we’ll take the job. This maniac is just the sort of killer my friend and I are used to taking out. The two of us will more than suffice. You have any questions, Perun?” Donovan put the dossier in folds of his sack subtly so Donna wouldn’t notice. He didn’t want anyone else to try and take their bounty.

[Perun]

Perun knit his eyebrows together, "No, I have not fought man with bright megics before. Perun does not like megics." Then Perun began to think on past experience with The large orange haired man continued to think as he left the office with his new friend. He was more afraid of magic than steel, but he would not turn back. If the man was a killer he needed to be killed, and who was better at killing than Perun. He smacked his small companion on the back. "So, Duno-ven, where is temple Dunna say man is? Perun find maps to be confusing in place like these."

Perun began to finger the haft of his axe, drumming the tips of all but his thumb against them. Everyone in the small town looked at the duo as they left the building. It still amazed him just how shocking his appearance was to people. Most of these looking at him had already seen him, they knew a man such as him walked among them. A giant covered in thick muscles and thicker hair. However, their shock did not fade away as Perun stood in front of them. Nothing would change his appearance, but these people seemed to believe that he could be changed by simply staring at him. Perun leaned forward and stared directly in the eyes of a passing man walking with his child, crossing his arms as he did so. "Hopefully we are not having to fight him in the view of all these prying peoples, yes?"

[Donovan]

Of course Perun hadn’t fought with magic before, Donovan realized. The Giant was illiterate, obviously from a very small, probably isolated town. Its not like wizards and mages were likely to be in abundance, much less causing enough trouble to warrant a fight. They’d have to be careful. Donovan had encountered mages before, but never had to fight one, nor did he particularly want to, magic can be a dangerous enemy. Whatever they came up with would have to be a good plan to take out this acolyte.

Donovan pulled out the map of the local area that was included in the dossier.
“It looks like the temple is a few miles outside of the town, a little ways into the forest. We’ll have to follow the main road for about…” Donovan used his fingers to compare the distances on the map, “two miles? from there we’ll need to take a forest path the rest of the way. So we shouldn’t have to worry too much about innocent people getting hurt. I’m just wondering why he’d stay at the temple in the first place?”

Donovan looked around at all of the people staring up at his new, enormous pal. They were in awe of the orange haired sasquatch. One man had the gusto to try and stare Perun down, which ended rather quickly when the Giant crossed his arms and stared right back.

“You’d almost think these people had never seen a giant before!” Donovan laughed lightheartedly. He was glad that the pair had bumped into each other. Rather, he was glad that Perun had knocked him to the floor. His new friend was just the right combination of kind and intimidating to make for a good ally in the bleak world they were living in.

“Do you want to get any supplies, Perun? Or should we just hit the road?”

[Perun]

The orange bruiser laughed loudly at his friend's joke, "Yes, these people here are all so small, Perun must seem to b being not quite human!" He laughed and slapped his chest, which would have created a large slapping sound if it had not been matted by his chest hair. Perun shook his head at his friends queation, "Do not be worrying over food Dunno-ven. Perun is carry much food with him, and having many piece of salt in pack. No one is being hungry when Perun is there to help them. I buy much salt in last village, salt is good thing for people to have in this places yes? Keeps meat from being behd for you." Perun started to walk down the main road toward the forest. He started to hum a merry little tune as they went.

"Perun is hoping you do not mind if Perun is telling story about his village yes? When Perun was small child a man came to home, and ask Perun's father for help build boat outside of village. None in Perun's home are knowing what boat is, so Perun's father agrees. He leaves village for two days, then comes beck. There was a horrible blizzard you see, and Perun's father did not want anyone in village to get hurt if he was not around to help. Three years later, same man comes back and asks for mans to help build boat, and Perun's older brother was deciding to go. Still no one is knowing what boat is. Brother leaves, and come beck, saying that boat is house that goes on giant pond, and was terrifying, so he wants to stay in village." Perun cleared his throat and spit on the ground, by this point, he and Donovan were at the of the town. The big man scratched the crown of his head, where his hair was thickest. He always had an itch there.

