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After a few horns of ale, and his all familiar now smoke clinging to him, Beau coughs loudly at all the elvish flying around, for he was a much simpler man. OR simpler dwarf, if one wished to be technical, but that wasn't his point. He waves his horn about to gather attention, while his pipe was hanging from his mouth with a piece of bread in his other hand, stating somewhat roughly
" Ye all are missing the point no? We are being paid to clear out some humans infesting a place that they took from other humans. Why does it really matter who we do it for? Does the mountain care when you mine it? Or does it wane and groan when you strike a tunnel you should not? Let us help who we are being paid to help. The humans can sort the rest."
After speaking his bit, Beau burps loudly and looks for more ale, the smoke from his pipe flowing around his head.
"well, a little thing, we have the mercenary dwarf on our bank" Alyna comments, smiling
"It matters because we might have an easier time of it if we know who our friends are and who our enemies are. I'm just asking for clarification on who we're supposed to work with and who we're supposed to run out of town." Sid shrugs. "More to your point, it also matters because I'd be willing to bet we won't be paid if we go around killing the wrong people."
"Indeed, Lord Randal Morn is the last of his line. They have ruled Daggerdale for centuries. Now a Zhents puppet controls the Dale. He and his resistance army stay mobile to avoid being pinned down by the superior numbers of the occupation. So I can't exactly give you directions to a headquarters, you will need to find them on their own. I do not know how many details he and his people have regarding this operation, but I do know Elminster dispatched a message briefing him. Most of the locals love and respect Lord Morn, but for their own safety we try not to learn the identities of active saboteurs and spies supporting the cause."
"Elminster...has been a little tight lipped on the exact nature of compensation. I do not know if the topic bores him, or he is simply unaware of more mercantile concerns. He has asked me about deeding land, and I know he wants me to provide a stipend to support your efforts. Now, I have taken the liberty of finding a down payment from his petty cash fund." Lhaeo slides a bag across the table. Within are six fine emeralds.
"If Morn has no heir, we could stay to grant"
"No heir, however he does have a sister who married into a noble family in Cormyr. They would be able to press a claim on the land. And of course, should he regain full control of Daggerdale, he is still plenty young enough to sire an heir. That is all speculation at this point, better to focus on the immediate task. Once you have established a headquarters, you will want to find small ways to hurt the occupiers. Search the local ruins for powerful magics and lore. Both elves and dwarves have had outposts in the region, there may be lost lore in such places. Help locals when you can, show them the authoritarian Zhentilar are uncaring to their needs. Raid and Rob Zhent operations. Deny them assets that you can employ in further dealings."
"Interesting. I didn't know there were old outposts in this region." He nods and looks at the others. "An abandoned treetop fort would make for a fine headquarters, if we can find one. They are hard to find and quite defensible."
To Lhaeo: "could you point us what people know of outposts? It will be uneasy to find if we do not know where to watch."
"You will have to seek local experts on the topic. I know that Dagger Falls itself, where the occupation is based, is supposed to have at least one dwarven site. They controlled trade routes through the Desertmouth Mountains long before the Zhents sought to hold exclusive rights to those regions. There was a time when elves wandered the Spiderhaunt. I can try to research the topic for you using Elminster's library."
"Hmm... Your Elminster expects many of us. I hope this is insight and not stupidness. I will go wash my skin, now, and sleep. Tomorrow, at morning food, we can make what to do."
Alyna's use of the common language seems to have improved slightly. Whether this is from exposure, or wine, is hard to say.
The moment in the conversation where you would expect her to walk up to her room, she instead walks out of the inn, in search of a clear waterfall, brook, river, or pond to wash in, and a decent spot to sleep.
Beau nearly chokes when on his ale, dropping the emerald he was looking at on the table in the process. He looks as if Xune had just told him to murder a priest of a dwarven temple, in front of the gathered masses. " Ye can not be serious! How do you expect me to sneak about, let alone ride them giant beast! I would break your neck as I fell from such a height!" He was over stating it, but it was clear he wasn't sure he would be good for sneaking around
Davin nodded at Xune. Clearly she wanted to help.
