"I shall watch my back, Hanimeffendi Isolde and I will watch yours, too. Together we will prevail where separated we would fail, as de Loregiver teaches us, and if Fate has decided I meet my end while fighting to save de innocent, my life was well spent." Aisha said with sincerity and a slight bow.

"They don't trust you and you don't trust them - you should make sure they don't survive the night." the whispers in her mind flared again like tinder thrown into a bonfire. "No. I won't. They have done nothing to earn your contempt or hatred. I will show them that I can be trusted, they will trust me eventually, it only takes patience and good deeds." she thought, holding the fires at bay.

"Unless you are opposed to it, I would like to accompany you while you acquire new equipment." the newcomer inquired with a gentle smile. "We might learn something about each other."

Isolde gave Aisha a curt nod, apparently agreeing to her company.

DM: Isolde spends 200 gp on splint mail. Oh, never mind. I completely forgot that I already picked up splint mail from a dead cultist awhile back. Hmm, what else to buy ... ?
This message was last edited by the player at 15:21, Sun 20 Oct 2019.

Hasan follows his companions to restock on rations and hopefully buy a couple more healing potions.

Inanah welcomed company, if they were to work together then getting to know each other was only good and you could learn a lot from a person by their equipment or the lack of it. She eyed Aisha's gear and noticed a lack of larger weapons on her.

She was also otherwise curious about Aisha, so she asked, "What brings you to Greenest? Are you a caravan guard or just someone with the drive to wander? I'm myself a bit of both, guarding is a way to travel to one place to another."


OOC
Inanah buys studded leather armor, healing kit and two potions of healing.

Aisha nodded in agreement to Inanah's words "Dat is somewhat what I do, I travel from one place to de other and try to help where I my skills are useful. Guarding a caravan is a means to an end, hanimeffendi." she said with a smile.

"De people of Greenest are very grateful to you, you have done a great deal to help dem." she mentioned, appearing very apreceative.

"It is a way to see new places." Inanah shrugged, talking about caravan guarding, not wanting to talk more about her own reasons. When Aisha was appreciative about their actions, Inanah looked at her carefully while she tried to detect any sarcasm in the comment.

Seemingly satisfied by the honesty of the words she smiled tightly, not completely happy by their results. "We did what we could, miss Aisha, in some places it was enough, in others it was not." She shook her head and tried not to think of the prisoners left in the camp.

Then she asked in her blunt but still friendly manner, "If I may ask, I don't see any great amount of weaponry on you. Do you have other ways to protect yourself?" If Aisha was to come with them, she wanted to know what Aisha could do in battle. In comparion to the other woman, Inanah was bristling with weapons, carrying a sword, several daggers and of course her finely crafted ornate longbow, that carried the symbols of both dwarven and elven protector deities.

Inanah's modesty was well received, Aisha inclined her head respectfully, heroes with a down-to-earth attitude were hard to find. "You did more dan could have been expected." she said, smiling.

Her smile became a bit awkward when the elf asked about her ways to protect herself. "Magic." the traveller said, "Magic is my armour but also my sword, my arrow." she explained, not getting into details unless queried.

"De guards called you an expert bowman, hanimeffendi, I am sure your parents will be proud when dey hear about your deeds." she added, subtly changing the subject, turning to the dwarf as well "And dey say many foes fell to your hammer, Isolde hanimeffendi." until she eventually looked at Hasan "But your willingness to sacrifice yourself for de lives of dose two, effendi, dat will not be forgotten quickly. How did you survive, many say you were dead?" she asked curiously.

"Stubbornness," Isolde answered for Hassan. She was scowling, but she had a glint of good humor in her eyes.

"Someone was looking out for me," Hasan says. "The gods, maybe? My companions? Both? I don't know. I just did what needed to be done."

Aisha nodded quietly at Hasan's words, walking with the group while they completed their errands. She didn't have much money on her, but even if she did, she had no idea what she should get, as neither armour nor weapons would actually help her in what she did.

"You should just burn them and take their money, find yourself something that suits your station as the descendant of the mighty Shaneesha, not those rags you're wearing now..." the voices in her head started again. "I am not going to do any of that!" Aisha -mentally- replied, agitatedly. "These are good folks and I am nothing like my grandmother!" the sha'ir thought, then did her best to control her breathing once more until the voices faded back into the background.

Talik had tried to sleep in the castle but he couldn't settle so in the middle of the night he slipped out and found himself in the surrounding woods where he found a hollow which was dried and sleeped peacefully.

The following day after a breakfast which he had caught he headed back to the group.

He saw them and headed over to the group bit only noticed the new arrival after he got level with them and didn't have time to pull his hood up.

Too late he looked at Inanah with a smile and a nod

"You have couple of leaves caught up in your hair, Talik." Inanah said as a way of greeting, although she was smiling as a welcome to him and went to walk beside him. It was not immediately obvious if she was joking or not with her comment about the leaves. "You can borrow my tent, if you'd like." She spoke in low tones after her keen eyes had picked up some clues of his last nights sleeping place.

"Thank you I tried the room offered to me but felt hemmed in and restricted. I suppose spending a life in the wilds makes you want the night sky over your head to sleep well."

 he removed the leaves "a simple hollow in the roots of a tree, some branches as a roof and pine needles as a mattress have me all the comfort and security I needed. Again my thanks for the offer of your tent. If the weather turns I might take up your offer"

He gave the new arrival a sideways look "who the lady" he asked still undecided as to pull up his good or not

"Miss Aisha found the monk Leosin collapsed near the town and promised to help us if we need to investigate this Cult more. Apparently Leosin had managed to escape and almost make a way to here. He is resting for today, so we decided to do some shopping with our rewards."

