BZPRPG: Kumu Islets

IC: Alfon The sarcasm was one thing he had not expected but it humoured Alfon instead of the other way around. He was liking Trakuda more by the day."All righty then. If you guys don't mind, I'll stick with shorty over here. After all he's been through, I think it'd be nice for Trakuda to get a break. Poor fella."Alfon said with a hint of sarcasm near the end but in a friendly manner. He chuckled to himself."Any objections?"

I.C.Vompran"No objection-say from me."

IC: Madrihk was curious. Another outcast? "I sort of estranged from my people as well," he said. "I had a disagreement with the Turaga, which ended in me leaving under rather tense circumstances. Haven't set my foot in Ko-Koro since." He, of course, chose not to mention that the "disagreement" regarded the laws about murder and theft. "So yeah, it's good to have company again."

IC (Trakuda, Liberator): The edge of Trakuda's mouth turned upwards slightly at Madrihk's comment. He also found it strange that no one had noticed battles on such a grand scale. Perhaps they never happened? Perhaps they were just odd visions? He stored away this information in the back of his mind. "Anyone here been to Xa-Koro before?" he said eventually, changing the subject.

IC: Kethrye: Kethrye had remained silent throughout the journey from Le-Wahi. He had nothingto add to the other's conversation and had thought it better to remain silent then saysomething he would regret later. " So why exactly are you going to Xa-Koro." Kethrye asked the other occupants ofthe boat.

IC: "We're going there to get some supplies and equipment," Madrihk said. "It's the best place to get goods, I've heard, as long as you keep a low profile." He showed his trusty map to Kethrye and pointed. "After that we're going here, between Le- and Ta-Wahi. The woods there hold good resources, but it's so far from the villages that Makuta has full control there. We're about to change that." At this point, the boat was reaching the crude dock by the shores of Xa-Koro's small island. The village looked like it was thrown together from whatever spare parts that could be found. Madrihk spotted Matoran from all tribes scurrying around, as well as members of other species. Many had seen the boat approaching, and were already observing the squad in silence. The team leader jumped off the craft and helped pull it ashore. "Help me seal it off with ice," he said to his fellow Toa of Ice. "I don't want to come back here and find that it's been taken by one of the misfits that live here."

IC: Kethrye: Kethrye focused, activating his control over ice, fire a beam of ice to create aglacier like structure that sealed the boat to the dock. " I hope that will do." Kethrye said, climbing past the glacier and onto the dock

IC: Alfon Alfon pressed his foot against the ice to test it."It's good. Don't think anyone will be stealing it any time soon."As they stepped off the dock, Alfon observed his surroundings. The people in Xa-Koro looked pretty rough or weary and the place seemed rather run-down."You sure this is a good place to get resources? The place looks more like a big heap of junk than a village..."Whispered Alfon.

IC: "Junk on the surface, gold within," Madrihk said. "At least counterfeit gold." The group strolled down the main street, passing by several small shops selling mostly useless stuff. "Now, I'll be honest: We won't be getting much out of these stands. But in the back alleys, I bet there are some nice things. We don't have much money, though, so either we need to do some work for what we need, or we... obtain it through other means. Let's find out what we need first, though. I was thinking spare weapons and some healing items, like 'Volo Spheres. Possibly a few more doses of this." He withdrew a small, airtight pouch from his bag. It appeared to be filled with liquid. "Lehrak poison," he explained. "I got it off a dead Rahkshi I stumbled across. It's very effective for weakening larger Rahi, But I only got three or four doses left. If we are to survive an onslaught of Makuta, we really need every edge we can get."

IC (Trakuda, somewhere in Xa-Koro): "Alright, let's split up into pairs or something." said Trakuda, taking in his surroundings. The beach they had just left was littered with parts of destroyed ships and other anonymous pieces of machinery. Inside the village, many strange looking beings roamed the streets, each looking more shady than it's predecessor. He made a mental note to watch out for likely psychopaths and criminals.

IC: Alfon Like Alfon had said earlier, he paired up with Trakuda and left the others to discuss who they'll pair up with. As they walked through the streets, the village seemed to get a little more dangerous with every step. They had passed by an alley where an unfortunate matoran was surrounded by others, threatening him. Alfon knew that interfering meant trouble but he couldn't stand by and watch an innocent get hurt."Wait here."Alfon had begun to step torwards the menacing crowd.