"Are there any locals here in town who are involved with the Zhents? Anyone we should stay clear of? Or maybe take out quietly?"
Sid nods. "If there are closer threats we can deal with before heading into their territory, that would be a good way to start."
Lhaeo tells Davin not to worry too much about Shadowdale, hinting that Elminster keeps things pretty safe. Even so, he advises against openly discussing any specific plans just in case. He adds the last piece of advice as he stands up. "I am really sorry, I do have other critical business to attend to. If you're unsure whether you're really needed, I would say, 'just go there and see.' The people need help. The land holds secrets. There is money to be made by robbing and disrupting the Zhents. After you get settled, come back this way. Hopefully Lord Elminster will have more answers for both of us."
Sid nods at Lhaeo as he leaves. After Elminster's assistant walks away, he turns to his companions. "We should ask around to see if we can find any Zhent-supporting targets here in Shadowdale or closer to here before we head off to Daggerdale."
Xune can relate a few rumors, but more importantly how to contact the sort of folks who would have deeper knowledge. After a couple of minutes and a couple of gold buying drinks, she walks away ready to meet someone in the back alley an hour from now with some useful information.
At dusk Xune ducks into the alley behind the tavern. "Aye, lass. Here is the deal, right? The Zhents like to keep out of Shadowdale. But sometimes, business is business, right? Yeah, so they had something coming through not long ago. Came in all smuggled like, but they needed to store it somewhere, right? I don't know what it was, but two scary blokes, they came picked up the package. Never said a word, just looked at you and you knew what they wanted and who they was with. Pros, right? Now, when it comes to the things happening in Shadowdale's shadows, we watch the comings and goings of certain folks. Saw these two. They rode north, off the road. Dropped that package off with one of them caravans, right? It's still camped, or it was yesterday, just about an hour's walk to the north, right?" He winks and holds up the coins Xune has handed him. "You come back in town, you come find us, right? Tell them Stugs sent you."
Sid nods. "Let's go see what the Zhents want badly enough to come to Elminster's back yard to get it."
He gestures at the gems. "We could probably trade one of those for a horse and tack. I can ride fairly well, if we need a rider."
"You could at least warn me before you go off like that," Davin tells Xune in an exasperated tone that she's ignored a hundred times before.
Once he hears of the plot to ambush the Zhents, Davin nods. "It sounds like a good plan. And it'll ease the suffering of the people here. It's a noble endeavor. But we'll need to find Mistress Nym, first. I don't like the idea of going in short one person."
"I should also warn everyone that I can only magically heal once more this night. But I do know some herb lore and as such could provide more traditional healing."
Beauregarde coughs softly as he empties his pipe out, scraping the soot with a small tool. He then claps Xune on the shoulder, saying " Finally! A challenge for adventurers such as ourselves?! When do we leave? Need to get a bit more tobacco first but then I be ready. First light or first ale we move out?" He wasn't a good rider so he knew they werent going to ask him to ride, so he figured getting close to the ambush spot would be smart.
Davin considers Beau's words.
"Perhaps it would be wiser to rest for the night, and leave first thing in the morning then. We are in no hurry. And my eyes aren't nearly as good as everyone else here."
As to gather information... The thieve's handbook governs rules on that. I suppose you could deal with it through charisma checks. Mostly, though, back in the day, we just roleplayed the information gathering. So many stupid peasants have I spoken before I realised the blacksmith was the one to talk to
The dragon leans back and grooms itself much like a cat, then says in Elvish, "I hope you do not mind the intrusion. I am, after all, a bit curious about what transpired in the human settlement. I don't know if the humans will take the Zhents seriously at all. I may be pushed into the role of being a simple caravan raider for a few years! Rather undignified."
