"Humph." Cain just exclaims skeptically. He does not see what would stop Sanvil from simply informing the League once they let him go.

Sanvil nods his head insistently, "I ... already sent word of the find and a request for support,"[Private to Cain: He hasn't.] he explains, "But I can send another message calling it a false alarm! The ruins aren't significant. They'd believe that of me."[Private to Cain: He believes they would.] He thinks for a moment before adding, "And ... I could explain that with no more torch, it's not worth collecting tribute from the town. They'd leave the town alone ... at least unless you can reignite the torch."[Private to Cain: Even he thinks that's a stretch.]

"Interesting proposition, Sanvil. Why don't you give us a moment to consider it?" Cain beckons others to follow him aside, just out of Sanvil's earshot, before continuing in a quiet voice while never taking his eyes off their captive.

"I could be wrong, but I get an impression he has not alerted the League just yet. The question is, what do we do with him now? Taking him on his word seems... unwise to me. The alternative is to just end him now and hope I'm right that he really has not contacted the League about this. Of course, if he goes missing, the League might send someone to investigate that. Or not." He shrugs.

"But another possibility has just occurred to me. A League spy in town strikes me as a problem for the Council, does it not? I certainly did not recall the words "find and deal with the League spy" when we were offered this job. So, let's make it their problem. Bring him to them and let them deal with it. Surely this was not the first League agent ever that was snooping around, so they might have a better way of dealing with this than we do."

OOC: I can't think of any other possibilities, but I'm open to ideas. Anyway, Cain would be in favor of putting a cloak or a bag over him to make it less obvious to the town who we have and handing him over to Dolga and her guards. Who knows, maybe there will be an award for this (I doubt it, but at least if something later goes wrong they won't be able to blame us for it).
This message was last edited by the player at 10:11, Sun 11 June 2023.

Zorden moved over with the others, but kept an eye on Sanvil as well as they quietly spoke.

"I'm all for turning him over to the council.  If they want us to help deal with him, so be it, but they're probably used to dealing with the League.  Otherwise they wouldn't have been able to keep Torch mostly out of the League's hands."

With an apologetic shrug towards Sanvil, Morin followed the others back to discuss the man's fate.  Once out of earshot, Morin nodded along with Cain's assessment of the situation.

"I dunno." he interjected, looking guilty about even bringing up the subject.  "I mean, if we march him through town with a bag on his head, there's going to be all kinds of rumors about what's going on.  And if word gets out about the town killing or locking up a League spy, that's not good for anyone."

"But what if he just...went into the caves and never came back?  It's a lot cleaner of a story, right?  We can just say we found the bodies down here.  Maybe the skulks got him, maybe the robots did.  Who's to say?."

He shrugged, as if to say it wasn't important.  "I know, that's pretty big talk for a little guy with no weapon.  I'm certainly not going to do the coup de grace myself, I'm just saying. And besides, I've got some more questions for him before we do anything.  Like what he actually knows about the torch, and what's up with that list he had?"

"A more pressing question would be then, if we don't take him to the council, how much longer should we spend trying to get information out of him?"  Zorden asked quietly.

"Skulks might come looking eventually for any scraps if they heard the fight, and there's whatever is wrong with the councilor to consider.  It'd be just our luck if he keels over and dies before we get back into Torch from whatever was done to him."

Cain takes a worried glace over Khonnir. "Hmm, whatever was done to him, I don't think he is in imminent danger of dying on us. I think. Still, it would be better to get him to a healer sooner rather than later."

"Back to the topic at hand. Morin, when you ask your question, can you also ask about these thugs? Did he just hire these two, or is the whole damn gang in on this? As to what to do with him, while him disappearing without a trace is certainly an attractive option, I'd still prefer we leave that decision to our wise leaders. Let them get their hands dirty for a change. If you are worried about witnesses, we could wait for nightfall before leaving the caves. Less chance of him being spotted by the locals that way."

OOC: Not sure what the time of the day is.

"We now know that the League sent Trett here to gather information about Torch. If he doesn't report something back to them, they are likely to send someone else. Also, we might need his knowledge and magic to restore Khonnir. We should ask all the questions we think he might be able to answer before we do anything else with him." Ionaya replied.

"I would be rid of him if not for the useful things he can tell us. Besides, having our own spy on the League would be helpful in protecting Torch and ourselves against them." she added.

