Welcome back to Duskshire Keep, where things were going just fine until the last seventeen horses came back. They're currently broken up into three groups and are wrecking havoc around the main building and ancillary areas.

Group A contains 5 horses that have managed to barge their way into the new greenhouse that the gardeners had built, they're munching on all of the freshly potted herbs. It's a big green house. Many, many things have been knocked down.

Group B contains 5 horses that have taken up residence in the courtyard. They're fairly aggressive and have a small family stuck on top of a wagon, fearful that they'll be trampled.

Group C is made up of 7 horses and is meandering around on the road in front of the keep where they're threatening the lives anyone on foot. Particularly one big palomio pinto.

OOC: 1) We're going to tackle the groups one at a time and so for my sanity...
2) Everyone stays TOGETHER~
3) We're going to spend a little time with each group, doing a set number of rolls at difficulty 30. I'm mostly going to make the math up of how it works on the fly, but we may lose a horse to the wilds here or there and that's a-okay. There's 17 available.
4) Choose which group to pursue first! MAY THE ODDS BE EVER IN YOUR FAVOR.

There is a glance cast toward Reigna from Kael, joined with a little sidestep toward her when the Mustangs are once more coming forth. Someone, it seems, had to deal with the fact that his wife's gown was eaten during this last fiasco. This time Kael, Sword of Sanctum, is going to ensure that does not occur. Ah, and upon spying what is going on in the courtyard, he calls toward the Baron - it is, after all, his territory: "My lord, there seems to be some small children - with their parents, I presume - caught in the courtyard from those *creatures!*" He means the mustangs, of course.

"Damned horses." Norwood is quite upset, thus the swearing. He's standing at the doorway and receiving the reports of the damage from the horses. So much grumpy. Finally, "The Mercies would like us to save as many herbs as possible, but that family should come first."

Amari has not had any sort of luck with these horses at all. She's been clipped, knocked down and nearly run over in their campaign to tame these mad mustangs and has contributed really nothing toward that goal. Today, she's going to tackle the challenge in full plate, from the rampart, where she's standing with a view of the road outside and the courtyard inside. It looks bad both ways, but the family in the wagon being menaced strikes her as more immediate and she adds her voice to Kael's, calling down to the trapped people, "Stay there! We'll save you." (hopefully).

Perhaps having learned a lesson, or just not wanting to have her bits exposed, Reigna is wearing more practical clothing, up to and including an umbra blouse worn under a green leather underbust corset and some black leather pants and boots. She is eying the family with the children and grumbles, "I could try to ride Nightfall over there and pulls the children out first, ride them back here to safety?"

Jael is peeking around Norwood at the destruction 'round the keep, lips pursed as she surveys the carnage. "I think we should at least get those people on the wagon out of that jam before we try the others. "Hello Rei, Count Kael!" This is delivered with a sudden burst of cheer and a wave that includes Amari.

The little girl tries to get down off the wagon but one of the horses nips at her feet! She screams! It's very dramatic. But she's probably not actually hurt at all. The parents are growing increasinbly more annoyed. With the horses or their kids, it's really hard to tell. Maybe both! "BARON NORWOOD. WHEN WILL THE HORSES STOP?" Yeah, Baron Norwood, when WILL the horses stop?? The horses mill around the wagon, eating pieces of hay from the bales loaded on the back. They frown severely upon the family if they try to get down. How /dare/ they.

"Lady Laurent!" calls Kael, and -- gods bless him, it actually seems to be merry, his greeting of her, even with an underlying hint of tension due to the predicament of the family. He provides a chin-up to her and turns to eye the gathering. "Could work. I can try to lasso them once more, like before. You and Lady Jael, Amari too, might have better luck on horseback trying to drive them to the stables." Kael? Not on horseback. Nowhere near horseback.

"Hi Jael! I will go get the children." Reigna turns and asks for Nightfall, her large, gorgeous Artshall destrier to be brought to her. Can this be done? Well, we're going to find out! In the mean time, she calls over to the family, "THROW ONE OF THE HAY BALES OFF THE WAGON!"

