Whisper in her sleep cringes at hearing her mother's surname attached to her own preferred epithet (Little does she know it's the Paizo alias system's fault for a "Whisper" already being taken), but obviously her origins are no secret despite her efforts to separate her life from her mother's. Doubtless thanks to her bastard, pun intended, of a father.
She's groggy and half-drunk even in dream, the broken words of prophecy that she'd been reading about drift in and out of her mind. She wishes she could come up with a better retort than this, but it's what springs to her tongue before anything better can replace it.
"Yeah, I got a question. Why not take Sharess's portfolio instead, since you're obviously nothing but a glorified whore?"
link provided for those who don't know who Sharess is (not to be confused with Shar!)
PS: Going away till Sunday so posting will be slow. Bot if need be.
After awhile, and pausing a moment to make sure passed out Kyras is still breathing in his pool of vomit (but leaves him there), she retires to her room and begins work on transcription (earlier described in the ooc thread), starting with the more intact books (she will wait till she can sit the wizard's guild to work on the more delicate ones). She falls asleep, sitting up in bed, over her journal.
(If she's sharing a room with Solaria, she is likely to wake to see Whisper still crumpled over the books, ink pen in hand, ink somehow not miraculously spilled all over the place due to some careful balancing act of pillows and the placement of Whisper's knees.)
Looking around the group at Kyras's statment Agathon stands up and raises his mug, "I'd be honored! I welcome the oportunity to face enemies with you by my side! Your enemies are now mine, as mine will be yours! What say you?"
Whisper pauses, considering. The man was foreign, and she doubted the Xanther or the Zhent's influence traveled to where he was from. She shrugged, which was her way of consenting. Kyras seemed to trust him, he looked strong, and they needed someone who could take a hit.
DM Aron Marczylo wrote:
The young man continues to tend to the group, smiling as he serves Whisper and Solaria. You get the sense that he is a nice, though innocent young man who finds both girls attractive, though seeing Solaria flirting with the big man he focuses on Whisper, asking her what drink she wants and serving her as well as trying to get some small talk going on.
Whisper ordered her drink and sipped it slowly, but she soon became aware his oversolicitousness came from more than gratitude. She could take advantage of it for service, of him for fun, but she'd had a bad night and largely wanted eventually to be left to her thoughts. A small part of her sort of pitied him, and knew an innocent young lad's acquaintance with someone like her would only eventually get him into trouble, quite a lot of it potentially. And so she said diffidently, "Kid, you're barking up the wrong tiefling." and returned to her drink and the drunken knife tossing in the corner of the room.
Yeah, I didn't expect more than the 5 gold standard.
Whisper wonders at this bizarre lad who looks in fear at the human built like he came to life from a Lathandrian statue, but thinks the lady with the rasp and the pointy teeth is acceptable company.
Badger had already hosted their dinner earlier in the evening, so she kept it simple.
Whisper will happily take the mithril short sword--a fine sword for a Waterdhavian swordswoman, and a good new sheath to go with it. She'll sell back one of her old short swords for the few gold it's worth if he'll take it.
Whisper eyes up Agathon but says nothing, just looking at Kyras expectantly to explain why he's acceptable to sit in with they were in the middle of their planning.
"Miss...this blade is worth atleast more than 3,000 gold. You saved my child the last thing I wish to do is rob from you. If you still wish me to do this I will, but I want to pay you the proper amount." this is certainly the first time you've seen a dwarf so concerned with someone getting a fair amount of money on the price.
Whisper is certainly not going to argue with a dwarf willing to part with gold.
"What do you have to trade? Not many have thousands of gold lying around, but dwarf crafted weaponry is worth quite a lot."
Whisper's looking hopefully for a magic or special metal short sword but will also look at what else he has available.
Malstei Alenuath wrote:
Mal looks at Whisper speaking quietly around the blacksmith, "If we expose him it would be the same result as if we attacked him just now".
Whisper shrugs. "Fair enough." Were Whisper more virtuous, she might note his presence could bring harm to Beregost in the long run--but then again, she herself knows there's a time to raise the ante and a time to fold.
Kyras Quinta wrote:
"Playing his game is dangerous at best." Kyras speaks up. "As if the things we've stirred up aren't dangerous enough! A GOD for crying out loud. And now half-fiends and beholders. What? Are they supposed to pale in comparison? Kyras grows more agitated at every word.
