Arileth nods. "We have business here, regardless, and would be happy to stay. I can pray to the Lady in the Room to ascertain the truthfulness of anything said tomorrow as well, yes."
Hali sighs in exasperation. "I've already offered t' help. O' course I'll stay at yer badger place."
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Once at the Badger, Ishingka thinks deeply about the day's events. One can almost see steam rising out of the half-orc's ears...
"Arileth, you can almost save your spell. If Veghazi, my dear unlettered cousin, has had that ring for a good amount of time due to her and Wade being star crossed lovers, she'll have a Thrune-damned tan line and a mark from wearing the ring. I should have been an investigator..." she chuckles.
"And by Aroden's backside, this is a queer mess. Veghazi's 'Mother' is presumably some female orc leader. Odd. I don't know of any women leaders in Belkzen, bunch of armpit-scratching miscreants that they are. And further, Veghazi's 'sister' is a tiefling. Awfully inclusive, this 'Mother'. Maybe not an orc at all. Some sort of fiend? How many 'sisters' does Veghazi have?"
Arileth can't help but smile wryly at Ishingka's pantomime.
"Nah, this Moth'r 's no fiend, else Vaghazi'd be half-fiend as well. Nah. My hunch 's tha' moth'r 's an orc, an' she 'as been a bit loose with 'erself, an' now she has prog'ny all over."
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Arileth stares into space, pondering while the others confer. Could Wate be Vegazhi's lover? Or perhaps they are siblings. After all, Thael Wate's initials are T.W., not A.W. Who is Adil?
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"Tieflings aren't half-fiend, but certainly it wouldn't be the first orc progeny with some fiendish blood." Ishingka points a muscly thumb towards her own broad shoulders--yes, muscles even on her thumbs...and gives a shrug. "Apparently I had terrible ancestors, and orc blood is rather mixable" She grins a mischievous grin full of tusks. "This wouldn't be a good time to tell my 'halfling, half-dwarf' joke, I reckon."
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Veghazi looks grateful to Ishingka and visibly relaxes once she leaves the room. But for the rest of the night she fingers her ring and looks sort of uncomfortable.
There is a dwarven woman who is the barkeeper at The Badger who shows you to the rooms
[I will need you to place yourselves in any two rooms once I put up the map]
You don't end up paying for a single drink as every few minutes a local tries to get your account of what happened to the Wate and what might be happening in the outside world. They want to know what killed him and if theyre still out there.
The barkeep woman smiles politely mostly stays out of it.
When asked, Hali gladly accepts an ale and says "It was devils tha' killed 'im. They got away from us, bloody buggers, so I s'pose they're still out there."
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At the mention of devils everyone looks concerned and rumors begin to spread about Hellknights having an issue with the town's Hero, something that sets off something of a panic and causes the common room to begin emptying. Not all at once but slowly and surely the size of the crowd dies down among talk of purchasing new defenses for their homes.
The matron looks quite cross with Hali Nice going granitehead
He gives her a glare. "Expect me t' lie, do ye?" No longer hassled by the townspeople, Hali remembers something to Ishingka. "I'll have ye know I took a long hot bath before th's journey started! An' I'm about t' take anoth'r now that I've arrived." He looks to the matron. "Where can a dwarf get a hot bath here?" Once given directions, he finishes his ale and stomps off to bathe.
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"They'll be back to talk about their amazing devil-proof fences, anyhow," says Ishingka. "Are you sure that your town can handle all of the mud that will slough off of Hali?" she says to the innkeeper with a grin. "Might be able to use it to build a wall..." She stops and nudges anyone near her. "We need to get some iron spikes," she says quietly. "Wedge the doors shut at night."
Ishy will go wander about looking for iron spikes for sale in town.
Arileth rolls her eyes at Hali as he scares all the townfolk with talk of devils on the loose. Being one of the nearer souls to Ishingka, she lets out a soft 'oof' as she is nudged. "Suppose so," she agrees, somewhat ambivalently. The elven cleric excuses herself, going outside to check on Asfaloth, her horse, and ensure that he is being taken care of.
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The barkeep looks sad as you mention that Sadly, poor Wate was the last remaining member of the family. He tended to be pretty solitary, never knew him to have so much as a lady friend. He was pretty driven to serve the town. Don't rightly know whos going to run the mining operations without him. I imagine Proum might but...well Proum ain't exactly too respected. Without Wate...this town might not make it too much longer
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The innkeep chuckles a bit as you offer the bribe and quietly takes it as she continues.