"Let's get the family to safety first, and then worry about driving the horses off. Marquessa, I think your idea has merit. I will join you." Because there are children yelling Norwood's name and that's never a good thing. "Jael, Marquis, Amari, if you do... wahtever you need to do that would be lovely."

Amari waves down at Jael in reply, seeming to forget for a moment or two that the situation is urgent. The little girl screaming surely reminds her. "I have to find Clopsy." She calls to Kael and Norwood. It's doubtful she's up on the rampart either, which probably explains why she jogs for the stairs with her armor clacking softly with each step.

A dubious stableboy is hilding Jael's bay mare for her nearby so she slips past Norwood and mounts up easily. "All right." What she actually plans to do remains delightfully vague.

Kael chins up in response to Norwood and is off to go get lassos - and yes, he happens to get a few for spare just in case others want to make a go of it. With that, he's taking a good look at those mustangs, approaching slowly as he assesses which one might make the most sense to go after. Likely one that is going to be moving away from the others, startled, or one that's particularly aggressive. It's a toss up!

Amari checked dexterity + athletics at difficulty 30, rolling 6 lower.

Jael checked strength + ride at difficulty 30, rolling 27 higher. Jael rolled a critical!

Reigna checked strength + ride at difficulty 30, rolling 22 higher. Reigna rolled a critical!

Kael checked dexterity + athletics at difficulty 30, rolling 36 higher.

The horses continue to cause mayhem. When the bale of hay is thrown to the ground, they TAKE GREAT OFFENSIVE and one of them rears up. Who will save the day? Who will fall down?

When Nightfall is brought to her, Reigna mounts up, and digs her heels in sending Nightfall charging in towards the wagon. When she reaches the wagon, Reigna reaches out and grabs two of the children, her protective instinct giving her that extra ooomph needed to hold onto them both as she uses her knees and heels to direct Nightfall back to safety. "I GOT THEM!"

One of those horses that has peeled off from the rest is the one that Kael is actually targeting. He whirls that lasso about over his head, and this time luck is with him because he actually looks like a pro. That lasso likely goes cleanly over the mare's neck and cinches closed thereafter. He huffs a breath, a liiiittle bit surprised with the ease of that mark. He manages this feat before being distracted, looking yonder to that poor family and the rescue attempt.

Amari will fall down. The stairs are really smooth, dangerously smooth! Her feet go out from under her half way down the steps and bounces down the rest mostly on her rear end. She makes a terrible clattering sound as she goes, and comes to rest sitting up and a little shaken. She makes no immediate move to stand, either because she's just too surprised or half afraid that she's broken something.

Jael wheels her horse easily into the fray and, while Reigna is whisking away the children, she helps their mother onto her horse behind her. "Hang on," she tells the woman, with a wave to the man she's abandoning to indicate that she (or someone) will return for him. Luckily they're clear of the chaos when Amari falls down the stairs and Jael hisses a breath in, wincing in sympathy.

The parents cheer when Reigna superwomans their children off to safety! It upsets the wild horses, who have absolutely zero chill at all, as we have come to realize. The man watches as Jael wheels off with his wife and he's like, "Hey lady, what about me??" Someone is coming back for you, hang on friend. With Kael having captured one of the horses, there's four left meandering about in various stages of distress. One of them hustles over to Amari, where it leans down and shoves its face in her face as she sits prone on the ground. It starts to chew fabric. What a menace.

"Amari!" Reigna's voice rises an octave when she sees her cousin fall. She ups the speed and once they are in a safer area, she is swinging the children down before she jumps off and hurries to Amari's side. "Hey! You! Shoo! get away from her!"

Norwood has totally been here, doing thins, all that stuff. "You'll get indegestion that way." Norwood says to the horse trying to get Amari neked. "Let's go." He'll focus on trying to found up the horses somewhere less dangerous.

Amari really does have a lot of attention suddenly, for once there is someone to take that horse up and he's acquired a new lasso, he too begins to head that way. His pace is slower given the fact that others are closer to intervene, and so while he heads cousin-wards there are other mustangs to deal with as well on the way.

