Quote Originally Posted by dojango View Post
Severin finds himself led by Gretchen away from the mesa into the surrounding scrubland. As they walk, she gives Severin a rambling account of her unpleasant marriage and shoe-leather divorce. She has a lot of negative things to say about the personal and intimate habits of the Riverhoppers, life in Stralwald and the Southern Ranges generally. After a short walk Severin finds himself in a sheltered dale where the halfling scouts have made a camp. There are a few tents and a campfire where a few of the scruffy-looking halflings are roasting some birds. They give Gretchen and Severin a knowing grin. Gretchen mostly ignores them and pulls Severin into her tent and she rummages around a pile of clothes and belongings before pulling out a bottle. She pulls out the cork and takes a long pull before handing it over to Severin. "Good stuff, from the boss's private stores. All the longshanks that come and scrape before the boss bring him some ta curry favor. He don't miss a few..." The wine packs a heck of a punch.

Spoiler
Show
If there's any information you'd like to get out of Gretchen about Sol or Northdale or the area in particular, let me know, she is in a chatty mood. But she does seem to want company for the night.
Spoiler: @dojango
Show
OOC: Well, Severin pretty much walked right into that one. He'll take one for the team and do his best to keep Gretchen happy.

I went back and checked over the summary of our mission I wrote in this post.

Gretchen doesn't seem all that interested in the business side of things, so she's likely not a candidate to ask about who's buying the copper, but I'm pretty sure we already know the answer to that - it's the Tileans. Or have I misinterpreted what Galeazzo and Lorenzo have told us?

She also seems unlikely to know any details of the mine's output, though obviously we may just have helped solve the problem of the current drop in output.

Having seen the inside of the dwarf hold, I think we've also got a pretty good grasp on the defences Sol has in place apart from the general inaccessibility of Inselberg. If Le Houet wants a means of staging a surprise attack, the best bet would probably be to enter through the mines, though the only way inside that Sol's people probably don't know about is the tunnel Severin and Gabriele crawled through...and that would be tough going for any human-sized soldiers.

I suppose that leaves three areas of questioning which Severin might be able to weave into a conversation:

1. Who's been attacking the river traffic? Severin's heard rumours that there might be an independent gang operating in the area (Tick's story). What does Gretchen think about that? (Yes? No? Is Sol doing anything about it?)

2. Sol's losses - does Gretchen think getting rid of the lizards will be the end of it? Did she lose any of her scouts or anyone she cares about? (I.e. Severin is trying to get her to spill how many men Sol had before and how many he has now)

3. How did Gretchen get to know Sol and what are her plans for the future? Does she foresee an end to working for Sol or is she personally loyal to him?