"Is that so?" Brenner begins to show interest. "How is he doing? And his betrothed - what was her name again?"
"Darra. They're well and send good wishes. Tannis thought you could help us."
Nathaniel sees to getting the horse stabled or hitched to a post (depending on what facilities the tavern has) and getting the cart off the street (into a stable or courtyard or what-have-you).
Once done, he joins the others in the tavern, making sure not to leave their ‘trade goods’ unattended. If it is possible to sneak Erfan in through a back door or something he will do that.
Res stands slightly behind Angalia, as she introduces herself to Brenner. As his eyes adjust to the dim light, he casually looks around the room for anything of interest.
Perception
Brenner smiles at Angalia's response. "That all depends on what you're looking for. Any friend of Tannis is a friend of mine."
Res: You don't notice anything odd. This place seems rather ordinary.
Erfan thanks Nathaniel for his assistance and dons the oversized nightshirt once more, leaving his spear with the wagon beneath a canvas.
Erfan thanks Nathaniel for his assistance and dons the oversized nightshirt once more, leaving his spear with the wagon beneath a canvas.
Erfan thanks Nathaniel for his assistance and dons the oversized nightshirt once more, leaving his spear with the wagon beneath a canvas.
"We're looking for a man called Gilbraith and a woman called Lenna. They'll have arrived about four weeks ago according to Mother Kindry."
"I can't say as I know those names. Could you describe them?" Brenner asks.
Angalia gives a brief word picture of the pair they seek.
"Mother Kindry thought that Gilbraith would be at home here. That the practices of your lord might make him welcome."
She tries to keep her voice neutral, but can't keep her fear and disgust from showing, her eyes travelling involuntarily to Brenner's branded face.
"There's another thing - we - errm - crossed the border without papers. I've got a feeling we may need them if we're to move freely in this city."
At Angalia's mention of papers, Brenner looks concerned, "Now now. Careful where you're saying that sort of thing." He looks at the man at the end of the bar. "Glastoy's alright, but you've got to be careful." He adds in a whisper, "I'll get you sorted out."
You notice that the man at the end of the bar has the look of one who has been in military service. Now disheveled and clearly on hard times, he still carries himself like a soldier.
"I think I've seen the man you're looking for," Glastoy mutters. "Didn't look so lordly, though. Filthy bugger, battered and tired, he was. Still acted like he was the ruler of the place. In these parts, a man like that only has one place to turn. He pulled himself together and enlisted."
Angalia blushes at her own stupidity.
"I'm sorry. That was stupid of me."
She turns to Glastoy. "Let's all have a drink at least. If we're going to talk, let's make it seem natural to be here. And to be honest, I could use one anyway. It's been a tense sort of day so far."
“Indeed,” Nathaniel slaps some coins on the bar and turns to Glastoy. “Friend, we’d be most appreciative if you would sit and have a drink on our coin while you tell us what you know of this man – where would he be now if he enlisted? The drink is yours whether or not you know any more, but it is very important that we find this man. He ... may know where my sister is.”
Glastoy's eyes light up when Nathaniel offers to pick up his tab. He slides his tankard to Brenner and the innkeeper refills it with a wink to his visitors.
"He signed up with General Milrosk's regiment," Glastoy says. "I know because some of my old army buddies are still in that regiment. Milrosk is one of the most trusted officers under Lord Drakov himself, and even those of us in the lowest ranks knew we were important. When you're a soldier like that, people show you respect." Glastoy's mood falters and he glowers at his tankard before imbibing its contents in a few large gulps.
Brenner whispers conspiratorially, "It's not uncommon for someone like our friend here to turn to the drink, after all the things he's seen and been told to do. When they can't stand to be sober no more, the army's got no use for them."
Glastoy continues, "As for Milrosk's regiment, I don't know where to find them. They moved out a few weeks back and nobody seems to know where to. They're on what you might call a 'need to know' basis. The officers are all gone, too. Except..." He trails off.
Angalia nods at Brenner to refill Glastoy's tankard, sliding move coins over the counter to cover the bill.
"Have another. I don't know what you've been through, but I know a man who needs more to drink when I see him."
"Well," Glastoy continues, "the officers usually know where the troops are deployed, but they're all gone."
Brenner chimes in, "They've been running on a skeleton crew here in town for a while now. One might think it would give some measure of hope, but the people of this town are so beaten, nothing's changed. When you're under the rod all your life, you don't know what to do without it. You continue on out of habit. It's probably just as well - I'm sure the soldiers will be back, and will be looking for anything gone wrong in the meantime."
