5/14/09

Choose your own adventure: 26

The story so far:

You awoke on an island full of anthropomorphic animals not remembering how you got there. Among the many adventures you have had, you met a crazy old English blackbird, found an otter village destroyed by an evil Bulldog and his lizard henchmen, rescued the only survivor of the otter decimation as well as your new friend, the Penguin Pirate Captain Pierre. You were almost killed by a scary fairy and a black lake monster, and recently have been traveling with some friends, Ox, Rand and Mina to Edgeton, to find Pierre's ship.
Currently, you have all been hiding from a group of Jackals in a ghost town, when Mina goes missing. You find a secret lair underground where apparently the Jackals have been using for a slave trade. You free some of the slaves from the Jackals and send Rand out of the lair with them. The rest of the team goes on in search for Mina. Your group finds what is supposed to be the room where Mina is being kept, but it is guarded by many Jackals. After getting help from an unlikely source (a bat named Bartok you meet deep underground), your group goes to rescue Mina, who you find, but at the same time the Jackals are besieged by a familiar Pit Bull and his lizard henchmen!

Now begins Time is a Loop: Episode 26

You tell the group that it would be best to help out the Jackals, and try to make your escape when you see an opening.
"The Jackals? But what about all the horrible things they have done to Mina?" says Ox.
"I... I guess we have no choice Ox. They... weren't ALL horrible things they did to me... And if we can get out of here I will never have to see them again. I just want to get home," says Mina.
Ox reaches over and holds Mina. "I swore I would get you out of here, and I will."

"Aw, isn't true love sweet?" Bartok says to you. Ox and Mina quickly step away from each other, blushing as Bartok laughs.

"There is no time for all that. Here is the plan, we will work our way along the wall, fighting the lizards, and hopefully when the Jackals see us doing this, they will think we are on their side and leave us alone. Then we make our escape," explains Pierre.
"Alrighty! Lets go!" yells Bartok as he runs out into the war-torn room, jumping on the first jackal he sees and clawing it. "The lizards! Bartok, the lizards!" Pierre yells.
"Oh, right!" Bartok climbs off the jackal and helps him to his feet. "Sorry about that," Bartok says, wiping off the jackal. "No hard feelings?" The jackal looks stunned.

"Alright, go, go, go!" Pierre yells, drawing his rapier and charging the closest lizard. Ox follows, with a deep roar, and you follow behind, sword in hand. Mina and the otter child keep to the wall, edging along it.
Ox goes barreling into the lizards, knocking out 4 of them with his girth alone. Pierre seems to be holding off 2 lizards by himself, and Bartok is jumping all over the place. He looks like a schizophrenic dancing, but it is keeping the lizards back. He also seems to be mumbling to himself, but you can't hear him over the clanging of iron. The jackals look confused at first from your team's sudden entrance, but seem to welcome the help and don't confront your group directly.
You engage the first lizard, a medium-sized one, with a short sword as well. You parry a few of his blows and manage to get a nice hit in. He drops to one knee and you whack him on the head with the hilt of your blade. He falls down unconscious. You turn just in time for another lizard. This one is stronger, and keeps you on your toes. You do all you can to keep him at bay, but you can't seem to get a hit in. He backs you up to the corner and just when all seems lost, the lizard screams out and falls to the ground. You look and see a jackal has stabbed the lizard in the back. "That's for not killing me and Paul when you tied us up," it says, and you recognize it as the jackal you interrogated from before. "But don't think this means we like you. After we finish these lizards, we are coming for you!" He turns, smiling, and faces another lizard. As do you.
You face a few more lizards, as your group moves closer and closer to the exit of the large room. You continue to hold your own, only getting a few nicks and bruises here and there, nothing major, but your stamina is depleting rapidly, and each attack is harder and harder to parry. A large lizard comes rushing at you with a spear, and you try to jump out of the way to dodge it, but bump another lizard and get knocked back. The spear stabs you in your side and you scream out in pain, falling to the ground. You look up at the lizard, who is grinning and getting ready to stab you again. He shoves his spear at you, and you just manage to bat it away with your sword, but drop your sword in the process. You stumble trying to stand up and the lizard takes another swing. You watch your life flash before your eyes: you see, what feels like ages ago, your life in THE CITY coming to an end, your fight with your girlfriend and the bar you went drinking at with Jim, and the strange woman who approached you that night. Why did she seem so familiar, and why can't you remember her face? And why is this what you remember right before you are about to die? All these things flash through your head right as the lizard swings is spear at your head.

