Morin made a big show of chuckling along with Bron's grinning declaration, before leaning back in. "You thick lump."  He muttered back, still smiling at the guards.  Getting even closer, he continued quietly and slowly, his irritated tone contrasting with the wide, fake smile on his face.  "They're not staking you out, they're waiting for backup.  The militia just hit Garmen's warehouse.  There's fifteen guards tearing the place apart right now, and the other half of the force is poking around back=alleys trying to run down your boss after he pulled his disappearing act on them."

He continued slowly, as if not sure the big man was smart enough to get the implications of what he was saying.  "The second those guards get done over there, they're coming here.  And when they do, it's in everyone's best interests if there's no "goods of shame" left on the premises for them to find.  So how about you quit jerking us around and let us in, so we're not having this conversation two feet away from the fucking cops."
This message was last edited by the player at 08:33, Mon 11 Mar.

For all the shade thrown toward her, Kelaria really wasn't as dumb as she looked or sounded.  She suddenly wheeled on the town guard trying to give the Small Man something to work with.

"And one among you shall be chosen, who can take my Metal!?  Do none of you hear its call!?  Is there not a man among you, or at least a really yoked woman with an awesome hammer!?"

She hoisted said hammer up and down.

"Who will come forth and taste its bounty!?"

"No shit, really?" Big Bron exclaims more than asks, somewhere between entertained and impressed by the news, but continues to lean back against the wall, calmly crossing his arms. At Morin's repeated insistence, he only shakes his head and offers "No one's stoppin' ya, big man. Get to whatever y' came for."

As Kelaria continues to make her scene, two of the ropefists crowding the doorway move outside to watch the show while one ropefist, the cashier girl, and other patrons move back inside--either to get back to their gambling and work or to gawk from a safer distance. One of the guards, still confused by the brute's rantings, pulls a whistle hanging from a chain around his neck from beneath his armor and prepares it as he asks as calmly as he can manage, "Are you threatening us?"

"Does the sky threaten the sea?  Does the snake threaten the dew?"  This was actually a line from a child's story in her tribe, used, far, far outside of context.  It was something about how not everything is fighting all the time, or something.

"Speak your name bold one, and receive your accolade, and your bile!"

Morin nodded, taking the big man's response as permission for the entire party to enter.  "Gladly," He responded.

Turning around, he casually moved to put himself between the barbarian and the guard.  "Wow."  He exclaimed to the guard cheerfully.  "You lot don't spook, do ya?  Don't worry about it, just a little cultural misunderstanding.  I'm sure you two would wind up the best of friends in no time if I let you keep talking, but unfortunately we've got places to be."  Turning back to Kelaria, the bard put out both hands and started pushing the huge barbarian towards the Silverdisk with all his might.  Given the enormous differences in size and weight, the shoving was purely symbolic.  But Morin hoped the gesture would get his point across better than trying to talk to the nonsensical brute.

Kelaria wasn't sure what the play was any more, but she acted like the shoving was effective, hoping no one noticed.

"What is the riddle of Metal!?"  She called after them as she was so brutally forced back.

While Morin and Kelaria were acting their parts, Ionaya followed the rest of the people inside. Making certain that she was well out of the way of the incoming Morin and Kelaria show, she took a look around at the goings on inside. She also looked for any entrances and exits.

OOC
Ionaya rolled 17 using 1d20+6 with rolls of 11.  Perception.

The two guards watch uneasily as Morin pushes Kelaria along, and Big Bron frowns as the gnome deliberately ignores what he had been told, but rather than picking a fight with the guards there, the big man instead hands his red hat off to another of the gathered ropefists, gives a mocking salute to the guards, and follows behind the trio. Inside is much as Morin remembers it, although with fewer people. Inside the main entrance is a foyer with a caged-in area for a chip exchange and through a wide opening to the right is the games room with several tables for card or dice games as well as a small bar. Tonight there seem to be only seven guests sitting around two tables while bored dealers and a few security ropefists lounge at the bar or along the edges of the rooms. On the wall across from the entrance is the doorway to presumably an office area--where Garmen has emerged from in Morin's last visit.

