Magic and Myth, Steam and Steel (or, "The Adventures of the Fey-Team") IC

[DragoonWraith]

Ráwen
Ráwen's smile broadens, revealing rather sharp teeth. She now looks absolutely predatory. "Well then, tell me this:

"In the days of yore,
I would not lie,
nor let Death settle the score,
but fell to the biting of my eye;

who am I?"

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Well, it rhymes, but the rhythm is horrid. I suck at poetry.

Know Arcana or History - (1d20+15)[35] (Ráwen has the same score on both, and both seem appropriate)

The answer, of course, is Acererak.

Wow, another nat-20. Well, good, I don't want to lose the prisoner. As for giving him a sporting chance - hehe, I don't think that's a sphinx's idea of a good time.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Tensing slightly as he feels Bluebell place the necklace on him, the halfling frowns, thinking furiously. He takes a while to come up with an answer, muttering under his breath occasionally. "Um, days of yore, okay--godsdammit, I hate history....No lying, is that truth? Sleep? Dunno.....How in Hades does an eye bite!?"

After a good five or ten minutes of waiting, the halfling waves his hands uselessly and gives up. "I don't know, the sun?"

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Giving him the choice of subject wouldn't have mattered, as he has the same ranks in every Knowledge skill (zero), but it would at least have given him the illusion of hope. All the better to have his ego crushed, right?

[DragoonWraith]

Ráwen
Ráwen is absolutely ecstatic now. "Hahaa, nope. A liche of some notoriety had a scheme to gain for himself phenomenal cosmic power, but fell due to a vulnerability to the eyebite spell. His name was Acererak, and that was the answer to my riddle. Now then, start talking. And be glad I didn't attach more conditions on your answer."

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He's affected as with Geas to answer questions truthfully and without leaving anything out, and to remain a good prisoner.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

"Acererere-who?" he asks incredulously. "And what in Hades is a liche anyway?" The halfling shakes his head and begins to rise. "That's not fair, and that was a stupid riddle. I don't think I'm going to help you after all." He gets to his feet and starts trying to rip free of his bindings, when he turns an interesting shade of green, clutches his side, and falls back to the ground. He flops on his back with a groan. "Ohhh gods, the pain. I think I've...changed my mind." A sigh. "What do you want to know?"

[Eurus]

Mara rolls her eyes at Ráwen's efficient but direct method of securing obedience, and she lays a comforting hand on the soldier's shoulder. "Relax, we'll let you go once this is over. And we won't tell anyone that you helped us."

[DragoonWraith]

Ráwen
"Ah, I see I should have worded that differently. Mmm, next time that will be my prisoner; let him go? Do you have any idea how funny a prisoner can be? But fine, he's our prisoner, you can let him go when we rescue them."

[userpay]

Tahl drifts back over towards the group, gently depositing the sleeping raven into the halflings lap. Setting down behind Mara, wings almost daintily wrapping back around her body, Tahl tries to not appear as scary as she had earlier and studys the halfling. "All we want is to get our kin back, without bloodshed would be best but if it isn't possible then we will use force. As it is we've heard some rather disturbing things that are being done to fey and not a one of us are amused at such." She nods towards Mara. "And she speaks the truth. Many fey are outraged at what your 'legion' have done to us, tis a miracle that any are willing to try a peaceful solution."

[PairO'Dice Lost]

The halfling seems to have resigned himself to his position and adjusted somewhat; he doesn't even look up when Tahl approaches him to return his raven. "Look, I don't know what these 'disturbing things' are, but I'll tell you what I can about the legion, 'cause it doesn't look like I have much choice. Whatever you're talking about, it can't be all that bad; I mean, we're no fey sympathizers or anything like that"--from his tone of voice, it is apparent that being on good terms with the fey is not something to be proud of--"but we don't go out of our way to, I don't know, pull fey wings off or something like that. Um." He looks up and suddenly remembers that the current love of his life and the big scary sword-wielding bug both have wings. "Not-that-I've-ever-heard-of-that-happening-of-course" he adds quickly.

