CH. 13: Consequences

[HorizonsDream]

Kendra walks to each window, and draws the curtains so that she can have some privacy. "Well, I can take the extra time to simply rest. It has been a stressful month."

[djhyland]

Arulia turns her back on the smirking women and stalks away before she does anything foolish. She doesn't go far, though, as she realizes that she has nowhere to go, and finds a step to sit down on.

[spyguy1503]

Open the new door.

[Chris1234]

Hearing the door open, Shima follows the large fellow.

[JadedDM]

Haahqae, Arulia and Gobax (Abandoned Warehouse, Exterior)
Arulia sits down on the stoop of the old Trench residence as the group, now with Gobax in tow, heads for the temple. Elara takes her clams and starts to follow, as well.

Kendra Greylock (2527 Market Street, Greylock's Gorgeous Gems)
"That's fair," Sadron replies. "And that's one good thing about those guards out there. They'll keep anyone from coming by to bother you."

Ne-Chanz and Shima (Central Haven Sewers)
Opening the door, Ne-Chanz shines the light of his torch within to reveal a long hallway. It seems to lead to another section of the sewers. They can remain in this area or move on to the next one.

[TristenC]

Grubnick peels off from the procession and moves North to the water. He formed and discarded several plans, knowing he had little to no chance of stopping the group... As soon as he was out of sight of the group, he checked to see if he was followed. If not he pulls up the hood of his cloak and rushes westward, crossing the street south again near The Happee Ohgr. Making as sure as he can that nobody sees, he conceals himself in the trees there and begins to pray silently. Sirrion, give me a sign... what should I do? Your faithful servant Delarn has been trapped by agents of the Dragon Queen and I would aid him...

[Ooc: the above is based on a few assumptions, the main one being that the procession isn't walking very fast to allow everyone to see their success, and that they are not pressing the injured Delarn to move faster than normal. Can I get a sense of how many rounds ahead of the procession Grubnick can get? There are a few preparations I had in mind. The Happee Ohgr is the goblin place, correct?]

[Haahque]

Arulia is visibly shaken by this ordeal. Haahqae can see that, and despite her behavior in their last meeting he doesn't harbor any ill intent towards her. She was, after all, one person who's proven she knows how to fight and by the looks of things, isn't too fond of this city's justice system. The crowd passes by, taking the procession, Gobax and that annoying little girl with it, hopefully leaving the street quiet enough that Haahqae can try and comfort Arulia. With him standing and her sitting, they're much closer to being the same height.

"Well that sucks. None of them deserve it, not a single one. They're liars and backstabbers and thieves all of them, and they've even all worked actively against the church or for a different one. I wouldn't even be surprised if that dwarf was just some bloke they pulled off the street and said he was a mass murdering criminal. Doesn't stop them from parading him around like a useful invention and it probably won't stop the church from giving them all far more money and protection then they deserve."

Or is he trying to comfort himself? So much horrible has happened in the last week, and on the scale of one to Ismene, this would rate pretty low, but one more blow is one more blow regardless of how hard it is.

If the streets are abandoned, Haahqae will add the last part to his speach.

"It makes a lot of sense that a corrupted occupation would acquire the services of scum like them."

[spyguy1503]

"The bridge, or the hall?" Ne-Chanz questions Shima.

[Chris1234]

"Well, looks like that leads to another section of sewers. We weren't asked to explore everywhere. Just clear out the sewers. I'm only here to try and help you get information that'll let you track down the women that stole from you," Shima expounded. "We can have a look at the next section if you like, but the day isn't getting any longer. I think we might want to stay on plan and check across the bridge. But you're leading, so it's your call. I'll follow whichever way."

If Ne-Chanz chooses the bridge, Shima will check it for traps and then cross alone, keeping guard on the other side while Ne-Chanz crosses.
If Shima thinks the bridge, on examination, looks at all suspect weight-wise, he suggests taking over some of his companion's stuff before the larger, beefy fellow crosses.

[djhyland]

Arulia looks up at Haahqae. "That was it. That was my plan, to get enough money from them to keep my family out of the streets. Even if I couldn't get what they stole, I'd hoped that they'd give me something for information." She thinks for a bit and shakes her head sadly. "But then, it seems like they weren't looking for Shima after all, so I wouldn't have gotten anything that way either."

[Haahque]

Well now she actually sounds convincing. Perhaps Arulia is as poor as she seems to be claiming recently. Haahqae’s own funds he’s been saving since… well since the giant job really, that seems like so long ago now, the world has changed. He’s been saving them because his life quest isn’t going to make any progress on its own, and certainly it hasn’t been furthered by any of his recent activities, but if he was just able to buy a few things, run a few experiments, perhaps he could finally start making real progress on it. But, to do that he needs money, and getting money in this city seems to be viciously difficult to do right.

“I know how hard it can be to make money these days. I’ve been saving money so that I can work on my life quest for a while now, and I can’t seem to even keep my books balanced, much less further my goals recently. The Belzorite job was a disaster, my big show barely paid for the food I ate preparing for it and trying to get tips performing at the Tankard is sort of like trying to squeeze wine out of a stone.”

However, none of that really matters now that Ismene is captured. A life’s quest is something to be worked on over the years, rescuing Ismene is something which has to happen NOW!

“I do have a little money to my name, not very much anymore and I don’t even know how much you need. But I would give all of it and more to free Ismene, but I don’t know how I could possibly do it. I don’t know if anyone could possibly do it in this damn city.”

Haahqae pauses, letting his words sink in. Letting him fully understand what he just said.

“It must be nice to have a family. To have someone who care about you beyond just how they can use your skills or your money for their own advantage. All I have is Miracle now.”

Years of traveling around the world as a lone performer hasn’t exactly been the most sociable of experiences Haahqae could have imagined, occasional friends on the road but they never seemed to last longer than touring a few towns. Especially when he’s not really interested in intimate relationships with the larger races.

[HorizonsDream]

"What if they are still there in the morning?" Kendra asks curiously. "Am I going to have an armed guard everyday now?"

[spyguy1503]

OOC: "beefy" lol

Ne-Chanz will carefully cross the bridge.

[djhyland]

"My family...they're all I have," Arulia says, and looks at Haahqae with a considering eye. "It's not just that they care about me, either. Caring about them is just as important. It sounds like you know that, though, the way you talk about Ismene." She falls silent for a moment, but finally her curiosity gets the better of her. "Um...who is Miracle?"

[Haahque]

If there is anything that can cheer Haahqae up at a time like this, it may well be Miracle. He hadn't been meaning to even mention her, it had just popped into his head while he was speaking and it made sense in the context of the sentence. However, now that Arulia has asked, he might as well show her off.

"This is Miracle!" Haahqae replies, searching around until he can produce the grey mouse. "She's still quite young and has a lot to learn about the world, but she's learning quickly and I'm sure she'll soon be absolutely amazing at anything she puts her mind to. I was really hoping she could meet Ismene's ferret before I found out what happened to her."

That was a mood dampener. It was back then too.