At this point, Meera moves to each of you and hands you a gold Cloakpin, which shows a golden arrowhead with each of your names and the rank of Corporeal.
"But, didn't the captain tell us not to do anything?" Gidgey fumbles with something in his pocket.
Gadget, this is important when you saw the Minotaur captain kill the flag bearer did the form change shape as it died or did it remain the same? Was there any other witness besides you ?
Urgosh puts a hand on his chin and starts pacing.
As we fought and knock him out if he was disguise by a magical illusion our interacting with him would have pierced it apart. The surveillance team had him under watch for over 24h, so i can rule out a transmutation effect. It would have had to be something permanent.
Continuing to watch, The Skyreaver and Captain Dub-Bane chat amicably until Captain Hardbrow comes thundering into the tent, then stops himself as he realizes where he is. "You called for me brother?" "Yes. You stand accused of high treason and colluding with the enemy. What do you say to these charges?"
As his eyes drift from The Skyreaver to Greel, They narrow and then he says "Brother, I thought we had resolved all this." "There is proof this time. Brother Greel has brought your standard, which he says was taken from this human." At that, The Skyreaver unfurls Hardbrow's flag, which snaps open with a thud, as the head that the flag was wrapped around rolls into Hardbrow's boots. "What say you to refute these claims?"
Hardbrow shakes his head, as if he can't believe what he is seeing, before speaking "Of course I did it. The humans are going to win, and I want to be on the winning side."
as Urgosh is in complete disbelief
"No, no change, and lots of people saw. He was making an example of him, kind of suprised you didn't hear him yelling."
Before he can utter another word in his defense, Captain Greel Dub-Bane is in motion. Leaping onto Hardbrow's shoulders, he shouts "Die traitor!" and then pulls back his clockwork arm. The pistons hiss audibly as he brings his fist into the jaw of Hardbrow, who's head snaps like.....well, like he just got punched in the face really hard. The first hit shatters his jaw, but Greel doesn't let up; he continues hitting him in the head even as Captain Hardbrow's body falls to the ground, until it collapses with an ominous *THUD*. Rolling away from the body to avoid being crushed by it, Greel stands, dusts himself off, and says "Thus is the fate of all who would betray The Benevolent Skyreaver." mainly to the guards who come rushing into the tent. Looking down at his non-clockwork hand, Greel says "Oh, I must have cut myself on him." When he says that, Meera jumps up and wipes the captains blood from the table, before replacing the tarp over it.. "Well, good to see the old man still can fight. I was worried that when they put him out to pasture, he would become a fat drunk. Clearly, my worry was misplaced."
Turning to your group, she says, "We should go get your stuff. We need to be ready to move." and begins leading you to the tent you've called home for all of a day.
As you make your way to the tent, Meera will say quietly "Now you see why you should never make an enemy of the Captain. He's incredibly dangerous, even if he is old." Shortly after your trip began, it has ended. You gather your meager belongings, and return to the captain's tent in short order, where you see a tengu waiting outside, holding onto a rank pin and a note.
F£%§, F£%§, F£%§,
Gidgey jumps at Urgosh's reaction and looks at the tengu.
A raven-man, with oily blue-ish black feathers sticking out of his breastplate armor, walking with a slightly hunched posture walks up to Meera, looking about, not unlike a raven does. He has various spirit fetishes attached to his clothing and armor at different places, indicating he follows the old ways... He walks with a staff, but has a shortsword on his belt. As he approaches, a very stout and healthy raven lands on his shoulder.
"Pardon me, Sgt. Do you know where I may find Captain Dub-bane?" he asks, with a gravely voice...
Meera looks down at the Tengu, as if seeing him for the first time "You sent here, or you delivering a message?"
"Sent, ma'am. Was told to report to captain?"
"Wait here and meet your new teammates. I'll go see if I can find the boss." and with that, she sprints off towards The Skyreaver's tent.
Urgosh is clearly fuming but steadily calming himself.
Looks around, absently scratching his head.
"Umm. Hello, I am Chak-Chak."
