At the sound of "Liber", Nimbus looks his way, licks his chops, and starts panting happily. Pip leans down and says, No,No, he said Liber, not liver.
Nimbus looks very disappointed.
Outside a guard in front of what looks like a few steps down deeper says "What is this person you captured and where is he I the prison gaurd want to know why citizens would arrest someone. Also where is the scene of crime he is accused of? "
We arrested this fine fellow because he tried to kill is on the road up here. His friend wasn't so lucky.
He says "my name is Liber."
"Very well,Liber. Ace your job. Take good care of our mounts. "
******
He says "What is this person you captured and where is he I the prison gaurd want to know why citizens would arrest someone. Also where is the scene of crime he is accused of? "
"Very well, prison guard. This person we captured is a bandit, or maybe a scout for the orcs. He attacked us not three miles from these castle gates on the main road. If you hurry you might find the body of his partner before the carrion eaters find it. Watch him closely. He is something of a chameleon. Now can you tell us where to find Marshal Adjutant Willam Stoutaxe?"
Stevron Just nods and keeps quiet.
Agromite opens his mouth to respond but Pip and Maol beat him to the punch. The gnome decides to follow Stevron's example and stay quiet, turning his head in all directions to keep an eye on their surroundings.
The prison gaurd replies "Makes sense I will take the prisoner, He is in the keep. "
Maoldrurra pushes skulk towards the prison guard. "Good."
Then he turns to the others. "Shall we go to the keep?"
"Sounds good." With a parting pat to his mount as it is led away, the gnome anxious to see what the keep has to offer.
Pip simply motions forward. She is spending a lot of time looking up at the taller towers with a dreamy gleam in her eye.
"Might as well."
I wonder what new and strange things we will find here.
Seeing the party is in agreement, Maoldrurra cradles his glaive in his arm, wheels and starts walking toward the largest tower of the castle. As soon as possible he asks someone for proper directions.
A gaurd on the top of the stairs to the keep says "I want all vistors weapons before you go into the keep oh and you cannot take your dog their right now. Don't want them biting the commanders." The party also notice two female statues with longswords next to the gaurd.
Pip puts on her best innocent pleading face. But Nimbus never hurt anybody. He's tame as a mouse, aren't ya boy? She reaches under Nimbus's chin and scratches. The big dog's tongue rolls out of his mouth in a happy pant. She continues, Besides, my foot's hurting awefully bad today, it'll take me forever to hobble around this great keep. She meekly gestures to her twisted, obviously useless left foot, which she has convieniently left visible.
Or
A resigned look crosses Agromite's face. "Can't say I like it, but it makes sense. As we just saw when we were attacked by brigands on the roads you are supposed to be protecting, there are dangerous folks out there." Hoping the verbal jab gets under the guards skin at least a little bit, the gnome takes his time removing and turning over his weapons.
Maoldrurra turns his head to look at Agromite. This keeps the guard from seeing the amused smile on his face. Then he affectedly composes himself and shakes his head slightly at the gnone.
Turning back to the guard, he says, "You will guarantee the security of our arms. This glaive is Solipgen. She was forged for me by Feoder, chief smith of Korgras. I know every scratch upon her.
He leans the glaive on one of the statue's outstretched arms. His mace, dagger, bow, quiver and pack are laid at her feet.
"I am Maoldrurra. If our goods are not here and in the same condition when we return you will answer. You are ...?"
To pip he responds "I am Garth. These aren't my rules I just don't want the statues coming to life and attacking you. Sarah can I get some help at the weapons locker. " A tall woman comes up and takes some of the weapons as well and unlocks a shed and hands a small piece of wood with a number on it "She says This is to get your weapons back"
Pip growls a bit (as does nimbus), but they both comply. Slowly. Pip unloads her weapons and gets her own number stick before sending Nimbus to the kennel. If horses got hurt because they wanted a war dog in their stables, it wasn't her concern.
She limps from then on and tries to look as pitiful as she can; not using her dancing gait she usually employs just to spite the rule-makers.
"My dear sir while I will gratefully relinquish my weapons to you, but can I keep my potions with me? They are the way I make my living."
Stevron hands over his weapons, and his alchemy kit if asked.
Anna hands over her one or two weapons.
"Do you mind if I keep the cestus, encase someone get's a bit grabby or touchy at the bars?"
Sarah the woman says "No give the cestus up as well. Potions are still allowed"
As Maoldrurra watches his companions surrender their arms, he imagines that he understands well their reluctance to part with the weapons. It is not a lack of security that drives their reluctance, but rather the insult implied.
The elf turns to Garth, "Where can we find Marshal Adjutant Willam Stoutaxe? We have messages from Southwatch."
As nimbus is lead off to the stables, Pip pitifully hobbles over to Maol and grabs hold of his right arm with her left for support. She tries to not let her left foot touch the ground, but when it does, she limps and winces. Still, she stubbornly refuses to walk with her dance-like, painless gait as she did in the southwatch market.
Agromite tilts his head as he looks at the statues. "What exactly do you mean, 'come to life'? They look nice enough but they aren't THAT lifelike..."
Stevron looks at the little Halfling's 'walking' and sighs.
