The Red Hand of Doom (3.5)

[danielxcutter]

Arendi pulled her back slightly by the back of her silk armor. "Aerilaya, that's the forge. I'm sure there are other ways that don't involve flames that make steel go soft."

[A.A.King]

"As you heard, Captain, we are a circus troupe, and as such we would like permission to perform in your lovely town. I am Alastor, the ringmaster and next to me is Diana one of my performers. We would like to set up our tent on your village greens and perform for the townsfolk for a few days to raise money to continue our tour. We were informed by one of your guardsmen, a Sergeant Hersk, that we'd need the council's permission for that and that you were the person to come see for that"

[Saintheart]

Alastor, Diana, and Libby

The Old Toll House,
Drellin’s Ferry, Cannath Vale
Six bells, the Sixth of Mirtul,
1372 DR, Year of Wild Magic

"He was right about that," replied the captain. "Really I'd have to consult the Council under normal circumstances, but given the way things are with our hobgoblin problem I think the Council's just as likely to permit it anyway. The people here could use the diversion, not that there's a lot of coin in town at the moment to spend. So, yes - go ahead and set up." Anitah seemed to be looking them over, as if thinking about something. "How many of you are there all up? Those hobgoblin bands aren't exactly small in number from what we hear of the survivors - I'm guessing you must be a good ten or fifteen strong?"

----

Arendi and Aerilaya

Morlin's Smithy,
Drellin’s Ferry, Cannath Vale
Six bells, the Sixth of Mirtul,
1372 DR, Year of Wild Magic

"Well, likely I've it easier than ye," said Morlin to Arendi. His grin creased the forge's soot into his wrinkled face. "For some reason I cannae ken, folk seem t' find symbols of the Forger of Souls less worrying than symbols of the Reaper of Souls. Sad, really. We all ha' our functions, and I'd wager yer Lord's business is more constant and vital than mine."

He turned at Aerilaya's question, chuckling. "Aye, lass, if ye planned on a scorched skin! The forge'll burn hot enough t' sear magic into the..." His words trailed off as she held out her tobacco pouch. He bustled over to her, thrusting a large nose over the proffered pouch, and took a long indrawn breath. His exhalation had a sigh and groan of sheer pleasure. "Soulforger's Hammer. Yukio Leaf!"

His hands danced with movement, taking the tobacco pouch, producing a long pipe from a pocket unseen, and filling it with a ruthless efficiency. Somehow his other hand managed to produce a flintstone and struck the pipe to life. Blue smoke fogged the air as he gently pressed the tobacco pouch back into her hand. He drew a breath so long he might have been a bellows himself, and closed his eyes as he breathed out, a sort of pleasurable growl coming with it. "Mighty hammers of the hidden caverns, it's been so long since I had good weed. No caravans from th' west, and ye might as well stick moss in yer pipe as smoke th' rubbish tha' comes from east, out of Dambrath."

Morlin snapped his gaze to Arendi, who had his hands in the gold pouch. "Ye close that purse, greywarden! Tha' pull of tobacco pays for this an' more." He took the pipe in one hand, and reached the other out, laying his palm on Aerilaya's forehead. "Moradin, god of the Folk, take the darkness from this woman's eyes."
Arendi was positive the torches in the smithy flared higher for a moment.
When Morlin took his hand away, Aerilaya could see again. He grinned at her. "Happens tha' banging on a forge all day tends to make the ears a bit dull. I make a habit o' asking the Soulforger to restore m' senses at the end of day's work anyway. 'Tis a mighty fine leaf ye've there, lass, ye come back tomorrow and share it again, do it please ya!"

[danielxcutter]

Arendi chuckled. "We're likely going to be staying here a few days, so there'll be plenty of opportunities. Thank you for the help. sonnlinor."

[A.A.King]

"Ten or fifteen? Well, it depends on how you look at it I suppose. You see, before I became the ringmaster of this circus I was an animal trainer by trade and when you look at some of our performers you can clearly see that. Personally I'd say the circus is thirteen heads strong, it's certainly my job to make sure thirteen mouths are fed. However, when just counting the independent performers than we're really only a group of six I guess. There is our strongman, our sharpshooter, our acrobat, our priest, our firebreather and of course me, ringmaster and animal trainer."

