Ring of the Fey Lord (DM:Atanatotatos, Judge:Lord Sessadore)Up:Lorik, etc.

[Atanatotatos]

Gord is still cowering in fear, hiding his face in his hands, trembling. What are you saiyng...? I told you already, I dunno where the ring is! It disappeared, they stole it, I dunno!! I hid it, and when they came to take it back, I went to fetch it, and it wasn't there anymore!! There, there, the gnome said his mistress got what she wanted and now wants me dead! It must have been her! She must have stolen the cursed thing!

 

[TwoHeadsBarking]

"Interesting. I wonder if this Lady stands to gain anything by making Arnamil attack Gord, or whether her interest is only in the ring. Either way, I think we should stop wasting our time with those who can't tell us anything, and start asking questions to people who can actually answer them. People like Lord Arnamil. I imagine our prisoner would be happy to take us to him."

 

[Joeluma]

Heinrich

Smiling at the Gnome, Heinrich leans against a nearby tree. "You know, it'd be nice if you would tell us your name, now that we are going to be such good friends."

His smile grows slightly wicked. "You needn't worry that we will tell Arnamil of your true occupation... after all, now we need you.. as a witness to the Queen's incursion here."

He chuckles slightly. "Imagine our surprise when we came upon you, your friends killed by the Queen's spies. They must have thought you dead."

He looks around at the group. "They must have been going to kidnap Gord here, to create a further impression of guilt."

Kneeling down, Heinrich looks the gnome in the eyes. "You must have seen several of them... faces you can now identify for Arnamil."

 

[taran]

"Interesting. I wonder if this Lady stands to gain anything by making Arnamil attack Gord, or whether her interest is only in the ring. Either way, I think we should stop wasting our time with those who can't tell us anything, and start asking questions to people who can actually answer them. People like Lord Arnamil. I imagine our prisoner would be happy to take us to him."

"Indeed." To the Gnomish captive: "Whatever else we do here, we'll need two locations: Lord Arnamil's, and your Lady of Nightmares'"

 

[Atanatotatos]

The gnome stares at his new "friends" with a most surprised look, especially at Heinrich, then grins and laughs softly. My name is Romulin... and I see you're clever, bugbear, but be cautious, or your cleverness might turn into foolishness. You want to know where the residence of Lord Arnamil is? Sure, I'll tell you, but with what purpose? You won't be allowed past the inner gates. And then what, you hope to challenge a Bralani?? You can't confront but the lowest of his servants.
As for the residence of my Mistress, it's quite simple: go further into the woods, North-East of here, past a small swamp, and you'll eventually find a small, decaying wooden house. Although, I wouldn't advise meeting the Lady, either. concludes the gnome, with a short shiver.

 

[covaithe]

[sblock=ooc summary and speculation]If I understand correctly (not at all certain), the facts are something like this:

• There's a ring. Gord had it at one point. He claims to have hid it, and come back later to find it gone.
• The gnome says that Lord Arnamil ordered his fey to haunt Gord's house. The gnome suggests that Gord stole something.
• The gnome also says that the Lady of Nightmares ordered Gord be killed, and no witnesses left, and that she had what she wanted.

The gnome is probably telling the truth, given how thoroughly he's been intimidated, though what he knows may not be the whole story. That being the case, the most likely hypothesis is that the Lady of Nightmares stole the ring and ordered her spies in Lord Arnamil's forces to kill Gord to keep her theft quiet. So far I don't think we have any reason to believe that Lord Arnamil is involved in anything except losing a ring and haunting Gord's place to try to get it back.

The only thing that gives me pause is the fact that this seems like a bad plan for the Lady. If she succeeded in having her spies kill Gord, pretty soon Arnamil is going to want to know who killed him without orders, and why, and that trail is going to lead straight to the Lady. She'd have been much better off not killing Gord, and just letting him be the scapegoat for the theft.

If that hypothesis is right, we'll probably have to chase down the Lady, get the ring back from her, and return it to Arnamil without him drawing the conclusion that we stole it.

[/sblock]

 

[Atanatotatos]

[sblock=summary and speculation]ah, excellent analysis and briefing. As for the Lady's bad plan... there's an explanation. [/sblock]

 

[Joeluma]

[sblock]
To me, this seems like an ideal "get paid twice" scenario.

First, we visit lord arnamil, get gord out of trouble, get the reward Gord offered, either now or later.

Second, we offer to get the ring back for Arnamil, and in the process get little gnomie here to both be indebted to us, and somewhat important at Arnamil's court (perhaps leading to help on later quests, having a friend at the fey court).

So Gord pays us for the quest we originally came on (really all he wants is to not be on the hook, not be in trouble anymore).

Then Arnamil pays us for our new quest - get the ring back from Dame of bad Dreams.

Tell me if I'm missing anything

[/sblock]

 

[Jbean]

[sblock]
To me, this seems like an ideal "get paid twice" scenario.

First, we visit lord arnamil, get gord out of trouble, get the reward Gord offered, either now or later.

Second, we offer to get the ring back for Arnamil, and in the process get little gnomie here to both be indebted to us, and somewhat important at Arnamil's court (perhaps leading to help on later quests, having a friend at the fey court).

So Gord pays us for the quest we originally came on (really all he wants is to not be on the hook, not be in trouble anymore).

Then Arnamil pays us for our new quest - get the ring back from Dame of bad Dreams.

Tell me if I'm missing anything

[/sblock]

[sblock=OOC]I like Joeluma's thinking. It covers cov's concern that we may be accused of stealing the ring if we just show up with it. If we go to him and let him know that the ring was stolen from Gord, but we intend to retrieve it for him then that should get Gord off the hook. So we'll succeed at what Gord hired us for, but then we'll be on the hook ourselves.

So I vote for going to see Arnamil, and playing it straight with him.[/sblock]

 

[TwoHeadsBarking]

ooc: Sounds good to me, although we may need to take precautions against the gnome giving us the slip or screwing us over.