Eberron: Entrance to Adventure [IC]

[Winged One]

John nods. "If this is caused by some kind of physical damage, a regular repair spell or infusion might fix him. If that doesn't work, we'll have to take him to the Canniths and see if they can help him."

[The_Snark]

Jinna

"They're already showing up," Jinna says dryly. "Unless you feel like fleeing a crime scene, I think we're stuck with explaining. Just let me do the talking." She draws her cloak about herself, raising the hood. Partly to keep the rain off; mostly, to keep her slight change in attire from being noticed. Nothing drastic, no change that would attract immediate attention, but her clothes now looked slightly better-made, the sort of thing a respectable merchant's daughter might wear. Somebody, in short, with a little money to them.

[Winged One]

"They are?" John asks, looking around. When he notices the guards, he says "Damn. Okay, I'll keep quiet. You should probably rephrase that to 'don't talk unless I tell you to' for Noname, though."

[Karaswanton]

[QUOTE=Winged One;4351198]"Wha- yes it does!" John shouts. "They're going to kill him if we don't get him out of here before they show up, you idiot! How the **** does that not change the circumstances?! Did you come here from Karrnath or something? 'Cause here in Breland, we don't kill everyone we can so that the necromancers can make more zombies."



I come from Cyre, just like all the other warforged. I was trained in Karnath so I may have a more dire personality than your average 'forged. Especially the paladin ones.

And you're the one operating under the assumption they'll kill him on sight. I think we can explain the situation and have him safely locked up, or repaired if need be.

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Noname has already established himself as the kind of 'forged that responds with lethal force regardless of the type of force employed against him. Micheal would probably see him as a murderer, and might not have a big issue if Noname was executed. But then, Micheal is kind of a hardass.

[cintain]

Limna

I think I might have the repair thing covered, says Limna with a childish smile. All right, Noname, you have in all likelihood received this kind of help before...

Limna brings her hand up to Noname's chest, cupping it slightly so that her fingertips and the base of her palm touch the Warforged. A purplish white light seems to glow under her cupped hand.

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Repair Light Damage for (1d8+2)[8]

As soon as the glow fades, Limna steps back and brings her cloak around her and her hood over her head. She moves over to where John is and stands behind him, tilting her head down to appear smaller than she is.

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Limna will alter her appearance to seem about 1' shorter, and change her hair color to golden and make her skin fairer, almost white.

[The_Snark]

Jinna

Jinna nods to John. Smart thinking. "Noname, remain silent until I indicate otherwise, please. You'd better keep quiet too," she adds to Micheal. Her accent has a subtly different tone, slightly more upper-class; the difference between common and aristocratic inflection isn't as big in Breland as it is other places, but it's there. "Some people really don't like warforged." Not to mention you're acting a little naive about this, and we might have to stretch the truth some. Hope you didn't fix him too fast, Lim... that'll make everything a lot harder to explain.

She turns towards the slowly approaching guards, beckoning them over as if impatient.

[Maurkov]

Noname resists being touched. Jinna's disapproving look has no effect on Noname, but when she tells him to submit, he does so instantly*. The infusion has no perceptible effect. Noname remains a creature without volition. To fully comprehend his condition is going to take a lab and possibly a research library. Never the most stable, is he insane? Or is it a metaphysical problem? Has his soul been sequestered or departed? There's no time to tell.

The watchmen advance. As they pass the dead sailors, two of the second rank break off to examine the scene. The rest fan out to surround your position. One calls out, "Warforged! You are under arrest. Drop to your knees. Drop to the ground." The man steps closer. He's bearing an officer's insignia. He is armored and is holding the charge on some baleful spell. To your surprise, perhaps, Noname complies.

[cintain]

Limna

Limna gasps, covering her mouth. Before she can help herself, she clings to John's arm and cowers, looking even smaller.

Oh Gods! What are they going to do to him? she whispers. Are they going to kill him?

[estradling]

Aelowim traces his spoon through the crushed raspberries adorning his baked pear, drawing a heavy sigh from Naberius.

"The Concern is a tiny outfit. Breyland has a lot more leverage over us than they do over Lyrander (or Orien), so they can dictate whatever bizarre security arrangements they can dream up. More than once I've received my itinerary half a league out of port. Sealed cargo. I've taken Dark Lanterns... places.

"Well, the trip to Moonwatch wasn't that special and the return wasn't special at all. I couldn't tell you who all knew about it since that's all handled by the office. I believe my ship was a target of opportunity, and as it turned out, a poor one."

