Finlan's Bag, Cale Speaks
Subject: Re: Cleaning up the mess; to rob or not to rob...
Farron raises his eyebrows involuntarily at Sa'id's words, and then gives a small shrug. "If that's your choice . . .", he replies quietly. "But unless someone persuades me otherwise, I'm not giving weapons back to strangers. Magic users don't always wear wizard's robes, you know."
He adds, "Do you have a 'dispel magic' spell prepared? I'd like to take a look inside that bag, but it appears to be magically trapped or sealed."
Farron then assists Sa'id in looking through the mage's backpack. He's more interested in finding the mage's spellbook. While he is examining the remaining items, he is listening to the conversation around him.
(OOC-Ty, the cantrips were fine. FYI - Farron would not have ignored the mage's pack, but I'll accept that he perhaps got momentarily distracted by the cache on the wizard himself, and/or that there simply hasn't been enough time to have looked in the pack as well.)
From: Raja
Subject: Re: Cleaning up the mess; to rob or not to rob...
Sa'id nods. "Absolutely," he says. "I'm not sure I want to return them either... I'm not really sure WHAT I want to do." He pauses and shakes his head. "I do have Dispel Magic memorized. Here, just let me by..." Sa'id moves around Farron and lays the enchanted bag out before him. He stands up and takes a step back, gathering his focus. Then he begins chanting softly [targeted Dispel Magic on the bag].
From: Karl
Subject: Re: Cleaning up the mess; to rob or not to rob...
Once the spell is completed and assuming there is no indication that the spell did not work, Farron will give Sa'id a slightly sly look and ask, "Would you like to do the honors, or shall I?" If Sa'id declines to open the bag, Farron will attempt to open it, being very careful to watch out for any non-magical trapping devices. (poison needles or such).
From: Raja
Subject: Re: Cleaning up the mess; to rob or not to rob...
Sa'id chuckles involuntarily. "Be my guest." He smiles wryly at Farron.
From: Ty
Subject: Cleaning up the mess; a bag full of trouble...
Cale raises an eyebrow. "A god? You're opposing a GOD?" He rapidly -- and somewhat fearfully -- shakes his head. "That's way out of our league." He pauses in thought for a second, though, and then speaks. "There HAVE been a lot of undead around lately, though, since that last group came through." He then smiles helpfully at Cadfael and Mission.
While Cadfael, Mission and Cale converse, Farron is dumping out the contents of the mage's backpack, and Sa'id is casting Dispel Magic at the silver wire closing the leather bag. There is a faint popping sound, and suddenly the silver wire uncoils and falls to the ground [Dispel Magic roll 19 vs DC 17: successful]. The backpack contains only a few interesting items. There is some food, and a change of clothes, but there is also two tanglefoot bags, two smokesticks, a stone that Sa'id recognizes as a thunderstone, a small box of tindertwigs, and a bottle with sticky brown paste in it, probably the same poison that is smeared on the darts. The most valuable item though, is the heavy leather bound and brass cornered traveling spell book. The book is latched and locked, and both wizards know that it will be trapped. In fact, some books of this type will destroy themselves messily if opened incorrectly.
After Farron finishes pawing through the goodies in the backpack, both he and Sa'id open the bag that Sa'id has just finished dispelling. Inside is a heavy leather scroll case, and a smaller velvet pouch. The velvet pouch is revealed to contain a dozen perfect pearls of considerable size. The scroll case, much to their surprise, does NOT contain a contract with an evil god. Instead, it contains half a dozen magic scrolls. Sa'id's Read Magic cantrip reveals them to be scrolls of Identify. Farron, a divining specialist, says, "The pearls are for casting Identify." He turns to Cadfael, who is still questioning Cale, and says, "This is a valuable magical treasure, and not the sort of thing a mage would carry with him while hunting for herbs. The pearls alone are worth 1200 gold pieces or more."
From: Scott
Subject: Re: Cleaning up the mess; a bag full of trouble...
"What group?" Mission asks Cale.
From: Tom
Subject: Re: Cleaning up the mess; a bag full of trouble...
Cale bites his lower lip. "They came through here about a day ago, heading overland fast, and I got the impression they were bad news; I think they were part of the reason you guys had us so on edge, since you're both headed to the same place -- although, of course, they left us all alive. I didn't do any of the talking, but I can tell you what I saw from where they had me hide."
From: Scott
Subject: Re: Cleaning up the mess; a bag full of trouble...