"Now you talk of beeing tracked by devils and destroying devil-crafted magic items!" Kyras's voice breaks a bit at that last.
Whisper corrects him calmly, examining her fingernails (silently enjoying his panic because it allowed her to ignore her own). "Demons. He spoke Abyssal, not Infernal. Don't confuse Demons for Devils--they'll flay you alive for that. 'Course they'll flay you alive anyway, but how slowly they do it can make a difference.
Solaria Jesari wrote:
Solaria turns to Mal, smiling she says, "You talk much sense, it echoes my own thoughts." She returns and says goodbye to TzeTing as he returns to his plane. Entering into the tavern, she goes to the bar and orders drinks for everyone returning from that horrible trip to the demon spawn."It's been a long day again, but before we retire at least one more drink to wet our lips and for me to thank you for taking and accepting TzeTing and me as friends. I hope with this cup, we can seal our friendship made real in adventures to come." With that Solaria sits down, a slight crimson colour coming to her face. She turns to Whisper, quietly, "I hope I didn't speak out of turn."
Whisper wasn't sure why Solaria was asking her, but somehow she perceived that she'd managed to earn something of the halfling's loyalty and wasn't going to turn that away. "Ah... no, you're fine." Whisper takes the drink offered.
She addresses the group at hand AFTER all have finished toasting their friendship. "Cleaning up loose ends isn't a bad idea. We gotta keep on the down low though. Obviously big eyes are watching us... ah, no pun intended, Badger," she paused, thinking of the earlier proposed threat of beholders. "And the people here are worshipping the ground we walk on. Okay, they're grateful for saving their kids, I get that, but we also just did a job we're paid to do. It could have been any low grade mercenary in our shoes who did that, but they're acting like we're freakin' Avatars walking the earth. As fun as that is, word will spread fast of our 'heroics'--and as much as I want to become a rich and famous adventurer, I don't want to attract the attention of an assassin who thinks we're a bigger threat than we really are. And the more people we save around here, the more overblown the stories of that are gonna be. And the more likely it is our entrance into certain areas are less likely to be able to be kept secret. Certain people will know to be on guard for us, so we are going to have to be on our toes. I'm not saying we shouldn't take those missions, we just need to be careful."
Whisper you're very certain that since the houses are so close togething being old hovels in this poor part of town. A lot of innocents would be harmed.
Yes, she's pissed off but not interested in mass murder of innocents just to get to this guy. I do my very best to make her a fiendish-influenced Chaotic Neutral, but not Chaotic Stupid.
Quote:
As you take the knife to the blacksmith he looks at it and you suspeciosly. The Dwarf has always been curious and suspecios about things, especially when he finds out you want to try and melt it down. Pulling it out you can see this blade is magnificent, very light and he even tries it out with a few knife tricks, but he's by no means a professional.
"All I can tell you, is it's made from Adamantine, a very strong metal said to be the strongest of all. It's masterwork quality and possibly magical, but I have no idea." he still looks at you questioningly, seeing if you are sure you want him to attempt to melt it down, but he's confident it would be worth a lot more money sold than melted down.
Whisper shakes her head. "We've made some enemies from the temple we saved those kids from. Some bad bloods tried to plant this knife with us and I don't want them using magic to track us through it. I'll trade it to you if you want, for a good quality smallsword if you have one. But promise me you'll reforge it into something else... maybe arrow heads or reinforce a buckler with it. I don't think the metal itself is tainted, but the blade in the form it exists, any magic that's on it... that needs to go."
She points to the sheath. "Chuck that in the fire while you're at it. I'm pretty sure that's the language of demons and the sooner it's gone, the better."
She joins the party (if they are not with her) at the Wizard's Guild.
"You think maybe we should tell the Flaming Fist they have an operative of the Xanther hanging out in their town?"
Whisper rubs the bridge of her nose as the remains of the spell drifted from her mind.
"I know you did what you did to save your skin, Badger. It's nice to see you acting sensible for once rather than pretending that whole stupid 'compassion' thing."
She looks at him, the corners of her mouth twitching in an odd sort of smile as she speaks very sweetly and calmly. "But when his fiend allies eventually come to devour our souls, I'll be sure to feed you to them first to save MY skin."
