Eletor considers his options for who can carry the dynamite for now... Okay, there is the Halfling who causes fire explosions... No.  The Dwarf who turns into a pile of butterflies... No.  Julia?  Maybe, depends on how good that armor is.

  Then Johnny shows up and gets put to the top of the list of 'who not to give dynamite to'.  "The only good thing about the fact this rebel had dynamite, was that their reliance on insiders to open the gate mean there is even a gate still standing to close."

  To Johnny, he says "Did you miss the butterflies and puppies killing people while under that body?  Still, I would prefer not to kill people just in case with no actual crime known.  If you are willing to give some active help against the attackers, you are welcome."  After all, he wasn't exactly a first choice of beheading slavers when he started doing it anyways.

"Oh, I'm sure I'll be useful," Johnny said as he bounds toward his new friends.  "You'll find I'm more than just a cute face with some daggers."

Julia yawns at Johnny's display, obviously unimpressed. "Just leave the negotiations to me, Greenbeard," she says, smirking and patting the hilt of her sword. "I'll make sure we get what we're due. Eletor, why don't you hang on to that," she says, pointing to the stick of dynamite, "It might come in useful later."

"And as for you," she eyes Johnny over her shoulder, not deigning to give him her full attention, "If you're staying make sure you stay out of the way if things get rough. Until you've proven yourself in the heat of battle you're not worth my time."

Merric's eyes look about, as if scanning the area to be sure there are no threats. Finally, he turns to look at Johnny and says, "Nice knife work. And don't worry. He's only a half-orc. So the stink will only last half as long and is only half as potent."

He looks at Julia. "It makes sense they were after the Mayor's home. But we should probably find out who that woman is and how she got involved. As our only living prisoner, she's our only source of information."

At that, Johnny looks over to see the prisoner, and then scratches his chin, and then, with a snap of his fingers, heads over to the prisoner.  Not to interrogate at first, but just to stir up idle chit chat.

'maybe she'll warm up to me enough to talk,' he thinks as he walks over, leans against a wall and starts talking.  "Interesting day, isn't it?"

---

Note to DM:  You can have this go however you want at your discretion.

Greenbeard cleared his throat at the mention of puppies and butterflies but made no other comment.  To Julia's offer he smirks, glad to see she is willing to stick her neck out for the team.  He raises an impressed eyebrow at Jonny's display, recognizing it for what it was.  Greenbeard nods to Merric, watching Jonny take initiative.

"Would look good we took initiative in questioning her, yes."

  Eletor's main worry is that Johnny has apparently no idea what he's throwing his daggers at.  Hopefully there is no 'aw poo, I didn't know that was the prisoner' later.  But it's low level, so Eletor still has some optimism.

  "Right, I shall hang onto the boomstick then."  On that note, he heads up to make sure the mouse doesn't fall over knife first during questioning.

Merric watches the mouse.

The woman wakes up. She looks to be in her 40's and gasps at the sight of the mouse. Then looks around and sees all the dead bodies. "....." She looks back at Johnny. "I'd say a pile of dead bodies at the city gates count as interesting, yes. My head hurts..."

Johnny offers her a drink from his wineskin, which he pulls out of somewhere in his motley, nobody has yet to find any pockets yet. "Maybe this'll help." He says.  "Perhaps I can ask you what brings you so close to said pile of dead bodies?  I could assume that they looked worse when they were alive, and these guys'll attest to that."

The lady gives Johnny a half-inquisitive / half-disgusted look. "You got a problem with human faces, mousey? Sure, some of them's ugly, but there was a handsome one or two in the mix."

"Your head hurts because I hit it with a rock," Greenbeard explains, "Why were you helping the rabble?"

Johnny makes his Puppy Dog eyes again, noticing the mix of curiosity and disgust.  But he returns to 'normal'  (Normal for him, that is) to say, "Well, I'd guess they'd be handsome if they're not trying to kill anyone."

The lady glances at the dwarf. "Why should I tell any of you?" She then looks back at Johnny. "I mean, you're cute and all, but my reasons are pretty personal."

Merric says, "Well you realize you are going to be tried and likely executed. However, if you cooperate with us, we can see about making your sentence not involve execution. See... so far, we're the ONLY ones who saw you opening that gate. And even then, it could have been a mistake."