Cymran continues to take notes as Aelowim eats and talks. When he finishes the young man nods his head in understanding. He was out of questions. He was also sure he would think of a half dozen more once he was headed back to the others. That was the nature of such things. "Thank you for your time Aelowim."

[Winged One]

John blushes a bit under his hood and whispers back, "Jinna knows what she's doing. Just calm down and go along with what she says." I just hope she catches on to the fact that this thing that used to be Noname seems to just obey all orders instead of just the ones in it's chain of command like I thought.

[Karaswanton]

Micheal

Micheal simply watches the scene, somewhat relieved that the law has decided to show up.

[Maurkov]

"I said, down!" He's looking at Michael now.

[Karaswanton]

Micheal

Micheal rolls his eyes, but complies without comment.

[Maurkov]

((I didn't know warforged could do that.))

Watchmen scuttle forward to manacle the warforged. Only then does their leader dismiss the spell he's holding. "I am watch sergeant Shiraga. Who is going to tell me what happened here?" Other watchmen are collecting evidence.

Shiraga is in his element. He ignores the rain and concentrates on the witnesses. Only occasionally does he spare a glance to see the progress his men are making.

---

Aelowim was quite thorough with lunch, but neither does he neglect his narrative. "I wanted to fight, but I'm not willing to gamble my sailors' lives. These 'pirates' were armatures that could barely steer their ship, but we were stuck and they had a ram. They would have hit us eventually.

"So I gave them the goods and they sailed north. They received my full cooperation, but they still didn't release our ship until the next day."

[estradling]

((I didn't know warforged could do that.))

Aelowim was quite thorough with lunch, but neither does he neglect his narrative. "I wanted to fight, but I'm not willing to gamble my sailors' lives. These 'pirates' were armatures that could barely steer their ship, but we were stuck and they had a ram. They would have hit us eventually.

"So I gave them the goods and they sailed north. They received my full cooperation, but they still didn't release our ship until the next day."

Cymran nods, "There was nothing amateurish about whatever it was that held you in place. Maybe this is a sign that the pirates are expanding their numbers and your ship was used as a test run for new recruits?" It was more of thinking out loud then a real question. "Once they built up the reputation, holding the ship fast would be the only demonstration of force most senseable people would need to surrender."

[Karaswanton]

Micheal


I'll let someone who isn't being accused make an official statement--but I have a fleshraker mount tied up near here named Solomon. It would probably be a good idea to bring him with us--he might be getting hungry soon.

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"Diplomacy, I really need to put ranks in this" - (1d20+2)[16]

[The_Snark]

Jinna

So it obeys people it recognizes as ranking officers. That's good to know. She straightens, addressing the sergeant. "I'm sorry to say I wasn't close enough when it happened to hear anything, sergeant. I was on the bridge over there when I saw some men moving towards the warforged, and then the fight broke out." She frowns in the direction of the bodies, and then at the forged. "I had recently retained the two of them as guards, and left them at the docks while I attended to other business, but the man I left with them to keep them out of trouble seems to have run off." Her voice, which had previously been rather serious, becomes heated, as if she intends to give him the sharp side of her tongue later.

[Maurkov]

"It was a good trick, all right. Thanks for lunch." Aelowim gets up to leave.

OOC: 2 gp plus tip.

---

Another watchman checks your papers. Meanwhile, the officer looks down at Michael. "When I want a confession, I'll beat it out of you*."

To the others he says, "Don't worry. This won't take long."

He listens to Jinna's tale. "Uh huh. So you saw it start? Who hit who?"


OOC: It's hard for me to leave the error in place, even in dialog.
*Sense Motive DC21:

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He's lying.

[Karaswanton]

Micheal

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Sense Motive
[roll]1d20+2[/roll]

Well, I threw the first punches, but the sailors made it patently obvious that they intended to start. Curse my idealism!

[estradling]

"It was a good trick, all right. Thanks for lunch." Aelowim gets up to leave.

OOC: 2 gp plus tip.

"You are more then welcome." Cymran lets the merchant go, while he takes a bit to finish up his note. Then he pays for the lunch before heading out himself. It was time to meet up with the others and let them know what he found.

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Pays 2gp and leaves a 2 sp tip

[Maurkov]

A watchman tugs on Shiraga's sleeve. "Excuse me."

The two step aside and speak at some length. They glance meaningfully at the dead sailors. They glance meaningfully at the prone warforged. Shiraga returns.

To Michael he says, "You're in luck. None of the dead ones have wounds your weapons could have caused."

To Noname he says, "You're ****ed."

To Jinna he says, "How much did you pay this one?"

Another watchman removes the manacles from Michael, and catching a glance from Shiraga, and helps Michael to his feet.