With the raven returned to him, the halfling is stroking its feathers for comfort. As he finishes speaking, he notices that they're both still glowing with faerie fire. He snaps his fingers and the raven disappears in a flurry of feathers; a moment later, he snaps them again and the raven reappears on his shoulder, no longer glowing. "Would you mind getting rid of this stuff? It's kinda distracting."

[userpay]

Tahl cocked her head and clicked her mandables, the flickering flames dieing out. "Well I suppose they wouldn't tell the footsoldiers of all they do... suffice to say if you know what vivisect means you'll realize why so many of us are pissed off. That not all people share the same views as those that commit such crimes is a primary reason that we don't sally forth to war. As to information... well troop numbers and such would be a good start, as well as telling us about the commander in charge of this troop."

[PairO'Dice Lost]

"Um, lessee now...I'm in the Ninth Century of the Legio Altivolus Aquila, the Soaring Eagles. We're the oldest legion in the Germanies." The halfling's chest puffs out a bit at this; he's obviously proud of his legion. "After that last battle with the fey, we're down to about 60 soldiers, all spearmen and light infantry; we lost our magi primus and secundus, but our tertius and quartus are fine."

The halfling's stance returns to normal and his lip curls in disgust. "We've been traveling with part of the Second Century of the Legio Ferrum Leo for a few weeks now, and those cowards didn't take any casualties--and if they'd had the whole century there, instead of splitting up to travel with different Eagles centuries, not as many of us would have died. Iron Lions, my ass...more like mewling kittens. They're all crossbows and heavy infantry, and I think there are about 20 of them, but they keep apart from us so I'm not sure. That should be it...

"Oh, right, the Centurion. Don't know much about her, really; she's usual command material, and she was there since before I joined. She's kinda strict, but fair, and a pretty good commander in battle. Is that the kind of information you want?"

[Demons_eye]

"Where are you currently camped at? Where are our friends? How many people are guarding them, if you know that what type of fighters are they?" Owain asks in rapid secession. He tapes his weapon twice on the ground and his earth elemental starts to keep an eye out, looking around. "What are you doing out here away from the rest of your team? Were you working alone? What are your orders? What if any plans do you know about that the legion plan to do? Would it be possible to talk with your commander?"

[Eurus]

"I'd like to know about the two mages you still have, if you don't mind. I'm not familiar with Imperial army layouts, what roles are the tertius and quartus supposed to cover?"

[PairO'Dice Lost]

In response to Owain's rapid-fire series of questions, the halfling waves his hands, trying to slow him down. "Hold on, hold on! One at a time! Okay, first, the camp. We're a short way up the road that way"--he points in the direction you were traveling--"in a little clearing on the side of the road. Your friends are probably in the steam wagons; we have three of them, but I don't know how many fey there are, so they could be in any or all of them. Um, guards, probably just a handful assigned to that, since the wagons are right in the camp and everyone can keep an eye on them. They're all spearmen, unless some of the heavy infantry are hanging around too."

He pauses to take a breath. "I don't have a team; scouts work alone. I'm just supposed to walk up and back, keep an eye on the road and the forest to see if there are any Wyldfae or other dangerous creatures around. Normally I'm just supposed to run right back and report if I see one, but when I saw the five of you--six, I guess, with the tiny one--I, uh, kind of froze up." He laughs, embarrassed. "Should've just ran when I could, right? What else...the legion's heading to the trading post on the edge of the forest, so we can maybe get reinforcements from another Soaring Eagles century stationed at Fort Moguntiacum and then get transport home. If you want to talk to the centurion...heh. You can try, but if we're already carrying some fey prisoners, I don't think she'd think twice about trying to add you to the bunch."

Turning to Mara, the halfling brightens, happier to be talking to her. "Sure, I can tell you that! Our magus primus is the one who would send messages when we split up, move rocks into fortifications, and stuff like that; our magus secundus would transport us to and from headquarters, summon mounts or fighting creatures, and so on. Our magus tertius handles enchanting our equipment and maintaining the steam wagons, and our magus quartus does any healing we might need."

[userpay]

Tahl scratches at her neck with a finger. "See theres the catch, we don't want bloodshed yet neither are we willing to be captured ourselves... First off how did your legion encounter their prisoners in the first place and what does your magus tertius look like?"

