"I desire to not be lectured by a monster that presumes to thinks its threats will be found effective, that presumes, wrongly, to know the hearts of men, who doesn't understand the difference between having a preference between two options and being afraid of one of them, and who insists on pointlessly and ineffectually trying to worm into my pysche with clumsy posturing when I will already tell you all you wish to know if SIMPLY ASKED A QUESTION INSTEAD OF THREATENED."
"That is always a danger, when you give a man a sword, train him in a tome of magic, there is always the potential for evil. We believe however, that it is worth fighting for. We have done good, for all the monsters within our own ranks, the vile creatures we may affiliate with, we have done good. The countryside is safer with every day. Dragons, honest to goodness DRAGONS, that could threaten entire countries when grown to maturity, have been felled by our elite. They are not called Dragonslayers for no reason.
The woman behind the captain pipes up, "And, let not your heart be troubled, for this winged-serpentine creature of fire-breathing qualities was of a chromatic and not metallic sheen, the color of its own flames. Fortuitous it is that dragons are color-coded for our convenience."
"Um, yes. Exactly, what she said." The captain seems a bit put off by her interjection into the serious discussion.
Sir Rhaym, rendered speechless by Mr. Big's flagrent disregard for the rules regarding the treatment of prisoners caught himself just in time. Now that the prisoners were talking, he didn't want to stop the flow of potentially valuable information.
Sidling up to Niulamayu Nianju speaks quietly, leaving the others to their philosophical discussion. "Should we tell others about dog-man now?"
The cloud listens carefully, both to the captain's words and to the words of the young zombie boy. "If they are out for good, then why did they attack us?" "That is a question!" "It is, it is!" "That's precisely what it is." "Couldn't've said it better myself!" "That's us! Always wording things the best way possible!" "Hurray for us!"
The voices fade into a bit of a murmur at the zombie boy's words. "Should we?" "Well, we could." "That we could." "If we did, they would know." "They would!" "That's exactly what would happen." "Knowing is good!" "True." "It's half the battle, they say!" "There's a battle?" "What battle?!"
There is an unmistakable swell of volume and excitement, which then changes to annoyance and confusion. Eventually, the voices seem to sort out that there's no battle and it is simply a figure of speech (which starts a whole other discussion).
Xane saunters over and hunkers down next to the fire, keeping an eye and an ear on the prisoners...
"We had an archer fire an arrow with a note around it in front of your formation. It said to stay away or be fired upon. You then came closer, mobilizing for battle. That is why you were attacked."
Xane scratches her head.
"I don't remember any of that..." She points out to the good Captain.
"Mobilizing?" "We moved, he means." "Oh. Of course we moved." "But we didn't move for battle." "No, that would be silly." "We came here to talk to Opiuchuswhatsit!" "(Opiuchus, you mean.)" "Yes, Opiuwhatsisname." "We did, that's true." "Not to fight." "Why would we come to fight?"
"As, for your case, I don't know. Sagittarius, the honor-less cur, was the one who handled your arrival. Insisted for some reason to handle it himself."
"Cloudy read note." Nianju observes, but isn't overly bothered about where to assign blame.
"Where all men from here go? Where Ophuchis? How we make stoopid archer man not shoot at us?" he asks, stepping forward and cutting to the chase, facing the captain directly.
"They went to the fall back point, which, from here, would be Dig Site Charlie. It's a larger fort than this one, but has a subterranean cave system under it which the men are clearing of monsters, as it's absolutely infested. As for, Ophiuchus, he moves between various sites of interest to him, constantly researching, but his home base is located in a cavern system roughly two days travel from here on the road in fair weather."
"As for Sagittarius, I would advise hiding behind a large object with an overhang. He hasn't learned how to curve his shots around walls as far as I know." The captain gets a bit of a snarky smile at this point.
Nianju looks at the silent others as their prisoner smiles at his own wit. "You not care why we here? Who Ophiuchus is?" he asks, wondering at their lack of curiosity, and since his cloudy friend hadn't taken the initiative trying to awkwardly broach the subject in his broken common.
Xane moves closer,
"Um...so who was the brass lady, then?" She asks of the Captain.
"That was a former creation of Ophiuchus, however, it was possessed by some sort of devilish or demonic spirit. Some of his creations that were just clockwork and not part of man met this fate. I long for the day our alliance of convenience is ended so that we may turn on them."
Xane nods at the man's words, though scratches at her shaggy mop of hair thoughtfully.
"The thing was talkative enough. But all it's points of view seemed to involve poking people." Xane informs people.
Then she glances at her fellow portal companions, "Well, which way do we want to go from here? To this Charlie site? Or along the road?"
"Ask him what he knows of the Count." "Ooh, good idea." "Yes, yes, let's do that!" "Couldn't've said it better." "So ask him!" "Hey, what do you know about the Count?"