Just then you hear a cry from behind you, and the room begins to glow. You turn you head and can barely make out what appears to be the otter child, glowing bright white, and floating? Your eyes don't seem to be working properly, nothing is in focus, but you swear the otter child is floating, and the jackals and lizards seem dazed from the sight. They all seem to fall back from the light, even the albino jackal fighting the pit bull seem shocked, and stop their fighting. The room gets brighter and brighter and you think you hear a voice, it sounds like Pierre, saying something about how now is the time to go, as something large and furry picks you up and carries you. You drift in and out of consciousness.

You see Pierre and the otter child running up some stairs, and a bright light shine blind you. You close your eyes and open them again, and see Newburry . You look and see that you are standing in the fountain in the square in Newburry. You close your eyes again.

You hear a voice: "...is he going to be alright?"

You open your eyes. You see Ox's cart, with a wheel fallen off and rotten wood. You hear a voice: "...what happened?" You close your eyes.

You feel something soft and furry and warm rocking you. You hear a voice: "what happened, it seems like we have been gone for ages!" You hear another voice: "I just heard the news, how long has he been like this?"

You open your eyes, but everything is very blurry. You hear a noise behind you: "beep... beep... beep..." on and on. You see shapes moving in front of you. One shape seems to be crying. You close your eyes.

You feel something soft and warm holding you tight. You try to move, but your body doesn't respond. You hear a voice: "what do we do now? We need to get as far away from here as possible." You hear another voice: "Our best bet... be a big..." You don't hear any more.

You open your eyes are blinded again. You see shapes that you think are rocks and the sound of waves. Farther off you see something long and blue meeting a different long blue shape. Behind the sound of the waves crashing, you swear you hear another noise, that beeping from before. You close your eyes.

You feel something press against your lips and something slimy in your throat. You try to cough it up but your body doesn't respond. You hear two people arguing in the distance: "...if you hadn't left him..." "Why is this MY fault?" You ignore the voices. You feel something soft and furry in your hands and you try to hold it. Your fingers don't respond and you remember being especially mad at them for it. You think about how you are going to have a conversation with them later on their lack of manners.

You hear voices again. One seems to be singing a song. You can't make out the words, but the song seems to fill you with energy. You open your eyes. You see a small brown room with wooden walls. Or are they blue? You are not sure. You try to look around but all you see are a vase of flowers and your short sword laying on a table. You turn your head right, but instead your body decides to start coughing. You hear a voice: "He seems to be awake." A blurry figure appears in front of your face. "Lie down, it is alright. You gave us quite a fright," the voice says. "Here, drink this." Something gross smelling slides down your throat. You cough it up. "I know it smells awful, but you need to drink it. Here, try again." You manage to get the liquid down your throat this time. It warms your body slowly and your eyes slowly become less blurry. A large, smiling armadillo looks down at you. "We were all very worried about you. Cassie especially." You look up, confused. "The poor girl," the armadillo, who you realize is Mina, continues. "Surrounded by all these men, none of whom asked her her name. Well, I'm here for you now, and it looks like Mike is coming to, so everything is going to be alright." You look over to who Mina is talking to, and see the otter child sitting by the other side of the bed. It smiles at you, and you realize for the first time it is holding your hand.
Your name is Cassie? you ask it. It smiles and nods. You apologize for never learning its name, and it smiles at you. You try to sit up.
"Hold on mister!" says Mina. "You shouldn't push yourself so hard. Rest up while you can."
But, where am I? What is going on? You ask Mina.
"Oh, don't worry. We are in an inn in Edgeton. I am sure you are eager to find the rest of the gang and get situated, but don't overdo yourself. You have been out of it for a while now."
What happened to everyone else? you ask.
"Everyone is ok. Pierre should be down by the docks, Ox is probably off loafing about by the blacksmith's shop, and who knows what Bartok is up to? He may be at the pub, or off cavorting with god-knows-what. Hells, he could be anywhere. There is no telling with that one. Tell you what, if you really want to get up, take Cassie with you. And take it easy."

