"Damn, go stop that man." the older looking of the two guards says and the other takes off at a run back the way he came. Then after a moment he says, "You're the one who came and played dice with us aren't you? Can't you just heal them, like you did your finger?"
”Now that you are here, yes. I wanted them stable, not stabbing me. First time with a patient like this. I can’t quite control how much I heal. It isn’t possible to hold back...please keep your spears ready should they continue their aggression.”
Kasit went to work. Within seconds the worst of the wounds were gone, knitting before the guards’ eyes. True to his word Kasit healed the men without being able to hold back.
And realizing that his companion was hurt as well, he quickly saw to her wounds as well.
Both men wake as Kasit's healing takes hold and seeing the guard don't try to resist. After a could minutes have passed the guard who went to get the lackey that ran returns with an older guard. "He got away. In 5hebconfuai9n the other guards let him out the gate and he took his horse and ran."
The new older guard introduces himself. "I'm Gharm Beneth, Captain of the keep's guard. Of you will all come with me we will determine what is to be done about all of this."
As Markus wakes and the group waits for the guard, Sorina addresses him: "Whatever grievances you had against us - know that we just saved your life - more than you would have done for us. You were moments from death. So what grudge you hold for that little trick we pulled on you best be gone. In fact, you owe us. 100 gold for the two potions we needed to use, one for me, one for you. And that's not a Con. You came at us with deadly force. It's just the bill, and it meant you survived."
Her sister presents the empty vial.
"As a bonus, we managed to save Dork here, too. Free of charge. Your other lackey decided to run off with your horse or something."
When the guards arrive, both sisters present their remarkably clean Starknifes, and point out that the wounds inflicted do not match their profile, at all, supporting Kasits presentation of events.
Markus seems to be in shock, he mearly grunts as Sorina and Sonira confront him, not even making eye contact. Captain Gharth inspects the starknifes and finds them clean. "That is good, still I must insist all of you come with me."
The four of you are led by the Captain and two other guards into a part of the keep you haven't seen yet. You pass the stairs up to the tower and though a door. You then descend a staircase into what is obviously a dungeon. The Captain then moves to place each if you in a separate cell. "Once I've determined what really happened if you are innocent you will be free to go."
Kasit nodded. He was actually relieved to be with the guards. It kept him safe from a certain half-orc, and he was sure that this would be cleared up. For once, he was actually innocent!
"Hum. No can do! If we don't show up for the tournament, we'll be in trouble. I'll not lose my chance at 100 plat because this moron tried to rob my chips!", Sorina protests against being moved, but eventually complies.
"At least arrange something with Lord Kent, or tell his assistant - I understand the circumstances are extraordinary, but if we're found innocent, which I don't doubt, we still want a shot at the grand price!", she pleads as she accompanies the guards without resisting.
"I know all about your 'competition.' I'll let Kara know you've been detained." the Captain says. Over the course of the next couple of hours the Captain pulls each of you and questions you individually, returning each of you to your cell after questiining. He also calls some of you back for a second round of interigation. Then you wait another hour or two, it's hard to tell before the Captain returns and brings Kasit, Sorina and Sonira into the main room together.
There you find Lord Kent. "Hello, I'm sorry you've suffered this ordeal. The Captain has informed me that he believes you innocent of any wrongdoing. It was quite kind of you to save those men after their actions."
Kasit bowed his head to the lord of the keep. ”It seemed like the right thing to do. As is, I must thank these two here for springing into action to stabilize them. While I am a healer by trade, the entire ordeal took me by surprise. It is amazing what some people will do for money.”
"Indeed. Well Dank will be sent to one of the mining towns to serve as an indentured laborer for five years for his part. Lord Mevinter will be sent to Durauch to be judged there as he is a Nobel. As for Harul, three guards will be sent to see if they can track him down. All of this will leave the guard thin which will mean fewer patrols."
"We are mainly glad this got cleared up, right now. As for kindness...it's...we couldn't just watch them die. No matter what they did, or tried to do.", Sorina touches her wound - "We had hard times in the past, we had to cut corners and make ends meet, not always in entirely honest ways. But we pride ourselves on never resorting to violence - only depending on people's stupidity or greed to fool them. So it just came naturally - when he was on the ground, bleeding, he was no assailant, no noble, no enemy - he was a man in need of help."