"Perun leaves village a few years ago, and first place Perun goes is place with boat. Boat is biggest thing Perun has ever seen, and Perun gets on. A few moons later, Perun think about village, and how sad it is no one will ever ride boat there. Perun is going to go and fight man now who uses bright megics, something else no one in village will do. It is strange."By the time Perun was finished, they had reached the edge of the woods. Perun liked these southern forests, no matter how many times he saw their trees, it shocked him how different they were than the ones he had grown up around.

[Donovan]

Donovan listened to his friends story, quietly. It was interesting to hear the Giant’s perspective in the world. There was something very honest and obvious in his story, although the mercenary had never thought about the world in that way before. To be the first person you know who has sailed in a boat or fought a mage. Donovan was finding himself admiring the warrior’s desire to explore the unknown. Before he even realized it, they were heading into the forest. a stones throw away from the Acolyte’s temple.

“I love the forest.” Donovan mentioned wistfully. “It’s always so calm. Serene. It’s a shame we’re going to have to disturb that serenity.” The pair marched onward slowly, more careful than they had been on the road, not wanting to alert the killer of their approach.

“We need to figure out a plan of attack, Perun. Those guards went in there without any thought, and well, you heard what happened to them…” Donovan thought quickly about what they knew and what they had at their disposal. “How’s your aim with that bow?” He asked the warrior. “If I could lure him out of that temple, we’ll both have more room to maneuver and then you can take him out with a clean shot.” Donovan would easily be able to lure the evil monk out of the temple, so long as he convinced the killer that he wasn’t there to capture him. If he could do that then Perun might be able to kill him with only one arrow.

[Perun]

Perun nodded, Perun has always been liking these forests here. Beck in home village trees much different and loose green for most of year. It is shame to risk ruining trees even if it means taking cere of man in church." Perun scratched the crown of his head again. It was being particularly bothersome today. Maybe some little bug had wormed its way through his massive matt of fur and given him a bite that wouldn't go away unless he stopped scratching it. Perun had no intention of stopping, he was never very patient.

"You are right Duno-ven we should have plan of attack." The Orang giant listened as his smaller friend detailed what he thought would be a good strategy. Perun nodded as he listened, and tapped his bow with his thumb when he was asked about his aim. "My aim? Perun's aim is betterwith his axe, but he will not miss so bad that he hits Duno-ven if that is what you are asking for." Perun considered the other parts of Donovan's plan. "You are right, maybe it would be better to fight him outside of place he is familiar with. Duno-ven are you sure you would rather go in? Perun is bigger target, but Perun doubts bright megics can kill him quicker than swords or spears." The two continued, and Perun let go of his bow, returning his hand to the back of his axe, where he let it rest occasionally as he walked. He did not know which weapon was the better for fighting a mage.

[Donovan]

“I’m sure you could take a hit from this guy better than I could, Perun, but we want to lure him out without him having his guard up. If you’re the one knocking on his door, he might assume that you’re there to - well - do what we’re here to do. Putting people to ease might not be your strongest suite, my friend. But Deceiving people is my bread and butter.”

Donovan wasn’t quite sure of the best way to lure the mage out, though. Choosing a character to fool this killer with was risky, who knows how he’d react to anything. “Trying to fool a man like this could be tricky. He might be unwilling to aid a lost traveler... But perhaps he’d be more willing to come outside if someone was injured. He would certainly feel less threatened if that were the case...” Donovan spoke his thoughts out loud, hoping Perun might see how the puzzle pieces fit together, but before he could continue, the mercenary smelled a hint of smoke. It was barely there, but it told him that they were close to a person.

Perun seemed to notice it too, as both men crouched suddenly behind the safety of the trees. about thirty feet through the forest ahead of them was the temple. It was, miraculously, surrounded by a nice open field, so part of their plan was useable. Donovan thought he saw movement through the window. The mercenary was too far away to see for sure, but it looked like he saw more than one person.

“That’s it.” The idea, like the need to vomit after drinking too much, came quickly and horribly. “I need to get him to try and take me inside. According to the dossier, he never… killed his victims right away. This guy always needed to have his,” Donovan shuddered at the thought, “fun with them first."

