Victor ignores the girl's casting. He kneels down to search the women while she is still unconscious.
"Maybe we should ask her a few questions.. After we tie her up"
Saa's spell fails and she shreeks out loud yelling in the same language she used before, mostly unintelligible except for the occasional 'Grawk' thrown in as Naithua grabs her. The child fighting the best she can manage but unable to resist being held initially.
@victor: On the woman you find two daggers, the one she held and another sheathed, they are both silver and masterwork quality and they each have etched writing at the the base of the hilts, she also carried a potion, a scroll and 8 gold.
"I know, dear heart," Naiethua says softly while still holding onto Saa. "What she did to Grawk hurts, but you're too little for your first kill." Naiethua looks to Victor and Sylthain, "Deal with the assassin quickly. I don't want to hurt Saa to hold her back."
"This might be useful..." says Victor and takes all of her possessions. He takes his rope and starts to tie it around her hands and feet making sure that the knots are tight.
Knowing the girl doesn't understand her words, Naiethua keeps talking gently to Saa while holding her. Meanwhile, she tries to have a "grown up" conversation with Victor and Sylthain. "It's going to be alright, Saa. She will pay for what she did to Grawk. Victor, I don't know what's going on, but I sense that woman and her weapons aren't what they seem. You're a brave little fledgling, aren't you Saa? It may just be my paranoia, but I smell Yuan-Ti behind this."
Sylthain takes a sharp intake of breath and puts himself closer to Lyra, between her and the stranger. He didn't know much more than rumor but everyone had heard tales of the evil of the snake-men. Or women in this case.
"Yuan-Ti?" Victor takes a moment to look at the writings on both daggers.
The daggers have writing... you aren't sure what language it is. The woman is also still unconscious, she seems hurt but stable.
"Hey, Sylthain," Naiethua says. "See if you can wake up Lyra. Even a spoiled city dweller shouldn't have slept through all the noise we made in the fight."
Taking Saa by the hand, Naiethua walks over to Victor and the bound woman. She asks, "Mind if I look at the daggers?"
"Hm I can't read this.." says Victor and turns to Naiethua and gives her the daggers "Go ahead". He glances at tied up assassin "Maybe it's time to also wake her up...?"
Sylthain moves to wake Lyra, glad that she seemed to remain apart from the previous danger.
Lyra slowly wakes up, a little unhappy about being disturbed. "...wh... what's going on?" She asks groggily.
Saa's gaze rests entirely on the stranger bound on the ground as she very reluctantly comes along with Naiethua.
Naiethua returns the daggers to Victor. "I can't make any sense of the writing on these," she says with a shrug. She then gives the assassin a withering glance. "Whatever you are going to do with her, do it quickly. As long as she lives, Lyra and Nicaa are in danger. Come on, little one, let's tell your cousin what happened." Naiethua leads the girl back to the relative safety of the cave.
Victor kneels next to assassin and tries to wake her up by shaking her arm. "Hey! Wake up! We need some answers.."
While Victor interrogates the woman, Naiethua talks to Lyra. "You don't have to worry about taking Nicaa from Grawk because he was killed while you slept. His killer was trying to take Nicaa from us. I don't know how she found us, but she knew you were here as well as the little one." Naiethua waits to observe Lyra's reaction to this news before telling her about Nicaa's role in dealing with the assailant.
Lyra's eyes go wide when Naiethua delivers the news. She is clearly surprised by the news, "...I... I don't know what to say... I... who is she? How did she find us?" Lyra seems upset at the news given, looking down at Nicca with concern.
@Victor:
The woman is injured unconscious, if you wish to question her you must wait for her to recover enough to regain consciousness.
"I don't know how she found us," Naiethua tells Lyra. "I thought it was more important to get the little eagle here back to the nest than talk to her kidnapper. Your cousin is a smart, brave girl. She's much more... accomplished than I expected. The woman lives, barely, and Victor is trying to interrogate her. I don't think he'll have any luck unless we tend to her wounds..."
"Speaking of wounds, she got a pretty good shot in on Victor. If you and Sylthain will watch little Saa... I mean Nicaa, I'll see about healing him."
Sylthain simply squats on his heels near Victor. If you have need of my help making her talk, do not hesitate to ask.
Lyra nods, hesitantly taking the reluctant childs hand. Nicca looks between Naiethua and Lyra, then glances out the cave. She suddenly yells another garbled line before yanking against Lyra's grip to leave the cave again.