Then Glastoy adds, "They left a few, most of them garrisoned at the prison. They're led by the one they call the Surgeon. Not the healing kind, mind you," Glastoy says dourly. "When you see this Surgeon, there's no getting better. Never leaves the dungeons, but the Surgeon is a captain under General Milrosk, and would probably know where they've been deployed."
“So that’s why there are few guards on the streets ... is there anything else going on? The guards we did see appeared to have a sense of urgency about them. Maybe it is just that they are trying to do the job of twice as many ...?” The question is a general one, then Nathaniel turns to Glastoy.
“Thankyou for helping us,” he says, buying the man another drink. “I’m sure we could have learnt such information from others, but you have saved us a lot of asking about.”
He moves out of earshot of Glastoy, and speaks in a low voice to the others. “So ... it appears we will need to gain access to the prison if we are to find out more. That ... could present a challenge.”
"Maybe not, Nath. If they're under-manned, recruits are going to be welcome. What about Res?"
Nathaniel scratches his chin through his beard and looks at Angalia with a quizzical expression. “What do you have in mind?” he asks.
"Res joins up and gets the lie of the land from the inside - it seems like the least suspicious way of finding out what we need to know."
Res, listens to Angalia's plan and then speaks up. "I don't like this plan for several reasons. First, there is no guarantee that I will be deployed near Gilbraith. Second, we don't know how long or how much training recruits go through before they are deployed. Time is not our friend. Third, I think I can hazard a guess what happens to deserters when we are done. I'll be a marked man," Glances over at the brands on Brenner and Glastoy's foreheads, "in more ways than one. There must be another way."
While you have been careful to be out of Glastoy's earshot, he chimes in, "It's a prison, you know. Getting in isn't that hard. It's getting out that's a problem. I don't know much about what goes on down in the dungeons, but I know the guards don't go down there - not even to chase an escaping prisoner. All you gotta do is convince 'em you've got some business down below. Once you get through, though, you're on your own."
"That really is easy then. It's a prison. They're going to need a locksmith."
Eliva nods and whispers softly, "Dangerous, but seems the fastest option. While I'm not much of a hand with locks and such, I can move fast and stay out of sight when needed. I can come along out in the open, or wait around a corner to keep out of sight and assist if force is needed."
Nathaniel nods. “I prefer the faster, more straight forward approach. We get in, we get what we need, we force or fight our way back out if needs be. Angalia posing as a locksmith is probably a good start, but we need to expand that to find a way to get all or most of us in. We have a hidden advantage; we can smuggle our weapons and armour inside in those magic bags.” The last sentence is said in a whisper just to his companions – he really doesn’t want Glastoy to hear about that.
"Maybe I can help you there," Brenner says. "I'm sure I could outfit you with a letter, explaining the need for the particular skills of you foreigners to install some special restraints for the Surgeon. You drop that name in the introduction, and no one is likely to ask any more questions than that. People don't want to know."
He adds with a wink, "And don't worry about Glastoy. With what I know about him, he knows better than to go to the authorities."
Nathaniel clasps Brenner’s arm. “It would be much appreciated my friend,” he says. “Antyhing you can do to help ... and we don’t expect you to stick your neck out for us based on no more than our association with your friend Tannis. We’ll pay for your expenses and time.”
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"That is a plan that I like better. We need to come up with a semi large structure for our ruse in order to justify all of these people being needed to erect it. We don't necessarily have to build anything, just have the materials to make it look like we are building something large.
Now, let's discuss what we are going to do after we question the surgeon.
Once we have the information we need, what will we do with him? I'm sure it is no surprise that I say we must kill him. It is fortunate that even his own troops try to avoid him, so when we slay him, it may be days before he is discovered. This will buy us time while we go find Gilbraith. Once we break out of the prison, we will need to leave quickly before the general alarm goes out. Any supplies, we need we should obtain first.
And one more thing, who knows what horrors we may find in the dungeon, or the state of the prisoners that are trapped in there. However,we will not be able to help them escape with us. We can exit the prison quietly under the pretext of getting more tools and supplies. That will be more difficult with a bunch of escaping prisoners on our heels. This is as distasteful for me as it is with all of you, but we must keep our eyes on our purpose here."