IC (Trakuda, Xa-Koro streets): Trakuda did as he was told, and waited at the end of the alley. As Alfon went off to sort out whatever was happening down there, Trakuda tried not to wander off. He was itching to do so, there was so much to see here! But he could desert Alfon, he might need help. Besides, he was just a Matoran. He remained where he was.

IC: Alfon By the time Alfon had made it to the alley, the matoran were pinning their victim to the wall and one of them was hitting him hard in the stomach, while the others cheered."No, no, no, that's not how you do it." Alfon said, with a nagging finger.Startled, the matoran turned to face the toa who seemed to have a mad look in his eyes, with a creepy smile. He walked over to the victim and pinned him against the wall. Alfon drew his sword from his back and pressed it against his throat."This is how you do it fellas. Care to watch as I gut him alive and hear him squeal?"That made the matoran crack and they made a break for it, running out of the alley, a few yelps escaping. Alfon had set down their victim and patted him on the head."You're safe now, don't worry. Don't look at me like that, I wasn't going to kill you."The matoran stared at him scepticaly, still shaking. Alfon sighed."How about you make it up to me by showing me where people are selling the good stuff?"The frightened matoran nodded and got up as the two walked out of the alley."Lookie here, Trakuda, I got us quite the catch. He's going to lead us to the black market." Alfon said with a quirky smile.

IC (Trakuda, Xa-Koro streets): He looked him up and down with a smile, "Ah, lovely! So, what's your name? Where are from? And how, in the name of sanity, did you wind up here?"

IC: Madrihk looked at the remaining members of his team. With himself, there were two Toa of Ice, and one each of Plant Life and Electricity. "I think it would be beneficial to mix up our elements a little," he said. "Vompran, you and Kethrye can go find some supplies. Voriki, you're coming with me. I think I know something we can do." As they distanced themselves from the others, Madrihk spoke quietly to Voriki. "Voriki, you strike me as the kind of person who wouldn't object to skim the edges of morality a bit. If not, I apologize, but trust me: I've been there myself, and I can tell. Now, the situation here is that we have next to no money, but a dire need of a lot of stuff. So here's my proposal: We locate a back-alley weapons merchant. Once we get to browse his wares and are certain that he has what we need and no one's looking, we knock him out as silently as possible and take our loot. Hopefully the others will be back as we return with our stuff, and then we leave before anyone take notice. Deal?" Madrihk's mind was suddenly filled with doubt. If Voriki objected, what could he do? He would have exposed his less noble side, and that could compromise the trust of the others. He could only hope his intuition about the purple Toa was right. OOC: I can't remember if Kethrye told us his name or not, but I'll assume he did on the way.

IC: Alfon The matoran seemed to lighten up at the presence of a fellow matoran (Trakuda)."Just call me Al for now. The other stuff isn't your business. I'm glad you saved me toa, but that type of stuff will get you into trouble.""You're welcome."Al had led the pair into another alley but this time, made of piles of junk. The smell wasn't exactly pleasant. Eventualy, they had come up to an isolated shack in the debris."I thought we agreed that you'd take us to the good stuff...as in the black market.""Shut up. You'll see."Rude... Al had led them to the back of the shack and removed a pile of junk, revealing a hidden basement door."After you."Alfon looked at Trakuda and simply shrugged. The basement was dark and suddenly, the door shut behind them, encasing the two in complete darkness."Al, you there?" No response. "I swear Al, I will break yo-" Alfon was cut short as a candle was lit, sure enough, by Al. He proceeded with lighting up some more, until the place was completely illuminated. It was cluttered with a bunch of weapons, medecine, you name it."Where'd you get this stuff?""Stole it. That's why I was getting beat up in the alley. Now here's the deal: have a look around and if you see anything, feel free to take it. You might have saved my life so I'm not going to make you pay, unless you pick out something very valuable to me."Score!

IC: Kethrye: Kethrye inspected the Toa of Plant-Life, Vompran. " Do you have have any idea were we can get supplies?" Kethrye asked," I've never visited Xa-Koro before, andfrankly I have a significant dislike for what I've seen so far."