You try to stand and find that, while difficult, you are able to. You decide where to go first:
A: You could go see Pierre down by the docks.
B: You could go see Ox at the blacksmith's.
C: You could look for Bartok at the pub.
D: You could look for Bartok in the back alleys.
E: You could look for Bartok at the curious goods shop.
F: You could look for Bartok in the town square.
G: You could look for Bartok at the governor's hall.
H: You could look for Bartok at the park.

(The next episode will be on Monday May 25th. I am going out of town for a week, so you have extra time to think about decisions. Feel free to speculate on what has passed, what is going to happen, what day it is, what happened to Mina, and what is Cassie's deal. And if you know anyone who wants to start playing, or has been too afraid to comment because of all the backstory, the next chapter is about to begin and is a good starting point, so tell them to play. I will do a quick recap and begin chapter next on the 25th. Okay!)

5/12/09

Choose your own adventure: 25

The story so far:

You awoke on an island full of anthropomorphic animals not remembering how you got there. Among the many adventures you have had, you met a crazy old English blackbird, found an otter village destroyed by an evil Bulldog and his lizard henchmen, rescued the only survivor of the otter decimation as well as your new friend, the Penguin Pirate Captain Pierre. You were almost killed by a scary fairy and a black lake monster, and recently have been traveling with some friends, Ox, Rand and Mina to Edgeton, to find Pierre's ship.
Currently, you have all been hiding from a group of Jackals in a ghost town, when Mina goes missing. You find a secret lair underground where apparently the Jackals have been using for a slave trade. You free some of the slaves from the Jackals and send Rand out of the lair with them. The rest of the team goes on in search for Mina. Your group finds what is supposed to be the room where Mina is being kept, but it is guarded by many Jackals. You backtrack deep into the mines to find a deep, dark pit with something down at the bottom, who volunteers to help fight the Jackals in return for help out of the pit.

Now begins Time is a Loop: Episode 25

You discuss the options with your group and decide that the voice in the pit could be very helpful against the army of Jackals, so you throw down a rope for it to climb out of the pit with. You, Ox and Pierre holding one end of the rope, waiting. All of a sudden you feel a sharp tug from the rope, and a heavy weight on the other end. After a few minutes the creature must have climbed to the top, as the tension on the rope goes away.
"Well, that was fun! What should we do for an encore?" says the voice.
"How about take on those Jackals?" says Pierre.
"O! K! Lead the way!"
"Um, actually, we think you should go first. Just keep going down this path, we will follow you," says Pierre. To you he says, "I don't just trust the guy yet, so lets not turn our back to him right away."
"Good Plan! I don't trust me either, and I've known myself for at least twice as long as you have known me! I think..." says the voice.
"I guess he heard me," Pierre whispers.
"WHAT?" says the voice. "Yeah, I heard you. I was joking with the 'what.' It was funny. Haha."
"Alright, lets go," says Ox. "We need to save Mina."

As you march on, the voice asks you all sorts of questions, like who Mina is, what day it is, who is the president, is the milk still good, etc. You answer him truthfully at first, but then begin to realize he is babbling and doesn't appear to be planning on shutting up any time soon, and you begin to ignore him. As you walk, the room gets lighter and you begin to see just what your new companion looks like. The first thing you notice is his large head, with huge pointed ears, and his small body, thin legs and long arms. It seems he is wearing some sort of cape as well that is tied to his arms. You introduce your group to your new friend, and ask his name.
"My name? My nom de familiar? My feuilles de papier?"
"Yeah, that one."
"Oh. Its Bartok. But you can call me Captain Awesome!"
"Alright Bartok, how long have you been in that pit?"
Bartok turns around to look at the group. "Not as long as I have been alive. But longer than most," he says as he waves his wings, emphasizing the point.
Wings? You look at Bartok in the better light. He appears to be a giant bat.
"Wait, you are a bat!" points out Ox. "Why did you need our help climbing out of that pit. Couldn't you have just flown?"
"Huh," says Bartok, looking at his wings, puzzled. "So I am. Who knew?"
"Surely you did," says Pierre.
"Couldn't you tell from your mother or father what you were?"
"My mother was a hampster," says Bartok in response, "and my father..."
"Smelt of elderberries?" you suggest.
"What? No. Well, maybe he did. I don't know. My father died left us when I was very young. He said he was going out for some ciggies one rainy night and never came back. But thanks for making light on my traumatic childhood memories."
You decide not to try to be the funny one in the group anymore.