As the party enters the foyer and as she is finishing locking herself back into cashier's cage after watching the scene Kelaria made, the cashier girl asks hesitantly, "Welcome to Silverdisk Hall! Would you like to buy some chips?" But once everyone is in and he closes the door behind them, Bron asks tersely, annoyed by Morin's actions, "So what'd Mr. Ulreth send y'for?"

"Not today, thanks!"  Morin waved off the chip cashier cheerfully.  Having made it into the building with Kelaria in tow, he had noticeably relaxed.  He had worried that Bron and the others already knew what was up and were luring him into a trap, one him and Ionaya would have a hard time fighting off alone.  But given the Ropefist's earlier performance in combat, Morin had no doubt the barbarian could reduce everyone in the room to a soup-like homogenate in about thirty seconds.

Looking over his shoulder to reply to Big Bron, Morin shrugged.  "Y'know, it was a bit of a rushed conversation.  We definitely gotta get his accounts ledger out of here.  Y'know, the real one, with the business deals the council doesn't gotta know about.  Sounds like the guard's evidence is pretty circumstantial now, but if they know for sure what he's been up to?"  Morin drew a thumb across his throat and made a little "neck-slitting" sound.  "He's getting tossed into the beam, and he ain't the only one.  I think there's some other stuff, he said we'd know it when we saw it."

"That his office there?" Morin pointed at the back room, starting to amble in the general direction. "Anybody here got the key?"

Ionaya watched Morin and Kelaria for long moments, slowly and quietly making her way towards the back room ahead of the gnome. She awaited the results of Morin's clever patter and considered what she might do next while standing near the entrance to the back door.

Big Bron's brow furrow in confusion for a moment at Morin's words, before realization dawns on him and he lets out a laugh, "Aww shit, you 'ad me fer a minute! But ye'r in way over yer 'ead." He shakes his head in good spirit as he pulls the Silverdisk Hall's door back open, revealing the room to anyone outside, and gestures back out the way everyone came as he insists politely but with authority, "You can leave now. Go 'ave a word with yer guard buddies."

Morin laughed along with Bron, genuinely sharing his amusement. "Yeah, I'll admit that last part was a stretch!  You got me! I was just hoping to get this business sorted out without any more bloodshed." The gnome chuckled a bit, shaking his head.  "I mean, don't get me wrong, after all the monsters and robots we've been battling below the ground, you lot don't exactly scare me.  You only got two arms each, zero tentacles, and I highly doubt any of you have a net-gun built into your arm.  But we gotta wipe out, like, a whole tribe of plant guys in the morning, so...look, I'll level with you."

A bit more seriously, though without a speck of fear, he told Gram the truth.  "Garmen's a traitor.  He turned the Torch off, or at least he helped turn it off.  I'm sure you've heard about the big buzzing doohickey he's got stashed in his warehouse?  The one he turned on the same day the torch went out?  I dunno if you put two and two together, and I honestly don't care.  But Garmen clearly knew the jig was up when we found it, because he drank his second invisibility potion and now he's doing a runner.  We're trying to track him down before he makes it out of the town limits, 'cause knowing exactly what he did might come in handy while we turn the Torch back on and save your little town.  You dig?"
This message was last edited by the player at 06:48, Sun 17 Mar.

Kelaria grunted.  The big, loud crazy Kelaria was suddenly gone, and silent, brooding, want to tear your arms off Kelaria had replaced her.

"I said you can leave." Big Bron repeats slowly and firmly to Morin and Kelaria, his patience wearing thin. "Or I can call them guards over t' drag y'out?"

Ionaya, for her part, manages to slink across the room towards the office door--not avoiding notice but at least avoiding drawing Big Bron's ire.

Kelaria, though her eyes were not visible thanks to her massive helmet, locked eyes with Bron.

"What say you, Small Man?"

It was clear what Kelaria was thinking, but she wanted to give Morin the chance to be the reasonable one again.

Looked like Bron either didn't believe what Morin was saying, or was simply so phegmatic that being implicated in capital treason just didn't draw any reaction.  "Here, let me save you the trouble." Morin replied, before raising he voice to a volume only possible to someone trained in theater.  "Hey, officers!" He called, his shout easily carrying out the open door.  "We could use some law in here, if you don't mind!"
This message was last edited by the player at 20:59, Sun 17 Mar.