Alastor pauzes a bit before hastely adding

"We may not be the biggest show on the road but we're still very much worth a watch!!!"

[Saintheart]

Alastor, Diana, and Libby

The Old Toll House,
Drellin’s Ferry, Cannath Vale
Six bells, the Sixth of Mirtul,
1372 DR, Year of Wild Magic

"I see." The Captain seemed about to ask something, but apparently thought better of it. "Well, there's likely room enough on the village green to pitch your tents and put up a platform if that's your wish. You might not find a lot of money in the village given the raiding that's been going on, but perhaps some of the refugees from the outlying homesteads might appreciate the diversion. If you do want to stay in one of the inns, the Green Apple's the one I'd suggest over the Old Bridge Inn. But it's a matter for you, the Old Bridge is a little more pricey but it's also more comfortable. I'll look forward to seeing your show, saer."

[Aracor]

"Which was why, at the nearest edge of the crowd, both goliath and drow spotted a man getting his purse slit by a boy no older than ten or eleven. They were both close enough to do something about it, even perhaps grab the urchin if it came to it..."

Vokon isn't going to do much, but he will speak.

Since I'm not in charge of law here, it's not my job to enforce the peace. But sir, I thought you should be aware that your purse is being cut open by that young man right there.

He points at first the man, and then directly at the boy. And then waits to see what the rest of the people in the area do.

[A.A.King]

"We look forward to seeing you in our audience, Captain!" Alastor then stood up. "Now if you'll excuse us, we need to our leave and help our colleagues with setting up the big tent. Adieu" Alastor then took his customary bow and left to return to the green.

[Deadguy]

Aerilaya Ralothyra Sheet Human Paragon (3) / Swordsage (2) Player: Deadguy

The woman blinked her uncovered eye several times before squinting and looking about. There was a pause as she lifted up the patch. The scarred and white eye was still very much non-functional. She gave a shrug and flipped the patch back down before sparking her own pipe and taking a draw.

"You have my thanks. I don't like having to hold hands just to avoid camel dung." She nodded in agreement to Arendi's statement. "We garnered plenty of steel from the goblinoids. Once the tents are up and settled, we'll make sure you're the first stop to off-load it."

Spoiler: OOC: Checks

Show

Active Effects
Hunter's Sense (scent)

[Dimers]

"Come to think of it, Alastor," Diana asked on the way out, "why don't the mules and camels have a place in the show? Not smart enough? I remember one time I saw a donkey that'd learned to drink beer from a bottle ..."

[Saintheart]

Aidan and Vokon

The Village Green,
Drellin’s Ferry, Cannath Vale
Six bells, the Sixth of Mirtul,
1372 DR, Year of Wild Magic

"You thieving bastard!" shouted the man, spinning toward the boy. He was a fat man, but, as with a lot of overweight men, moved with a surprising if not terrifying grace and speed when the inclination was upon them. He lashed out with one big, fleshy arm, and missed - but connected with the other hand, grabbing the boy by the other arm. The boy's arm looked like a twig in the man's fist. Worse still, that was also the arm that held the boy's tiny, pathetic-looking knife, and with the man's impact and grip on the boy's arm, the knife went tumbling to the ground. Coins scattered.

The crowd (as crowds often were, at least in Vokon's and the-not-present Alastor's experience) seemed to hesitate; there were some who offered hisses of encouragement, and others who seemed to have the sort of look on their faces akin to confronting a bowl of sour milk at the man's actions. There didn't seem to be anyone who planned on intervening.

The big man had his hands on the boy's torso now, and was gripping him. The boy was fighting as hard as a ten year old seemed able, but the big hands were heading for the young pickpcket's neck.

[Aracor]

Vokon steps toward the two, and clamps one of his huge hands over the man's free hand like a vice.

I don't condone theft, by I also don't condone strangling a boy. How about we be reasonable, here? If the boy walks away with nothing more than he started with, no theft happened. And if no theft happened, then you have no cause to attack him, either. RIGHT?

He squeezes the man's wrist hard enough to hurt.