Inclining her head in a respectful greeting Aisha said "Pleased to meet you, effendi Talik, yes I hope to be of assistance against the Cult in de future." the woman folded her hands in a peaceful manner, giving the tiefling a friendly smile.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:44, Sun 27 Oct 2019.

Talik relaxed a bit and returned the smile as usual he controlled it so as to not show his pointed teeth. "Talik at your service " he replied with a bow

The rest of the day in Greenest passes without incident. Early the next morning, shortly before sunrise, Escobert summons the party to meet with Governor Nighthill. When they arrive, they see that Governor Nighthill is with Leosin, who is up and about and appears to be preparing for a journey.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:19, Mon 28 Oct 2019.

"Why didn't you come with us?" Those words escaped Inanah as soon as she saw Leosin. "What possible gain did you get by staying few more hours." She was frowning and her arms were crossed. Then after noticing that he was planning leaving, she asked, "And where are you going next?"

Even before sunrise, Isolde Glibhammer was awake and had completed her morning routine. All that remained was to don her armor and present herself before the governor. She was pleased to see the others -- Inanah, Hasan, Saya, and even Talik and Aisha. The situation was serious, she knew, but today she was facing that with some optimism and without her characteristic scowl.

Uncomfortable Aisha shuffled her feet, when Inanah started her barrage of questions. She didn't know the full backstory and the monk had been even more quiet about his motivations, so she figured she should not judge. Patiently she waited for an answer while her eyes darted from one of the companions to the other, trying to learn their reactions.

Leosin doesn't seem bothered by Inanah's questioning him about choosing to stay behind, but he also doesn't answer that question. Instead, he focuses on her last question.

"I intend to travel north to Elturel to convey what I've learned to Ontharr Frume, a paladin of Torm who shares my concern over the Cult of the Dragon's recent surge in activity," Leosin says to the party. "After all you've done already for the people of Greenest, I hate to ask anything more from you, but the need is great, and I dare hope that you can help. I need you to return to the cultists' camp. You know your way around it now. If the cultists are preparing to conduct another raid, or a large body of them marches away, or if anything substantial is carried into or out of that cave, I need to know. If you have a chance to get into the camp and look around again, that would be the ideal way to spot anything that's changed.

"If you agree, I can pay you 150 gold pieces each for your work."

Talik put his hand on his friends shoulder to calm her before he spoke"learned one I realise you have a mission to conduct and I hope that in the end it will be worth the lives of the prisoners you left behind....I suppose only time will tell....what is the human saying the sacrifice of the few for the safety of the many or something like that...and I'm the one people think of as the demon when I'm looked upon" he didn't raise his voice like his friend but felt her anger over the situation.

"You do realise if we were to take up your offer my friend here will do all she can to rescue them don't you? And for my part I will be beside her in that task. If everyone is in agreement I will do as you ask but if things look dire for the prisoners then all bets are off ...if you can accept that then I will return to the camp"

The Zakharan listened to the conversation and the emotions expressed for the prisoners. She could agree that they needed to be freed, and she could agree that information was important to win this war, even at the expense of the lives that were at stake. However, perhaps Fate had sent her here to even the scales, to give the mission ballance.

"Hanimeffendi Inanah, I understand your passion about de innocent lives at stake. De Loregiver teaches us, dat in war dey are de ones to suffer most. - Perhaps we could do both, rather dan just observe?" she suggested, her ember eyes wandering to the monk. "Effendi Leosin, Beyeffendi Nighthill, do you have doves or ravens you use for communication over distances? - We could take one or two and keep you informed about de Cult's movements, while waiting for de opportunity to free de prisoners." she explained, then turned back to face the elf.

"Hanimeffendi, we cannot go in and free the slaves without a plan to get dem safely back to Greenest. Dey are slow and any patrol sent by de Cult would just catch dem before dey make it to safety. I would assume de best course of action is to wait for a contingent of raiders to leave, dinning deir ranks, den distract de others by starting fires where dey stash deir resources." she offered the skeleton of a plan.

"Starting fires? - Now you're finally making sense!" the thought flitted through her head and laughter echoed through her mind. Paying no heed, the sha'ir continued "The guards will attempt to put out de fires over de escaped prisoners, but eventually dey will follow and I fear dey will not take prisoners again. Dat would mean we need to fight dem, or distract dem in another way. - But we can figure dat out while we are observing de camp." she said, hoping that her suggestion was found a sensible compromise.

Inanah nodded gratefully to Talik when he supported her, if she wouldn't have been so concentrated on Leosin, she would have been moved by it. She forced herself to calm, listening to what was being said.

"It would have been considerably easier to do all that last time we visited the camp, they were feeling victorious and their guard was down, but by your urging we left." She frowned, trying to think ways to infiltrate the camp again. Inanah nodded at Aisha's  suggestions even when they would not work without some refining.

"There were caves at the side of the hill that might work as a hiding place for surveillance. But their loot is in the larger cave in the back of the camp and will not be that easy to burn. Not to mention the dragon that might be hiding in there."

She spoke more calmly to Leosin, "What can you tell us about the cave in the back? I know that they call it the Hatchery and is where they keep the loot gathered and that the access is restricted. Did you hear anything that could help us get into there. Miss Aisha is right in that they will probably be more interested in their loot than the prisoners."

Oh, that didn't take long. Isolde's scowl returned, her mood soured. She heard out the monk and she heard out her companions.

The elf had a good question. Why was Leosin so concerned about what left that cave? He was hiding information.

She waited for the monk's answer before offering her own.