Julia unsheathes her sword and walks over to the prisoner. She kneels down in front of the woman, examining the blade without paying her much mind. It's very sharp, and very shiny. "We're also the only ones who know you're alive after aiding a bunch of rebels in storming the gate. If you met with an unfortunate end during all the chaos, no one would be the wiser..." She finally fixes her icy gaze on the woman, blade slowly nearing her neck.

  Fortunately, Eletor is not a Lawful Dumb Cliche so a little proactive dishonesty for one that did not try to kill them directly is fine, if it actually gets results.

  Threatening to kill a prisoner on the other hand, is a bit more of a grey area.  "While true Julia, I would prefer she makes herself useful alive than saving the hangman some effort."  There hadn't exactly been time to give the girl a standard 'surrendering after you are beaten does not count' warning.

"I can see that you believe yourself in the right," Greenbeard comments, "I'm not surprised.  I got that same impression from the others.  Especially the commander.  If you believe your cause just, wouldn't it make sense to let it be known?"

Johnny just raises an eyebrow at Julia, who had her sword at the prisoner's throat.  "No more caffine for you, ma'am."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:39, Fri 21 Feb 2014.

Merric isn't sure about Julia. The girl throws threats and insults around like a drill sergeant. But this prisoner DID just open the gate for an invading force. That's high treason.

The woman gulps and says, "My cause is my own. The half-orc had his own just reasons for hating the mayor. But my reason for hating him is because he cheated on me."

Merric looks furious. "YOU ENDANGERED THE LIVES OF THIS ENTIRE DISTRICT OVER YOUR HATE FOR ONE MAN?!!"

The woman cringes and says, "N-no! Not really... their only goals were the mayor's home and destroying some of the supply buildings!"

Julia looks away with a frown. "Tch, how petty. I suppose you spared no thought for whatever pedestrian or child might get caught in the crossfire. You disgust me." She stands, sheathing her sword and turning away from the prisoner. "Unless you've some information that's actually of use to us, we'll just turn you over to the guard and let them decide what to do with you."

  Eletor sighs, but manages not to facepalm or snort.  "The problem with that sort of plan, is that it is never just one person who is hurt."  Also, exploding someone just because they cheated on you.  That's a bit extreme but he's not going to get into that right now.

  "Considering every gate is in need of guard and suffering casualties, trying to find just what is pissing so many people off would be for the best.  Unless the Mayor is just very, very incapable of keeping it in his pants."

  Half-Orc thought he was the one, but now what is half is his heart broken in two?  Well, also his arm count, that's also been cut in half literally.

"Petty?  Perhaps," Greenbeard says, a look of understanding turned toward the woman, "But natural.  It is not uncommon for an ant or bee to risk the entire colony because of mating issues."

Your druid is showing.

"So what was the half orc's cause?"

That alone was enough to send Johnny rolling off to one side, causing him to continue the roll so that he ends up right side up.  He looks back at Merric.  "And no more caffine for you too."  He then returned to the woman.  "You on the other hand need more places to get your coffee.  I have an extensive list, though most of them won't let me in anymore.  Don't know why."

Merric turns to Johnny and opens his mouth to speak, but thinks better of it and leans his back against a wall. The woman says, "The half-orc's name was Grunt. Says he was rejected by society for being born and never stopped being hated. Well he came to find out he wasn't alone... there were others in the city who were tired of the way they were being treated. Basically, this was a whole group of people down on their luck. Grunt said he wanted to kill the mayor to send a message to the leadership that they won't tolerate the kind of oppressive procedures that were going on. For him it was racism. For his band of humans, it was likely other things like death taxes that starved a family, laws that prevented them from perusing careers as guards, and other stuff. But all I know is Grunt was their leader and was aiming to change things. He figured the war that's going on would eventually distract the city guard enough and sure enough, he heard the East guard were about to be recalled to the North. So he thought the lazy guards would be here... none of us had any idea the city would hire powerful adventurers."

"Unfortunate for you, more unfortunate for them," she gestures to the dead bodies. "Too bad I'm only here for the gold. I care nothing for the political machinations of this place unless it'll pad my coinpurse. However, since you've been so cooperative, I suppose the least we can do is let you live."

  "As harder as it can be to deal with such problems without killing the apparent source, at the very least the Mayor and surrounding government could not simply use your attack as an excuse to disregard your claims or worse, an excuse for them to worsen your situation.  I do not know how well anyone will fare today, but you at least, have a chance to not throw your life away without changing anything."