RuneScape Forum Archive | The Armies of Yu'biusk

Apr

2020

si soy Leon

Posts: 304 Silver Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

“That’s what this city’s done. It’s lured me in and kept me happy, and then every once in a while it takes me to court. The other week I was almost sent home from the sewers when I showed up five minutes late. The construction crew wasn’t even ready to leave until an hour after schedule anyways. I’ve been fighting in those sewers on and off for five years now, they can’t afford to fire me.”

He tips his mug back and finishes the beer, wiping his lips with a small golden handkerchief, produced from his back pocket. He rubs his hands together in thought before speaking again.

“I grew up without a family, I lived in a little vacant building as a kid. No one in the neighborhood ever bothered to get to know me, but I heard them talking all the time. I must have been six or seven when my parents died, and I listened to everything I could hear through their walls when I walked past for five or six years. You’d be amazed at how intimately you can know two people when all you know about them is their arguments.

“I’ll be damned,” the young man continues, *I think I knew every family in West Ardougne and maybe three or four people knew my name. Three or four people in the entire city of West Ardougne knew my name! I can’t believe it sometimes.”

13-Aug-2013 00:29:27

Apr

2020

si soy Leon

Posts: 304 Silver Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

“I’ll be a monkey’s uncle,” the bartender remarks. “Varrock’s a long way from West Ardougne. What made you come here?”

“A fresh start,” the young man says. “I wanted to take everything I knew then and use it to be a better person. More than some voyeur. More than a survivor. I wanted adventure.”

The bartender keeps his eyes trained on the young man while he fills him another beer. The brown haired patron takes a drag of the new beer and gasps in pleasure. It’s enough for him to continue his monologue.

“So I come down here with a good friend of mine. He’s like a brother, his name’s Dante. He’s a tribal kid, from Karamja. Brilliant, you’d never expect him to be so smart. Anyways, we did some work for the Seers in Seers’ Village, killing the spirit of a tree. It was a wolf. We were instructed to take its pelt to some seedy fur trader just west of here. We’ve been based from here ever since.”

He shoves his hand into his pocket and drops several coins onto the counter.

“My friends will be here soon. I’m going to pay up while I can remember. Your tips in there.”

13-Aug-2013 00:29:59

Apr

2020

si soy Leon

Posts: 304 Silver Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

The bartender counts the coins and smile at the young man.

“You’re generous, huh? Stop by and tell some stories soon.”

The door opens. A dark skinned man as tall as a young tree steps into the bar, ducking to keep his head from hitting any hanging lights. He smiles at the bartender, his face being strangely welcoming despite its gaunt, imposing features.

“I’ve just come to get Hines here,” the new young man says. “We’ve got a lot of work to do here in the next week.”

“This is your friend?” The bartender asks. “The one from Karamja?”

Hines nods.

“Yeah, this is him. We’re on to something big. Something of an adventure, we’ve got big plans for the next week.”

The bartender looks at the tall tribal in his bar. He’s dressed in a nice, sleeveless black shirt like a squire might wear. He can make out the clang of chainmail hidden under the shirt, and he sees a short rune sword sheathed around the tribal’s waist.

“If you’ll excuse us,” the new young man says, “We’ll stop in soon.”

The pair exits the bar, squinting in the new, biting wind blowing down the boulevard. The snow comes down heavier than before, and the gravel road allows snow to collect.

“Dante, where’re we going? Why was I supposed to meet you here tonight?” Hines asks his younger companion. Dante looks down at him, smiling.

“The stolen weapons are close! With a little work we can find them and have the third infantry well-armed like they need to be to fight the goblins!” Dante says happily. “I had a talk with that some bartender who I thought to be a member of the Black Arms gang. He wasn’t, but he sure knew a lot about them thanks to a drunken smuggler who came in to his place a few days ago. They all go to a pub about a block from this one. It’s worth a word with the employees.”

Hines looks up and down the empty streets. He sighs, letting his breath expand in front of him like smoke.

13-Aug-2013 00:30:27

Apr

2020

si soy Leon

Posts: 304 Silver Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

“Where do we go from there?” Hines asks. “How much information can we get from a few bartenders?”