Jael is hard pressed to choose between rescuing Amari and rescuing Mr. Wagon, but with Reigna firmly chiding the horse eating Amari's armor, she goes back for the lonely man on the wagon.

"That's my cloak!" Amari indignantly informs the horse trying to eat it. Naturally, she tries to pull it out of its mouth, to little effect. Reigna's arrival has her look up from the tug of war, eyes wide, hair in uncharacteristic disarray. She's probably not badly hurt, given the effort she's putting in, and the question she poses, "Why are they so hungry? Can we just feed them and hope they'll have a nap?"

Amari checked strength + athletics at difficulty 30, rolling 25 lower.

Norwood checked dexterity + athletics at difficulty 15, rolling 36 higher.

Reigna checked dexterity + athletics at difficulty 30, rolling 3 lower.

Kael checked dexterity + athletics at difficulty 30, rolling 12 higher.

Jael checked dexterity + ride at difficulty 30, rolling 27 higher.

The one horse chews away at Amari's cloak, INSISTENT on eating it. They're very hungry! As one can see. They're pretty much eating anything in the courtyard, including knocking over a bushel of apples and chomping away. Apples roll around everyone's feet. Norwood is able usher away one horse, while Kael wrangles another and Jael a third. What's left is the one that Amari and Reigna aren't able to shoo away, but it happens to see an apple roll out past the gate and it abruptly departs. That makes EIGHT horses out in the road causing havoc and FIVE still in the green house.

Where to next, brave horse wranglers?

"You're a darned nuisance." Norwood chides the horse that he ushers off into the handles of people super capable of taking care of wild horses. Louder, "We should take care of the plants now." In his opinion. "My funds to replace them are very limited."

So it is that Kael is snaring his newest lasso, assuring himself of the safety of his wife and little cousin - whom he is offering a hand up to, should she still be down - before grunting once toward Norwood. Kael is going to follow his lead to take care of the plans, it seems.

"They must have worms, to be this voracious." Reigna mutters as the horse finally moves away. There is a grumble from the Marquessa though seeing the success of the apple bait, she calls out, "Apples! Bring me apples, please!"

"I want to go after that big one," Jael proclaims, with a chin jerk towards the palamino menacing people in the courtyard. But she follows Norwood to deal with the garden horses, because presumably the palamino isn't going anywhere. He certainly hasn't so far.

Amari takes the offered hand of Kael's to get back on her feet. She looks a little over this whole horse wrangling thing, but forces a smile once she's untwisted her cloak from around herself and it's draping properly again. "Thank you." She murmurs, slightly red faced and eager to jump on anything that isn't related to her falling down. Reigna and the apples will do. "Horses love apples. Let's lure them out with them, put them in my cloak." She grabs the end of it to turn it into a slinged pouch for loading with apples that are rolling around the courtyard now, several she collects as she ambles for the greenhouse with everyone else - just more slowly and stiffly.

And so they had to the greenhouse which is a whole other nightmare horse scenario. It's a big greenhouse but it's not so big that five horses can go rummaging around inside of it without consequences. Tables have been knocked over! Plants are nibbled! Barrels of water are leaking all over the floor. And there's horse poop, so much horse poop. It smells. No one needs a degree in horseology to know that it's probably not a great idea to actively enter the greenhouse. They definitely shouldn't ride in there. So what do? Can they lure these horses out with apples or some other means?

Chomp. Chomp. Chomp. Five horse go clomp, clomp, clomp in Norwood's expensive herbs.

Norwood stands outside of his greenhouses so grumpy. "Remind me to thank Cristoph again for Duskshire." It doesn't sound very grateful. "You two," turning to Amari and Reigna, "have a plan with apples?" Clearly, open to suggestion.

It's one thing to ride one's horse into a hall (is it though?), quite another to ride into a greenhouse. "You could lure them out and th rest of us herd them, or lasso them or what have you," Jael suggests, still on horseback.

Oh Kael. Kael evidently does not know the basics of horseology, for he is currently peering there at the greenhouse and deliberating going in. He does not say anything, he does not move, but he just has that look in his eye of consideration. Along with a thoughtful low 'hmmmm' before he's distracted by the more sensible suggestion, nodding, and looking back to the others.

