CH. 8: Proving Worth

[TristenC]

Should we try to track down the girls tonight? It might be easier before they have a chance to think over a good plan for hiding...

[JadedDM]

Haahqae, Tulbas, Arulia, Gobax, Felran and Ne-Chanz (Deserted Building)
"We've killed everyone we've met so far," the bard says. "Five that looked mostly human, three that looked not so human...and at least a dozen histachii."

Out of curiosity, he goes through the books, as well. "Interesting. "These could be quite valuable, actually. They seem to be instructions on how to create the snakemen and their mindless servants."

There's a pregnant pause before Pen speaks up. "So we should burn them all, right? There's a brazier right here that would do the trick. Destroy the knowledge to make more of those things, so nobody can use them again...right?"

"Not so fast," Gregeddin counters. "These books could be extremely valuable. Magnus would likely turn over most of his shop's inventory in exchange for these books. Or failing that...you have to admit, having your own snakeman army would be useful."

"What? No," chimes in Ismene. "I agree that the knowledge here is dangerous, but...it shouldn't be destroyed. It should be turned over to the Conclave. They can add it to the library where it will be safe from those who would abuse it, but maybe they could use it someday for some greater purpose."

[spyguy1503]

"I say destroy them" Ne-Chanz growls. "These books make abominations"

[chese780]

(OOC: Finally, I can do something. It's not right if it isn't a team effort. Hinting to the stealthy return. Also, I notice the 8hp and can't find the page where this all went down...)

"You know, I don't see why we would argue over these books. There are plenty of other things that would probably cause more problems." Felran says. After hearing Ne-Chanz he would just sigh.

[Haahque]

"I can't really see any use for having a snakeman army, it seems to me like they would be much more trouble then they're worth. Why would Magnus care about these books? I thought the army and all its agents mostly just burned knowledge that were from any religion not their own, which is a pity since all knowledge is precious, even if it's not something you agree with. However, it sounds to me like there is a fair amount of interest in this stash after all, so I say we divide it up and everyone gets to decide what to do with their own piece."

"This time there's little enough of it to divide it up without slowing us down very much. Who all wants to do something with some of these scrols and books?"

[JadedDM]

Haahqae, Tulbas, Arulia, Gobax, Felran and Ne-Chanz (Deserted Building)
"Magnus isn't part of the army," Gregeddin points out. "But that's neither here nor there. It looks like you need the whole set for it to be worth anything. Splitting the books up would make them useless. Besides, there isn't enough to go around. It seems we'll have to make a choice. I say I should take them to Magnus, see if we can get a good deal from them. If nothing else, he should at least be able to tell us what they are worth."

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(OOC: chese, it wasn't a single page, but more like 20 pages. It was over the course of three battles that he was whittled down to 8 HP. It's the result of 12 different wounds.

Anyway, there are three books and two scrolls but there are nine of you (Haahqae, Gregeddin, Gobax, Arulia, Ne-Chanz, Felran, Pen, Ismene and Tulbas) so dividing them up equally isn't really an option. Plus, the books are continuations of each other (i.e., book 2 picks up immediately where book 1 leaves off) and the scrolls are basically errata for the books. So one book or scroll alone is useless. It would be like tearing the pages out of an instruction manual and keeping only one.)

[Haahque]

"Well if no one else volunteers for a part of the set, then I guess I get to divide the set evenly amongst myself, which means I get all of it. But that's not exactly fair now is it. So I say we have the most magical-knowing-knowledgeable person to decide what to do with the books. They know the most about this sort of thing so they would know best how to deal with it. And the most magicy person here is obviously Ismene. I mean Tulbas is also pretty magicy, but I think Ismene is better."

[TristenC]

We should destroy them.

[Haahque]

"We have no idea if these are the only copies or if Belzor wrote down a ton of copies and scattered them around different pockets of followers. If we destroy them and don't kill Belzor, he can easily write them down again if he even needs to. Destroying these books wouldn't mean that no one could create those things ever again. It would mean WE can't create those things ever again. Or I guess it would be ever, since none of us have ever created one of those things. At least to my knowledge, for all I know the goblin might be a really good snake-man-creator, but I really doubt it. And we can't learn from the process to do something a little more wholesome with the knowledge either. Really destroying them just makes us stupider."

"But I said it's up to Ismene or Tulbas to decide, and personally I'm starting to think Ismene's idea is a good one. Knowledge is to be preserved and the Conclave would be able to do that, although it would be nice if I was able to read some of it before we give it to them. My experiance is that organized mages often seem to be really stingy with their books despite having some of the most interesting libraries in the land. Would the Conclave be able to reimburse our friends for the damages they sustained in the acquisition of this knowledge?"

[BishGada]

"Guys, guys. Don't argue in here. Belzor is behind this door!" He then speaks quietly. "Let's take the books and decide what to do with them later. I admit I'm curious myself. This transformation have a lot of benefit. Part of it might be used in healing diseases. If we could find a way to make the transformation temporal it could be a great weapon in battle. But let's leave this argument for later. Now, are we to try and catch the women? It will be difficult for them to pass the guards with a chest full of money. A lot of things will be difficult for them right now. They are wounded and have blood stains on them I would say and so people will notice them. On the other hand if you don't want to catch them, lets stay here. Rest, refresh and subdue Belzor, then go to the church. They would appriciate it and if not reward us at least will give us good position in their ranks. It can help with the tax thing too. So let's vote now. I say to try and catch the women. One should stay here to track if Belzor or other Belzorites are preparing for the next battle." He looks at Haaque and adds, "One which is NOT a Hero that will try to take Belzor alone and is great at hiding himself or herself."

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(OOC: Even semi-transformed yuan-ti have magic resistance from my unfortunate experience . Think of this application as a spell that works for few rounds. Should be interesting to research.)

[djhyland]

"Well...we can at least see if they've left any sort of clues to where they might go," Arulia admits. "Or maybe they've been detained by the guards. But if they are, I doubt that the guards would be generous enough to turn over a chest full of money to us." She hangs her head, exhaustion all but pulling her down to crumple into a heap. "If you want to stay here, that's up to you," she tells Tulbas. "I have a family to return to, and even if I didn't, I wouldn't spend the night down here with all these dead snake-things for all of the steel in that chest. And I want nothing to do with the church."

Arulia limps over to look at the books and scrolls in the chest and frowns. "If these can be used to make more of those snake-things, they're dangerous. I'm with Pen, we should destroy them so they can't be used on anybody else."

[BishGada]

"I assume the women would be smart enough to avoid the checkouts, so their movement is pretty much limited."

[TristenC]

Perhaps they sought healing since they were injured. Does anyone know a good herbalist they might go to? Or a shady place they would hide-out at?

[BishGada]

"Marvin is a healer. But he is in a different quarter of the city so they would have to pass the guards. Shady places you say... well all of Harbor District is a shady place. The previous Halls of 'The Master' must have become a place for all refugees."

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(OOC: We are currently at Harnor District?)

[chese780]

"I'm going to go with not being the one to stay because, as you can see," he says as he sort of looks towards the minotaur, "That's not going to work. If he stays, I'll have to keep him out of there."

(OOC: Spyguy knows this all too well.)