Finally the group approaches the area with the Jackal guards.
"Shh, we need to be quiet from here on out," says Pierre.
"Okay, quiet. We can do that. Just stop talking everybody, especially you, little one. You just go on and on, and it makes me worry about future generations if we can't keep our children civilized and polite like..."
"I mean you, Bartok. Quiet. No speaking."
"Yes sir, no speak. Me. Got it."
"Good, now start now."

You peek around the corner to see the lay of the land. Huh, that's weird, you say.
"He can speak but I can't?"
You turn back to the group and explain that from what you can see, it looks like all the Jackals guarding the room are lying on the ground, either dead or unconscious.
"Yeah, that was me. I took them all out real quick with my super-speed. Its one of my mutant abilities."
"That and never shutting up," says Pierre under his breath.
Your group walks out into the room. Sure enough, about a four jackals lay on the ground bleeding. None seem to move when you walk in. You look down the hall, but the doors at the other end are closed, and you don't hear any noise. You walk over to the door they were guarding and perform a listen check. You roll about a 15, but because Bartok is still blabbering you get a -4, and can only hear muffled voices from the room, but no context. You look up to your group to see if they are ready. Ox has his axe drawn and nods, Pierre looks tense but excited and the otter child, while shaking slightly, seems to be as ready as he will ever be. Bartok, of course, is off in his own world, and is licking one of the Jackals' necks. Gross. You open the door.


Inside you see a large room with a luxurious bed and fine furniture decorating it. In one corner you see a pile of mats, and some chains, where the captives must have been tied up. There seems to have been people tied up there recently too. You look around some more and see another door. Behind that door you hear the sounds of iron clanking, which you assume to be fighting. You move towards the door when -BLAM!- the door comes flying off its hinges, as a large, albino Jackal comes flying through it.
"HAHA," cries a voice from the other room. "Nice try, but you should know better than to spar with the legendary Santiago!" In walks a very large pit bull wearing a sombrero, and twirling his moustache. "Now get up, you vile cur, and face me!"
"Legendary Santiago? Hah, is that what you call yourself now? says the albino Jackal. "More like the Pit-iful bull."
"Pit-iful bull, I like that one," Bartok says.
"You may have had the element of surprise for your last shot, but not now. Now you face my wrath!" With that the albino swings his massive blade up and rushes the pit bull.
"Huh, that was unexepected," says Bartok.
"What is going on?" asks Ox.
You look around and think you hear other voices coming from the room the two enemies were in. For now they are too busy fighting to give you any notice, but if you were to wait, surely they would turn to your group. You run by two fighting into the other room. Sure enough, there is Mina, tied up to a chair. She looks distressed, tired, and... older somehow.
"Mina!" Ox yells, as he rushes over to her to untie her. "Are you hurt?"
"Ox, is that you? Where have you been? Is my brother here? I gave up hope waiting for you."
"What are you talking about? You disappeared this morning."
"No, I've been a prisoner here for what feels like months now."
"Who is this?" says Mina, looking at Bartok.
"I am Sir James Wilson Bartowski the Third, esquire, at your service Mi'lady. A pleasure to make your acquaintance."
"Look, we can discuss things later," says Pierre. "Right now we need to get out of here."
The room you are in is a dead end, you look out to the main room, and see that the two have taken their fight to the larger room with the dead guards. You look out there and see that another group of Jackals have arrived to the scene, but they seem to be fighting a group of Lizards who have gathered around the Pit Bull in the sombrero.
"That's a really nice sombrero," says Bartok. "I wonder, do you think, madam, that I could pull off that look?"
Mina looks at Bartok puzzled.
From what you can tell, you are going to have to cross the small war going on in the main room to get out of here. (There is no way to get to either door without engaging in some of the fight.) Your best bet is to perhaps help one side against the other. They appear to be evenly matched, there isn't one particular side that looks better off than the other. You think about what to do to make your escape:

You could:
A: Take the Pit Bull and Lizards' side.
B: Take the Jackals' side.