"Miss Pip if you need help I'm sure we would all be glad to help assist, or carry you to the room. No need to hurt yourself after all."
Pip smiles thankfully gives a little bobbing bow, Thank you, Mr. Vance. I appreciate your consideration. It stands in stark relief against the cold laws of this Keep.
Inwardly, Pip in thoroughly enjoying her little act. It's been too long since she ran into someone stuck in their rules enough to play lame on them. She could just see arriving at the Lord's chambers, receiving a flowing apology, then skipping and twirling out the gates when they were done here, just to rub it in.
"No need. I've got her." Once they have directions to Stoutaxe, Maoldrurra smiles and begins walking quickly. As he walks he swings Pip so that she flies 3 or 4 feet between steps.
Sarah responds "William Stoutaxe is inside "
Maoldrurra replies, "There's a whole lot of inside. Shall we start at the top and work our way down?"
As the group begins to move forward, Agromite hands over his weapons and takes the wooden number from the guard. As he goes to put it in his pocket a look of embarrassment crosses his face.
"Oops, looks like I missed one. Sorry about that!" With his eyes never leaving the statues flanking the entrance he produces another dagger from within his cloak and turns that over to the guard as well.
He then proceeds to follow his companions into the keep.
The gaurd says "Glad you thought twice about sneaking weapons in"
A hurt look crosses the gnome's face. "Sneaking? Do you always accuse little folks for simple mistakes? Of course I got a little flustered, what with all the distrust and the threatening and the big looming statues........." His gaze lowers.
"It was a mistake, sir, and you have my apologies." Trying to look abashed and hoping the guards are buying it, Agroite keeps his head lowered as he walks forward with the rest of the party.
Youre lucky Im out of itching powder, you too tall git.
Maoldrurra replies, "There's a whole lot of inside. Shall we start at the top and work our way down?"
Pip almost snickers at Maol's sarcasm, but manages to continue performance of guilt-tripping.
"There's a whole lot of inside. Shall we start at the top and work our way down?"
"Usually when the authorities search a building, they start at the bottom and work their way up. That way they are always between the criminal and the exit."
Suddenly realizing he spoke out loud, he shoots the guard an embarrassed look. "So I hear anyway......"
Stevron looks at Agromite.
"That does seem to be standard method of catching criminals. Why would you be embarrassed? You should be proud of your detective work Agromite."
Maol looks a little annoyed. "We're looking for a warrior captain, not a criminal." He waits a few more heartbeats to see if the guard will provide some guidance. If none is forthcoming, he strides into the keep, swinging Pip so that she doesn't have to put weight on her foot as often.
The party finds marshall adjunct william stoutaxe at a room at the back of the keep in a fancy chair talking to a scribe noting things down in a book. He says "Adventurers did you see me to seek work or do you bring a message?"
Agromite moves slightly forward and offers his arm to Pip. Knowing that Maol tends to act as leader he fully expects the dour elf to respond to the Marshall, and its hard to parley seriously when you have a brightly colored female gnome swinging from your arm.
So he is content to let the conversation happen around him, while he looks from side to side to see if there is anything interesting in their new surroundings.
Pip disengages from Maol with an infectious grin plastered across her face. She takes Agromite's arm and addresses the Marshall, Hello Marshal Adjunct William Stoutax! My name's Pip. We have a message for you from Southwatch. I was looking at a particularly fancy... Something? Can't remember, at the time. Anyway, Maol here knows what Ms. Caravan said, so I'll let him talk now.
She hops back a step with Agromite's help and does her best to make herself look cute.
Agromite sees a nice pen a well put togher notebook and a gold earing on the scribe. Willam southaxe is wearing full plate armor that is well made with a fancy looking longsword.
Maol steps forward. "Marshall Adjutant, Captain Caravan reports that the outlying farms have been evacuated into Southwatch. They estimate they have stores of food for 100 days."
"We were one of the teams evacuating farmers. Small groups of orcs were already in the farmlands. Although we rode quickly here, we were attacked not three miles from the castle. Our attackers were odd men who could change their skin color. We can not say if they were part of the orc horde or not. We took a prisoner."
"Captain Caravan sent us on, thinking you might have useful employment for us."
Marshall adjunct william Stoutaxe says "Ah so both. The news about the food supply is welcome and the evacuting farmers is a good deed. The work I had in plan was a little dangerous it involved a small band of 10 or so orcs that are living in a cave more towards the border with the hold of belkzen than towards soutwatch." He then says "Bella can you check what the reward was?" and the scribe responds "Yes and flips through her book"
Maol waits patiently for Stoutaxe and Bella to continue.
Bella says "The reward is a magic cloak that helps protect agianst magic posion and some monsterous effects"
Maoldrurra looks inquiringly at his companions, then back at the Marshall and his scribe.
"So tell us about these orcs."
Agromite suddenly snaps to attention, the distractions of the room momentarily forgotten. "More orcs? Doesn't sound too hard. Doesn't sound like much fun either. How far away is this cave?"
"I hope it's not one of the two tribes I'm thinking of."
Air doesn't move in caves... Pip says very quietly.
Stevron smiles at Anna.
"When in doubt assume the worst, and when orcs are involved there is always doubt."
the marshall says " cave is about 5 miles towards the border with the hold of belkzen"