For that matter, you may be interested in picking up your coins that are now on the ground before someone else decides that them lying there means "finders, keepers". I doubt you're willing to get into a fight with everyone in the crowd who's interested in picking up a loose coin, now are you?

[Saintheart]

Aidan and Vokon

The Village Green,
Drellin’s Ferry, Cannath Vale
Six bells, the Sixth of Mirtul,
1372 DR, Year of Wild Magic

When Vokon's hand gripped his arm, the man began to say something. It was at some volume. It sounded, to Vokon's ears, like the beginning of an ancient Illuskan word relating to reproduction and ending in the word 'You', but in any event when the man looked up (and up) at Vokon, the words stopped rather efficiently.

This allowed Vokon to deliver the remainder of his suggestion, which was received with respectful silence.

When Vokon had concluded his words, the man slowly lowered the boy to the ground and let him go. The boy gave one look at Vokon with bright, narrowed eyes, and disappeared through the crowd. Vokon noted that the man's face appeared to now be rather moist, with drops of water rolling from his hair. Indeed the man's wrist appeared to have become rather sweaty all of a sudden. So the goliath released him. The man took a couple of steps back, massaged his wrist, and then bent to the ground, picking him loose gold coins where they had fallen. The crowd (as Vokon had found common in such circumstances) began to disperse, although the goliath noted to his satisfaction that a goodly portion of them were still hanging around, evidently interested in the tent he and Aidan could now proceed to finish setting up.

Spoiler: The Chronicler's Marginalia

Show

That's probably a convenient moment for any or all of Aerilaya, Diana, Arendi, or Alastor to show back up, having concluded their business at the Old Toll House and Morlin's Smithy.

[danielxcutter]

Heading to the Green with Aerilaya after getting her blindness removed, Arendi quickened his steps when he heard the commotion. By the time he'd arrived, though, it was over - plate was hardly made with speed in mind, after all.

He went up to the duo setting the tents up and asked, "Is everything all right?"

[A.A.King]

"It takes a lot of time to train an animal enough that it can do a trick impressive enough that people are willing to pay a few coins for having seen it and frankly I have my hands full with Pogo, Dobble and you guys." Alastor said in reply to Diana's questions. As they walked out they were just in time to see Vokon release his grip on a member from the crowed.

"What in the nine hells is going on here?!"

[ShedShadow]

Spoiler: Stats Show Aidan Blackbow (Adinae - Forgotten whisper) Male LE Drow (Dark Elf) Ranger, Level 5, Init 5, HP 28/28, Speed 30 AC 19, Touch 15, Flat-footed 14, Fort 1, Ref 9, Will 5, Base Attack Bonus 5 Elvencraft, Dragonbone +1 Composite (2) Longbow (60) +11 (+9/+9 rapid) (1d8 + 3, x3) Throwing axe x2 + 10 (1d6 +1, x2) Short Sword +7 (1d6+2, 19-20/x2) Mithril chain shirt, Heavy wooden Shield (not equipped) (+4 Armor, +5 Dex) Abilities Str 14, Dex 20, Con 11, Int 12, Wis 15, Cha 11 Condition None Spoiler: Rolls Show None

Aidan had stopped his work to watch Vokon's back as he walked over to the man, Aidan's hand resting on a dagger by his belt, ready to throw if it should be needed. The situation escalated, as Aidan had supposed it would, one of the reasons he hadn't gone up to the man himself, but the figure quickly realized his error when he sized Vokon up. Just as well, Aidan thought as he removed his hand from the dagger hilt. He'd hate to pull a weapon in a town they had been in for less than two hours or so. At that moment Alastor and Diana returned from their meeting with the city leadership and from the other end of the town Arendi and Aerilaya came approaching, her blindness cured from the looks of it.

"What in the nine hells is going on here?!" Alastor shouted at no one in particular. Aidan figured Vokon could better answer that, especially since Arendi had just walked up to him. "Is everything all right?". Aidan nodded. "Some kid tried to pickpocket that man," Aidan said while pointing to the man picking up the coins off the floor, "Vokon alerted the man. The idiot tried to strangle the kid as punishment." He shook his head, expressing his disapproval. "Just as well Vokon stopped the man, or I might have had to throw something to knock him unconscious. That would have started a riot for sure." He started walking back to the tent and the rope he had just been knotting to make one of the guy lines. "Ah, well. All done now. Better get this tent set up before we miss the last of the light." With that he hunched down and started working the rope.