Naiethua whispers to Nicca and Lyra, "I'll see if we've got more company." She then makes her way to the cave mouth to see if she can notice the source of the child's distress.
"Sylthain, help me take her back to the cave, we can't be sure she was alone.. And I need to rest.." says Victor and grabs the assassin under her arms.
Sylthain grabs the woman's feet and helps Victor hoist her into the cavern, making sure to set her down away from the others.
The outside is clear, there doesn't seem to be anyone. However when the woman is brought in Nicca shrieks and starts rushing at her again, tugging hard against Lyra's grip. Clearly angry at the woman.
"Why are you bringing that in here?" Naiethua looks at the bound kidnapper with a look of disgust. "We'll never get Saa to relax if we have that woman in the cave with us. Or do you think I'm being too soft on the little one and she needs to avenge Grawk's death with her own hands?"
There is no saying if the woman had companions or lookouts waiting for her. I can empathize with the girl's pain but it might be best to keep our assailant's condition a secret for now. And the cave is the best bet for that.
"Then you'd best gag her so she doesn't yell for her companions as soon as she comes too. Or she recites whatever spell she used to get past all of us, kill Grawk, and grab the girl. And as for you, Victor, let's see what she did to your arm."
The curing does help with Victors wounds, Nicca spends a few moments having a fit before she finally realizes she is not getting to the woman then the child makes an effort to be noticed in her pouting about it. Again, the woman is still too injured to regain consciousness yet
"It's alright, Saa. She won't hurt you," Naiethua talks to the girl in a calming voice. Then she talks to the adults, "I understand you want to question the woman, but I'd hate to waste curative spells to revive her. We have no way of knowing how close any of her companions are if she has any. If I heal her and we're attacked, I'll have very limited means to heal any of us who are injured. However, I'm willing to heal her if you think it's worth the risk."
She's at a point where she won't die, I say let her be and we'll question her when she wakes. Should we attempt to move from here or try and fortify our position?
Victor looks at his arm and still feels the warmth from Naiethua's spell Thank you Nai.. And yes, you are right.. we need to be careful he says and moves past them to the dead orc's body to look for clues. but even if she wakes up we can't trust her nor her answers.. she already proved how dedicated she was to her mission. Victor kneels next to the body.
"If it were just the three of us," Naiethua looks at Sylthain and Victor. "I'd say wait until she comes to and see what she has to say for herself. But we need to get the cousins to safety. First the slime beast, then the assassin, little Nicaa draws danger like dung draws flies. We should be on our way back to Khiras at dawn. You don't want to be slinging the murderer on your back, so we cure her or kill her. With the creatures in this forest, leaving her alone to recover on her own is killing her slowly. Unless her friends are closer than I'd like."
I say leave her. It's what she would have done to us.
Assuming you eventually take watches and sleep the night goes by uneventful and the woman is awake in the morning though still bound and gagged and appearing very angry.
Holding a sickle in her hand, Naiethua stands over the woman. "You live because you may answer a question," she says. "If you fail to answer, you die. When I remove the gag, the only sound you will make is the answer to my question. Any other sound results in your death. Why were you hunting the girl?" Then Naiethua removes the gag.
"I was paid to." The woman answers bluntly though she offers no further information.
Sylthain leans forward, his tone quiet. Paid by whom?
The woman shakes her head, refusing to answer. "I told you before failure would result in my death, intimidating me now is useless as I am dead anyway."
"It wasn't a good answer, but you did answer honestly," Naiethua says. "Since you won't say who hired you, how are you going to kill you? I doubt killing you would be an easy task."
The woman smirks slightly, "You have me bound... and I am already wounded... sounds like it would be an easy task to kill me don't you think?"
Sylthain shrugs before moving back towards Lyra. So be it. Leave her here, it makes no matter to me.
Victor turns to Sylthain, "I agree we should leave her here and continue with our task." He goes to his bedroll and carefully starts packing his belongings.
"Fine, we'll leave her," Naiethua says and starts gathering her belongings.
The woman doesn't say a word, doesn't even seem afraid with your threat of leaving her even when you leave. The trip back to town is uneventful.
You all manage to return safely and without incident to the city, Nicca hasn't spoken the entire trip despite Lyra's attempts to communicate with the child, though she reluctantly walks with all of you. Though when you start getting closer to the manor it Nicca gets restless and more resistant to travelling the direction you are going.