The guards, even from a distance, can be easily seen frowning at the continued nuisance as they make their way towards the Silverdisk at Morin's call. As the pair near and their views are clear, Bron begins to guide Morin and Kelaria out of the door with a firm hand as he informs the guards, "This lyin' gnome an' his crazy lady ain't welcome an' are refusin' t' leave."

The guard taking the lead shakes his head in disappointment as he gestures for the pair to follow and directs them, "Enough causing trouble. Come with us and let's talk."

Despite Morin and Kelaria's efforts to draw most if not all the attention inside Silverdisk hall, Ionaya decided that they had failed in drawing attention away from her, so she went to the cashiers station and approached the girl in the cage there. "You offered to sell me chips? Could you quickly explain the games here along with the costs of the chips?", she asked the girl quizzically.

Ionaya decided that becoming a regular customer here was the best way to avoid unnecessary confrontation until she could get a chance to make her way into the back.

"Do you wish to speak to him, Small Man?" Kelaria asked, very, very calm at the moment.  Which should be terrifying.

As Bron the gangster tried to "guide" Morin and Kelaria out of the door, the gnome just stared at him in a mixture of bafflement, amusement, and a little bit of offense.  It was like every single member of the Ropefist gang was so used to being the only tough guys in town that they didn't even stop to consider the consequences of laying hands on an armed mercenary.  Morin was used to that sort of thing, of course.  Anyone looking at him could probably tell that he didn't do a lot of killing.  But trying to shove a fully armored, clearly unstable, barbarian warrior out the door like an errant drunk?  That was a level of overconfidence that Morin himself could only aspire to.  Did Bron not understand that she could kill him?  That she probably would kill him, under slightly different circumstances?  Or would he go out like poor Gram, dying in complete shock when an armed killer refused to let themselves get assaulted by a guy with rope wrapped around his hands?

Heh.  Dying of "shock."  He'd have to remember that one.

Ignoring the bouncer, Morin flashed a winning smile at Kelaria and the two guards. "One thing you should know about me: I always want to talk.  Lead on."  Following the two militiamen out of the casino, he went along with them until they were out of earshot from the door, then stopped to hear them out.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:35, Tue 19 Mar.

The guards lead Morin and Kelaria away from the Silverdisk, back across the intersection in front of the building, as Bron closes the door behind them.

When across the street again, the old of the two introduces them, "I'm Joref, this is Marus. So you're not with the ropefists? Are you the mercs who caused the scene at the warehouse? What are you up to now?"

"Did I not already explain this at great length?"  Kelaria asked, sounding absolutely exasperated.  How complicated could this possibly be?  She was tired of these city people.

"Don't worry, there's like sixty guards in the whole town."  Morin reassured Kelaria brightly.  "So at worst, we only have to have this conversation another twenty, maybe thirty times."

Turning back to the guards, he shook his head at Joref's question.  "Nah, we're the heroes who exposed Garmen Ulreth as a traitor to your people.  We might have made a scene while doing it, I didn't notice.  Too focused on trying to save your town, I guess!"  He shrugged cheerfully.

"Speaking of which, the council sent us to search Garmen's business, see if we can find a clue about what he was up to or where he might be hiding.  Honestly, I'm a little surprised you lot aren't ALREADY searching the building.  What gives?"
This message was last edited by the player at 05:07, Wed 20 Mar.

"Yeah, right, too concerned about our town to take a look around before picking fights in the streets and causing a commotion," Marus remarks with an eyeroll. Joref, for his part, keeps his composure at the gnome's attitude and instead tries to get the mercenaries up to speed, "We've already had a plain clothed man take a look through the place; Ulreth isn't there. He'd be stupid to hang around the first place we'd look. For now we're just keeping an eye on the place while others chase down better leads--boys more likely to flip on Ulreth than Mr. Bron. We could raid the place, preferably with more men or someone with more authority here, but it's unlikely we'd get anything and we'd still have to stand here keeping an eye on it anyway." He pauses for a moment before looking down to Morin and stating the obvious, "It's a gambling hall in the center of town. We've always kept a close eye on it and Ulreth has always known it. If he was up to anything illegal, he wouldn't do it here."

"There are two good places to hide."  Kelaria explained, unsolicited.  "Where no one will ever look, and where everyone will look.  The last is easier to know."