Quietly and discreetly so that the orc hopefully does not notice, Luna will whisper back, "I learned orcish so that I may know what my enemies are saying & so that I may let them know the horrible death that awaits them at my hands. What would you like me to say? ... before I gut this one like the pig he is?"
Find out where the Half-Orc is, and whether they were ambushing these soldiers.
Turning to the Orc and getting right in his face, in a low, deep, emotionless, steady voice, "Želite li da poginete vrlo sporo, bolno, mučno? Ako ne, onda, reci mi gde je bio polu-Orc svinja ide?
Takođe, bili da svi oko zasedi vojnike i ubiti ih, ili šta se desilo ovde? Šta su ti sve uraditi sa goblinima?"
Also, were you all about to ambush the soldiers and kill them, or what was going on here? What were you all going to do with the goblins?
When the lovely Luna speaks in her Elvish accented Orcish, the tied-up orc laughs, a good hearty chuckle and says:
Looking around, Nikeisha asked, "Laughing is good, right? I don't have to blow anything off for him being insulting?"
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"Friend, don't think about the torture. Put it in the back of your mind. Instead, let's have a talk about what you do care about: You; or, more specifically, your dreams. Dreams of the future; of who and where you would like to be. You currently stand at a crossroads: down one path, my friend Hack can start cutting things off of you, and then I will heal you so that you don't die. We will repeat this process a great many times before you are finally allowed to die, and even that won't be the end, because we'll just bring you back to life, good as new, to start all over again."
As Jun finishes his first pass of talking, he draws a knife, then slices open a ragged looking gash across the palm of one hand before showing it to the Orc. He then casts a healing spell on himself, and his wounds close completely. He then begins speaking again...
"Down the other path, you simply tell us what we want to know, and it's like a speedbump on the path to your happiness. You go and find a new place to live, a new job, and if you're really lucky, someone to settle down with. You become chieftain of your own tribe, secure in the knowledge that you have faced that worst that life has thrown at you."
"The question now is: How do you want to live your life and measure it's meaning? Do you want to die on the dusty trail, your life's purpose spent in a few days of pain and degradation, or do you want to continue on towards your dreams, and leave this place far behind?"
Jun finishes speaking, then cleans and resheathes his blade.
Quint listens as some of the others being speaking a strange language in harsh, guttural tones. His eyes widen a little as Jun proceeds to cut himself for no apparent reason, and Gomdebo mimics the action, but he tries not to let his surprise show. He does slowly take a step back though, and rests his hand casually on Windsong's hilt, ready to pull the blade from his belt to defend himself if it becomes necessary.
Looking at people cutting themselves, Nikeisha went, "Yeah. That looks uncomfortable. I'll just present eldritch energies instead."
A blue symbol appeared beneath the Orc's feet, glowing with a garish, neon light. After a moment the ground around it began to frost over and cold eminated from the dire looking symbol.
When Gombedo cuts his hand, Jun will walk over and heal his wounds as well.
Hack simply stands with a sneer on his face directed at the prisoner as the others attempt to communicate.
It seems like Jun had alot to say. I hope it breaks this piece o' dung...
Psalm moves about stll keeping on the down low. He looks up lost with all the orc talk.
It's quite clear by the orc's change in facial expression and demeanor that he was not quite ready for a half-elf nor dwarf with so much fervor. Watching Jun and Gomdebo slice their own hands, only to have Jun heal them, putting the truth to his threats, causes the d'rak to swallow hard. His black, matted, wet hair sticks to his broad square skull, and his tusks jut proudly from his full grey-green lips, but proud and strong as he is, he's alone, and surrounded by people with quite a bit more spine and resolve than he'd expected.
It appears as if the orc might just be thinking out loud, as he pauses for a moment. Then he starts speaking again, the guttural language full of hard consonants comes out forced and brutish.
Jun looks intently at the retreating soldiers to see if any of them understood what their captive said. The fact that none of them has stopped their movement shows that if they heard him, they didn't understand him. Perhaps this new bit of information will, literally, stop them in their muddy tracks?
"Do you know where the grey-rock met Durol before? It would help us go and ask them some questions. Also, did you notice anything unusual about the Grey-rock; for example, did they all have a particular symbol they work, or something like that?"