IC: {Conteriam/Toa/Getting Board Raither Quickly} Conteriam awaited a responce from the odd characters, but they all kept quite."Well fine. The gravity will restore to normal in about 30 minutes. Maybe you'll settle things at that point."Conteriam made his way to the docks. He impulsivly decided he was going to leave the island and head for the mainland.So he would need a boat... or at least a crew to ride with. He arrived at the dock to note that while there were some boats, there were none that had anyone around them. Strange. He sat himself on a dock post and thought it best to wait and see if someone would be returning soon.

IC: Kethrye: Kethrye inspected the Toa of Plant-Life, Vompran. " Do you have have any ideawere we can get supplies?" Kethrye asked," I've never visited Xa-Koro before, andfrankly I have a significant dislike for what I've seen so far."

I.C.Vompran"I've never travel-walked here before either, but let me see if I can get these Xa-matoran to barter-trade for one of my plants. Maybe they'll want rare healing herbs."Vompran started browsing his way through the trade shacks.

IC:OdhranThe crew stopped partying after a long night of partying. "Alright men!" Odhran called out to his most likely drunk crew. "Let's plunder and pillage then set sail!"

IC: {Conteriam/Toa/Observing A Possible Issue} Conteriam looked down at a ship much farther downt he dock. It appeared that there was someone around. Or alot of someones. He heard a shout in the distance."Let's plunder and pillage then set sail!" Plundering.... now that's not something that can go unsupervised.Conteriam tapped himself with the negitave end of his staff and bounded over to the docked ship. Once there, he jumped and suspended himself in mid air to where anyone on the ship could see him."Plundering. Last I checked that wasn't a very nice thing to do. Where is this 'plundering' about to take place?"

IC: Molyan The Crew had partied, all except Moylan, who never cam up from below deck. She wasn't drunk, and she hadn't been seen for hours.

IC:Odhran"Neither is jumping onto my ship." Odhran pointed out pointedly. "Now, if you don't want a thrashing, get off. Someone already tried to steal my ship, and if it hadn't been for my trusty friend Moylan, we would be short one ship."

IC: [Darylhii/Septimus] Septimus floated around to face the newcomer, who seemed to be a Toa of Gravity, for the colour scheme fitted. He quickly thanked Mata Nui that there was another being who was willing to go out of their way to help him, even though his more paranoid side was thinking: 'They must want me for their evil schemes of evil!' "Oh don't worry," he said sarcastically, having recovered from his vomiting fit. "Just a murderous criminal attacking me. Everything is fine of course." Then a rose sped past his head. Despite the fact that there was absolutely no gravity, it was still possible for one to chuck something at somebody else. Darylhii, having been Physics' drinking buddy in the past, knew that the lack of gravity was a somewhat positive situation for him. The rose he had thrown would not be pulled towards the ground, allowing it to move unheeded except for air resistance, which didn't really slow it down much. However, gravity seemed to be tauting him even if it wasn't present, saying: 'See, without me your aim sucks!'

IC (Trakuda, Al's hidden basement): Trakuda could not hold back a smile. They had hit the jackpot! First of all he picked up a satchel. This would come in handy, as he had a lot to carry. Trakuda decided to grab a few more knives- for throwing, and also if another got blunt. He also took a large flask, presumably for water, which was empty. He could fill it up later. A few bandages seemed like a pretty good choice too, along with a disk or two. He continued to rummage through the assorted possessions. There was a lot to choose from. OOC: Woah! Good move, but doesn't this mean we can have infinite stuff?

IC: Kethrye: " So, what is the goal of this group you're a part of?" Kethrye asked Vompran as as hiscompanion browsed a vendor's stall. " I've heard some vague words about standing against Mukuta's control of the island, but other then that I have no idea what your plans are."

IC: {Conteriam/Toa/Dealing With A.... Pirate?}Conteriam continued to float beside the ship."First off sir, I havn't as much touched your ship. Second, I have no intention of stealing it either. Maybe it should of been stolen, if you're going to go about stealing from others." He tightened his grip on his Channeling Staff, ready to bring the ship into Zero Gravity if he had to. It would be interesting to see how well these 'pirates' fight when they can't stand straight.

