Beasts in Irons (Scythe-Nova)

[TheHighwayman]

Jaxel paused at that, sword about ready to cut through the last of the bonds. "Now, you helped me out, so I'm not going ta turn on you now, but I'd prefer you didn't go killing all of them. Not too fond of killing, and I'd still like to know what they're up to here. Easier to find out if there's people left to ask." His opinion given, he shrugged and sliced through the last of the bonds.

Taking the blade's scabbard from the guard's waist and fitting it around his own, he put his new-found sword away. "Bit heavier than I'm used to, but it'll do." Stepping back and folding his arms, Jaxel waited to see what Iron would do.

[Scythe-Nova]

-"What? ... Oh well you helped me an i'll go along with that for now"

She said and when the last bonds fell off her she could almost feel her strength return to her body and with it her animalistic urges, she immediately felt uncomfortable in human form and thus shifted back to her original wolf form.

-"Ahhh... much better"

She said as she sat down and began using her hindpaw to scratch her ear, She then looked at Jax and waited for him to tell her what he was planning to do while her tail slowly wagged back and forth.

[TheHighwayman]

"Alright, first things first..." Jax stooped down and searched the guard for anything else of value, eventually coming up with a handful of coins and a key ring. "You can have the coins if you want. I'm going to let the others out."

With that, Jax darted to the end of the hallway, unlocked the door out of the cell block, and began flying from barred door to barred door, grinning at the inhabitants- an odd mix of half-humans, near-humans, and things more akin to other shifters- as he released them. "Alright everyone, time for you to go home. If you can fight, do us a favor and make as much noise as ya can on the way out. If ya can't... well, just keep your head down and move quick. And do me a favor and try not ta kill anyone, eh?"

With that, the guard on the other side of the door soon found himself on the wrong end of a small flood (about fifteen to twenty) of escaped prisoners as they rushed for freedom. "Well miss, up to find out who's in charge here?"

[Scythe-Nova]

-"I have no need for coins.."

She said to Jax comment about the coins and followed him with her gaze as he went about releasing all the prisoners, She shifted back to her Human form for ease of movement down here in the dungeon.

-"Yeah i want to at least break his legs for what he did to me.."

She said and cracked her knuckles and neck as she looked at Jax with a cocky grin, Her tail that was now present in her human form wagged back and forth excitedly.

[TheHighwayman]

Jax shrugged and started for the door, giving the guard a kick as he passed. "Nice tail, by the way." He smirked. "That get ya much attention?" Up ahead shouting could be clearly heard- a clamor of ten voices in all, but the sounds of it. From what little was distinguishable about half probably belonged to more guards. "So, prefer to sneak about or give our friends a hand?"

The man rested one hand on the hilt of his sword and peered up the stairs, ducking back just as one of the guards was flung bodily downwards. "Seems like they're doing pretty well for themselves."

[Scythe-Nova]

-"Not really i don't linger around humans very much..."

She said and followed jax through the dungeon and when he asked her if she wanted to sneak or help the escapees, She was interupted by the guard that fell past them and she looked after it before looking back at Jax.

-"The only reason they got this many people here was cause they took them one by one, now that they are grouped like this they don't stand a chance"

She said walked up the stairs and looked at the guard who now lied beaten on the floor, She chuckled and smiled before looking back at Jax.

-"I don't think this'll be too hard for us"

[TheHighwayman]

"Alright then, let's get going!" Jax took one step back and darted up the stairs, leaping them three at a time. At the top he found himself in a large square room where several of the escapees were wrestling with the last remaining guards. The man noted a bit of blood on the floor and winced. "Hope nobody got hurt too badly." Stepping forward, he cracked the last guards on the head with the hilt of his sword from behind.

"Now let's see..." To his right was a set of stairs through which the dim promise of sunlight was visible. To his left was another set of stairs down, presumably to the rest of... wherever this place was. "Well, no time like the present." While the last of the prisoners filtered outside, Jax charged down the steps and reached for the doorknob. "Can't hide in there. I want some answers!"

