The Quest of the Missing Quill

[HorizonsDream]

Jasmine pats the cultist that just spoke on the head as if he was a cute little puppy. "Aww, you guys are cute," she teases. "I like it when they have a little bit of spirit when begging for their lives."

[Just_Ice]

Standing up, Benji dusts himself off and keeps his eyes on the angry slith, "It seems I misjudged our poor Slithzerikai friend here, Ishan. Earlier, I believed that it was my fault that we crossed paths- but I suspect he and his group have a proclivity for glory stealing, the height of impropriety to adventurers. You certainly didn't figure the situation correctly, but I sure hope you can read a room, 'Alex'."

At this point, Ben considered the angry soldier little more than a paper tiger- if he attacked him, he'd either risk his light going out or the wrath of Ben's compatriots, whether he was wrong or right about things. His teammates were in a rather awkward heap, as well.

The drow puts up his hands and removes his crossbow from his hand- but as usual has another weapon in reserve.

[Stand up, disarm self by dropping hand crossbow, ready hair attack if Alex attacks.]

[keymeister16]

with a grunt some would call unflattering, Zurgo dislodged his axe. His increased strength fading as the husk crumples. "können Sie feststellen, Schlaf, Kämpfer." he murmurs, before raising an apprising eye at Warren.

for a moment it looked as if Zurgo was torn between thanking him for his support in combat or making another corpse on the floor. Circumstances encouraged he go with the former.

"Thank you, i may very well not be here if not for you," he shuffled over to the door, his feet too tired to bother with lifting themselves. "make sure he doesn't wake up too soon, i'll ask Gaheris how many toenail rippers we'll need,"

[JadedDM]

"Don't worry," Gaheris tells the captives. "If you cooperate, we won't kill you. But if we do kill you, we'll make sure to do it in a sanctified area with a cleric on hand, and burn your bodies to ash so there will be no coming back for you," he jokes.

Rounding everyone up, he leads Jasmine, Brooks, the dwarf and the tied up captives into the hallway to check on how the other group is doing. "Looks like everything is wrapped up?" he asks Warren when he sees him. "We managed to take two alive."

[keymeister16]

"bested us, we only got one," Zurgo jammed his thumb over his shoulder at the shot cultist, leaning on the shattered door frame for support. "got another arrow? i wanna make sure he can't just walk out of here," he inquired completely straightface.

"doesn't look like our troubles are over though...." his chin jutted in the general direction of their new guests.

[Vrindlevine]

Ishan watches Benji and Alex carefully and decides to step between them.

"Your absolutely right and as you can see we have dealt with this ourselves though its unfortunate we didn't know you were on your way. We have our own job to attend to but you know secondary objectives and all that."

Ishan offers a hand to Alex, "the empire may have forced me out but Now's not the time for grudges. Me and my compatriots took some of them alive if you'd like you can participate in the interrogation I see no better place then here. I doubt that anything we could think up could be more foul then what has already been committed on this ground, the priest might not like it though."

(Ishan makes a Diplomacy check on Alex)

[Haahque]

There's a bunch of stuff happening this round of posts, and a lot of it heavily influences Alex's actions... so what happens first? Well that's what initiative is for:

Ishan: 22
Imperial Soldiers: 20
Gaheris, Jasmine, Kanock + Brooks: 15
Zurgo + Warren: 13
Benji: 12
Alex: 11

While Ishan's arguments might have some merits, Alex is far past the point where someone he doesn't know who claims to be part of the army, but he's never seen there before to have much sway over his actions with a few calming words. "You couldn't possibly understand, 'soldier', I've seen the death and destruction this filth has wrought on our country. I've seen what the drow do with when they destroy a town. I've heard the cries of mothers whose son will never come home."

As he speaks, the soldiers untangle themselves from each other and form a protective barrier between Alex and Ishan, and by default Gaheris, Zurgo and the rest of the group except Benjamin. Two of them in leather armour use large shields to block the hallway, weapons at the ready, while a third raises a crossbow at the ready to respond to any hostile action from that direction. A forth soldier, better equipped then the other three, turns his attention to Benjamin, making intimidating poses at the drow. Having this defensive line set up, Alex mostly disregards the entrance of more bodies at the other end of the hall.

"Don't speak to me about glory, scum. Your kind knows nothing about glory, or honor." Alex raises his staff for what likely would be a painful stroke, but a voice stops him.

"Alex! Stop this at once. There is no use for further combat here and killing that drow will not help you repair your family name. He has done nothing wrong, and has been quite helpful."

It pains Alex to NOT strike Benjamin, bit it's clear that he respects the speaker highly, so he lowers his staff. "Father Warren, from what I know of drow, which is a lot, if this drow has not done something wrong, then he likely soon will. Perhaps I should have my men flog him."

"He has helped Trevsville rid itself of a terrible plague, perhaps this drow is not as bad as those you've fought before."

"It's the ones that I haven't fought who are the worst. Drow will not fight you fairly the way an orc will. They will murder your women and rape your children while leading your soldiers around in a merry goose chase using illusions."

"This drow wasn't the one who killed your mother. Why do you hate him so much?"

"You Drow, why are you in the empire. What are you doing here, tell me the whole story and I don't want to hear any of those lies your people prides themselves at using."

Ishan tries to calm Alex with rational arguments (Diplomacy, 1d20+0): 3
Imperial soldiers get up and take up a defensive position.
Gaheris, Jasmine, Kanock, brooks and the prisoners enter the south end of the hall.
Warren stops Alex from hitting Benjamin
Benjamin drops his crossbow and readies an action to attack Alex with his hair.
Alex augments the quarterstaff to +1.