About a half hour later, the Captain will return with Meera in tow, who appears to be writing furiously on a scroll. "and in conclusion, if you don't get your project done on time, I'm going to send my sergeant to your home to break both your legs, set fire to your house, and watch you drag your broken body from your burning home. Sincerely etc, etc." Turning to Chak-Chak, he says "So, you got a name recruit? let me see your paperwork." Taking the offered paperwork, Greel reads quickly through the scroll and then says "You got all your stuff son? we're about to move out shortly. If you don't, take Meera with you and go get it. If you do, wait out here while I talk to this lot inside my tent." Motioning for the rest of the group to follow him, he moves into the tent, withdraws another scroll and casts from it, then says "Do you have any questions?"
While waiting for the captain.
Urgosh will pay little attention to the tengu
Hum what? Chuck you say. Right, this is Gadget, Drax, Greith, Kurat, ragar and i am urgosh he says resuming his pacing
-----
Question about what? he simply says
Greith follows along with everyone and gathers his gear. He tends to let the others be the ones to be noticeable. When they are meeting the new recruit, he offers his hand for a clasp.
"Well met, Chak-Chak. I is Greith. You are the new guy, so you are now Greeny."
When the Captain returns, he follows into the tent.
Gidgey pays attention as Urgosh says everyone's name, not actually having been introduced earlier.
"Hi I'm gidgey." Gidgey chuckles remarking on Chak-Chaks name under his breath.
"Um. But I'm not green...?" He says to Grieth.
"Well met, all. I hope I'm the asset your team needs."
To the captain:
"My name is Chak-Chak, sir. Chak-Chak Aiko...but most call me Chak, or Aiko...or..." he notices the look on the captain's face. "...ermm, yeah. Yes I have all of my belongings. I was told to pack light, Captin. I guess I'll wait out here, then." he smiles. It's obvious he is oblivious to military ettiquette.
Looking directly at Urgosh, Greel says "Questions about what just happened. I know you're curious, so ask me now so we can get it out of the way and move on."
I will start with the obvious why did you lie to the Skyreaver? We did not uncover this flag from a human spy, We didn't find any letter with the flag. Was that letter a fake? Where did that human head you presented to the Skyreaver came from?
"Well met Chak-Chak, you sure are one strange bird. Haven't seen your kind before, but nevermind. We're all interested what skills you bring with you, but Captain seems to be coming, we'll talk of that later...if we're alive"
Looking inquisitively at the approaching Captain, Kurat nods a few times while Urgosh is speaking. Seeing that the dwarf has finished, he interjects: "Dwarf is right. What is the story with the human spy and the flag? Did Meera acquire the letter signed and stamped by Hardbrow's personal stamp earlier...or you had another team doing it? And finally - do we want to know about this Project Leviathan or not?"
Greel pauses for a moment, then begins: "I'll try to answer your questions as I can, but there are some things, Project Leviathan among them, that I have sworn not to talk about. As far as why I lied to the Skyreaver, I did so because while I was initially going to just embarrass Hardbrow, after watching him destroy the soul of his flag bearer, I knew that he had to go. Someone like that, with no regard whatsoever for life, doesn't belong in this camp, much less one of the leaders."
"As far as the human head goes, Meera did uncover a human spy in camp. I was preparing my report on it, when Hardbrow murdered that young man in cold blood. As a matter of fact, once I saw that, most of my decisions were fairly simple. I had Meera secure me some of his stationary, faked a letter, and the rest you saw."
turning to Kurat, he adds "You are the only team that I have so far. Whether that remains the case or not largely depends on you. If you're highly successful in your next mission, I suspect we'll be getting more people allocated to me; if not, we probably won't."
So things were not intended to turn so deadly. Drax nods, satisfied with the explanation. With the warm up out of the way I think we are all eager to get started on the next mission. It is time to start putting the mind benders in their place.
"That it is, Drax. That it is. Before we continue, however, I want to make sure that everyone understands why what happened happened. What say the rest of you?"
I am unfortunately not entirely done Captain. You still killed him without giving the Skyreaver the chance to listen to the whole story or the opportunity to further explain himself. You fakes the evidence that the human spy was working for him. He could have also worked for someone else to.
The Captain sighs and says "You're right, I did kill him without giving him the chance to explain himself. That's just something I will have to live with for the rest of my life; And yes, I know that faking evidence was probably not the best plan, but I was angry, and wanted vengeance for the young man's senseless death. I'm not saying that excuses it, I'm just explaining why I did what I did. Feel free to report me if you want; I'll face whatever punishment comes my way."