The last bit is a statement, not a question, awfully audacious for someone tied up standing over the bodies of his dead companions.
What's the scum sayin? Anything we can use?
"But you must know something than can help us find the grey-rock. I want to focus my friends on them, not your clan."
Quietly, Jun would answer Hack's question with "Yes, he's talking. I should have what I need in a moment or two here."
The tethered d'rak grunts and shakes more dripping water from his black hair before speaking again.
Jun whispers to Hack "Pretend to kill the Orc when he goes free, but don't actually hurt him."
"I am going to shove you in a moment, and the highlander is going to pretend to attack you. Once he does, play dead, and wait til we leave."
Once he receives an affirmative, from the Orc, he will shove him in such a way that it makes it look like he's trying to run, then let Hack do his thing.
Hack nods, and when shoved, releases his hold on the rope lead, and swings his axe, attempting to connect with the flat of his blade, across the back of the orc.
Knowing that pretending to be dead, while humiliating, is nowhere near as bad as actually being dead, the orc nods in compliance, and does an absolutely terrible job of pretending to be sliced by Hack's axe. "Ooof!" Aksan sqwawks, and then falls to the dirt, taking the flat of the barbarian's weapon across his shoulder blades. Thankfully the soldiers and goblins are so far up the rainy way that they can't really see or hear what's happening.
Several of Jun's companions, who don't speak a lick of orcish, look at him wondering what in the world just happened. Quint pipes up, "So... Where to now? Are we still going to rescue the goblins? Cause..." He points at their forms disappearing over a slope in the distance. "They're getting away."
Mahap, the scrum told Jun something that'll slow them down?
Hack untied his rope from the still orc.
"We can talk and move at the same time," Nikeisha said, moving towards the Goblins. Well...she could move and talk at the same time. It might confuse a couple of the others.
"Yes, I'll share what I've learned as we walk."
Jun picks up the pace as the he talks, although he is clearly the sort to talk while walking anyway. "From what he said, the Orcs of his tribe, led by the Half-Orc whose name is Durol were hired by the Duergar to kill both the soldiers here and the Goblins. This Durol and the Duergar wizard apparently met in the forest, as opposed to the Orc camps. Other than that, he had no real information, but my word is my word, so he was released. I'm thinking he'll probably go back and warn his tribe, but I could care less, to be honest."
Well then, we need to tell them about the ambush, and how we saved their arses.
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Finally coming out of hiding, now that the party was moving, Lindaer said "Finally, we are picking up the pace. No way that I can keep up in the shadows at this speed. I didn't pick up everything that was said, but do we have any indication of this Deurgar wizard being involved with the abominations? If I am remembering everything correctly, the dwarves and the deurgar have been gearing up for another civil war for quite some time now. Burrowing monsters that attack the mind could give the duergar quite an advantage in the shadow lands."
"Maybe. I suspect there are an awful lot of things that would see them as a meal, though." Nikeisha shrugged. She didn't really care about the why, only the stopping.
"Given what we learned from the journal, I don't think their stated goal was to create the worm creatures we fought, but that it was a happy (for them) coincidence. I am concerned that this energy they were studying appears to be sentient."
Luna has been walking along silently, meditating on the information gathered. "We need to keep in mind that the Duergar told Durol that the soldiers were coming to give him the goblins. This means the Duergar already knew about someone sending the soldiers to capture the goblins. The Duergar is somehow connected to the mayor back in town, or maybe the mayor isn't even the mayor? And has possibly been replaced by a Duergar using illusions to appear as the mayor? Otherwise they are definitely working together. Either way the mayor cannot be trusted. Perhaps what the mayor was posting about an orcish raiding party is also something to either get people sidetracked worrying about the orcs, or maybe even a way to try to get rid of the orcs that could tell the truth about the mayor working together with them? ... Definitely a LOT of potential political intrigue going on here ..."
As the bulk of the group takes off heading toward the soldiers, the now released orc runs dead-sprint toward the river, straight west. To what end no one knows. Taking count of heads as the group moves on, Jun notices that Gomdebo isn't there. He asks, "Where's our dwarf?"