[DragoonWraith]

Ráwen
Amused by his infatuation, Ráwen gives Mara a sly look, "you know, I can do that trick too," she says as if to no one in particular, but figuring Mara would get it.

[Eurus]

She just rolls her eyes at him and keeps one protective - or perhaps possessive - hand on the prisoner's shoulder. "Show some basic kindness, you mean? I doubt that, but I'd love to see it."

"Besides," she mutters in a lower voice with a sly twinkle in her eye, "I do it better."

[DragoonWraith]

Ráwen
Ráwen rolls her eyes. "Well, seems the no fun rules are in effect, so I guess I'll just wait for the next plan."

[PairO'Dice Lost]

"I'm not quite sure how we ran into them, actually, since I wasn't there. I do know that the week before the Iron Lions' sub-centurion told us to go there, so I guess he knew where they were. As for our magus tertius..." He looks off into the distance, thinking. "He's, I dunno, kind of...average? A bit short for a human, brown hair, nothing to really set him apart. I never really see him, no one does. He keeps to himself."

Hearing the side conversation between Ráwen and Mara, the halfling looks in their direction, and ends up just looking at Mara as they banter.

[Demons_eye]

Owain coughs, this time forced, and snaps his fingers to gain the halflings attention. "What are these Steam wagons?"

[Eurus]

Mara waits so that she doesn't interrupt Owain, but follows up his question with another one of her own. "And who can you think of, besides the commander, that might know more about the fae and the security in place to keep them contained? I assume the mages, but anyone else?"

[PairO'Dice Lost]

The halfling stares blankly at Owain for a second, then says very slowly: "They're wagons...that run on steam." Giving an incredulous shake of the head, he quickly turns back to Mara. "She'd probably know best, but really, it's not all that complicated. I mean, put cold iron manacles on them, stick 'em in a cold iron wagon, you don't really need to do much else, right?"

[userpay]

Tahl hisses. "Just what we needed, cold iron... I suppose the best chance that we have to stop them is to take out the magus tertius and the other so the first can't be healed. Though I suppose thats only if we can't negotiate with them. Yet this didn't start with your legion, it started with the Iron Lions yes? Who has more sway them or your legion?"

[PairO'Dice Lost]

The halfling shrugs. "There's more of us, so probably the Eagles. The centurion might have gotten other orders, though."

[userpay]

"I'm not sure... but maybe your legion got wrapped up in an issue another legion started... and for all we know it wasn't on orders... Those fey that were captured? They were here on a diplomatic mission, and those Lion's knew right where they were. This doesn't sit right."

[Dreamshifter]

Bluebell hangs on tight as the Halfling tries to stand, the remains quiet through the questioning. Finally she puts in a word. Or several.

"I agree, this smells of stinkweed. The Big Folk who caused this aren't the ones we will be having to interact with. Sounds to me like there's a lot of this that other field of humans is hiding from their supposed friends." She peeks over the Halfling's head. "Makes you wonder who your friends really are, doesn't it?" She frowns, while looking in his eyes. "And pulling wings is the least of what we've heard happens to Fey who get caught. Makes me wonder if those Metal Heads are the ones doing those things."

[Fishy]

"Probably," replies Tulacea, who has been standing very still during the interrogation but listening intently. "He doesn't know what's going on, not really- and there's sixty more like him between us and where we need to go. I think it'd be best for everyone if we just went around them."

Tula claps her hands together with excitement- "Right! I need someone who can speak Terran and someone who can break metal with me, and someone else to go scout exactly where the wagons are. Oh! And-"

As an afterthought, Tulacea leans in close to the captured halfling. "One more question: Is 'No' the answer to this question?"

[PairO'Dice Lost]

"N--wait, y--um, maybe?"

[DragoonWraith]

Ráwen
in Terran

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"That's not a proper riddle, you know."

[Demons_eye]

Owain
in Terran

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I agree

[Eurus]

Mara has no idea what the gibberish that the sphinx is spouting off is, but she assumes it's nothing good. Rolling her eyes again, she sighs. "You could at least try not to enjoy this so much."