"And while we helped freely, I hate to bring this up, but we had to use vastly expensive potions - may we have permission to search his room for possible monetary compensation? That was a hundred gold pieces worth of healing potions he made us waste - and to non-nobles like us, that's a LOT of money. We'd hate to be stuck with the bill after not only doing nothing wrong but trying to do what seemed right...", Sonira adds after a short moment of consideration. "Or if that seems impolite, maybe his blade, unless it's a family heirloom or needed in Durauch? Seems like it would be worth quite a bit-"
"Their goods are forfeit. You may search their room for what you will. The Captain can give you their weapons and armor. Also there are two horses that are in the stables. Those are yours as well. I'll leave it to the three of you to determine how you want to divide the spoils. I must say I am impressed in the way that you dealt with the attack."
"Hum...the arms and armor are not really our style - if you have no need of them, we may as well put them in a bag and see about selling them in the city, afterwards. We did talk for a bit, and would take the crossbows and bolts. Those seem useful, especially for hunting."
She offers the pouch with gold to Kasit:"Now, we did need to waste that potion, but we appreciate your help there - you may have saved us. Seems right for you to have this. We can also split the horses...we're both below 100 pounds, I think we can share a horse for the time being.", Sorina offers a plan of distribution to Kasit, while Sonira is busy sorting things in different piles.
"I'd also like to add that the handling of this situation was very decent by Lord Kent. From my past experiences with nobles I would not have guessed that he'd be such a fair and sensible ruler...The reason we are here has not changed at all, but I must say that I envisioned a different kind of person based on what I heard before..."
Kasit nodded. ”This has all been very fair. Surprisingly so. Enough, that I must ask, if the gracious Lord Kent has any need for any more retainers? I would hope that this unpleasant incident would suffice as a sort of interview, would it not?”
Sonira looks up from the pile she is sorting: "Hm. I suppose you'd best take that up with him then, later. Definitely a worthwhile approach to our situation."
She stands up, bringing a bottle of Wine with her: "It definitely feels like he has his eyes on us, even now. Even his bird gives the impression of watching your every step. I suppose we may all be on edge a bit, after all that happened. Since we missed the evening session, I'd like to suggest we split this bottle, right now, and then enjoy a little walk - my joints are still stiff from that cell, I could use some fresh air."
"Well, I won't say no to a good wine.", Sorina responds to her sister, taking the bottle and opening it, then finding some cups to fill. "Wonder what this is worth...it's a heavy wine. Probably more than some commoners like us could ordinarily afford - despite it being commoner feet stomping the grapes."
The three of you go to take a walk around the keep, but it is quite late now. The guards let you pass, though they warn you to be careful.
You circle around the castle without incident. The three of you take a look at the suspected door, which upon inspection Kasit realizes is ever so slightly ajar.
"Now THAT is interesting...shall we take a closer look? I mean, we stuck close to the castle because we were warned to be careful - by poor chance we find an open door in the wall...certainly nobody could blame us for being curious...shall we take a look inside?", Sorina asks, to which Sonira nods with barely contained excitement. Both of the girls turn to Kasit and look at him.
”I think it would be criminal for us *not* to go! I wouldn’t forgive myself, that is for sure.”
As you pull the door open further the smell of wet dog is overpowering. The room is dark, but in the dim light you see before you, a three-foot tall ebon statue carved into the likeness of a hyena-headed monster standing atop a dark altar, of which is inscribed with strange, runic lettering and etched with scenes of battle. Besides the statue, the chamber is filled with many dirty cots. On one of the cots you see a gnoll lying. Kasit and Sonira can make out a sound that appears to be snoring.
"I bet if he understands us, he could give us a lot of answers...", Sorina whispers to Kasit, while Sonira looks around trying to make sure the gnoll is alone.
"Whatever we do, we should be swift. I think they may have carelessly left this door open because they went outside for supplies and did not want to wake the sleepy one to open the door on their return...if we don't want to get surprised, we may want to close it behind us...", her sister adds a moment later, then focuses her eyes on the sleeping Gnoll.
"We can do that, but are we really going to...ok. Let's do this. We go in and play the part of the good guys. Accuse him of invading the castle and demand answers of why he is here. That way if he does have friends nearby we at least have an excuse to get out with our heads still attached." Kasit tried to sound brave, but his pale face betrayed his anxiety at the situation.
The three of you slip in quietly enough that the gnoll doesn't rouse. Inside Sonira and Kasit can see that there are no other gnolls, but the darkness is too complete for Sorina to see. Sonira picks up the gnoll's crude bronze battle ax as Kasit closes the hidden door.
Kasit walked over to the gnoll and took a deep breath. They had to do *something* or this wasn't going to go anywhere. With a trembling hand he took out a knife and held it close to the gnoll's neck. He whispered "Search the room. Once you're done we'll wake him up and ask some questions."