"After all, you're the one who decided to trust the demonspawn you DON'T know rather than the one you DO." Whisper jabs at herself. "Everything that happens from here on is on YOUR head, Shorty. Remember that."
Whisper takes a few steps, looking up at the house. "I suppose setting fire to it would risk it spreading to others' houses, hm." She shrugs.
She turns to Kyras. "Let's go to the blacksmith. We need to get that thing--" she eyes the dagger in his hands-- "Melted to slag before it can be used to track us down."
Sorry, I'm sure it was meant to be a special treat for Whisper but under the circumstances she's not going to want anything to do with it.
Sorry I mix my words, but yes I said you are allowed to fail a willsave in this kind of circumstance. Also since you leveled I believe you'll be frozen for 12 seconds. Second level and you might want to fail the second willsave.
Okay, that gives the party more time before Whisper flies off the handle again. That also gives someone else a chance to react to his pulling something out of his pocket.
If the Halt command allows her to speak (since all it does is make you stop whatever you're doing), then she will still say the thing about his being the servant of a half-fiend.
Aron, I'm not sure I read you right but I assume you mean it's okay for her to fail the check.
Whisper stands stunned at Badger's command for a moment. It wears off in about six seconds or so.
If NOTHING has happened by the time apart from the chatter that's cycling through the party and it's come back to her "turn," she snaps out of it and says:
Spoiler:
"Beholders my ass. This guy just admitted to being the lackey of a very dangerous half-demon and needs to die fast."
Whisper sees him reach into his pocket and attempts to disarm him of the object he is drawing forth.
Well THAT just suddenly got VERY personal; the mention of her father stabs at her gut like a poison knife. Whisper feels violated, her privacy thrust aside by this smug and casual offering. And the rage builds into a rapid tsunami inside her before common sense can hope to counter it.
Her rasp turns into a grating snarl. "How DARE you!"
As she "yells," Whisper draws her rapier and thrusts it at the other tiefling, letting the offered items fall to the ground, untouched by her.
Party members should feel free to stop her before anything else happens, but I'll include my attack rolls in the spoiler just in case.
Spoiler:
Attack -- if he is flatfooted, vs. his Dexless AC:1d20 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7
Whisper purses her lips, considering things carefully. If this fellow is so desperate to achieve rank without bringing direct harm to himself, she doubts he is high enough rank to have information of significant value. The offering of a potion, no matter how valuable, had nothing to do with the kind of information they needed, and he had no way of proving he'd been keeping the Xanther off their tail--let alone have the authority to do so.
She gives a very slight nod to Malstei, but isn't ready to make any signals yet.
"That's all? A man with the power to keep the agents of the Xanther at bay would have more to offer than that. And offering us the loot off bodies we'd kill with our with or without your 'help' isn't much incentive either."
She adds in Abyssal.
Spoiler:
"After all, if we're killing to gain rank in the Xanther, we could just start with a lazy leech of a lemure who's too spineless to do his own dirty work."
IF their contact begins to react with the slightest of hostility, Whisper will signal Malstei to shoot.
Whisper cocked her head, and she replied in Common this time, "Or we send Xanther rings back to you, you suss our location, and then sell it to your bosses in hope of gaining favor. How do we know you won't sell us out? Maybe give us some of the information we need up front, so we know you're good for it."
Whisper considers his words carefully. She knows he speaks Abyssal, and even anyone who cracked open the most elementary tome on the lower planes knows that while Infernal-speaking Devils may be trusted to keep their word (however they might twist it), Abyssal Demons couldn't be trusted as far as they could be thrown.
She mentally goes back through her mother's books, trying to discern what this creature might be--half-fiend or some lesser demon? Knowledge: Planes1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23
She replies in Abyssal.
Spoiler:
"How flattering, to think mere mercenaries are targets of the Xanther. That's a lot of vengeance for just capturing one of their lower level flunkies. Why don't they go after the Fist, who paid us to do it? Or are we just to be made an example of, hm?"
Whisper snickers as she takes the share given her by Kyras, and turns back to the door when everyone is ready. "Back up a little, folks, don't want this guy thinking we're going to bull rush him."
Whisper rechecks the ad for instructions upon arrival and follows them if there are any; if not, she taps on the door.
Whisper will be happy to do that, but I am waiting for Kyras to post, if he understands the sigil. If he's not around, DM Aron, do you mind botting him since you seem anxious to move the scene forward?
