For More Than Glory

[firehorse]

Valdir's elven ears pick up Fleck's comment and he turns on him, glaring. After a few seconds, his eyes soften a little, realizing he couldn't possibly stay mad at the little wizard. "You're right, although I did some damage at first, succombing to their song wasn't much of a help."

Not really caring, and possibly even hoping, the captain hears him, "In any case, 'WE' surely did one whole hellava lot more than his 'excellency' did and probably saved his ship for his ungrateful and arrogant ass! Not bad for 'cargo' eh? Maybe we should have let the harpies take off with the crew and sailed this barge in ourselves."

Realizing he doesn't know how to sail and neither does most of the rest of the party, Valdir merely shrugs and fails to mention that fact.

 

[Memnus]

Fleck gives no outward sign that he has broken the connection to the gnome with the blueprints, still studying the architecture and muttering to himself in his own language. He picks out three minor flaws in the design, then shrugs and turns back to his companions, interrupting the brawl just before it starts. He switches back to Tradespeak.

"No, this one just won't do. Let's keep looking."

He leads them off, looking at other buildings under construction, but not contacting any more gnomes. He speaks to the others more quietly.

"It's as I feared. Supposedly a few have escaped, but they'll be hard to find. I doubt they have a Dreamwalker with them, so it may be a bit before they know to get in touch with us. We'll want to have a camp outside the city; something tells me we won't be entirely welcome here for long."

He walks in silence a few moments, clenching his fists. "Even if we do start freeing them, we'll need a reliable way of making sure they get safely on to another city... or even out of the country, although I wish it weren't a blasted island. At least you can crawl out of Ulruz."

 

[firehorse]

Valdir nods solemnly at Fleck's words. "Seems an accurate assessment that we will become unpopular soon. I agree we should stay out of the city and out of sight for the extent of this project to free your people. Of course, I'm always ready to stay out of the city anyway... You are also right, we should also endeavor to secure passage for them, and ourselves when we finish, before we start. I'd hate to free them and give them hope, only to have them recaptured. I'd rather have an exit strategy for ourselves once we finish too."

"Now, as far as 'convincing' the owners to free their slaves...." His fists clench and a mean look comes to his eyes.

 

[Arkhandus]

Argus grins maliciously at Valdir's comment. "Aye, we'd be happy to 'convince' a few slavers to see things our way" he says quietly in Hibridean-accented Mittendienish along the way. "As for transportation......" he continues with a snicker, "maybe we could 'requisition' the Gilded Harpy for a time and see to it that good captain Raserio" he says with a mocking tone, "is indisposed for a while......." At this point, the monk-turned-barbarian can't helpt but cackle a bit, drawing odd looks and worried glances from folks across the street.

Argus ignores the looks and continues in Mittendienish, more quietly "We don't have to get rid of the rest of the crew, I'm sure we can intimidate them into serving us for a while. Not like they know who we are or anything. A bit of gold to line their pockets should keep 'em quiet later. We can knock out Raserio and toss him overboard, or keep him insensate in the hold until we're finished. If we do things right, nobody will even know who did it. The right outfits and voice-muffling should keep us unidentifiable to the crew and cap'n." He speaks with a sinister, calculating tone after his earlier cackling. For a change, the ex-monk actually shows his cunning, as opposed to his usual tempestuous rancor. No less frightening though.

"Any case, we should keep looking 'round town for more gnomes and see if there are any we can help......within the law." he adds as an afterthought, still speaking quietly in Mittendienish.

 

[Memnus]

Fleck glances at Argus. "A gnome, an elf, a Sauran, and a human of your stature walking back onto that ship to hijack it? That's some idea of unidentifiable. No, I think the Harpy leaves our tale this morning. I'll contact the Lifebreath tonight - Er, Lillian Lifebreath, that is, and report back what's going on. The resistance has more contacts than you can imagine - she'll certainly be able to get hold of a friendly crew in the south seas, and they can be in the area in a month or two. He sounds more hopeful than certain, but presses on. "For now, all we can do is scout out the town, and collect tokens for better scrying. Anything that one of the gnomes once posessed, any tangible connection we can get to them, will make it four-fold easier to scry into their prisons."

 

[firehorse]

Valdir grins at Argus' comments and winks at Fleck. In Forestal "And you accuse me of being the radical one... His ideas do have some merits though...."

With a shrug and another wink, he continues in Mittendienish, "I should probably scout out the wilderness in the surrounding area then and find us a good place to base these operations from. Argus, care to join me? Your druid skills, although maybe a bit rusty, could come in handy."

Before heading out of town to do just that, Valdir adds, "Are you sure we couldn't just warp his hull or something? I know, I know, let it drop Valdir....(sigh)."

 

[Arkhandus]

Argus grunts. "I said with the right outfits we could go incognito. A gnome doesn't look much different from a dwarf, halfling, or goblin when wearing a large cloak and cowl. Elves are indistinguishable from humans that way too, and the lizard could probably be disguised by a little of your magic. Hells, I could create fog if we didn't want to be recognizable. Bristletail could probably sniff out the way for you in the fog if you were worried about stumbling around. The cover of night could help too. Once on the ship, we could just hide ourselves in the hold, with one of us, maybe Bristletail, staying on-deck to watch and make sure the ship's being steered the right direction." he replies, defending his plan.

"Anyway," he adds, "not like we have to go with my plan. "So yeah, I'll follow you 'round for now, Valdir. Drack - we'll spar another time." he smirks.

 

[Memnus]

Fleck ignores the spite against the Harpy, for once, and keeps walking, looking around. Finally, just before nightfall, they end up back at the first shop they stopped at. The work crew is gone, and Fleck searches around on the ground for a second.

"Ah-ha." He straightens, holding up a torn piece of cloth. He dusts it, looks it over a second, and then pockets it. "There. Let's go find a camp." He leads the way back to the stables where they left Chalkback and Elfinhaus.

 

[firehorse]

Valdir and Argus search the surrounding wilderness for a hidden, defendable and (as much as possible for the non-woodsy types) comfortable camp location. Once secured, Valdir does a bit of hunting and gathering after asking Argus to let the others know where it is. By the time the rest of the group arrives, the camp is well stocked with food and water, with a small fire going. He resolves to limit the fires as much as possible, especially after dark, to help conceal the hideout. After preparing the camp, Valdir finds a nearby tall tree, climbs up and prepares his sleeping/watch stand for the duration.

 

[Memnus]

That night at camp, Fleck clears some of the stuff out of his cart, making room. Finally he wrests out a silver mirror, nearly as tall as he is, and rests up upright against the side. He then brings something out of his pocket - a scrap of paper, with a name scrawled on it. He concentrates on the name: Outfire Levelhand, one of the guards at the Refuge in Solinburg. Eventually, the mirror fogs, then clears to reveal a single gnome, sitting in the dark, watching out a window. Quickly, he casts a second spell.

(Message, 50% chance of working: (1d100) -> 85 = (85) )

He then speaks, quietly, in Gnomish. "Spingear Spindlefingers, from Kinrisar. Message for Lillian Lifebreath. It's as we feared - although they are treated better than by beheglin they are still captives and slaves. Still trying to reach more, and confirm rumors of escaped kin in the area." The gnome in the mirror nods, and Fleck waves the mirror back to normal. He turns back to the group. "Five thousand, give or take. We can't arm that many, and even if we do start some revolts, it'll only get worse for the rest. And buying them off doesn't send the right message." He sits, glumly, the optimism he's pretty good at during daylight hours fading in the firelight. "Any ideas?"