Travels amongst the Border Princes II (WFRP 2e) IC

[Haval]

'Nothing. Which might not mean very much depending on how far back it was. Maybe I can take a look around in daylight and see if there's any sign that someone's been living rough out here.'

[rax]

"Ah well, I already figured we'd have to be proper lucky to find a good set o' tracks up here. If you think it'll help to come back later, I'm all for it. For now, let's get back to the others and fill them in on the fact that the lizards seem to be coming and going this way. Then we'll have to decide whether to report back or take a stab at clearing those scaly bastards by ourselves," Severin answers Gabriele, then begins to make his way back down into the sinkhole.

OOC: Unless Gabriele has other ideas, Severin's ready to crawl back to the others. He'll make sure to mess up the Halfling tracks in the sinkhole and most especially the handprint in the tunnel as he goes.

[Haval]

'If no one stops me looking I can see if Myrtle left a fire anywhere. If everyone thinks she's dead maybe no one's bothered enough to look for her.' Gabriele will relunctantly follow Severin back down, 'I don't want to leave the others too long. How long would anyone wait for us in a place like that.'

[dojango]

Marina and Zdenko look at each other and she rolls her eyes. "He was a, you know, condotierri, and still wants to be. If we wanted to play at soldiers, we'd do it, right?" Zdenko grunts at that and she continues, "We've been with him for a few years now. Haven't had too many problems with him, so we keep staying, yeah? Better than striking out on our own. It's better to run with a crew than on your own out here. I gotta say, we just started running through here a few months ago and I don't really like this place. Even Nirena is better than this."

Meanwhile, Severin and Gabriele return to the the rest of the group, with Severin dragging his knees through the tracks he'd previously spotted, effectively erasing them. They squirm through the narrowest part and emerge into the torchlight. Zdenko reaches down to help you stand up and grumbles, "You were gone a while, find anything good?"

[LarsWester]

Harman decided to push his luck with the two mercenaries. In your travels in the Borders have you heard any whispers about a man calling himself The Drunken Weasel. Real name would be Gerhart Lustig. Harman proceeds to give a physical description of the criminal that led him to the Border Princes. With Verena's help Justice will find the man no matter where he runs.

Spoiler: ooc

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Gossip - (1d100)[89]

[rax]

Severin dusts himself off before answering Zdenko.

"Yes and no, is the best I can answer. The tunnel leads into a sinkhole and like I said before, there were clear traces of big lizards coming and going. Gabriele can confirm that - right Gabriele?"

"We didn't find anything certain to indicate that our missing guards or workers came through here, though. I'm guessing that no guards would have put themselves through the ordeal of crawling through there, and if some Halflings got out this way, then any tracks they left are gone now. So, our best guess is that any traces of missing persons are going to be found in the lizard nest we found earlier - that's the only place we haven't been able to search properly."

"So, what next? Do we give the lizards another go, or report back and let Sol's lot decide how they want to handle this?"

[Haval]

Gabriele will retrieve her gear. 'That's right. I take it no one has heard any stories about those things coming into town? If we're lucky maybe they only come up to hunt birds and the like.' To Severin, 'I'd say it depends on if we can find somewhere to fight those things where there's no chance of us being surprised again. And even then only if we're all agreed. Otherwise I'd assume Tollares has a few more lads on the surface who aren't doing much.'

[rax]

"I have a hard time believing we can get most of the lizards to oblige us by fighting where we have an advantage. One or two of the smaller ones, maybe, but the big 'uns probably won't budge from the nesting area unless they feel like a bite to eat," Severin ventures his opinion.

[dojango]

Zdenko shrugs and says that he might have seen someone like that hanging around in Nirena a few months ago, which could be plausible. But the man didn't sign up with any caravans that he knows about, and had disappeared the next time Zdenko had gone through. Harman had also passed through Nirena on his way to Bremcote, it was a strange place. A small trading post built up in the ruins of a larger city. Zdenko also mentions that some of the tribesmen accused Arcadius of goat-rustling. Apparently goats and other livestock have been disappearing in the night lately.