Well you see, Proum serves as mayor to be basically like a bureaucrat. He does the job because no one else really wants to you know? But no one sees him as a leader. Wate was the soul of the town really. This whole place looked up to the Aryll's. They were heroes who fought off the orcs to make this place fit for our settling. The iron we mine is practically mithral quality and they have allowed us all to make a great living for the last few generations. Without someone to keep morale up, I'm not sure we could continue to hold this place against the Orc incursions. My GUESS is that without Wate, his second in command for the scouting parties, Terrin Shaw, will take over but well....he hasn't returned yet. That's why everyone was so spooked when dunderhead over their implied the hellknights had Wate killed. It implies Terrin and his scouts also got killed, leaving the town virtually defenseless and down its two most capable leaders.
She sighs and pours a drink for herself These are dark times we are living in
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"People may leave," says Ishingka in agreement. "We are good at defending and killing orcs and the like, but replacing a vacuum of power in terms of leadership, that's not something we can do."
She takes a sip of her ale, enjoying the bracing taste. "You've got a Cheliaxian here in town? He was looking to write something down when we got here."
Outside, Arileth approaches the Ustalavan. "Fine horse, isn't he?" she asks, smiling. "You guys get many travelers through here?"
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Ustalavan lad smiles Lovely beast you have here miss, you surely care for him well hearing the rest of her statement he shakes his head No miss, if times were happier I am sure people'd be buzzing all over you folks, especially you if you dont mind the compliment. We get a couple traveling bards and merchants in a few times a year, mostly around harvest time, to make trades for our iron. We're pretty isolated up in these here mountains
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The barkeep looks at Jag and nods her head He's pretty resourceful. If you didn't find his body, I take that as a sign that he and the scouting party he looks over are still out there somewhere. And if you be wantin' to do that, I am sure that the elders would be happy. But nothing good ever comes from going into the wild after dark. Wait til morning child.
Finally she turns back to Ishingka and says Ah you mean Gallus Crevak? Yeah he turned up a few decades ago looking to hide from the Hellknights. Got a hell of a collection of books, I think he used to be some kind of bishop or something in the Asmodeon church. You aren't a bounty hunter are yas?
Arileth winks at the Ustalavan. "Thank you," she says in response to the compliment. "I imagine that isolation must be nice when you want to get away from the world. Nice and peaceful- other than the orcs, anyway."
She looks Asfaloth over and turns toward the inn again, but pauses. With a glance over her shoulder, she asks him, "Could you tell me where I could find Gallus Crevak? We met him a while ago, but one of my companions and I have a business matter we need to bring up with him in private, and we didn't think to speak to him then."
Arileth nods. "Yes, I'm sure it will wait until tomorrow, at least," she agrees. "Where exactly is the Red Archive?"
After she gets an answer to that question, she thanks the Ustalavan, bids him goodnight, and heads back inside the inn.
Hali makes his way back into the common room, dressed in clean clothes, his beard and hair shining from moisture. He joins Jag at the bar and asks the bartender. "D'ye know anything about th' orc tribes around here?"
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Thael considers the situation carefully.
"I believe we have two immediate needs we might help the town with. First, we need to ensure its safety from outside threats. Second, we need to determine who will lead this town. Perhaps it would be best to discuss things with Proum. Where might we find him?"
Tae takes his bath and rejoins the others in the common room, orders a glass of milk... if they don't have milk, then a glass of water. He is clean and shiny, but still looks a bit ragged because his clothes are tattered, old and still dirty. "So sounds like Thael has the right of the situation here... " He waits for an answer as to Proum's location, then adds, "We should visit Proum first thing in the morning, or do you think we should go find him now?"
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"A quick visit with Proum might not be a bad idea. Other business, such as 'mystery solving', 'determining the leadership of a town we've been in for an hour', and 'talking to Chelaxian fugitive', may have to wait." Ishingka has only taken a 'soldier's bath' in a sink, although, with talons ready to sprout at a moment's notice, she did do it unarmed. She looks no less fearsome when scrubbed free of devil's ichor and trail dirt.
"And we need to speak with Veghazi a bit more. Orcs may be on our trail, and they don't always sleep at night," she says with a growl.
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The elven cleric writhed in congress with her latest 'acquisition,' a younger Ustalavan man, making a mess of the bedsheets. He seemed rougher than she expected--he had started off gentle, but now his motions were rougher, more insistent. Soon, his momentum carried her back to the headboard of the bed. Her head slammed against it with a loud thud, and then another. And then, another. That hurt! If he kept this up, he was going to dash her brains out. "Gentler," she admonished. But he paid her no mind, and her head met the headboard again with a resounding crack. Again, and again she felt her head meet the headboard with an audible crack that was as much felt as heard--
Arileth starts awake at the sound of a crashing door. "Wha--?" she murmurs.
"'SHINGKA!! THAEL!!" Hali bellows out as he grabs his hammer and clambers to stand on the bed.
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