“I don’t know,” Dante says. “Atheana is interrogating the head bartender at this new place as we speak. He hasn’t met me yet, and I’m sure if he hasn’t broken yet, he will when I enter the scene.”

The pair walks, quietly laughing to themselves as the snow continues to fall with increasing intensity over Varrock. They pass boarded up shops and dingy little bars as they continue southward on the shady little boulevard.

The door to the bar is ajar, and the pair hears a soft, frilly shout come from one of the back rooms. They walk into the empty, dark bar, and follow the subtle glow shining out from under a door opposite to them behind the bar. They hear their companion, Atheana, yelling.

“CALL ME WOMAN ON MORE TIME, WORM! I DARE YOU!”

Hines walks quickly to the door and pushes it open. The girl is much short than her two compatriots, but her untempered spirit had always been enough to shake the two of them to the core at times. Dante knowingly keeps in the shadow as Hines enters the storage room.

Atheana holds her bow straight out, her arrow drawn and ready to fly into the face of the scared looking bartender tied up in an old wooden chair.

“I’m sorry!” he yells, “I promise I won’t do it again!”

He sees Hines enter. He begins pleading.

“Help me! Come on man, help me! This girl’s going to kill me! She’s an evil…”

Hines raises his hand as he speaks, throwing the weight of his entire body behind the back of his hand. The smack knocks the man and the chair to the ground. The man begins to cry, his face twisting into an ugly pout.

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence,” Hines demands, bending over to lift the man and his chair back into an upright position. “We don’t need trouble from you. We just need some information.”

13-Aug-2013 00:31:21

Apr

2020

si soy Leon

Posts: 304 Silver Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Dante steps into the room, smiling, keeping a loose grip on the handle of his broad sword.

“I’m going to keep an eye on you two before this man winds up in the hospital,” he says with an intentionally pleasant grin on his face. Atheana blushes and does her best to pitifully hide her face as he flashes his smile at her, and Hines returns a satisfied smirk when it’s his turn to be smiled at. He looks at the bartender. “How’s sir doing this evening?”

“Lord Saradomin! That’s one huge savage!” the bound man exclaims, stopping his crying to gaze at the tall black man in front of him. “I did*’t know your type could grow that big!*

Hines laughs unintentionally at the blatant prejudice the man exhibits to his monstrously tall friend.

“You might want to watch what you say to my friend here. He doesn’t take kindly to insults!”

Dante keeps the same plastic smile on his face. He looks at Hines.

“Why, a simple man like me doesn’t mind anything this guy’s said,” Dante tells him grinning. “I’m just here to help the two of you.”

The bartender struggles against his binds. His veiny face drips sweat as he wriggles and jerks to no avail. He stops fighting, panting, looking at the three captors.

“I don’t need you three keeping me here any longer! Wait until the guard hears about this!” he yells to all three of them. Atheana and Hines have stepped back to their own respective corners of the room, while Dante crouches, still towering above the sitting man.

“We’ll let you go soon,” he says, “Real soon, I promise, mister. Now I just have to ask you a few questions.”

The bartender calms down and frowns at the huge face smiling at him.

“What do you want to know, banana man?”

“Just one thing,” Dante says. “Are you familiar as to how the white knights in Falador interrogate their detainees?”

13-Aug-2013 00:32:16

Apr

2020

si soy Leon

Posts: 304 Silver Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

The bar tender’s frown turns into a scowl. He silently mouths no.

*It starts very gently,” Dante says, gripping one of the bartender’* exposed fingers. He very gently bends it backwards at a casual angle. “And the less a sir cooperates, the harder they push the finger.”

The bartender’s face loses its scowl, as the implication of the young man’s words become clear.

“And, mister,” Dante says, smiling wider than ever, “if the first finger doesn’t do the trick, they star puling fingernails.”

In an instance, Dante is no longer smiling. He is pressing the bartender’s finger harder behind his hand, and the bartender’s face clearly shows pain. His features twist and contort themselves into an unnatural position. Dante releases the finger, and when he speaks again there is no hint of the simpleton he presented himself as originally to the bartender.