OOC: Not entirely. Sure it means we can have the simple stuff for free but the higher-end stuff is where we actualy need to pay the price (and he doesn't have a ton of items). And it's not like we're a giant vault, able to hold a ton of stuff, we're only able to carry and buy what we can with what little money we have. So try to hold out on getting TOO much stuff or else it might get us into trouble. IC: Alfon "So wait, we can have the cheap stuff for free?"Alfon asked as he rummaged through the items littered all over the basement."Only the cheap stuff. If you actualy want the good stuff, you'll have to pay full price. Oh and this is a one time thing, as in don't come back. Ever."Meh, probably the best deal we'd get in the place anyways...Alfon had picked up stuff similar to Trakuda, a satchel, a cantine and bandages. But he added some wire for electrical traps and a cutting knife."A cutting knife...?" questioned Al. "As a last resort...plus, it's cheaper than an actual short sword, right?"Alfon was never a really greedy man and nor did he ever need much in his life. "You wouldn't happen to have some Lehrak poison, would you...?""I'm afraid I don't. Will that be all for you, toa? Everything you've picked up but the fishing rod is free."Alfon payed what he had to for the fishing rod and it was more expensive than he'd thought, leaving him with very little money... He wasn't sure wether he should have gotten more stuff but he only grabbed what he absolutely needed."Almost done, Trakuda?"

IC (Trakuda, Al's hidden basement): "Yeah, just a sec..." He decided he was carrying enough already. He laid down the knives, and took some Hojo fruit juice. The fruit itself is almost impenetrable in the wild, so having juice was a rare gift. It was also known to have medicinal qualities at times.Trakuda took out his widgets to find he had very little left. He could always get more by doing odd jobs around the place, and he had already got a large amount of free things anyway."Here you are." he said, handing over the widgets. He then turned to Alfon, "We better be going, eh?"

IC: Alfon "Guess we should. Thanks Al. If you ever need any more rescuing, you know who to come see."Al simply grunted and told the two to get out."Well, I'm out of ideas at the moment. Either we can look around the place to find something interesting to do or we head back to the dock. Your choice."

IC (Trakuda, Xa-Koro streets): "Well I doubt the others will be back yet. I'm still a little curious about this place too, so let's take a look around. Who knows what we might find?" he gave a little flick of the eyebrows, and began swaggering down the street, looking around as if on a tour.

IC SalvinnSalvinn on the other hand had great aim, even without gravity. Especially thanks to the power his Mark was giving him. Thus he fired a few more arrows at Darlyhii with great accuracy. "Last warning, leave the Matoran alone." OOC: Sorry Thomas, I just didn't know what to post.