Sid nods. "Caravans don't move too fast, it shouldn't be hard to catch up with them on the road in the morning if we set out early. I can pick out some good horses for us. I'll get a gentle one for you, Beau. One closer to the ground." The moon elf grins at the dwarf. "We'll make a rider out of you by the end of this."
He looks down at the gems and back at Beau and Xune. "How much did you say you thought those were worth?"
The elf frowns and shakes his head. "That's not going to be enough to get us all mounted, much less on fiery desert windrunners. Maybe we can acquire some horses from the caravan."
That aside, yes, they're taking the Zhenth trouble seriously. We've met a human of passable agreeableness who goes by the name of Lhaeo. He is Elminster's student. Have you heard of Elminster?"
Alyna goes on to tell Xenotime (for the time being calling him Clarity) about what Lhaeo requested of them in dislodging the Zhenth from this region in favour of Lord Randal Morn, and that the group would be free to do so in any fashion we find pleasing. She continues:
"Essentially it means that we have authoritative right to deal with the Zhents in any way we see fit. I could imaging that such would be appealing to you, seeing as how you were treated. I know, personally, I would very much appreciate your help in this."
** spoiler omitted **
And no, this Randall isn't all that important. For me it's the journey anyway. And the practice in state building"
In the morning the heroes rendezvous with Alyna and Xenotime and follow the directions given to Xune by her contact. A clearing not far from the north end of the city shows signs of a recent encampment of people, wagons, and horses. The trail is fairly recent. They would have broken up camp within a day or two. The trail heads due north.
Helping the group in their pursuit is the fact that the caravan appears to have remained off-road for some time. Even with a day or two head-start, it would not have gotten too far in such a short time.
"So we go where?"
"No, I mean. What we go do? You decided what we go do over evening drink. Clarity and me don't know."
You can tell that Alyna is makingan effort to speak common. Probably to practice.
Beau coughs and waves a hand, trying to gather his thoughts it seems. " We goin' ta crack their skulls, and I guess feed them to the dragon here. Good way to get rid of them. Rightly the most I got was we going to kill some humans, help some humans, and hopefully kill more humans. Tis all I really heard."
Exasperated, Alyna switches to her accented, but fluent, dwarvish.
Now, I've been waiting for someone to explain to us what the plan is, but all of you seem to forget that part, hence the reason I'm asking. So we're going to kill some humans. I assume Zhenths? Great! But what part of their operations are we hitting? And why do we start there?"
Sid shakes his head. "It can't be for any good reason, Xune. I've never heard of a merchant caravan going off-road like this. At least they're making themselves easy to track. We should be able to catch them pretty quickly." He nods at Alyna. "Xune found a pair of Zhents trying to smuggle something out of Shadowdale. Her contacts say they linked up with this caravan. They're certainly acting suspicious here."
The bickering continues for some time as the group follows the obvious path left behind. To Xune's chagrin, the trail gradually goes from north to north-by-northwest heading towards the Dagger River, the western branch of the Ashaba. The river is wide and deep enough to prevent a caravan with wagons from fording it anywhere for miles and there are few wide roads into the mountains.
By midday another camp is located. The caravan is moving extremely slowly across this terrain. The remains of a bonfire remain warm, slightly smoking still. They must be very close. The trail leading away from the camp site heads directly west toward the river.
After about an hour of following the trail toward the west the trees thin and a reflection of the sun glistens off of the Dagger River. The caravan waits by the river-side where a large number of goods are being broken down and moved to a flat-bottom river boat currently anchored near the beach.
Beau grumbles back in Dwarven to Alyna, but was happy enough to do so. " Well, they just be humans, so I figured they'd be pretty easy to spot, the ones so far have been."
Of course once finding the fire still warm and other signs, Beau sighs heavily and while he does not douse his pipe, its clear he takes a bit more caution, and has his sword at the ready. However, upon seeing the half-orc he spits on the ground and looks ready to charge.