((OOC: I'll let you decide what's on the other end this time.))

[Scythe-Nova]

Iron looked into the room and raised an eyebrow as she saw the interior, it was some sort of torture chamber but it looked like not just pain that was inflicted upon it's vitcims. Actually there were some victims strapped into the devices around in the room, all in pain but some not only in pain.

-"I don't think that this is the right room... But we should let them loose"

She said and looked at Jax with a wierded out look as she tried to not look at the ones in the devices, she had a blush on her face as she went into the room and began to akwardly release the victims.

[TheHighwayman]

Jaxel surveyed the room, an odd expression on his face. Most people would have been disgusted, angered, or something at the sight, but Jax just looked mildly puzzled. "Now why have all this set up here, I wonder. What're they getting at?" He just kept that curious expression on his face all the while helping to release people- but it looked almost like an afterthought, as he was busy taking in the details of the room.

"This can't be the only reason they were kidnapping people. There's got ta be some bigger purpose for it- or at least for grabbing so many."

[Scythe-Nova]

-"Yeah i don't really see how this could be why they kidnapped so many people..."

She agreed with Jax as she released the last prisoner and turned her head to set her eyes upon a stone door on the side wall, She raised an eyebrow and walked up to the door and put a hand against it and tried to open it but it would not budge an inch.

-"This door won't budge at all"

She said and turned towards Jax and looked at him wondering what to do next.

[TheHighwayman]

Jaxel stepped up, took a deep breath, gave the door the best heave he could, and... nothing gave. He kept pushing at it for a few seconds before jumping back and grinning. "Well I'm an idiot." The man grabbed the key ring he'd swiped from that first guard and began running through the list. "Let's see if one of these works, eh? No, no, nope, no luck..."

He'd almost run through the entirety of the keys, but when he tried the last one he beamed and looked back at Iron. "Looks like this one fits. Ready?" Without waiting for an answer he flung the door open and darted through, blade at the ready.

What he found on the other end was both odd and a little bit disappointing. This room, unlike the rest of wherever this was, was lavishly decorated. A large, almost throne-like chair sat behind an ornate desk, and most of the walls were covered by bookshelves. "Huh... even weirder. Let's poke around a bit. Maybe some sort of letter or records here that might help us out?"

[Scythe-Nova]

Iron looked at Jax when he fumbled with the keys to the door and when he opened it and ran into the room she followed suit but stopped as Jax did, She looked around and took in the room with a curios gaze.

-"Ummm i cannot read so i don't think i can help you with this.."

She explained as she went through the stuff inside the room sniffint lightly on the items for anything that could be a clue.

[TheHighwayman]

"Alright then. Just look for anything shiny or important looking." With that Jax jumped into the chair and began sifting through the drawers. Most of it was just junk; short notes that didn't even give a name, memos to whoever was writing about the situation (Jaxel was pleased to note that he was included in a few of the most recent ones), and... "Hey, this one looks like a shipping record of some sort. Let's see... Ketra, Arca, Selevea... Looks like quite the operation here. Think they're grabbing people and selling 'em off to slavers."

Jaxel frowned and stood on his head in the ornate chair, frowning. Something didn't add up though. Slavery was perfectly legal in Adela, and in Serendipity they'd have been able to operate so long as they didn't nab any Serenian citizens.. so why the elaborate underground (he assumed) setup? Surely this couldn't be the most effective way to do things... Jaxel shrugged and figured he'd better keep looking.

[Scythe-Nova]

She nodded and walked up to a shelf and began rummaging through the stuff on it sniffing most of the stuff to get a better idea of what she was dealing with.

-"... Well whatever they're doing this for they are well paid"

She said as she picked up a handfull of the jewels she had found in the box, She showed the handfull to Jax but raised an eyebrow as she saw him on his head and tilted her head. She put down the jewels and closed the box.

-"Why are you on your head?"