As Whisper tries to nab at someone's coinpurse they grab tightly, beating you there and eyeing you as they each head either inside a hovel or down the streets into the darkness, keeping away from you as you weren't stealthy enough.
Whisper just shrugs and laughs at the little fellow running off and rejoins the group.
Sorry, I didn't describe that too well. She literally steps, like, 10-20' away from the group, grabs someone's purse, then rejoins the group. She didn't leave the scene.
As you head to a cheap and more run down part of town you notice many people appear to slip into the darkness, avoiding you as they clearly see you all as the law makers around there.
Once Whisper realizes that, she breaks away from the group by several steps and picks a few of the scurriers' pockets for good measure, to teach them a lesson about making such insulting assumptions.
Sleight of Hand (subtract 1 if she's still supposed to be 1st level)1d20 + 7 ⇒ (4) + 7 = 11
Quote:
Arriving at a rundown looking hovel is the house on the address. There is a light inside the building that's on. You can also see some strange sigal on the wall.
Whisper stands well away from it, but squints, trying to see if she can tell if it's magic or not. (Practicing her Rogue Minor Magic Talent)
Whisper nods in response to Solaria, but says little else on the matter lest she end up making the halfling cry again.
Later in the discussion, after Malstei speaks, Whisper raises an eyebrow at the ranger's sudden enthusiasm, but does not remark upon it.
"Then let's go see this person tonight. I reckon it'll be better to deal with this sooner rather than later." Whisper took a bite of fruit. "After dinner's settled a bit."
So is everyone going to bed first or are you guys going to go to the next place?
We haven't decided. We're still talking about it IC.
NPC wrote:
"Here's the Mulled wine. No charge. Brining back my sister is something my family will repay anyway we can." he blushes a little as he says this. His blond hair, seeminly messy and apron messy. "So...err...can I get you beautiful ladies anything?" as he asks this he looks between the two of you. You get the vibe that he's trying to be charming, but his inexperience shines out, even to you Whisper.
Part of Whisper would have loved to mess with this guy's head, but she didn't want to get Solaria any more upset than she was. She smiled, mouth closed, and simply shook her head, and awaited Solaria's reply.
Badger Woods wrote:
'I'll be honest, Whisper, I'm a Monster Hunter. Demons and Devils are pretty high on the list of things that I distrust and am trained to hunt. The associating with people that consider Demons and Devils as friendly doesn't sit well with me.'
'I know you,' speaking to Whisper, 'are good in a fight and I have no quarrel with you. I am though leery of associating with someone who calls out to demonic forces.'
"You're leery? You never met my mother." She shook her head. "As you say, he may have information. Question is: confront him directly, pretend to take him up on his offer, or see what we can learn about him indirectly?"
Solaria, forcing a smile under her sad eyes, "Despite what everyone says, not all halflings are the life and soul of the party, attracting friends all the time. Some of us follow a different path, one where the love we thought we had was stolen, and replaced with loathing and ... I don't want to say it. But you have helped me for no reason, other than you could, or so it seemed to me. You and the others are the only ones to have done that for some time, other than my other planes family.
You showed me kindness, so I thought it was because we were friends, but if I'm wrong, I'm sorry..." Solaria turns her face away, lowering it slightly as her shoulders judders, her hand rubbing her eyes.
Whisper tried for the life of her to remember when she had shown kindness to anyone let alone Solaria.
And then it occurred to her that Whisper considered a kindness to herself was when anyone didn't go, "Aggh, what is wrong with your teeth?!" and chase her out of a place with a torch and pitchfork. Okay, that exact event was unlikely in the city where she grew up, but she was used to being ignored and ostracized.
It never occurred to Whisper that anyone else might feel the same way.
She also noticed the halfling seemed to be starting to cry and she had NO idea how to deal with that.
She shifted awkwardly in her seat, and signaled to the barkeep and said, "Mulled wine for the halfling." She pulled up one of the stools the tavern kept for small-folk, with the climbable rungs so they could easily access the seat while sitting at the same height as the larger folk in the region. She patted the seat for Solaria to join her.
