Lorenz is gone for close to an hour and a half before getting back to the Whaling Company. During that time, the cloaked man on the roof paces back and forth, clearly getting more and more impatient with every passing minute. On the ground, the crowd slowly starts to disperse as people lose interest in what's happening. A few people remain along with a few guards watching the periphery, but by the time Lorenz gets back, it's mostly just the party and a few others left.
The man on the roof turns excitedly and looks down at Lorenz. "Do you have it?" he calls down.
Breathing hard from all the running, Lorenz nods. "This is it," he gasps and holds up the parchment he'd been told was for the Brotherhood. "The Baron heard me out and provided this to illustrate that he has heard your grievances."
The cloaked man nods enthusiastically. "At last, they start to listen to us!" he calls out triumphantly to virtually non-existent crowd. He turns back to address Lorenz, "Bring it to the main door at the front. One of my men will collect it and bring it to me. If it's legit, I'll let your friend go with your assurances that you'll leave town in the morning!"
As Lorenz hurries to the front, the man calls back into the complex, "Rez! Go to the front and collect a letter about to be delivered!"
When Lorenz reaches the front, he has a brief wait before the door opens a crack and a Garundi man peeks his head out. He snatches the letter from Lorenz without a word and shuts the door again.
A couple minutes later, the Garundi appears on the roof and hands the letter to the cloaked man. The Garundi then retreats back again and out of sight. The cloaked man peers intently at the seal for several moments. He then mutters something that's not quite loud enough to be heard by people on the ground and breaks the seal. He unfolds the parchment and begins reading.
He spends quite a few minutes reading and re-reading the letter while Jask gazes anxiously up. Finally, he folds the letter up again. "All right!" he calls down. "Do I have your assurances that you'll leave in the morning?"
Lorenz looks up to the man on the roof and raises his hand in salute. "I vow that my companions and I will leave tomorrow morning. We have had enough of this city." He says with fervent emotion.
The man seems to ponder for a moment and then sighs. "All right! But we'll be watching for your departure. If you don't leave, there'll be trouble! I'm going to give ten minutes for my men to get safely away and then I'll let your friend here go! No funny stuff in the meantime or I kill him!"
"I will do nothing to interfere," Lorenz says and he steps back, empty hands held up before him and waits. He hopes that Urza doesn't take advantage of the situation and make all his running around end for naught.
"An apology would be nice," mutters Mahjik. "Lorenz, I'm impressed. How did you get the Baron to hear you out so quickly? In spite of senior hostage taker's opinion over there, we're not well enough connected."
Urza stands nearby. His features are more serpentine than normal and his body is tense as he waits for the man to realize Jask and give him an opening to unleash the flame within him.
"Urza..." Makoa warns, placing a hand oh his fellow half-orc's shoulder. "This is not the time and it is not the place. We have the trust of most of the crowd, and I believe they will talk about what has happened here."
Lorenz glances at Mahjik, keeping his hands in plain sight . "The Baron is a remarkably reasonable man," he says softly. "He clearly felt it best to resolve this situation as peacefully as possible for the good of all."
He decides to wait until Jask is released before saying more.
The cloak man moves to the south side of the roof, pulling Jask along with him. He gazes out towards the the main entrance to the complex and watches for several minutes. At one point, he calls out, "You guards stay back!" After a pause, he says, "That's better!"
True to his word, after about ten minutes, he turns back to the party. "I'm coming down with your friend now. We'll be coming out the main entrance in a minute or two. No funny stuff!"
He unties Jask's feet, allowing him to stand and walk on his own, then pushes him back away from the edge and out of view. You head round to the front entrance and wait there about a minute before the door opens. Jask comes through followed closely by the cloaked man. The man still holds a dagger to the back of Jask's neck. "Stay well back," the man warns the party. He keeps motioning you back until everyone is at least 30 feet from him, motioning back a couple local guards as well.
Once he's satisfied that everyone's far enough away, he takes a deep breath. "All right. I'm letting him go now." He shoves Jask forward, then turns and runs in the other direction.
Lorenz rushes to Jask. "Are you okay? I'm sorry it took me so long. The Baron wasn't very fast in his response."
Jask nods, unable to speak because of the gag in his mouth. His hands are also still tied.
Lorenz, get that gag off. I'll untie his hands." Makoa says as he hurries to Jask's side and begins untying his friend's hands.
Lorenz removes the gag and uses a dagger to cut the bonds on his hands.
Jask stretches his arms and hands, and licks his lips several times to get the taste of the gag out of his mouth. "Thank you, my friends," he says. "I owe you yet again for freeing me from bonds."
A guard wanders over to the group. "You folks better move on now before you cause any more trouble."
Lorenz rolls his eyes at the guard. "We're not causing the trouble, we're solving it! But very well." He turns to the others. "We should probably go give the Pathfinders an update on the situation. Besides, I have something for them."
"I am leaving right now." Urza says. "Douena was right. We should have left before now. I'm going back to get what little I have then leaving town." Urza stomps off. He first looks for Douena and Pezock then, if the others follow him, he goes to tell Shokambe. If Shokambe can't leave immediately, Urza will try to get the other guide that was mentioned (he stays out of town right?)
