The female looked confused at Molly's statement.
"What do you mean, 'grow back heads'? If you cut off my head, I will die. Is that what you have planned for me? Death comes for all mortal creatures. That is what you have to look forward to, as do I, apparently."
"First thing I'm studying when I get the chance is languages..." Mariana grumbles.
Molly snorts. "I'll be happy to teach you all," she says. "Later."
She continues talking to the Troll:
The trollish female looked concerned at Molly's words. Agitated, she seemed to come to a decision.
"You leave me little choice. You may call me Ghaer. If I answer your questions, you will release me? Upon your word?"
"She's willing to answer all questions, but she wants to be released in trade," Molly says, smiling a little at Ghaer.
"I defer to the locals. It is their town, their laws, and their decision," Mariana says quietly, still rather frustrated at not knowing fully what is going on, but that just gives her more drive to learn more.
"I do not know any details of the raid, and in fact I believe that Daktani was to relay to me more information along those lines tonight. Of course, you can get that information from him, providing you barbarians didn't kill him out of hand."
"Grenseldek is the leader of the Twisted Nail tribe. I am just a courier. One of many. Not important enough to know any details other than those relayed to me. As for your 'white swords', I know nothing about them."
Molly translates Ghaer's answers as she hears them.
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"The universe began as an agreement of division between two forces: Arakan the Forktongue, God of Darkness, and Kuldrok the Remover, God of Light. Arakan brought existence into being and revealed it, shrouded by darkness, while Kuldrok created a land apart of falsehood and deception, blinded by light. Over time, Arakan created the brothers Torglarok and Grymblor, while Kuldrok, foolishly blinded by his own light, created only one being, the dread sun Helmang. Arakan made his children great and all powerful, but withheld secrets that kept them from usurping him even as they surpassed him. Helmang, however, was not granted such restriction and defeated Kuldrok to come to rule the light."
"Jealous, Helmang, the Dread Sun King, would regularly rush the sun into the earth to sear and destroy the orcs, and would catch anyone floating in the air between the earth and the sun. The god of the earth, Torglarok, and the god of strength, Grymblor, then created two great gifts for orckind. The first gift is gravity. Torglarok embraced existence and pulled the universe to him for protection. The second gift is the sun's gravity. Grymblor pushes the sun away from the earth. The sun still attempts to assault the earth every few hours, but is always deflected, skittering away to the west only to try to sneak up on Torglarok from behind to the east."
"The Children of the gods know to shun Helmang's approach, and set themselves up as rulers of the world, as the gods intended. But, other races, man chief among them, encroached on the lands of the orcs, driving deep wounds into the tribes, and pushing them from the lands their gods had rightfully chosen for them to dwell upon."
"Fractured by these invasions, the Children became tribes, each striving to maintain the darkness in their own realms, and shunning the light of Helmang. Those invaders that cherished the sun's fiery warmth acted in evil ways, driving the orcs further from the lands of their ancestors, hunting and despoiling the lands."
"The tribes held fast to their identities, though, and fought against the incursions of the godless races. Each tribe took for its totem a sigil that represented the aspect of the World as it Should Be. The Twisted Nail sigil represents the stable foundation of family and clan, uprooted and twisted by the human and elven invaders."
"Thus the Twisted Nail tribe flourished in the lands you call Belkzen, and continually strive to retain that which was promised, that which was given. Humans, elves, and the other so-called "good" races have driven as far into the orcish wilds as they are ever going to, and the time is soon approaching when the Tribes shall once again unite as the Children, and the World as it Should Be will once more become the World That Is. "
"Grendelsek sees this clearly, and has laid her plans. If I were in your places, I would throw myself at the feet of the true gods and beg their forgiveness for your usurpation and your treatment of the Children. Best to do so before the Harrowing comes, when it will be far too late."
"What more is there to say? Grenseldek is the leader of the tribe. Not just because she is the largest and strongest, but because she is the one chosen by the true gods to clear this land of all those that are not Children. I think you can guess from that what Harrowing means."
"She holds the gods favor, though she does not cast their spells. She has many shamans for that, and warriors by the thousand. All are her children, though none from her loins. All tribes will unite under her banner, and we will be one once more."
"I am indeed answering your questions. Perhaps your grasp of my language isn't as good as you think it is."
"She is an orc, of course. What? Do you think an elf would be leading the tribes?"
"Perhaps someone in town will be able to speak with the half-orc. With magic, it may not be too late to get some answers from him," Vashta muses.
Storn closes his eyes, listening attentively to Molly as she tirelessly translates the conversation.
"Hmph. Godless? The hell did she think I just healed her with?" mutters Storn. "Speaking of which if I could find a scroll we can converse with that dead half-orc."
He listens some more. "What is her mistress looking for, and who is Daktani's master?"