As far as getting revenge on the larger lizards, Zdenko is all for it. "We know they'll try to ambush us so we can be prepared. If we let Sol's boys do the killing, they'll get first crack at whatever is hidden down there." Marina, on the other hand, is against it. "Can't loot anything if we're dead. And besides, what is there gonna be in a lizard's nest? Bunch of lizard crap and bones?" She thinks the job is done and wants to go back and get paid.

[LarsWester]

Harman adds his two pieces of clank to the conversation. I guess the main question is if Sol thinks we completed the mission and pays us or if he thinks we left the job undone and orders us punished for not completing the job. I hardly know the guy but what's everyone else's read of the man?

[Haval]

"I have a hard time believing we can get most of the lizards to oblige us by fighting where we have an advantage. One or two of the smaller ones, maybe, but the big 'uns probably won't budge from the nesting area unless they feel like a bite to eat," Severin ventures his opinion.

'I think they might follow me if I start shooting arrows at them. But if they want to stay there until I run out that's good too. Marina has a point though. I'd say if we do it we do it very carefully or not at all.'

Harman adds his two pieces of clank to the conversation. I guess the main question is if Sol thinks we completed the mission and pays us or if he thinks we left the job undone and orders us punished for not completing the job. I hardly know the guy but what's everyone else's read of the man?

'He's a slaver.' Gabriele says simply. 'Maybe not a complete madman though. I'd like to think he'd still appreciate hearing about this.'

[rax]

Severin shrugs. "The job was to find out what happened to the guards and slaves. We haven't actually found any of them, but we did find man-eating lizards. Given that we haven't found any other signs of life, it's fair bet that the lizards are the ones that have been making Sol's people disappear. Remember, he started sending in the slaves all chained up - they wouldn't have stood a chance if the lizards found them."

"Anyway, if the lizards ate the slaves and the guards, there's likely to be some...indigestible...stuff in their nest. That would prove the theory, if Sol doesn't think our story sounds plausible. Bit if he wants proof and to be able to get back to digging, then it's in his interest anyway to send some people to help clear out the lizards."

[LarsWester]

Well we can decide this by a vote if all are in agreement to follow it's outcome. Harman suggests mildly. I vote for seeing what Sol thinks of our news.
Maybe we can get further pay for coming back with more help.

[dojango]

Marina votes to go back as well. Zdenko votes to attack the lizards. "If a paymaster can screw you over, he will, you can count on that," he says, glumly.

[Haval]

'Even so, I vote that we go back. Maybe he'll see the sense in us bothering to come back and give an update. It's still better then if no one came back at all.'

[rax]

"Then it's settled. We report back and let Tollares decide what he wants to do next. If he stiffs us out of our pay, we'll deal with it when it happens," Severin says.

[dojango]

With the vote 4 to 1, the party heads back towards the surface. There are a few guards waiting for you nearer towards the surface; they seem surprised to see you back alive. It is evening by the time you make your way out of the mine and you are escorted out of the labor camp and up the path to the top of the mesa. After a short hike by torchlight you are brought to Sol's hall and the guards usher you inside. You are in a large room, lit by a few torches. There are tables and benches for followers to sit at and a few servants are slowly making an attempt to push away some of the detritus from an earlier feast. A few guards are lurking around in the corners, and Beauregard comes in through the front door a moment after you. After a few minutes more, Sol strides out another door and heads over to you. He is an older man, with a clean-shaven scalp and a short beard. He is wearing an old, comfortable looking robe. He takes a seat and a servant brings him a flagon and he says, "So you're the mercenaries who went poking around in the mine. Find out what's happening down there?"

[Haval]

Gabriele answers flatly, 'There's a couple of really big lizards and their brood living down there. Looks like they ate your miners.'

[LarsWester]

As they did one of our number. Harman adds sorrowfully.

