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A hunt. Perhaps they were rude because they were frustrated about not finding anything to hunt? He himself was frustrated with actually finding something, on the other hand. If he had left the kid there, would they have found it? The boy did not say anything, but nodded towards Marius. "Thank you."

When Ares mentioned the others, Damon remembered Thuban, his eyes flickering towards the axe building where the rest of the party headed. He didn't think the men seemed hostile, so perhaps those who had been in the axe building would be invited to rest as well.

He glanced down at the kid in his arms, still bemused that it had managed to stay silent all this while. "You wouldn't happen to have anyone around here who knows how to take care of a baby, would you?" He asked the men.

Inside the Blacksmith's Shop, Loft - Lieutenant Moonstone, Calintha Johnson, Sailor Thuban

Sailor Thuban had only just made it up and into the dark loft before the front door banged open and he lay quickly flat in the shadows. Moonstone and Calintha were better concealed in the back of the loft, behind the bed, but as a result only Thuban had a view of what was going downstairs -- albeit a limited and badly-lit view.

Five people had come into the shop: three adult men, a boy of about fifteen and a boy of about twelve. They'd thrown the door open haphazardly, so it didn't seem likely any of them owned the shop. They muttered in Romanian in the darkness for a little while until one of them struck a flint and their own lantern flared to life with them, causing Thuban to duck his head again -- but not before he saw two or three pairs of black eyes caught by the light.

One or two of them walked forward and there was a great clatter as many objects hit the ground, as if they were just sweeping things off the shelves. One of them -- it sounded like -- cursed.

"Haka," one of them said, which prompted some kind of objection from one of the others, which got them into a brief argument as the boys apparently went forward and ransacked the workshop: laughing as they poured out and tried to drink the last of the alcohol, a few wooden things cracking and metal things hitting other metal things. They didn't do a very thorough job of it -- either they expected to find what they were looking for quickly or they weren't really expecting to at all, and didn't care.

In a few minutes they all filtered back into the storefront. The man who'd mentioned Haka before muttered something about it again, which prompted what looked like an eyeroll from the other man.

Then they left, the front door banging a few more times behind them.

The loft's contents were the same.

The Town Square

"More travelers?" said Marius, looking at Nicolae, who said something in Romanian to the rest of the group -- they dispersed as they continued walking. "I'll keep an eye out."

He had a particularly glittering smile for Ares, and then for Arsinoe, as they walked.

He led them into the town proper. The dark streets were mostly, though not entirely, empty -- it was a sizable town, was Vetrel, and looked easy to get lost in. Lanterns glowed behind shuttered windows, women with their heads covered turned away, groups of children ran after them briefly and then scattered when Nicolae turned his head to look at them. Eventually they were brought to a building in the center, away from the first square:

The Shuttered Building - Sailor Ares, Damon Amary, Sailor Arsinoe and Marx Banesfield

The building they were brought to consisted of two rooms, with a table, hardwood chairs, large Victorian-style sofa, fireplace, two armchairs and several paintings on the walls, and a small kitchen behind them. It was likely some sort of small meeting-room, or what passed for a gentleman's club in Vetrel. What was unusual about it was the shutters -- it was brightly lit with lamps on the walls inside, but the most heavy-duty, gapless shutters possible were on all the windows. All ambient noise from outside disappeared once they were inside, and only Marius and Nicolae came in with them; as Damon filtered in he held out his hands for the child and took it from him, gesturing for him to sit down.

There was a decanter of red wine on the table and five glasses arrayed around it, as well as five chairs. Nicolae looked briefly at the wine and then at the party, but, as usual, had no comment.

The baby started squalling loudly in Marius's arms. "I'll see what I can't do about this -- child," he said, making futile attempts to shush it, "while the four of you make yourselves at home -- how does that sound? Have a drink, take a seat, try to relax. I know it's been a long journey. I'll be back soon."

His hazel-eyed nephew crossed his arms by the door and looked to him. Marius raised his eyebrows at Nicolae, and seemed to be waiting only a moment longer for any last-minute questions.

Moonstone froze, her hand tightening on the antler to a white knuckled grip, her eyes locked tight to that ladder and the way down.
There was something wild in her eyes that hadn't been there before they barged in below. Something rather like a caged wolf or large cat who's just seen something twitching in the grass.

