Zalamandra watches Robin ride off with sorrow in her eyes before turning to the rest of the team.
"So, how should we go about this? How did you get in last time?" She asks while looking around.
Where's Eben? I thought he'd be ready by now...
"I think having a chat with Dourstone before we dive in again would be a good idea. These cultists are well defended and well prepared. The old dwarf might know a thing or two that can give us an edge."
"And then what? What do we do with Dourstone once we've pumped him for information?" The gears in Zalamandra's head turn as she scours her memory for anything relevant to Dourstone. Work hours, habits, anything...
"We'll figure that out when we get there", the big man says with a shrug.
"We can always talk him into leaving town. I can be pretty convincing", Tanith adds while cracking the knuckles on one ham-sized fist.
"Yes, that is always a possibility..." Zalamandra rests her head on her left hand. "...but understand this, Tanith, if we confront Dourstone, we should do it with a plan that has an escape route." The gears in her head are still turning. "If we confront him in his own mine with that simple a plan, he may be desperate enough to try and have us killed to keep his little secret."
"Imagine how much he stands to lose here. If word gets out, at best, he loses his status and is sentenced to a life of hard labour among other miners who (in all likelihood) are eager to strike back at someone who once lorded his power over them." She starts pacing. "At worst, he's slain on the spot. It will take some convincing to get him to leave town... but I think it's doable."
"His house is out in the open. If things go south, there's nothing to stop us from breaking off. Just try to stay behind cover. I don't want anymore beautiful women dying around me, okay?"
"We should just kill him. If we give him a chance, he'll come straight back here, marshal his guards, and send them after us. We'd never be able to sleep easy."
Astraden begins walking back down the road (towards the mine and house). "We can send Farrukh in, invisibly, to scout first. If we can do it nonlethally somehow, fine, but let's not pull our punches."
Tanith frowns in reply to Astraden's ruthlessness. "We can't kill a man without hearing what he has to say. If we do that we'll be no better than Smenk."
Farrukh doesn't stay long at the bar, and leaves to get some shopping done and buy some supplies.
-------------------------
Farrukh waves sadly to Robin as he leaves.
"Hey, take care of yourself, all right?"
Now who's going to watch my back while I sneak around?
----------------------------
As the discussion turns to tactics, Farrukh begins mulling it over.
"We could wait until night and I could slit his throat while he sleeps." Farrukh says.
"It's a bit dirty, but there's no way he's innocent of involvement with a cult that's right under his mine. Some of his minions might be in the dark but I don't see Dourstone being oblivious to that kind of goings on under his little fiefdom. He's a slimeball, not an idiot."
"Or we could try to negotiate. But I'm almost certain that wouldn't end up well."
"We don't have to go assassinate him. Farrukh'll come back, we'll go in together, we'll fight the dwarf, and probably in the battle he'll have a chance to explain himself. If he's sleeping, we can tie him up and ask him a few questions, but it's not going to do any good."
"The mine managers are all f*#!ed up. Dourstone is f$%*ed up. If you have mercy, save it for his guards."
Tanith gives Farrukh another disappointed glance.
"If we're going to kill the man we should kill him but I won't butcher him in his sleep. That's the coward's route. You've got to have more decency than that."
"There's a time for honor and there's a time to get the job done. If we're going to kill the man it makes no difference whether he dies on his feet or on his back, and the latter gives him less of a chance of simply swamping us with superior numbers of guards and escaping in the confusion."
"At which point we'd have to fight off any number of people, many of whom might be more innocent than that man, at least in the sense that they 'merely' work for a corrupt mine manager instead of allowing a doomsday cult to run unchecked in their basement."
Farrukh shakes his head.
"But I won't press the matter if everyone else is truly against it. I just hope it doesn't end in disaster."
"Killing Dourstone may not be the wisest course of action." Zalamandra speaks up. "Odds are, even though he's involved, he still has friends that will start asking questions if he suddenly disappears. It would perhaps be more prudent to simply convince Dourstone to leave before he gets himself into deeper trouble."
"But I can also see the merits of eliminating him; the cultists appear to be relying on him to cover their tracks. If we play our cards right, we could perhaps arrange it so that Dourstone is eliminated without repercussions directed at us." She turns to Astraden. "If we were to frame the cult for Dourstone's death, we'd need something of theirs to plant. Do you have anything along those lines?"