(Vote by Thursday)

5/7/09

Choose your own adventure: 24

The story so far:

You awoke on an island full of anthropomorphic animals not remembering how you got there. Among the many adventures you have had, you met a crazy old English blackbird, found an otter village destroyed by an evil Bulldog and his lizard henchmen, rescued the only survivor of the otter decimation as well as your new friend, the Penguin Pirate Captain Pierre. You were almost killed by a scary fairy and a black lake monster, and recently have been traveling with some friends, Ox, Rand and Mina to Edgeton, to find Pierre's ship.
Currently, you have all been hiding from a group of Jackals in a ghost town, when Mina goes missing. You find a secret lair underground where apparently the Jackals have been using for a slave trade. You free some of the slaves from the Jackals and send Rand out of the lair with them. The rest of the team goes on in search for Mina. Your group finds what is supposed to be the room where Mina is being kept, but it is guarded by many Jackals.

Now begins Time is a Loop: Episode 24

After trying to decide how best to take on all those Jackals, you remember about the right hand path you passed by earlier. You suggest to your group that mayhaps there is something helpful for your situation down that path. Pierre and the otter child agree with you, but Ox just wants to rescue Mina as soon as possible. "Who knows what they are doing to her in there?" he says.
"True, but our odds are not the best right now, we should make use of any help we can get," says Pierre.
So the group heads back down the path to the fork in the road, being careful not to set off the traps from before. You look down the right hand path. It is dank, and dark down there, and slopes downwards.
"You sure this is a good idea?" asks Ox. "Those Jackals seemed to not want us to go down here..."
"Which means that there is something they don't want us to see, don't want us to know about," says Pierre.
"Or something they are afraid of..." says Ox.
Well here goes nothing, you say as you begin to venture down the path. It continues downwards, in a slow spiral, for a long time. It may seem longer than it could actually be, you think, because you are moving very slowly, looking for traps, as well as trying to get your eyes adjusted to the lack of light. Finally the path straightens out and stops going downwards.
"What direction are we going?" says Ox.
"Who knows, we have been going in a circle for a long time now. We could be going any direction..."
"So this could lead us off anywhere."
"Yep."
"Great idea guys."

You continue on walking until, when you are about to put your foot down for your next step, you realize there is no ground in front of you. You almost fall down a large pit, when Ox grabs you and pulls you back.
"That was close," says Ox. "You have to be more careful."
You look forward, but it is so dark you can hardly see anything. It seems that there is a darker area in front of you, though. You reach towards it and notice that there is a pit there. You ask how deep it is.
"Who can tell?"
"Yeah, its too dark down here, and we don't have any way to make light."
"Well, what should we do now? We can't keep going."
"But I thought we could find something useful down here."
"There is something useful down here. But you need to throw down a rope first."




"What did you say Ox?"
"I didn't say anything. Did you say that Pierre?"
"No. Mike?"
You mention that you didn't say anything either. You realize something is grabbing your leg, and you almost freak out when you realize it is the otter child.
"Who is there?" says Pierre's voice.
"Me."
"Who is me?"
"Who are you?"
"Um.. We are explorers looking to rescue a friend from the Jackals."
"Hmm..."
"Maybe you shouldn't have said our intentions Ox." says Pierre's voice again.
"Oh. Good point." says Ox.
"So you don't like the Jackals?" says the voice.
"Um... no?"
"Me neither. They smell. If you help me out of this pit I will help you out with the Jackals."
"Who are you? How do we know we can trust you?"
"I guess you don't. But you haven't told me your names, so why should I tell you mine?"

Pierre whispers something in your ear: "What should we do? I am sure the Jackals keep him down in this pit for a reason. Who knows if he will help us or do something terrible if we let him out. But we could use his help against the Jackals."
"Psst. I can hear you." says the voice.

You ask the voice why it is down there in the pit.
"That's private. My business. Not yours. But if you help me out, I've been told I am very good at repaying favors. Was that what they said?"

You consider your options. You could:
A: Help the voice out of the pit with the rope that you have.
B: Not help the voice out of the pit.
C: "Throw down some candy for the voice in the pit!" yells the voice as you are thinking.

