"You plan to take on a whole army? Or have they not amassed such numbers as of yet?"
"Would be nice to take down the whole army. But I need some more experience and more favor with Nethys that he grants me the ability to create my own army." Moira replies with a smirk on her face.
"For now I'd be content to pay our local church of Iomedae a visit to remind them of their place. Advertising the reclamation in bright day on church square is a bold move that needs an answer. At least that's my view."
"And do you plan on doing this as subtly as your intervention in the tavern last evening?" Ilvara inquires
"The same strategy won't work, as it's more than one target. But dragging some of the clergy out and throw them into jail? Totally!"
"You don't like my 'in your face' approach?" Moira gives the question back.
"Oh, I don't mind your approach at all. I'm just wondering if it is the best approach to keep the rest of the populace on our side."
"I don't care. I don't like them anyway." Moira sweeps away Ilvara's concerns. "Everyone opposing us will finally end up in my army, where they get no say whatsoever."
"The point is not to give the Glorious Reclamation even more allies before everyone is part of your.. 'army'. Ilvara tries to explain, getting slightly frustrated by the apparent lack of insight from her companion. "It wouldn't do if we're holding the line against the reclamation, only to have the populace attack us in the back."
She takes a deep breath, and readies herself as if talking to a young child. "I understand you feel the need to prove your self worth in front of my by talking of your grandiose abilities, but your arrogance might be your downfall if you do not take care to reign it in when it is not to your benefit."
"Oh wise and old Ilvara - will you share your wisdom with us, how to proceed properly?" Moira replies, the sarcasm dripping from every word.
Those paying attention to her might notice Clarice say something about a pot and a kettle under her breath, before chuckling to herself.
Ilvara looks at Clarice a moment, no hint of amusement visible on her face... She then continues to talk to Moira, choosing to ignore her sarcasm.
"Contrary to popular belief, I do not have a ready solution for any situation. I would gladly defer to your expertise, you seem to be much more in the know of the local region than I am. However, we might discuss doing this without making a public display of it... Perhaps sneaking in under cover of darkness, killing all the priests instead of arresting them, and making it look as if the blame falls on the Glorious Reclamation."
Ilvara takes care to not say this too loud, to prevent the rest of the room from listening in, and to make her point at a moment the servants aren't bringing Clarice any food, or asking what she'd want for that matter.
"I'm fine with that too. I'll take care of the killing, you take care of blaming the reclamation in a plausible way." Moira replies. "You need an angel helm for that? Because we have one."
"I'm sure I canmake do without" Ilvara says. "The masses aren't as smart as they look. And they look only slightly smarter than your skeleton." she finishes as she gestures at 'bony'
Moira looks at the people around in the tavern and then at Bony. "In your place, I'd take that as an insult." Moira suggests without going in detail which part of Ilvara's statement is insulting.
Bony falls into rage and forgets that he is in his favorite tavern. He gets up, shoves the table and squashes her between the table and the wall.
Moira grabs her glass of wine just in time to save her drink. "Are we quick tempered again today?"
There is a short moment in which you can see Ilvara's rather surprised look. "A sentient skeleton?" she asks, before slumping over the overturned table.
Meanwhile, her own skeletal minion just stands next to where the table used to stand, doing nothing.
The whole tavern falls silent and all stare at the table. As the dust settles, Ilvara's skeleton breaks the silence by turning on Clarice with a swing of it's bony hands at her pretty face.
Moira jumps up from her seat shocked. Her cool gone she grabs her holy symbol, holds it in direction of the unleashed skeleton and shouts "Stop it. while unholy energy floods the area.
The skeleton freezes in place.
As the fight is luckily ended, before it really began, Moira looks at Bony, then at Ilvara and states "I don't think any of you two has proven to be more intelligent than the average populace here."
After a pause she adds "But I wouldn't have expected this old hag to be that frail."
She turns her gaze to the bloody skeleton and a smile appears on her face. "Welcome to MY group of minions."
Bony puts the table down to it's place again, sits down on his chair and after he calmed down he tells:
"I'm intelligent enough to solve problems fast, no more annoying dark elf in sight.
Dodging the wild claw Clarice struggles to hide her shock at the events unfolding in front of her. The skeleton goes back to standing still and she is breathing normally again she says "That was mean..." looking at the slumped body. "She was nice." she says under her breath
A smirk sneaks on Moira's face on Karthus' comment. "You tell that to the other dark elf then, when we meet her again."
"Nice?" Maira asks wide eyed. "You're sure we talk about the same person?"
"I'm sure I can solve the other dark elf problem as fast as this one if the arch baron doesn't care." Karthus replies, not sure if that's the best solution to deal with Faurah's jar, of him killing Ilvara.
"I'd try denying first. Not our fault, if she dies in an accident. Has someone a sack? Can't leave her in the tavern. I bet she'll be more useful in death than she was in life. At least for me." Moira tells while looking through her own stuff. But she is badly underprepared for disposal of bodies.
