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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 3451399" data-attributes="member: 11760">Over at the bar, Tock's head whips around toward the door."Kat?" His eyes narrow as he takes in the manacled wizards being led away. "Oh, by Destor, what did they do now?"Stotch follows Tock's gaze and works his way toward him through the crowd."Do you know these mages? Every single one is tied up like an angry goblin. It's like an old-time Lothianite witch-burning!""The mumbling fool is my idiot cousin, and the other one is one of the few people here I don't hate still. See if you can find out what's going on. Nobody who would know trusts me."* * *"Kat, shh, calm down," Renraw says soothingly. "Everyone knows you didn't do anything. We'll just go and prove it, OK, just as we'll do for me. We'll get through this; it's just going to take a trip to Middleborough to sort through it all."That said, Renraw whirls toward Emmerson, his chains clinking as he thrusts a bony finger at the paladin."PRESUME GUILT IF YOU WISH, SELF-RIGHTEOUS FATHEAD! ONLY KNOW YOUR GOD JUDGES YOU FOR IT!" The wizard's narrow chest heaves with fury, and his face is blotchy with the excitement and exertion. "I go willingly into the zone of truth. I make no attempt at escape. I explain everything, without omission. I only ask that this nefarious magic be undone, and that this man Khenemet-Apep's actions be scrutinized alongside mine.""My God is righteous and his word is law and he can see through your lies and deceit. You did something that day, Kem. You had a rather lengthy conversation in Draconic with the kobolds and Katadid was completely reluctant to translate." Emmerson's piercing blue eyes bore into Renraw's brown ones. "That puts you on very shaky ground, and the last place you want to be when your neck is adorned with a hangman's noose is shaky ground.""I think you may have a very basic misunderstanding of Lothianite scripture, Grant: There's nothing wrong with talking to kobolds. Murdering them, on the other hand ...""Of course, there is nothing wrong with talking to them," Emmerson laughs, "But you are bound to Middleborough to see the baron because you're the assassin that is supposed to kill Tucker in a future date. And on the kobold's orders. I'm sure that plan did not hatch out of nowhere.""Are you dense? Did you hear what I said earlier? I'm no assassin; I had to be mystically coerced into this. I walked into this tavern knowing full well what would probably happen, all so I could PREVENT MYSELF from committing this evil. No, this plan didn't hatch out of nowhere, but it sure as hell didn't come from me. Why would I want to be cursed? And, if I'm so horrible, why would I NEED to be?"* * *"I can tell you what's going on," Stotch grins, elbowing Tock in the ribs. "Loud, anxious people are being arrested in a very public place. In short, a diversion! Now we have a chance to find that kobold, and make the contest that much easier for you to win!"Tock watches his cousin being escorted out and his frown lingers a moment."Idiots. He's not capable of anything that would get him convicted." He turns back to Stotch, forcing himself to grin once more. "Never rely on the intelligence of anyone in this dump but me."Right. We've got the kobold and the gnome left.""Fiddler is in this inn somewhere," Stotch says. "Order a jug of the stoutest, strongest dwarven brew they have and two jugs of fresh water, then meet me in the back, by the stairs."Stotch then slips off the stool, and slips silently over to Reed Sawyer, who has slipped away from his sister and back inside. Stotch crouches down beside the boy."Hey, son. How'd you like to make a shiny gold Imperial?" Stotch deftly rolls a coin between his fingers. "Just run over to the stables, and lay a bet for a friend. Twenty gold on Tock Chandler in tonight's contest. Tell no one what you're doing, and it's three Imperials for you."He presses a coin into the boy's hand and slips away again.* * *"Plan? PLAN?" Katadid flings his hands up in the air, the shackles clanking loudly. "Pick trusted Kem about as much as you do! She would never make ANY plan with HIM! And she didn't! She would with HAZEL."Kat points toward Bufer, on the stairs across the room."You're an idiot for jumping into danger, but you made your choice. And every way I think through it, it still would have worked, although I'm not sure-" Kat shakes his head to refocus himself. He does his best to point fingers at Grant while shackled."YOU, however, imposed your moral certitude onto another's decision and where it wasn't needed and YOU caused your own death. Blaming me or anyone else for YOUR choice shouldn't surprise anyone given that genocide is a reasonable option for your faith." Kat shakes his head and begins to quiet down. "Wormy is Kem: That was all the translation anyone should have needed ...""Quiet now, Kat," Renraw pleads, "Lest they gag you."* * *Mounting the stairs behind the clomping of Constable Ward Bridger's false leg, Bufer pauses and looks back down into the common room of The Cat & The Fiddle and at the manacled wizards in its doorway. He doesn't flinch when Katadid yells and points at him.Hazel glances up at him, and recognizes the expression on his face: She's seen it many a time, lit in flickering firelight as he sat by the tavern's woodstove, working through one of his gnomish clockwork puzzles from Wit's End.Seeming to feel the weight of her gaze, Bufer blinks and looks down at her, his normally grinning face as dour as she's ever seen it. He shrugs gloomily and follows the constable up to the quieter second floor of the inn."Constable, I'll be more than happy to tell you everythin' I know," he says, "But first I think I oughta warn you that I'm beginning to suspect there's a kobold attack on Maidensbridge in the offing, possibly as soon as tonight. I suggest we start makin' some quiet preparations, just in case I'm right.""I guessed that," the constable says, "That's why I'm leaving folks behind. I'll also send back help from Foxton on Moss and Middleborough. And once the baron knows what's what, we'll be under his watchful eye and I suspect some of Rubik's men as well."Now, tell me what you know."</blockquote>

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