Before Urza leaves, Lorenz holds up his hands, gesturing wildly. "Wait! We need to get Sasha and Alton and you have to give our guide time to get paid!"
Urza stomps off. He first looks for Douena and Pezock then, if the others follow him, he goes to tell Shokambe. If Shokambe can't leave immediately, Urza will try to get the other guide that was mentioned (he stays out of town right?)
"Lorenz is right," Jask says. "We need to regroup before we rush off anywhere."
"Fine. But know that I am at the end of my tether. I will not accept any more delays."
"Until we're well and truly gone from Eleder, I think we'll keep getting trouble. A mere day away from here is not going to stop anybody determined to be at odds with us."
Lorenz shakes his head. "Before this latest incident, we'd all agreed we were leaving first thing tomorrow. That hasn't changed. So let's finish our preparations. I've got to talk to the Pathfinders again. I've also got to gather my equipment at the inn. Then there's just rest and departure tomorrow morning for me. What do the rest of you need to do? Douena's been shown to be right; it's clearly a good idea to travel in numbers rather than alone."
He glances over at Jask and shakes his head at his forgetfulness. "We should also hear your story, Jask, but that's probably saved for when we're back at the inn."
Jask nods, and you make your way back across town. People in New Haliad continue to look at you funny, but the jeering and rock throwing has stopped. By the time you reach Portside, people barely give you a second glance, and it's clear that, if people are even aware of the incident at the Whaling Company, they are completely unaware your party was involved in any way.
"I just need to talk to Amivor for a few minutes," Lorenz says as they walk. "After that, I'm happy to just stay in the inn until we leave tomorrow morning."
Grumpily following Lorenz's lead.
The Pathfinder Lodge is closest, so you stop by there briefly, only to discover that Amivor and Finze are still at the warehouse. You continue on to the warehouse and head inside. In the few hours since you were last here, it has started to fill up with additional supplies.
Gelik hurries over to the group, carrying a wooden box. "Ah, perfect, you're here!" he exclaims. He indicates the box. "I have your wayfinders! These are such wonderful instruments. You'll love having them. Ever, ever so useful in the field."
He pulls the lid off the box and allows it to clatter onto the floor. Pulling out one of the wayfinders within, he holds it up for everyone to see. "With a command word, you can make it shine and create light. Now I know, Douena, that you can do that sort of thing already, but this will help free up your spells for other things. Also, they work like a standard compass, helping to ensure that you don't get lost. Finally, there's an indentation here, allowing you to slot in an ioun stone should you acquire any. I did try to request they give you a few to start off with, but unfortunately, it's just no affordable within the budget at the moment. Still, I think you'll find these wayfinders a wonderful little item."
He begins handing them out to each of you, and then hands the box with two remaining ones to Lorenz. "Those are for Sasha and Ishirou."
In the interests of not starting another fight, Douena refrains from pointing out that most of the things she lights up, she ends up throwing down holes and abandoning; the useful thing about the orison is that it's so disposable.
Lorenz looks at the wayfinders with delight. "These are excellent, Gelik! Thank you so much. I'll be sure to get these to Sasha and Ishirou." He examines his wayfinder carefully, and as soon as he gets the command word he delightfully activates and deactivates the light several times.
After a few minutes of playing with his new toy, he tucks it and the others away and remembers the reason he wanted to meet with the Pathfinders in the first place. "Gelik, is Amivor around? I need to talk to him about something."
Amivor walks up just as Lorenz is asking after him. "I'm right here, Lorenz," he says. "What can I do for you?"
Mahjik chuckles and ruffles Douena's hair, "You look like you got a gift that you don't know what to do with."
"Ah, Amivor, hello." Lorenz smiles a little nervously. "We just came back from some trouble. Jask here had been taken hostage by the Freeman Brotherhood who somehow got the idea that we're going out into the jungles to take slaves and use them for mining. They were threatening to kill Jask unless the Sargavans all left and returned to Cheliax."
He describes the scene at the whale company, the obvious danger posed to Jask and their efforts to defuse the situation. He then tells how he ran to the Palace to confer with the Baron and the resulting agreement he'd made for the letter they needed to free Jask in exchange for delivering the letter to the Pathfinders. Lorenz elaborates a great deal at this point, making it seem as though he'd done a lot more talking, bargaining and threatening than he actually did, filling up the time that he'd in reality spent waiting.
"So this is the letter they asked me to deliver. I made no promises except to deliver the letter; I have no idea what's written within." He hands over the sealed letter.
Amivor takes the letter and studies the seal. "So the baron agreed to help you in return for you delivering a letter to us? A letter he could have just sent a runner to deliver?" He turns the letter over in his hands, looking at the back side of it as well. Then he shrugs. "I should let Finze be there as it's opened. He is the venture captain after all. Thank you, Lorenz."
He takes the letter and heads across the warehouse calling out for Finze. You see him find the halfling amongst some boxes at the far side and they begin to confer.