[Deadguy]

Aerilaya Ralothyra Sheet Human Paragon (3) / Swordsage (2) Player: Deadguy

Aerilaya returned just behind Arendi. Her pipe held in her lips and her hands tucked into the billowing sleeves of her silk armor. She let out a puff of smoke and pulled a hand to offer a wave of greeting to her companions, making it obvious that she could see them once more.

"I guess it's time to get suited up then..." She headed to the camels to retrieve her pack where her form-fitting costume was stored.

Spoiler: OOC: Checks

Show

Active Effects
Hunter's Sense (scent)

[Aracor]

I simply explained to the man (very politely) that as long as he still had his coins, that no theft had actually occurred. And trying to punish a boy for unsuccessfully stealing from him with strangulation seemed a bit over the top. He accepted the wisdom of my statement, allowed the boy to leave, and picked up his coins.

He sighed loudly, as if coming to a realization.

Though it occurs to me that I may have cost us a wealthy customer there. I know you have concern for such things, Alastor. Mayhaps you can turn this to our advantage with your words. Many of the others still standing around saw exactly what happened.

[Saintheart]

The Village Green,
Drellin’s Ferry, Cannath Vale
Nine bells, the Sixth of Mirtul,
1372 DR, Year of Wild Magic

Night fell over Drellin's Ferry drenched in red across the western sky, sending the Talar River to a sheen of silver, the distant Wyrmbone Mountains turning into black sentinels. The day's heat was not relenting; the wind had died and the town was draped in a blanket of stifling heat. But on the village green, the darkness and silence were held back by the murmuring of people and the torches that had been lit around a garish-looking, large tent in the centre of the grassy field. Curious onlookers were discouraged from peeking in through the gabled entrance by a large black bear which sat unceremoniously on its hindquarters right in front of the tent. The spectacle and the seeming inactivity from the tent seemed to just make the crowd more eager.

Arendi glanced around from his spot in said crowd. There were more people than he'd expected; the Green Apple on the northern side of the green looked to be emptying and the Old Bridge on the south side had even set up a couple of tables outside, though likely that was more for the weather than any apparent show. He guessed there'd be a good hundred people around now. He wasn't fully armoured, of course, but the bastard sword by his side still got a few inquiring looks. He wondered once again about the propriety of this, but Alastor had been fairly insistent that since Arendi had (yet again) declined to be part of the night's act, Alastor needed someone in the audience to judge the act and the reactions; 'Bright lights and the height of the stage keep you from really knowing the crowd,' or so the bulky halfling had said. At least, having declined, he'd had a little time to commune with Kelemvor at the hour of sunset, and feel the reassurance that came each time as the god's blessing entered him, to be granted to himself or others as he saw fit.

The crowd slowly kept building, until, at some unseen signal, Dobble got up from his seated position and ambled into the darkness of the tent. Before anyone worked up the courage to follow him, Alastor came striding out, with Libby on his shoulder. The halfling paused, letting the crowd see him and the murmuring grow. Then, with an indrawn breath that caused a creaking sound from his leather belt that even Arendi could hear, Alastor addressed the crowd:
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN--"
"(Arrk) And those of you who aren't ladies and aren't gentle with your men! (Squawk)"
"BE SILENT, YOU PESTILENTIAL, PUS-PAINTED PARAKEET! GOOD FRIENDS, YOU ARE MOST FORTUNATE! FOR THIS VERY NIGHT--"
"Because we could've gone to the future and performed there (Awwk!)."
"--THIS VERY NIGHT, THE GrrrEAT BrrrrEMER CIRRRrrrCUS HAS COME TO TOWN! WE ARE HERE TO PERFORM FOR YOU! YOU'LL LAUGH! YOU'LL CRY!"
"You'll kiss two good silvers goodbye! (Squawk)"
"AND I PROMISE YOU WILL SEE THE ON-STAGE PRREPARATION OF AN EXOTIC PIECE OF POULTRY FOR BARBECUING, IF HE CONTINUES TO VEX ME!"

