CB's Pathfinder Beta -- Burnt Offerings

[CanadienneBacon]

A serving maid comes along at length to sweep Sivan's 11 coppers from the table, and to clear empty crocks. Ere she quits the room, she places a sauce-laden plate on the floor and eyes Sandstone with a meaningful look. "I'm not wanting to spoil me dress front. Here, then, you just clean it a bit afore I take it back to be washed. Like as not, someone would jostle me if I tried to carry it now." The plate fairly swims with capon cooking jus.

When the wench has quit the room, Shalelu offers, "There are some who trade with goblins in this region. Coin might be a commodity for that purpose, but more often it's a less formal sort of bartering. One of the tribes has a shaman whose poultices--foul-reeking and ill-made as they are--heal well enough. An ewe or a faggot of wood for a draught, that's a common enough exchange. The outlying farms too far from Sandpoint to call for a midwife when the snows come will sometimes barter for healing if need besets them with desperation. The stigma of goblin dealings is such that I doubt you'll find many in Sandpoint who admit to that sort of bartering, however."

Her eel bouillabaise finished and her bowl cleaned with a crust of bread, Shalelu shifts a sheathed dagger at her waist. "Your news has altered my plan. I'd thought to traverse the Shankwood but I think instead I'll pay a visit to Thistletop--north along the Lost Coast Road. The Thistletop tribe has the shaman I mentioned. A trip there and back shouldn't be too long in the making, depending upon the wanderings of the bugbear in that area. If I'm not back in four days, I'd have you beg leave of the mayor and come in search of me. What will you do in the interim, charged as you are in the service of the town?"

 

[Shayuri]

"Shalelu," Talashia asks after thinking for a moment. "The goblin tribe that attacked Sandpoint...if they learned they were paid in false gold, what do you think they'd do? And would it be possible to get close enough to tell them, without having to massacre them all?"

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Shalelu eyes Talashia while she mulls it over. A deep furrow sets into the elf's normally smooth brow. "Well...if I'm getting what you're driving at, Talashia, you'd have us attempting to parlay with goblins who only recently set themselves against the town in a mad frenzy. If they found out they'd been double-crossed by whomever paid them the coin--assuming we could get close enough to parlay without being shot by black-fletched arrows--I'm certain it would cause dissent...the main difficulty is knowing what form the dissent would take. Goblins are querulous creatures, full of mischief, prone to evil, and wild as the wind. I shouldn't like to guess what they'd do, for as soon as I offered a conjecture, the wretched creatures would prove me wrong. What did you have in mind, exactly?"

 

[Ambrus]

The collie dutifully cleans the plate placed on the floor before him with his long tongue.

 

[Shayuri]

"I'm just trying to think of ways we could try to use this information about coins. I wasn't thinking so much of parlay, or causing dissent..." She scowls.

"All right, let me back up. I was thinking if we had a goblin prisoner who we could talk to, maybe we could get it to betray who paid them if we proved the pay was false. After all, their loyalty wouldn't stay bought if the pay was worthless. I certainly wasn't considering walking into a goblin village and expecting to walk out again peacefully."

She looks at Tac and Elyra. "There were some though, weren't there? Prisoners taken from the raid?"

 

[jkason]

Tac Abor, human rogue

She looks at Tac and Elyra. "There were some though, weren't there? Prisoners taken from the raid?"

Tac frowns. "I know we killed all the goblins we found," he says. "But I don't remember if ... I'm sorry, Talashia, I remember all the talk about the five tribes and needing us to fill in and where to take the coin, but I don't remember hearing if they'd taken any prisoners."

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Shalelu weighs in. "I didn't hear the sheriff or the mayor mention prisoners. You should ask at the garrison, though."

 

[mfloyd3]

Shalelu weighs in. "I didn't hear the sheriff or the mayor mention prisoners. You should ask at the garrison, though."

Elyra nods affirmation at the idea of checking with the garrison, then thinks aloud. [color="darkgray]"I think there's more going on with these coins,"[/color] she says. [color="darkgray"]"Remember the footprints at the graveyard? They didn't just pay the goblins to make a raid -- They led it. They've rounded up the goblins together for something, and it's got something to do with what they took from the gravesite."[/color]

 

[Walking Dad]

Sivan

"Are we even sure that all goblins fled or are dead. Maybe some are still hiding somewhere. Or even their leader." Sivan says then looking at the locals of the group: "Do you know any abandoned building or something one could hide in the town?"

 

[jkason]

Tac Abor, human rogue

Tac furrows his brow and shrugs at Sivan's question. "I'm sure it's possible, but I'm not sure I'd know where to start looking. I try to keep my nose clean most of the time, so I'm not really up on good hiding places for brigands. If we're checking for prisoners at the garrison, the regular guard might have some ideas, though. Couldn't hurt to check in with them in either case."