She chewed on her lips (which were calloused from repeated past such behavior). "Nobody is nice to me, Solaria. Nobody should be nice to me. I'm a freak, and you know that. I don't get why you and Badger and everyone have been... have... I don't know, treated me more than just a business partner. I shared some information I wouldn't trust with just anyone and no one listened. I figured you guys had wised up and were ignoring me." She shrugged. "I can't talk any louder than this, maybe you just didn't hear me in the excitement of it."
When Badger later arrives, Whisper has no problem partaking in free food.
She later shows the group her little map and the info on the bounties on the notice board. She will mention the Abyssal notice only if she's sure no one is listening in on them.
Solaria looks at Badger quite shocked, "What's she gone off like that for....No, I don't think you did Badger. Perhaps she's upset with me, she's a funny one and I thought she was my friend." Solaria turns away from Badger and shuffles off after Solaria, quiet sobs may just be heard as she breaks into a run after Whisper. In her mind, its all my fault, its only my planar traveling friends that are real. I bet she doesn't even like me really. as waves of apprehension sweep over her as she follows Whisper, wondering if she would still be friends. Its so much easier when its demons, they are aways your enemies and never your friends.
Once she catches up with Whisper, Solaria quietly follows her into the tavern and quietly asks, "Are you alright now? Are you still my friend."
Whisper sits in the tavern with her new journal, drawing a rough map of Beregost and where the different people went missing, and where the goblins were spotted. She also marks the location where the Abyssal speaker said to meet him/her/it, to see if there's any correlation.
She looks over at the halfling, the worry apparent on Solaria's face, and Whisper, though convinced she was the wronged party, somehow feels badly regardless to see the tiny woman regarding her so earnestly. She's seldom felt like this, and doesn't quite know what to do with it. "Am... am I your what?"
"I can't think of anyone who's ever asked me if I was their friend, before. Who wants to be friends with a thing like me?"
Does the "Missing Husband" post have a description of him and where he was last seen?
Whisper notes the names and locations, if provided, of each person who put up a notice.
She also takes down the Abyssal notice and slides it into her clothes. She has no immediate plans to respond, but this way no one else can either.
It occurs to her she needs to buy some of her own writing materials. She detours to the nearest papermaker, tanner, bookmaker, or printmaker to buy a blank book and a scribe's kit.
Whisper watches Badger and Solaria continue the conversation as if she hadn't even spoken at all, and scowls. "Ya know, I know I'm the icky tiefling and all, but if you want me to shut up, just say so. Don't just ignore me like that."
Whisper turns and leaves, discarding her offer to contact her guild in Waterdeep, and heads for the tavern. She'll stop and read that bounty board on the way.
Whisper will toss her own two coppers in when they are NOT in the same room as Xavian.
"If we want someone to look like a child, I think Solaria might be the better choice. Just practically speaking." She eyed Badger. "You speak goblin, right? You'd be more convincing, no offense, disguised as a gobber."
In part, Whisper thought this because Solaria was obviously disposed to more child-like behavior. She didn't know how to say this well, so she just kept it to herself.
"Your plan to copy the ring is sound, but double and triple check to be sure they're good copies. I'm sure people have tried to counterfeit those, and I reckon the penalty for being found out is painful."
Whisper chewed her lip, further into the conversation, pondering something. "I've been thinking. I've done... let's say freelance contractual work with an organization in Waterdeep called the Violet Shadow. Specialize in trading information, and perhaps the, ah, occasional acquisition of misplaced items. Now, they usually stay the hells out of a place like Bloodstone or get in the way of the Xanther. But if this guy was operating originally out of Waterdeep, I was thinking of maybe sending word to find out. Only thing is, I don't trust the standard courier situation. I'd probably have to pay for a message spell of some kind. You think it's worth it?"
Just making stuff up off the top of my head about Whisper's previous employers in Waterdeep, so if anything contradicts, please feel free to correct and we can adjust.
This is also a reminder/place holder that Whisper needs to later share what she found in the books, but she won't actually have read them until a couple days from now, and we should finish this business first.
Yes, Whisper has the bag of gold. If the party remembers to ask her for it, she'll divvy up the contents. :)
Whisper stays quiet for now. She will be willing again to play bad rogue to good inquisitor should it work, but she figures the guy called the "inquisitor" is probably better at interrogation than she is.
"The cult can't be forming. All those who were involved with it have died. No one can gain any divine power or channel energy through that symbol." he claimed dismissing that there was any divinity attached to that evil symbol and the temple that once housed it.