Some minor boon of Kelemvor that rendered Arendi relatively impervious to this act, which seemed to be appealing to the townsfolk. At least they were laughing along, rather than laughing at. Whatever else you could say, Alastor's timing was on point tonight. He and Libby kept up the act for a good ten minutes or so, unobtrusively slipping in veiled references to Aidan and Diana being acts too sublime to see without introduction ('why, the insurance premiums alone would force me into destitution should I dare let an unprepared audience see them!') as well as hyping up Vokon and Aerilaya. Finally, with a great flourish of his ridiculously-coloured hat, the halfling swept Libby and himself into the doorway, calling on the audience to 'follow, who would dare!')

And they did: maybe not all of them, but enough to fill the tent. Which was, unaccountably, dark with shadow.

Vokon loomed out of the darkness like the prow of a somewhat mountainous ship. He'd been oiled up and his tribal markings had been covered with a glittering dust. He beheld the audience with a suitably grim look. And then the real show got started, because that was when Aerilaya threw off the black sheet covering her, revealing her wrapped around Vokon's shoulders like some sort of oversized snake, clothes sufficiently formfitting that not a male eye in the place strayed from her and not a female eye in the place failed to narrow. The goliath stood impassively as Aerilaya whirled and flipped herself around his body, the impression left that she was some sort of mountain climber dancing on a distant peak.

For long moments, the display went on. And then, at some signal, Vokon suddenly gripped Aerilaya's torso and hurled her high into the air. She flipped, somersaulted ... and landed, effortlessly, on a high wire twenty feet above the ground, one hand on her hip, light flaring around her to illuminate her movements. The crowd swooned. Vokon folded his arms once more below her, and now Aerilaya went into the rope routine - up and down, somersaults, aerials, a triple flip that made a woman and at least two men in the audience give agonised moans of fear.

And finally, she reached her hand to her hip.
A sword appeared there, as if conjured.
The crowd shouted its approval.

She drew the sword, hands gripped around the long handle, centring it raised before her...and fell from the high wire.
Men and women cried out. Aerilaya's form flipped over, head towards the floor, the sword gripped in her hands--

--Vokon's palms suddenly slammed together before him. They caught the blade of Aerilaya's sword vertically between them. His muscles surged as he pressed his hands together. Aerilaya was motionless; they were a work of art in stillness, she perfectly balanced, her body and weight artfully like a sculpture suspended above the blade, supported only by her sure grip on the weapon's handle, Vokon holding her up by nothing but the blade.

The tent filled with thunderous applause.

With a quick twist of her hip, Aerilaya flipped down to the ground, and effortlessly into a bow, the sword across her chest. Vokon took a step to the side and gave a formal bow as well.

Alastor appeared once more, amid the applause. He calmed the audience down enough get them out of the tent, and the ring of silver and gold into the bowls near the entrance replaced the applause.

The crowds took a good half hour to disperse, but in their wake were left two individuals, who came quietly up to the tent and approached the Circus as they were cleaning up from the evening's work.

The first of them Diana and Alastor already knew: Captain Anitah Soranna. The other, the one Anitah was with, was an older man somewhere in his fifties, dressed in what seemed to pass as the clothing of minor nobility around here: good quality clothing surmounted with a somewhat archaic-looking toga, draped over his shoulder.

Spoiler: The Chronicler's Sketch

Show

"I'm sorry to trouble you," the man began, "I understand this has been a fairly exhausting day for you - but I'd like a few minutes of your time if I can. My name is Norro Wiston, and I'm the Speaker for Drellin's Ferry." Speaker was a familiar rank to Arendi and Alastor; points north of here, the title tended to be mayor, but old-fashioned rank or not, it meant much the same thing: a person who spoke for the entire settlement in all matters except a minority of cases which required the consent of the Town Council. "I believe some of you may already know Anitah Soranna, who's captain of our guard. I'll come right to the point - we're in a lot of trouble, and I was hoping I could persuade you to help us out."
"It's the hobgoblins," said the captain. "That warband you confronted is just a part of the bigger problem. Truth is, the town's under attack. Hobgoblin raiders have been harrying the area for several days. They've attacked and killed people in the outlying homesteads, and they've been waylaying travellers along the Dawn Way - and some of the smaller outbound trails, as you've seen. It's gotten to the point where all roads north, west, and now even south are unsafe to travel. There's a good fifty or more people who're taking refuge in town. It's too dangerous to stay out there in isolated hamlets."