Then after that, what is your plan of attack on the Jackals back in that room?

D: You could rush the enemies and hope there are not too many of them.
E: You could try to sneak past the guards in the shadows and hope they don't see you.
F: You could try to get the guards to chase you into the traps behind you on the path, and try not to set off the traps yourselves whilst running away.
G: You could try to set up your own trap, use the otter child as bait, have them chase it around down the path and jump the guards, getting the element of surprise.
H: Other ideas?

5/4/09

Choose your own adventure: 23

The story so far:

You awoke on an island full of anthropomorphic animals not remembering how you got there. Among the many adventures you have had, you met a crazy old English blackbird, found an otter village destroyed by an evil Bulldog and his lizard henchmen, rescued the only survivor of the otter decimation as well as your new friend, the Penguin Pirate Captain Pierre. You were almost killed by a scary fairy and a black lake monster, and recently have been traveling with some friends, Ox, Rand and Mina to Edgeton, to find Pierre's ship.
Currently, you have all been hiding from a group of Jackals in a ghost town, when Mina goes missing. You find a secret lair underground where apparently the Jackals have been using for a slave trade. You free some of the slaves from the Jackals and send Rand out of the lair with them. The rest of the team goes on in search for Mina.

Now begins Time is a Loop: Episode 23

You seem to have a lot of trouble deciding what to do with the two jackals you were interrogating. Part of you wants to tie them up and leave them, another, evil side of you wants to kill them, (which would give you negative karma points, bytheway) and the third side wants to let them go, (I guess trying to cancel out the evil side of you...). While you are debating the different choices with your inner selves, Pierre makes the choice for you.
"Lets just tie them up and leave them here."
"Okay, sounds good to me," says Ox, as he ties them up to one of the posts against the wall. "Problem solved."
"Let's keep moving."

Your party continues on down the tunnel and comes to a fork in the road. Both paths lead off into darkness, and for the life of you, you cannot determine which way to go. You start to think about it:
You could take the:
A: left path
B: right pa....

"Hey, what are you thinking about?" says Ox. "Didn't those Jackals say to take the left path at the fork?"
"You are right," says Pierre.
"No, the left."
"Right."
"I'm pretty sure they said left."
"Yes, you are correct, they said left."
"Then why did you say right?"
"I didn't. I was agreeing with you."
"Well you need to be more clear then, I was sure you were saying to go down the right path."

You begin to walk down the left path when you hear a cry. The otter child grabs you to stop you. You look down by your feet. There is a wire tied across the path near foot level. You look up. There is a stack of logs tied up by ropes above you.
"Whew, that was close, one wrong step and you would have set off that trap," says Ox.
You thank the child and carefully step over the trap.
"This is going to be slow moving if we have to watch for traps," says Pierre.

Your group continues on down the path, watching where you are walking all the time. Along the way you find three other traps. Another log trap, one covered pit in the ground, and one spiked ball and chain trap. You avoid them all, but make a mental note as to where they are. Soon after the last trap you come to a side passage off the tunnel you are following. It is a small tunnel, and dead ends quickly, but down at the end you find something glowing. As you get closer you see that it is some kind of fungus that glows almost like moonlight. You ask Pierre what it is.
"I have no idea. I have never seen anything like it," he says.
Ox and the otter child both shake their heads, they don't know either.
You decide to pick some. After picking it, the fungus continues to glow, but much softer than before. You place it in your pocket and continue along the main path. Soon the path begins to go upwards, and you begin to here voices. You peek around a corner and see a large room with tables and chairs, and a group of jackals guarding a door. In total, you can spy 6 jackals, but there may be more you cannot see without the jackals seeing you. You converse with your companions on the situation.
"That door probably leads to the boss' lair," says Pierre. "That's how I would do it if I were in charge."
"Then Mina must be behind that door! We gotta get by those Jackals!" says Ox.
"But how? I mean, we might be able to take them, but who knows how many more are out there that will come running? What are our other options?"
You consider the options:
A: You could rush the enemies and hope there are not too many of them.
B: You could try to sneak past the guards in the shadows and hope they don't see you.
C: You could try to get the guards to chase you into the traps behind you on the path, and try not to set off the traps yourselves whilst running away.
D: You could try to set up your own trap, use the otter child as bait, have them chase it around down the path and jump the guards, getting the element of surprise.
E: Other ideas?