Jael checked intellect + animal ken at difficulty 30, rolling 1 lower.

Reigna checked intellect + animal ken at difficulty 30, rolling 7 higher.

"We have apples." Amari answers Norwood, and it's true, she has a bunch of them now. She's conspiciously lacking a plan other than to feed the apples to the horses, but Jael's suggestion earns a nod as if she's partial to that one. "When we get their attention, we'll back up and then you guys herd them so they can't get back in there."

Amari checked intellect + animal ken at difficulty 30, rolling 7 lower.

Norwood checked intellect + survival at difficulty 30, rolling 2 higher.

"Please don't go in," Norwood asks of Kael, his voice more than slightly pained. "The last thing we need is a hoof through those walls." They're expensive. "Let's see if we can get them out with these apples then." Determined he gets an apple and waves it in front of the open door. "Horsie! Have an apple!"

It might have been a good plan...but Jael drops her apple in the dirt, and her own horse eats it instead. "Blast."

Reigna gets a bunch of apples in a pounch as she approaches the greenhouse. She holds up a shiny apple and calls out, "Heeeere horsey horsey horsey..." She rolls one of the apples near the hooves of the biggest horse and clucks her tongue, gingerly backing away.

'The last thing we need is a hoof through those walls'. As if on cue, a horse puts their hoof through the wall of the greenhouse, kicking back with expert precision. Wood splinters out onto the ground. The horses are more receptive to Reigna and Norwood, for whatever reason, so two of them begin to wander over after the fresh apples and ensnarement. Two of the others start to fight each other and the third has his foot stuck in the wall.

There is so much mumbling under Norwood's breath when the crack of the greenhouse wall calls out to his ears. "It might be safe enough to go in now, please," tiny beg, "be careful of the walls."

Amari underhands an apple through the doorway and then looks down at her cloak-pouch of apples. She narrows her eyes as if thinking to herself suddenly, 'was this a bad idea'? Luckily, it seems to be mostly ineffective as her offering is ignored and Reigna and Norwood's favored. Relief! Then there's horses fighting, and smashing glass and this is beyond her abilities. She turns and runs, yelling, "SHAE!? SHAAAaaaaaaeee?!"

Jael just mouths a 'sorry' at Norwood as one of the horses starts demolishing the greenhouse walls. She ducks in and approaches the beast carefully, offering Amari's rolled apple, with the intent to free its foot while it's distracted.

When that hoof goes through the walls, there is a quirk of Kael's brows. Just one, mind, but he says not a single word. He'll just nod vaguely toward the Baron and look toward the lured horses. The horse is lured there with the apple and he follows after Jael - wincing slightly as Amari goes running away - trying to loop one of those horses that is fighting.

Norwood checked intellect + athletics at difficulty 30, rolling 1 higher.

Jael checked dexterity + athletics at difficulty 40, rolling 11 lower.

Reigna winces as that hoof goes through thee wall, "Oh, that poor thing." Yes, the poor, poor rampaging beast. Reinga attempts to coax another of the horses with those apples of hers. She moves in a bit closer in an attempt to break up the fighting within the greenhouse via the power of apples.

Reigna checked intellect + animal ken at difficulty 30, rolling 1 higher.

Kael checked dexterity + athletics at difficulty 40, rolling 5 lower.

Norwood checked dexterity + athletics at difficulty 40, rolling 5 higher.

One of the fighting horses decides it would rather take an apple from Reigna than get its butt kicked for another round and so, gradually makes it way out to her. That leaves the horse with its foot stuck in the wall and the one remaining free horse. Kael and Jael don't do so well when they enter the greenhouse. The floor is slick and disgusting, like really disgusting, it smells in here. It's one misplaced foot and BAM a person goes sliding into all of the muck. Norwood must just have better navigating skills because he's able to get to the loose horse. The one stuck in the wall KICKS free and knocks out a big panel of wood before backing out into the yard through the newly made horse sized hole and vanishing. That's leaves eight horses menacing the entrance to the keep, the greenhouse is clear.