Alastor recognised the road she mentioned, the Dawn Way: their map described it as the principal east-west road through Cannath Vale, running from Cannathgate at the eastern end through to Drellin's Ferry and then turning north through Shaareach Forest's southwestern end to terminate where it met the Old North Road and the Dwarfroad.

"We've had some trouble with hobgoblins before," continued the captain, "A raid now and then on farms on the west side of the river, usually not that bad -- but this is different. It looks like a large, aggressive tribe has moved down out of the Wyrmbones. Frankly, I'm afraid there might be enough of them to sack the town. I'm not really sure how many there are - maybe a hundred warriors. There have been at least three different warbands around our lands at the same time, each about fifteen to twenty strong, so fifty at the minimum." She hesitated. "I sent a dozen guardsmen west, up the Dawn Way to find out where the hobgoblins might be lairing, but they got cut to pieces a few miles inside the forest. The warbands have been using fearful monsters and evil magic against us. Hounds that breathe fire, even a couple of manticores."

Speaker Wiston nodded. "Beyond the immediate threat, the Dawn Way is our lifeblood. If the hobgoblins keep that road impassable to the west, trade won't come this way, and we'll be ruined. Opening the Dawn Way again is as important as repelling the raiders. So," he added with a friendly grin, "having just given you the leverage to extract an exorbitant sum of money from us, I can tell you we can pay you as much as five hundred gold each, if you can drive off the hobgoblins. And you're free to keep anything you find in the course of your investigation, of course, we don't tax or tithe on windfall gains here. What do you say?"

Spoiler: The Chronicler's Marginalia

Show

Take it as read that Arendi's had a chance to pray for spells.

Gold earned:
Alastor: [dice]3d6[/dice] gold
Aerilaya: [dice]2d6[/dice] gold
Vokon: [dice]3d10[/dice] silver

[Saintheart]

Spoiler: The Chronicler's Errata

Show

Gold earned:
Alastor: (3d6)[17] gold
Aerilaya: (2d6)[8] gold
Vokon: (3d10)[17] silver

[danielxcutter]

"It's not a bad cause, and the pay is tempting I'll admit..."

From behind the visitors, the greywarden walked up to them, pulling something out of his pocket,

"...but well, we came pretty close to having casualties fighting about fifteen, much less fifty."

Arendi held up hand, showing them his holy symbol - the scales and bones of Kelemvor - dangling from it. "And believe me, I'm more than qualified to say that."

[Saintheart]

The Village Green,
Drellin’s Ferry, Cannath Vale
Nine bells, the Sixth of Mirtul,
1372 DR, Year of Wild Magic

"We know." Wiston looked distinctly uncomfortable. "Believe me, if I could get the Shining Axes, I would, but we don't have that kind of money. Or the time. Frankly, you're the only travellers to come through out of the west for the past six days without serious casualties, and in all honesty our guard's not really equipped to meet this scale of a threat--"
"We're not asking you to hold an open field against a hundred hobgoblin archers all at once," interjected Anitah. She plainly wasn't going to stand there while the Speaker derogated her command to a group of strangers. "We think they're a lot more spread out than that. We can handle our share of small raiding parties, and I'm pretty sure they're lairing somewhere west of the Rhestwash, in Shaareach Forest. That's an area a good three hundred square miles from north to south, and the way the raids have been spaced out says pretty clearly that their warbands are trying to cover the whole length of the Dawn Way in that forest. What we've not been able to handle is the magic they're using against my guardsmen - which probably means there's a bright hobgoblin of some kind leading them. If it is a tribe out of the Wyrmbones, then if you can kill whoever's running the show, all our experience tells us the tribe'll disintegrate into a hundred warring factions by dawn. At that point we can handle ourselves. The problem is finding the leader, and then getting in close enough for a sword thrust. As said, I sent a dozen guardsmen up the Dawn Way, and none of them came back. So sheer numbers is out. Maybe a smaller crew'll have better luck."