The gnome shuffles about uncomfortably. "There is little I can do to support us in this plan... though I may be able to slip away unseen with a decent distraction. If nothing else... anyone asking too many questions might be persuaded to desist their inquiry when presented with evidence of a sorcerer. I'm certain I can provide a sufficiently frightening display."
Eliva grimaced at Res' words. "I - I know that getting information on Gilbraith is of paramount importance, here...but I don't know if I can leave those people to the fate in store for them." She closed her eyes for a moment and murmured a prayer for wisdom to Erastil. "Goodman Brenner, the people in this prison...are they truly criminals? Dangerous to the populace?"
Brenner sighs, "I wish that were the case. Most of the prisoners, held for a short time in the upper reaches of the prison, will wind up on a pole. Those that get sent down below - well, no one quite knows what happens to them."
He turns to Res, "When it comes to a convincing lie in this situation, the more outlandish it is, the more believable it will be. And don't be afraid to let the guards' imaginations do some of the work for you. Just give the supposed device a colorful name like 'the iron rosebush' or some such."
"If we're smart, we can get the prisoners out too, Eliva."
Angalia traces a spiral on the table with her finger as she thinks aloud.
"We say we're there to construct a garden of sensations. Something like that. But we need experimental subjects. Those would be the prisoners. We take them out with us. If anyone questions it, we can offer them a free trial of the "garden"."
She shivers slightly. "I'm with Eliva. I will not leave people there if we can get them out."
Seeing the determination on Angalia and Eliva's face, Res, considers for a moment and then turns to Glastoy.
"Glastoy, given the skeleton crew of soldiers in this town, how many soldiers do you estimate are at the prison? If its a few, we may be able to fight our way out as Nathaniel as suggested. We can free what prisoners we find and surprise the guards on the way back. In the chaos that ensues we can make our escape and may be save a few others."
He turns back to Angalia and Eliva. "If we do this your way, the consequences for this town may be more dire. It has not taken me long in this kingdom to see that Lord Drakov is not a forgiving man. Done right, the death of the surgeon may be staged as an accident. However, if it accompanies the release of prisoners, it will be a clear sign that someone has come to oppose him. He may take his vengeance out on the entire city. Are you prepared to increase the suffering in this town in exchange for saving the poor souls we may find in the dungeon?"
Nathaniel looks torn. “From what I suspect of this ‘Surgeon’ he will deserve no better than death. The prisoners … we cannot in good conscious leave good people to die if we can save them, but Res is right, I am concerned for the consequences to this town. We may need to leave evidence that it was outside agents, rather than rebels within the town that initiated this … of course that will bring Drakov’s wrath and focus more squarely onto us.”
Glastoy responds to Res: "I figure about fifteen to twenty. You're right though - if you empty the whole prison, I sure don't want to be in town. They'll be back all right."
"We don't know what we will find in those dungeons. For all we know, all of the prisoners in the dungeons may be dead or turned into things far worse. I'll agree that if the opportunity to ease any prisoner's suffering presents itself, and it doesn't look like it will bring Lord Drakov's wrath upon the town, we should seize that opportunity. Otherwise, it's go in, extract the information from the Surgeon, and leave as quietly as possible. Now, let's focus on our plan to get into the prison."
Brenner provides shows you to your rooms. They are cramped and poorly lit, but functional. A short while later, he produces forged papers documenting you as foreign merchants from a land known as Mordent. "Don't let anyone look too closely," he says. "Signatures can be hard to get quite right."
You are able to rest for the night. He tells you how to get to the prison, which is in the center of town. It is a large fortified structure with few points of entry. With your ruse, he recommends simply approaching the front gate.
Angalia takes careful note of the fake papers supplied by Brenner and gets to work with an invention of her own.
DM
Create or Detect Forgeries: Forgery requires writing materials appropriate to the document being forged. To forge a document on which the handwriting is not specific to a person, you need only to have seen a similar document before, and you gain a +8 bonus on your check. To forge a signature, you need an autograph of that person to copy, and you gain a +4 bonus on the check. To forge a longer document written in the hand of some particular person, a large sample of that person's handwriting is needed.
The Linguistics check is made secretly, so that you're not sure how good your forgery is. As with Disguise, you don't make a check until someone examines the work. Your Linguistics check is opposed by the Linguistics check of the person who examines the document to verify its authenticity. The examiner gains modifiers if any of the conditions are listed on the table above.