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""The universe began as an agreement of division between two forces: Arakan the Forktongue, God of Darkness, and Kuldrok the Remover, God of Light...."
Quill's jaw drops as he hears and listens to the translated 'history'.
"I had no idea..." Quill says, with a bit of transfixed drool on his fine elven lips.
"Molly, tell her that there is nothing here. The town is nothing...it's stone, dirt, and wood. We don't have what they seek. I've lived here for a while and never heard of anything of value anywhere near here."
Quill ponders, thinking that he *might* not know everything.
"What does she seek? Maybe we can get it for her so she doesn't need to raid? And when is the raid happening?"
Vashta shuffles her feet nervously as she thinks.
They can't mean ... No. How would they even know the grimoire was here? But they can't have it. After everything I went through to get it away and keep it safe, I'll be damned ... again ... if some orcs or giants end up with it.
In response to the questions Molly translates, the trollish woman spoke.
"As I said, I know no details of the item, or the timing of the raid. I am only a messenger. As for Daktani, I have never met him before, and do not know who he works for."
Storn shakes his head.
"I think we have what we need. The town having something she needs is probably pretense; you heard their religious talk, they want to wipe us out. Regardless we must warn the town and get Othdan back. "
Storn smiles over at the traumatized child.
"Worry not young man! We all must encounter our first corpse in these hard lands. Soon you'll be making your own just like uncle Storn. It was troubling when I split my first head open, but by my tenth birthday it was but a distant memory."
"Ask if she was aware of anyone else here, or anyone else working with Daktani in town. There must be more we can learn here!" Vashta urges, frustrated.
As you listened to what the troll had to say, you noticed a slight hesitation in the way she spoke about Daktani, particularly with regards to not having any message for him, or any further information about him.
To save time, items marked with an (m) radiate magic, items marked with an (a) need to be appraised for relative worth
On Daktani:
On Ghaer
"Do you see my eyes, Ghaer? These weird eyes of mine see more than other eyes. They see lies. You know more about Daktani than you are saying. You had a message for him. We had a deal, remember? Your life and freedom for honest answers. I will give you a chance to be honest with me, without telling the others that you are trying to hold information back..."
Ghaer looked uneasily at Molly for a long moment, then seemed to collapse slightly.
"Yes, yes. You are right. I do know a bit more about the half-orc, though not as much as you would like, I am sure. His master is an orc named Skreed, and Daktani was the contact between Skreed and the Twisted Nail tribe. We couriers would meet him every month or so, alternating so that none of us knew all there was, but I know Daktani was a petty man, feeling put upon by the people of Trunau, and was easily swayed to help organize their downfall."
"My message to him this evening was to be ready, as the time is near. My mistress is unhappy at the delay at finding this artifact she seeks, and is coming to take possession of it herself."
Molly translates Ghaer's words - without mentioning the Troll-wife was keeping information back - and turns to the others.
"Seems to me the next person we need to talk to is this Skreed fellow. He has questions to answer... Well then, unless anyone else has any questions, I vote we scare the snot out of Ghaer and let her go home to frighten the Twisted Nail Tribe. Mind you, they might step up their attack if they find out Trunau is on to them, but we might put the wind up them with the right threats and weaken their resolve."
Molly waggles her hand.
"Maybe."
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Quill waits until the troll has been properly scared and driven away (probably by Storn, Quill guesses) before speaking to the group again.
"That's kind of scary. She said that the next attack would be coming soon. And that whomever is in charge might be coming herself!" Quill looks around at the party. "We should go tell the militia! And Kurst too! We should be on alert!"
Quill goes to gather the orc's loot. He smells/tests a few potions to try to identify them.
Perception - potion x2 (m)
Perception - potion (m)
Perception - potion (m) - Ghaer
"Do any of you know what this belt is?" Quill asks, holding up the belt (m).
Vashta snatches the belt from the elf and, muttering an incantation, studies its aura.
"Be careful with that! Magic can be dangerous..."
Tasting the potions, Quill was pretty sure that the pair of potions that were alike both held the Pass Without Trace spell, and the other one that Daktani had on him was a potion of Vanish. The one that Ghaer was holding, he could not identify.
Vashta looked at the belt with a discerning eye, then identified it as a belt of tumbling.
"Never mind," the young Varisian decides, holding the belt out for Quill. "This will simply let you roll around more easily. Nothing dangerous about it at all."
A faint tinge of disappointment seems to color her voice, as if the item had let her down somehow.
Storn looks around and slams his gauntleted fists together with a bang.
"Good job Molly. I'll need to learn that language. Seems useful in these parts. Let's get out of here, warn the town, and see if we can't get a speak with dead scroll."
"Molly may have promised that possibility away, Yelena...but if it got us what we needed..." she shakes her head, so confused.