“We need to make him think I’m injured and alone. If we can do that, then he’ll try to take me inside with him. Probably. When he does, I can either try to disarm him or just get you a clear target, and you can shoot him. Or cut him in two, whichever you prefer. What do you think?”

The plan was risky, especially for Donovan, but it was the only thing he could think of without more time or information. The only prep work they’d need to do is find some forest critter for Perun to shoot so that they could make the mercenary look good and wounded.

[Perun]

Perun's face showed concern as Donovan detailed his plan. He did not want the young man to get hurt, but he seemed set on providing himself as the bait to this maniac, and Perun was not one to rob a man of his pride. Still, he did not want him to stick his neck out too far, "No, no disarming, he is not good man, will not give us second chances. You give Perun a shot, and Perun can slow him down. You need to take sword with you in case Perun not kill him in one shot. Perun does not want Duno-ven to get in real wounded, yes?" Perun then looked around, "Perun will go get something with blood, Duno-ven yell if he gets in trouble, Perun will be doing the same." Perun skulked off without rising, keeping his hulking body low to the ground. When he was far enough away, he began to move more freely, a full range of motion allowing him to quiet his steps.

After a few minutes he came to a small clearing in the woods, and saw a squirrel dart down from a tree, only to stop on one of its great roots. Perun considered shooting it, but thought better, the small thing might provide the blood necessary, but there was no use killing the small critter only to use it in a lie. Perun waited, and good things came to him. This time is was a fat rabbit, and silently Perun notched an arrow the second he saw it. In one motion, with no hesitation, an arrow came back and flew forward, punching through the rabbit's side. Perun rushed to the little thing and killed it by cutting its throat with a small knife he housed in his boot. He never had much of a stomach for killing things as small as this, deer had a chance to run away, this thing was a sad weak little creature. It made him sad to rob it of its chance. Perun wrapped the poor animal in a piece of cloth he kept with him to keep himself and other things clean, and hurried back to his companion.

When Perun returned he handed the rabbit over to the younger fighter, "Here you are Duno-ven. Make good use of his blood, Perun's arrows will kill two things today." He had stopped thinking of the man they'd come for as a man, he was less to Perun now than the rabbit.

[Donovan]

“Okay, Perun, I won't try to disarm him. And I’ll take my sword - I don't doubt your aim, but you're right you might not kill him with one arrow, I need to be able to protect myself."

Donovan watched his large friend sneak into the forest. He’d so quickly thought to have his friend slay an innocent creature in order to lure this killer into a trap. What’s happening to me, I’m just some actor’s son. When did I become a coldblooded killer?

Then Donovan remembered his trip through the mountains. The fear, the dead, those that didn’t stay dead. Almost all of his caravan killed or worse. How they’d never found Jon’s head…
It made sense that he was like this now. Especially with this killer.

He pulled out the dossier and read about the atrocities the monk had committed. Some of them reminded him of what the walking corpses had done to his friends. The biggest difference was that this monster knew what he was doing.

He heard Perun a few feet away as the sun slowly lowered in the sky. It’s probably around 4. Mom’s gotta be starting the dinner for the inn about now…

Perun pulled out a freshly killed hare. Donovan looked sadly at the creature. He could tell the Giant disliked having to do the cruel deed. If he'd had the skill with the bow, the mercenary would have done it himself.

“I hate that a beast so peaceful had to be killed to trick this monster. And I’m sorry that you had to kill it, Perun.” Donovan looked back at the dossier, his rage and thirst for justice flaring. “But this man must be stopped. He must be killed.” With that the mercenary cut a hole in his pants leg and started to spread the rabbits blood near the gash. He’d learned all about proper make up and effects in the troop, and the real blood made the wound look downright terrible. Then, as an after thought, he stripped off his leather armor so he wore nothing but his weary traveler’s linens.

“Armor’s not going to protect me from magic anyway,” he explained, “I’m going to lure him near that bush over there. I’ll hide my sword in it so he doesn’t know I’m armed. Where will you shoot from?”