Cain considers Ionaya's idea of turning Sunvil into a double agent. "Interesting. Problem is, I wound not trust the guy as far as I could throw him. We would need some kind of a leverage to make that work, something we could hang over his head. If we could get him to spill the beans on the League, maybe we could use that: do as we say or we will expose you as a traitor."

"Our leverage is our knowledge. We can expose him as a League spy anytime we choose. In addition, we could threaten to send word to the League that he has betrayed them. At this point, his life is in our hands, it would be best for us to keep it this way. Unless we choose to end him here and now." she said.

After a glance in the direction of Khonnir Baine, she adds insistently, "But we must find out what he knows that might help Khonnir. If he knows of some technique or potion that can aid Khonnir, we should get it from him. If he can help bring the councilor back to full health, that makes him worth saving."

"Right, so question still stands.  We stay here until we get everything we think we can get out of him?  Or try getting him into town, either now, or perhaps waiting until dark if it's not already, and then see about getting what we need, maybe on our own, maybe under the auspices of the council?"  Zorden asked.

"He's talking freely now." Morin reasoned.  "We might as well listen to him.  He might clam up once he realizes we're not just letting him go."

He looked over towards the huddled figure of Khonnir Baine.  "Besides, Baine's doing okay.  If anything, he might want to rest a bit before we're drag him through the water tunnel."

With that, he turned back to Sanvil, approaching the prisoner with a genuine-seeming smile of relief. "Good news!  I was able to talk the others down from killing you.  We're amenable to working together, but we'll need a bit more info first.  Y'know, as a show of good faith.  First off, what was that you were saying about having done your own investigation into the torch?"

18:03, Today: Morin Matzylford rolled 29 using 1d20+10 with rolls of 19.  Comedy as bluff

"Okay, okay..." Sanvil nods, still processing the situation and seemingly calming down as it appears murdering him is less likely, but still reserved, "Ever since the torch went out I've been watching everyone closely and keeping my ear to the ground. I mean, odds are something like the torch, in Numeria, is related to some powerful tech and not some errant magic or deific intervention. I've been trying to get as much information as I can from the expeditions ... but not many have returned. I thought the Temple of Brigh, of everyone, would know something, but they've always been tight-lipped even before it went out." He shrugs a bit and tilts his head, admitting how little he's gained from them before continuing, "And then there's rumors about a purple-haired lady who came to town for a bit and then left shortly before it went out. Maybe just a coincidence, purple hair sticking out in peoples' minds." He shrugs again, but then leans forward, glancing at the unconscious ropefists before continuing in a whisper, "But there's something up with Ulreth, or at least a warehouse he owns. Around the time the torch went out, he upped security at the warehouse and the thugs he hires either don't know what's worth protecting in there or aren't letting it slip." He glances again at the downed ropefists in thought for a moment before adding, "They're not really with me. Fear of the league and promises of being on our good side got them to help me, but I couldn't ally with them ... not after what they did to the other one." The tech merchant grimaces as he finishes speaking and shakes his head.

With his gut suddenly twisting in dread, the big barbarian looks about the small cavern for a moment before gripping his great blade tightly and quietly turning to scout the twisting tunnels still between the party and the watery exit from the caves.

Cain glances at the barbarian leaving and is about to follow after him when something the merchant says stops him.


"So, Ulreth and his pets know you are an agent of the League, but they are not working for the League themselves. What do you mean by the other one?"

Morin nodded along with Carl's question.  "Yeah, what other one?  We know about purple hair and her rats already, but I didn't have Ulreth pegged as any more than your standard small-time gangster.  What else has he been up to?"

Like Cain, Morin was distracted a bit by Cael's seeming restlessness. Watching him go, the bard's eye was naturally drawn the the other figures around him, and settled on Khonnir Baine's hunched figure.

"And, uh, on a completely different note, do you have any idea what happened to the councillor here?" Morin gestured for Baine to come a bit closer.  "Some robots attacked his crew, and stuffed him into a tube, now he doesn't even seem to know where he is." Morin did his best to describe the tube, the room, and the robots to Sanvil, even bringing out the more mysterious tech they had found in the room with Baine.

"What? No. Just those two." Sanvil shakes his head and furrows his brow in disbelief that he has to explain, "The woman with the monster."

Cael storms back into the cavern, blade in hand and enraged as he accuses, "He killed Synn! Slit her throat and left her on the shore!"

