===== And Teeming With Horses Shall It Ever Be =====
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Some really loud banging at the front door interrupted my sleep. [[farne:actors:vrad gravath|Vrad]] put a pillow over his head but I was out of bed in an instant and pulled my clothes on in a flash. Peaking out of the window, I noticed two of the people at the door were manifests, and they had a bunch of other horsemen with them; they were obviously [Thalian] military.

I headed out into the hallway, and saw [[farne:actors:Ronn Gravath|Ronn]], who told us to get into the cellar, which the four of us did immediately. [[farne:protagonists:grey:index|Grey]] set to work making us an escape bubble through the ground while Trent masked our magicing.

After we surfaced, we took stock of the situation, briefly discussed our options, and then made a decision about our actions [after we heard screaming coming from the house]. It really kind of irked me a lot that they cared so much about capturing a bunch of manifests to press into the army (hey, they didn't really know if we were spies or not, given they ridiculous way they treat manifests in that city).

So anyway, we decided to "take care" of this group. I set about commanding the horses to attack their riders. They did so without much convincing. From then, I targeted either of the two manifests in range with Mind Blasts. The leader of the group, a chick, sent flaming balls of fire in every direction. Nice trick.

[[farne:protagonists:grey:index|Grey]] was teeking a bunch of stuff, overturning carts and whacking people with rain barrels and such, taking care of quite a few people. The horses stampeded another few, and I think [[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]] was sneaking around slitting peoples' throats. [[farne:protagonists:trent:index|Trent]] got several from range with his arrows too.

We eventually took care of them all, even after the leader chick lit the house on fire with the family still in it. [[farne:protagonists:grey:index|Grey]] quelled the house fire, we cleaned up the mess, and after interrogating a few prisoners and speaking with [[farne:actors:ronn gravath|Ronn]] and his family, it was decided that [[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]] would send them back to the [[farne:locations:runearch|Barony of Runearch]].

We collected up all the horses, spent a few days selling them off nearby in order to ensure we had sufficient funds to hitch an airship ride to [[farne:locations:upper thalia|Seldermoor]], in the [[farne:actors:thalian_duchal_families|Duchy of Pal'parntha]], at the battle of three fronts, the last unaligned Duchy in the battle for the throne of [[farne:locations:Upper Thalia]].

And so, we gated back to [[farne:locations:upper thalia|Dimmersdel]]. We set about locating a vaguely [[farne:actors:Larkis]]-like criminal element in [[farne:locations:upper thalia|Dimmersdel]] that had the contacts we needed to get us passage on an airship.

After executing an idiotic act in a seedy bar in the bad area of [[farne:locations:upper thalia|Dimmersdel]], we managed to establish contact with one idiot by the name of [[farne:actors:Peter the Shiv]]. He thought he knew someone who could get us airship transportation. And so we paid him to take us to his contact.

His contact was a fat guy by the name of [[farne:actors:Mr Babbage]]. We negotiated our fare, and agreed to me his goon at the docks two days hence.

We were led by [[farne:actors:Mr Babbage|Babbage]]'s goon to a riverboat, onto which we boarded. They set sail down the river, and then at nightfall we took to the air under the cover of darkness. [[farne:protagonists:grey:index|Grey]] added a good tailwind to our trip to shave off a day or two.

During the ride, after a few days, [[farne:protagonists:grey:index|Grey]] brought up on the down-low that we might consider... "acquiring" this airship from these 4 goons in the employ of [[farne:actors:Mr Babbage]]. And by acquire, he meant "take by force". 

After listening to [[farne:protagonists:grey:index|Grey]]'s reasoning, I can't say I disagreed. [[farne:protagonists:trent:index|Trent]] seemed ambivalent, and for some reason, it was [[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]] who actively opposed the idea. Weird. [[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]] seemed to favor screwing over the "innocent" all the time, but was against screwing over very obvious criminals? 

I ended up thinking more about that revelation than I did about [[farne:protagonists:grey:index|Grey]]'s proposal to "take" the airship.