Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil (IC): Thread 2

[Lycar]

Grigor, human cleric

Grigor puts on a smile and lifts his mug in greeting as Tal joins the table.

"Name's Grigor. And as you can see, it's my calling to guide lost souls like Tom here." he adds with a knowing wink and pats the crude drawing on his breastplate.

"Now let's eat and drink and be merry. Sounds good? Sounds good." he declares and takes a long drag from his tankard.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

The Rusty Axe: Planting 26, Early Evening

Tal grins, “And that is how you make friends just about anywhere.” He then proceeds to match Grigor with his own drink.

[Quakes]

Moonshadow humors the man, eating, drinking, and making small talk until he is satisfied and ready to get down to business.

[Toliudar]

Meggido

Meggido sips his tea and explores contingencies. While it would be useful to befriend the man, even more important - if he was involved with this whatever-it-was-cult - would be to keep him from reporting about them back to his fellow cultists. Finding it awkward to simultaneously maintain small talk with a man and plan out ways to kill him, the dour elf keeps silent through dinner.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

The Rusty Axe: Planting 26, Early Evening

Grigor begins to feel that Tal may be a bit suspicious of the group, and his attempts at idle conversation are aimed at figuring out if they are trustworthy.

Despite his desire to remain silent with his thoughts, Megiddo begins to pick up on this as well.

[Toliudar]

Meggido

Sensing that they'd need to move this forward or risk losing Tal, Meggido takes a calculated risk. He leans forward to speak softly.

"Forgive our reticence, but I don't like the idea of bringing back bad news. I'm afraid that 'Jaroo' has been unmasked. We need supplies, and fresh instructions."

[Shhalahr Windrider]

The Rusty Axe: Planting 26, Early Evening

“Ja-who, now?” Tal replies with a look of confusion. “Now, I can help you with supplies, maybe. But you might want to get your instructions from whoever you work with to begin with.” He suddenly lowers his voice and takes on a serious expression. “In any case, this talking about masks… sounds like you might want to wait for something more private like you suggested before. Hm?”

[Toliudar]

Meggido

Meggido shrugged.

"I am eager to move forward with business, but by all means finish your meal."

He sits back in his chair, clamping his mouth shut. Yes. He was indeed very bad at this human 'small talk.' Even the name suggested how petty and insipid it was! How ironic that a race that was so short-lived could at the same time be so incapable of coming to the point.

[Lycar]

Grigor, human cleric

"Indeed, let's eat up first. Not need to let good food and drink go to waste. Although it can definitely 'go to waist', hohoho!" says Grigor and goes about polishing off the rest of his meal.

"Oh and then we can retreat for a nice little nap to digest everything in peace and quiet." he adds, winking at Tal.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

The Rusty Axe: Planting 26, Early Evening

Picking up on the others’ reluctance to converse, Tal spends the rest of his meal with fewer attempts at small talk. After finishing the food on his plate and draining his tankard, he gets up and walks to the bar, where he talks to the dwarf running things. He returns with a key in hand.

“While I appreciate your invitation to your room to discuss our business, I have arranged for a more neutral venue.”

[Toliudar]

Meggido

Shrugging, Meggido rises, and carefully wipes his hands on the hem of his jacket.

"As you wish."

[Lycar]

Grigor, human cleric

"Whatever works for you..." Grigor says with a shrug as he gets up himself.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

The Rusty Axe: Planting 26, Evening

Tal leads everyone to a small parlor in the back of the tavern. The parlor is sparsely furnished. A few rough chairs and a table, with an animal skin rug. The room is lit by several oil lamps and a small fire.

After everyone is inside, Tal closes the parlor door and uses the key obtained from the barman to lock it. “Privacy,” he mutters as a word of explanation. He strides over to the table, producing a smoking pipe and a small box from his cloak. He sets the box on the table before sliding its lid open and takes some crushed herbs from it and starts to fill his pipe.

“Now, I think you know who I am,” he addresses the party. “But I haven’t worked with any of you before, so I don’t really know you. You were awfully tight-lipped at dinner, too. So before we go any further, let’s see some credentials.”

[Toliudar]

Meggido

Meggido arched his eyebrows in confusion. Whenever he had tried to speak at dinner, Tal had more or less shushed him. What did he...ah, right. Small talk. At some point, perhaps there would be time to study that.

"Wait a minute. We're the ones with news to report. All we know is that you more or less match the description we were given for Tal Chammish. When I've tried to discuss business, you have either been unable or unwilling to respond in kind. Before we go any further, I'd like to see some credentials."

[Shhalahr Windrider]

The Rusty Axe: Planting 26, Evening

"Seems to me you were a little too eager to discuss some sensitive business with someone whose identity you were unsure about," Tal calmly replies as he uses a small wood srick to light his pipe from a lamp.