Ruthless? Certainly. Necessary? Likely.
Tanith fishes around in his backpack and retrieves one of the daggers the party recovered from the Hextorites. "We've got lots of these."
Waking up is always a pain for someone who does his best work among a city's night-life. Thus after oversleeping and realizing he hadn't finished stowing the stuff he'd laid out the night before, Eben now finds himself jogging along the street to meet up with Zalamandra and her crew of cult-smashers.
"I'm here, I'm here!" he yelps, running up to the group as he finishes shoving a few things into the top of his backpack, a quiver of arrows jostling against one another and threatening to spill across the road.
For all the rushed packing he's been forced to do, he's still immaculately turned out; dark leggings and tunic covered with a rich burgundy surcoat with vertical stripes of teal velvet brightening up the facade.
Panting, he comes abreast of the party. "Hi. I'm Eben. I'm... with her." he says, pointing at Zalamandra.
Tanith greets the relative dandy with a suspicious glance. If Zalamandra vounched for him, he couldn't be too bad. Nothing about that woman could be all that bad...
"Good to meet ya", the hulking Kordite answers as Eben makes his appearance. He offers a meaty handshake. "The name's Tanith. I think I've seen you around the Emporium before."
Zalamandra's eyes light up at the sight of the Hextorite dagger. "Yes... that should do nicely." She purrs.
When Eben arrives, she turns to him. "Ah, welcome. Glad you decided to join us." She turns to the rest of the team. "This is Eben MacTeague. He's talented with magic, entertainment, and a bow." She looks to him again. "After a little mix-up with the law of the Free City, he came to me for protection. I let him stay with me in exchange for his services."
Astraden breaks off from the discussion and faces the newcomer. "You're that guy with the magic, right?" She raises an eyebrow. "I'd have expected a little more subtlety. When we get close, try to keep yelling to a minimum."
"Framing them could work. I have a spell of disguise that could facilitate it. Otherwise, we could make it very plain that it is us doing it, and later acknowledge that we've been working for Smenk all this time. That might marshal the other managers against him, and the confusion would give the four of us" (indicating Farrukh, Tanith, Cuetzpalli, and herself) "a chance to sneak out of town."
"Hello Eben. I'm Farrukh. I'm with..." he waves his hand around "These people."
Eben happily shakes the enormous man's hand and nods around at the rest of the greetings. "Yes, magic, real and otherwise, is my specialty. And subtlety isn't a problem. Won't be shouting inside the mines!" Putting deed to word, he stands back while the rest plan. The fact that this gig was moving from a mine raid to a hit on Dourstone himself was... concerning, but not a deal breaker. Not like the dwarf was a friend of his, after all. But still... "Not to butt in as the new guy or anything, but I agree that if we do this there needs to be a way to nail Smenk in the process. Leaving a power vacuum in the mines is basically just handing the fat man more power on a plate."
"Ah, yes. Olidammara's blessings allow for that sort of magic." Zalamandra nods. "I can use that sort of magic as well, though perhaps not with as much flair."
The idea of killing Dourstone without disguises seems to make her uncomfortable, though. "Not that I don't think we shouldn't conserve resources--it's always a good idea--but killing Dourstone without disguising ourselves doesn't seem that sound of a plan." She shrugs. "Still, it could work. Heaven knows Kullen & his crew have gotten away with worse under Smenk's orders."
"I agree." Astraden nods to Eben. "Maybe we could have Dourstone sign over the deed on the mines to us? If we manage to capture him. Then he leaves town, his guards work for us, and he can't hurt the miners."
Tanith nods in agreement with the most reasonable plan yet.
Zalamandra smiles again. "And if we intend to do so, I do have some magic that may help in that regard as well. There's no guarantee it will work--Dourstone's a stubborn one--but if we're going to confront him like this, it certainly couldn't hurt our chances."
"I admit, I rather like the idea of taking ownership of the mine ourselves, and then liquidating it once our business is concluded."
"So, basically, steal the mine. That's crazy." He gives a huge grin. "I LOVE it."
Zalamandra's grin isn't as wide as Eben's, but the mirth is still there. "It's crazy enough to work."