Everyone looks at him, then at each other, then around again, and realizes he's right, she's gone. Curious, perhaps she's hiding nearby, stalking them as some form of protection? No matter, she'll either turn up or not, such an absence can't dissuade them from their investigation. It takes very little time for the entire group to catch up to the few remaining soldiers and their goblin charges. As you catch pace through the slogging mud, one of the soldiers, after waiting for a crack of thunder to recede, says, "No more necromancers or zombie armies to fight?"
Psalm the squirrel continues to shadow the group.
"You'd be surprised where they can show up," Nikeisha replied consideringly.
"Hopefully not. I was just talking to our Paladin friend here, and it looks like the problem has taken care of itself."
"Yes indeed my friends!" says Luna as she discreetly takes her "walking stick" and re-strings her bow-string upon it.
Well, then, tell 'em what the prisoner said 'bout these goblins and the Orc ambush. They may want t'change their travelin' plans.
Externally, Jun is calm as ever. Internally, he just shakes his head at Hack; He definitely has his uses, but obfuscation isn't one of them.
"The Orc we interrogated back there said that his tribe was hired to attack your group and kill the Goblins you are escorting. He did not know why, however."
So, how's about ya let us come with to help you find the half-orc, or just give us the gobbies for safe keepin'.
Jun's news that the orcs the mercenaries were meeting were instructed to kill both them and the goblins didn't sit well, obviously. Yet, they were hellbent to get out of the rain, and the closest place was the pier-side inn and tavern, The Bullfrog's Lament, so they continued dragging the tethered goblins that way. Having little else investigative to do, and because of their desire to keep anything alive that the orcs were paid to kill, the group followed along. At one point, one of the guards pointed at the squirrel that appeared to be following the group along the route, and said, "Did one of you feed that squirrel or something?! He keeps following us." At which point Psalm figured his cover was blown anyhow, and grew back into his regular diminutive gnome self. Nothing else exciting happened between the original point of meeting, and the destination, except the fact that the rain continued to pour down in ropes, and lightning continued to lighten up the sky with very little interruption.
The Bullfrog's Lament is a massive three-story structure of wood and stone. The back side of the building has a multi-level wooden deck that turns directly into a long pier. The pier is built on top of huge wooden posts sticking out of the water, and it extends almost a hundred feet into the waters of the River of the Republic. The walls of the Bullfrog's common room are decorated with wood and paint replicas of various trophy sized fish. The showpiece though, is a wood and paint replica of a human-sized bullfrog, represented in mid leap off of a large lily pad. The artwork sits at one end of the bar, and a large fishing spear rests in a gilded, hooked plaque above it. The plaque of the spear reads, in ebony gemstone letters, The Bullfrog's Lament.
People are packed, to the gills, as the expression goes, around the place. Seems as though everyone wanted in out of the rain storm. Good for business, bad for finding a seat. After talking to one of the girls behind the bar, the guards drag their goblin charges into one of Lament's private parlors, and the group follows along. Once seated, dried by some of the group's invoking of magic, fed bowls of hot fish chowder, and tankards of bitter ale, one of the guards finally gets to the matter at hand. He takes a long draught of his ale, slams it down and says, "Well, now what? We can't take the gobbos back to town, on express orders from ..." He pauses there, and realizes that, while you all are acting friendly, there are things that still need to be kept secret. "... on orders. And we sure as shootin' can't take 'em further up road. Durol's sure to have more d'rak barbarians camped out." He looks at his comrades in arms hoping one of them will have a brilliant answer, but not one of them will look him in the eyes. "Damnit!" He yells, "we can't just stay here indefinitely!"
Psalm waves sheepishly, "Sorry. Sort of recon you know can't be to careful."
Once in the tavern Psalm orders a meal and sits with the others he continues the polite fascade.
"Why don't you just leave the Goblins with us? You could spin a story about how they were killed by Orcs, and you not wanting to fight a bunch of Orcs for a bunch of Goblins, and so you left. Then you get to go home, we get to deal with the Orcs, and no one gets killed by a necromancer! Sounds reasonable, right?"
Psalm nods. "Sounds like the only way to payday." He smiles adding a not so subtle ribbon on the package Jun is selling the mercenary.