"I suppose it's possible the baron was worried the Pathfinders wouldn't accept a letter delivered by a runner," Jask says to Lorenz. "Still, it is odd, as Amivor said. We should get back to the inn and prepare for our departure in the morning. We have ignored Douena's warnings for too long."
Douena looks blankly at the inappropriately oversized (in her Small hands) compass, tries to fit it several of her pockets without success, then drops it in her backpack where it threatens to overbalance her like a turtle on its shell. She takes it out again and hands it back to Gelik. "I don't want this," she explains politely. "It's useless. I might as well fill my pockets with sand."
"Lorenz, you can't be serious. Don't you realize that letter tells him to give us over to them. Just remeber, one more delay and this city begins burning."
Lorenz looks puzzled. "Why would the government send a letter to the Pathfinders to order them to turn us over to them? That makes no sense."
But he nods at Jask's suggestion. "We should be going. It'll be an early departure tomorrow."
"Well, Pathfinders aside," Mahjik thinks aloud, "Once we're out of Eleder it is really academic. At least I hope so, it would be pretty awful having anybody breathing down our necks about what to do next. All we need to do is be at the fabled lost city first, and everything else falls into place."
Douena looks blankly at the inappropriately oversized (in her Small hands) compass, tries to fit it several of her pockets without success, then drops it in her backpack where it threatens to overbalance her like a turtle on its shell. She takes it out again and hands it back to Gelik. "I don't want this," she explains politely. "It's useless. I might as well fill my pockets with sand."
Gelik frowns as Douena hands him the wayfinder. "Useless? Sand?" he stutters. "But it's..." He pauses and sighs. Then he turns and hands the wayfinder to Lorenz. "Well, it belongs to the group now. If Douena doesn't want it, I'm sure you can trade it in for something she does want in the market. It's none of my concern."
He turns to face the whole group. Removing his hat, he gives a slight bow. "I will come to see you off in the morning," he says. He places his hat back on and walks away.
"I will be happy to carry it on behalf of the group." Lorenz says, feeling sorry for Gelik but trying not to show it.
"See you tomorrow, Gelik!"
After leaving the warehouse, you return to the Sargava Club, where Briga welcomes you back in her usual bombastic tones. "Dinner is waiting!" she announces. "Sit yourselves down and dig in!"
She starts bringing out plates of steaming fish with a few heavily boiled vegetables on the side. Ishirou and Aakif are already seated and waiting. Sasha is upstairs, but she comes down shortly after you arrive. She gives Lorenz a quick hug, then takes a seat beside him, looking a bit distracted. "So, what's your day been like?" she asks, picking at her food.
"We talked to our guide, and then save Jask from being kidnapped." Makoa tells Sasha. "So not nearly as exciting as fighting a vimpre snake lady."
"Oh, it was pretty exciting. I had to negotiate with a savage lunatic to keep him from killing Jask. Then I had to negotiate with the baron to persuade him to listen to the lunatic's demands and acknowledge that he'd heard them. Then I had to take a letter from the baron to the lunatic and make sure that he let Jask go."
Lorenz pauses to take a long drink of ale. "The only problem is that we now have to leave Eleder first thing tomorrow. So I hope you're all ready to go. How was yours?"
Edit to add:
He reaches to take a bite of fish and then pauses with the utensil halfway to his mouth. "But, uh, Douena was a lot of help too. She got the lunatic to listen to me in the first place. And Mahjik and Makoa helped too while Urza investigated other options." Lorenz tries to make sure everyone gets the credit they're due.
"It was pretty quiet," Sasha says and frowns, "but I think someone was watching this place earlier. I can't be sure, but he hung around outside for a suspiciously long time and took off the moment he noticed I had noticed him. I'm definitely eager to get out of this place in the morning. It's almost as bad as Ilizmagorti."
"He means that Makoa and Mahjik looked after me so I wouldn't fry his crazy arse."
"I think he was more desperate than crazy." Makoa replies. "Chelaxia has that effect I've heard."
Lorenz frowns at the notion of someone watching the inn. "Can you describe him? Maybe he's someone who works for the government here."
Sasha shrugs. "Garundi. Tall. Fairly young, maybe twenty or so. He had a couple of tattoos on his arms--geometric designs rather than pictures--and several earrings in each ear. He was dressed lightly. No obvious weapons other than a dagger, and not too many places he could have hidden any others. He wasn't carrying anything. He just stood across the street gazing about and frequently looking at the inn. Could have just been coincidence, I suppose. It's possible he was debating whether to come inside and have something to eat. But I doubt it."
She grins suddenly. "One of these days, I'm going to teach Alton to do spying work for me. Then I can have him follow people like that. He can stay on the tops of buildings where he won't be noticed as easily." She frowns. "But that won't help us right now, will it. Oh well. Let's just get out of here right away in the morning. People watching us is starting to make me paranoid that the Red Mantis has found me." She shudders slightly and takes a bite of her food.
Sasha's description didn't sound like someone who worked for the government to Lorenz which worries him but he decides to set his concerns aside. "Don't worry. We'll be on our way as soon as possible tomorrow. I'm actually looking forward to traveling again too."