"I agree with Farrukh and Astraden, we should kill that vile dwarf. However I am willing to go along with whatever subtle plan you devious bastards come up with to accomplish the deed."
Second, properties are protected by Dietrik Cicaeda, the middle-aged Chief Cartographer of Diamond Lake, who is always kept well-protected at the Garrison. Having Dourstone sign over the property might work, but the strait-laced Garrison would expect pretty convincing proof.
Third, Dourstone usually looks over the mines every few hours to make sure things are running smoothly, but only his three foremen would be likely to risk checking on him. He's been acting strange of late.
Zalamandra's eyes light up again, this time from remembering something.
"Alright, listen. I just remembered three things about Dourstone that you need to know..."
She starts counting off on her fingers. "First, If you really wish to confront Dourstone and steal the mine from him, you'll have to deal with Dietrik Cicaeda. He's Diamond Lake's chief cartographer, and he's always working at the Garrison. You know, the one faction in this town that's actually trying to make things better and failing. He's in charge of arbitrating issues of land ownership. It's possible that having Dourstone sign over his mine may work, but the Garrison will need very convincing proof."
"Second, killing off Dourstone will have repercussions. I have no doubt that he is a vile dwarf, but he does have friends at the Greysmere Covenant. They'll demand an investigation into his death, if not launch one themselves."
"Third, Dourstone checks in at his mines every few hours to make sure everything is in order. However, only his three foremen would perhaps have the nerve to check on him. The man has been acting strange of late... perhaps we could secure their cooperation into the infiltration of the mine without getting Dourstone involved at all."
"The Garrison? If they really wanted to make things better they'd actually have DONE something years ago. Keep them out of this, and we might actually get somewhere."
"If we REALLY have to, though, I expect you or I could disguise ourselves as Dourstone. Shouldn't be too hard to forge his signature, if we've got him around to show it to us."
Farrukh is able to sneak up to Dourstone's large house. The door is locked, but he can see through a dirty window the dwarf sitting at a plain wooden table eating his lunch.
Ragnolin Dourstone fits his name. He is tall, for a dwarf, and his face is set in a perpetual scowl. In contrast to Smenk, Ragnolin is slowly chewing away at a piece of mutton that looks to be more bone than meat.
The paint on the walls is peeling. A well-crafted morningstar has been embedded in the crumbling plaster nearby the table. The building has no furnishings.
Zalamandra shrugs. "The alternative would be to just convince the foremen to let us into the mine, unless there's something I'm missing here."
Farrukh looks around for alternate entrances, preferably unguarded or lightly guarded ones.
In addition, he looks for potential likely exits, in case things go south, or failing that places that are more defensible (where the group wouldn't be able to be flanked, and could hold off enemies).
"Well, whether or not we actually wind up legal owners of the mine, I doubt that will matter in the short term, until we bring it to the attention of this cartographer. If we get Dourstone to sign over the mine and run him out of town, that might be enough for his foremen, at least. Meaning we can head in and out of the place as needed without needing to break our way in..."
Still, Eben kicks the dust in the road like a kid deprived of a toy he wanted. Stealing and selling an entire mine would be an absolutely legendary con...
"I suppose, Zalamandra. But it seems to me that we have an opportunity to take out a seriously bad person, and we'd be letting it slip."
Zalamandra looks over at Eben & Astraden. "Oh, very well. I'll help with this."
"Of course we won't implicate you two, if it comes down to it. I know Zalamandra's got pretty deep roots here."
Farrukh finds a back door with a more basic lock, a number of boarded up or bolted windows, and a chimney (no smoke is emitting). The building also has an attic, with a simple grate window that doesn't look like it would be too hard to get open.
"The mine managers are real scumbags but did you ever wonder what the Triad could have offered him to get Dourstone on board?" Tanith ponders aloud. "Do you think it's just money?"
Farrukh looks aorund one last time,for any hiding guards or traps.
Farrukh heads back to relay his information.
"House is small. Back door looks like the most likely entry point, since the lock on there looks like it'd be easy to get open. There's also the attic if anybody felt like hiding up there. May serve as an alternate exit if people start blocking the back door. Doesn't appear to be any guards though, just Dourstone himself munching on some supper."