[rax]

"More than a couple, actually. Two really big ones and a bunch of smaller ones, but they were still big enough to do real damage. They've got themselves a nice little setup in a cavern with an underground lake. The nest is on some sort of island in the middle, and there's just the one causeway that goes there. They ambushed us from the water when we were going out to have a closer look and then one of the big ones dropped down on us from the cavern roof. They climb too, you see..." Severin elaborates. "Your foreman said the workers were chained when you sent the last lot in. If they met the lizards, the poor beggars never stood a chance - wouldn't even have been able to run..."

[dojango]

"Giant lizards, eh? I've heard of stranger things lurking in the depths, suppose we should be relieved. Beau, get a posse together, a score of men should do it. You lot, come back in two days to collect your pay. If your story holds true. You're dismissed." He waves you off and yawns. As the guards escort you out you hear him shout over to Beauregard, "Tell Herr Vorgrimler to come see me in the morning! I think we found what he was looking for!"

[Haval]

To Severin and Harman, 'Why's Vorgrimler interested in the lizards?'

[rax]

"Who knows? Tollares could have been speaking of something else that's got nothing to do with our business down there," Severin answers. "Though if it's related to this dwarfhold, then I suppose it's a mighty handy coincidence of timing that Sol's people should have found what Vorgrimler's looking for while we were down there scouting around."

"You want to sneak back in and see what Tollares' lot do with the information we delivered? If you're up for crawling through the sinkhole passage again, we can get in and out unseen."

[Haval]

'You mean after they've cleaned out the lizards? Not opposed but remember that I won't be able to see a damn thing down there without torches, which'll make it hard to hide from Tollares' boys. Could we try talking our way into letting us accompany them down there? Vorgrimler didn't seem very talkative when we asked him about it before.'

[LarsWester]

We can always try the thirst for revenge angle. That we want to make the lizard pay for for taking one of our group. Maybe they would let us go along. Harman offers up with shrug of his large shoulders.

[rax]

"That could work, I suppose. Or maybe just suggest that it would be a good idea to have us along to guide them to where they need to go?" Severin answers.

[dojango]

While discussing this, you see the millstone inn across the square and head there for a night's sleep. The proprietor takes you in, and lets you stay in the rooms you had used earlier. It's been a long day and soon you find yourselves fast asleep.

Spoiler: Harman

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You don't sleep well. You have a very vivid dream of yourself standing amidst the bones from the mines, with an angry dwarf shouting at you surrounded by the bones. He is shouting at you in what you assume is Khazalid, which you don't understand, and once the dwarf seems to realize you don't understand him, he gets even angrier, if that were possible.

You are woken by the sound of someone knocking heavily on the door of Harman's room, shouting for him to wake up. You recognize the voice of Beauregard, who is loudly saying, "Wake up in there! Rise and shine! I need that powder I lent you, come on out!"

[LarsWester]

Shaken from his vivid dream during the nights sleep Harman jerks to a seat in his bed at the sound of Beauregard's calling. He slides out of bed, grabbing the loaned pistol shots and powder.
Here you go with thanks Beauregard. I ended be engaged closely right away so there was little cause for the pistol. Are you part of the group going in to deal with those giant lizards? One of the large ones snapped one of my group in half. Watch out they can climb on the ceiling of the caverns down there and drop on you unexpectedly. Say do you think there'd be some coin if me and mates tag along?
I'd love to extract a bit of revenge for poor Pietro.

Spoiler: OOC

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Charm - (1d100)[65]
FP - (1d100)[76] if needed wow thanks dice.

[rax]

Severin is sound asleep but wakes from the knocking. Sitting up in bed he scratches himself distractedly and listens to Beauregard's raised voice.

"Well, someone's in a bit of a rush to get themselves killed," he mutters.

[dojango]

Beauregard takes the powder back, checks it, before slinging it over his shoulder. He says, flatly, "I thought we'd hired you to deal with the problem, frankly, and the way I see it, goin' down as a guide is part of your original duties, not somethin' we pay extra for."