"Look at me." Whisper points at the bruises and pallid flesh brought about by the negative energy waves she took from the hobgoblin cleric, as the healing from Badger had only partly renewed her. "That's not tiefling pallor, chum, that's the type of damage you take from energy from the negative energy plane. Which hit me after he held up the symbol and prayed."
Quote:
As you make your way to speak to the owner of the wizard's guild you find a fairly attractive older woman who appears to be in her late 50s. At first she smiles to invite you to sit down and all appears to be going well as she appears to listen, but continued to leaf through the book she was currently reading and as you pass on the message she freezes and looks up at you with an annoyed expression.
"You saved my neice and you are...friends of my brother in law?" as she says this she narrows her eyes and leers at you through her specs and chewing her lip. The mention of her brother-in-law seemed to have angered her.
Whisper eyes the book she's reading to see what it's about. Perception:1d20 ⇒ 7 (This left out the added modifier +6, so 13 total)
She may reply, but will wait for the more diplomatic Badger to take the lead.
Whisper shook her head. "I didn't mean take Stalken with us. I just meant to take his ring. Nor do I think we should pretend to be on HIS business specifically--just if anyone asks what we're doing there, we can show either the ring or the Zhent coin so we look like we belong there; pretend to be low-level thugs for hire so we don't know what's going on. Which then will lead them to ignore us and then we can investigate as we please."
Whisper will go to the wizard's guild with him. Wizard's guilds are always lovely sources of fu-- er- explosio-- er, assistance.
Whisper had finished at the Flaming Fists and meets the rest of the party at the Temple of Lathander as originally stated.
When the priests start to fret about the holy symbol, Whisper takes it and swiftly tucks it away (Sleight of hand1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17). "It would be stupid to destroy the only piece of evidence we have that this cult is forming. You want them stopped, don't you?"
She listens in on the conversation between Badger and the priest of Lathander. "Bloodstone is a place even criminals walk into with trepidation." She shook her head. "But as they deal in the deepest filth, and it's obvious that's what's going on here, with child slaves and whatnot, it's the most likely place to get more information and find the root of these problems.
She cleaned her nails on her bandolier. "I wouldn't step in there myself unless I was paid damn well. But if we were to go there, after being sure we were well-armed and well-supplied, I'd suggest taking the Zhent and the Xanther markers with us, try to pass ourselves off when we need to. She smiled with her pretty pointed rows of teeth. "I'm sure most'd more easily believe I worked for a criminal guild than the Temple of Lathander."
For training montage, Whisper's going to be reading through the books they found (carefully, perhaps recruiting a local archivist to help her preserve the books) (taking some knowledge skills) and practicing with her swords.
I'm still thinking about what Rogue Talent to take. If I decide to go the "minor magic" route she may ask to sit down with one of the party spellcasters and work with them on focusing her ability.
ETA: DM ARON: Now that the APG is out, are you allowing anything from that book besides the classes? Thanks.
ETA2: I will take the average, assuming the average is half the hit die (4 hp for a d8)? I know there's weird statisticalness like the "average" of a d6 is in fact 3.5 and not 3 (so you would alternate between taking 3 and 4 hp every level). I don't know how persnickety you are with that. I'm happy with 4 hp (which goes up to 6 with con).
Would like to remind you all that you got letters off the rogue and one off the hobgoblin. No one's looked in them yet though.
We'll look at them when we are all together and make sure everyone's safe, I think. Right now the party is technically a bit split. Whisper's not going to tell Frakes because she thinks he's an incompetent goob (this might be entirely unfair, but she's not exactly a fan of the law).
Could we please have a total list of the stuff we got from the last fight, here or in ooc? It was mentioned a bit piecemeal in several different posts and would probably be a good idea to repost all in one place.
Whisper shrugs at Frakes. "It's some kind of religious Chosen One thing. His ring says he's with the Xanther. They're rivals to the Zhent, which is weird. I'd reckon either they're competing to get the favor off this kidnapping business from this cult of the Dark Lady, or either the Zhent OR the Xanther are working on this and trying to get the other side blamed. What's clear is that the Cult of the Dark Lady is using these organizations to do its dirty work. Anyway, he claims he's merely doing business--and it's true, it's unlikely that they'd tell a pointless middleman flunky like this their whole 'evil villain plot.' Organizations like those take 'need-to-know only' pretty damn seriously."
