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Haahqae (Steel Tankard Inn, Room 15)
Jaymes nods to Haahqae. "I remember you. Haahqae, wasn't it?" he asks. "I'm afraid things have not gone well. When we last met, I was escorting the people we rescued from the giant's lair back to the mountain village of Esker. They were quite grateful, but it was a small, very poor community. I refused any reward, knowing they would need it more than I. In fact, I stuck around for awhile, sometimes bringing them extra food I had hunted. I even thought of staying there for the winter. But it was not to be."

He sighs deeply and takes a long swig of his drink. "I went out hunting and when I came back, everyone was dead and the village was razed. From what I've been able to piece together, the army showed up. For whatever reason, they decided Esker wasn't worth occupying, so burned it to cinders and killed everyone there--even the elderly and children." He shakes his head sadly. "With nowhere else to go, and needing a place to stay for the winter--I fear it will be a particularly harsh one this year--I returned to the city. It seems things have changed quite a bit since I was last here, though."

Kendra Synclair (2527 Market Street, Greylock's Gorgeous Gems)
"I am feeling much better, yes," Sadron answers. "And I don't know...you managed to convince me to train you, didn't you? Among other things. So perhaps you are better with words than you believe."

Tulbas Erogund (Tower of Wayreth, Unknown Floor on AT 15)
"Does the sleep spell count?" she asks, nervously scanning the area for any danger.

Taking the wand, Tulbas leads her to the hallway. The door on the right is closed, but the door to the left hangs open. Someone is inside. He can hear her speaking to herself. "Where is it, where is it? It's gotta be here somewhere! Wait, is that it? No, no...but it might come in handy..." There is the sound of rummaging about, as well.

Arulia Seroth (High Hand Inn, Common room)
Arulia hurries to the High Hand Inn, her brisk pace helping to generate enough body heat to almost counter the chill in the air. When she arrives, she finds a handful of patrons are present. She recognizes Harrin with his broken lute. She also spots Gobax over at the bar, chatting with the elderly plainswoman who runs the place. Fortunately, there is no sign of Shima anywhere.

Grubnick (High Hand Inn, Common room)
Grubnick descends into the common room, where he spots the usual group of patrons having breakfast. He approaches the bar and has a seat, asking Green Tears for a meal and how she is doing.

"Well enough," she replies. "Today is the big parade for the Hero of Haven. It's going to pass right by here. I don't know yet if that will be good news or bad. Hopefully there are no more attacks. Also, word is going around that the prefect has declared a new law against mages. All mages in the city, whether renegade or not, must register with the occupation--what spells they can cast, what magical items they possess--or they will be arrested. Aside from that, things have been fairly quiet."

Just as she says this, the door swings open and a burst of cold air blows in as Arulia enters and then closes the door behind her. She looks red-cheeked and slightly winded, as if she hurried here.

All... all mages must register with the occupation? Wow... I imagine that will cause a bit of a stir... Grubnick waves for Arulia to join him.

"And here I thought you just felt sorry for me," Kendra says. "This is a little bit different though. I have to word things in such a way that it is favorable to the army, but not so favorable that everyone decides to join right away. Though, then again, a lot of people in Haven are in need of jobs." She lets out a sigh before she takes a few bites of her food.

Tulbas holds his hand up to warn Selowen. He then asks her quietly if she has a mirror. If she doesn't he conjures a small shard of mirror using a cantrip and uses it to peek into the open room without exposing himself.

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(OOC: Does Tulbas have a mirror in his items under 'Components'?)

Ne-Chanz notices that Shima has left, then heads over to the sewers. Seeing him, he greets him, then retrieves his gear.

As she'd caught sight of Gobax just as he'd noticed her, Arulia makes her way towards the bar as soon as he waves her over. She pays no notice to any of the other patrons, and hardly slows as she weaves through the tables and stools to get there. She does take the time to nod a greeting to the plainswoman, though, and fidgets while she waits for Gobax to finish his conversation with her.

"Hi Ne-Chanz! Sleep well?" smiles Shima, trying to be cheerful despite not being so.
He puts his sword-polishing stuff away and leads off into the sewers.

Ne-Chanz notices Shima's sadness. "What's wrong?" He says, heading deeper into the sewers/

“I had feared that much. It seems that no one’s been faring well lately. These days there’s a whole lot less money going around, no one seems to be able to make a decent living that I’ve talked to and the streets are nearly desolate compared with the city I arrived at not all that long ago. There have also been disappearances lately, one of which troubles me deeply, and I wish I knew how to fix it but I don’t.”

“This winter’s already been rough, I can hardly imagine how it could get worse.”

Given Jayme’s speech and Haahqae’s past experience with him, he has reason to conclude that Jaymes holds no love for the occupation and that he’s at least a little trustworthy. Which, given Haahqae’s previous experience probably means that he’s useless or forgetful or something. However, in desperate times of war like these, trustworthy friends are in short supply and even incompetent ones could be useful.