IC (Madrihk): Voriki had stayed quiet for some time now, so either he was still contemplating Madrihk's suggestion or he was silently going along with it. Madrihk decided to just go with the plan and see where it went. If Voriki objected too strongly he could always freeze the guy in place and tell the crew he had ditched them... The pair lurked around the back alleys for a while until they found a lone Onu-Matoran. He was pitch black, and his eyes were red. If Madrihk didn't know better, he would have thought it was one of the mythical "Shadow Matoran" the villagers used to tell horror stories about. As it turned out, he was no Shadow Matoran, but he was familiar with shady business in the middle of the night. "Hey, you there," he whispered to them, prompting the two Toa to walk over to him. "Looking for some goods?" he continued. "I got it all. Weapons, food, you name it." "I'm sure you do," Madrihk smiled. "...And I'm interested. But where are these goods of yours?" "Not here, of course," the Matoran said. "Too risky. But if you got money, I got quality." "You and every other Matoran in this dump. Everyone say they have good wares, but if I had a widget for every time someone's tried to sell me a rusty blade already..." "Fine, fine, you want proof, I understand." The Matoran glanced out into the street to see if anyone else was looking. They weren't. "Follow me." Madrihk, waving for Voriki to follow, went with the shady Matoran until they reached a large building by the docks that looked very much abandoned. "In there?" "In here." They entered, and was greeted by the strong smell of sea and decaying fish. The building had an internal dock, which held two large boats; both apparently used for shipping goods to and from Xa-Koro. Madrihkj had no doubt that they were all stolen, given the secrecy the Matoran worked under. One of the walls had two large doors installed, so that the boats could be let out into the ocean. The fish smell came from a pile that had been dumped next to the door. Evidently it was meant as a decoy in case someone came snooping. There were at least five Matoran working on the ships, and another one surveyed them. They were all Onu-Matoran. "Boss, we got customers," the first one said. The surveyor turned to look at them. He was wearing a Hau, and was as black as the other ones. "What do you want, then?" he asked. "What have you got?" Madrihk asked in return. "Anything," the Matoran said confidently. "Oh ho, that's certainly something," Madrihk laughed. "Well then, let's down to business. I need the following: Medical supplies, a whole bunch of rope, a good knife or two and some Lehrak poison. If you got more in the same vein, I would be interested in that too." The Matoran grinned. "Nothing worse? The only hard part is the poison, but I got it. It's expensive, though. Are you sure you don't want Nui-Jaga poison instead? Much easier to come by, and a blind target is just as easy to kill as a weakened one, I've found." "All right, that sounds good," Madrihk said, despite having way, way too little money to buy even the Nui-Jaga poison. He had been thinking that he would just freeze the seller solid, but that proved tricky now that there were more Matoran present. One of them could run or scream or something before he could stop him. He decided to speak with Voriki first. "Excuse me, I need to discuss something with my friend here," he said, skulking away from the thieves. Once they were standing by the far wall of the building, he spoke quietly to Voriki. "Anything you need? We can get it from these guys, I'm sure. Payment is another issue, but if we go by my plan and just extort it from them then it doesn't matter." He grinned mischievously. "I was thinking we might need... a bigger boat as well., what do you say?"

IC: [Darylhii/Septimus] The arrows slammed into the Toa of the Green's arms, causing him to hiss slightly in pain. This caused him to make a note never to attack any Gravity Toa, for lack of gravity was annoying and left him open to attack from random other beings with arrows. "Does one stop a Muaka from eating their prey?" he asked, his baritone voice booming across the area. "If not, what is the difference here?" "Well I AM A SAPIENT BEING!" shouted Septimus, who was floating around nearby.

IC:Odhran"Well maybe your face!" Odhran said smugly, using his powers to create some rough winds around Conteriam. "Now shoo fly. Don't bother me."

I.C. Vompran"Our plan is basically to eliminate Makuta's forces from mata nui as much as possible. I personally don't think we'll succeed-win, But I Truth-Know it is my duty to try." Vompran looked through the shops and found one that caught his eye. It had some Amana Volo spheres ... and a bottle of Lerahk poison, Among a couple other things. "How much for the bottle of poison and the Volo spheres?""one hundred widgets" the shop owner replied. As Vompran peered into his backpack, he realized he had been pick-pocketed.

IC: Alfon "Trakuda, remind me to never consider another visit to this place unless necessary..."Alfon really didn't like Xa-Koro, its streets filled with poverty, crime and shady characters. Out of the corner of his eye, he had spotted a rusty-looking makeshift bench."I'll be sitting over there if you need me...if you see anything, signal me over." OOC: Just trying to kill some time because I have no clue what to do at the moment O.o...

IC: Kethrye: Kethrye glanced down at Vompran's empty backpack. It was empty. The Toa of Ice quickly spun his head around, scanning the nearby huts and alleyways with his gaze. My uncomfortable feelings about thisplace have just been confirmed. Kethrye thought, grasping his axe.

IC Salvinn"A Muaka does not eat those it was created to protect. Now if you do not leave the next arrow will go straight through your forehead." Salvinn notched and pulled back on the draw string for one more arrow, true to his word, the arrow was pointed at Darylhii's forehead.

OOC: Erm...I said you could control D for that time I was gone...Did you miss my post? IC('Voriki'): "Not really. A bigger sword, maybe...or a trident. Those are nice." He smiled in a menacing way, in the way many of those with...none too pure intentions. IC(Draebe): The pirate woke up to yelling. Or rather, Word Dueling. He had a hangover from the great amounts of Alcohol he had...inhaled. He walked upstairs, to the deck. "Ugh...What's going on here?"