CH. 15 - Before the Dawn

[BishGada]

Tulbas confirms Kendra words silently. He would vouch for Gobax if that would count for anything but he knows it wouldn't.

[JadedDM]

"I told you i was a a priest, just like i told Arulia a while back. I told you i was the one who tried to free Delharn. I certanly didnt do that without divine aid."

"You said the dwarf was your mentor...not that you were also a cleric of Sirrion," William says. "I had assumed you meant he was teaching you a trade or something. And Arulia never mentioned anything about you having divine powers."

"Is Sirrion an enemy?" asks Miriam.

"No...not exactly," William answers. "But not exactly an ally, either. Sirrion is a god of flame and chaos. Odds are, he would be against the Dragon Queen's rule...but he'd be against Paladine's rule, as well. In other words, he'd likely become our enemy if we succeeded in this war. But he probably won't act against us until then, most likely."

"Does that mean we can trust him?" asks Pen.

"I don't know...maybe. At least, I don't sense any evil on him," William says. "The dwarf, on the other hand, has even more evil in him than the gnome does."

"And as for the dwarf, he didn't assassinate anyone, instead he TOLD ARULIA."

"That's true, but only after he realized his target was her sister," William says. "He seemed more than happy to go along with the job before then."

Tulbas makes sounds of disagreement and shakes his head, hopping he will be let to speak.

"Sadron, remove his gag, but leave the bonds on his hands," William says.

"If he starts casting?" the elf asks.

"A solid strike to the back of the head should stop him," the cleric answers.

Sadron undoes the gag over Tulbas' mouth and readies to strike the second Tulbas tries casting a spell.

"He wasn't the one who told us where you were," Kendra says.

"And I don't suppose you'd be willing to tell us who was the one then?" Fiona asks, her bow still nocked with an arrow trained on Gobax and Shima.

[BishGada]

Tulbas starts to speak wearily, both because his mouth hurt from the gag and he worried it would be considered spell and he would have been struck unconscious. He stretches his jaw a bit to restore it's and his cheeks flexibility and says: "Gobax didn't sell you out. Magnus read the old bartender's mind. I tried to warn Gobax from following and Kendra and I tried to avoid any blood shed until we met you and I thought Magnus will never negotiate with you, so I figured if we knock you out fast you might survive few more days. Obviously I under estimated you."

[Chris1234]

As nobody has actually asked him anything, Shima remains quiet whilst thinking that William seems immensely preferable to Magus.

[JadedDM]

"...so I figured if we knock you out fast you might survive few more days."

"A few more days of what, being tortured?" asks Miriam.

"Enough, this isn't getting us anywhere," William says. "Everyone, lower your weapons. As for you two," he says, pointing to Gobax and Shima, "tell me what it is you want, exactly."

[TristenC]

I wanted to help you when i saw you being followed. I guess i didnt make that plain enough. And i want to stop the dragon queen any way i can. he says flatly.

[Is arulia there? Has she not spoken up at all about Grubnick this entire time?]

[JadedDM]

"And the dwarf?" William asks, eying Shima.

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(OOC: No, Arulia is not present, nor has Gobax seen her at all during any of this. The people present are Gobax, Shima, Kendra, Tulbas, Haahqae, William, Miriam, Fiona, Sadron, and Pen.)

[Chris1234]

"I want the oppression ended, my weapons back, a normal life and rescinding of the the bad luck the dragon priestess inflicted on me for not killing the sister," says Shima. "But not in any particular order."
He thinks better of adding, 'Thanks for asking.'

[TristenC]

[Ok, nor sure why i thought she was]

[BishGada]

Tulbas keeps low profile.

[JadedDM]

"And why do you want the oppression ended?" asks Miriam of Shima. "Neither of you are locals, correct? I can understand the goblin, if Sirrion is a god of freedom, he'd oppose any sort of oppression. But what do you care if a city you have no stakes in or roots in is oppressed?"

[HorizonsDream]

"From the sound of it, it sounds as if the dwarf wants to work for you for his own gain rather than for Haven," Kendra points out. "Working with the priestesses hasn't worked in his favor."

[Haahque]

There was… a lot going on that Haahqae had to think about. The plan about Haahqae scouting ahead was a good one, but it didn’t solve the problem of the sewer smell, and if the celler is guarded like last time; it won’t be a simple process getting people past without being noticed.

Did William just say the dragon could change size and shape into the butler? Wow. That… that would explain a hell of a lot. But, what does that mean? Can the dragon breath fire and cook the flesh off your bones while in butler form, or does it have to be in dragon form? Can it transform and wreck the mansion and gain its full power which can melt inns in a single breath?
And that all presumes that no one betrays us. Haahqae wants to trust Kendra, but she’s accustomed to the easy life in this occupation. Being in the army means she hasn’t been effected by the oppressive taxes or checkpoints. Being favored by the prefect means she’s had a fair amount of publicity and power... What would happen if she decided that the best way to save face for her failure to kill us all in the first place was to lure us into the prefects mansion then alert the guards to capture and kill us all?