The patrons of the tavern watch in shock. No one will cry a tear about a dark elf that represents House Thrune. But if these officials kill like that for nothing, they have to fear for their own lives. Some get up and leave, others tend their own business again to not draw the attention of those creeps. Fordaneil cleans a glass, far too long, and acts as if nothing happened. The act is not very persuasive though.
As no one hands her a sack, Moira gets up and walks over to Fordaneil. "You can stop cleaning that glass. You only wear it down. Get me a sack. A large one. You have one don't you?"
She puts some coin on the table, paying for all orders at her table and some. "I'll clean up and here some extra for the inconvenience. Don't want to get a house ban on my favorite and only tavern in town." she adds jokingly.
Once she got the sack, she walks back to the table and stuffs the body of Ilvara into the sack, folding her like a jackknife. Lastly she downs the rest of her wine. "Do me a favour and carry that sack, would you?" she asks Bone and adds "Let's get back to the prison."
Karthus stands up and walks to the bar, where he gives Fordaneil the pillow back. He then takes the sack on the back, leaves the tavern and walks to the sheriffs office with Moira.
"Do I get arrested now?" Karthus jokes as they arrive.
Moira walks together with Karthus to the office. On his question she ansers "If that's a fantasy of yours, you can stay in the cell with the bodies overnight."
"Put her with Caggan." Moira tells and hands Karthus the key of the cell.
Karthus takes the keys, walks to the cells and throws the sack in caggans cell.
After he's done, he uses his cloak so that he can go to Gield's general store to buy some apples, bread, wine and a waterskin and fills it up.
He then comes back with all the stuff, goes to Moira, gives her the water for the night and then returns to the cells to lock himself up in the cell of the bard.
"I need you for my entertainment, sing me a nice song!"
He offers him the wine and the bread, maybe this day will be more fun with a singing bard.
The bard has mixed feelings about that, to tell the least. He takes a quick bite and downs the offered wine to appease the worst of his hunger and thirst and then start performing, before that scary undead changes its mind and gets a bad mood.
Playing on his lute, the bard sings with shaking voice some of his songs, which are not about the Glorious Reclamation.
Zaggar takes the death of the dark elf and the others leaving as his hint to leave too as he has some business to attend.
"I think you got that wrong." Moira tells Karthus as she receives water and the prisoner wine. As Karthus doesn't care she puts the waterskin down with a grunt.
In the woods
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Where are we going to prepare the rabbits?" Willow asks Faurah.
After hours of desperate singing of songs the bard is hoarse. Outside it slowly gets dark and all cats are grey. Suddenly there is a knock at the door. The bard stops his performance.
Karthus gets up, opens the cell door and comes out. Locks it again, walks to the entrance door of the office and opens it.
"Gaaah!", the man standing in front of the door voices his shock, and stumbles back. But as the scary skeleton doesn't come after him he checks that no one is around to hear it and asks from his safe distance "May I talk to one of the new responsibles for the safety of town? I have an offer to make."
"I'll ask her if she can spare you some time, you wait here." Karthus replies a little surprised, closes the door and walks to Moira.
"There's someone asking to speak with you about an offer he wants to make." Karthus tells
"You know the guy?" Moira asks. She get up, strokes some crumbs off the sheriff's vest she is wearing and walks to the door.
Getting only a shrug from Karthus she opens the door again. "Oh, Mr. Ingoe, what an unexpected visit. Come in." she offers opening the door wide and stepping to the side for him to enter.
Closing the door after him Moira leads Mr. Ingoe to the office and offers him a seat, before taking a seat on the other side of the desk herself.
"You been in town longer than I. You tell me where to prepare rabbits." Fauhra replies to Willow. "We will make feast of them... or at least, something nice, yes?"
"We could make a small fire here in the woods or at the river and roast them with some herbs we find on out way. Or if you like it better inside we could probably use the kitchen of the last stand tavern to make a stew, or cook some side dishes." Willow suggests.
"Or maybe you'd like to eat with more company... I'm flexible about that." Willow adds.
She takes some twine out of her backpack and binds the hind legs of the rabbits together. Then she hangs then over a branch and guts them with her dagger.
Fauhra nods at Willows last suggestion. "I think it will be good for building team." she says. "We should eat with all four." She sets off back to town. "It is four, yes? Skeletons don't need food?"
"I don't know for sure. But I haven't seen that the skeleton that's with Moira has eaten or drunk something. What about the one that's with Ilvara?" Willow replies while tagging along.
"It's dead!" Fauhra exclaims. "Of course it not eat."
"There was a time when I said with the same conviction: It's dead. It doesn't walk around. I was proven wrong." Willow replies with a mischievous smile.
She walks on, entering town through the northern gate towards the Last Stand Tavern. "I'll make a stew of them, to get some more food out of it. Just to be sure everyone who joins the meal gets a fair share."
"You are filled with bright ideas." Fauhra compliments.
After almost two hours of cooking, Willow moes with Faurah and a large pot of stew to the sheriff's office.
As the two enter, they find Karthus in a cell together with the bard and Moira in the office with some local guy.
Fauhra looks into the bard's cell. "Why is he still here? He has given information, yes?" she asks, pointing to the bard as she walks into the office with Moira.