(Vote by thursday!)

5/1/09

Choose your own adventure: 22

The story so far:

You awoke on an island full of anthropomorphic animals not remembering how you got there. Among the many adventures you have had, you met a crazy old English blackbird, found an otter village destroyed by an evil Bulldog and his lizard henchmen, rescued the only survivor of the otter decimation as well as your new friend, the Penguin Pirate Captain Pierre. You were almost killed by a scary fairy and a black lake monster, and recently have been traveling with some friends, Ox, Rand and Mina to Edgeton, to find Pierre's ship.
Currently, you have all been hiding from a group of Jackals in a ghost town, when Mina goes missing. You find a secret lair underground where apparently the Jackals have been using for a slave trade. You free some of the slaves from the Jackals and send Rand out of the lair with them. The rest of the team goes on in search for Mina.

Now begins Time is a Loop: Episode 22

Rand is chosen to go with the captives back to his village.
"But Mina, we need to save Mina!"
"I know Rand, we are going to. Trust me, that's the first thing on my mind, but these people need help too, and you are the best option for getting them somewhere safe. I will do everything I can to find Mina, I promise." says Ox, trying to calm down Rand.
"O...Okay. But if anything happens to her..."
"Don't worry. You have my word."

Rand leads the captives out through the path you had all come down.
"Where to now?" asks Pierre.
You suggest going through the mines. Taking out 5 unexpected guards is very different from a fortress full of guards.
"Alright. Lead the way."

Your group heads down the path towards the mines. It is a downward spiral that goes on for a while, but finally ends at a rusty old door. You do a listen check, but no one hears anything behind the door. You crack it open and look inside. You see a dimly lit underground path, with beams holding the roof up and lanterns every now and then. There is a cart path that runs down the middle, probably for the mine cart.
"It looks like a iron mine," says Pierre, pulling a small piece of iron ore out of the dirt. "I wonder what they are using the iron for..."
"Making weapons?" suggests Ox.
"What is their plan though? With all these slaves making them weapons, and the army we saw outside, it is definitely much more than a slave trade going on here..."
You suggest that we may find out soon enough. Around the corner comes two Jackals, apparently doing patrol. The group gets a pre-emptive attack on them, and Pierre and you grab one of the Jackals while Ox slams the other up against the wall with the blunt side of his axe.
"Looks like we have some captives now, for questioning," says Pierre.

"We won't tell youse nothings!" says one of the Jackals.
"You wanna bet?" says Ox, moving the blade of the axe closer to the Jackal's neck.
"Gulp!"
"Where is Mina!" yells Ox.
"Who? What?"
"Mina! Young Armadillo Girl, Mina!"
"I have no idea what you are talking about!" says the Jackal. "Please don't hurt me!"
"She would have been captured recently," says Pierre.
"New... New captives are brought to da boss."
"Where is the boss?"
"He... he's in his office. Down this path, take a left at the fork..."
"Ok. Now, why are you all collecting all this iron ore? What are your plans?" demands Pierre.
"Plans? We are at war, we are building an arsenal to protect ourselves." says the Jackal.
"Yeah, we can't lose the war or everyone dies!" says the other.
"War? With whom?" asks Pierre.
"You don't know?"
"He really doesn't know."
"I don't know about any war! Who is fighting whom?" says Pierre.
"Have you been living under a rock? There's a war coming, and if anyone wants to survive, they gotta side with us!"
"But you capture people and use them as slaves! You are the bad guys!" says Ox.
"You obviously haven't seen the other side then, kiddo. We need a lot of manpower and fast, so we put people to work. They will thank us when this is all over," says one of the Jackals.
"Enough! I have heard enough!" says Ox, and throws his Jackal to the ground.
"What should we do with them?" asks Pierre.

You think about it, you could:
A: Tie them up and leave them there.
B: Tie them up and bring them with you as hostages.
C: Let them go.
D: Kill them.

(vote by monday. Also, if anyone has suggestions as to what to call your team, they need a team name, and I get tired of calling them the group, so think about that...)