"Shit!" It's both an exclamation and a description of the situation as Jael loses her footing and lands on her butt in a pile of horse poop and greenhouse dirt and who even knows what else. "AND STAY OUT!" This is yelled in the wake of the escapee before she hauls herself to her feet and stomps back out of the door.

Ah yes, so there is the fact that somewhere within that lovely greenhouse there is some green sludge to go along with it. Undoubtedly some sort of concoction was being fragrantly produced as good fertilizer for the plants. Now, well, Kael is enjoying is slip and slide, arms flailing before he goes down. "Too late," comes his answer to Jael, but a heartbeat or two later.

"//Really?//" Norwood calls after the horse that flees from the room hanging on to the horse he's managed to capture to keep him upright. "We need better locks." Grumpy he comes ot to free the horse into proper hands. A deep, long-suffering sigh, "Alright. The courtyard." Jaeland Kael are eyed. " And then baths for you two."

Amari finds her way back to the courtyard, calling for Shae who doesn't answer. She looks intensely disappointed when she reaches the front gate to the keep and there's no horse whisperer to be found anywhere. Fine. There's still the mustangs out on the road being a hassle. While she failed utterly in her previous attempts, she strides out with confidence and starts to throw apples at them. She's very bad at throwing, like someone who never ever had cause to learn how to throw apples at horses in anger. "Go away!"

Reigna winces as she sees Kael go down, a bite of her lower lip. "We should dump buckets on them out here first." Reigna comments before she goes towards the courtyard. She is careful to pick her way towards the eight remaining horses. "Does anyone else envision giant roasts? I bet Marie could make these beasts delicious." She pairs up with Amari and says, "We have this, cousin. At least we are not yet covered in muck, and I have not been bitten in the breast this time. Victory."

Did we say eight horses? It's nine. The horse that broke down part of the wall is out here, limping around a little sadly. The others are milling about being generally unreasonable as the residents of Duskshire try unsuccessfully to shoo them somewhere they can be managed. When Norwood and company arrives, "Baron Clement! I don't understand, why do these horses keep plaguing us? What have we done? Are we cursed? Is this the curse of Duskshire???" The commoners are very concerned about this situation. "Are we being punished???" The horses stop and nibble Amari's apples.

Norwood drops just a random bone.

With a groan and a scowl, Kael is moving up to his full height before offering a few choice words underneath his breath. He pats at his leathers, huffs a scowl, and then sends a wry look toward his fellow stinky companion - Jael. With a little vague chin-up he heads toward the courtyard. Maybe the next lasso he has is snatched a bit briskly. For those who have seen Aeryn in a temper tantrum, tired, the prelude has him wearing an expression that is ridiculously like Kael's current one.

Jael is angry. She is covered in poop and her own horse wants nothing to do with her because of it and now she's angry. So she stomps up to the big-ass palamino and just...throws herself at it.

Norwood checked dexterity + ride at difficulty 30, rolling 12 higher.

Jael checked strength + ride at difficulty 30, rolling 20 higher.

Reigna checked intellect + animal ken at difficulty 30, rolling 1 higher.

Amari checked strength + athletics at difficulty 30, rolling 12 lower.

Kael checked dexterity + athletics at difficulty 30, rolling 22 higher.

"Can we not please," Norwood says sternly to the gathered people who are freaking out. Solidly he marches into the court yard and towards one of the least restive of the creatures. "I think these are the animals of the bandits that once inhabited the keep. Clearly, they did not like their former masters." Norwood is trying to rationalize this to keep down fear. "Just catch them. There's no way this goes wrong."

Using what has worked thusfar, Reigna continues her apple-rolling clucking method. She keeps eyeing the injured horse, frowning a little bit, her eyes on his bleeding leg. "Oh, I am going to need to catch him."

Clearly on solid ground, such as it is, Kael is much more effective with a lasso. Once more there is a twirl of that rope, and of course a clean catch of a stallion. He eyes the beast as though evaluating him, his pose, and leads him back to the stables with a sidelong glance to ensure that everyone else is faring reasonably well.