"You can go," he says (to everyone but Noname). "Or you can stay and make statements."

[The_Snark]

Jinna

Jinna is caught between the possibility that she might be able to get the guards to reimburse her for Noname's supposed salary and the solid knowledge that she hadn't given him money and he would say so if they asked. She plays it safe. "He hadn't received his salary yet, Sergeant," she replies, "but it was to be three gold pieces each week. It came rather well reccomended." She frowns at it.

"Actually, Sergeant..." She lowers her voice a little after a glance at Noname, not sure how it would react to being told it wasn't working right. It didn't seem likely that it would suddenly stop submitting to authority, though. "They think it's not right in the head, and I'm inclined to agree. This man knows a little about warforged," she gestures to John, "and he thinks it might be something they can repair." She offers it conversationally, shrugging at the end. The sergeant clearly didn't much care for warforged (or he was just one of those watchmen who went in for beatings), but if he was being fair-minded enough to let one of them go on the spot just because there wasn't evidence, it was worth mentioning.

[cintain]

Limna

Still clinging to John's arm, Limna looks at the scene with wide, childish eyes...

Oh, Gods... I hate seeing Warforged treated like that. One of my best friends is one, she whispers. I wonder who's going to take his place now... I suppose we could split his part amongst ourselves, but we'd be one less strong against those pirates...

She looks up at John. On the other hand, I suppose we could use someone else who knows about Warforged. Would you like to come?

[Winged One]

And the definitive sign that it's one of those days appears. John thinks sardonically. "Yes, I would. Thank you." he whispers back to Limna. Whether it's because he's a decent person at heart, he's doing it to impress Limna, or he just doesn't want to deal with the guilt of not doing all he can to help a warforged in front of someone like her(John personally suspects a combination of the latter two), John says to Jinna "If I have your permission, I feel that it is my duty to stay here for long enough to make a statement to these officers about the nature of Noname's condition."

OOC

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John is not deceiving anyone. He does feel obligated to do what he can to get Noname treated for his damage instead of executed(although admittedly he'd normally give serious consideration to shirking from said responsibility), he thinks Jinna is the group's leader, he now considers himself part of the group and therefore subordinate to Jinna(so he'd need to ask for permission), and after her displays of good sense he respects her enough to be polite. Therefore, I don't think a Bluff check is needed, except maybe an Aid Another for Jinna's Bluff checks.

[Karaswanton]

Micheal

I can make a statement as well if you'd like. I'm going to go check on Solomon first though, he probably heard the commotion.

To Linna:
That's mostly standard procedure for arresting alleged criminals. Don't worry about me, I'm a big boy. *wink* we can try to help out Noname with our testimonies to his altered mental state.

[The_Snark]

Jinna

"Go ahead," she says to John, keeping an eye on the sergeant to see how he's receiving this.

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Jinna shares some of those sentiments. She's not really sure what should happen with Noname—it's not like madmen who murder people aren't executed, after all—but she might feel guilty about letting them kill him without telling them. Even more so if Limna revealed how she felt about it. And she definitely shares the second opinion, too.

[Maurkov]

"They think it's not right in the head, and I'm inclined to agree."

"Um. Right."

"and he thinks it might be something they can repair."

"I'm going to have an uninterested party examine him, actually. I need to rule out possession and enchantment." He looks around casually, but not so casually that it isn't clear he is hoping someone will act guilty.

"But please," he says to John, "tell me your impression."

((Cymran can arrive when you're ready.))

[Winged One]

John faces the officer and says, "Noname seems to be acting like the war golems that were used before the Canniths figured out how to make self-aware warforged. He only responds to orders or threats in this state, as far as I can tell. I think he somehow lost his self-awareness, and acted on either some standing order that either an owner during the Last War or the Canniths gave him or perceived the people he killed as a threat somehow, and didn't classify the law as orders. In other words, he's lost his free will, but literally instead of having it overridden like enchantment or possession would do." Something occurs to him, and he adds, "One way to confirm it could be to try to read his mind. If I'm right, it might show that he doesn't have a mind at all. Then again, he seems to have intelligence in this state, just not the ability to disobey orders or fail to respond to threats without orders to do so."

[estradling]

Having gotten the information he was after, Cymran walks back to where he left the Warforged. He is still some distance away when he notices the watch and that something very wrong had happened.

Not sure as to what had happened he hangs out around the edges with the rest of the crowd.

[Maurkov]

Shiraga seems impressed. "We'll give him a thorough going over."

When Michael goes to check on his dinosaur, Cyrman (still in disguise?) can intercept him.