Whisper leans against a wall, not talking her eyes off the rogue. "Your real concern is this religious cult, not the flunkies on the fringes looking to make a quick buck off something like this. The cultists were eating some of those children, but fattening Evilbane's kid up for something else. I've got an idea about what to do next to find out who this guy was going to sell the little girl to, but obviously I'm not going to share it in front of him."
She looked between the rogue and Frakes. "He's small fry. I'd question him for all he's worth then quickly execute him immediately, before he has a chance to get away. 'Course, you want to make a grand show of it and give him time to wiggle loose from whatever bonds you put him in, it's all on you when the girl gets kidnapped and taken to her doom all over again. He'll fear failing his boss more than he'll ever be afraid of small town constables." Whisper says this with a bit of a sneer, to show her own lack of respect for Frakes.
She looks Maria up and down. "Well, I guess you didn't hear, but Solaria and Malstei volunteered for guard duty. The Private can report to them though, see if they need a hand."
Whisper nods back to Solaria. Maybe since the party was offering to do guard duty, she had a much better chance of talking Frakes into 200 more gp later.
"Good idea. In fact, once I make sure these guys have this man safely locked up, I'll meet you at the temple."
Whisper follows Frakes with Stalken the rogue in the meantime.
Whisper watches the concerned parents with a bemused look, perhaps wondering what it would be like to have someone openly show such concern for her own well being when she was a child. She shrugs, fluidly scooping up the sack of coins that Frakes tosses and follows after him--with one hand still on the leather straps tied to the rogue's bindings.
"Captain. Keep a guard on the Evilbane girl all the time. They want HER specifically for something. This guy here was willing to pay us 50 platinum for helping us get her to his business partners."
She paused. Her intent had been to be helpful-- but the following dripped out of her mouth by force of habit, mourning the net loss of 200 gold pieces' worth of coinage. "'Course, it was a pretty generous offer..."
Apologies for any repetition but this is what I've picked up.
Badger is setting the fire.
Malstei and Solaria and minding the kids.
Whisper and Kyras are tormenting the rogue.
Once we're sure the fire's okay and under control, we start heading to town, with M&S escorting the kids and W&K are escorting the rogue. Badger will catch up behind us.
I'd say we'd probably head straight for the temple of Lathander.
I think we were going to pretend to try to deal with the rogue but that got lost in the shuffle.
"Stop trying to distract the people guarding you with your lies," Whisper snarls at the rogue, as if she were completely oblivious to the conversation she'd had with Kyras earlier.
She pauses, smiling at the rogue wickedly. "Maybe we SHOULD let him go, since he's trying so hard to distract us. I'm sure the Xanther would LOVE to see him again, empty handed and all. We've got what he wants, he'd be smart to stay put. Even if he dies at our hands I reckon it'll be a lot less painful than what his bosses'll do to him once they learn of his complete and TOTAL failure."
At a moment she can speak to him without drawing much attention (probably while Badger's setting the fire), Whisper approaches Kyras and speaks softly in his ear, "Do you have anything that'll keep this guy unconscious for awhile?" She indicates the rogue they captured.
"Not risk killing him though. We need answers from him.
Whisper pauses to make mental note of the descriptions of the statues in the main room before Badger goes about his burny business. In fact, she will ask around for some ink and pen and jot the details down on a scrap of cloth or parchment if she can.
"I... something irks me about those statues," she says, thinking of the one that so very made her think of her mother's descriptions of her father. "Remembering what they looked like might be a good idea. Otherwise... burn away. We've got the loot, this Xanther whipping boy, and the books."
Whisper holds up the silver holy symbol. "Badger, you recognize this? Think it was his holy symbol."
There were a lot of gods wrapped up in this, Whisper thought to herself. Getting caught up in a religious war was a bad a idea... and she was still curious why some of the criminal organizations were getting wrapped up in them. Things like missing children and blood sacrifice caught attention... not usually good for business.
Once rogue is secure, Whisper will help loot, as she had already suggested looting to begin with (okay, she suggested looting the hobgoblin specifically, but it should have gone without saying to continue from there).
Perception check to give the area a good solid once-over after Badger gets the chest open etc.: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (10) + 6 = 16