Amari must feel vindicated in her decision to wear plate armor at Reigna's comment which causes her to stop and look at her with an arched brow. "At least not. Let's vanquish these hooligans." She agrees before plucking another apple from the lot weighing down her cloak sling and hurls it with violent force at the nearest horse. That's what she might have intended, but she instead sort of flails it in their general direction so that it ends up rolling gently by so they can wander over and nibble on it like the last. Her vanquishing game is weak. Every apple throw afterward, and there are several attempts, are equally as bad as the first.

That's right Kael, you show these horses WHO THE BOSS IS. Which he does, because when it comes to throwing a lasso around one of them he does so very promptly and with little fuss. The commoners nearby Ooooo in appreciation of his skills while they nod approvingly at Reigna working to catch the injured one. Though there's some debate over whether he should be healed or made into dinner, given he just broke down a greenhouse wall. Jael and Norwood are apparently RIDING? Horses?

Perhaps most importantly, the horses are appreciative of Amari feeding them. Just think, she could be throwing apples at them with the intention to sca- oh... Well. Instead one of them follows the trail of gently rolling apples, making it up to her and nudging her hand. In a friendly, not totally insane fashion.

Yes riding horses tyvm. Norwod is so successful in his riding of his horse it's like this one wasn't actually wild but knows what to do with a person on its back. It's bareback, but that's fine. Totally fine. "Kael, have another lasso?" Apparently he's going to be stupid from on top of a horse.

Jael is on the palamino's back before he knows it, clinging like a determined burr and not exactly sure what to do besides hang on. SHE LEARNED IT FROM WATCHING YOU, Norwood!

Norwood checked dexterity + athletics at difficulty 30, rolling 53 higher.

Jael checked dexterity + ride at difficulty 30, rolling 23 higher.

Does Kael have another lasso? Of course he does. There's a grunt and a toss over of the rope toward Norwood on cue. Igotufam.

Amari reconsiders her stance on horse hoodlums as the apples she's been throwing at them, and missing entirely, coax them over rather than scare them away as she intended. "Well," She says to the one nudging at her hand, "You have some nerve, friend, begging for apples after all the mayhem you and your lot have been partaking in." She lets out a sigh, but isn't heartless enough to deny them. "Here. You too, they're all bruised anyway. They'd have to be turned into cider, I suppose. They won't keep now." Apples for everyone! Wild horses rejoice. She hands the fruit out nicely after that, rather than try to bean the horses in the head with them.

Amari checked charm + animal ken at difficulty 30, rolling 5 lower.

Reigna is who she is and thus suffering cannot be endured. She moves to the injured horse and attempts to do what she can to assess the situation and see how she can best help the horse. Being Reigna, this means soothing murmurs and gentle pats as she examines the wounds to see how bad it is. Who knows! It might need to die!

Reigna checked intellect + medicine at difficulty 30, rolling 26 higher.

The palamino just bolts, with Jael hanging onto his back. Her sudden grumpy mood vanishes in a whoop of delight at the speed and she hangs on, filth-straked hair flying behind her. Apparently the plan is just to hang on until it gets tired.

Norwood, has lasso, throws to another horse. Yippiiieeeeee!

The wild horses are fickle creatures Amari and while the one stays near her, the others snub the perfectly good cider apples entirely. Rude, so rude. Reigna meanwhile discovers that the horse is a little scuffed up but probably not going to die from its leg injury. However, it has terrible temperament just like these other miserable wild horses and it whickers at her offensively while she examines it. Jael is wrestling the massive palomino pinto that DOES NOT APPRECIATE THIS ONE BIT but also can't get away UGH. And there's Norwood, lassoing one horse from another horse and then there were just three loose horses who decide the jig is up and bolt.

The horses dance away.

More apples for the good horse then. FINE! Amari doesn't care, she was trying to hit them anyway. Maybe they sense her lingering violent thoughts towards them and rightly shy off, while the other is too hungry to care or is taking pity on her for being such a harmless incompetent. Again, she doesn't care, she just keeps feeding that one and counts it as a victory of some sort. She calls back to the keep, "I caught one!" But she really didn't.

Cristoph takes just a random bone.