"Well it probably would have been dangerous to let him have time to react after you accused him. By the reaction of the flag bearer, it seems like that wasn't first time he did that to one of his men. Still it probably would have been better if you just restrained him... You are the captain though, you are better at making these decisions."
"If only I had some rank-based powers that would let me easily deal with the consequences of my actions." Greel shakes his head as if clearing away his train of thought, then continues "but what's done is done. We have a new mission to carry out, unless Urgosh here wishes to do something about what he's learned?" He seems to be waiting for Urgosh to make a decision.
Well you do what you think that needs to be done. But if you think it needs to be reported maybe you should be the one to report it don't you think?
"That is enough for me Captain. You have my sword. And as the dwarf here correctly put it - if you feel that it should be reported, than you do it. If not, then it's probably the right way. For me, that is past. And talking of past and future I have two questions. One more for the past - you said you'd have done this mission differently. How? Teach us....sir. And future, that is simple, as Drax here said - what would you have us do next?"
"I would have probably just walked up to him in the middle of the day while using magic to disguise myself as a minotaur, then walked up to him in the middle of the day and told him that someone was looking for him, like Kathandrax or The Skyreaver, and that I would watch the flag. Low key like; but then again, what's done is done, and ultimately you guys did help the morale of the army, so that's something."
Greel motions to Meera, and she hands him a scroll. It bears the mark of The Skyreaver, which has already been broken. "Our orders are simple, but will be difficult to carry out: We're to find Tarouk and deal with the slavers who took him, but not before finding out who in Aeon ordered his capture. We're going to be working off the grid, so to speak, and we'll also want to take stock of any troop movements and travelers from Aeon that we encounter."
Greel pauses his dialogue to retrieve a set of haversacks, one for each of you. "These are all property of The Convocation, but I requisitioned them for our use. Each of these magical haversacks contain the following: 5 minor healing potions, a hat that lets you change your appearance, sleeves that let you change your outfit, and 5 snapleafs, which let you turn invisible and cast the featherfall spell on you very quickly. Finally, I've included an item or two that each of you will find useful. Any questions?"
In the pack, you find a pair of additional items:
the first is a falchion, make of Dwarfsteel (Adamantine), that is sculpted to look like the wing of a large bird. there is an inscription, but you do not speak the language.
The second item is a Torc, which feels slightly warm to the touch. It has the command word, Retribution, written on the inside of the band.
You may, of course, ask Greel about these items in character or have someone else examine them. Just let me know in a spoiler tab how you want to go about identifying them.
In the pack, you find the following item:
There are a pair of boots, made of mammoth hide, that are magical as they will resize to fit you. They are comfortable and easy to walk in. Let me know in a spoiler tab how you want to find out what they can do.
In the pack you find the following:
There is a staff of stone, sized for a small creature. The stone is smooth, white, and it appears that the staff is completely straight. It has 5 different command words that you can see on it. Let me know how you want to go about finding out what it does in a spoiler tab.
In the pack, you find the following item:
There is a holy symbol of burnished gold, shaped in the form of Auronis' perfect circle. As you touch it, it vibrates slightly and feels warm to the touch, which invokes unbidden feelings of sitting in the sun on a warm day. please let me know in a spoiler tab how you want to go about finding out what it does.
In the pack you find the following two items:
The first is a ring of bone, made from the hollowed-out knuckle bone of a creature. Touching it, you feel your connection to the spirits come alive.
The second is a robe that appears to be made of pure silk, dyed a brilliant azure blue color. Invisible at even at the distance of several feet are tiny runes sewn into the fabric of the robe. The runes are clearly writing of some sort, but you do not recognize the language.
Please let me know in a spoiler tab how you would like to get information on these items.
Breaking the magic that you presume was protecting against scrying, Greel calls for Meera and Chak-Chak to join him in the tent.
"So, this torc thingie, what is it used for? I see a word inscribed inside, I'm guessing that word is activating it? But what does it do then?" - Kurat draws first the biceps armband and shows it to Greel, before putting it over his left arm. Next, he draws a falchion made of dwarfsteel (Adamantine) shaped in such a way that it resembles wing of a large bird and asks Greel again: "And this, I'm guessing dwarven inscription - what does it say?"
Greel says "The torc will grant you the ability to use the spell fireshield very quickly for about half a minute once a day. The sword's quote, which reads "As you would slay my mind, I slay your body" is in giant. It's a weapon that is more effective against beings with powers of the mind."