[Just_Ice]

Ben uses large sweeping gestures and dulcet tones in his description of just what he's doing in the empire, "I'm here for what most art-loving fools are here for. New drink, new sounds, new songs and tales to sing. Not to mention, to be yelled at by all of the serious types; but it's not worth killing or arresting a fool like me over a mistake, is it? After all, any money I make soon disappears and keeps those wheels-a-turning."

[Cast Hypnotism on Alex and Guards, specifically on the italicized text. Pray.]

[JadedDM]

Gaheris looks around, trying to get a picture of what is happening here. "Imperials? What...convenient timing, to show up just as the job is finished." Even way out here, it seems like he can't swing a dead cat without hitting an Imperial soldier. They push further out every year, and soon there won't be a spot of land in the world that isn't occupied by them, Gaheris reckons.

[HorizonsDream]

"...What exactly is going on here?" Jasmine asks in confusion.

[keymeister16]

"we BETTER not have to fight again, i'm too tired to hold back this time," Zurgo growled, keeping an eye on benji and Alex. Alex struck him as the weak willed sort, but he had been wrong before. he glanced as his hand, it was still holding his axe, ready.

[Vrindlevine]

Ishan sighs and moves in front of Benjamin. "If you really hate the drown so much then you should take it out on the person responsible." He fixes his eyes on Alex. "I'm sure my discharge was swept under the rug but they don't just let any slithzerki join the legion And your a mage so I'm sure you've heard something. I think I've answered for my failing but obviously not. If that's what you want I'll answer to you here right now.

(Ishan lowers is guard while blocking Benjamin)

"For what its worth. I'm sorry about your mother."

[Haahque]

Despite his rage, Alex is able to hear Ishan's argument, and somehow manages to decipher exactly what he's saying. "I wan't let into the army, have you ever heard of conscription? But I'm glad of it. You know what, I'm glad that I was given the opportunity even... Oh wait a second. Discharged from the EAD, aging human male, uses alchemy. You're that bastard Ishan Fordring aren't you? It makes sense that after you left you started associating with trash. First you let the drow ambush us, then you invite them over to our country to drink and sing? You're almost as bad as they are."

Alex mostly ignores the comments of Jasmine and Gaheris, but Kannock takes the time to reply to them. "It looks to me ma'am, like an imperial patrol was passing by and heard us fighting. Somehow, when they came to investigate they took offense at Benjamin's presence for some reason, so Benji, Ishan and the priest are trying to talk this Slith out of a fight. Usually this sort of thing would pass without incident, but Alex looks pretty mad." Kannock says this quiet enough that Alex probably doesn't hear.

Then Benjamin casts his spell, entrancing two of the soldiers, but enraging Alex. "You dare cast a spell on my soldiers!?" He strikes at Benji, but the attack was fueled more by rage then by training, and the drow was expecting it so Benjamin manages to side step it, the quarterstaff brushing his white hair and freezing a clump of it together.

"Alex don't!" It's the girl that was laughing so hard at his jokes yesterday that was trying to caution him off attacking Benji. "He hasn't done anything wrong, it's against imperial protocol."

"Simon, shake her out of the spell," Is Alex's only response to this. The heavily armoured soldier in front of Benji turning to bring his soldiers back to reality.

"Alex, would you strike down a defenseless target? That sounds like drow tactics to me. You've told me of your exploits, you don't need to stoop to such tactics, striking down a defenseless target in an isolates shack. There is no further need for violence here, but there is a cult of Urgathoa in the area. We've dealt with one den, but I suspect there might be others nearby. THIS would be a worthy cause for your patrol, and good training for your new recruits." Once again, Alex's reverence for the reverend seems to shine through, and he lowers his quarterstaff.

"I hate you." He intones, looking at Benjamin. "And you're not much better." He motions to Ishan. "But it is clear that here is not the right place to even our score. I challenge both of you to a duel tonight when my shift is over, in Trevsville, where any who wish can see justice done in public. Drow, I challenge you to a duel for the crimes of disrespectful conduct towards a non commissioned officer and for inappropriate comments made towards my soldiers. Ishan I challenge you to answer for your despicable acts that led to your release from the army. I expect both of you to be there, or be forever shamed by me and all witnesses. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?"

Assuming they answer satisfactory, he'll continue with "Good, now on to the business of tracking down this cult."

Ishan does some more reasoning: Natural 1, Alex starts hating him as well. Was this what he was planning all along?
Soldiers stay weary, but don't act immediately.
Gaheris, Jasmine and Kannock talk amongst themselves.
Benjamin casts hypnotism (DC 13 will): (2d4 HD = 4 HD = all 4 soldiers, but not Alex) Saves: 12, 10, 16, 15, two of the soldiers fail their saves. They are fasinated for 2d4 = 4 rounds. Furthermore, they are 2 steps more friendly to Benjamin (from unfriendly to friendly).
Alex checks spell craft to figure out what spell was cast: 28, he knows the spell was cast, easily.
Alex uses spell strike to attack Benjamin: 12 vs AC, miss.

[JadedDM]

Gaheris wisely decides to stay out of the conflict. He didn't have a lot of love for the Empire, but he wasn't stupid enough to openly provoke them. He decides that if things get out of hand, he'll put an arrow in Benjamin's back before the imperials decide to arrest the entire group.

Fortunately, things seem to calm down and this turns out to be unnecessary. Gaheris remains on edge, though, but otherwise remains quiet.

[keymeister16]

"generally in situations like these orcs...well assuming we've ruled out relentless butchering of all those involved would be ineffective... offer goods! wanna go see if he takes 'coherent cult members'?"

Zurgo poked up a shameless smile at Gaheris.