[danielxcutter]

Arendi made a tsk sound, grimacing as he remembered the merchant and his bodyguards. "...Well, we'd probably do better than the average travelers, I suppose."

[A.A.King]

"You are in luck, we are not unfamiliar with the kind of work you're offering" Alastor said as he was counting the money they had just earned from the performance "the circus does sometimes require alternate revenue sources to stay afloat. The money you're offering is certainly tempting. I'm still not entirely certain on the numbers though. As my priest here has already pointed out, the fifteen we fought may not be a good indication of how well we'd do against the hundred or so you say that are out there. Sure, we may not be approaching them all at once in an open field, but we'd still be engaging them in their own territory where back-up for groups of them is a lot closer at hand then back-up for us would be. You say you already send a dozen guardsmen up the Dawn Way and that you feel a smaller crew would do better, but I think you'll find our troupe is thirteen heads strong, though I suppose you calculated with a smaller number when you said five hundred each."

Alastor put the coins away, they earned about as much as could have been expected from a town like this on openings night, but that still didn't exactly leave him with much to count...

"But that's just numbers, lets talk about time. When would you expect us to leave? We've only just arrived in this town and as you know the journey wasn't easy. This was only our opening night and I was hoping to at the very least put on another performance tomorrow now that word has had a chance to spread. We also have some more business in your town anyway, which at the very least would delay our departure anyway. I understand that you'd like to resolve this issue as soon as possible, before the situation gets even worse, but I hope you also understand that even though we'll be compensated for it that this is still a big ask that requires preparation and deliberation."

"All of this is not to say that we aren't interested, you've made us a very tempting offer, it is just not an offer that you can immediately say yes to, no matter how tempting. Would it be possible to set-up a meeting with the two of you tomorrow morning? It would give us a chance to talk this over in private and properly consider what you have suggested."

[danielxcutter]

"...Yeah, this is kind of a big decision to decide on the spot." said Arendi, nodding. He looked in the direction of the others and asked, "What about you guys?"

[Saintheart]

The Village Green,
Drellin’s Ferry, Cannath Vale
Nine bells, the Sixth of Mirtul,
1372 DR, Year of Wild Magic

The Speaker raised his hand before any of the Circus could reply. "If you need to deliberate, then by all means take some time to discuss it. I would only implore you to hurry. The longer the Dawn Way stays closed and this threat is not dealt with, the more our people suffer. Not just in trade, but consider the refugees from outlying farms that we are billeting. There are families who have no means of support while the hobgoblins range free across their lands. If you wish to see me tomorrow to discuss it further, please speak to Captain Soranna at the Toll House - she will send a runner for me. As said - I understand this has been an exhausting day, so take some time, but please do not wait long."

Nodding his goodbyes to them, Norro moved off with Captain Soranna, leaving the Circus to themselves.

[danielxcutter]

Once the two visitors had left, Arendi turned to the ringmaster and chuckled. "13 heads? Really? I won't stop you from striking a better deal, but I doubt they even have more than six thousand gold."

[Deadguy]

Aerilaya Ralothyra Sheet Human Paragon (3) / Swordsage (2) Player: Deadguy

Aerilaya had busied herself with retrieving the scabbard for her sword and loosening the braid that kept her hair from being caught in her face, or worse, in Vokon's face as he threw and caught her. Once her hair was combed out to a simple ponytail, she lit her pipe.

Standing, she draped her silks over her shoulders to give some modesty to her wardrobe and approached the group. "I go where the winds and coins take me." Holding out a hand, she accepted her share of the night's earnings from Alastor. Waiting to hear the others' thoughts, she absently rolled one of the coins over her knuckles with ease.

Spoiler: OOC: Checks

Show

Active Effects
Hunter's Sense (scent)

[danielxcutter]

"Mhm. Oh yeah, if it wasn't clear I think it's worth a shot as well." said the greywarden. "Exact amount of pay aside, I'm guessing you think so too, Alastor?"

[A.A.King]

"The thirteen heads comment was more about our mobility than it was about the pay. We aren't exactly a small strike force. Even without the caravan we're not exactly stealthy. We'll have to camp at least once to make to Wyrmbones, probably in the forest so we're going to need the caravan. We'll need a proper plan for this. "