Once Sorina stood next to the troll on the opposite side of Kasit, holding her Star Knife ready to strike, Sonira started searching the room:[smaller]"On it, I'm certain we'll be able to find...incriminating evidence around here."
She works swiftly, but methodically.
Sonira finds several more cots with filthy blankets. There is also a door which you assume leads to the other room you saw through the peephole in the room above.
Sonira approaches the door and silently opens it - at first just a tiny bit, enough to see inside and notice any activity or Gnolls.
If the room turns out to be empty, she indicates the chest from the Doorframe:"Hey, Kasit...take a look at this...can you pick the lock?"
If Kasit nods, Sonira will take her spot next to her sister, both ready to strike with their Starknifes if the Gnoll stirs.
Kasit nodded and quietly went about picking the lock...
...he was glad to not have his knife over someone, but the experience left his hands shaky. It was not his best work.
Kasit works at the lock, but it proves too stubborn given his distraction. He's pretty confident that if he were calmer though he'd make short work of it.
Kasit took a deep breath to calm his nerves, and then gently slapped himself on the face a few times. Summoning all of his professionalism, he tried again...
Kasit hears a satisfying click and the lock clicks open. As he lifts the lid the chest releases a foul odor. Inside are several decaying human heads. Besides the grotesque, the chest contains 7 platinum pieces and a silver statuette of a beautiful elven maiden (Kasit remembers this is one of the items stolen from Rhiannon in the raids).
Kasit’s eyes went wide as he took in...all of that! His heart beat faster than ever as he realized that the guards wouldn’t be able to help them now. Not against this monster. He held up the statuette and held it up for Sonira. He then pointed at the sleeping gnoll and motioned for her to kill it. He really didn’t want to end up as another one of the heads...
Sonira looks at Kasit quizzically. The statuette was a great find...but why did he motion for her to murder the Gnoll?
Assuming he had a reason for his demand, she looked at Sorina, who only nodded slightly. In an almost synchronized motion, both Starblades cut across the Gnolls Throat as both of the Twins pulled it towards their own bodies using both hands for added force.
The deed done, the sisters headed over to inspect the Chest as well.
Kasit let out a breath that he didn’t know he was holding. ”Thank Desna.” He said as he stood aside, allowing the women to see the gruesome discovery inside the chest.
After fighting down her urge to throw up, she asks:"Just the statuette, hu? You think the dear lord has the remainder of the items, and this was just part of their payment? What worries me is that they are hanging around here, as if he was not done yet, and planned another hit somewhere. Unless we find some way to deal with this, there'll be another chest like that soon. You can't, by chance, mix poison or something?"
Kasit shook his head. "I'm just a pickpocket and a lockpick." He said, with a pale face. "Never drew blood before we got here. Never even saw a dead body. Goddesses above, if you didn't kill that *thing* then it could have been our heads in the box." He looked at Sorina and said "If I broke into a house like this I'd cut and run. But this isn't enough evidence, is it? I mean, I guess we should keep looking around here, at least. See what else we can find."
"Hm, I'm afraid it's too much evidence, rather. If it was just the one Gnoll, we could claim we saw the open door on a stroll around the castle, then found a Gnoll inside, and present ourselves as heroes for taking it out. But with that Chest here, it's clear that thing was not here randomly...our Host could not spin a story that explains that box. So we are in a complicated situation, now...", she ponders how they could continue from here.
"Honestly? The pay is starting to seem less and less sufficient for this. I'm of half a mind to sneak away from the castle and report back with this evidence." Kasit responded. "But as we are here, we should do a thorough search of the room and see if there are any other places that can be explored from here. Just to make sure that we don't leave anything behind which might be of use."
"You are definitely right that we should search for any other places reachable from here. I mean, we did find secret doors before and it makes little sense to have them camp in here if he has no means of contacting them, except by using the main entrance in clear view of everybody, or sneaking out of the castle himself - in that case, there was no need to have them make their lair here. If we find nothing, we could throw this chest and some of the other stuff off the Cliff and still claim we are heroes for taking out a Gnoll that was sneaking in here.", Sorina ponders, quickly followed by Sonira:"Aye, there probably others beyond this door, if we make some ruckus and they open it from this side, then we show them the beastman claiming he was rummaging in the goods and the secret door was open - I mean, he knows we were outside and the only ones in question, he'll learn that much from the guards. So we may as well present ourselves as heroes to the other guests. There's a chance he'll have a stern word with us, but he likely couldn't really do anything except congratulate us on our decisive action against a potential threat..."
Both of them turn their heads in unison and stare at Kasit for his input.