Whatever of what they had done that possessed her to act that way she snapped into that predatory mindset like the bear traps below, but even as it was clear she was forcing herself to be calmer it was like trying to pry the same proverbial trap open again.

"That word again." She said a hoarse whisper of tension... "What were they doing? Could you see?"

She took a few deep breaths and a long look at Cali and reached with a shaking hand to pull free another rose. "damn things..." she whispered and turned back to carefully try and spread the straw and cloth out with the antler so she could be sure it hid nothing

"I think it's safe to say that the owner may have left to avoid them, one of you might have what they were looking for...the pendants perhaps." She suggested quietly as she worked.

"But we should I think, examine the rest of the room too. Under the bed perhaps, anything we might find useful as awful as that might sound. This place makes my skin crawl...so do they."

Marx looks around the first room inside the building, mostly ignoring the paintings for the moment. "At least it's brighter in here than it was outside." He liked being able to see. The wine and glasses get a skeptical look from him for a long moment though. There were five, just sitting out? Kind of weird. "Don't think I'm old enough to drink that, so I'll pass."

Once that's said though, he walks to one of the paintings for a better look at it. Sitting down might be nice, but right now curiosity was winning out over those paintings.

The girl breathed a sigh of relief when the vandals had "I wish we knew what it meant!" Calintha was starting to get a bit frustrated, but she managed to keep her voice low. "They say the same word for all different sorts of things." She wanted to know the meaning of Haka, moreover, she wanted to be able to understand the village folk. It would make everything so much easier.

Calintha offered Moonstone back her jacket, making sure to keep the lantern covered while doing so. While the girl had begun searching the straw and cloth, she'd crossed the room to investigate the bed, both on top and underneath. Those men downstairs had to be looking for something. Calintha had a feeling that one of them carried it, since they hadn't (thankfully) searched up on the loft.

Calintha addressed Thuban while searching. "Did you manage to get the medallions and stuff from downstairs?" She hoped that he had, since she'd disappeared without grabbing them. Her eyes strayed away from her search for a second to look at the shuttered windows. "I wonder what happened to the people in the square... I don't hear voices anymore." The square had gone mostly silent. What where they going to do?

Inside the Blacksmith's Shop, Loft - Lieutenant Moonstone, Calintha Johnson, Sailor Thuban

The cloth turned out to be two long overcoats and an austere Victorian-style dress, but when pushed around and taken out a set of rolled-up papers fell out as well.

The bed seemed unslept-in, which was funny as it seemed the rest of the shop had been used recently. It was clean but otherwise unremarkable, and under it Calintha found nothing more interesting than a plain, sheathed silver rapier.

All right, maybe that was a little interesting.

The hat appeared to be a Stetson, the kind John Wayne wore while shooting people. That was a little odd.

The vial was strong-smelling -- in fact, it was overpowering-smelling. It smelled like some unholy marriage of aniseed and menthol designed entirely to be smelly and give you a headache if you smelled it for too long, which all of them were risking if Thuban didn't recork it fairly soon.

The Shuttered Building - Sailor Ares, Damon Amary, Sailor Arsinoe and Marx Banesfield

The lamp was a lamp, though definitely removable from the wall if Sailor Arsinoe loved lamp like Brick Tamland loved lamp. It was sitting in a wrought-iron holder and could be easily lifted out. The other lamps were the same, and numerous: it was a well-lit room.

The wine appeared to be wine -- a seductive shade of red, a fine claret that tinted the lamplight that shone through it onto the table. The five glasses were clean and arrayed bowl-down on the table, like visitors hadn't been expected immediately but had been prepared for anyway.

The paintings were more curious than either the lamps or the wine, as they numbered four and seemed to be of four members of the same family in different eras -- one, a late-medieval woodcut portrait, two, a Renaissance portrait, three, an eighteenth-century portrait, and four, not a painting at all but a black-and-white photograph. All depicted handsome, high-cheekboned, bearded lords poised with an ornate goblet and a signet ring, apparent artifacts of the family line. They were all fairer than the people of Vetrel, blue-eyed, aristocratic. The signet ring held the crest they remembered from the medallions: the dragon and the mountain.