"No, I just needed her quiet! They took it too far! Remember, you need me!" the merchant protests as if his life depends on it.

Zorden looked to Cael, and then walked over to Sanvil and took a knee beside him.

"You are correct.  How exactly do you make your reports to the league?"  He asked.

Cain stays very quiet at the news. Attacking the party was one thing, but killing one of them was something very different. As far as he is concerned, Sanvil's chances of walking away from this just went from poor to non-existent.

OOC: Oh boy, this opens some issues. We were promised a scroll of resurrection if we get Baine out alive. Would it be in character for us to now ignore a dead former PC? Cael came in with her, right? So, would he want the scroll to resurrect her? I suppose he could take it instead of his share of the reward and loot, but still, that scroll is worth 12.257 gp.

And the other thing - what happened to the tentacle monster? Is it now loose in the town?

Morin allowed his cheerful expression to darken at the discovery of Synn's body, but his did his best to keep his face clear of any hatred or disgust.  He also restrained himself from mentioning that Sanvil's hit squad had brought exactly one blade with them into the caves, and that blade had been in the League spy's hand.

"...Like I said, it was a legitimate conflict of interests." He replied awkwardly.  "It doesn't change anything.  What's important is that we look forwards.  Our first order of business is getting that message to the League that it was all a false alarm.  How were you sending messages, anyways?  No offense to the land of Numeria, but the postal system around here is an absolute joke.  I didn't find a sending stone or nothing on you.  Were you just casting a sending spell" This last question was meant as bait: Morin knew just enough about magic to know that a spell like that was beyond Sanvil's abilities.  If the spy claimed otherwise, it would be proof enough that he had never sent a message at all.

Sanvil shakes his head at Morin's joke about Numeria's postal system and insists, "Just simple coded letters, sent by courier. Purchase orders and the like someone would expect from a merchant. The League roots out banditry here, unlike to the south where you can't tell the kings and bandits apart." He glances towards Cain, hoping the slight doesn't anger the dueling blade-user. With a bit of calm seeming to come after that bit of excitement, the merchant looks over to Khonnir Baine and responds to Morin's earlier question, "I'm no doctor, but he looks injured? Stupefied? If you can figure out what's wrong, and it's tech, then maybe I can help?"
This message was last updated by the player at 17:16, Tue 20 June 2023.

Zorden got to his feet and looked to Cael,  "He still needs to be able to write."  He commented to the big man truthfully but otherwise indifferent before he moved over to amongst Sanvil's pack and things and began looking for something he'd seen earlier.

"Really?" Morin asked, surprised that a country like Numeria had regular courier services to and from a place as small as Torch.  Coming from a fairly luxurious upbringing in the heartland of Taldor, he had instinctively written off Numeria as a lawless wasteland filled with roaming barbarians and rampaging monsters.  Honestly, he was a little disappointed to hear that it was the kind of place where you could just...send mail.  Oh well, he could always just leave that sort of stuff out of his inevitable play, to preserve the proper atmosphere.

"Okay, then we just need to send another letter calling it off.  We might as well take care of that, now."  Rummaging through his pack, Morin pulled out a sheet of parchment and a quill to right with.  "You write it down now, tell us who to send it to, and then we'll mail it off next time a courier becomes available.  We're gonna untie your hands to write it, but don't get any funny ideas or we'll, y'know, we'll kill you."

Morin was being openly friendly, but was still doing his best to hide his tension.  As far as he was concerned, Sanvil's usefulness ended the moment he wrote that letter.  Even then, any coded message he wrote was as likely to be a trick as it was to be genuine, but that was an issue they could figure out once they had it in their hands.

Sanvil looks skeptically between Morin, the parchment he was laying out, and the looming barbarian before shaking his head and reasoning, "What's to stop you from killing me after I write it? You need me to keep reporting in or they'll, at the least, send someone else to replace me."

Cael steps forward and raises his blade, growling at the man menacingly to make clear he's not in a bargaining position, and Sanvil quickly takes up the parchment and quill. When finished, he pushes the parchment forward to Morin to read:

"There," he says and instructs, "Send that with the next caravan to Starfall and they'll know the ruins aren't worth sending anyone else. Unless I stop checking in, of course."
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:14, Fri 23 June 2023.

Zorden stepped back over to where Sanvil had finished with the parchment.  He had the ion tape in one hand and the zipstick in the other.

He looked at Morin awaiting the gnome's judgement with regards to Sanvil's letter.