Mission catches his breath at the recognition in Cale's eyes. It is all he can do to speak calmly, "Go ahead."
He tries to maintain some cynicism in the face of Cale's story. Too much coincedence. . . too much. But here was the path to Promise, in this man's mind and in his lips. The path to Anileth's dark god.
Perhaps, he reminds himself. And perhaps we are all being played for fools. So Mission listens and watches Cale intently-- watching for deception. Watching for hope.
Watching for Promise.
From: Tom
Subject: Re: Cleaning up the mess; a bag full of trouble...
Cale continues. "There were about nine or ten of them -- big guys, too. And I'm pretty sure they had at least two zombies in the woods out front, but the boss didn't want us out there while they had their chat. Basically, they came up and looked like they were going to attack, but this woman they had with them -- never seen her like, mind you; she was gorgeous -- pulled on the big guy's arm and talked them out of it. It sounded like their fighter thought we were out looking for trouble, at first; he kept waving his sword around...."
He stops suddenly. "Oh, no. I bet he thought we were YOU. Have you been chasing these guys? Did you think we were THEM?"
From: Dan
Subject: Re: Cleaning up the mess; a bag full of trouble...
Cadfael's teeth grind and when he speaks his voice is flat and trimmed with ice,
"Cale, you're avoiding the question and I have run out of patience. If you want to die I can be your executioner."
He still faces Cale, but it's clear that his next words are addressed more to the rest of the party than to him.
"Yes, we have run into Elise and we know her to have killed her own. The fact that her group may have seemed threatening to you does not impress me. We are in dark times and these are the darkest of places. I'll not leave a potential enemy at my back and you have yet to give me a shred of reason to trust you."
"Tell me what you're doing in these woods, Cale. Tell me now."
From: Mike
Subject: Re: Cleaning up the mess; a bag full of trouble...
Garyth says nothing, but Cadfael's threat has clearly made him uneasy. He edges toward the line between the cleric and the rogue, just in case.
From: Tom
Subject: Re: Cleaning up the mess; a bag full of trouble...
Cale sighs, trying and failing to keep the fear out of his voice. "Look, I'm hired muscle, okay? I don't know why the boss wanted to stick around here for another night when we could have just headed back with our stuff. Truth be told, I never saw him look for a single herb or plant or anything. But my brother and me, we were just paid to come along and make sure he and Garth made it through okay with some bag. Supposed to be a cakewalk; we weren't expecting the place to be crawling. We weren't even going to go the whole way with him."
He points. "So, yeah, that bag. The one you just opened. I didn't even know what was in it, myself (and believe me, I was really curious about it), but he made it pretty clear that it'd be our heads on a stick if it got taken. So my guess, if you're going to make me guess, was that somebody in Linden or somewhere paid him good money to write up a bunch of scrolls -- he did a lot of that -- and deliver 'em in person, and he just didn't want to go telling random bandits that he was carrying a year's salary in pearls on him."
"You let us go, and I'm going to take those pearls and those scrolls and see if we can't pay to get the old guy raised -- back home. I figure he'd prefer that to the alternative, even if it gets him in trouble with some rich guy somewhere."
From: Raja
Subject: Re: Cleaning up the mess; a bag full of trouble...
At the mention of raising the wizard, Sa'id stands and turns to face Cale.
"I know a spell of preservation," he says. "It will take me some time to memorize it, but it will prevent his body from decaying for five days. The priests in Nesalin will be much more likely to succeed in bringing him back than if he simply rotted for the duration of the trip." Sa'id draws himself up to his full height, and his viper familiar slips from his cuff and coils around his arm. His gaze pans sternly across the room, and he speaks with a hint of irritation: "IF all of you can promise me that no one else is going to be killed while I study, I can begin my preparations now."
From: Dan
Subject: Re: Cleaning up the mess; a bag full of trouble...
Cadfael nods curtly, "Fine, that will do for now. In the morning we may talk more, but for now... it has been a long night for all of us."
"Brothers, I say we camp here for the night. It offers some degree of shelter and it is unlikely anybody will be passing this way until the morning. If any of the jungle creatures were attracted by the noise they would likely have been here for now."
"As for you and your companions, Cale, we will bind you for the night. You'll pardon me for being careful but I still don't know what to make of you. Perhaps Pelor will give me guidance in the morning. Nonetheless, we'll sort out what to do with you and your companions then, not now."
"Garyth, Mission? Are either of you able to tie a sturdy knot?"