[Quakes]

And it seems to me that you are doing your best to delay our urgent business. We've already had to waste our entire day in this pissant town, plus suffer through dinner i wouldn't normally piss on. How about we both stop wasting our time and get down to business.

Spoiler

Show

left both owls outside to serve as eyes and ears. They will hide in the shadows on the roof and watch the doorways.

[Toliudar]

Meggido

Meggido nods emphatically.

"Indeed. I wasn't unsure until you kept putting us off. As, indeed, you are doing again. But if you are not the one that we should be meeting with, then we should indeed be leaving."

The elf rises with a sigh.

[Swami Monsoon]

Nobody's gotten stabbed yet, and Tom considers that a bonus. If the elf wants to quit while he's ahead, Tom's all for it. He also rises from his seat...

[Shhalahr Windrider]

The Rusty Axe: Planting 26, Evening

"Very well." Tal tosses the parlor key on the table. "Be sure to return the key to the barkeep. And I'll be here most of the night, if you ever figure out who you want to talk to." He then settles into a chair at the table and starts puffing away on his pipe.

[Toliudar]

Meggido

Meggido's confusion with this man grows and grows.

"If you're going to be here most of the night, why am I returning the key? Were you like this with Dunrat?"

[Lycar]

Grigor, human cleric

"Ugh, can we stop being all paranoid? I hate to have to have to run around with a stupid smile on my face all day, only because he's called 'The laughing Rogue'. The sooner we get this behind us... " Grigor announces, seemingly annoyed and gets up and produces the drum, chimes, brazier and incense they found on the evil altar before smashing it.

"Short version: Militia and some do-goodniks show up, kill a bunch of guys. We get told to take these things and get them to safety, meaning you. Look familiar?"

Spoiler

Show

So Grigor is trying to Bluff Tal: (1d20+8)[27]. And maybe being direct and to the point is what Tal likes, so Diplomacy: (1d20+5)[14],

[Shhalahr Windrider]

The Rusty Axe: Planting 26, Evening

Tal looks at the items.

Then at Grigor…

Then at Meggido…

Then at the items again…

Then back at Grigor.

He stares at Grigor for about half a second before he burst out laughing. He laughs heartily for a while before he starts to choke on the smoke coming from his pipe bowl. At this he gathers himself.

“Oh, you musta been pulling one over on me! I should have known. No elf is that impatient.” He lets out a few more chuckles before continuing, “But as much as I enjoy a good joke, you still have to be more discrete. Let the wrong thing slip within earshot of the wrong person in a public house, and the good people of Rastor might not be as keen to turn a blind eye to our doings.”

Tal looks back at the items on the table, takes a puff from his pipe, and then says, “Anyway, I don’t know this relic crap. You’re gonna have to talk to one of your superiors in the yellow robes up on the mountain.”

[Lycar]

Grigor, human cleric

Grigor shrugs and recovers the items.

"You gonna show us the way then?" he asks.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

The Rusty Axe: Planting 26, Evening

“Show you what way? Up the mountain? Don’t tell me they sent all-new recruits that don’t know the lay of the land.”

[Toliudar]

Meggido

The elf nods.

"I'm afraid so. And it might be useful to know who here in Rastor are the wrong persons - can you provide any guidance?"

[Shhalahr Windrider]

The Rusty Axe: Planting 26, Evening

“Ugh,” Tal groans, “Anyone could potentially be the wrong person. Draw too much attention to ourselves, and they’ll stop turning a blind eye. I don’t expect anyone here to pose a real threat, but they still may be able to make our work unnecessarily difficult.”

He takes a puff on his pipe before continuing, “But be especially sure not to piss off Rerrid, Tymerian, or Jardeth. They’ve all got some authority in this town. Thandain Deeperdark, if properly motivated, could be a problem, too, but I have some, heh, pull with her.”

[Lycar]

Grigor, human cleric

"We will remember those names.", Grigor says with a meaningful look at his companions, "But we also need to be able to attach some faces to those names."

[Quakes]

have no doubt, we will be discrete. In fact, the less time spent in town The better. As to directions and supplies, if we can get those, we'll be on our way.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

The Rusty Axe: Planting 26, Evening

“If you are really discrete, it won’t matter if you know what they look like. Besides, it doesn’t sound like you’ll be in town long enough for it to matter. You’ll be going up the west road tomorrow morning, and you didn’t seem too interested in sticking around after you were done there. But I’ll go ahead and point them out to ya if you really want me too.”

(( Reminder: the west road is the abandoned route to the old mines. ))

[Toliudar]

Meggido nodded. The dwarven mines. He should have known, he supposed.

"More to the point, should you come with us up the west road, or can you tell us what to look for and who to ask for when we get there?"