“Do you have solid plans for today, or would you like to meet up with some of the people who were on that job with us?”

Myriam, as far as Haahqae knows, is probably having a hard time surviving on the handful of coin Haahqae gave her, and unless she’s found herself a good job, she might welcome the charity that Jaymes may be able to offer her. Regardless of how the cards fall, getting Myriam and Jaymes together could be a good way to start forming a front against this oppression that could result in rescuing Ismene. The plan is shaky sure, but any hope is better than none, and doing something is much better than doing nothing and trying to drink away his problems.

"You know that when I first met you lot, I took a liking to Arulia? Nothing happened mind, no encouragement from her, just saw her and thought, 'She's lovely'."
The dwarf shifts the weight of his shield uncomfortably, but in reality nothing to do with the shield at all.

"Well, when I was taking a beating in these sewers, I thought I wouldn't be able to continue. So I did something stupid. I went to the temple and asked them to fix my wounds. They did. But wanted me to bump off some woman or other. I agreed, intending to cheat them. But they put an enchantment on me that makes me increasingly unlucky until I do what they want. So I prepared for the job, 'wet work' they called it, and then found out it was Arulia's sister. I found Arulia and told her, warned her, and now she blames me. So that's why I've come down here to finish the job I'd promised to help you with while I'm still able. Sooner or later either the enchantment will do me in or the temple will. At least I've done one decent thing in warning Arulia. I'm just sad that she'll never speak to me and that all my 'might have beens' are now 'wont ever bes'. Bet you're sorry you asked, huh? Come on, let's do this before I fall over for good."

Haahqae (Steel Tankard Inn, Common room)
Jaymes nods. "I have noticed there are considerably fewer people about. Last time I was here, there were homeless folk everywhere, even camped out beyond the gates. Seems the occupation got rid of them all."

He adds, "I have no plans today, no. But I'm afraid I wouldn't make the best company even under more pleasant circumstances. I...am not a very social person, if you haven't guessed already."

Kendra Synclair (2527 Market Street, Greylock's Gorgeous Gems)
"I suppose it's not an easy position to be in," Sadron admits. "If you don't praise the army, they will get suspicious. But to praise them...I don't think I could do that, even under threat of death. I've never been a good liar, anyway."

Tulbas Erogund (Tower of Wayreth, Unknown Floor on AT 15)
Fortunately, Selowen does have a mirror handy. It's a little hand mirror, likely used for personal grooming. She hands it over to him. Using it to peek into the room, Tulbas spots the half-elf apprentice he met earlier, who was missing from her room after the attack. She is frantically going through some chests and cabinets, looking over the contents, and shoving what she deems valuable into a sack she is carrying.

(OOC: None of Tulbas' spells require mirrors, so he wouldn't have one in his components, no.)

Gobax and Arulia (High Hand Inn, Common room)
Green Tears shrugs. "To the mages, I suppose. The people rather like the idea. There is no love for wizards here. Past governments have tried such measures, but always failed. This one might be the first to actually have the manpower to back it up. Hopefully they can curb the mages. People shouldn't be able to have such power--animating corpses and mind-control and throwing flame and ice about. It's unnatural."

Ne-Chanz and Shima (North Haven Sewers)
Realizing Shima has left without him, Ne-Chanz skips breakfast and hurries to the sewer entrance. He arrives just as the dwarf has finished equipping his gear.

The two start to head deeper into the sewers after Ne-Chanz has had the time to equip his own gear. They can head back to the area with the gully dwarves or continue exploring the area Shima found, beyond the room where they fought the spiders.

Shima suggests, "Clear the rest of it first, then deal with the Gullies? Maybe move them to Gregedin's old place, go see the woman who'll get this place checked as cleared. Get the info off her, then if the Gullies happen to move back into the sewers..." He shrugs. "Unless you've any better ideas?"

Unless his big companion has any alternative suggestion, Shima will lead back to the area beyond the encounter with spiders.
(If Ne-CHanz does suggest something else for the current exploration, then Shima will follow that plan instead.)

“Then it’s good I’m not looking for pleasant company or pleasant circumstances. I am confident that we’ll find something to talk about. I would be honored if you would join me in this visit.”

Haahqae, finishing his meal will get up, hoping that Jaymes would meet him outside. If this does happen to be the case, Haahqae will fill in the rest of the information on where he’s planning to go.

”When last I heard Ismene and Myriam were having some difficulties and I want to know if the two of us can help them out a bit. They were sharing a room at the Masked Dragon.”

Grubnick nods along with the plainswoman. Doubly so when there is no balancing force. he lowers his voice so only Green Tears and Arulia can hear. But the occupation would be the only one with the power of magic then... is that truly the solution? His voice returns to normal as he greets Arulia verbally, Good morning. How are you today?

"Well, I'm thinking about making it more about Haven than anything else," Kendra says thoughtfully. "So I wouldn't be outright lying."