"Uh? Which Count? There is the Countess Mercedes, Count Dunovan, and Count Oliviir that I know of around these parts."
The cloud moves forward quickly as if in anticipation. "Aha!" "So he does not know!" "He doesn't know about the Count!" "That's what we said!" "But why?" "So Opiuchuswhatsisname didn't tell you that he was working for another?" "Hmm..." "An excellent question." "That's why we asked it." "Of course!" "We wouldn't ask a non-excellent question, would we?" "No, no, that'd be silly!" "Quite silly."
"What... 'convenient alliance' you talking about?" he asks when Niulamayu's questioning reveals that this captain was not fully aware of the circumstances.
"Currently our group is part of a three faction alliance. There is a devil with some sort of scheme going on. There's a cult backing it up, and those possessed clockworks. Currently, it's willing to play nice and handle challenges that no amount of steel and soldiery can face. Some monsters are only vulnerable to magic. We don't know for sure what it's ultimate goal is, but for know, it's working with us to clear the area. Plenty of theories though, such as looking for mystic artifact or whatnot. We've simply got to turn on them before they get what they're after."
Xane shakes her head, "I've heard the saying 'Better the devil you know'...but I don't think it was meant to be used in this way...." She sighs,
"Working with anything evil, no matter the supposed outcome, is ever going to be good. I think you and those following yourself have been lead astray. Do you actually have a description of these 'monsters' that are being cleared out?" Xane asks the Captain.
Since his companions have gotten the prisoners talking, Mr. Big cooks up some of his birdseed over the fire and snacks on it, while listening to the ongoing conversation.
The captain points to Mr Big and Nianju as a response to both of Xane's questions, raising an eyebrow.
"Pot and kettle, much?"
Xane blinks at the Captain,
"Um...no?" She scratches her head, "Is that...like some kind of card game...?" She asks uncertainly.
"We've never heard of such a game." "Nope." "Never." "Can't imagine how it'd be played..." "Seems like a silly game!" "Many games are, aren't they?" "Yes, certainly."
The cloud pauses a moment, after which the voices seem to be directed back at the prisoners. "So they didn't know that their leader is working for someone else..." "Someone who can't be trusted!" "(Or so we're told.)" "Yes, we're told that." "We are indeed." "Does this change anything for them?" "Would the Count turn on them, too?" "The dogman seemed to think he would." "Said he was using everyone, he did!" "Us, too..."
"You've never heard of the saying "the pot calling the kettle black"?"
"They're dodging our questions." "They mustn't be allowed to do that!" "Perhaps it's a form of denial?" "How so?" "Maybe they don't like the implications!" "Oh, we see!" "That's quite possible." "We wouldn't like the implications either, would we?" "Wouldn't and didn't!" "Well said!"
Xane scratches her head.... "Not that comes to mind." Then she looks at the Captain, "Hey! I may not have seen a horse up close and proper until...um...today?" She glances to Sir Rhaym.
"It is still today right? I may have lost track a little after getting knocked out..." Then back to the Captain, "But that doesn't mean I don't know what a horse is." She belligerently places her hands upon her hips.
"As for fancy words and turns of speaking? No, I haven't heard that one before. Besides...You just said 'Pot and kettle'. With out saying anything else. You could have meant anything!" Xane insists.
"... My apologies then, it is a saying that implies it is ridiculous for you to accuse others of something they do being wrong when you are doing the same exact thing."
"Also, my pointing at those two was my answer to your question. Scaly things and feathery things."
"Maybe you think us monsters, but it is all a matter of perspective. To me you are a hideous creature bereft of a lovely plumage. Having said that, if you cut me, I bleed, if you poison me, I die, if you throw sticks and stones you break my bones. But you can't say the same for those metal things can you. They are the unnatural ones, they are the monsters, and you are helping them!"
Looking down at his bowl, he waves it towards the Captain.
"Birdseed?"
"I was actually referring to the undead when I said monsters. Regardless of the moral compass that guides him, he is a walking conduit to a plane of energy that literally kills EVERYTHING alive. I doubt you can make the same argument about my machines."
Xane frowns..."Your machines?" She asks, puzzled.
"Still...where do we want to go and investigate first?" She asks the others.
Nianju tenses up when the captain brings up his unnatural origins, though beyond that slight tell there is nothing else to give away his instant dislike and anger towards the man.
"Ophiuchus the one we need to find. Get his help to stop bad things." the scaly fellow replies to Xane's question, before turning to the Captain again. "You have map? Show us where caverns, where you men be." he asks/demands, casting his mind back to the rooms of the fort for some sort of command post that would have the information they want.
I cannot think of anything else to ask.
Xane thanks the captain and his off-sider for their assistance. She also removes the bonds from both of them.