All four lords of the family line -- as that was what they appeared to be -- resembled each other strikingly, though it was a little difficult to tell with such different picture styles. So striking was the family resemblance, though, that it had the effect of seeming to be the progression of one man through painting styles and expressions: in the first, he looked distinctly haggard and severe, but appeared to get more pleasant as time went on.

The last and youngest of the four, the neatly trimmed dark-haired man in the dapper black suit and pocketwatch, had a placid smile on his face.

How strange.

Marius and Nicolae for their part seemed to take no note of any of this, except for looking a bit oddly at Arsinoe's lamp fascination. "Oh, it's no trouble," said Marius with a smile and the squalling baby in his arms; he handed it off to Nicolae (it screamed louder) and said something to him in Romanian, and Nicolae nodded and left the room, fussy baby stretching its arms out to Damon still. "The shutters don't open, I'm afraid, Miss Eirene: we're a small town and this is one of the only buildings that affords this kind of privacy. We use it for meeting foreign visitors, and of course, if his Lordship chooses to grace us with his presence. Do pardon me."

The hunters who'd been standing outside filtered in and, before they knew it, approached the group with Marius -- but all that any of them did was reach out and hook silver chains around their necks, each of them now wearing their own personal silver medallion.

For a moment they felt as if their blood thrummed to another heartbeat.

"For your protection," said Marius, who had personally hooked one around Sailor Ares's neck. He smiled at her. "There are wolves about."

And then he and the hunters left the building with a promised, "Make yourselves at home, I'll be back to sit down with you once I wear something more suitable for receiving guests," and closed the door behind them, and they were left in the shuttered silence.

Marius confirmed what Ares learned from trying to open the shutters: they didn't. This did very little to soothe the senshi of smoke. Without her powers to allow her an easy mirrorwalk to safety, she did not take it lightly that there was no apparent escape aside from the door they had come through. Any idiot could see the inherent danger in the current position. She could only hope that those in the axe building were fairing better.

When Marius approached, Ares stiffened, only slightly, and then bent her head to accept the medallion. Painted nails brushed over the surface, examining it closely. "Thank you," she said. Marius departed with the others, and Ares let out a slow sigh.

Her eyes peeled over the four paintings and the wine and glasses. Then they moved back to the kitchen. "I can't resist a kitchen," she said, smiling pleasantly as she moved toward it. It was odd. She was acting as though Marius was still there.

As she passed Arsinoe, Ares linked her arm with his and tugged him close to her in a warm embrace. "Glad to be inside at last, aren't you?" she asked, gripping him tightly to her. Voice low, she whispered in his ear, "Please act normal. They might not be in the room, but it doesn't mean they aren't listening. I need you to casually find out what information anyone might have about this place. Now. I met a talking crow who warned me to get to Vetrel before dark. I need you to find out what the others know and then report back." She rubbed him on the back, pulling him a touch closer. "I don't like feeling trapped. Show some discretion when you do this." The niceties were gone, replaced with the harsh snap of a woman in a corner and ready to fight her way out.

At last, Ares released Arsinoe with a pleasant smile, her nails pinching into his arm before she stepped away. Without another word, Ares continued on to check out the kitchen as if nothing had happened at all.

Thuban, nodding vigorously at his companions, immediately sealed up the vial again and tucked it back away under his arm cuff. "That's good thinking," he acknowledged gratefully. "Let's hang onto it -- never know when we'll need to distract a wild animal."

He agreed with Calintha: "You can also best pass for Eastern European in the dark, and your longer hair's more -- period-appropriate? This place seems definitely old to me." He explained the coins, which definitely weren't the modern George Washington variety.

Thuban picked up the silver rapier and belted it around his waist -- "I hope no one minds, but I think I'd stick out the least if someone noticed it?" -- and then plunked the hat onto Calintha's head.

"Not the best crossdressing job ever," he assessed, with a little bit of a dry smile, "but in the dark hopefully you'll look enough like a boy. I think we should keep the medallions out of sight, what do you think? If that's what they came looking for."

Sailor Thuban, peering over to examine the papers with them, slipped on the second overcoat, reflexively sticking his hands in the pockets just in case. He was worried about their former companions, two senshi among them -- he hoped they'd had better luck.