“With that in mind, mister, we’re going to have to hear everything you know about a shipment of weapons the black arms gang stole. The general is having a hard time equipping his soldiers on the eve of this battle, and your clientele’s little endeavor has endangered the city’s defense.*

13-Aug-2013 00:33:18

Apr

2020

si soy Leon

Posts: 304 Silver Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Dante stares into his eyes, his face expectant. The bartender does his best not to look at the huge teenager in front of him, but he can feel a large had slipping around his pointer finger again. He winces in pain even as Dante gently begins to press his finger up, and towards the back of his hand.

“Okay!” the bound man explodes, “For Saradomin’s sake just let go of my finger! Please!”

Dante releases the man’s finger, and stands up.

“Where are the weapons, Andrew?” Dante asks plainly. “This is bigger than you or me. What I’ll do to you if you’re lying is not nearly as bad as what will happen to you if this city falls under goblin control.”

The bartender sighs.

“The weapons are in an abandoned warehouse in the southwestern corner of the city. It’s right there in the corner, it’s the only warehouse. One of the boys mentioned it to his friend today. They’re reliable. He’s totally reliable.”

13-Aug-2013 00:33:51

Apr

2020

si soy Leon

Posts: 304 Silver Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Dante looks around at the barrels of beer and surplus seats in the storage closet one last time, and walks out of the small room. Atheana takes one last look at the pitiful man before walking out, and mutters under her breath the whole time. Hines picks up a small barrel of beer from the floor. He looks at the bound man and smiles.

“Don’t be so quick to judge anyone. They might be smarter than you!” he says laughing. The bartender flinches as Hines’ sword flies from his sheath and towards the man’s torso. He cries silently to himself as the ropes, now loose around him, fall to the ground. Hines leaves laughing.

The pair stomps through the snow. Atheana is fuming with anger, yelling about how she was addressed by the man.

“He called me sweetheart! I knocked him out and tied him to the chair and he had the nerve to call me sweetheart!”

“Hey now,* Dante says. “He’s clearly nothing but common trash. He just happens to know a lot. I know it’s easy to lose your temper but…”

13-Aug-2013 00:35:12

Apr

2020

si soy Leon

Posts: 304 Silver Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

“You don’t have to deal with this ‘you’re a woman!’ mess!” the young woman yells back at him. “You have no idea what it’s like to be a woman adventurer!”

“Oh yeah?” Dante laughs back at her. “He called me a ‘savage’. He called me a ‘banana picker’, for Saradomin’s sake! The man’s just trash. Calm down, you and I both know you’re more capable than any male sharpshooter in all of Varrock.”

She blushes, but her face is hidden by the snow flying down at high velocity.

“Stop it you two,” Hines laughs, “We need to go home and get some rest. We can start checking out that warehouse first thing tomorrow.”

“I know,” Dante says. “I’m just being pleasant. Even if she’s not always.”

He smiles at her, but she’s visibly thrown off by his comment. He tightens his lips, clearing his throat a bit at the sight of her disheveled posture.

“The goblins have been pushing for a long time, and they’re far too close to Varrock. We’re doing a great service to the boys fighting out there.” Dante says, looking at both of them.

13-Aug-2013 00:35:49

Apr

2020

si soy Leon

Posts: 304 Silver Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

“This adventure might be our biggest claim to fame yet. It’ll be a well-deserved claim to fame. The goblins are throwing everything they’ve got at this little city. This is it.”

Dante falls back into silent contemplation. Although he doesn’t say another word the rest of the journey home, his compatriots feel better about the interrogation, and about the mission they have to complete. Dante had spoken a lot today, but it’s because he had needed to. They had never quite accepted such an important adventure before.

As the three return to their small house in western Varrock, Hines and Atheana begin to ready themselves for bed. Atheana emerges from her room to see Dante reading from the middle of a thick book in the living area.

“Aren’t you going to bed?” she asks. “You read too much.”

Dante barely looks at her. She lays against the wall in her night gown, observing his heavy eyes twitch between her and the book for a quick moment before he replies.

“I’m reading a few more pages before I go to bed. It’s a history of the goblins before Bandos returned all of those years ago,” he says, casually. “They used to be stupid, mindless creatures… weak creatures.”

13-Aug-2013 00:36:19

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The Armies of Yu'biusk