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"I am pleased we were able to get the materials you needed for this worthy task. I may need to go out and ensure that the forest is safe for logging again. I don't, necessarily believe the tribe of kobolds will hurt the loggers, and now that the wolf threat is handled, perhaps things will be better, but I do want to make sure before I report back to my superiors."
Jansen points at Anthony, "stand aside you, I would be the laughing stock of the Andoren Navy were I not to aid this lady, not when a lifetime of bar tabs is on the line!" As he takes her outside, Jansen recounts to all who will listen: "There is an old tale within the Andoren Navy, told about an admiral, although which admiral it was changes with each telling, so I will tell it as I first heard it."
Jansen gathers the mushrooms, trying to put on a sheepish look as he does so. "Oh mighty dragon, your power is manifest, and we apologize for having angered you. We will take these fungi with us, and thank you for sparing our lives." Grovelling and scraping before the kobold, Jansen places the mushrooms into his beltpouch, rises, and looks at his companions, "shall we leave the great dragon to rule his people?"
Jansen thinks hard for a moment, "you wanted the wolf's pelt, it is yours. You wanted us to slink away as if beaten by you, fine. But you said for us to leave after you had given us the mushrooms. So mushrooms it is, the arrangement now hinges on you keeping your word to us, not us keeping ours to you. We are to the point in the arrangement where you give us the mushrooms, and we leave, so let's have them."
"Idle threats are not hardly the way to establish mutual trust. Those mushrooms apparently represent the difference between life and death for a good many people, including you and me apparently." Jansen paused while that sunk in. "I'm willing to live or die for them, but these people I'm with need to leave here with intact mushrooms. So what's it going to take?" Jansen finishes talking as he finishes loading.
Likewise, Jansen will fire a crossbow round at the critter if it comes out chasing Davi. Jansen's smite from earlier is still active:
After which he will drop the crossbow and go for his longsword and shield combo. Reasoning: I don't believe ambushes are strictly forbidden to Paladins, as strategy isn't, and if the wolf comes chasing after Davi, then the assumption is that the wolf is the one that initiated hostilities anyways.
Jansen shakes his head before replying, "I will take it as a compliment that we are poor underlings. Also, I did not threaten to 'barrel' into your home. I did comment that we need to ensure that your people do not participate in any banditry. If that means that some formal boundaries and expectations are established between your tribe, and the locals, then that's what it means. Although, my commission as a Naval Officer does not grant me the authority to bind the whole of Andoran to such an agreement, I could, possibly, set in motion the ambassadorial chain to accomplish such, and would commit myself to endeavoring in that direction in good faith." Jansen glances at the rest of the group, "so what is the plan from here?"
Jansen frowns at Miirik, "While I applaud your mercantile and self-serving nature, I don't believe that such is intended to be the nature of our mutual association. Now I don't know about dragons, but for most groups of adventurers, the social compact between such civilized creatures with a common goal is generally accepted to have those with specific abilities to use them towards the common purpose. For example, I might be proficient at swinging a sword, fighting evil, or sailing a ship, and when my skills are needed, I would provide them. You claim to be good at healing, I say claim, because up until now it is all just words, with no demonstrated aptitude. Your contribution to the social whole might be that selfsame healing ability. And if you are unwilling to contribute to the extent of your ability, then likely you should not be a member of this particular sub-society."
FYI for the group. I've no intention of playing Jansen as the typical Lawful-Stupid paladin. In fact, I informed the GM when putting the character in that as a Paladin of Abadar, I intended to play him as Lg rather than the lG way many Paladins are run. You know, Paladins who feel justified to slaughter people just because they scan as Evil, and forgetting the entire Lawful side of their being. With Jansen, he recognizes that there are evil creatures in the world, and he is not on a quest to slaughter them all. He is more set to ensure that a civilizing structure, with laws, rules, edicts, and contracts exists. He'll work to establish such, or support them where they exist. From that perspective, if one views many Paladins as actually being played as NG (since they ignore laws when convenient), Jansen may likely appear a bit more LN, as he will ignore the simple existence of evil, and only work against its active plans, and not just run around scanning bar patrons and killing everyone who pings as evil. Abadar's code supports this, so I think it's the way for a Paladin therof to act. Does all of that make sense?
Jansen pulls a notebook from his pocket and reviews it. ”In my notes regarding our initial deal with Greypelt, he stated, ‘Exterminate them and you will have your reward.’ This was clearly said with regard to solely the darkmantles in the room where we handled them.” Jansen ponders for a moment, and turns a page in his journal, ”the next notes I have show that when presented with evidence of our success against the darkmantles, that the wolf appeared to try and amend the deal, now including the death of some bats and a spider, again claiming that ‘If you would so kindly exterminate them for me you shall have your reward.’” ”At that time, there was a brief discussion, and consideration to change the terms of the arrangement, during which the wolf attacked. It was Davi,” he gestures towards her, ”who brought everyone to cease hostilities. Davi made some efforts to parse through the details of our original agreement, somehow implying that it was reasonable for the wolf to arrange a ‘pay as you go’ plan, because the work was only half done, despite any such mention of future extermination tasks. In retrospect, it is clear that the wolf was not living up to the original bargain at that time, which made no mention of any creatures, real or imagined, beyond the darkmantles.” Jansen flips back and forth through the last several pages in his journal. ”While the wolf may have assumed we agreed to kill more creatures for him, because we discussed it and left on the task, my notes do not show that we formally agreed to an amendment of our original bargain, the one which included the darkmantles for the mushrooms. The only failing in this logic which I can find is that we were not clear just how many mushrooms we were to be provided for the death of the darkmantles. However, I conclude that the darkmantles for mushrooms arrangement has been successfully satisfied on both sides, and that arrangement is now complete. If this fellow,” he gestures to the kobold, ”has an alternate source of the mushrooms that you require, then I see no reason why we couldn’t exploit that in the near term, and worry about the wolf at a later time. The immediate need is mushrooms, correct? Obviously, I still need to solve the problem of loggers being molested, which might be attributed to man eating wolves in the area, so our goals might coincide more closely than originally thought. And since our business relationship with the wolf in the darkmantles for mushrooms deal has been satisfied, I do not believe we, or I, have any further contractual relationship with the wolf, either fiduciary or contractual, although I would want to inform him of this ruling officially prior to our initiating any hostilities.” He pauses a moment before suggesting, "perhaps we should heal ourselves prior to informing the wolf of our intent to continue the extermination of the pests in this place, commencing with him and his brood?"
"I don't believe that does change our agreement. If we made an agreement when we were short on information, then that is our fault. Should Greypelt violate the agreement, then I will be with you in fighting him, otherwise, the foundation of civilization and interpersonal relationships is based on people being true to their word." |