She asked and walked over to the chair that Jax was on and sligthly pushed on his legs with a bored look on her face, She could feel that most of her canine senses returned to her slowly and somehow she felt that her body flushed slightly must be because of what she saw in the earlier room she thought.

[TheHighwayman]

Jaxel raised- or would that be lowered?- an eyebrow at Iron. "Why not?" When she pushed his legs, he swung them back and flipped over the back of the chair, landing perfectly on his feet. "As for the gems, you want 'em? I'll probably pocket a few otherwise. Now, let's see... maybe there's something in here that'll tell me where whoever was running this ran off to." With that he went back to rummaging around the room, pulling papers off the desk, and generally making a mess of things.

Eventually he grabbed a letter that had been left in the bottom drawer. Jaxel scratched his head as he scanned over it, hopeful for any information it could give. "Huh... lessee here... Apparently the guy in charge of locking us up here's called Vasmer, this mentions something about a second hideout somewhere called Lyrin- oh! I know the town. Heard about people going missing over there, too. Less than a day's travel off. Think I'll have a look there once we're done here, if ya want to come along." Jaxel peered at Iron curiously. "Hey, something up?"

[Scythe-Nova]

Iron had no reason to take the gemstones since she had no use for valuable items as she did not interact with the human world in that way. Her eyes refocused as Jax spoke to her and she shook her head slightly but the subtle blush on her cheeks wold surely give her away would Jax notice them.

-"No nothing, I guess i can follow you along since you helped me out of here to begin with..."

[TheHighwayman]

The strange, excitable man noticed the blush- but, being Jaxel, paid no mind to it. He did, however, break into a broad grin when she agreed to tag along. "Great. Let me just see what else I can find here..." Jaxel began shooting around the fancy office with no apparent rhyme or reason, swiping bits of paper while barely looking at the contents. It would almost look like he was grabbing them at random.

Stuffing as much of the assorted junk in his pockets as he could, Jax grabbed a blank page and scribbled something on it, leaving it right out front on the desk. "Investigation ongoing, don't disturb... signed Jaxel Cray. There. Now I just have ta hope whoever comes along listens to it! Or can read, come to think of it..." At that he added a quick doodle- not a good one, to be fair- of somebody messing up the room and being hit with a hammer. "There. Alright Iron, let's go. I'd bet you want a shot at the guy behind this as much as I want to finish the job."

[Scythe-Nova]

Iron nodded as she walked over to the door out and waited for Jaxel to finish whatever he was doing meanwhile she poked through the gem box before simply stuffing the whole thing in an empty bag she had somewhat concealed under her clothing.

-"So what is it you do Jax?"

She asked she followed Jax out from the room and through the whole of the underground complex all the while keeping the same pace as Jax did.

[TheHighwayman]

Jaxel bounded out of the room, grinning broadly despite the fact that they would once again be passing through the more... unpleasant bit of the place. Tapping a finger on his chin, he hrmmed and gave Iron a puzzled look. "What -do- I do, exactly? What's the best way to put it... I guess you could say I'm an adventurer-for-hire. Strange things happen, bandits start trouble, or your local crypt breaks open and undead pour out, I'm the man to see." Jax gave a humble shrug and a grin. "In my own time, I've stopped dangerous mages, driven off more bandits than I can count, and even thwarted a demonic plot or two. I run a business called Cray Investigations and Assistance, which hires out people like me to those who need 'em."

[Scythe-Nova]

Iron focused on what Jax was saying to her as they went through the "Torture" room but she could feel the smell affecting her body, Her blush intesified as she felt her body heat up from the pheromones in the air. But she got through the room without jumping Jax and she felt somewhat better when they moved through the other tunnels but she knew she had to relieve herself later on.

-"So what you get paid for fixing problems?"

She asked and looked towards Jax not thinking about the intense blush she had upon her face, Her breath was hot and just slightly ragged and now that she thought about it she may have been on the verge of her heat. As that thought hit her she looked away from Jax and began thinking about what to do, she kinda wanted to follow Jaz through this adventure but she was unsure if she could hold herself back if she entered heat in the middle of the travel.