Tulbas is somewhat incompetent, which inherently means you can’t plan too much on depending on him. And he’s also in black robes, which means you really can’t trust him if he’s working with the goodguys. Maybe he’s the heroic sidekick who is the most loyal to the hero while everyone suspects him, or maybe he’s trying to pose as the heroic sidekick as he plots the destruction of everyone and their hopes and their dreams.

William seems determined in his path and fairly strong, but his fanaticism is scary and he seems to not value his own life or those of the people working with him to accomplish his goals. What if he has ulterior goals that he’s not telling others about?

Gobax has seemed to be pretty genuine in Haahqae’s previous experience. But how had he managed to survive being burned to a crisp by a dragon? And he’s still a goblin, which is an ugly lying cheating burping farting backstabby race in general. Only a fool would fully trust a goblin when the chips are down. And he’s a cleric now?

Shima… Haahqae doesn’t know very much about. And that can’t be a good thing.

As for the rest? The eyepatch woman Haahqae doesn’t know much about except that she’s stayed in the Steel Tankard for pretty much the duration of the occupation and that she keeps to herself. She could be a spy for the occupation for all Haahqae knows. Probably not after she fought to prevent us all from being captured tortured and killed by Magnus. But you never know.

Pen is a Kender, which means he’s not really to be trusted. And that’s about all Haahqae knows about him.

Sardon is an elf, which inherently means he’s one of the most trustworthy ones of everyone else present, since if he tries to betray the group; he’d probably be killed on sight by the army.

And then there’s Miriam. Miriam already tried to steal away Ismene from him. Although, to be fair after what Haahqae did with Ismene, he can’t really hold that too much against her. But it still… and she’s so… Well she’s probably trustworthy.

But… Haahqae sort of has a feeling that all the chips are down and the teams need to play their hands in the best way possible. Miricle seems to think that it’s time for Haahqae to step up and be the hero that he was always meant to be. That he had strove towards for so long, even to the point of convincing himself that he was, until it was viciously ripped away from him during the occupation. It feels like something has been missing from who he is, and he would like to get it back. But that doesn’t mean he can just foolishly trust his team.

“For what it’s worth, the goblin has fought against the dragonarmy before. He had tried to disrupt the felonious four as they paraded some prisoner around town, but he was significantly outnumbered and the army called in dragon support. I have no idea how he survived that fight.”

"We all have a lot of reasons not to trust eachother. We haven't worked together all that much, and even when we have, things haven't necessarily gone all that well. I would know, I've been betrayed and back stabbed and stolen from more then my fair share and it feels terrible. But we need to look at the bigger picture here. What is our alternative right now?"

"There is a war going on, and as far as I can tell, now that Magnus has discovered the hideout in the sewers and has survived the encounter, none of us are safe down here anymore. I feel like this plan to infiltrate the mansion is rough around the edges and premature, but what alternative do any of us have right now? Our backs are against the metaphorical wall, and our time is running out. We must make the best decisions we can quickly and act on them before we're all killed. There is risk in trusting each other, but there is also a risk to not trusting each other at a time like this when we could have, when we had to trust each other."

It is; in part; the hero's role to try and get people to try and work together, isn't it?

[TristenC]

Grubnick gives the gnome a weak smile. Thanks,,, i... well i don't really kbow how i survuved either aside from luck... maybe a little from my patron... I ran for the back and climbed out a window to get away, not even knowing the dragon was coming... i got just far enough before the whole place went up in flames....

He shakes hisnhead, then something Haaque says about Magnus triggers and he curses. That damn mage... Magnus escaped by going invisible... it's... it's possible he saw when i found the secret door you guys used... He might know. There were people above the sewer that arrived pretty quickly after the battle, so it's just as possible he slipped by me somehow and ran like a demon was after him to get reinforcements. Of course if he ran he wouldnt have seen where any of us went afterwards, but they'll still probably search the corner where all the fighting obviously happened...

[JadedDM]

"From the sound of it, it sounds as if the dwarf wants to work for you for his own gain rather than for Haven."

"I find it concerning how many of our allies are only on our side because they angered the other side," Miriam laments.

"There is risk in trusting each other, but there is also a risk to not trusting each other at a time like this when we could have, when we had to trust each other."

William nods, looking at the gnome with an impressed expression. "Haahqae is right. We have little choice but to trust each other at this point. The mission must come first."

it's possible he saw when i found the secret door you guys used... He might know.

"Then we shouldn't linger here any longer, just to be safe," William says. "It will be curfew in a couple of hours anyway, so we might as well head to another safe house to plan our next move. There's one not far from here. Get the prisoners on their feet."

Miriam helps the tied up Tulbas and Kendra stand up.