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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James Heard" data-source="post: 2285427" data-attributes="member: 7280">"No, not really," Mavic replied dryly and turns away as Reivik answered the guardsman's questions.Soon enough though, Mavic came before the man himself. Over his shoulder, addressing his men, he said, "Reddogs! You will answer these goodmen's questions, once we enter the city we shall find lodging and draw straws for who returns to Istivin crossing to bring Thom and the rest of them their mounts so they can raise a cup as well. Understood?"Mavic waited patiently for the guardsman to list his entire list of inquiries with a peculiar mixture of haughty superiority and suffering nobility. His chest bowed out proudly, the ruby lion pin of his medal thrust out underneath his unforgiving stare while Eshanna fidgeted from behind him, picking at his cloak for road debris.He deliberately pulled his hands out from the security of his riding gloves, addressing each point by folding a finger from an open fist."One," he said as one finger is pulled out, "I am Mavic Larigne. Two, I am ordered by her Marchioness Emondav to present myself at the mercy of her court to present myself for confirmation of my family's lands, estates, and titles, in the name of Larigne, whomsoever shall hold the title upon which those estates and lands fall upon." "Three," he wiggled his caloused and somewhat ungracefully scarred fingers, "I mustered the Reddogs in the service of Sterich and pledged them six years ago. Eshanna here has only been with me since Readyr'eat...five years ago?" He looked over his shoulder doubtfully. "Anyways, we killed the things that hurt her." Suddenly his face broke out into a magnificent and somehow terrifying grin. "That's what we do, you know? Kill things that hurt the things we care about?" The joy expressed in that simple statement of fact was the sort that soured milk in the stomachs of babes. Offhandedly he added, gesturing with his newly freed finger, "Eshanna is a priestess of our lady Wee Jas, that the dead be escorted to their places of glory by magic's chosen keeper.""Fifth, as a matter of fact I have indeed been to Saltmarsh. I've kinsmen in Salinmoor.""Sixth, my nightmares are over as soon as my estates are restored and every last giant child bleeds his last blood upon the ground.""Seventh, for insights into death and misfortune, call my man Merres out. Or Eshanna. Or mistress Mishell. I've lost nothing and sacrificed nothing that dozens of others haven't either. Aye, and less equipped to deal with it." He paused. " The rest of your questions are irrelevant and useless. Why not ask oaths to keep the peace instead? Or bind weapons, or any other myriad solutions that would better secure the Marchioness?""Once you've accepted us inside the gates, will we have to perform this charade every time we enter? Should I enquire about making my 'dogs available to the guard? They were acceptable protectors for the people of  Istivin during the evacuation, surely they're acceptable now?"</blockquote>

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